[FM11] Hitch's 4-3-3, Strong Attack & Defence

Never really shared a tactic before but I thought I would let everyone have a play about with this one I came up with.

The tactic has been created with version 11.1.1

New version of the tactic, now tested with Serbia:

Version 1.1

http://hotfile.com/dl/86565499/889ebee/Serbia_4-3-3_(Serbia_Jun_2010).tac.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/434950144/Serbia_4-3-3__Serbia__Jun_2010_.tacl

http://www.mediafire.com/file/q71z22u9xzlzpau/Serbia%204-3-3%20%28Serbia%2C%20Jun%202010%29.tac

Version 1.0

http://hotfile.com/dl/85837228/f3e7c1c/Hitchs_4-3-3_United_(Man_Utd_May_2011).tac.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/433943477/Hitch_s_4-3-3_United__Man_Utd__May_2011_.tac

I am managing Man United, usually go with them first to sort out a decent tactic for the year. I wanted to create one that was realistic and similar to the way we played in real life, so it is a 4-3-3 formation with some counter attacking.

After about 5-8 games I could tell it was going to be a success, it is solid defensively but allows the attacking players to go after the goals.

I have just finished the first full season, winning the Premiership, League Cup and Champions League treble, along with runners-up in the FA Cup to Spurs (1-1 aet but lost on penalties) and runners-up to Chelsea in the Charity Shield (1-1 but lost on penalties).

Starting with the Premiership, we were eight points clear by the end. During the Premiership campaign we went 22 matches unbeaten (34 unbeaten in all competitions). Here is the table:

I kept a record of our games against what I will call the big 5 (Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and City) as I wanted to show its effectiveness in the big games. The record is as follows:

Premiership – P 10, W 7, L 3, F 15, A 5

Cup – P 3, W 2, D 1, F 5, A 4

As you can see it is pretty solid defensively and if I did lose it was usually only be the one goal, excluding a 2-0 win away at Liverpool after we had won the title.

Total record for the season for games won, lost or drawn is as follows:

P 65, W44, D 12, L 4, F 130, A 45

So on average 2 goals scored to every 0.5 goals scored from the opposition. I felt this was adequate as I wanted it to be realistic, sometimes you can go through just thumping teams 6-0 all the time and it gets boring, whereas this season was different.

The great thing about this tactic is the record of the players; Valencia for example scored 21 goals in 45 games from the right hand side, providing 10 assists also. Rooney was mainly used as my first choice striker and came up with 32 goals in 41 games which impressed. Hernandez, Bebe and Fletcher all weighed in with goals and it seemed to be a realistic interpretation of a season at United.

Here are some results in depth to highlight the in-game stats, some games were well stacked against us, such as the Villa one, we had a man sent off at 2-0 up but still managed to score twice more and miss a penalty. Again with the Liverpool result, we went down to ten men and they scored immediately after, only for us to come back with two goals to mark a fantastic comeback. The Champions League final with Barcelona showed that it can even stifle some of the most attacking teams on the planet and Scholes popped up with a winner reminiscent of the one he scored in 2007-2008 season against them to take us to the final, brilliant goal.

When I get a man sent off, I take off the Deep Lying Playmaker and bring the two wingers back a slot, leaving the other two centre midfielders as they were. There looks to be a gap between them but it has worked well on each occasion I get a man sent off.

The tactic is structured as follows:

GK – Goalkeeper – Defend

DR - Wingback – Automatic

DCR - Central Defender – Defend

DCL - Central Defender – Defend

DL - Wingback – Automatic

MCR - Central Midfielder – Automatic

MC - Deep-Lying Playmaker – Support

MCL - Central Midfielder – Automatic

STR - Inside Forward – Attack

SC – Complete Forward – Attack

STL – Inside Forward – Attack

Just briefly breaking down the thinking behind it, I looked at the way United play now when we utilise the 4-3-3.

The Wingbacks have to do a lot of defensive and attacking work o this selection made sense to me. Rafael and Evra are high energy players and are suited to this way of playing.

