Meet MY System

Meet My System

Introduction

The year is 2022 the team I’ve been managing has reached a point where all the major honours have been won; we are officially the biggest club in the world. I’m not satisfied I’ve won everything and I’m using the easiest team to play within game (Manchester City). The reason for my dissatisfaction is 2 fold. I’ve been struggling the honours I’ve amassed are more down to my team’s grit than my own tactics. My tactics weren’t bad just run of the mill and lacking imagination. Things are getting tough the AI is attaching itself to my team like a leach man marking my entire team, stifling my possession based football and forcing my players to lump the ball up field to midget strikers who were being dominated in the air by big lumps. I need an answer to this so I dropped my mindset of trying to beat the AI instead I started playing football the way I wanted to and started taking the advice of great posters.

The Principles

I had one vision and one vision only; I wanted to stop this one dimensional football I’d been playing and try to create a system where I could cause a threat from every area on the park. Now this is the overall shape:-

As you can see it’s a 4-3-3 Variant which I’m sure you’ve all seen before. But the beauty of this is in the detail. Now this system is entirely created using the TC all the roles are duties are un tweaked apart from goalkeeper settings and the MRC has roaming ticked.

The Roles and Duties

Sweeper Keeper Attack (Tweaked)

Wingbacks (Automatic)

Central Defenders (Defend)

Deep Lying Play Maker

Advanced Playmaker (Attack)

Box-Box Midfielder (Support)

Striker Centre Right Poacher (Attack)

Striker Centre Trequartista (Attack)

Striker Centre Left Complete Forward (Support)

I’m sure everyone would agree this is an attacking line up, however I’ve only conceded two goals in 10 games this is mainly down to the shape of the team and how well it defends centre of the pitch let me explain.

My forwards when the opposition is in possession of the ball are pushed right up against them, with the TQ who has a 0 closing down trends to drift into space, this space usually tends to be the area where a CM or DMC would look to drop into to receive the ball. The Poacher and the Complete forward will press the other defenders which will generally lead to either a long ball up field which my centre half’s will either head away, or my fullbacks will scrabble and pick up any ball in the channel behind them. As I tend to play with a deep-ish defensive line should the opposition actually get to the ball first they’ll usually find themselves by the corner flag with my 2 world class centre backs are waiting to head/clear any cross away. The other route is to try and play it through midfield with risky passes, where I have some determined hard working midfielders who are looking to nip in and get the ball and feed it early to my TQ who will then turn into acres of space.

So that’s a basic overview of how the defence operates.

In possession things are somewhat different. This simple formation has given me the springboard to approach each game in a number of ways. Take this not screenshot for example (it doesn’t illustrate my next point perfectly but it’ll do)

Now as you can see my DLP has the ball half way in his own half. Now the first thing that strikes me here is the sheer amount of options he has, He’s got 7 players either in front of him or parallel to him and a whole bunch of different pass types he could make. From a simple ball back to Vazquez, or how about a 1-2 with 16 (Advanced Midfielder)? He could be more risky and try a through ball for 9 (poacher).

As I stated earlier on the idea was to create a system which can create havoc from any area of the pitch and I Feel I’m getting there and the sheer enjoyment is something I had to share with you all.

If this thread takes off and people are interested I’ll go into much more detail about how the system works for me, If not then well it’ll just show as a reminder of just how good this game is for me personally.

Good opening post!

This is a system I used for a season during my Cardiff save, where I'd won all major honors. My tactic was pretty much set up exactly the same apart from my full backs pushed up level with the DLP. My only problem was trying to get the right roles for the strikers to complement each other, an example was with my poacher, I sometimes played him in the middle of the 3, sometimes on the right of the 3 but could never get it to work perfectly....

Could you give an insight into how your 3 strikers work and play together and which striker bags the most goals?

Ofcourse:-

In terms of goals It's really hard for me to measure due to me rotating six strikers but i'll add them up per role.

Poachers = 15 Goals in 17 games.

Trequartista's = 15 Goals in 17 games.

Complete forward = 8 goals in 17 games.

