A Slavic Renaissance - an attempt to replicate Red Star Belgrade 1991 tactics

THE BACKGROUND

Red Star Belgrade's European Cup winning side is often referred to as the greatest side that never was. Tragically broken up in the wake of the Balkan wars of the early nineties, it contained a number of players who went on to become superstars. The 1991 European Cup was their final fling. The team had a number of truly great players, but often overlooked is the tactical framework put in place by Ljupko Petrovic.

THE FORMATION

I enjoy a challenge, and this should prove to be so. There are a number of reasons for this, as we'll see. However, the main one is that it's so hard to define Red Star's formation. During some background reading, I've seen it described as having a back four and a back five, having three, four or five midfielders, and one, two or three forwards. So, extremely difficult to pin down. On the positive side, it gives me options to play with if things aren't going well, or I need to tweak things. I can still stay reasonably true to the original blueprint.

THE PHILOSOPHY

This is another reason for this being difficult. Red Star were known for their ability to soak up pressure and their lightning counter attacks. Of course, the ME goes into auto-mode when a counter attack is on, so I need to do my best to facilitate this as often as possible. We'll come to this later.

But there's a fly in the ointment. The Red Star team were also known for their relentless pressing in midfield. I've seen this system described as the forerunner of gegenpressing, and I can see why.

A team that can soak up pressure, counter attack, and press in midfield. Easy, right? Not to mention that this was done with a collection of brilliantly technical footballers.

The Defence

When constructing this setup, it's important to remember that the formation you see on screen is how the team will look when defending. There are two key points to consider.

- Belodedici functioned as a sweeper, cleaning up behind the rest of the defence.

- Mihailovic, nominally the left midfielder, dropped really deep to form part of a back five.

An example of how it looked can be seen below. Ignore the red ringed player (we'll get to him later). In the picture below, you can see Mihailovic in the left back position. The left back has squeezed central. The right back has moved out to press the play.

So, I'm going to set up as follows:

GK/D - with instructions to roll it out, but as quickly as possible, to try to trigger counter attacking moves.

LIB/S - more on this in a moment.

CD/D - this is the left back, but I'm going to set him up as a centre back.

CD/X - the traditional centre half that will attack the ball.

RB/S - bog standard right back here.

The Midfield

Just as tricky as the defence, this. You'll notice above that I have a libero in place. Belodedici was known for stepping out of defence, into midfield, to dictate the play in tandem with Prosinecki. When this happened, the defensive midfielder would drop into defence, retaining the traditional back four. So, that looks like it's set up for a half back. I've gone with the following...

WB/S - this is the left back. I could have him in the LB slot, but he is nominally a deep lying left midfielder. Toyed with a DW/D here, but I wan't someone that starts deep and gets forward when it's on, which I think is better suited to the WB role.

HB/D - hopefully he'll push the LCB wider, into a more traditional LB position.

BBM/S - this is the Savicevic role. He's variously described as a midfielder and a striker, but with the BBM role, I can hopefully create a something in between the two. The screenshots I've seen show him level with Prosinecki, pressing the opposition midfield.

AP/S - the Prosinecki role, pulling the strings.

W/A - this is the Binic role. He's in the AMR position. Binic was lightning quick, and would hang out when the opposition attacked, with the intention of getting him in behind the opposition defence. With a W/A role, he should do this. I may look to modify this at some point, but I don't want him getting back to help out the defence.

This is how it should typically look. Asymmetrical! (The HB is just in the left of the shot)

The Attack

Could be described as a two with Savicevic and Pancev. As seen, I've moved Savicevic back into midfield, leaving Pancev up front his own. I'm playing him as an AF/A. Let's see how that goes. He should be looking to get in behind, anyway.

So, we end up with the following...

Team Instructions

Of course, I'm looking to sit deep and trigger counter attacks, but I don't want to go ultra defensive, so Counter it is. I've also gone with Structured. I don't want marauding full backs, and I want my forwards to stay up front. But I don't want to be too strung out.

The only other thing I've switched on is Pass Into Space. I want my ball players to be looking to get my forwards in behind with ranged passes when it's on. I'm hoping everything else will happen organically.

Player Instructions

The 'front five' all have Close Down Much More switched on.

