Arsenals unbeaten season tactic

Has anybody tried replicating the style of football arsenal played in this season? Was it counter attacking or control or attack? Was interested in starting something like this as i liked the way Henry, Pires and Cole linked up despite being a Spud. Probably because i'm half french i liked their french players then lol. So was just wondering on what to start with as a base towards developing this.

So to hopefully generate some interest in this thread and get some discussion going, I thought maybe I would put a bit more input in by showing my starting point with this idea?

So here is my starting formation for you with the roles added in :-)

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Basically i've decided on putting the Henry role(with hug touchline set? would this work? Or is cut inside better? and given him RWB often) to the left so that the player in that position will be more left, also allowing the bergkamp role the ability to roam in the centre(hopefully) creating holes for Henry and Pires roles to take advantage of... What do you think of the other roles set? Right?

BTW the squad back then was mainly this:

No. POS Name Apps

1 GK Lehmann 54

12 RB Lauren 45

23 CB Campbell 50

28 CB Touré 53

3 LB Cole 47

8 RM Ljungberg 40

4 DM Vieira 43

19 CM Gilberto 39

7 LM Pires 46

10 SS Bergkamp 29

14 CF Henry 50

I didn't really watch arsenal to great detail back then... just motd and vs spurs, but i knew they played their footbal down the left and were very good at counter attacking with short passing? So this is reflected in my set-up. (have merged screenshots to get it into 1)

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Henry role is set as playmaker/treq(good decision?) As i figured he used to be everything to them

Another question i've thought of is how Henry was so dominant in that era... was it because there weren't really any amazing RBs in the league - i may anger Arsenal fans with that one lol (I love Henry btw - one of the best players to have played the game)

I guess now the next stage is to go through pre-season with it and have it as match prep. Will probably vary the starting strategy and tempo/width/D-line in 2 other versions just so they can be placed in match prep too for more flexibility in certain situations. (maybe if chasing a game?) full match prep and team blend

So Training and Tactics forum i hope this post helps generate more in this thread! My questions to you all are what are your opinions.... and is what i've done absolutely wrong.. or is it a good foundation? GO!!! (y)

I disagree with your concept PGB_Spurs. Henry was a Target man not a Treqaurista as Henry didn't really drop, as that was Bergkamp's job.

Ok i have just realised my showing of him as a trequarista is misleading.... (explanation: well he is playing in that role but i've changed the mentality of the front 2 to make Henry 3 mentalities higher then Bergkamp(with BK moving into channels), and they are both on RFD mixed.... Its just that I used the Treq role as i know this gives him 20 CF and drops the rest of the teams CF by a point or 2. And he was kind of their playmaker.

Also i've checked Henry in this version and he had the PPM drops deep... i wonder if he had this in the DB when they were unbeaten? I wonder if it would make the player in that role play more like Henry... as well as runs with ball down left. I for some reason decided to play as Marseille and at the minute im not sure if they have the right players but my first friendly had the Henry role coming in from the left and bending it into the top corner from the edge of the area... promising

Just going through Pre-season now

Maybe its better to have Bergkamp role as playmaker and Henry role as TM? But like i said Henry created a lot too? Hmm

Then i guess theres the possibility of PIres role as PlayM and Henry role as TM

So far its working quite well. Maybe need to improve the defensive side of things...

Interesting. Here's my take. They were certainly lethal on the counter, but I hardly think you can justify them being a counter attacking team, they dominated the opposition. Henry drifted to the left flank when Arsenal didn't have the ball, but aside from that played as a striker, so its a tricky one, but I think he needs to be positioned as an FL to get this right. The real difficulty is with getting the left hand side to function properly, and as I made the decision to stick the Henry role at FL, I thought positioning Pires at AML would mean they got in each other's way a little too much. The general instructions seem to mimic the style of play pretty well, though, in my opinion.

Philosophy - Balanced

Starting Strategy - Attacking

Passing Style - Shorter

Creative Freedom - Default

Closing Down - Stand Off More (They certainly didn't press as much as is common now, and bear in mind that this is in combination with an Attacking strategy, so some players will still press, but, importantly, the wingers will fall back and help out the defence. Also, Arsenal defended surprisingly deep, when under pressure, though this was rare given their mastery of possession, as only a few years ago teams were much more open and attacked the big boys, with the result being, of course, that Arsenal tore them to shreds on the counter - all you need for that is some serious pace in wide areas in this side.)

Tackling - More Cautious (This prevents half the team from having hard tackling, which they didn't, only Vieira does.)

Marking - Zonal Marking

Crossing - Default (Arguably Drill Crosses)

Roaming - More Roaming

Untick the Offside Trap.

GK: Jens Lehmann (Goalkeeper - Defend) - Maybe a Sweeper Keeper - Defend, but I think thats more to do with Lehmann's personality (i.e. high 'Eccentricity')

DR: Lauren (Full Back - Attack)

DL: Ashley Cole (Wing Back - Attack) - I'm not sure that Ashley Cole ran with the ball as much as this makes him, so you may want to reduce it to 'Mixed'.

DCR: Kolo Toure (Central Defender - Defend)

DCL: Sol Campbell (Central Defender - Defend) - You could also make the case that Campbell was a Stopper and Toure the Cover.

