Anyone still using old skool 4-4-2

I am just wondering anyone still using 4-4-2 and playing the english way during the 80s and 90s... The typical direct ball and most of the final ball delievered from the wings...

Believe it or not from the CM to FM days, i've always chosen 4-4-2 and tweaked the tactics according to how english clubs play during the 80s and 90s era. I just luv to watch the way how the number 11s and the 7s dazzling down the wing and crossing the ball to the number 9s or number 10s to nod it home. The centre backs and central mids are the usually the no nonsense type of players..

Maybe today's football, those kind of approach are used by the weaker teams or teams from the lower division.. But has anyone found success in FM playing the old skool approach with top teams?

I am, just with the slight tweak of a DM & AMC instead of two MCs in the centre. I've done pretty well but I know for a fact it isn't the most successful formation, I just prefer it.

I also play a modified version of a 442 with one striker sat slightly behind the others. Very solid formation and I love it. However it has taken me a while to build a team which can dominate with it.

I use a 4-4-2, except with the wingers pushed to AML/R.

currently i'm playing a 4-4-2 with one MC dropped back and the ML pushed up and cutting inside.

I use rossi as a treq with dzeko as complete forward and it's worked brilliantly for me so far, like the lack of symmetry too.

I am, just with the slight tweak of a DM & AMC instead of two MCs in the centre. I've done pretty well but I know for a fact it isn't the most successful formation, I just prefer it.

Agree with u it isn't the most successful... Although 14 seasons in FM10 i've only won the EPL once with spurs, 2 fa cups and 2 league cups and a runner up in CL.. Most of the time i will finish top 5 or 6.

I sometime use a similar approach of direct passing against short-passing tactics, but with a 4-4-2 (Diamond) where the fullbacks play as old schooll Wingers receiving long balls from the MC's for crosses.

But I don't use it too often because midfielders tend to leave the wingers backs uncovered and open for counter attacks.

I use a 4-4-2, except with the wingers pushed to AML/R.

Is there any defensive duties assigned to ur AML/R? I've tried that but always get caught oppostion counter from the flank.

I currently switch between a 4-5-1 and a 4-4-2 but it's not often that I end up playing the 4-4-2 tbh.

I always play 4-4-2 with AMR & AML.

I always play 4-4-2 with AMR & AML.

Same here, I find an attacking 4-4-2 with AMR and AML scores loads of goals. I do conceed a fair few too...

Yes I use 4-4-2 with a target man and poacher up front and focus the passing down the wings. The MCs play largely defensive/support roles and I encourage my defensive line to stay pretty flat with long balls down the flanks to skilled wingers.

Yes I use 4-4-2 with a target man and poacher up front and focus the passing down the wings. The MCs play largely defensive/support roles and I encourage my defensive line to stay pretty flat with long balls down the flanks to skilled wingers.

I assume your strikers must be the small and big striker combination.

In my current save I'm using 442 with AML/R.

In my current save I'm using 442 with AML/R.

Yep! I love the wingers

Yes, i love the 442 , especially with wingers high up. almost turning into a 424.

Looks like alot prefer the AML/R to the ML/R...

I can't have success using the AML/R positions as i concede too much. Maybe i need to make my two midfielders more defensive. I do love a flat 4-4-2 with Man Utd though, especially at home to the 6th place team and down.

I find using slow tempo the best way to get the wingers to the byline because a fast tempo tends to get the ball to the strikers before the wingers have a chance to join in with the attack.

I use the classic, flat 442, with simple R/L midfielders. I cant seem to get the lone striker to work for me. I can never figure out how many men to support the forward.

In the 442 I have a simple deep-lying/advanced forward combo which seems to work ok for me. I just got promoted to the Championship with that formation and im holding my own this season with a vastly inferior team compared to most I come up against in the division (got no money to sign players!!). With this formation though I do find I have to get my tactics spot on or my fairly poor centre-back pairing can get horribly exposed!!

Always used it since CM4. I have my back four sit back, two CB's are hard tackling tanks... LM and RM break forward for crosses while one CM plays a holding roll and the other gets in behind the two strikers. Very simple and basic, yet it's taken me from the bottom league to europe with countless titles on every game (minus 08 as I never played that one)

My Southampton team are probably the best side in the world right now, playing a 4-4-2 with AML/Rs. They also play a pretty rigid, direct style of football, and really excell when I have to make my emergency all out attack / wider / hoof ball in box changes.

3 titles and 2 champions league titles since they won the Championship 3 years ago is both a testament to a direct, rigid 4-4-2 and to how much cash their chairman is willing to throw at them. I pretty much have unlimited funds while he's in charge.

The problem with the tactic is that the defence is fragile, compared to the more modern DM utilising formations. The excessively attacking wingers don't help there though. We really do have a "score one more than you" approach to the game down there.

I play a big man/little man 4-4-2. my 'little' striker plays on the left and likes to break out wide, while my 'big' striker sits a bit deeper and stays more central. My left midfielder is right footed and likes to make runs into the space between my two strikers, while my right midfielder runs into the channel to the right of my 'big' striker. It's quite an interesting setup but doesn't work very well when the opposition chucks in two DMs.