My 'keeper has been told to roll it out quickly.

Things I'll be looking our for

- The HB and the Libero should show a decent amount of interchange. When in possession, I want the Libero to push into midfield, with the HB dropping between the CBs. Hopefully the LCB pushes wide to form a traditional back four. Ish.

- The LWB dropping into for form a five man defence when the opposition have the ball.

- The RW to hang out and be an outlet for counter attacks.

- The BBM to get up and support the AF.

Things I'll be hoping not to see but might well be inevitable

- The AF being isolated.

- The defence being in utter disarray due to some lop-sided positioning.

- The deep-lying pressing thing creating big gaps in the midfield and the opposition just playing around me.

- Anything else arising from this quite frankly crazy setup.

Wish me luck...

Very interesting. This is a tactic I've played around with trying to recreate but haven't had much luck because frankly, I'm not good enough at FM for something this complex. But I've watched a few of their matches and as weird as that shape looks I think you're on the right track.

I'll try to offer some more in-depth thoughts later when I have more time.

Certainly interesting. I always love it when people take time to analyse a system and then attempt to work within the boundaries of FM to try to recreate it. The Half Back / Libero bit is key and it can certainly work, so I'll be keen to see some analysis of that specific combination. Good stuff

Well, I wasn't expecting this... it's only one game, but, instant success. This comes with the caveat that the opposition played a 4-3-3 narrow, which arguably played right into my hands, however, a 3-1 away win at the team in second place is not to be scoffed at. Their goal was from a corner as well, so in open play my tactics looked good on the face of it.

In the interest of taking one thing at a time, I'm going to concentrate on the attacking side of things first. Mainly because that was the easiest thing to spot in this particular game.

First, a summary of my three goals.

The first one can be seen in the first screenshot. The ball is dropped in behind their RB for my LWB to chase onto. He pulls it back for my AF to finish off with a header.

The second goal was very similar indeed, but this time my RW finished it.

The third goal came as a result of me winning the ball from their deepest lying midfielder just inside my own half. Their full backs had pushed on, leaving me with a 2v2, which I managed to convert. A classic example of my pressing game working, but I'm not getting too carried away just yet.

I have some screenshots uploading of my attacking play. I'll add them when they're finished, along with some analysis.

My thoughts based on playing around with this idea on and off for the past couple years, and watching some fuzzy YouTube videos of some of Red Star's 1991 European Cup matches (mostly the semifinals vs. Bayern, which is what most articles on this team are based on, but also a little of the quarterfinals vs. Dynamo Dresden):

The team shape has to be structured. Red Star played very stretched out vertically and players had very clear jobs. Mentality is trickier. When I toyed around on FM14, I first tried Counter for the same reasons you did and it just didn't look like the team in the videos. Attacking with a Much Deeper Defensive Line was more of the right fit - higher tempo, higher risk-taking, etc. However, with the ME changes to transition play for FM16 it might be time to reconsider Counter, so I'm interested to see what you can do with it.

As for player roles (all based on the Bayern matches... it was a bit different vs. Dresden):

Belodedici - Definitely a libero. He would often start in a DCR position before dropping back to sweep up behind, but you can't come close to replicating his offensive moment from there. The part I can't figure out is how to get him enough of the ball with a DM in his way.

Center backs - Pretty basic, though as you're aware the one on the left was really more of a defensive left back who would pack in tight once Mihajlovic dropped back.

Radinovic - Basically a standard FB/S at right back... he had attacking skill but didn't look to overlap Binic against Bayern.

Jugovic - As intriguing as the halfback/libero combo is, Jugovic wasn't really a halfback IMO. Defensively he dropped back, but when Red Star had the ball he got forward and played as a central midfielder, and Belodedici would move up behind him. To me he was maybe a DM/S with reduced closing down.

Mihajlovic - Very tricky one to get right, and not just because of the unusual defensive positioning. Using a WB/S or WM/S causes him to get forward and on the ball too much. He often stayed deep and left space ahead on the left flank for Prosinecki, Savicevic or even Binic to drift into. I actually kind of like a WM/D here, but you can't really get the more advanced players roaming over in front of him in FM, and then you've got no width on the left. WB/S is probably the best compromise.

