442 - balancing simplicity against experience

For the full background to this post, please have a browse through my career thread, which goes into depth about my mental health issues and how this impacts my approach to FM: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/386873-Outrunning-The-Black-Dog?p=9787556#post9787556

Background

I am managing Sutton United. We have gone from the Skrill South to the Championship over the last 5 years, utilising a combination of 442 and 4231 mainly. I have attempted to implement a more sophisticated 4141 without any tangible success.

As you can imagine, we are ranked among the poorer sides in the division with limited wage and transfer budgets.

Last season review

We have limped through to the end of the season, ending up in 15th.

It is a disappointing performance in the sense that we have performed worse than last season's 11th place finish, despite having what I feel was a stronger team.

The season is marked by inconsistency. Not just in the results but in my approach. Right from the first match, I failed to settle on a formation and it set the tone for the season.

There are positives for sure. Principally that we are secure in the Championship, we have established ourselves at this level and at no point during the season was there a danger of being relegated. We lost money, in part due to our paltry average attendance of 5.5k, but by being prudent, I kept us within transfer and wage budgets which sets us up well for future years.

Black Dog Watch

* I came very close to a rage quit. I booted up last night and first game in, got thumped 0-4 by Leicester. I kept going and won the next game 0-1. This type of flip flopping has marked the season.

* Lots of thoughts again about identity. I am envious of those managers (real life and FM) who have a clear vision of how they want to play. I spent a long time yesterday reading the forums and other FM blogs, looking for inspiration. The best advice from the likes of Cleon and RTHerringbone is along the same sort of lines; figure out what you want to achieve, then piece the component parts together. This is where I come unstuck. Firstly, I'm not really sure what I'm looking to achieve. Secondly, in occasional moments of lucidity when I develop a plan, I have no idea how to implement it.

* I described the thought process in a previous post but it is all too easy to become crippled by over analysing. In short, I go from tactical complexity, to balance, to simplicity and finally despair within a few steps. In the end, I become paralysed by analysis, unable to see the wheat from the chaff, my mind operating in a fog of uncertainty.

* What is behind this anxiety? A big part is clearly a sense of failure. I am reluctant to try things in case they don't work, my mind racing ahead to the end to paint the worst possible conclusion. This is typical anxiety behaviour that clouds my judgement, devalues my own efforts and assumes the worst. I must once again remind myself of how far I have come. The forums are useful but the key is to use my own experience and trust in my abilities. I can do this.

Next Steps

I believe in keeping the ball and passing short but not to the extreme of a Barcelona or Spain. As a Liverpool fan it is painful to say but I always appreciated the style of Ferguson's United teams, blending passing with quick, direct attacks. Liverpool's 'swashbuckling' style of last season is reminiscent of this in some ways and I would like to try and implement it.

At the same time, I am conscious of my limited game time. I need a game that, to an extent, I can just click through. I don't have the time anymore for a detailed tactical analysis every match. I need simplicity.

So, it is back to a 442. I understand it. It delivers satisfactory results and, if set up well, can offer both defensive solidity and attacking threat.

As party of the simplicity drive, I am tempted to eliminate all specialist roles, reverting to the most base set up possible, perhaps with a Very Fluid philosophy. This would undoubtedly give me the simplicity I crave but I fear it also ignores a lot of the lessons learnt. Simplicity does not have to translate as naivety.

Things will likely change during pre-season as I implement things but my plan at the moment is as follows:

Formation - 442

Philosophy - Balanced

Strategy - Trained in Defensive, Standard and Attacking (use dynamically, match by match)

Roles and Duties;

GK - GK Defend

FB - FB Auto

CB - CD Defend

CB - CD Defend

FB - FB Auto

MR - Winger Attack

MC - CM Support

MC - CM Defend

ML - Winger Attack

FC - DLF Support

FC - Adv For Attack

Team Instructions - Work ball into box, Exploit the flanks, Hassle Opponents

My logic is as follows;

1. Balanced gives me a stable platform to develop from, providing a mix of duties, runs and freedom.

2. The use of generic roles, whilst against the grain of advice for a Balanced philosophy, gives us a platform to make changes dynamically, rather than imposing pre defined ideas.

3. Whilst tempted to use short passing, a combination of mixed passing, work ball into box and exploit the flanks gives us a combination of direct play where appropriate whilst remaining patient in the final third and encouraging more intricate moves.

3. I am a firm believer in putting the opposition under pressure. From my experience, I believe the hassle opponents shout works well, even if it potentially opens gaps in your own formation.

Other instructions may develop based on what I see, such as specific marking duties, creative freedom etc. I fully anticipate changing some of the payer roles but I am convinced that I need to clear my mind first and rebuild from a basic base. This is not a case of shunning what I have learnt, rather implementing lessons one at a time instead of chucking everything into the pot at the outset.

Thoughts very much welcomed.

