Managers and formations you hate to play against?

currently there is a guy called Mark Wotte manager of Southampton. they play the Benitez way with a 4-2-3-1 type formation..

I cant defend against this formation to save my life, they always seem to have a player roaming that cant be marked and they like to swop the AMc with a wide player..

what kind of manager and formation pose you problems?

i'd like to say that the only manager i wouldn't like to play is me

but the truthful answer is david moyes and his everton side- went 2-0 in 30 minutes against my chelsea side, i coulnd't defend with arguably the best defensive unit in the world (on my game)

In 2021 the hardest team to beat for me is Fulham. They usually play the 4-4-2 but against me they play a 3-5-2 with a flat midfield.

I don't know why we struggle against it but for the past few seasons they are the only ones to not suffer defeat in my backyard.

I'm going to jump in and say any team, last ten minutes, 4-2-4.

No seriously, 4-2-3-1 tends to overrun my formation because my full backs get forward leaving 4 oppo (st and 3 ams) to my 3 defenders (2cd and 1dm). Oh, and AFC Wimbledon always lash me.

so how do you go about trying to stop these and gain the upper hand?

4-2-3-1 does me in, especially if they play narrow with attacking FBs. My defence can't cope and i end up playing 5-4-1 just to get a point.

Tony Mowbray is the best AI manager I've faced. I always found his teams tricky, even with my all-conquering Leicester side.

I don't like facing formationsn which "overload" in central areas such as 4-2-3-1, 4-3-1-2 or 4-1-3-2. I have found a way of playing against them though so it's not so bad now.

Tbh I find the 4-2-3-1 the easiest to beat. I just mark their ST and AMC and they're dead. Also I humiliate teams playing with a 4-1-2-1-2( Diamond but not with MC but with a ML/MR) with my 4-3-3.

Hardest manager to play against would be Emery and his 4-3-3 though. He always manages to give me a headache, funnily I always have a good manager relationship with him.

Had a thread on this topic last week. I said then that I can cope with any fixed formation; it's the managers who change the formations quicker than I can 'shout' instruction to my players that do my head in. 4-2-4 is a cinch - you know when they're going to change so you just anticipate and mark their danger men out of the game.

I hate some style of 4-1-2-1-2 tactics.

Sure, on paper it should be easy to handle - close down their AMC and DMC, therefore block midifeld and wingers in this system are not usually very wide nor very fast. But somehow they still can find their single guy in the midfield with long pass, their wingers have still too much time and space to cross although there should be my WB and winger to close him down etc.

With some teams, some conditions it's really frustrating.

But as I'm playing Ajax then PSV/Feyenoord style of 4-2-3-1 isn't my favourite either.

The Scolari Chelsea formation, so hard to score past.

if you cant beat one of these manager or formations using your preferd formation, is it best to try using a different formation or just tweak the tactics you normally use?

i find any AI team using any formation that uses high attacking mentality it awkward..

david moyes, he utilises Cahill so well that he always beats me.

Team: Serie A side Torino are my only bogey team ever! Alessandro Rosina has it in for me in every incarnation of the game and if it's not him, then it's one of their forgettable all-italian strikers. I happen to think playing them is jinxed because they're my brother's choice team. He gets a laugh out of that.

Tactic: I can't handle playing against 4-2-3-1, Roma-style (i.e. with 3xAMCs). I usually nullify their striker but my poor DM and MCs tend to get swamped and for some reason my counter attacks are invariably ineffective against this formation.

Manager: I don't like to play against Frank Rijkaard. He somehow seems to coax tremendous goals from his substitutes in the 92nd minute of crucial matches. I lost the CL against him twice when he was managing different teams.

First = Van der Vaart at Barcelona sub 91', first touch 93rd minute = 35 yard screamer.

Second = Rossi at Villereal sub 53', equalises with a diving header after an inch-perfect corner at 84' minutes. Taps in a second five minutes later.