The Central defense was one area that I took a chance with, they stand off more rather than piling in with huge tackles, which Ferdinand definitely does in real life so I adopted this approach and it worked well. He got two yellow cards all season, along with us conceding 0.5 goals a game so it was a success.

Scholes is now used as a kind of playmaker, who starts deep and dictates the play in front of him, so I incorporated this into the tactic, again it seemed to work well. His pass percentage was at 89% for the season which is realistic. With regrets to this role I felt that there were a few too many longer shots coming from here, I want to fix this for next season.

The two central midfielders are in a similar vein to the wing backs in that they need to be high energy players who are determined and focused, Fletcher and Anderson made a great pairing with Scholes in the centre. They weighed in with their share of goals and assists and you could see them getting forward and also backtracking when we lost possession.

The two Inside Forwards was not really planned for, I tested it early on and found that Valencia is a beats in the STR postion, I know he is predominantly a winger for United but for some reason he still bombed to the byline and centred the crosses for the attackers but he also came in to have his own go at goal. Nani didn’t fare as well on the left which surprised me, as I thought the results would be the other way around but it worked well I found. I will tweak this for the new season.

The striker was a lone man, but made chances from nothing for himself and for others and regularly came up with the goods, netting a goal every 1.3 games. I am very happy with this position and wont change it.

As for opposition instructions, I don’t use them at all. Team talks I usually opt for “You can win this game” or if I am big favourite 1/3 or ¼ onwards then I use “I expect a win” unless it’s a cup game or an away game as I feel it adds unwanted pressure, especially to younger players. At halftime, if anyone is nervous I use “There is no pressure on you”, playing poorly “You can make the difference” and the team one is usually “Encourage”. I rarely use “Pleased” unless I have to, usually a couple of goals up at home is the case. After the game I use “Well done” for the whole team and anyone who is 8.1 rating and above gets a “Delighted”.

Match preparation I used “Team Blend” until the bars all hit 100%, after that I used “Defensive Positioning”. I don’t know if that added anything, it is hard to tell, I will change it to “Attacking movement” for next season and see if we hit any more goals and concede more due to this.

So there it is, please use this tactic if you are having problems with United but I ask you not to criticise me if it doesn’t go right for your team, it is by no means a super tactic and it has not been tested with any other teams as yet. Also, if you have only used it for one or two games and the results haven't gone your way then it is not achieving anything by coming on saying that it is *****, it needs to be given a chance just like any tactic. I am hoping that anyone who uses it can adapt and improve it in their own ways, let me know how you get on with it.

I am gonna tweak it a bit for next season as there are areas that can be improved. We scored 32 goals from corners and indirect free-kicks and 9 from penalties, so while the set pieces seem great it is quite a huge chunk of our goals. I will try to get more from open play by tweaking the tactic a little.

Cheers, Ste

i'll give it a go mate. keep u updated

Cheers man, gonna try and make it tighter in the next day or so but I bet some input from guys like yourself using it will probably take it to another level.

1st 10 games using tactic with arsenal

4-0 win vs blackpool away

3-0 win vs swansea home

3-1 win vs stoke home

3-1 win vs cfr cluj away

1-1 draw vs man utd away

0-0 draw vs chelsea home

3-0 win vs schalke away

1-1 draw vs bolton away

4-0 win vs huddersfield home

2-0 win vs aston villa home

not a bad start. keep u posted

here are the results of the games i've played since

1-2 lost vs schalke home champs lge(1st defeat using the tactic)

1-1 draw west brom away

3-2 win vs everton home

2-0 win vs wigan home

2-1 win vs sunderland away

1-1 draw vs shaktar away champs lge

3-0 win vs west ham home

2-2 draw vs cfr cluj home

1-0 win vs fulham home

1-1 draw vs blackburn away

3-1 win vs aston villa home lge cup q.final

so overall since started using tactic P:22 w:13 d:8 l:1 f:46 a:17

very pleased with this form also chamakh has scored 14 in 20 starts plus 1 sub appearance and akinfeev has kept 9 clean sheets