**note** doesn't include substitute apps & I've just bought one of the complete strikers and he's taking time to settle in, the other complete forward has 6 goals in 5 games.

In terms of how they work together i can say much better than i hope especially when the TQ has the ball at his feet, the poacher tends to peel off into the channel either dragging another CB with him, or if not he cuts out wide and has the chance to cute inside with the ball. and the complete striker sometimes comes to for a pass to feet or makes a run. If the TQ spins his maker it creates massive holes in the oppositions defensive line especially if it's a back 4 flat.

Another facet of the play i'm loving is the wide play, especially if the AI is being very aggressive with it's marking and having it's wide midfielders mark my central midfielders. I Used to curse this and get annoyed, but since i changed to this formation my wingbacks have a whole flank to plunder where they can either cross the ball in, preferable to the back post or to a midfielder who's arriving late. Or if they're playing abit deeper thread a through ball i'm blessed to have a left back who is monster, 17 Creat, 16 pass, 17 tech 17 dec 16 anticip 15 crossing.

The TQ in my view has to be the central player, because it just makes the decision of marking him so damn difficult if they get tight and mark him closely it creates holes in the defensive line for my creative players behind him to thread balls through, if they drop off he gets to run with the ball at the heart of the defense with on rushing players coming from behind him and two deadly marksman up ahead.

Hope that helped somewhat, if you've anymore questions about any aspects don't hesitate to ask. I created this thread for discussion purposes

Interesting reading, I think I might give this formation another go and have a tinker around.

What i did find when using this tactic was the poacher and the TQ usually played very well and scored the majority of goals. The left sided striker was always the problem, never really performed and goals were hard to come by, i tried complete striker, deep lying forward, advanced forward, 2 poachers either side of the TQ, 2 TQ's either side of the poacher but combination really worked that well, this is what led my to scrapping the 3 strikers tactic. Maybe I was just looking for perfection as I still won the league using it.

With regards to your fullbacks, do they get many assists?

I'm not fixating on goals scored by certain roles as thats not the entire contribution i'm after, I consider the Complete forward to be the "foil" the guy who moves the defense around and pulls players out of position if all three of your strikers are going for goal everytime it will lead to alot of congestion in the centre of the park and an overall lack of cohesion, this is why i don't have him on attack duty.

I'm terms of fullbacks they are chipping in, but i view them as more of an option and not my creators, Lemme explain.

I use my fullbacks as the classic "out ball" and i use them for the purpose of continuity eg, If i'm playing against a 4-4-2 i have of course have the extra central midfielder this will give the opposition manager a conundrum does he A have one of his wide men come inside and pick up my extra man or does he B stick to his shape and be out numbered in the middle of the park? tricky choice right? if he goes for the first option i'll use the shout look for the overlap and ask my fullbacks to be more aggressive in getting forward now as you've read in my previous post my fullbacks just happen to be very potent in creating chances so basically it can be a lose - lose situation for the opposition.

I'm sure i could get my fullbacks to create more assists but then i'd look at having more height in my forward line and get them to cross the ball at every opportunity using shouts such as get the ball forward and pump the ball into the box, but i feel this would take away from the system i'm trying to create.

Any reason you use sweeper keeper? What is the advantages by using this role? Have implemented some of your ideas after a long time of dominance, but eventually struggling to break down teams after I got a new club to manage. Thanks to your advice, I am dominating and playing attractive football, but with a different set up.

Any chance of a link to your tactics file so can give it a go? just starting a new game with preston using updated league so will be in division 1

Cheers

@ Taunton. I've tweaked the role and to be honest there's no particular reason why i'm using this role... with that being said i don't want him booting the ball up field i'd rather build from the back so i've manually brought his passing down to the shortest setting, taken away any creative freedom and removed long balls and through balls.

I've got defender collect as the ball distribution and my right centre half is player which collects the ball. I've also got him set to hold up the ball, i find all of these settings help stop him from kicking it long as he's got a 90 pass completion ratio for the league at the moment however sadly there are still wierd things in the ME which cause him to kick it into touch for no reason.

