Leaving 5 at the back and 5 attacking the way forward?

I have two tactics, 442 (diamond) and 451 (Barca) with Benfica where I have 5 defending plus GK and 5 attacking with no supporting players. I find this to be a key ingredient to my successful tactics, but I never did this on previous FM's, could it be a bug or is it a new development in FM because its happening more in RL?

What tactic do you use and how much success have you had with it?

do you have a screenshot of the tactic?

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By the way, you have a support player in attack.

Isn't this the 5x5 method?

Isn't this the 5x5 method?

Pretty much, as detailed in TT&F.

I go for 4 defending. Then 6 attacking. 2 playmakers in the middle. 2 wide men. 2 strikers.

I have 6 defending and 4 attacking, led to my most successful ever season on FM with Sunderland using a 4-4-2 with 2xDMC's.

playing a 4-5-1 currently (DL DC DC DR, MC MC MC AML AMR, ST) but sometimes switch to a 4-2-3-1 (x2 DMC, AML AMC AMR, ST) and an old fashioned 4-3-1-2

I use substantially that 4-1-2-1-2 tactic. I have a wide diamond 4-4-2, but from time to time, the DM is set to be an anchor, and if I have one of my strikers in the AMC slot, he's often set to be a trequartista. My wings are almost ALWAYS set to attack: I like "attractive" footie.

Not sure it's any more successful than any other tactic I could try, and it definitely gets into trouble on very narrow pitches, where I often revert to a more classic diamond 4-4-2, and set both of the mids to supporting roles of one sort or another.

By the way, you have a support player in attack.

Yes I do. Sorry. If the opposition have a good aerial threat for e.g. 2 tall strikers and good CB's with very good heading ability, ill put target man as support.

I thought it will be a thread about 5-0-5

I've been using my own interpretation of Marcelo Bielsa's system on FM2010 with some success. The game considers the formation to be a 5-1-0-1-3 formation, and although I use subtle variations depending on circumstance, it's essentially a system which is more often than not 'midfieldless', so no, it's not exclusive to FM2011, and nor would I say it's a bug.

That's not to say than none of my players ever venture into the centre of the field, on the contrary, just that the base formation and starting line-up doesn't have anyone playing there. Best way I can describe it in action is something akin to a 3-4-3 with a diamond midfield, but quite often I have 6 or 7 players up and around the opponents box, and 7 or 8 in defence, more or less exactly what Bielsa himself tries to create.

I'm not sure if this is still the case but in guide for previous versions of the game WWWfan said that the CPU tends to use global mentality so the best way to combat the AI is to use a mentality that is not global like the rule-of two.