1st 10 games using tactic with arsenal

4-0 win vs blackpool away

3-0 win vs swansea home lge cup round 3

3-1 win vs stoke home

3-1 win vs cfr cluj away champs lge

1-1 draw vs man utd away

0-0 draw vs chelsea home

3-0 win vs schalke away champs lge

1-1 draw vs bolton away

4-0 win vs huddersfield home lge cup round 4

2-0 win vs aston villa home

not a bad start. keep u posted

this tactic is looking good, cant wait for your next update drewy you seem to be doing pretty good mate.

cheers,

kymsheba (mike)

Glad its going well for you Drewy. Keep my updated on your results buddy. Some will look at you losing a game and think "crap tactic" but you gotta lose some through a season, otherwise what´s the point?

Anyway, I have tweaked the tactic for the new season but sadly as the game´s transfer system is ruined I will be putting my United game on hold until it´s sorted. I couldn´t even sell Berba for 3m at the end of the season.

I started afresh with Serbia with the hopefully improved tactic and here are the results:

As you can see we won every single game we played, including two great victorys against the group favourites Italy. In 15 games total we scored 45 goals and conceded only 6. The tactic is definitely a success.

Here are the changes I made to the player roles:

GK - Goalkeeper - Defend

DR - Wingback - Automatic

DCR - Central Defender - Cover

DCL - Central Defender - Stoper

DL - Wingback - Automatic

MCR - Ball Winning Midfielder - Defend

MC - Deep Lying Playmaker - Defend

MCL - Box to Box Midfielder - Support

STR - Winger - Support

STC - Complete Forward - Attack

STL - Inside Forward - Support

I made the changes based on the United squad and how we play, with Valencia as a winger and Anderson as a box to box midfielder etc. But it really worked for Serbia too, and what is great is that Krasic (my STR) banged in the goals just like Valencia did with United from the same position, even with the new role of winger so this was pleasing.

If anyone wants to test it out, please be my guest as I have uploaded the link at the top of the page again. I will carry on playing the Serbia game for a few more years, probably past the 2014 World Cup to get a good reading on the success of the tactic and keep updating as I go. On the next post are some images of the stats against Italy (home and away) and Slovenia at home.

how do i put screenshots on mate. i'll show u my results. been pretty good season

looking like you going to win the league drewy, fantastic results so far i am impressed with this tactic thats for sure.

SteHitch you have a winner here mate fantastic tactic i am going to use it in the next year of my current game leading sunderland in the premier league just won the league cup and about to finish of the season soon so will switch to your tactic for the following year.

looking like you going to win the league drewy, fantastic results so far i am impressed with this tactic thats for sure.

SteHitch you have a winner here mate fantastic tactic i am going to use it in the next year of my current game leading sunderland in the premier league just won the league cup and about to finish of the season soon so will switch to your tactic for the following year.

currently using new version played 5 won 5

currently using new version played 5 won 5

Nice one. Cheers for posting up the images of your season, looks like it is going well for you. The second version of the tactic so far has been unstoppable, just installing the game again so I can fire it up and get back into it later tonight.

Hope a few more people start trying the tactic out.

Anyone know how I can change the name of the thread title to include FM11, people possibly think it's for FM10?

going to give this tactic a go with my millwall side. hopefully this will help to show how this tactic really is.

can you explain what you do with Match prereration?

Nice one. Cheers for posting up the images of your season, looks like it is going well for you. The second version of the tactic so far has been unstoppable, just installing the game again so I can fire it up and get back into it later tonight.

Hope a few more people start trying the tactic out.

Anyone know how I can change the name of the thread title to include FM11, people possibly think it's for FM10?

hey just finished season. had a blip and finished 2nd in league, but done a cup treble and chamakh score 40 goals

Damn, unlucky missing out on the league but at least you won three other trophies. Not bad success really, I will state to anyone that I never claimed it was gonna be a super tactic but it does work quite well.