@ Farmin To be honest this tactic is set up to suite my team, without the exact same type of players i really wouldn't know how successful it would be for anyone else. The idea of this thread was to give some insight into why i came to make certain decisions regarding my team's play. As all of the positions are stock TC accept the bits i've mentioned i don't think i need to upload the actual tactic file.

The team settings are as follows:- Balanced, Control Default everything default apart from creative freedom, roaming and marking is set to zonal. Target man is set to my complete forward with supply on mixed.

Not to rain on your parade, so to speak, but I suspect that the success of this tactic is due to you being an ultra successful Man City in 2022 and you simply have the best players money can buy, rather than being a master tactician.

Not to rain on your parade, so to speak, but I suspect that the success of this tactic is due to you being an ultra successful Man City in 2022 and you simply have the best players money can buy, rather than being a master tactician.

Lol thanks for your input. I didn't claim to be any sort of master tactician, as i've stated in my post this thread was open to discuss the idea's and principles behind the tactic i've created and to highlight how it works within a game situation. success or lack thereof isn't the point here. I'm merely explaining the issues i've faced in in the ME and how i got over them.

You've done exactly what I've wanted to do with this year's FM but struggled.

I like this shape but I can never get the Forwards to play well together. I've tried in the positions you have, and they often bunch up too much, putting the opposition's defenders exactly where I don't want them: in front of the goal.

I've also tried retraining players as AML and AMR, but then they play too much like wingers or, if you give them cut inside, do nothing BUT cut inside, causing the congestion issue again.

I can still get results with it, but not the way I want.

Instead I use a 4-4-2 which is actually very fluid. I don't have roaming or position swapping, but I do have high creative freedom.

One striker plays off the shoulder, the other is set-up exactly the same, except RFD mixed means he drops into space more. The wingers, even though they're at LM/RM not AML/AMR, balance their wide play well, supplying a wide threat when needed, and coming into the box when the FBs are there.

Hopefully future FMs will have slightly more customisable wideplay settings.

In terms of the congestion it does happen but not too often, what tends to happen is they actually create space for each other, the complete forward tends to do a mixture of coming short and pulling wider, and the poacher just sits on the shoulder of the last man. The TQ just floats around as you'd expect, i think the real trick is in my wipe play. They allow me to stretch the width so well, which basically creates space for the CM's and attackers as it drags fullbacks out wide causing what is in essense a 3-2 against a 4 man defense.

I'm not sure of the exact reason it's been working so well, i'm fortunate to have attackers with very high off the ball i'm not sure if this is why they take up such good positions or it's just the actual roles and duties which create it. I do feel the roles and duties compliment each other really well though

One thing I have noticed with wide forwards is Team Work.

Without it they seem to want to go it alone too often. It's my one criticism of Javier Hernandez in the game.

Does changing him to a "support" role help that at all? Reason i ask is because i notice that players who are in "attack" seem to have a higher mentality and a higher creative freedom which would suggest this sort of behaviour.

Not really, support role drops mentality which simply means they play deeper, and are more likely to make a risk-averse decision. Which I don't want them doing.

I also don't like the massive difference in mentality Support makes for forwards. So I use my own mentality framework.

Not really, support role drops mentality which simply means they play deeper, and are more likely to make a risk-averse decision. Which I don't want them doing.

I also don't like the massive difference in mentality Support makes for forwards. So I use my own mentality framework.

Can't argue with that, however risk averse will lead them making less solo runs, as a change in duty changes and impacts up on everything a player does i do believe you would see a significant affect. Bare in mind here that being less risky wont mean he'll play it totally safe, also the affect of a large dose of creative freedom means a player will also use his own judgement.

for example i've just scored again past liverpool it's 3-0 my complete striker support ran with the ball from inside his own half on the counter and smashed in into the top corner so thats a 35 yard dribble.

His mentality is currently 6 clicks so it's still (Defensive) and his Creative freedom is 13 clicks (normal). I've tried to stop getting hung up on clicks etc and just the use the TC with shouts to cater to my needs.

If you've got Counter Attack clicked, he was actually playing with Mentality 20 while the counter was on.

