Bluebeard Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 I have just taken over a team and would really appreciate your insight into what might be the best formation for my squad. It is a national team and 2018 so I essentially have a squad with some older real world players and some regens. And I can't buy to fiill in any gaps! The best ten outfield players are: - a sweeper/cover-type DC - a perfectly solid DC - an extremely fast DC with awful jumping - a solid but creative DMC (who can also play MC well) - a classic deep-lying playmaker - a solid MLC - a central mid who could play any role in that position well, save ball-winner (def) - a trequartista-type who can play AM/FC - a deep-lying striker-type who can play AM/FC - a classic poacher The biggest issue apart from the lack of width is that no good available player has jumping over 13 other than the MLC with 14. The three strikers' jumping stats are 3, 7 and 8 respectively...! In my first friendly, played at home against a team who are lower quality than mine and who lined up as a straight 4-4-2, I tried a 3-4-1-2. Of the players listed above, I dropped the deep-lying playmaker and put in a very decent AMR (again, his only weakness is his jumping!). .................Stopper - Cover - Stopper....................... .............................................................................. Winger (att) - DLP (def) - BWM (supp) - Wide M (auto) ................................Treq....................................... .......................Poacher - Deep LF (supp)................... Essentially this didn't get anywhere fast. I conceded a goal from a corner and didn't really look like scoring despite plenty of shots. The Trequartista achieved nothing, the gaps were too large in the centre (other than at the back) and between the lines, the strikers never found space and the wingers dropped back to DR/DL and never really got involved (and when they did, their passing was awful!). Furthermore, my opponent ruthlessly exploited my DC with poor heading with their target man while the second striker dropped deep and made the most of the space. I considered pushing the wingers up to AMR/AML but they don't play naturally there and the formation would then appear completely unbalanced anyway. I tried playing three up front with the outer strikers wide and narrow - neither worked so I went back to the original setup but with the Treq becoming 'Att Mid - att'. He achieved nothing much then either. I changed the MCs to a defensive ballwinner and an attacking central mid and they still seemed to play annoyingly level with one another, neither dropping back nor getting forward much. I pulled back the covering defender as a libero (att) but he didn't really contribute much, although I didn't look any weaker at the back either. In the end I did have many more shots than my opponent, and pulled levelled the match via a corner, but the performance was poor. The wide men were particularly bad - they contributed nothing and only completed about 50% of their passes. One thing that did seem to improve things was changing from 'rigid' to 'very fluid' as there was definitely a tendency for the strikers to sit up top failing to contribute and the DCs to do the same at the back. In my last managerial job I had a tremendously successful 3-4-3 as per the following: .................Stopper - Cover - Stopper....................... .............................................................................. .........DLP (supp) - BWM (supp) - B2B (supp)............. ................................Treq....................................... Ins Fwd (att).......Deep LF (supp)............Ins Fwd (att) It seems pretty clear that my new players would suit this tactic, but I really don't want to play the same way again as that was why I left! Doh! Any suggestions? There aren't really any good full backs of this nationality but there are plenty more decent strikers and DMC/MCs as well as a couple of decent AMRs... argh. Any thoughts or ideas, including roles/duties/team philosophy suggestions as well as just basic formations, are really welcome. Thanks Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cycholka Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 Curious setup. I'd probably try following : -----_--10-_-----_-11-_----- -----_-----_--9--_-----_----- --6--_--8--_----_--7--_----- -----_-----_-----_--5--_----- -----_--4--_-----_--3--_----- -----_-----_--2--_-----_----- -----_-----_--1--_-----_----- where : 1 - sweeper keeper 2 - libero 3 - stopper 4 - cover 5 - anchor 6 - def winger (auto) 7 - box-to-box 8 - dlp 9 - advanced playmaker/teraquista 10 - dlf 11 - poacher 1) Short passing - Your players can't jump, so there's no point in forcing them to challenge crosses and through balls. 2) Fluid ( or Very Fluid ) philosophy - you lack widith, so only likely way to get goals ( and not ship to much of them ) is to crowd out your opposition both in attack and defence. You won't do that if your forwards don't track back and your defence doesn't push up. 3) More Roaming - your only sensible way to stretch play as your guys should look for space on the sides It's slightly odd shape, but you've got a bit odd player set Formation like this should crowd out anyone in the centre, be solid down the left with the def winger there and reasonable down the right with box-to-box midfielder/anchor/fast stopper combination able to harras anyone out of the game. Going forward you've got plenty of bodies in and around the box three players able to do stuff with the ball and hopefully plenty of possesion giving you time to look for opening. You can allways sacrifice 9 for another defensive winger on the right if that hole makes you giddy (creating 3-1-4-2 of sorts ) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluebeard Posted July 8, 2010 Author Share Posted July 8, 2010 Thanks, I definitely agree that fluid is the way to go but you've explained well exactly why. I'm finding it very difficult to create space up front, any suggestions? Changing the strikers' wing play settings doesn't seem to make much difference and nor does putting the wingers on max mentality and runs from deep with an overall attacking philosophy... Also, what are people's thoughts on setting up the defence/cover? I currently have: DC Cover with relatively low CD, tight zonal 2x DC Stopper with middling CD, tight man DMC with almost max CD, tight zonal (and hard tackling) MR, ML with max CD, loose zonal The intention is to have the back three keep its shape while the DMC disrupts in front of them and the 'wingers' (more like fullbacks) harry people on the wing. I also thought that higher CD might encourage them to stay up the pitch. The front three are also on high CD, do you think I should reduce this to increase their chances of finding space? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.