10.3 4-4-2 Is Born

Hey there guys.

First of all, this tactic is NOT originally mine. It is thanks to Mr Hough and Knap (If im allowed to mention them).

I simply made very minor tweaks to it. Im not sure If im allowed to make a thread about it, but I cant see why not. Its a great tactic, and thought I'd give it the attention it deserves

Ok. Its a 442 based on Mr Hough's infamous Unbeaten tactic. I simply lowered the mentality a couple notches to Knaps version, and also lowered defensive line a notch

My results were with Crewe in my first season in League 2. I did not expect a 442 to give me this much success, hence my post.

I am sure with a few more tweaks, it can easily be the most successful 442 on this game. I am really excited in posting, as I believe it can really work for all of you

I dominated my league; My only concern is when I play heavy favourites, i.e Everton in the FA Cup, where I lost 3-0 quite convicingly

This tactic scores a lot, but Ive been trying to tweak the defence, as thats what I believe needs work on. I create many CCC's but also give away some aswell.

Ive always been a fan of a tactic with wingers, and I believe Ive finally cracked one. Knap and Mr Hough deserve ALL the credit, not me. Ive simply made very minor tweaks, if any.

The table : Last few games I rested my key players in order to give some youngsters a chance, hence I dropped a few points. End of first season...2010/2011. Date was cut off as Im not that good with cutting and pasting.

Result: Best away result.

What I like about this tactic, is that its realistic. Basic 442. It feels real. If you buy the correct players, and use the right teamtalks, you can make it even better. Some games I lost were because of the teamtalks and morale, and NOT of the tactic, and this is what I like about it.

Irl you cant always blame a tactic for your team losing heavily, or narrowly.

My team, and the tactic.

Now, I hope others can test this, as I really do have faith in this tactic. With good management skills and transfers, you can really go far.

NOTE: Watching all the games in 3d, I found that you really need good Centre backs as you will soak up some pressure at times.

THE TACTIC : http://www.filefront.com/16868417/M442%20reborn%20knap%20edit%20%28Crewe%2C%20Apr%202010%29.tac

Please provide honest feedback. Havent tested with a big team, so not sure how it goes.

4TH JULY UPDATE : LATEST TACTIC THANKS TO KNAPS EDIT

VERY SOLID DEFENSIVELY

http://www.filefront.com/16955593/Latest442.tac

Lokks good Crewe.....ill give it a shot and get back to ya soon with results and anything i can find that will make it better.....cheers

Thanks man.

How's the goal distribution? Mainly among the strikers with the rest chipping in occasionally? Looking forward to using a real realistic 442. What kind of strikers do you employ?

Well what I love is that my two main strikers (Zola and Scorza) scored 29 and 28 goals each. My wingers also contributed and so did my centre mids. Its very realistic and even.

My left mid had something like 19 assists throughout the season.

Let me know how it goes with you

I've found the 4-4-2 pretty easy to get right. I don't know why everyone makes out 4-4-2 is impossible? It isn't. The only reason no-one uses it is becuase it isn't fancily named or ME exploiting (ie VERY narrow and attacking).

I agree with you Genius. I think it does require a little more work however to get right.

This 442 is the best Ive tried however. Cant wait to get some feedback

ive done half season with norwich city and results are : P23 W 17 D1 L 5 ...F 43 A 28 IN THE LEAGUE...the strikers work so well together Holt has been on fire with 19 goals so far....im looking into making the defence more tighter as it seems the ai find gaps way to easy ,and score easy goals....thanks for the tactic crewe...ill get back to ya if i can work out the defence....ta

No probs mate. I score plenty but defence is a little issue. Post some screens in the future mate

Mate the tactic is brilliant i've test it a few matches with Barcelona... just to see how it's performing i never expected that a 4-4-2 tactic would be this good here's my results

Villa and Ibra are banging goals for fun

Crewe_Alex, I've been looking for an efficient 4-4-2 tactic for some time now, so you can imagine my happiness when I found and tried your tactic with my Man Utd team. I have played with a central 4-1-2-1-2 tactic for four seasons and shaped my team around that, leaving a lot of wingers outside the team. I have a lot of emerging wingers from my reserve and U18 team, which now has forced me to change my tactic.

I've used your tactic five times with the following result:

This tactic is very solid and the strikers score a lot of goals, but I think it uses the corner bug. I'm sure it will still work without it, however.

Brilliant guys, very happy with the results. Im trying to tweak the defensive shape a tad to try minimise CCC to the opposition. As I mentioned earlier, I havent tried with a big club, but it seems it works quite well

More feedback would be great

This tactic is very solid and the strikers score a lot of goals, but I think it uses the corner bug. I'm sure it will still work without it, however.

It doesn't mate. Excellent tactic, still going strong.

It doesn't mate. Excellent tactic, still going strong.

Thanks ubos. Im sure with some tweaking, it can do even better. Started second season with Crewe. Now in League One. Post some feedback soon

Friendly. Second season. Was not expecting this.

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And NEVER seen this many CCC's in a game. Im sooooo happy right now.

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gonna have a shot with this dude as it looks pretty good. I'm playing in South Africa will give some feedback later.

Looking forward to it Almondo

I'm impressed Crewe. I've played 4 games with this tactic and it plays relly well. I'll post a screenie of my results at some point but will give you a big for now

Np mate. Look forward to the post

Trying this with my Lyon team now. Looks good so far.

Lille - Lyon 0-4

Valenciennes - Lyon 0-1

Lech - Lyon 0-4

Lyon - Bordeaux 5-0

Can`t see any problems with opponents creating too many CCC`s so far..

Bordeaux had 1 CCC. That`s it.

Only negative thing so far is that I have way too many long shots in each game..

28 in 4 matches is at least 20 too many..

