Just run all over arsenal

Oh God, i am so happy!!!! It was the fourth game on the Champions league groups round. On the third game, we played on london and we won 2-5. but we were quite lucky, arsenal dominated us the whole game with their passing play, and we were running after the ball like headless chickens. but we learned from the experience. i have refined my tactic and now, on its final iteration we've won 0-7 against Hercules and 6-0 against arsenal, but what is most important, playing beautiful football.

since the pre-season, we've tried to play a striker-less tactic, and though we were having good results due to the sheer quality of players, we werent playing good football. we lacked posesion. we didnt concede chances, on the defense phase we were really strong (of course, 4 defenders and 6 midfielders, talk about protection), but with that many midfielders we werent able to secure the ball and get it towards the box on a fasionable way.

well, that was until 2 matches ago. i had been refining the tactic all over the pre-season and the first games of the season. i went all over from 2-3-2-3, to 3-2-3-2, to 4-1-3-2, to 5-5. focus was always on the defense side, and building a strong midfield that dominated games. but no matter how many MCs or DMCs or AMs i fielded, there was no way to keep the players passing the ball for a long time.

i tried playing liberos, ball playing defenders, playmakers, etc. nothing worked exactly as i liked. but i believe i have found the tactic i was looking for.

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The strategy is built to emphasize ball control with a very fluid control mentality, with short passing, low closing down and full creativity. it looks that with those settings, everything should be a breeze. well, maybe i am the worst manager in the world, but with those settings and some of the best midfielders in the world, i hadnt manage to play a really dominating game until i found the correct formation.

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As you can work out from the screens, i have no real striker, in fact kaka shoud have been playing in the place of higuain, but he was a bit tired. although i do not have strikers or forwards, than doesnt mean that i do not have some kind of finishers, and though it may not be a logical approuch, my designated fisnishers, or scorers are MR, MC and ML, and in fact that is shown on the scorers list.

if anybody wants to have a look at the full game or the highlights, here it is. any arsenal, or even barcelona die hard fan, refrain from watching this, as it can be harmful.

R.Madrid v Arsenal

i am so happy!!!!!

dude your REAL MADRID so not great of an achievement comeback when you batter Arsenal with a lower team.

dude your REAL MADRID so not great of an achievement comeback when you batter Arsenal with a lower team.

Mate, how about you come back when you can have that kind of domination over Arsenal with Real Madrid.

Yes he is a big team but even so it is ****ing difficult to get 30 shots to 4 over a good team like Arsenal.

Mate, how about you come back when you can have that kind of domination over Arsenal with Real Madrid.

Yes he is a big team but even so it is ****ing difficult to get 30 shots to 4 over a good team like Arsenal.

dave7867 called your mum fat as well apparently...

hmmm i will say well done...but its not a great achievement...definitely not thread worthy regardless of this tactic you've created...

i just tweaked my tactics and my Southampton side, a perennial champions league qualifier but still some way off the dominant City, just beat Liverpool (who have come second 5 years in a row and won 2 champions leagues in that time) 9-1 and Anfield...next game i beat Man United 4-0...and im thinking, waaaaaaay i've found my new tactic...

only to lose to Burnley at home then get bullied by Swansea away....

So what that he's Real Madrid, that's still a great achievement! A great post, must have taken time to write all that and to include the highlights is just brilliant.

Well done to the OP and keep it up - gawd knows I've tweaked and changed hundreds upon hundreds of homemade tactics over the CM/FM years, but never have I even considered playing without any strikers! Brave idea that has perhaps would only work with a few teams...

Good work man!

He goes down in my estimations to start with, by going Real Madrid. But must have took a while to sort the post out, mind.

ok now ive got too search back how many times iv e battered arsenal or real.

ok will report back

It probably helped that hes also playing at home, and arsenal finally are better represented in this years version (EG not as overpowered as they usually are) That said its fine to post, just more of a 'hey well done' response rather than 'wow dude you the bong' which it might have been had he been playing as say Millwall or something like that.

Also freak results can happen, I beat Man City 4-0 away last season in the EC semi final. Wasnt my uber tactic or anything, they just played a total stinker...