I'm afraid I disagree that dropping his mentality is the answer, his Teamwork stat just shows that he's more suited as a finisher than a provider.

If you've got Counter Attack clicked, he was actually playing with Mentality 20 while the counter was on.

I'm afraid I disagree that dropping his mentality is the answer, his Teamwork stat just shows that he's more suited as a finisher than a provider.

It's not only if you've got counter attack clicked, it's during any counter attack every player on the attacking team has mentality 20. Ticking counter attack only increases the probability of a counter attack occurring since it changes the criteria to be less strict (1 on 3 = counter attack rather than 1 on 2 for example)

That explains his behaviour for that particular move sure, but the other times he's performed well, as well as the rest of my front line doesn't.

Maybe it's just their attributes are well suited to play with each other i'm not sure, but i'm rotating 6 players in them 3 striking roles and it seems to work out with them all.

the system you've got seems handy yourself anyway, but it's always nice to have a better understanding of why things do and don't work!

To be honest the attacking side of the tactic doesn't surprise me that much, it's the fact i'm conceding very little goals thats making me so thrilled the aesthetics of the attacking is somewhat of a bonus

I am surprised it is so good defensively since I would have thought the wings are pretty exposed. If I was facing this tactic, I would use a 424 with attacking wingbacks, support wingers, and 2 deep lying playmakers. That should draw out the CMs and double up on the fullbacks thus creating space for the strikers in the channels to be slid in behind your defense.

Great shout lucatonix. One of those things I was well aware of but that my brain was withholding.

I've been similarly surprised to you with my 4-4-2 R0ca, I play a DLP (a regen who's a creative force more than a stopper, but with good positioning and excellent physicals) and an AP (Ganso) in CM, and I'm conceding very rarely, and generally only when my team are performing badly all around.

It seems that just having a player who's reasonable defensively in the DM position is enough to protect the back line. Even if he just slows down an attack so that the FBs get back and the CBs compose themselves, he's done his job. And if you're good enough at keeping the ball, those instances are rare anyway.

Great shout lucatonix. One of those things I was well aware of but that my brain was withholding.

I've been similarly surprised to you with my 4-4-2 R0ca, I play a DLP (a regen who's a creative force more than a stopper, but with good positioning and excellent physicals) and an AP (Ganso) in CM, and I'm conceding very rarely, and generally only when my team are performing badly all around.

It seems that just having a player who's reasonable defensively in the DM position is enough to protect the back line. Even if he just slows down an attack so that the FBs get back and the CBs compose themselves, he's done his job. And if you're good enough at keeping the ball, those instances are rare anyway.

This is a diamond of a post, my DLP seems like a carbon copy of yours I'll dig out a SS if u all need. and this is quite how it works, if my fullbacks are caught upfield then he's quick enough to get across and cover, with stay on the feet shout he doesn't commit in the tackle and his decisions and anticipations 17 and 18 which helps! it usually allows my hard working CM's and quick hard working fullbacks to get back in position.

One issue i do face is ball possession it's not very high, but my shouts are usually pretty aggressive, get the ball forward and pass into space getting the ball to the TQ as soon as possible stops the back peddling CM's closing him down from behind.

Quite intrigued by your DMC DLP.

One thing I've never managed to get working quite the way I'd like is that position and role. Just out of interest, could you post an image showing the attributes of the player(s) you use there please.

Looking at the combinations of positions and roles you're using, I can see why the quality of the football will be good. Having a great DLP sat central and deep will also work exceptionally well when the movement around and ahead of him is good. Do you notice any drop in the quality of his role and performance if the opponents are playing an AMC, who the AI seems to have closing him down?

I don't tend to use a DMC DLP since it is easy for them tend to get too isolated and thus lose it's effectiveness. If I were to use 2 DLP as stated in that post I would go for Marcos Senna and Yann M'Vila. They are a sublime partnership and worked really well for me as DLPs at the CM position so in theory they should be just as good at DMC.