Prosinecki and Savicevic - A fascinating tandem. Prosinecki played on the left (you have them reversed) and would sit a little deeper in defense (still closing down a lot though). Offensively he was clearly the primary playmaker and would come deep to get the ball. I kind of like Roaming Playmaker for him, although AP/S could certainly work. Savicevic could also be considered a playmaker, but he got forward more, so BBM or CM/A is an option. What you don't want is these two tapping the ball back and forth like Xavi and Iniesta. They're way more direct than that. They liked to play one-twos, and they'd often dribble at 2 or 3 defenders at once. (Always use a dribble more PI if it's an option).

Binic - You could argue for a W/A or an IF/A but I haven't seen a clear preference in his wide play. The important things are that he plays AMR, makes forward runs and dribbles a lot. Either role does that.

Pancev - AF is the right role, even at risk of isolation. He once said: "There are strikers who don’t run and there are strikers who run. I was one of those strikers with a natural talent for scoring, and I ran only when I was within 30 metres of goal." He wasn't much for buildup play, but he was always ready to finish off a brilliant move by a teammate.

Against Dresden, they played more of a 3-5-2. Binic moved inside as a true striker, leaving Radinovic free to bomb up the right flank. They still sat deep and looked to counter directly but were a little more patient in buildup.

Hopefully some of that is helpful, but regardless I'll be interested to see how this develops.

Thanks SpartyOn. I've done a fair bit of reading on this team, but there isn't a huge amount of detail knocking about regarding the tactical setup, and a lot of it is contrasting. Indeed, it appears that they would often change shape according to what the game required, so I'm trying to pin down what could be considered a general consensus.

To address a few of your points.

I've played a few games with this now, and I'm pleased to say that a number of my goals come from counter attacking moves. I've created a pleasing number of overload situations that have led to goals or really good chances. I'm concerned about how this plays out when I'm not countering, however, particularly against weaker sides. It's often wasteful in possession. The prevailing tactics at the time, at least in Italy/Germany, were a reasonably cautious 3-5-2, generally speaking. It's easier to play a certain style when everyone is set-up in a similar way. I've always thought it hard to implement pre-backpass rule tactics on here. The tempo of the game was just generally slower, and more chess-like.

Belodedici - limited success so far, I have to say. He does step up into midfield, and the half back does drop back into the defence, but it's not something that happens all the time. I'll post some screenshots when I'm back home that show my general shape in attack. The HB is almost always in front of the libero. I'm considering changing the libero to have an attack duty, just to see how it works.

LCB/LWB - I'm reasonably happy with how this works, so far. The only thing I've noticed, and this is a general thing in the ME, is that when playing three at the back, the WBs tuck in too far, effectively marking the LCB. I want the WB to stay wider in defence. Dropping him into the LB position could solve this, but I feel might compromise things too far. Something to think about.

Full backs - Well, they both get forward a fair bit. Now, I'm not sure that's true to the system. I'm playing Counter, with both of them on support. The thing is, they both have acres of space to move into, and so they move into it. Exacerbated by playing three at the back, which squeezes the wide players forward as well. The only way I can curtail this is by switching them both to a Defend duty. However, I'm not sure I want to, because their forward runs are bringing me a lot of joy in attack!

Central midfield - Yes, I was aware that Prosinecki played on the left. However, I wanted someone hitting the space to the left of the centre forward, with the W/A hitting the space to the right. It was really a question of adding some balance and variation in attack. I like the idea of the RPM, actually, with his added dribbling, and forward runs. I might have a play around with that. I didn't want to have two playmakers so close to one another, so the Savicevic role turns into a BBM. He's often a little further up the pitch than the AP, however, so it kind of works.

The Binic role - I'm really happy with this. He generally hangs out how I want him to, and many of my counter attacking moves seek him out. I really like the W/A role in this installment of the game, actually. There is a perception that the W/A just runs towards the corner flag and crosses it, but that's far from the case. Yes, he sometimes does that, but he also gets narrow, in the channel between the FB and the CB of the opposition. He's scoring as many, if not more than my AF.

The AF role up front is just about working. Not always, but hey, that's life as a centre forward. My first choice forward has been injured as well, so I'll reserve judgement on this for now. He plays in the style of Pancev though, looking to get in behind.