Player: Hugo Almedia always seems to take a leasuirely stroll through my defence, despite the fact that my taste in defenders is tall, strong and pacy. I scream every time as we fail to tackle the guy for the third opportunity and he calmly hammers it past my hapless goalkeeper.

ive always hated playing against the 3-3-2-1-1 (3dc, 2wb, dmc, 2mc, amc, st) formation

i fail spectacularly in attempting to recreate it also

In my online game, I hated playing against Tottenham and Liverpool (I'm Man City, btw). I made 2 pre-season friendlies with Liverpool, and lost both - 1-0 and 3-0. And in the fourth match of the season, I lost 4-0. Also, Tottenham beat me 5-4, coming from a 4 goal winning margin :(

The season is going very well though, beat Man. Utd. 4-1 away

Pure and simple,Arsenal playing a 442.

Pretty much impossible for me and i've beat Barcelona 3-0 on more than one occasion for god sake

Ancellotti and Milan for the last 10 years

Plays the normal 4-3-2-1 formation as IRL, always end up with on of his 5 mids scoring.

I have not noticed any particuar bogey team, manager or formation for me in FM.

Far and away the worst ever was back in CM 00/01 where Barca and Real, after a few seasons, used to play this horrendously hax christmas tree formation that was nigh-impossible to defeat. If I played my standard formation against it, I'd get hammered, usually 4-0 or 5-0. If I matched them at their own game with the exact same formation, I would usually lose 2-0 or 3-0, but occasionally would strike it lucky and eak out a 1-0 or 2-1 victory (sometimes with my only shots on target for the whole match).

I hated playing against them, it was terrible!

currently there is a guy called Mark Wotte manager of Southampton. they play the Benitez way with a 4-2-3-1 type formation..

I cant defend against this formation to save my life' date=' they always seem to have a player roaming that cant be marked and they like to swop the AMc with a wide player..

what kind of manager and formation pose you problems?[/quote']

I used to find anything other than 442 gave me problems, especially Man City and Chelsea (under Mourinho - yes he came back- I'd like to have been a fly on the wall during that meeting!) with their 451 or 4321 wide players. I always play an attacking 442.

To counter it (and it took several seasons) on the opposition interaction I tight mark their wingers and striker, close down everyone, hard tackle everyone bar their wingers and striker and show wingers, strikers and midfileders or everyone onto their weak feet.

On my team, I stop the fullbacks making forward runs, although allow them to run with the ball sometimes and ensure that my more defensive central midfielder man marks their AMC. If we go ahead, I also stop my wingers making forward runs often in order to track back, like my Ass Man tells me. It isn't pretty but we get a result (I refer the right honourable gentlemen (and ladies) to Mr Holloway's 2nd comment on this page - http://www.footballmanager.com/index.php?p=article&newsid=2355 ).

Now all I have a problem with is bloody Cardiff who always do me with their 442! They shouldn't even be in the Prem! I had to win the last game of the season at their ground to qualify for the ECC and could only manage a draw. Anyone else have a problem with them?

Arsene Wenger's Arsenal 4-4-2, I could not beat them away and just manage to beat them by 1 goal in home games. I never struggle against other team's 4-4-2 but Arsenal's.

4-2-3-1 is a nasty formation, but if you can isolate and destroy the central attacking midfielder and mark the striker out of the game then you're set.

Verona use a 3-4-3 against me. Now in theory wide formations that can kill off their wingers at the same time will thrash this formation. However, I really struggle against them because I can't really find a way of stifling their strikers in return. I usually end up having to neutralise their midfield to stop the supply rather than stopping the strikers.

If a team plays 4-2-3-1 its best to play tit for tat. I've played 1-3-2-4 at times just to see how they react to my attacking formation, plus at the same time it marks up each of their players. See how long they continue the 4-2-3-1 thing after that! Leads to some chaos sometimes!

The stupid Groningen Manager in the eredivisie stuck 11 in front of the goal for a whole season beating me 1-0 then drawing 0-0 on the last day of the season to give them 3rd and us second.

First few years, easily Arsenal. The game over-rates the team so much it's not funny. Each season they score 100 goals and concede like 20.

i hate playing against giuseppe rossi and his freaking placed shots, he has to score on me by it every time i play against him.

4-1-2-1-2.

I hate it so much...

Thank god the team who was using it on my Braga save in the Portuguese league was Paulo Bento, Sporting CP coach. He went to Napoli. A mexican coach came next and I've won all four matches against him. With Paulo Bento I've lost 3 and draw 2.

4-2-4, with a 1-0 lead!

I never seem to do any good agansit 4-4-1-1 for some reason. My defenders can never cope with the player lurking behind the striker.

west brom and ishmael miller