Upload the tactic please, I'd like to try it.

No strikers is an interesting concept. Dont think I could do that as I have a regen striker who averages more than a goal a game, I think id kinda miss that strike rate. But its certainly made me think.

I remember beating Arsenal 6-2 with my Spurs side. My awesome striker did score 4 of the goals though :o

hey hey, no need to get angry for such a silly thing. its true, managing real madrid and beating arsenal is not unheard of. but my post was not to boast about scoring 6 to arsenal, its about the way the match went. what was important for me was not scoring, it was that we dominated the full game, completely, without giving them any chance at all. and that for me was a first.

this are my first league and champions games. as you can see, i score lots of goals. of course, ronaldo, benzema, di maria, higuain... its a team full of talent. but i didnt dominate the game. stats dont tell the whole truth, but i always watch games on full match mode, and so i can assure you that the ball was not our friend. that is what was driving me crazy. i decided to build a tactic without strikers or forwards precissely so that i could field more players on the middle and thus dominate the game, even if that meant scoring less goals.

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but as it turned out, the effect was the exact opposite. i wasnt having the ball, but i was scoring much more goals than i deserved. defense wise, the team has always been very strong, but as i said, i wanted to really see my team take the iniciative on matches, and that wasnt happening.

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this is the reason why i felt so happy when after much messing and tweaking, i was finally able to develop a tactic that allowed the team to really dominate the ball, without loosing on the scoring or defensive parts. the first trial was against hercules and we won 0-7. yes, an easy team, but also mallorca or osasuna were easy teams, and they defeated me on possession by a wide margin.

so the real test was the next game, against arsenal, the team that had really make me feel like a complete noob, playing a passing game that got all my players exhausted running after the ball without ever catching it.

and you already know what happened. if you have seen the replays, you will see why i am so happy. its not the goals, its the complete superiority on all the aspects of the game, and whether you believe that it is an achivement or not, for me it is. i accept that real madrid is a really strong team, but it is the first season and i have only made 2 signings, sahin and cassani, and the second wasnt even on the starting eleven on that game. i havent had time to sign agueros, fabregas, rooneys, messis, mikel, tevez, wilsheres, mullers, iniestas, dzekos, nilmars or world class regens. what i got is what real madrid had and has up to date, plus sahin, minus alonso. i know it is a strong team, but not strong enough to beat arsenal by that margin.

anyway, on this same game i am managing alfreton, from blue square bet north, and i am using a similar, striker-less tactic. here are the results. of course, with the players that alfreton has, the tactic is much more defensive, and focused on counter attacking, but the outcome has been excellent so far. so you can say that winning games by a wide margin with real madrid is not to be proud about. well, i disagree, but in any case, i am winning by wide margins with a much smaller and different team, and the tactic is very similar. although i have to say that while with real madrid it took me 15 games and 4 months to get there, with alfreton i nailed almost from the beggining. i started with a quite conventional 4-1-4-1 and by the third friendly game i had already developed the actual 1-4-3-2 tactic that is working incredibly well.

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If only running all over Arsenal hadn't become so routine over the last few weeks

Interesting tactic by the way, never would've thought that would actually work. Don't you ever have trouble with long balls being hurled down the pitch with no chance of your players (positioned fairly deep) ever catching up with it?

Id be interested to see the team your managing in blue square bet north more than real madrid tbh, should have made the OP about that. But of course it does again depend on the quality of players you have in relation to the teams in your league. If youve signed a load of good youth for instance, then in reality it wont be much different to playing as real madrid.

Point about the tactic is (which ive seen someone talk about before) is it basically overloads defense and midfield and relies on the AI resorting to stupid tactics to break you down at which point you then catch them on the break. My suspicion is that the AI pushes up to much and goes very wide trying to overpower you and becomes hopelessly stretched, buts as I said this all depends how good your side is.

Not having a go btw just trying to figure out if this is down to purely tactics or also your team, either way well done and all that, just would love to know more about the blue square side than real madrid cause tbh they are an uber team to start with.

