4-4-2 in 09

I hope in 09 we can play 4-4-2 with success. Fed up of playing 4-5-1. In british football ist the most common formation.

Agreed, the only formations I ever had any success with in 08 relied on one striker.

You either had to play 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 or rely on some completely unrealistic tactic like KIMZ - which also uses one striker!

Im using a 442 in FM 08, i downloaded it from the tactics forum. Its no diablo tactic but it seems to work for me, search for 442 beefheart

I've had great success with 4-4-2 in FM08, I don't see the problem with it tbh.

i use 4-4-2 and have some success playing with wingers instead of wide midfielders.

i used either 4-1-2-1-2 or 4-3-1-2

worked fine

Im using a 442 in FM 08, i downloaded it from the tactics forum. Its no diablo tactic but it seems to work for me

What he says ^^

I don't understand all this nonsense about 4-4-2 not working

I hope in 09 we can play 4-4-2 with success. Fed up of playing 4-5-1. In british football ist the most common formation.

I think now it's equal between 4-4-2 and 4-5-1/4-3-3. 4-4-2 was the original, then Greece won Euro 2004 and EVERY team whored the hell out of the formation, now it's leveled out.

I hope in 09 we can play 4-4-2 with success. Fed up of playing 4-5-1. In british football ist the most common formation.

4-4-2 was fine for me, you just had to tweak your tactics a bit more.

In lower league I get a 4-5-1 working better but in the higher divisions I can get 4-4-2 going with reasonable sucess. Try watching a whole match and seeing where your tactic is going wrong. I found that both central midfielders were far too attacking leaving a big whole in my midfield where the opposition would counter attack and outnumber my team.

I was having 55%-60% of possesion and losing by 4-3 or 3-2. My team were outplaying and scoring many but when an attack broke down I would concede.

Watch your game and see if something similar is happen, this is not to OP directly but to anyone that needs a bit of advice with 4-4-2's

I've found that 4-4-2 only works in the lower leagues in England and in the Prem i have to rely on a 4-5-1 (normally tweaked, 4-2-2-1 etc). Hopefully 4-4-2 will be effective on 09 as IRL most of the prem clubs still use 4-4-2.

4-4-2 is fine on FM08. You have to sort individual tactics and you'll have as much success as any other.

I tend to switch between 4-4-2 and 4-3-3.

I find I'm able to lose equally well with a whole variety of tactics.

4-4-2 was fine for me, you just had to tweak your tactics a bit more.

Yeah that's what I found. The individual instructions seemed to have a bigger impact than on previous versions.

I've been playing 4-4-2 for five in-game seasons now and have had quite a lot of success.

Can someone show me a 4-4-2 formation thats works with a smaller club. It does my head in when people say I have won lots of trophies. Well it is easier to win if you manage Man U, Arsenal etc.

Can someone show me a 4-4-2 formation thats works with a smaller club. It does my head in when people say I have won lots of trophies. Well it is easier to win if you manage Man U, Arsenal etc.

Touché, my friend.

I think you might want the tactics forum, though.

I've been able to use 4-4-2 successfully on FM08.

I have been using wwfan's RoO theories on TT&F to build solid foundations with a 4-4-2.

What I am hoping for is to be able to build a much more pragmatic 4-4-2 on FM09, with an emphasis on a short-passing defensive game.

I have a 4-4-2 (diamond midfield) and I am having success, although I am liverpool and I have spent 4 seasons buying players with the perfect/best available stats for each position.

Can someone show me a 4-4-2 formation thats works with a smaller club. It does my head in when people say I have won lots of trophies. Well it is easier to win if you manage Man U, Arsenal etc.

I have won the Premier League with a side destined for relegation with one of my 4-4-2's (also won a few divisions in the lower league and Spain), you need to use another tactic for defending against 4-2-4 though. I have never had any sucess uploading tactics . Mine's pretty simple, and the default 4-4-2 works very well in the game too. Both mine and the default grind out results.

You'll never be able to download a tactic that will work as well for you as it did for the creator. You have to look at indivual attributes and PPMs of your players and tweak your tactic accordingly. Even when you bring on a sub.