Generally speaking, it's going okay. I think it can improve with a few tweaks, however. I find that it works better away from home. Trying to break teams down that sit back is a challenge, because there isn't so much movement up front. The addition of the RPM could help with that, I suppose. I find I often have lower possession (40-45%), which is fine. I have fewer shots than the opposition, but more in target, which is what I'm looking for. I also tend to get stronger in the latter part of games.

The image website I use wasn't working last night. I'll get some screen shots up as promised later re: the attacking shape. I'll also take a closer look at the defence when I get the chance.

Oh my .... As a huge Red Star fan in younger age I really appreciate the effort you are making here. Im going to try to adept the tactic to my current team. I was 14years old when they won the Champions cup and the Intercontinental cup. The year before I cried when they sold Stojkovic to Real Madrid. I thought after that they never going to win the Champions cup, so wrong I was. :-)

I think its difficult to chose the philosophy becouse Red Star was well known for playing fast paced attacking football, its more or less only in the semifinals against Bayern (where your pictures are from) and final against Marseille that they played defensively and counter attacking. I remember those games against Bayern... and that 2-2 goal in Belgrade. :-)

You know that Red Star and Steaua are the only teams in european football history to won the Champions cup with only domestic players at the club?

Edit: Belodedic/Belodedici was half serb half romanian if I remember correctly.

Oh my .... As a huge Red Star fan in younger age I really appreciate the effort you are making here. Im going to try to adept the tactic to my current team. I was 14years old when they won the Champions cup and the Intercontinental cup. The year before I cried when they sold Stojkovic to Real Madrid. I thought after that they never going to win the Champions cup, so wrong I was. :-)

You know that Red Star and Steaua are the only teams in european football history to won the Champions cup with only domestic players at the club?

Edit: Belodedic/Belodedici was half serb half romanian if I remember correctly.

Belodedici was born in Romania (and played for Romania), to a family of Serbian ethinicity, according to Wikipedia. He also played for that Steaua team, so I'm not sure he can count for both!

Really enjoying reading how you are trying to set this up and make it work on FM.

Belodedici was born in Romania (and played for Romania), to a family of Serbian ethinicity, according to Wikipedia. He also played for that Steaua team, so I'm not sure he can count for both!

Yes, I understand, he was a foreign player even if the media at that time presented it as he was more or less domestic to make the whole story about the club more epic. :-) I remember there where also disscussions at that time if he coud play for the jugoslav national team.

Bdw are you managing Hajduk Split? They had a great team during 80`too.

Yes, I understand, he was a foreign player even if the media at that time presented it as he was more or less domestic to make the whole story about the club more epic. :-) I remember there where also disscussions at that time if he coud play for the jugoslav national team.

Bdw are you managing Hajduk Split? They had a great team during 80`too.

I am managing Hadjuk Split, yes. Good spot. I wanted an eastern European team, and Split is the only place in eastern Europe I've been to, so I gravitated towards them. I suspect the documentation on their tactics is pretty thin on the ground, however.

They have crazy fans. Have you seen the 100 years selebration video on youtube? I think the have the oldest organized supporters group in Europe.

As promised, here's a slightly more in-depth look at the attacking side of the system.

In the first screenshot, below, we can see the 'typical' attacking shape of the team. Things to note:

- The full backs are high up the pitch. I have them both on a support mentality, but the space in front of them is crying to be occupied, so that's exactly what they do. Having not seen the team play regularly, I don't know how true to life this is. I do know, however, that they provide a very useful outlet and a vital source of width.

- The HB is in a typical DM position, with the Libero in a typical CB position.

- The RW is narrow, forming very much a typical front two. In this screenshot, you can see the gap which he is going to attack, between the full back and the CBs.

This scenario shows Susic dropping the ball into the space behind their RB for my LWB to run on to. Some good movement in the centre, and my AF heads home.

As noted earlier, you can see how their 4-3-3 narrow plays right into the hands of my system.

The next sequence of screenshots shows my team in the attacking transition.

I win the ball back with my RCB, and he feeds it to my RW (who I want as my primary outlet for counter attacks, remember), who holds it up for a couple of seconds. You can see how my RB and the two CMs are already ahead of the ball.

