tactical development with man united. death by crosses, hopefully!

Guys, Im hoping you can all help me in my quest to finally create a tactic of my own. First off all I would like to tell you my team of choice. It is Manchester United. I have been a fan for many years and even though I don’t follow it as much as I used to due to other commitments. I still have fond memories of this wonderful club over the years.

My first stumbling block is formation. The modern game seems to consist of 4231, 451, 433 or variants of these. However, I’m a big fan of the old fashioned 442. Now don’t get me wrong this is not set in stone, I’m more than happy to accommodate any formation as long as it suits the style of play I want to achieve. Which comes next!

Fast wingers (plenty of crosses), tough tacking midfield, rock solid defence and plenty of goals. Easy right?

Do I keep possession slowly drawing the opposition out then counter with early crosses, absolutely!!

Do I play wide using my fast wingers bombarding the penalty area with crosses for my forwards to head and score at will, **** yeah!!

Which do I decide on? Option one is good as is option 2. Being Man United I should be dominating teams and dictating how they play and not visa versa. So option 2 it is.

How do I fit this in to a formation? 442 is the obvious one so that’s what I will attempt first. It will probably look nothing like a 442 by the time its finished but will I really care if I’m tearing the opposition apart week in week out? No is the answer!!

With the style of play I’m after this is the base line for the formation#

The thinking is GK>BPD>CMD>WA>FORWARDS (other variants included) You will note that the left hand side is more attacking. The reason behind this is on a previous save I had exploit left side so most of the play went through there leaving so much room for the opposite flank to attack as it appeared that the opposition were focused on the side where the ball was. Maybe a load of rubbish but where’s the harm in trying. In this formation the right hand side will be the focal point.

GK- nothing fancy, bog standard keeper.

BPD- simply to bring the ball out of defence to pass to either of the midfielders. Cover duty selected for ease of oncoming ball from GK.

CD- again nothing fancy.

WBA- to advance forward to aid with crosses into box.

WBS- to supply early crosses through/over the oppositions defence for the F9 to run onto.

CMD- simply to win ball back and distribute out wide or play just a simple pass to team mate.

BBM- to hassle the oppositions players winning ball back. Also a runner who can arrive in the box late.

WA- attack the by-line and supply endless crosses in to the box. Also attack any space vacated by the opposition.

WS- the creator. I want him to be the man supplier. Whether it be an early cross or a cross from the by-line. He needs to use his wits to decide which is the better option. High vision, passing, flair along with crossing for this chap!

TMS- giant needed here to get on the end of those crosses. Whether he scores from them or flicks it on for the F9, I don’t care.

F9- quick and agile able to pull the defence around leaving space for the TM or using his pace to make a run behind the defence. Again, I don’t care.

Next come the mentality and team shape. My initial thought is to go with structured as I want my players to do as they are told. Good idea or am I limiting and/or stifling the players?

Mentality wise Im thinking attacking as im Man United and that’s what we should be good at. Will that leave me exposed at the back, I don’t know. Maybe I should go control? That’s not my plan. I choose number 2 remember! Shall I go with standard. ARGH far too many variants for me to deal with.

I play it safe for now and decide on a structured standard approach.

Next comes my nemesis, bloody team instructions. Now Im led to believe when it comes to these less is more.

We know that my right side is the focal point so I tick that box. Being united I want to dominate and win the ball back so that’s ticked. Play out of defence also ticked as I would like to dictate the play. Everything else left alone as Im a patient man and having no idea what they mean has nothing to do with it.

I have left the crossing as mixed simply because Im aiming to use a short quick F9 and a tall strong TM so didn’t want to limit myself to one type of delivery.

Player instructions again less is more right? I know I want my right side to be more creative so with that I have chosen these. Subject to change of course but hopefully these will see those crosses coming in.

I have not changed anyones passing lengths due to not wanting to limit any options available.

WBS- cross more often, cross aim TM, cross from deep.

WS- cross aim centre, shoot less, more risky passes.

That’s it, the end. This is the result.

Player wise im using what’s available to me but purchases will be made and highlighted for your amusement.

