It needn't to be always possession based. Trying to recreate the Dortmund style

Hi Guys before i begin i just want to excuse my english it isn't as good as it should be to post such a thread.

I think possession based football is very boring to watch. I remember the last Bundesliga season and it wasn't fun to watch FC Bayern games also if they had a very good team and became champion. At FM i still played like the FC Bayern style because it is fairly easy to set it up. High line, narrow, shorter passing, low Tempo are the basics. 4-2-3-1; 4-5-1; 4-3-3.. What ever you like. You can't do a lot of mistakes and there are already so many people who set it up and posted it in the forums.

The Dortmund style is like you all know different. I think the most important things are.

- Players have to run their opponents into the ground

- fast Ball transition from defence to attack

- pressing on the whole pitch

- all players have to work defensivly

Now my thought process

Ok how did i try to get that. First i needed a Formation. All formations with AML/Rs were no option for me because the AMs don't work defensiv enough. I worked from the back. I needed 4 defenders, 2 wingers, 3 centre midfielders and 1 Striker and a keeper of course.

I took a sweeper keeper with defend duty because all keepers are sweepers meanwhile some more, some less. Then i needed a BPD to simulate the Mats Hummels play and a CD as partner because they play with offside trap i took a defend duty for both.

The fullbacks have to play forward a lot so i chose CWB on the left and right side

After i had already 2 attack duties on the wings, i needed 2 support duties on the wings too. Reus plays normally as inside forward on the left but i can only choose from DW,W or WM. So i took WM/s because it is the only role which can cut inside.

On the right i have taken the DW role because of the high pressing which i wanted to do. Both Wingers have the PI sit narrower that the CWB can easier overlap.

To simulate the runners in the midfield i thought i should take 2 B2B midfielders. Simulating Bender and Sahin or Gündogan. Ok now there were 2 roles left, the striker and the 3rd CM. The Striker was easy to choose because of the high pressing i took a DF/s

Henrich Mchitarjan plays of course in the AM position but i think he isn't really a playmaker. But i wasn't sure which role i should take. Enganche, TreQ, AP are playmakerroles and as Henrich Mchitarjan isn't a scoring machine the SS role doesn't match either . Then there was only the AM role left. With attack duty of course

Now i had a formation with a lot of specialists so i went for a very rigid approach.

I have taken contol as philosophy because it suits the style i wanted to play most..

Now i had to set up the TIs

I wanted:

- fast transition = more direct passing

- not a lot of shots from outside of the box = work ball into box

- Pressing all over the pitch = hassle opponents, run at defence

- Space for my fast attackers = drop much deeper

- offside trap of course = Use offside trap

- high tempo = higher tempo

- attack over the flanks and overlap = exploit flanks, look for overlap

- build up from the back = play out of defence

So the base tactic looked like that:

The tactic produced a good looking football, but of course i got some problems

1. Very good teams like ManU (last season champion with 100 points) pressed me way to far into my own half and their wingers just runned me into the ground

2. Teams with 2 strikers scored way to much goals through the middle

3. Teams which played all through the middle scored also too many goals.

So the middle was the problem.

There was a relative big gap between the B2B midfielders and the central defenders

Sometimes even bigger. It was clear that i needed a defend duty in the middle. I thought about Sven Bender that he could play as a BWM too so i changed the left CM to a BWM/d. But unfortunately it didn't solve the problem. I had to rethink about how Dortmund plays in reality. I have read some articles and i have noticed that Sahin and Gündogan don't only run a lot they are also the creative minds on the pitch. Then I changed the midfield combination to DLP/d with PI(more direct passes)and a B2B midfielder after that the middle was a little bit saver. The average positioning was like that:

Solution to point 1 was to remove the TI(drop much deeper)

The Point 2 problem happens still sometimes but i think that is nomal.

In the end, the tactic works for me and produces the gameplay like i want it to be. In the last season i won the capital one cup, the league and the champions league without any opposite instructions. Of course i have good players media prediction 2 behind ManU, but i think after producing successfully a style i wanted, i understand the game much better.

The league table:

the final version of the tactic:

If you have suggestions to improve the tactic then feel free to mention it.

Have a nice day

Stonebiter

I had started a 'Dortmund-style' tactic interpretation of my own, a while ago. When I get back from work I'll try to find it and compare it to yours if you want to.