The RW lays the ball back into defence, and the RCB plays it down the right hand side for my RB to latch on to. You can already see the overload forming here. I have a 4 v 2 situation down their left.

The RB feeds it inside to the AP...

Who feeds the AF. He hit the post in this instance, but their defence was overloaded and easily carved open with four quick passes. Pleasing stuff.

I haven't posted the player positions screen, because it looks largely like the formation above. There's little to glean from it. Some pleasing attacking play, all in all, but I felt their formation played into my hands. As mentioned above, I'm having significantly more trouble breaking smaller teams down. I'll also be looking to see a little more of the Libero stepping into midfield.

I'll look to concentrate on the defensive aspects next time.

It's really nicely balanced, because you have the key component of attacking transitions: movement and options in front of the ball.

The defensive element will be interesting. I've never really been fully satisfied with the way a Libero positions himself as defensive transitions develop. Sometimes he "sweeps" too deep and it opens a risky channel of space behind the DCs.

It's really nicely balanced, because you have the key component of attacking transitions: movement and options in front of the ball.

The defensive element will be interesting. I've never really been fully satisfied with the way a Libero positions himself as defensive transitions develop. Sometimes he "sweeps" too deep and it opens a risky channel of space behind the DCs.

I've just been taking a look at the Libero. I'm not entirely happy with him either, but for rather different reasons. I'm working on some screenshots to show why. Will try to get it posted later tonight.

And on to the defensive side.

First, I want to look at how things are set-up in a general sense. Is my shape okay?

The screenshot below gives a look at this particular aspect. It's a pretty aimless ball forward by the opposition, which my LCB goes to attack. In terms of shape, I'm happy with this. My slightly lop-sided back four is functioning more or as a traditional back four, with the LCB pushed wider, almost in that position between CB and FB. Just where I want him to be. I've also drawn a red line through my midfield, highlighting the asymmetrical shape I am looking for. It's almost perfectly recreating the midfield shape in the first post.

Another thing I was looking for was the low block/high press combination. I've posted an example of this in operation below.

Look how deep my defence is. And yet, look at how high my midfield is. The LWB has pushed up to press the ball with my two CMs. My AF has also dropped in to help out. Four players around the ball helps me win it back (well, tackle it out for a throw).

I was worried about being over-exposed by this. Now, there is the mitigating factor that the opposition are playing 4-4-2, so they don't have too many options in central midfield, but this is just what I am after. The back four has everything covered, and the HB provides some additional insurance if they do manage to play their way out.

Okay, let's talk about the Libero.

Ultimately, he's not doing what I want him to, either in a defensive sense or an attacking sense.

It's probably helpful to describe exactly what I want him to do, before I give him a kicking (which I will)!

In defence, I want him to act like a sweeper, patrolling behind the rest of the back four in case the defensive line is breached.

In attack, I want him to drop deep to receive the ball, stepping out of the back four with it where possible, but looking to begin attacking moves with ranged passes, whether that's from behind the d-line, or from in front of it.

We'll start with the defensive side first, because it's more straight-forward.

RTH noted above that his Libero will often sit too deep. You can see from the screenshots in the post above that mine is only very slightly deeper than his two CBs. Nothing wrong with that, necessarily, but in the first screenshot there, I'd expect a true sweeper to be maybe five yards deeper and five to ten yards further left. Sniffing out the danger just in case the CB misses it.

The screenshot below emphasises this somewhat. This is position without the ball, and as you can see, his average position is in front of the defence. That's perhaps a little misleading, because he's got to get back into position when attacking moves break down, but it suggests that he may not be deep enough.

Another worrying aspect is shown in the screenshot below. This shows what happened from the throw-in conceded above. They develop an attacking move, working it inside to their player on the edge of the box. Now, there are a couple of things to note here. First, as far as I'm concerned, my HB is doing a decent enough job of pressing the ball. Second, you will notice the absence of my Libero behind the d-line. That's because he's decided to press the ball as well! In this instance, the player rifles it into the top corner, but that's a low percentage shot. More worrying is that my Libero is rushing out to close down. Not an isolated incident either, it should be said.