The one thing I managed to make work pretty effectively when I have dabbled with the 442 is to make the more advanced of my two strikers move into channels. This is something I noticed that the AI does often when using the same formation. What happens is the AF(A) will drift out wide, drawing a CD with him, or forcing the FB to deal with him. This creates space either for a winger or for someone breaking forward from midfield (the DLF(S) in your case).

The real key I think to the 442 is to adapt to opponents, and to make sure you have the extra man in midfield covered (as there will often be one). This for means means using a CM(D) to deal with an AMC, CM(A) to deal with a DMC. It can also be advantageous to have one of your wide players as a WM(S) and have an attacking full back overlap him. This creates an extra body in midfield (the WM) that the AI has to deal with, and an attacking fullback who can provide width.

Thanks Sporadicsmiles, some interesting points. I must confess, I had blindly assumed that I would utilise attacking roles on the wings and auto roles at full back but you make a compelling argument for mixing these up whilst at the same time, not over complicating things, which is a priority for me.

Your Duty allocation on the flanks is potentially a bit too risky.

As sporadicsmiles says, with both Wingers on Attack, and with the full backs on Auto, when you use the Attacking Mentality all four of your flank men will be very aggressive and it will leave space in behind.

The 4-4-2 is a fairly vulnerable formation because the absence of a DM means your DCs will do some weird stepping up into the DM area when you don't want them to.

If you combine that with the potential flank issues, you'll be overly susceptible to the nasty "pass into the channel between your full back and DC" issue in the ME.

Exploit The Flanks will make all your wide men more attacking than normal anyway (as well as getting the MCs to hold the ball up, and play will generally get focused down the wings).

I'd propose you have a skim through the Pairs and Combinations thread, just to consider having a different mix of Duties on each flank.

That will vary your play more, and should give you a fighting chance defensively.

One thing which has gradually been picked up on the forum is the importance of the balance of Duties within a Mentality. Cleon proved very well that a Defensive Mentality if combined with the right Roles and Duties, can yield results which are far from Defensive. One thing people often falsely assume is that an Attacking Mentality needs several Attacking Duties, and this often isn't the case - in an inherently Attacking Mentality, then a plethora of Attacking Duties might not be an effective strategy - just bear that in mind.

Y One thing people often falsely assume is that an Attacking Mentality needs several Attacking Duties, and this often isn't the case - in an inherently Attacking Mentality, then a plethora of Attacking Duties might not be an effective strategy - just bear that in mind.

I concur with RT, and this is a great point that bears reiterating. I like to imagine mentality as a global team ethic, but within that, players are still performing balanced duties. An attacking mentality might mean a more aggressive, higher up the pitch approach overall, but you will still want players to cover flanks, drop back to support the midfield etc. They are just doing it within a more forward-playing framework.

For example, I pretty much always use a standard mentality, but I can make it more or less attacking (or defensive) by role and duty assignment.

Great feedback, lots of food for thought, thanks guys.

Been reading around the forums and seeing lost of people posting similar comments re the 442. There is clearly a ME issue with CDs steeping out in the absence of a DM and, whilst I am tempted to revert to a 4141, I am determined to persevere with the 442.

I have been reading a really interesting thread by Mr U Rosler in the downloads section. The basic set up reminded me of one of my original tactics that saw us promoted out of the non league, utilising a DLP and BBM. However upfront he used a Defensive forward with a defend duty, something I have never tried. My mental health therapy reminds me of the importance of implementing and accepting change, so...

Taking all comments so far into account, I feel confident implementing something above and beyond the base roles. The goalie and CD will remain base, with the full back roles both moved to support. I intend to retain the two attacking winger roles however, conscious of some of the feedback above, I do not rule out utilising an asymmetric allocation of duties depending on how it plays out, or on a specific match by match basis.

Up front, I am intrigued to utilise the Defensive forward. I have a guy who seems a perfect fit for the role (pace, strength and stamina all 16) and I must confess that I was struggling to understand what role to give him. Alongside him, I have another quick, tall striker with good finishing (14) pace (15) and off the ball movement (15). Mr U Rosler used a complete forward in this role and, whilst I have a romantic ideal of using an old fashioned sniffer in a poacher role, I am concerned about movement. My experience tells me that an advanced forward remains a better option given his limited overall skillset.

Balanced fluidity remains but I have ditched the 'exploit the flanks' shout.

My mindset with these roles and duties is that we will form a 4141ish shape in defence with the DLP (d) and Def for(d) dropping back but in attack, retain the benefits of a 442. I remain concerned about the potential isolation of player roles. My experience in my current save is that wingers often get involved in 1v1s and if they are not good enough, you simply lose possession. Either that or they go forward too quickly, reducing the passing options of the midfield and resulting in either misplaced short passes or wasteful long passes. I will need to see how this plays out before deciding if changes are needed. Anyone who has followed my career thread will know that this save is all about unlearning pre-conceived notions and learning new, evidence based approaches

Looking forward to spending some time with this in pre season. I don't know how much longer I can realistically continue to play FM and I am determined to complete the promotion journey from Skrill South to Premier League.