I played the 2012 Euro Championships last night, we drew Italy, Slovakia and Belgium in the group. Beat Italy 2-0 (my whipping boys), beat Slovakia 3-2 and lost to Belgium 1-0 (I decided to rest a few players and it cost me, they finished above me because of this).

Sadly we drew England in the Quarters and they beat us 2-1. The game was even though and we missed a penalty which would have put us 2-0 up and game over I reckon. They went on to win the tournament so I wasn't that upset.

The qualifiers for the World Cup were drawn and the hardest team in our group is Switzerland so I don't think I am gonna carry this one on, as beating the likes of Armenia in the group is not proving that the tactic works.

Out at the minute but will start a new game when I get in tonight, gonna go with Uruguay as there are some tough games in the South American Qualifying stages. Was thinking of using Portugal but will test it with them next time.

looks like a good tactic, gonna try it nw.

can someone upload this on mediafire?

Will upload it for you now. It's at the top of the page in the first post.

how's the tactic going in your uruguay game.

It was going well, but then I started to tweak it to make it better, but it didn't really work out. I am in the process of trying to make it simpler, it started off great. Testing it with Real Madrid and we conceded four goals in around 20 games but then we have just started conceding almost a goal a game which has become annoying as the tactic hadn't changed. The upshot of this one though is that it is now February and we are still unbeaten in all competitions, with results like a 4-1 win vs United along the way.

More on that one when I have finished the season with them, I have decided to try and iron out the defensive irregularities that have started to show.

Finished the season unbeaten in the league. I had to change the tactic though as it was driving me crazy. The amount of goals we were scoring just went from many to hardly any. It ended up being a 4-2-3-1, with solid defence and left the front four to run riot. Got a feeling it will have changed now anyway because of the update. It winds me up that we pay so much for a game, that is always so buggy and unfinished, then wait for months just to able to have a decent game on it. I can't believe the amount of things that are still wrong with it and we're onto the second out of three updates. What the hell to the game testers get up to when they are supposed to be 'finding' these errors. Some of them you cannot help but find just by playing for roughly a season. Shocking.

Finished the season unbeaten in the league. I had to change the tactic though as it was driving me crazy. The amount of goals we were scoring just went from many to hardly any. It ended up being a 4-2-3-1, with solid defence and left the front four to run riot. Got a feeling it will have changed now anyway because of the update. It winds me up that we pay so much for a game, that is always so buggy and unfinished, then wait for months just to able to have a decent game on it. I can't believe the amount of things that are still wrong with it and we're onto the second out of three updates. What the hell to the game testers get up to when they are supposed to be 'finding' these errors. Some of them you cannot help but find just by playing for roughly a season. Shocking.

what does your tactic look like now

what does your tactic look like now

I have pretty much left it alone for over a month or so now. Since the new update it didn´t seem to find a consistency that I was happy with.

I have however worked on a new 4-3-3, and have tried to emulate the way Barcelona play and it is working a treat. Finished a season with Barca with it and the results were very good. However I wish to carry on testing for the second season as I had a couple of problems along the way with the Current bug and in addition I have only just got to grips with the Match prep. Just to add, we finsihed level with Real, both with 95 points, but sadly they beat us twice (Messi was out for 4 months of season and Villa for 3 months). We lost in Champs League Semi-Final to Chelsea, conceding 2 goals in the last 2 mins (I got carried away and forgot to close up shop late on). Apart from a couple of minor, user errors this tactic can be almost unstoppable. Pique scored 17 goals from set pieces, I wasn´t aware of any corner bug and have just created my own instructions.

What is more interesting about this new tactic is that I have started a new game with Braintree Town (Blue Square South) and it is working even better than it did for Barca!! Currently top of the league after 3 months with around 17 games played and only 6 goals conceded. Again, I would like to finish this season to show the proper results but it definitely looks more promising than the last one I made. I think I have cracked using the match prep for games and am keeping my eye constantly on the ´current bug´that is resetting my instructions.