So what about in attack? Well, to begin with, let's take a look at him stepping out of defence. Here, we can see him in the DM position, and the HB has dropped back into the back line. What I'm looking for, yes, but it's ultimately ineffectual, as the ball goes down the line.

What about his passing? If this works correctly, I should be seeing him feeding the CMs, or looking for long balls in behind for the RW and the AF. Sadly, there is no evidence of this. Looking at his passing out of the defence, I noticed that he often provides an outlet for the CBs, but then wastes possession. He can't step out of defence as I want him to, as he runs into opposition forwards. I think this is merely a case of the game changing over the past 25 years, and forwards are more inclined to close down opposition defenders.

What is interesting about the above screenshot though is that he makes a number of passes in the opposition half. Investigating this shows a situation like the one below. The RB rolls the ball back into the Libero, who then sprays it out to the LB. Whilst that isn't altogether useless, it's not exactly what I'm looking for from him.

He's essentially acting as an auxiliary defensive midfielder when I'm in possession. I'm more interested in having him step out of defence to dictate the play, driving forward from deep. I wonder if a BPD/C might get me closer to to what I'm looking for.

While this might not answer what you want, have you thought about using a halfback role instead of the libero given that the libero is not working as you like? I have been using one against top heavy formations in my current save and while he won't drop behind the defense like you want- he does get in line with the CBs- but where it might do for you is the forward play where he tends to get beyond where a libero seemingly won't go. It might not suit, and certainly wouldn't be accurate to what you are trying to replicate exactly, but it could do.

Nice to see someone try something different. Proseneki was the man was lucky enough to see him play for Portsmouth in the early 2000s his legs had gone but he still had mental amounts of skill

Haven't had too much time to develop this, but I moved the LWB back into the FB position - it was far too easy to get in behind him for the opposition right winger/midfielder, and it was being targeted.

I've also moved the Libero up into the centre of defence, as a BPD/C, with an Anchorman in front of him.

That's shored the defensive side of things up enormously, to create a lop-sided 5-3-2, effectively. Initial results are promising, but I haven't been able to assess it properly just yet.

I had tried as well to emulate this team, but I have somewhat different view on their basic shape... I watched them much more at time as I am native Serbian, and Red star fan...

If You watch some other games, apart from matches against Bayern and Dinamo, you might see formation and shape a bit different... They played extremely free and opportunistic football most of time while constantly changing shapes and looks they give to opponents, and this is why most of description was not so precise and accurate... This is, for example, game they have played against Rangers same season

[video=youtube;GuNauodGAFA]

You will notice that Savicevic did not played this game (If I remember correctly, he was injured for this game) but you can see very aggressive Radinovic on right, Prosinecki who is all over the pitch, as well as much offensive role of Jugovic... This is what Zvezda looked like most of season...

Savicevic, when he played, was not BMB hard working gay, but player that was given complete freedom and very little defensive responsibilities, his main goal was to create something in final third. This Zvezda team was heavily relied on individual qualities of players they had at their disposal. Pancev was also pretty defensive duty free, as his goal was to find space, use space and find way to score.

There were also couple of different players you did not mentioned, as they did not take part in games against Dresden and Bayern, but they had very important role in creating different looks that Zvezda played in... For example, first half of season, Vlada Stosic was playing, mostly in CM position as pair to Prosinecki. He was BMB type of player. Savicevic was more of playmaker out on wide in this first part of season. There was also Refik Sabanadzovic, DM-CB combo, who would played some HB role in team if needed, which allowed Jugovic more freedom if they played together, as he would form back four along with Radinovic, Marovic and Najdovski, allowing Belodedic to actually push much further upfield then he would normally do.

The way I see it, their first eleven looked like this during season:

GK - Stojanovic, he was normal keeper, not too fancy...

LB - Mile Belodedic, exceptionally gifted Libero, with high composure and technical ability. It was not unusual for him to push high up field and even send some final balls towards advanced players and create chances for them. In defense, he was usually guarding backline by cleaning anything that would pass them as he had enough pace to cover them...

RB - Vasilijevic or Radinovic, both high working players, that were going up and down field... Vasilijevic was more of defensive minded, while Radinovic was more of offensive minded player.

