Using the wingers ??

A few months ago I started a network game with my mate where I went Arsenal. I used quite a few different formations during the beggining of the season and tried to play throught the middle with no wingers. I found a formation that was brilliant. 4-2-1-3 (2 CM - 1 CAM and 3 strikers) Many teams could never beat my side and my team went on to win the league without loosing since I created this great formation.

I've had a few single player saves since the network game and have found wingers aren't effective because the strikers miss alot of headers crossed into them. This has frustrated me because I like to play down the wing when I manage a team, but with Arsenal I only played through the middle because they dont start off with very good wide players.

Do people agree with me and have you had the same problem ?? :confused:

It's a well known problem, most of the best tactics are narrow for exactly this reason.

It's a well known tactic in FM10 to play narrow and through the middle as the AI doesn't seem to be able to cope with it.

It's a well known tactic in FM10 to play narrow and through the middle as the AI doesn't seem to be able to cope with it.

Well I hope this is looked at for FM 2011 because I generally like to play a wide formation but since they aren't very effective it takes alot of fun out the game for me

A few months ago I started a network game with my mate where I went Arsenal. I used quite a few different formations during the beggining of the season and tried to play throught the middle with no wingers. I found a formation that was brilliant. 4-2-1-3 (2 CM - 1 CAM and 3 strikers) Many teams could never beat my side and my team went on to win the league without loosing since I created this great formation.

I've had a few single player saves since the network game and have found wingers aren't effective because the strikers miss alot of headers crossed into them. This has frustrated me because I like to play down the wing when I manage a team, but with Arsenal I only played through the middle because they dont start off with very good wide players.

Do people agree with me and have you had the same problem ?? :confused:

Although I get the impression wide play is slightly less effective than in RL you have to consider your expectations.

In RL around 20%-25% of crosses reach one of your players and of those reaching one of your team how many find the target? (33%? maybe around average) then of those how many are saved - we'll say 50% as an example.

Using those figures from 100 crosses only around 20-25 will find an attacker, only around 7/8 will be on target scoring 3-4 goals.

Obviously my figures could be wrong and if anyone can find an RL figures it would be appreciated.

i think that is an opinion, i see a lot of human managers who win with wingers.

I use wingers. Lost one league game in three seasons and scored 100 league goals last year.

I use wingers. Lost one league game in three seasons and scored 100 league goals last year.

How did you use them? What did you do to make them effective, that others might not know to do?

Simply put quick talented players at AML/AMR and set them as wingers, then attack. Helps when you can counter and get space for them to move into, as crosses from the edge of the box seem more effective than from out by the touchline, but obviously it depends on the player. Also depends on your strikers and whether or not they're in the box. If you've got a short striker who's never anywhere near the crosses then it doesn't matter who your wingers are.

My wingers last season were Ozil and Cazorla, targetting Rossi and Lukaku upfront (60 goals in all competitions between them despite both being injured a fair bit), and between them they assisted about 30-35 goals in all competitions. While more goals came through the middle (Gourcuff and Rossi with most assists), it's good to have the width to create space and create another worry for the defence. Even if we didn't score that many from crosses, we scored enough, and got a hell of a lot of corners. If you stay narrow you end up struggling to break through the defence and resorting to long shots, although focussing passing through the middle can be effective vs poor teams.

Directness is what's important, not a lack of width.

Although I get the impression wide play is slightly less effective than in RL you have to consider your expectations.

In RL around 20%-25% of crosses reach one of your players and of those reaching one of your team how many find the target? (33%? maybe around average) then of those how many are saved - we'll say 50% as an example.

Using those figures from 100 crosses only around 20-25 will find an attacker, only around 7/8 will be on target scoring 3-4 goals.

Obviously my figures could be wrong and if anyone can find an RL figures it would be appreciated.

In 2005-06, Reading had about 55 assists from crosses in the league. That would need about 1375 crosses using your figures, which is about three a minute. I'd guess that the average number of crosses was 1 every 5 minutes, which is 828 crosses, which is about 15% of crosses resulting in a goal.

That was a side directly gear around two excellent crossers of the ball (in SAF's words, the two best crossers in the country) and two strikers who were brilliant at attacking crosses.

oh, and the crucial thing is for them to beat the fullback. Can work to drop them back to ML/MR if it means they'll have more space to run into.

I use wingers, get reasonable success too.

I was reading on another forum that if you use wingers it's better to have a narrow pitch, is this really the case?

I find wingers work okay in lower leagues but don't do alot against good opposition - albeit I'm sure if you've got the best players in the world it'll still work.

Through balls are far more affective then crosses though so it's typical to just play narrow.

Inside forwards in a 4-2-2-2 are working wonders for me, as they act as conventional wingers (beating a man, getting to the byline) half the time but when one of my CMs or STs is in possession in the final third they come inside, giving me three/four/five men ready for a through ball. I've lost count of the amount of goals my AMR scores coming inside, receiving the diagonal ball and slotting it in near post.