Anyone who can get Mitchell-King to play that well deserves some credit lol. I go to all the Crewe home games in real life and so far have not had my regular Crewe career on FM, this tactic might inspire me to give it a go. Will let you know how I get on.

would you mind quickly explaining what type of player is required for each position?

@franklin: at Lyon, a few players have the PPM "Shoots from distance" (Toulalan and maybe others). Try to make them forget it, and reduce long shots to rarely for every player (if not already done).

My strikers are not scoring as much as I would like them to. I started a new save with Chelsea (again ) and bought Diego Forlan. With Forlan and Drogba upfront, Drogba is banging in the goals but Forlan is not as prolific. Any ideas? But one thing I really like is that the whole team plays very well.

I found that you need good strong, but also quickish centre backs.

Good wingers are also key as they will provide many assists and also chip in with some

Im trying to tweak my defence and get it to become more consistent.

Look forward to more feedback. Im happy with the responses so far

Acid, Mitchell King was a fringe player lol; he only played the last few games as he was unhappy,and I wanted to give him so game time. He impressed me. Scoring 3 in 8 games from the back.

Im getting great results with barnetta on right wing. what kind of strikers are needed for the left and right position?

I found that you need good strong, but also quickish centre backs.

Good wingers are also key as they will provide many assists and also chip in with some

Im trying to tweak my defence and get it to become more consistent.

Look forward to more feedback. Im happy with the responses so far

Acid, Mitchell King was a fringe player lol; he only played the last few games as he was unhappy,and I wanted to give him so game time. He impressed me. Scoring 3 in 8 games from the back.

I'm gonna try this tactic with my newcastle side. It would help if you could give a detailed information on what attributes are required. But i will give it 15 matches and report back.

I play the target man, or bigger striker on the left, and quicker striker on the right. Not 100% with the attributes as yet ron, will get back to you soon

Let me know me how you go

I play the target man, or bigger striker on the left, and quicker striker on the right. Not 100% with the attributes as yet ron, will get back to you soon

Let me know me how you go

Ok thanks for the quick reply. I prefer to use winger tactics tbh. I just need to know what attributes are needed for players so i can use it long-term. Thanks

Well so far I know centre backs are crucial. Otamendi, Nelson Rivas would be great for this tactic

Hear from you soon

I actually played the strikers the other way round with medium succes. trying to switch them

Kool. Hopefully some of you can help with tightening the defence

I also played the strikers the other way around, so I'm changing as well. I'll report back my findings.

No problem. Post results soon.

I've been using TheBetterHalfs 442 tweak of the Mr Hough And Woody final tactic.

The Better Half has a support striker and a target man. But I changed the target man to poacher and I've had more positive results.

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I think my squad is a similar level to Porto's and Benfica's. Maybe a little weaker.

As you can see in the fixture list, I struggled in the cup games but was strong in the league.

@franklin: at Lyon, a few players have the PPM "Shoots from distance" (Toulalan and maybe others). Try to make them forget it, and reduce long shots to rarely for every player (if not already done).

Except I don`t have those players anymore..

I hate players with PPM shoot from distance! Such a waste..

So none of my players has that PPM.

Yeah I agree. It could be useful if long shots were efficient but it's just ridiculous how few long shots are scored this year.

This happen when I changed place on the strikers.

what did u change exactly?

You'll find the answer just a few posts above.

Second season. Tipped to finish 19th. Only made two signings!! Started season poorly as I had 4 new players in the starting 11. Two loans and two transfers

I cannot be stopped!

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Anyone else tested??

Started a new game with Spurs and won the league (92 pts) 2009/10. Defoe PL topscorer (- 30 goals). Only bought Sissoko in january. Great stuff!

However, the start of the second season is awful although I managed to bring in Dzeko. The BIG problem with this tactic is that the central defence leaks like a breast of a cow. Dont know how to solve this. Tried to tweak defence line, marking etc but fast techical strikers wanders thru the defence again and again. Any suggestions?

The team will settle. It takes time. The defense is the problem for me too mate.

I win most my games but leak a lot

Im trying to tweak

Hope someone can help me tweak it, im not that great!!

A lot of my goals are coming from centre halves and corners.

A lot of my goals are coming from centre halves and corners.

many people talk about the corner cheat, which i have no clue how its set up. but to the above comment i get the same as you, on my juve game chiellini is scoring as much as my strikers from corners. in fact any guy i put in his spot scores. so my question: does this tactic deploy the corner cheat as things stand out my center back scoring as much as my strikers something I will not tolerate and ruins the fun of playing for me. but i dont want to jump into conclusion as I have no idea on the cheat.

many people talk about the corner cheat, which i have no clue how its set up. but to the above comment i get the same as you, on my juve game chiellini is scoring as much as my strikers from corners. in fact any guy i put in his spot scores. so my question: does this tactic deploy the corner cheat as things stand out my center back scoring as much as my strikers something I will not tolerate and ruins the fun of playing for me. but i dont want to jump into conclusion as I have no idea on the cheat.

Just letting you know, that if you can't actually tell it is cheating then it is highly likely that it doesn't employ the corner bug. The corner bug is extremely obvious when in use.

I'm using this tactic, scoring a lot but also leaking at the back, my fullbacks are not that good, so perhaps when they improve the defence will, can you tell me what sort of fullback I need?

Guys this tactic has gave me back to back promotions with Crewe

You really need a good back four. And a good defensive midfielder

Dont be shy in tweaking it. And post your tweaks on this page so we all can make it the best 442 ever

Ive never played with a better 442 in years; probably since fm2008, so Im sure it can get better

I dont think it uses the corner cheat, as its not obvious IMO

hi mate i will use this with my Zurich save they play in Switzerland will post results