CB - Iilija Najdojdoski/Refik Sabanadzovic/Vasilijevic - plain simple stopper, mainly used to man mark opposition strikers. He was only one who always stayed at back. He played extremely simple game - won the ball and pump it out of stadium if possible.

LB - Slobodan Marovic - he was mainly defensive player, who rarely left his position, and if he did, it would be to send deep crosses from 30 or so meters from box...

DM - Vladimir Jugovic and (in some variants) Refik Sabanadzovic. Vladimir Jugovic (formerly he played for Juventus, Lazio, Atletico Madrid, highly successful and respected midfielder) was engine that drove team forward with his constant running, covering and movement. Refik Sabanadzovic was his alternative, something between CB and DM, much less attacking oriented player, but still technical enough so he could help in attack build up...

CM - Robert Prosinecki. He was main creative force of team, one that had free licence to send deep balls, run with the ball, roam from position, dribble at pace, and basically do whatever he see fits. And he was simply amazing at that role.

CM - Vlada Stosic, and at half of season, Sinisa Mihajlovic came to team and moved more to side playing WML. Vlada Stosic was high working, technical player, some kind of Box to box midfielder, while Sinisa at that time was playing more wide midfielder (with similar mentality) who would occasionally move into center of field.

WMR/AMR - was extremely fast player, at time, he run on grass 11 seconds on 100 meters (yes, someone actually measured time)... He was not most technically gifted player, but he was good enough to get past his man and shoot or cross at pace. Depending on situation, he would be more side midfileder/winger type, or second striker out wide (INF).

AMC/AML - Dejan Savicevic was essentially wide playmaker, not too much involved in buildup, but he was main gay to create something in final third. In defense, he was helping a bit, but he was rather lazy, and probably this was reason why Marovic never get to past opposition 30 meters, although he had very good crossing ability.

And finaly

FC - Pancev... He was extremely oriented to goal scoring, he was not included as much in buildup, but he did moved around a little. He was not too fast, nor too good of dribbler, nor too strong, but it was enough. The thing he was best at was scoring and moving around pitch finding ways to put the ball into net.

And my thought on their outlook in this first half of season would be like this:

Here I choose to put Savicevic on ML position, although he was more advanced player. I did this to achieve more defensive stability. After changes at half of season, I would say that Savicevic moved closer to center of field playing more central AP/SS role, while Mihajlovic replaced Stosic (BBM role in screenshot) and moved to left side, maybe even LWB, while Marovic moved more centrally and played more like CB then like FB.... At the same time, Jugovic got more advanced role in as CM...

They did however changed a lot during season, so there were times when they played true 4-3-3 with Savicevic, Pancev and Binic (or Lukic) as their front 3, or when they played some variant of 3-4-1-2, or even 3-5-1-1, and for most of season, they used no more then 15-16 players, which is quite unusual for today football... Most of players, like Stosic, like Jugovic, Vasilijevic, Mihajlovic, Binic could play on couple of different position, so they have exploited to maximum.

So I have tried this formation to get it to work, and while movement of and with ball were spot on what I remember to be, while Belodedic role was very good replicated in my oppinion, as well as Savicevic and especially Prosinecki role, who often drifted on right and left side of pitch, which was really satisfying to see, this formation had couple of problems I was unable to solve.

1. Against 1 striker setup, formation worked wonders. Angles for passes trough hole on my left side were terrible, and high defensive line gave more then enough space for LB and Libero to recover and pick up trough passes that may go over to this side. In mean time, Regista done great job on covering hole in case of some runs from middle form opponent. But against two man attack it was huge problem. They would exploit gap too much and I could not find solution for this.

2. Also, I had very big problem when facing opponent that did not allowed me space to play from defense. This could be solved with some different approach, but my team did not had GK that could send accurate enough kick and I did not had physically dominant player upfront who could pick up this kick. With some other team, this problem could be minor.

3. I tried this formation in serbian league, where most of teams are sitting deep, and while i was able to control game, and even to create chances, my conversion rate was not great and my striker was not as effective as I would like him to be. So I am guessing that TM with some individual instruction like roam from position and move into channels would be more accurate interpretation of Pancev role, but I have already abandoned this formation when this idea came to my mind...

So, I hope this will help you a bit to successfully recreate formation that you are looking for.