I've had some success with the AML/R version. I won the quintuple first season with Chelsea, mostly using the 4-4-2 (I changed to 4-2-3-1 during the ACoN because Anelka was injured, so I only had one fit striker, and Ballack's form was such that I changed back to it a fair bit so he'd get back in the team).

I can't see myself using it on FM11 though.

I play a similar style to this. Always make sure I have fast wingers and a forward to accompany my striker. Used to use the forward as a target man away from home but now use playmakers. Although my midfield is either a DMC and MC or two DMC with both of them closing down the opposition at all times, man marking and hard tackling.

I'm playing 4-4-2 at the moment, rigid philosophy, with direct passes, pressing, and heavy tackling. I'm five seasons in with Airdrie United - a bottom of Scottish First League side (They have fewer supporters than the other 9 clubs, including two of the ones that shuffle between First League and Second League) - and I'm finally fighting in the top half of the table about a third of the way into the season, just 3 points away from the top. The only tactical variation I sometimes do is pull one striker back into AMC, and use that AMC as an inside forward - sometimes I also pull one of my CMs back to DM. It depends which players in my squad are available, who I'm playing against, and what the weather's going to be. When the weather's messy, I love it. If it's a dirty, aggressive game, I love it. Anti-football? Who cares if you win

I had been playing a more creative 4-5-1/4-3-3, because I'd had success with that style in other saves, but I think Airdrie just don't have what it takes to pull it off. Toward the end of my fourth season I finally decided to drop it, and I haven't looked back since

Just started with a flat 4-4-2 to get me out of the Portuguese second tier

I play exactly the same attacking, flat 4-4-2 formation with every team I manage, in any division, and always have great success with it.

In my longest game on FM10 with Plymouth, I played 19 seasons and won 14 Premierships, 11 Champions Leagues, and numerous F.A, Carling Cups etc using this formation. Even went through a few seasons unbeaten with Plymouth and in other saves. It works very well for me in every version of FM.

Long live 442!

Like most I like to play 4-4-2 with the wingers pushed up but in the lower leagues I always play standard 4-4-2.

I also do, I play 4-4-2 but i do change things such as D-Line, Width, Tempo, How attacking my full backs are etc but 4-4-2 is the way i play, would like to play 4-2-3-1 but i just cant get my striker to score playing like that..

yes 4-4-2 EVERY game.

I start every game with 4-4-2 and adjust.

It is a very very versatile formation.

I can put two wingers into attacking positions 4-2-2-2, I can change to a diamond 4-1-2-1-2 , I can change to a 4-4-1-1, or defend with a 4-1-4-1

If I start with 4-4-2 (which I do) I know I have every option avaliable.

It is a very logical formation for sending out your team with. It is perfect for switching between attack and defence and is tried and tested. I have always used it and it always worlks.

I am just wondering anyone still using 4-4-2 and playing the english way during the 80s and 90s... The typical direct ball and most of the final ball delievered from the wings...

Believe it or not from the CM to FM days, i've always chosen 4-4-2 and tweaked the tactics according to how english clubs play during the 80s and 90s era. I just luv to watch the way how the number 11s and the 7s dazzling down the wing and crossing the ball to the number 9s or number 10s to nod it home. The centre backs and central mids are the usually the no nonsense type of players..

Maybe today's football, those kind of approach are used by the weaker teams or teams from the lower division.. But has anyone found success in FM playing the old skool approach with top teams?

Only person on earth deluded enough to use 442 is Capello - he clearly hasnt played FM 10 or he would be more enlightened by now! Joking aside though, the FM10 wizard experience (utilising your squad strengths - not shoehorning players into positions where they struggle) combined with enduring England's SA adventures, has given me the freedom to experiment more with other tactics / formations (451/433 Mourinho style, 4132 etc)

Only person on earth deluded enough to use 442 is Capello - he clearly hasnt played FM 10 or he would be more enlightened by now! Joking aside though, the FM10 wizard experience (utilising your squad strengths - not shoehorning players into positions where they struggle) combined with enduring England's SA adventures, has given me the freedom to experiment more with other tactics / formations (451/433 Mourinho style, 4132 etc)

I realise you are not entirely serious, but Capello has the right idea - It's not his fault that Rooney is playing badly.

He realises, correctly, that Rooney needs a foil and without Heskey to hold up the ball the options are limited. Capello hasn't done anything wrong at all - all he wants is a player that can play with Rooney.

I tend to default to a 4-4-2 when I have enough quality in the side to not really need to tweak that much. Ie world class wingers, two strikers both of which have reasonable pace and good ability in the air and excellent finishing. I just find when you reach a certain level of quality in all positions that you can beat most sides with a bog-standard 4-4-2. Some teams that use a more narrow line-up however I find I sometimes have to stick in a DMC or even tweak more heavily than that so not to be completely outnumbered in the middle when they attack. When I was building up my squad however I often found I had to play a 5-3-2 with pushed up wing backs when I was outclassed by some sides. It won be some games, so basically, I tweak, but 4-4-2 works well with a good team behind it against most setups.