Quick update on this....I made some fundamental changes to the tactic and it is now dynamite. I decided I am gonna test it for a full season with 3 different teams before I share it, starting with Barcelona, then Spurs I think and then Braintree Town or another low level team. Hopefully that will highlight how it can work with very different teams/squads.

I ended up playing for around 14 hours yesterday, I am halfway through February and we are unbeaten in all competitions. So far the record is this: P 39, W 32, D 7, L0, F 98, A 16 and along the way we have twice beaten Real Madrid convincingly and won a number of games against the bigger teams 3 or 4-0 home or away. Even the draws we should have won by a mile but you know how FM is sometimes, I think one game we had 20 or so shots compared to the other sides 2 and it ended 0-0.

What is great about the tatcic is the sheer amount of CCC's created in each game and converted into goals, it is the highest I have ever seen in my FM time (I don't use the super tactics so many of you may have seen higher, I don't know).

Will try and get these seasons done as quick as possible but it may take me a week or so as I am in Mexico and busy a lot of the time....

I think it will be worth the wait though, the football that is being played is phenomenal. I created the foundation of the tactic while on my previous Braintree Town game and even down there the guys were playing good football.

More to follow, will probably start a new thread as it's a completely new tactic.

Sounds like good stuff! Is it still the same formation as your last tactic?

When you put the tactic to download?

Will try and get these seasons done as quick as possible but it may take me a week or so as I am in Mexico and busy a lot of the time....

When you put the tactic to download?

There you go

There you go

lololololol

OI?

Match preparation?

Pitch Size?

U forgot these.

There you go

You must dream with me.

You don´t have nothing better to do than criticize what others said?!

Don´t bother.

You must dream with me.

You don´t have nothing better to do than criticize what others said?!

Don´t bother.

Never criticised what you said. I was simply pointing out when he expects to release it, which he said in two posts above yours.

But get so annoyed with what I say why?

You do not have anything else to do?

But get so annoyed with what I say why?

You do not have anything else to do?

Generally I want to read this forum without seeing in every thread "when you release?! OI?! Match preparation?! Pitch size?!?!"

I'll stop now, I don't want to ruin Ste's thread. Looking forward to the new tactic mate

You see these questions because I do not come here to talk to anyone, come here to get good tactics. Have a good evening

To the questions above. I actually did say that i don't use opposition instructions and as for match prep I have only just found out a good way of utilising this properly. Pitch size while I was with United was maximum but now I have changed the tactic it is down to standard or minimum, at Barcelona my home record is P 20, W 18, D 2 but anyway, all will be added to the new tactic I post.

Dan: As the tactic has changed so has the formation, slightly anyway. It has a proper DMC, with one support midfield and one attacking and the two inside forwards have been moved back one notch than where they were previously. Hope you will give it a test as you seemed to have some good results with the last one, but I can say that this one blows that out of the water. Some game using the last one you were on edge wondering whether you could scrape a win, but this one can just blitz the opposition with the goals coming thick and fast from all angles.

Just eating out with the girlfriend tonight but will finish the Barca season tomorrow, prob start the Spurs one too and hopefully if I can get two seasons done with them and a poor team then I will get it all up for you on Saturday next weekend. It's difficult as I am on a 6 month vacation in Mexico and don't feel right staying in playing Footy Manager for extended hours like I did in England lol. So much to see and do. But FM 11 has still got me gripped, it's highly addictive.

Right, I finished the tactic with Barcelona and it was stunning. Won the title in April away at Madrid (sweeeeeet) and didn´t lose a single game in any competition, that was up until the CL final which was sadly against our bitter rivals Madrid and somehow we lost 1-0 which we absoultely didn´t deserve, but more on that when I post up the tactic. Started the next game last night and fingers crossed I can get this all uploaded for you all on Saturday, free time permitting.

The new tactic is now finished and seeing as it is a completely new build I have made a new thread to show the results:

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/251520-FM-11-Hitch-s-4-3-3-Versatile-tactic?p=6413056#post6413056

If the mods want to close this thread due to me having two then that is fine. Hope you can all have a test of it and let me know how it goes. Cheers!