He tried at times last season but now could be the start of something new for MK Dons

It has taken over a year, but Paul Warne could finally have MK Dons in a position to play the formation he has been aiming for since taking over.

For years, Dons have been a back three/five team. Effectively since the days of Paul Tisdale in 2018, the side has played with three centre-backs and used attacking wing-backs to cover off the wide areas.

They have had dalliances during that time of moving away from that system though. Liam Manning considered it an alternative during their struggles at the start of the 2022/23 season and Mark Jackson was forced to play with a back four when a lack of numbers left him little other option, while Warne himself looked to get things to click there last season before opting back to the comforts of a three, with the players looking all the more comfortable in that style.

The ex-Rotherham and Derby manager though has been very open about what he wanted MK Dons to look like when he first took over: a 4-3-3. He wants wingers who can cross, picking out those other two front-men waiting in the middle, late breaking midfielders while working off a traditional four-man defensive line.

For much of pre-season, Dons have lined up in the all-too familiar back three and one man leading the way at the sharp end of the pitch. But at Cheltenham, things were different.

For the final friendly game of the summer, Warne’s side formed up, arguably, as strong as he could pick at least for the first-hour at the EV Charger Points Stadium.

And it worked, certainly against the Robins, as after a basketball-type opening 15 minutes, Dons settled into control swiftly thereafter, winning a comfortable 2-0 to round out the pre-season campaign. Having struggled for goals and at times control in games this summer, it was as consummate as they had looked.

The signing of Sam Silvera on Friday was arguably the biggest pointer towards the 4-3-3 becoming the base formation for Dons heading into League One. The Australian international is a winger by trade, a position which doesn’t immediately lend itself to fitting naturally into a formation with three defenders as it negates the roles of the wing-backs, who effectively do that job.

Silvera is a man Warne has courted all summer, since his release from Middlesbrough. His profile appears to point more towards a transition to a 4-3-3, and that could spell good things for some of Dons’ pre-existing players too - notably Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy. While both had plenty of goals to their name last season, their efforts effectively came while they were deployed through the middle almost as lone strikers rather than as Warne preferred - cutting in from wide.

Certainly no stranger to the challenges of League One, Warne’s plan for Dons when he took over perhaps did not have the right glue to stick a division below. However, given his successes in the third tier previously, this latest switch could be the one to finally get Dons away from what has been so familiar for nearly a decade.