Half Diamond, Assymetric High Possession Tactic

Some might think that this is a weirdly shaped tactic created to break the match engine. Actually, this is my understanding of the current Barca formation and tactic. And as you can see, it is very radical in some senses.

I believe the high possession Barcelona tactic has reached it peak throughout years by the correct player choices and the balance created in its asymmetry. It started with a very strict 4-2-3-1 formation in Rijkaard era where Deco was the attacking midfielder and Giuly-Ronaldinho were inside forwards supporting the complete forward Eto'o. High defensive line, attacking full backs and high tempo started to be established in the team. The formation failed as Ronaldinho gradually moved to a Treqartista position. Guardiola started by converting the formation to a 4-3-3 where Toure-Xavi-Iniesta midfield was the key and the team narrowed down the midfiield. On the front side he used Henry-Messi as inside forwards supporting the complete forward Ibrahimovic, not much different than Rijkaard. But later on Dani Alves's need for a bigger area, Pedro's inside play, Busqets's limits and Messi's wizardry came into play and an assymetric formation based on player needs created the balance of an amazing team. Dani Alves owns the right flank. Busqets plays simple at the back. sometimes joining the defensive line to be the 3rd between two defender. Pedro continues the tradition of inside forward play, adding width to attack. Messi is the center of attack, getting the ball deeply in the middle and trying to delve into goal by dribbling or killer balls. Villa doesn't play as a lone striker to create space for Messi and he owns the opposite side of Pedro to always push back the opposition defensive line.

I have always tried to keep the levels in a moderate levels in my tactics, but this time I decided to go all the way to get the results. Defensive line is pushing up all the way. Team is as narrow as possible to keep the passes sticking. Tempo is all the way up to create a flowing football. Time wasting is employed to annoy the opposition by not giving them any possession. And the attack are always built throgh the middle MC duo. Everyone except the back 3, holds up the ball for possession and roams from position to break the opposition and closes the down all the way p the pitch to leave no space for opposition to breathe.

GK - He is a Sweeper Keeper to clear the balls behind the high d-line. Always plays the ball to defenders.

DL - He is an Attacking Full Back who looks for short pass rather than crossing the ball. Start of the attacks most of the time.

DCL - He is a Central Defender. High up than his partner, he makes his moves away from the penalty area. Employes Zonal Marking.

DCR - He is a Cover Central Defender who is the only man marker in the team. Drops back for fast opposition strikers. Works a threat against the lone striker.

DR - He is an Attacking Wing Back. Simply owns the right flank.

DMC - He is Defending Deep Playmaker. Plays short simple passes and looks for through ball sometimes. Drops down to d-line.

MCL - Suporting midfielder roaming around and constantly looking for through balls. He is on a low normal mentality to take the team up rather than waiting for the ball upfront.

MCR - Same as his partner except that he moves into channels to se the space on his right.

AML - Classical Inside Forward to add width to the attack.

SC - He is constantly pushing the opposition d-line and looks for and opening. Cuts inside form the empty space on his right in his dribbling.

AMC - Key role in the attack. Always gets the ball. Has space upfront and two guys supporting from sides and behind. Needs to show his magic.

I have tried this tactic with low rank teams. It took me to the championship in Newcastle Jets in Australia. In West Bromwich Albion, 7 game winning streak and consistent 2-0 wins in the half season. Currently in Eskisehir, I feel like fine tuning of the tactic is completed and it is producing an amazing game play, really nice to watch. I am not posting any results as I want you to try it yourself and watch the slick game play.

Always pick offensively better players for positions other than DCs and DMC. They won't have much work defansively as you will keep most of the possession. It is surprisingly very solid defensively. Your attack depends on the through balls of MCs and the wizardry of the upper 3.

Download

patch 11.3?

I gave it a 10 games test with Barcelona. I had to make some small tweaks as I had some injuries / sold some players because of the tactic I used before.

Racing 3-0 Away

Hercules 7-0 Home

Olympique Lyonnais 4-0 Away

At. Madrid 2-0 Away

Sporting 3-0 Home

Athletic 1-1 Away

Kiev 3-0 Home

Mallorca 3-0 Home

Valencia 4-0 Home

Cluj 4-0 Home

Zaragoza 3-0 Away

P11 - W9 - D1 - L0 - for 37 - against 1

Villa P10 - goals 14

Messi P9 - goals 11

Xavi P10 - 14 assists

Very solid, and pretty entertaining to watch. Nice one Uysaler Emircan

I'll give a try for the tactic, thanks.

Anyway, i wonder about the site www.addmanager.com, will you re-open it?

