A show off your tactic thread

So, whenever I get bored with the game, I come here and lurk. Usually, I leave inspired after reading through some of the threads. I thought it would be cool if we could have a thread where people can show something off or are currently experimenting with various tactics and ideas. Hope it's okay with the mods.

Flat 343, defensive, flexible, no TIs or PIs.

-------------GKd

------CDx---CDc---CDx

--DWs---CMs---CMs---DWs

-------CFs---CFa---CFs

Probably my favourite tactic I've created. You probably have to have a brilliant front line though, the whole tactic is geared towards creating a solid platform which just lets the front trio do their own thing.

I created a 2-1-4-1-2 inspired by sampaoli/Pochettinho

SK

BPD D

BPD D

HB D

W S

B2B S

RP S

W S

AM A

AF A

CF S

4123 Wide DM

Control/Flexible

TI's: Lower Tempo, More Closing Down, Higher D-Line, Roam From Position, Whipped Crosses, Use Offside Trap

PI's:

WB's: stay wider

CD's: tight marking

CM(a): roam from position, move into channels

DLF: move into channels

This is possibly the most extreme I've made in terms of T.I's & Mentality. I don't recommend it and wouldn't normally do this. But... Halfway through the second season in Chile with Universidad de Chile (this tactic was set-up in the off-season) and so far we have won 10 trophies and are in finals for 2 more.

Set up in honour of the 2011 team that Sampaoli lead to National and International success.

Plays as a very attacking/counter-attacking yet Possession focussed 3-4-3, 3-3-1-3 or 2-5-3. The FB/d stays as a FB/d when against 2 strikers (spare man philosophy at back) and in tough away games. At home or when I want/need to attack he is changed to Support or even Attack. He: Sits Narrower and Cuts Inside with Ball.

Up front I use the Bielsan policy of Une Enganche y Tres Puntas (one playmaker and 3 forwards) which is the CM/a, IF/a, IF/s and DF/d. The DF/d drops off and makes space for the CM/a and IF/a to exploit which in turn makes space for the right sided WB/a to exploit.

The IF/s is top scorer presently, he lurks and arrives late into the box.

We share the goals around with all 4 "forwards" and a couple of other rotations players all in double figures for goals at mid-season.

We win most games by a few goals and concede very few also. We are averaging 58.67% possession.

-------------------GK-------------------

FB/d------BPD/c------CD/d------WB/a

WB/a-----------------------------------

-----------CM/a--------CM/d-----------

-IF/a-------------------------------IF/s-

------------------DF/d------------------

Counter, Very Fluid

Very High Tempo

Narrow

Normal D-Line

Prevent Short GK

Close Down Much More

Retain Possession AND Pass Into Space

Play Out of Defence

Shoot On Sight

Early Crosses

Run at Defence

Roam from Position

As I say, I don't recommend this to anyone as it really, in many ways, doesn't make sense, but what it does do is (in my eyes) replicate the style, pressing and attacking speed on the 2011 Universidad de Chile squad that won the Copa Sudamericana (see Youtube for examples)

Creating Libero systems at the moment, in a variety of configurations

I like the extreme!

Currently doing this myself, fifth season. Yeah that is Felipe Anderson as a B2BM.

Looking to finally capture the title:

I like the extreme!

Ballsy!!

I'm currently playing with Leicester and surprise, surprise - my tactic is an attempt to capture the way they played their amazing season under Ranieri (well, at least to the extent of my capabilities).

It's a 4-4-2 with loads of specific instructions for both the whole team and individuals.

Team-specific stuff: Structured shape with slightly deeper defensive line, Standard or Counter depending on match, Counter being more usual. High tempo with More Direct Passing, Narrow width to form a compact unit defensively, Closing-down much less or less (depending on match) and Stay on Feet to make sure we don't get skinned too often. Be More Disciplined and Stick to Positions to hammer home the former even more, we just want to keep the shape. So basically lot of individual talent and flair is stifled but it's the price to pay for defensive soundness, I guess. On certain home matches I might un-tick "Be more Disciplined" to give a bit more freedom, but most of the time it stays on. The back-four and midfield doesn't allow much space between them at all and when the opponent eventually loses possession, try to launch quick counters and score on the break. This doesn't necessarily mean "route 1" but is still very direct and because of the high tempo, rotation is pretty much mandatory. It's not unusual for players to end the game close to 60% condition or even below.

Build-up and Attack are tweaked all the time, but Clear Ball to Flanks and/or exploit both flanks is the most usual. On Attack it's often Early Crosses. Also Opposition instructions are heavily used and tweaked throughout matches.

Individual stuff:

Sweeper-keeper - Throw it long, tweaking between distribute quickly and not. Gotta love Schmeichel with high kicking and throwing, perfect for the tactic. <3

Full-backs - hold position, play more direct passes (in case I change the team passing in a match where we can actually play around retaining ball) and usually left full-back is told to stay wider due to wide midfielder on the left coming inside.

Centre-backs - play more direct passes (again)

DLP - mixed passing

BBM - mixed passing and fewer risky passes

Left WM - Cut inside with ball, mixed passing, sit narrower

Right W or WP - mixed passing

DF(s) - Shoot more often, Roam from position, Move into channels (this is most often Vardy)

DF(d) or P(a) - Move into channels.

So to summarize, the game-plan is to stay in a compact shape when defending. Basically only the two forwards are doing active pressing, targeting opposition centre-backs and defensive midfielder/anchor man respectively. Depending on a match also the two wide players (well, as wide as you play in a narrow formation ) can close down more actively. Pretty much the good ol' "park the bus" with the back four being very conservative when it comes to attacking and staying in position, although in some matches where I feel comfortable enough I will give the left full-back more attacking freedoms; this is because Christian Fuchs is a marvellous attacking full-back while also very sound defensively. Also, the way things are set up, the gap between back-four and the midfielders is so tight that there just isn't much space in the center to exploit for the opponent - they basically have to use the flanks which is just fine, there's a lot of aerial prowess in the team. N'Golo Kantè is magical as a box-to-box midfielder (AvR of 7.68 in 12 matches with 82% pass completion and 40 tackles with only 1 yellow card) and he is currently the player that the team builds around. And the balancing deep-lying playmaker beside him guarantees centre-backs getting constant support. Ultimately the defense is built on back-four, the two central midfielders and very importantly the two forwards who will not make it easy for opposing centre-backs and anchor-man. The wide players obviously contribute defensively as well and on certain matches quite heavily too (such as man-marking dangerous players) but I would still say that they are the least defensive duo in this set-up.

Obviously the tactic doesn't produce the most dazzling displays when it comes to beautiful game necessarily, but seems to brings pretty good results. I'm 13 matches in on the Premier League season and hanging on 7th place with 24 points (7-3-3) and even managed to beat Manchester City and Tottenham, the losses coming all from away matches against Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea respectively. So yeah, I'm pretty happy with the tactic and it's fun to be playing the game completely different than what I'm used to. :-) Ok that's it, this post seemingly turned into "wall of text crits you for 1000" so I'll cut it off here...

Ballsy!!

The games are so fun to watch. Though obviously there is still a thought behind it!