442 works fine for me at home but I have to change to 4312 when playing away.

I've been very successful with 4-4-2. I would only change it if I have a star quality player on the bench that should be playing. I'll tweak the formation then.

I won every English division from the BSN to the Premiership with a 4-4-2, so it can't be that impossible.

I found that both central midfielders were far too attacking leaving a big hole in my midfield where the opposition would counter attack and outnumber my team.

i've only ever played 442 in all iterations of the game. so there's no problem with doing so on fm08

Also, don't forget to play real football. Just having 2 great strikers isn't enough to win. Properly setting up their instructions to properly play "off the shoulder" or as target men is very important.

Also check out http://www.fm-britain.co.uk (Plug for you wwfan )

I won every English division from the BSN to the Premiership with a 4-4-2, so it can't be that impossible.

found that both central midfielders were far too attacking leaving a big hole in my midfield where the opposition would counter attack and outnumber my team.

Arguably one of the most important and pertinent sentences ever written in GQ. Bet no-one listens to you, though!!

i've often said this but no one seems to listen either

have too many attacking midfielders and no holding mid and your going to leave your defense open. this is why liverpool have masch, manutd spent so much to get hargreaves, chelsea have makalele etc.

I never have any problems with 4-4-2. Infact I have a very succesful Valencia career playing 4-4-2. What I find helps is having one central midfielder who rarely makes forward runs and who has a defensive mentality. You have to get ur tactics right, thats probably why u can't do well with 4-4-2

Also check out http://www.fm-britain.co.uk (Plug for you wwfan )

The link doesn't work

chelsea did have makalele etc.

Modified it for you

i've often said this but no one seems to listen either

have too many attacking midfielders and no holding mid and your going to leave your defense open. this is why liverpool have masch, manutd spent so much to get hargreaves, chelsea have makalele etc.

Isn't that so blatantly obvious as to be implicit though?! I regularly make a total horlicks of defending, but never because all my midfielders are wandering off up the park and I can't work out what is the cause of that great cavern in the middle of the pitch!

I did okay with Everton playing 4-4-2, exceeded expectations anyway.

I found that sometimes if you play a wacky formation, the AI just copies you anyhow. I played a tactic unlikely to be seen much in real life, and within half a season I was playing teams with a similar formation too.

I also got fed up with tottering along with a 442

I've found an absolute load of success with a 3-1-2-3-1 like so :

Saivet

Menez----------Jimenez---------Quaresma

Montellivo--Javi Martinez

Makoun

Rafael Forster--Nordtveit--A Ferdinand

I also got fed up with tottering along with a 442

I've found an absolute load of success with a 3-1-2-3-1 like so :

Saivet

Menez----------Jimenez---------Quaresma

Montellivo--Javi Martinez

Makoun

Rafael Forster--Nordtveit--A Ferdinand

That formation is horrible and I wouldn't touch it a bargepole. However, you've had success with it, so well done!

That formation is horrible and I wouldn't touch it a bargepole. However, you've had success with it, so well done!

I would be interested to know why you think it's horrible ...

I would be interested to know why you think it's horrible ...

I'll be honest with you. Unless there are wing-backs, I always get squeamish when I see fewer than four defenders. But also, it just looks so narrow to me. I feel like it would leave you majorly exposed. Just my opinion, though.

What he says ^^

I don't understand all this nonsense about 4-4-2 not working

Managing what club?

I practically only ever use 4-4-2, and i've had success'

one of the best tactics ive ever made was a 4-4-2 on 08 so it was doable, although the best i made was a 4-3-3 with 3 strikers no wingers

The link doesn't work

Modified it for you

Working for me

My 4-4-2 tactic has worked brilliantly on FM08

My 4-4-2 tactic has worked brilliantly on FM08

Managing what club?

My 442 clubs: Leeds, Chelski, Man City (post- and pre-Arabs), Villa, Liverpool, AC Millan, Harrogate Town, Grimsby.

Also, England, Ivory Coast, Mexico.