One thing I did not quite get : do you want to completely replicate their style, or play a similar one that suits your needs?

Your english is very good by the way, I have seen much worse on here.

You may have seen this thread already, if not then it may help you

I tried to replicate the Style as similiar as i could. But there are some things which i am not happy with. Lewandowski for example doesn't really play as a defensiv forward and perhaps Bender plays more like BWM. Another Question is if i really should play with CWBs or better with FB/a.

Alright! Here is my take on the 2013-2014 Borussia Dortmund 'main' tactical system. It was still a work in progress and it's not perfect, but I think it sums up very well how they play. I'm going to explain the choices I made, why I made them and also the PIs I added to make the thing even closer to how they usually play. Note that it is solely based on last seasons' games (those I had the fortune to be able to see)

Okay, first, the team instructions.

*Attacking* I honestly could not see anything else. They are overall extremely aggressive, they play a very high line, close down hard, play very direct passing up front, very fast tempo, usually pretty wide... those are all characteristics of an 'Attacking' mentality on FM.

*Very Fluid* This was to reflect that everybody on that team has a very aggressive mentality, and that they all work together as one big block towards one main goal, all the time : pressurizing the opponent. I also needed this so defenders and central midfielders would be more aggressive in their passing and in their general play.

'Pass Into Space' Well, it's pretty clear that Dortmund do a lot of risky passes and through balls to try and create chances as quickly as possible

'Roam From Positions' I could have removed that since I added this as a PI for many players later on, but I realized it happens very often that players on the team would swap with each other or try to find pockets of space not really in their area, so I left it (it also enables the wing backs to be in generally more dangerous positions, which to me is one of the main features of Klopp's tactical system)

'More Direct Passing' Even if the *Attacking* mentality already encourages direct passing from the midfielders and attackers, I felt that there were still too many lateral and back passes, so I added this. It also lengthened the defenders' passing style and made it even closer to how the Dortmund defenders usually play.

'Use Tighter Marking' To leave as few passing options as possible for the ball carrier.

'Drop Deeper' At first, the attacking mentality made our line very high, and this was not necessarily a problem, but in turn our attackers were too high and could not put pressure on the defenders because they were always beyond them. So I added drop deeper to leave my strikers in front of the back line.

'Play Narrower' Well, Dortmund don't play very narrow in their own half, but this was more to replicate the movement in the final third. They are not a team who cross a lot, and most of their attacking play is built and finished through the middle. Play Narrower encourages more passes through the middle and generally makes wide players drift inside a little bit more. I didn't use Exploit The Middle because it made the wide midfielders stop in possession and try to pick out the runs of the attackers in the centre, which is not what they do IRL. Play Narrower was much better in how it played things out.

Notice that I didn't use 'Hassle Opponents' nor 'Higher Tempo'. This is because the overall strategy already makes my players close down more than enough, and play fast enough. To explain it shortly, *Attacking* greatly increases tempo and closing down. Then 'Very Fluid' also increases closing down. And 'More Direct Passing' increases passing style, but also tempo. So tempo and closing down are already almost maxed out, therefore I don't need to use those instructions.

Now the player roles (from the easiest to the most difficult) :

GK - Weidenfeller - G(D)* You can make him a SK if you want, but it's not how he plays (though they might benefit from it).

DCR - Subotic/Sokratis - CD©* This is how Subotic in particular plays when partnered with Hummels. Hummels will usually be the stopper and Subotic will provide cover. They have also played as a (d)-(d) partnership at some points, and when it's Sokratis who plays with Hummels it looks more like a (d)-(d) partnership.

DCL - Hummels - CD(X)* Some would disagree here, but I don't think Hummels played as a ball-playing defender last year. The year before he did, and as much as I loved it, I haven't seen it this time around, probably due to the return of Sahin as a sort of deep playmaker.

DR - Pizczek - CWB(A)* He covers all the ground on the right flank and attacks the box at will.

DL - Schmelzer - WB(A)* Similar style to that of Pizczek, but will be less focused on just running and will be more ready to put in crosses and just stay wide to provide a recycling/stretching option. ---Note that in some games during the season, the roles of the two wide backs have been swapped, depending on players available, opposition and general gameplan.