Sure Heath

**Note** His extra high amount of assist is mainly down to him being my corner taker

It can cause issues if either a deeper attacker or a play maker drops onto him, but i try to combat it using roam from position, if that still doesn't work i'll change my CB's who luckily can pass as well to Ball playing which can alleviate some of the need to play through this guy.

Good you mentioned the corner taking he does. That'll obviously help when it comes to his match ratings if some are assists. What sort of match ratings does he get without the assists? The reason I ask is that I often feel that the DMC position match ratings are often below what they should be for such a player, unless he scores or provides assists. I've watched matches where I would consider my DMC DLP to have had a near perfect game, yet struggled to rate more than 7.0 because he's neither scored or assisted a goal.

He's certainly well suited to the role you're using him. With those mental attributes, I bet he plays some lovely passes and through balls.

He sure does, he isn't afraid to go for the long raking throughball thats for sure.

It's hard to gauge his match rating without the assists to be honest, as you've said rightfully if you win big, or he assist or scores it inflates the match rating.

However that being said he hasn't missed too many tackles and certainly none which have been costly, his passing can be over ambitious at times but he does this too often i change him to DLP defend and that tends to calm him down.

I think to achieve a good rating for CM/DM's without goals and assist etc your looking at 10+ completed tackles and a high pass complete ratio, one guy got a really high rating against me doing that.

The reason I've highlighted the position and role, is that amongst others in midfield, it's often difficult to find a sweet-spot (for me at least).

Sometimes I've had players who I would consider perfectly suited to a particular role or position in the centre of midfield, who just don't seem to perform as well as I'd hope them to. I think a lot has to do with players around them, obviously, but also how well opposing teams contain them. Perhaps I preoccupy myself with match ratings too much sometimes.

On the whole, I don't mind if a player doesn't rate particularly highly, so long as I can see they've done what's asked of them, for the good of the team.

I'll throw mine into the ring. Note he plays at CM but is very much the defensive holding option of the two.

He plays almost like a Midfield sweeper. I'm an all-conquering Man United side, so I am often camped in and around the oppositions box. What Mosca does is sit somewhere between their box and the halfway line, ready to pick up any loose balls and chase down anyone who breaks free.

Hopefully you'll see why he doubles up as a creative fullback when I need cover. And when I do play him in a more attacking role, he's more than capable.

And I've only just realised that he's 5'5!

5'5...and terrifying to look at!

Yeah, think that's a graphics card (or lack of one) issue. Doesn't bother me too much but if anyone knows how to fix it I'd be grateful.

With high flair, pace, decent dribbling and finishing, I would much rather play him in a more attacking role to run at the defense and either dribble through them or set a striker through on goal. I can see why he would do well at both fullback and at CM though. Cracking player.

I have players more suited to the attacking positions. His finishing isn't good enough to play any further in my system as everyone is expected to be able to finish a chance if they get one.

I have players more suited to the attacking positions. His finishing isn't good enough to play any further in my system as everyone is expected to be able to finish a chance if they get one.

Your team must be very good if he only manages a CM spot. I reckon with 17 flair and creativity, he must play some pretty spectacular passes from deep.

That's his main job.

As a big team you need a player outside of the main hustle and bustle of the opposition's area who can not only slow down opposition counter attacks and win the ball back through interceptions, but also make a smart pass when he does get it. I don't want a destroyer who resets my attack, I want someone who can see that one of the wingers has stayed forward and hit him with a through ball.

With Ganso playing alongside/ahead of him (much higher mentality), I have someone far more suited to operating on the edge of the box, and who is much more likely to put a chance away if he gets one.

The most annoying type of player in FM is a creative force who you can't rely on to score. You have to put him deep or he's going to waste lots of those lovely chances he creates.

That's his main job.

As a big team you need a player outside of the main hustle and bustle of the opposition's area who can not only slow down opposition counter attacks and win the ball back through interceptions, but also make a smart pass when he does get it. I don't want a destroyer who resets my attack, I want someone who can see that one of the wingers has stayed forward and hit him with a through ball.

With Ganso playing alongside/ahead of him (much higher mentality), I have someone far more suited to operating on the edge of the box, and who is much more likely to put a chance away if he gets one.

