Dust_ing for trouble 4-3-3

Hey!!!

First, I wanna thank all those brilliant men who make FM tactics seem SO easy... koflok, Mr Hough, JP, and so on!

WELL, after too much thinking, I decided to create an out-of-the-box tactic that, so far, is netting me some great results (with a top team [Benfica]).

Problem is, this tactic is FAR from over and, if I post it here, I'de be making changes pretty much every day, with little or major tweeks!

I'll leave here a shape of the tactic, PLEASE don't trash it until you try it, cause it IS very defensive, and I'm having trouble scoring with it!

Decided on just releasing it so that you all could try it and tell me how it goes. Mind you this is a WORK IN PROGRESS and I challenge to come here on a regular basis 'cause I'll be doing a lot of changes to this one.

TACTIC CONCEPT:

I've always been a fan of a sweeper, but I've never found a good, consistent tactic employing one. So, after much tinkering, I came up with a "VW" concept, emplying a V defense and a W offense. It turned out pretty bad, as space between lines was too much to control a game.

So, I found an evolution of the VW, and I called it Dust_ing! It focuses on a solid 3 man defense (on the premise that there's always 1 man to mark the striker [as we all know, crosses on FM11 have been a issue]) with the help of an anchor man to stop middle playing and 2 defensive focused wingers. All my offense is based on a playmaker (the focus of the team) that ensures my 3 strikers get the ball in position to score.

So, what happens is that When defending, the team defends with 6 players and when attacking it attacks with 6 players also, making that 12's Illusionary man the goal of this tactic

Player description:

GOALKEEPER - Your average goalkeeper, nothing to say bout this one. It is set on sweeper so that if the team gets caught in counter-attack he can clear some long balls coming on his direction

SWEEPER - The player I based my tactic around. He is the extra man in defense to help clear all those crosses. It is set on libero, attacking, so that he can team up with the anchor man to stop counter attacks

CENTER DEFENDERS- Nice and sturdy defenders, set on limited defender, defend so that they don't roam too far of position

ANCHOR MAN - The last man of the back 4. He stops play before getting dangerous and helps attack to construct. Set on Anchor man

MIDFIELDERS - These are your fullbacks on defense and your wingers on attack. So, they must have good stamina and pace to keep up with the game. I always bring an extra set on the bench and most games I sub them near the 60'th minute. They don't actually need to cross very well, but it's a plus. They do need to tackle and mark fairly well, I'd say above 10, so that they can actually be fullbacks.

They started out as wingbacks, but were too defensive and didn't join attack enough. Then I moved them forward as defensive wingers, and still they were more wingbacks than wingers, so they are set on wide midfielders, support to give the team more dept.

ADVANCED PLAYMAKER - the magical being in your formation. My pablo aimar, guardiola's iniesta, mourinho's ozil, etc. The team plays to him, he delivers to the front 3, and they score. as simple as that! Most of the time, the team will play wide (midfielders to inside forwards) and ignore him. Don't worry, he'll be there to finish the cross, or to take the rebound. Set on Advanced playmaker, support

INSIDE FORWARDS - They provide the width of the tactic. Still not sure if I'm fine with them. Maybe i'll put them up front with the striker, like Mr. Hough did on FM10.3. But, so far, they are working. They will either receive the ball from the wingers and try to croos it to the stiker, or they'll receive it from the playmaker and cut inside to score. They are important as they open spaces on the defence to make room for the wingers and the playmaker. They should be able to score, but, more important, they should be able to pass. They are set as Inside forwards, attack

FORWARD - As I said, still not sure if 1 is enough, but I'm happy with the results, so far. He sticks to him position and is the reference of the attackers. Most of the time the defence will pass him the ball and he'll deliver to the inside forwards. So, a big, tall, lukaku like forward is needed for this. kinda like target man. I tried him at that but he got lost amidst the opposition defense. So he is set to Advanced forward, Attack

This is a typical match, creating a LOT of shots on goal and a solid defense!

I have tested this tactic with a title contender, so, not sure on how it will manage on smaller teams. I have plans to test that later, but first thing's first!!!