ML - Reus - WM(A)* WM is a given because we will later add 'Cut Inside' to mimic the inside forward style. Attack because he has a very attacking mentality and will often look to get on the end of things.

STC - Lewandowski - DLF(S)* He drops in front of the defence, holds up the ball, links play with the AMC and others, roams from position, sometimes runs with the ball, does many risky and through balls, and attacks the box after that. DLF seems the best option to me. And he does not close down as much as a DF.

MR - Aubameyang/Blazsczykowski - WM(S)* Not a winger, usually plays pretty narrow, but will not attack as much as Reus.

AMC - Mkhytarian - SS(A)* I understand why you think he's not a shadow striker, and though I would tend to agree, in FM14 it's the best role to do what he does. First because in attack he will always be looking to attack the box while Lewandowski will try to receive a pass and then connect with him. That's the main pattern of central attacks for Dortmund. Second, because of the pressing. Watch games carefully. Who is the initiator of the pressing, most of the time? Yep, the AMC (this was particularly observable around the end of the season when Reus played at AMC). The shadow striker has maximum closing down and he will be the initiator of your group defence.

The midfield pairing..... well, it's been very difficult and I'm not totally satisfied, but I think you can't really replicate those guys' movement with just roles and duties.

MCR - Bender/Kehl - CM(D)* Even though he plays in a very high pressing system, Bender/Kehl can be seen as Dortmund's "holding" midfielder. They will usually be the players who tend to stay deep when all others go forward and be ready to recycle possession/break counter attacking opportunities. I chose CM(d) because it is a more creative/free role than BWM, and also because the main difference in their defensive play is that the CM will not dive into tackles (exactly what we want).

MCL - Sahin/Gundogan - DLP(S)* The most difficult of all... DLP(S) is not ideal, but it's the closest to what they do. BBM(S) will not come deep to get the ball at his defenders' feet... defend duties will not go forward enough... attack duties don't defend and come deep enough... CM(S) doesn't do anything close to what Sahin does... The best two choices were AP(S) and DLP(S) and I chose the latter because he comes deeper to get the ball and runs at the defence with it. However the problem with playmakers is that they will not attack the box as much as Sahin does IRL, especially the DLP. To really get a player as close as possible to this special role, I would try to teach PPM's 'Comes deep to get ball' and 'get forward whenever possible'

I also added some PIs to fine tune the players' game.

DCL (Hummels) - More Risky Passes

DR (Pizczek) - Cut Inside, Cross Less Often (this mimics the fact that the right defender will usually run from deep driectly towards the box rather than out wide to try and put a cross in... although the latter will still happen from time to time)

DL (Schmelzer) - Stay Wider (quite the contrary from the DR)

MR (Aubameyang) - Sit Narrower, Cut Inside, Cross Less Often (the MR will usually play very narrow and seldom run wide or cross)

MCR (Kehl) - More Direct Passes (even though the passing is already very direct, I realized that Kehl and Bender (and anybody who plays there) are usually asked to launch long range passes as soon as they get the ball)

MCL (Sahin) - Dribble More, Roam From Position

ML (Reus) - Get Further Forward, Cut Inside, Cross Less Often, Dribble More, Roam From Position

STC (Lewandowski) - Dribble Less, Shoot Less, Move Into Channels

Let me know what you think of it!

I agree with the Lewandowski role, he plays more like a DLF as a DF but i don't know if a DLF/s and a SS work well together. Further i think that your left side is a bit unbalanced with 2 attack duties. I had the same problem when i was thinking about the left side and i think i made a mistake to put the WM on a support dutiy because Schmelzer isn't as forward minded as Pizcek. So i would suggest to change the DL duty to support. Tighter marking is more man marking and i have no idea if that is what you want. Did you play a season with it and how did it go?

Well, yeah, it is a little unbalanced but the idea was to replicate as well as possible the movement of the real team. And the movement of the real team is a little unbalanced unfortunately.

I did put DL on support duty at first, but I felt like he wasn't going forward enough when compared to Schmelzer. But of course you can put him on a support duty and have success.

Usually DLF and SS work very well together.

And tight marking is not obligatory, I just felt the pressing was better with it.

I have not played a complete season but I remember playing many games to get the roles and instructions right. It worked very well in general but it struggled against the top teams such as Bayern Munich. It was also hard to keep the players fit and motivated enough for that kind of heavy pressing.