Could you put up player attributes to look for?

@ wacanda2

Yes, mate, 11.3. I only tried it in 11.3 actally.

@ S!lver

Thanks a lot mate for trying and posting your results. Keep on. I hope you enjoyed how team dominated every game.

It is surprisingly solid defensively. Although d-line is way too high. Even in West Bromwich Albion I conceded 2 goals in 12 games in EPL.

@ Inertia1907

Thanks mate. Waiting for your results.

Oh, I miss ADDManager a lot. All the administrators either started working in a company or have bigger things going on in their life. I am studying in US now. Even watching Turkish soccer games is hard because of time difference. Running a website seems impossible for our administration team after this point. It is most probably over.

@ THFC_100

Here is a rough guide mate.

GK: Handling-One on Ones-Aerial Abilty-Concentration-Acceleration

DL: Acceleration-Tackling-First Touch-Passing-Dribbling

DCL: Heading-Jumping-Strength-Tackling-Positioning

DCR: Acceleration-Marking-Tackling-Heading-Positioning

DR: Acceleration-Stamina-Tackling-Dribbling-Work Rate

DMC: Strength-Passing-Composure-Tackling-Marking

MCL: Passing-Creativity-Decisions-Strength-Dribbling

MCR: Passing-Creativity-Dribbling-Decisions-Acceleration

AML: Finishing-Acceleration-Dribbling-Flair-Passing

SC: Finishing-Strength-Composure-Dribbling-Off The Ball

AMC: Dribbling-Passing-Creativity-Flair-Finishing

I was always under teh impression barca had a wide style of play...

I am a firm believer that Barcelona actually play quite narrow. Their midifeld for a start are always close to each other and almost always in the centre. Infact, the only players to move outside of the outer edge of the penalty area often is the outside strikers, the wingbacks and sometimes Messi (when roaming). Their amazing roaming and off the ball ability allows them to at times take wide positions and cut inside etc to cause havoc.

I have always been a fan of "weird" formations, gonna test this asap.

Nice write up. Lost a goal to DCL not having enough pace - Will look to improve this and restart

Nice write up. Lost a goal to DCL not having enough pace - Will look to improve this and restart

Still finding the same - Playing as a team in second level and really struggling against pacey forwards. For me, unfortunately, not one for me. I could buy another two DCs but want to play as the team I am playing as.

@ UAF_85

I totally agree with lucatonix. The width seems high as wingbacks always join the attack but actually the midfield trio is playing very narrow.

@ kccircle

Stick with the tactic which fits your players mate. Playing a high d-line with very slow defenders won't provide any good results.

Hi,

First of all thanks for your tactic, it's really well thought and works quite well. The only problem i am facing is when playing against defensive minded team with a DMC. They tend to mark my AMC out of the game and disrupt the attack, i tired some tweaking but obviously moving the player away from the AMC slot changes the tactic.. Did you ever faced that problem?

But again thank you for a great tactic!

@Fen_

Thanks for the feeback mate. I thought this tactic was forgotten.

In the case where your AMC cannot perform or simply is not good enough, I move my MCR a.k.a. Iniesta to AMCR position. Then tactic takes an assymetric 4-2-3-1 shape which is familiar from the Barca games where Iniesta sits up. This helps to exploit the middle. If you are aware of a weakness on opposition fullbacks, making a symmetric 4-1-2-2-1 shape also works.

I am actually still working on the tactic and making tweaks. I started with FC United of Manchester in Blue Square North. - I added them manually there as they are not playable. - After soem succesffull signings, I got the 1st place and reached the semi finals of FA Trophy. Now in Blue Square Premier tweaks continue as players are definitely not Barcaesque.

I used a mirror of this shape in many of my early seasons in a career save, simply due to not having any left wingers. I did a few things differently.

Although I employed my DL as a Wing Back / Attack, my DR was give a more defensive role (Full Back / Automatic) so I had three back at all times when playing cautiously. I also had one of the MCs playing in an Automatic role. The key for me was getting an FC would drift wide left into the space above the DR and cut inside onto his right foot. Of my three FCs, only one did this regularly. Despite being the worst of them according to my coaches, he scored many more goals than the other two, simply because he found space so much better. The other key player was the DL, who was a quality player for the level. He acted as the DL and AML in one, and created a huge number of goals. Took me a long time to find the right player (good stamina, pace, crossing, positing) for a low level team, but eventually snapped up a journeyman 29 year old French DCL, who could do the job. Was player of the season two years on the trot.

wwfan would yoy put link to your tactic?

I don't upload tactics anymore. Stick purely to mini-guides, explanations and tactical theory.