Well, i guess that what you said is what was happening with my prior tactics, since I was scoring many goals but didn't really have the possession of the ball.

But that is not the case anymore. Now I rarely score goals on counter attacks. Most of them come from positional and fluid attack.

And about Alfreton Town, I signed about ten players that my assistant recommended for the team, but only two of them are on the starting eleven.the rest are on the under 18, which is currently 3rd on its league.

For the first team ar playing Grandison, an average DR with a lot of potential, and Sakaly, a complete star at this level that averages 8.55

I also found 3rd players through the search function that are on the starting team. 36 years old Pepelu, a BtB that I must sub on every match about minute 60. Mendy, a fine DCM, and Diego, a spanish defender with good heading and passing.

Well, i guess that what you said is what was happening with my prior tactics, since I was scoring many goals but didn't really have the possession of the ball.

But that is not the case anymore. Now I rarely score goals on counter attacks. Most of them come from positional and fluid attack.

And about Alfreton Town, I signed about ten players that my assistant recommended for the team, but only two of them are on the starting eleven.the rest are on the under 18, which is currently 3rd on its league.

For the first team ar playing Grandison, an average DR with a lot of potential, and Sakaly, a complete star at this level that averages 8.55

I also found 3rd players through the search function that are on the starting team. 36 years old Pepelu, a BtB that I must sub on every match about minute 60. Mendy, a fine DCM, and Diego, a spanish defender with good heading and passing.

Yeah but thats what I mean how good are your side 'stats wise' and on paper compared to the other teams in the league? If you are clearly a superior team it would mean its not just the tactic at work.

A good test would be start a quick game as say Wigan in the EPL and dont change anyone, then use this tactic and see how you get on...

well, i just won Tamworth 0-7 on the FA Cup. Tamworth is playing on the Blue Square Bet Premier, which is one division ahead of mine.

and i disagree that a good test would be to start with any middle or lower table team and see how it goes without changing anything. a tactic needs also the correct players to really work well. i am not saying good players. i am saying correct players, that can perform the roles that are assigned on the tactic. my tactics are very dependant on 2 positions, sweeper and Box to Box midfielder. if the team doesnt have any player that can perform those roles in an acceptable level, then the tactic is not going to work. on alfreton i didnt have any of those roles well covered, so i had to sign Mendy and Diego as sweepers, and Pepelu as Box to Box. you can go and see their stats and ability. you will see they are nothing spectacular, it is just that they have the attributes that i needed most for them: pace, passing, positioning and heading for the sweeper, and passing, off the ball, jumping, heading, long shots and finalishing for the Box to Box.

as far as it goes, i am completely satisfied on the way the striker less tactic is working, and that is enough for me. with this thread i just wanted to express my happiness at beating arsenal at their own game: having the ball, and knowing what to do with it. i know they are not barcelona, but they are probably the second best team in the world on possession football, and we all know how real madrid sucks at it.

Yeah but thats what I mean how good are your side 'stats wise' and on paper compared to the other teams in the league? If you are clearly a superior team it would mean its not just the tactic at work.

A good test would be start a quick game as say Wigan in the EPL and dont change anyone, then use this tactic and see how you get on...

well, i have more than enough managing with 2 teams, one very big, and one very small (the stadium has 350 places XD). so far, the tactic is working perfectly on both teams, playing against very different teams with very different play styles and players. that is enough for me. if anybody wants to try this tactic with any other team, they are completely free to do so, of course, and if they want, they can come here and share their experience. just like i said before, have a good fast sweeper and a good box to box midfielder.

If only running all over Arsenal hadn't become so routine over the last few weeks

Interesting tactic by the way, never would've thought that would actually work. Don't you ever have trouble with long balls being hurled down the pitch with no chance of your players (positioned fairly deep) ever catching up with it?

mmm... i do not really know what you mean with long balls. my passing settings is shorter, so my players do not kick the ball 45 meters onwards, usually. if you mean long balls from the opposite team to their forwards, then, again, no, i do not have a big problem with them. my defense line is quite deep, and both pepe and marcelo are very fast, and usually get to the ball before forwards, but if they dont, then sahin and kedira are always there helping.