DMCR: Gilberto Silva (Anchor Man - Defend)

DMCL: Patrick Vieira (Defensive Midfielder - Support)

MR: Freddie Ljungberg (Wide Midfielder - Attack) - You could reduce his Crossing to Mixed.

ML: Robert Pires (Winger - Support) - It really is a tough call putting Pires on a lower mentality than Ljungberg. I have to justify it as it benefits the relationship he has with Henry and Cole, and if you have a good enough player, he's still going to score a hell of a lot of goals. With Vieira also getting forwards down the leftish side too, now seems a good time to point out that I don't think its necessary to set the focus down the left flank - it will automatically go that way due to the positioning of your players, meaning that the Ljungberg man benefits from his high mentality by popping up in goalscoring positions from the other side of the pitch. Also, it works really nicely having their wide play at 'Normal' and letting them Roam from Position, as they provide width yet move inside to create and score, allowing their full backs to overlap. And, again, positioning them at MR/ML helps defensively, which they did, and keeps Pires out of Henry's way. The Pires player also performs wonderfully with the instructions to run with the ball and play through balls, though you may want to reduce his long shots to 'sometimes', though he could hit them.

FCR: Dennis Bergkamp (Deep Lying Forward - Support) - Pretty simple stuff, really. If you find that you are giving opposition DMs too much space, try setting this guy to man mark them. It won't curb his attacking ability, and reflects how Bergkamp used to drop in on players in the same way. Again, feel free to reduce the long shots as it may disrupt the way you play.

FL: Thierry Henry (Inside Forward - Attack) - Works great.

EDIT - I will admit an alternative, however. You could move Bergkamp to FC and Henry to Advanced Forward as an FCL like in the first suggestion (He's definitely an Advanced Forward rather than any other forward role, just read the description), with Pires then moved up to AML as an Inside Forward - Support - with the lower mentality still meaning he gets back and letting him cut inside, play through balls and run at people. Or, just leave him at ML, its up to you. I am reconsidering my original view, as putting him at FL perhaps pins Henry wider than he should be at times, meaning he's not enough of a striker and he still gets in Pires's way. It isn't perfect, either way, but I think having Henry act like Henry with the ball is more important than making him play a little wider when defending - with Moves into Channels and Roam from Position, he's clearly going to be spending a good enough amount of time on the flank anyway.

Thanks for your input. Yeah i'm still looking to see how Henry role does in the role i've put him in before trying him in FL. I'm liking how they are playing down the left at the minute. Like i said i am basically playing Henry as an advanced forward i just used the trequarista role as it was how i wanted the creative freedom set up without having to manually input everyones freedom(quicker to just change henrys other settings to be more like an AdvFwd) I've not played too many games at the minute but i'm creating chances which is good.

One thing(problem) i feel so far is the way FM seems to force players who aren't good with their left foot into using it, when in real life, you'd probably see them resist this and try turn back and come onto their right foot in order to have a more confident shot/cross... So in FM this leads to instances when the player in the Henry or Pires role are through on goal but decide to shoot with their left at the near post and waste a real good chance... when there was probably room and time to bring the ball over to his right to bend it slightly round the keeper to the far post. Now I know there is the PPM avoids using weaker foot but am unsure if that would make a difference. Guess i need to find a ST with avoids weaker foot(even though the real Henry could use both he would still normally bring it onto his right) and places shots PPMs and see if it makes it better.

Will be playing this Marseille save over the weekend and will adjust as i see fit

I too am experimenting now, and I'm finding that if you have Henry at FCL, Bergkamp at FC gets in the way far too much, as does Pires if he's at AML. It seems a little orthodox, but simply playing two up front, with Henry an Advanced Forward on the left of the two greatly improves the all round play, and if Pires is at ML, he will almost certainly be making use of the space and drifting out wide with his 'Moves into Channels' and 'Roam from Position', to an extent which has surprised me, though perhaps not playing from the left flank as much as might be desired. Pires probably needs to be instructed to Cut Inside, but with Henry moving into channels, Pires cutting inwards and Cole hugging the touchline, the interchanging play between them can be quite beautiful, as Henry moves out of the way, dragging the right side centre back with him so Pires can charge through the centre of a defence as Cole occupies the right back.

This looks like an interesting thread, never though of something like this .

The thing with Pires back then was that he was always in the right position at the right time to score the tap-ins, so on FM can you always make him to be in the box and looking for loose balls, maybe a inside forward, attack? Have to experiment on him.

The Bergkamp role was for him to drift around, maybe deeper into a AMC position and look to put Henry through on goal. I might be wrong with this but Arsenal didn't really have a playmaker back then, so if you use Bergkamp as the playmaker then this might help with it.

Henry, how can you describe this GOD! He could probably play in every role on FM. I like Mike_Cardinal's view to play him in the left striker position as a inside forward, but to me I think he should be involved a little more. He always worked hard for the team so I was thinking complete forward? Let him do his own thing as well. Have to experiment on this.

I think this tactic could be put into FM really good so I hope people experiment on this and come back with good results. I might have a go with it in FM, but ive got to find the time and motivation to do it.

Well for now i'm waiting for the patch to play it because i keep conceding corners and losing despite dominating so its frustrating lol. But i would like to get this working.

(also don't understand how this has moved location when its a discussion not a tactic?)