No im only joking now comes the bit I hate the most, analysis. Simply because I have no idea how spot what the oppo is doing. Are they playing deep and compact, wide and adventurous or hitting me on the counter?? I just don’t know. Anyway here goes………….

Right i got through preseason and played my 1st league game away at Sunderland which we lost 1-0. so what went wrong. now this may not be as in depth as i would like simply due to i dont know how to take screen shots so im having to take them on my tablet then email them to myself then upload to imgur.

this is how both teams set up

you will note that i have purchased drogba and pizzi. needed a tall target man as united dont have one. pizzi i think is the creative player i was after for the right wing slot.

the main thing i wanted from this formation was crosses so lets start there.

as you can see not one cross was completed, bloody disaster! what went wrong? tall target man,check. small quick runner,check!

they were delivered from where i want or at least thought. but they seem to be evenly matched on both sides considering my right sided winger was supposed to be the main supplier. maybe i have it wrong. should my right sided winger be on attack and the left more support? will need to consider this i think.

looking at the over all positions im quite happy that the two banks of four all stayed relatively straight they appear to be close together from what i can see but does it look like a too bigger gap between the midfield and the forwards?

using a false 9 he should be dropping deep to bridge the gap which is good. maybe the target man is too static? should a new role be considered?

i need to watch the game argh i hate this bit as i cant read whats happening!!

stopped at a random time (9mins) and all i can see is my men running around aimlessly. chasing the ball and leaving men free everywhere.

hmm im not going to watch the whole game as i simply dont have the time. what i can see is that its too slow and not attacking enough for man united. the midfield do appear to be keeping shape but nothing comes from any run. i may increase the tempo or change mentality? there is a definate gap beteween the forwards and midfield so i may have to change midfield role. im happy with the CMD for now as he seems to do what i want. as a whole its just not penetrating enough. i shall have a think about things and make changes if need be.

decided to go a bit more attacking for the next two games. won 1-0 v liverpool 3-0 v monaco. visually much more like i was after crosses ciming in and over the top. defensivly still good so far. again changes always possibly

changes made:

team intructions-

player roles-

excited to try out the new tactic, next game away v spurs.

8 mins in and already 3-0 down.

final score 9-1!!

back to the drawing board. i want to stick with the 442 for now but i need to see whats going wrong. i may be some time............

If you hit Alt + F9 in game, you will create a screenshot which gets saved to your Documents > Sports Interactive > FM2016 > Screenshots folder.

Saves you fiddling around with your phone and they're much easier to read .

If you hit Alt + F9 in game, you will create a screenshot which gets saved to your Documents > Sports Interactive > FM2016 > Screenshots folder.

Saves you fiddling around with your phone and they're much easier to read .

also u can try Gyazo which is a user-friendly screen-capture software. It's better than default steam screen-capture IMO

If you hit Alt + F9 in game, you will create a screenshot which gets saved to your Documents > Sports Interactive > FM2016 > Screenshots folder.

Saves you fiddling around with your phone and they're much easier to read .

i try that and my screen just goes blank until i press it again

How about F12 (Steam screenshots button) or verify integrity of game cache in Steam?

(sorry, getting off topic I know).

How about F12 (Steam screenshots button) or verify integrity of game cache in Steam?

(sorry, getting off topic I know).

will try but then how do i put them on the forum? is it the same way?

Yup, just upload them to an image sharing site like you are already doing.

right so after reading so threads and seeing my team concede 15 goals in 2 games i have had a slight change of formation. have opted for a 4141 as still have my two wingers but with an added DM set to DM funnily enough. with only having one striker i feel i need an extra runner from deep. i have gone for a RPM with a CM on suppport duty to help with the attacking threat. uptop i have martial as CF either on a support or attack duty. not sure which is better so shall just keep alternating for now.

i just played chelsea away from home and won 2-0 which is a major achievement for me. it was 1-0 after 45 mins. i though chelsea would come at me in the 2nd half so i took a gamble and changed the CMs to BWD and the RPM to AP. it paid off thankfully as i got the 2nd goal. i realise now that i should have waited to see what was happening in game before i made these changes. i just thought with the DM in place i could push forward more. i also changed the DM to support duty.