PROBLEMS:

I know that my tactic isn't perfect, and it does need a lot of work. So far, my main problem has been playing agains teams that flood the midfield, like 4-2-3-1 formations. I still manage to win cause they can't score, but I play badly.

I'm open to any suggestions, tips, advices, as I'm sure you all know a lot more about tactics than I do!

___________________________________________________V1.2_____________________________________________________________________

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Dust_ing for trouble V1.2

http://www.mediafire.com/?9g5axbxxz378p9z

PLEASE NEVER FORGET THAT THIS IS A GAME... ENJOY IT

Some thinkering:

so far, finished pre-season (never thought Full matches took THIS long) and played fairly well winning 2-1, 3-0, 5-0, 4-0 and 0-0 against CSKA ( DAM AKINFEEV)

One thing stroke me as FUNDAMENTAL!

Limit your inside forwards long shot's to "rarely" if they have long shot inferior to 15.

Wated a lot of opportunities due to this

Glad to see people exited bout this! Please do give me feedback, as I'm trying to make this work!

Supercup results:

My forward scored 4 goals, having a match rate of 9.9! I do have some issues with posession, not really sure how to adress that, any ideas?

Been working hard this last few days after a study break!

Made a whole lot of changes to V1, making it much more stable and focused! Just to test and figure out what players I need, i started a save with Arsenal and will only use this tactic or modifications of it.

This is the work in progress:

I think I have figured out the sweeper position (that's a start ). Thigs I need to solve still and wanted to see if anyone could answer me to this:

How can I make my wingbacks more offensive? They still lack what I'm looking for, the explosiveness to go all the way and support the team on the touchline.

Sometimes I find myself alone in attack. I put counter-attack (no) but they still don't pass the ball as often as I'd like, making a more direct passing.

I still don't have much results to back my tactic, so, at least for now, I'm holding it back till I can safely say it's any good.

This looks a lot like the way Bielsa has Chile playing. I don't really download tactics but I'll be keeping an eye on your progress.

I guess I'm ready to release V1.2 of my trouble tactic ;D

tweaked around A LOT since V1, so the few (didn't had much luck or crowd with the V1) with this tactic should download the V1.2.

This is the tactic now:

I've figured out the wingbacks! they play A LOT better with the flank free, so pushed up the inside forwards to strikers and it's doing pretty well. The strikers I think they still need a bit of work, but trying the Mr.Hough combination (FM10.3) of complete-deeplying-advanced, as it's the one that fits my team.

As for the team, I now I bought some players. a Sweeper that I needed (and David Luiz is one of the best atletic defenders I know [i'm a Benfica fan, aswell ) Cardozo was a bargain I couldn't miss... 4.5M! and Akinfeev I tried to ask the board for funds and they simply bought him for 20M out of nowhere (first time it happened to me in FM11)

Fixtures:

Mind you the west brom goal was from a penalty, so it doesn't really count ;x

Some matches:

I tend to struggle against a simple 4-4-2, don't know why (manchester united was playing like that, aswell as Roma, and those were, BY FAR, the worse games I played, beeing outplayed a lot!)

So, I'll update the first topic, but I'll put the download link here also!

Dust_ing for trouble v1.2:

http://www.mediafire.com/?9g5axbxxz378p9z

Have fun!

Some thoughts on this tactic. completing 10 games on the premier league, my record so far is 8 wins and 2 draws, scoring 22 and conceding only 3. On the champions, I'm with 1 lose 1 win and 1 draw, with 4 scored and 2 conceded.

The tactic seems to be doing better as the team "gels" into it. Granted it is a strange tactic, it really is relying on direct passing to the forwards since I have little to no midfield. Trying to adress that.

If you try it 1 or 2 games it may seems total crap! I've tried to deal with possession but I've just ignored it! so, the opposing team controls the match, it even has more shots than you... but they simply do not go anywhere near the goal, as they are long misdirected shots. One good example is this match:

I'd REALLY REALLY like your feedback! well... I'm kinda begging some feedback so that I can have a feel if this is only luck, only for arsenal, only for good teams or if it works anywhere. I'd really like to improve, cause I'm sure this tactic is only in the beginning!