I should say I can't use 4-4-2 when I'm a small team playing against a big team (eg, Leeds vs Man Yoo) when I usually go 5-3-2

I've had success with 4-4-2 on FM08, admittedly not as much as I did with Kimz tactic but it can work.

Managing what club?

I'm sorry, but the OP was not referring to a certain type of club

And neither was anyone else at the point of my posting

There was only a generalised statement that the 4-4-2 doesn't work - that's wrong. That's what I commented on.

Don't think for a minute I believe I know this game inside out - I hardly know it at all. But I know a 4-4-2 can work. Possibly at any level. But it can certainly succeed. Wouldn't you agree?

I had a fit of irritation in my game last night after 2 games without a win (yes, it's a crisis!) with my old Werder Bremen tactic so I switched us to a suicidal 3-5-2. Not quite a 4-4-2, but it does at least use 2 strikers, unlike what most people seem to be saying of their tactics.

I used to love using 3-5-2 in the old CM00/01 and CM01/02 days at PSV Eindhoven, but that was a bit different - we were a class apart from most of our opponents so could run the game our way and the match engine was different (wingers did stuff for a start!).

We would have got off to a winning home start with the tactic (we created ~20 shots on goal so it was nice enough for one match!) except that we only scored once and that was an equaliser after the greatest piece of idiocy I've put into a tactic for a long while. I thought I'd try setting my goalkeeper to challenge the opposition goalkeeper at corners just to see if it would lead to a goal...it did Predictably the corner got played in and, as always happens when it gets cleared, none of my players reacted and my defender on the half way line made a total horlicks of reaching the cleared ball, allowing Ivica Olic to pass the ball into our empty net from the half way line after just 5 minutes. Needless to say I abandoned my plan of sending my 'keeper up for corners throughout the game!

I won my first title with Derby playing 4-4-2...

I have great success in the lower leagues of England playing 4-3-1-2 (three CMs, AMC). Won the BSS and BSP in back-to-back seasons with Weston.

I play a christmas tree

I'm sorry, but the OP was not referring to a certain type of club

And neither was anyone else at the point of my posting

There was only a generalised statement that the 4-4-2 doesn't work - that's wrong. That's what I commented on.

Don't think for a minute I believe I know this game inside out - I hardly know it at all. But I know a 4-4-2 can work. Possibly at any level. But it can certainly succeed. Wouldn't you agree?

To be fair, just because the OP didn't refer to a certain type of club doesn't mean Nomis's question wasn't worth asking. In fact, it's probably quite an important part of the issue.

However, I agree that the generalised statement that 4-4-2 doesn't work is wrong and you are right to say that 4-4-2 can work at any level.

I won every English division from the BSN to the Premiership with a 4-4-2, so it can't be that impossible.

Arguably one of the most important and pertinent sentences ever written in GQ. Bet no-one listens to you, though!!

For those of you that believe 4-4-2 can't/doesn't work at whatever level in whatever League you should go to the Tactics Forum and look at the Tactical theorems and Frameworks '08 thread written by wwfan! This will teach you loads about how to build a good tactic and how to react to the changes in formation and tactics that the AI uses. Be aware that it won't (and doesn't pretend or want to) help you create a diablo tactic but it will help you understand tactics a whole lot better. You may also want to check out Wolfsongs team talks thread for some more interesting reading.

Despite what appears to be popular opinion, I very much doubt that SI decided that they would make it impossible for any particular formation to work successfully, I think that they have made the use of the many different settings within the tactics more important so that a manager can't just create a 'one tactic beats all!' scenario and just sit back and watches his team ease to 6-0 victories in every game!

To be fair, just because the OP didn't refer to a certain type of club doesn't mean Nomis's question wasn't worth asking. In fact, it's probably quite an important part of the issue.

Point taken. Nomis, like I said - I'm no tactical genius and you have much more experience than me. If you'd like to agree to disagree on this that's cool.

However, I agree that the generalised statement that 4-4-2 doesn't work is wrong and you are right to say that 4-4-2 can work at any level.

Cheers. A look around the tactical forums of sites shows, courtesy of screen shots as evidence, that the 4-4-2 can work at any level if applied properly; IMHO of course Nomis.