I love playing with two intelligent box to box midfielders and two wingers.

442 is the way i like to play mainly because i despise 3 at the back and i am not a fan of just one up top.... so it kinda defaults to 442.

Having said this i once played a long game with PSG and i had three fantastic CM players and only one quality striker to speak of so i player 433 (some call it 451) and had some success.

So i always set out with one of those two, but playing in England i like 442

I tend to default to a 4-4-2 when I have enough quality in the side to not really need to tweak that much. Ie world class wingers, two strikers both of which have reasonable pace and good ability in the air and excellent finishing. I just find when you reach a certain level of quality in all positions that you can beat most sides with a bog-standard 4-4-2. Some teams that use a more narrow line-up however I find I sometimes have to stick in a DMC or even tweak more heavily than that so not to be completely outnumbered in the middle when they attack. When I was building up my squad however I often found I had to play a 5-3-2 with pushed up wing backs when I was outclassed by some sides. It won be some games, so basically, I tweak, but 4-4-2 works well with a good team behind it against most setups.

I agree that a 4-4-2 will beat any side if you have the quality.

Perhaps the problem most people have (and that I have seen countless times) is that playing 2 quality forwards is not a recipe for success. You need to have one of the forwards playing deeper, as a creative player. Otherwise you could have the classic 'liitle and large' combo with a target man. Either way, it is the fundamental mistake that players make of sticking 2 strikers and wondering why there is no product. You need to have either a creative forward or a target man along with the striker.

Yeah, even though Rooney operates best as a lone striker which was so obvious last season with Man utd.

Yeah, even though Rooney operates best as a lone striker which was so obvious last season with Man utd.

Does anyone else think that Rooney operates best as a lone Striker?

Does anyone else think that Rooney operates best as a lone Striker?

I think he best suited playing behind the main striker...

I play 4-4-2 on Wings with Counter-attack and Defensive. Works like a beauty. Sometimes I change to 4-3-3 when I'm playing an important match and I'm one down.

I use a 4-4-2, except with the wingers pushed to AML/R.

Is there any defensive duties assigned to ur AML/R? I've tried that but always get caught oppostion counter from the flank.

I play the same way. I play with a reduced defensive line and I increased the closing down of my wide players so I don't get caught out as much and they come back and defend.

Can't see why anyone would think rooney plays better behind a striker when he jus produced his best and most productive season as a lone striker, rooney isn't really playing that bad it just looks that way because off the back of a great season he is back playing further away from goal again. I called it that man u wouldnt do as good as last year because they went back to a 4-4-2, but i guess thats a discussion for another time...

I think he best suited playing behind the main striker...

I think he's good as long as he is on the field

Problem with 4-4-2 is it's dated. Works at sunday league level best where players/coaches don't have the time to work on tactics plus majority of players are used to playing that way.

Capello playing 4-4-2 is bizarre if you ask me and doesn't get the best out of the players. It was clear from South Africa tactics have moved on an you need players playing between the "lines" in much more fluid formations.

Pretty sure the 4-3-3/4-5-1 and 4-2-3-1 are here to stay for some time and will be the most successful tactics.

ps. Rooney has played his best football as a lone striker the problem playing like that for England is the hoof ball nature we tend to play rather than passing the ball well like United.

I'm using the even more old-school 4-2-4 like so:

I've even seen instances of the ancient-school W-M being used sucessfully, though I haven't seen the granddaddy of them all, 2-3-5 yet.

I play 4-4-2 with AML-MR combination. I also play with direct passing settings and a target man. 4-4-2 is best tactic if you have two box-to-box player and a good target man.

I play a 4-4-2 with a target man up top with passes played to his head. A deep lying forward is set up to run onto the target man's headers. The two CM's are staggered with one playing more defensive and one more attacking. I usually play short passes, but depending on the weather and pitch conditions, I will play more direct passes.

I have also used a 3-5-2 when I had a lot of injuries and no healthy fullbacks. I used one DM and one AM with an LM, CM, and RM. The two forwards were set up the same as my 4-4-2.

I am playing with a normal 4-4-2 and have won the CL 4 years in a row and the prem 4 years in a row with Leeds. All this while scoring over 120 goals in each of the last 3 seasons in the league (138 is the highest)

I never really use it, it's a bit too linear for me. I am and always have been a fan of the 4-2-3-1 formation. I was using it seasons before it became the fashion at the World cup, so that obviously means I'm a top manager and should be offered a job with one of the best clubs in the world

Oh god, I sound like Sam Allardyce.

I assume your strikers must be the small and big striker combination.

Yes indeed!

I use the formation that best suits my team and 4-4-2 has been that formation at Man Utd and Porto, as well as the two national teams I've managed, Uruguay and Switzerland and I've just joined Sweden and will probably use the same formation. I won the Champions League with Man Utd using this formation, laterin my career I joined Porto who were doing rubbish in the league in 7th at about January, took them to 3rd and went to the WC quarter final with Switzerland so it can work when at the right team.