I'm starting to notice this "diamond" + striker + winger shape popping up all over the place now. Barcelona have used it, Manchester United have used it, Porto used it after Arsenal thrashed them, Brazil are very much expected to use it, Chelsea sort-of used it at times, and you could argue Mourinho very nearly used it in the European Cup Final. Now Maradona has decided to give it a whirl it is yet another stamp of approval for this shape.
Now obviously none of the afore-mentioned sides have played it exactly the same way as each other, nor even played it exactly the same way from match to match, but they have all taken to the field with it. It's starting to look like there is a new tactical big deal emerging at the top end of football.
From what I have seen there seems to be a few common denominators. A main striker that likes to pull wide and move around, and a genuine winger/inside forward that seems designed to link up almost specifically with the main striker. There is the much more intelligent TQ/AMC that likes to get forward and wide and deep, in effect the second winger/inside forward, the smarter of the two pulled into a more central position. There is the invariably deep wide midfielder and the key, main attacking fullback.
However in many of the matches I have watched and/or read about the common theme seems to be that the true deep playmaker somehow manages to play completely unmarked even in the biggest of games, despite being the man that everyone raves about and fears. Veron, Scholes, Xavi for Argentina, Manchester United and Barcelona respectively have each controlled and dictated big games from oceans of space. You could argue a case for Lampard perhaps with his rediculous goal tally from similar positions in similar a shape, though he is not the same type of player.
This last point for me is pretty astonishing. In the era of 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-2-3 or whatever you wish to call a particular formation, you would expect the deepest midfield to find space Pirlo style, or maybe a Lampard or Gerrard to find space through runs from deep and all-action performances, or indeed through a particluarly nifty pass-and-move combo playing off someone like Iniesta but certainly not your Scholes/Veron/Xavi types constantly sitting in space dictating the game in advance of deeper midfielders. But if you look carefully at the shape of this formation and the movement of the players within it, that seems to be precisely what this shape is designed to do.
I might have it all wrong mind you, but this shape certainly seems to be worthy of a lot of attention,