The most annoying type of player in FM is a creative force who you can't rely on to score. You have to put him deep or he's going to waste lots of those lovely chances he creates.

This is a very good point, if i have someone who's got poor dribbling and finishing with high passing and creativity i will certain look to put them either at fullback or DLP. Problem is on my save at least there are lots of this sort of players kicking around.

It's actually quite funny i was seriously considering selling Mikheev put the performances he's been putting in make me think twice. I've made that mistake before....

Been playing around with this formation and changed the poacher to an advanced forward to bring a bit more to his game. He still plays high up but also drifts wide to create yet another option where he can drive in-field or cross the ball. With all the playmaker roles, who do you set as the main one?

Have tried to set up tactics before with a multi-faceted attack before but always went with wingers. Never had the balls to go with wing backs over full backs either. This narrower approach with the wing backs providing width is really working though. Started an arsenal game to use this tactic as I know the players well and Arshavin has been a revelation in the STC trequartista role with Walcott / rvp as poacher depending on the opposition. Have beaten united at old trafford twice so far thanks to a horrible league cup draw!

@ Bigshow1 My player is Default which is whoever plays the Trequartista role. It works out very well he comes deep and the other 2 forwards drift around which usually gives him plenty of space to cause havoc in.

@ Thierry I think the fullbacks are my favourite aspect of this system to be honest especially with my teams reputation being so high the oppositions wingers tend to come inside and leave acres of space for them to play in. It causes so many issues for the opposition as despite the ball being out wide the fullback still has plenty of passing options with a worse case scenario of a cross into the box.

@Heathxxx further to our discussions about the central midfielders rating, especially the player playing DMC it seems that he doesn't need to score or assist to get a good rating see my screen shot below:-

Chiquinho Here is playing the role in this game and yes i did win the game 3-0 but my players playing in the CM slots only scored 7 i think the 10 interceptions is what set him apart as far as the ratings are concerned.

After seeing some of these players, would it be possible to use a player as a deep lying playmaker - defend in order to protect the back 4? If the player had good enough stats for it?

After seeing some of these players, would it be possible to use a player as a deep lying playmaker - defend in order to protect the back 4? If the player had good enough stats for it?

Yes it's possible but in a defensive sense at least my DLP is limited from a defensive point of view. If your exerting consistent pressure on the opponent I find that playing DLP support works well for me because the majority of his defensive works will be chasing down hoofed clearances and the like. I tend to use the DLP defend option when I'm either trying to protect a lead or my DLP passing is too outlandish and he's wasting possession by not using it properly.

Yes it's possible but in a defensive sense at least my DLP is limited from a defensive point of view. If your exerting consistent pressure on the opponent I find that playing DLP support works well for me because the majority of his defensive works will be chasing down hoofed clearances and the like. I tend to use the DLP defend option when I'm either trying to protect a lead or my DLP passing is too outlandish and he's wasting possession by not using it properly.

So, I'd be better off having him on a support duty?

Depends on what your trying to achieve. I've set my team up in such way partly down to the circumstance i play in. If i were playing with a team of less reputation i dare say I'd set my team up totally different. I've wrote at length of the virtue's of a DLP in this thread:- http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/272250-The-Deep-Lying-Play-Maker-A-Guide-On-Getting-The-Best-Out-Of-Him.?p=7004514

Maybe the increased clarity in there will demonstrate how i get the best out of my DLP hope it helps.

I'm playing this system with QPR in the prem in 2021 and loving it. I play a bit mor rigid settings to you and also use an advanced forward rather than a poacher. What do you get out of using more roaming and creative freedom with this system?

I'm playing this system with QPR in the prem in 2021 and loving it. I play a bit mor rigid settings to you and also use an advanced forward rather than a poacher. What do you get out of using more roaming and creative freedom with this system?

Sorry for the late reply, been away all weekend.

To answer your question what i get is intelligent off the ball movement from my team in the attacking phase. players looking for space and in some case running beyond your forwards can be very hard to stiffle especially if your team has the ability to find the man making the run.

creating indecisiveness in your opponents back line is such a commodity.