About 4-2-3-1, tactical prpblems

[Robbie Campo]

Hey everybody,

I've been playing FM for a while now, but I just keep having problems. Although my results are alright, I just never have an exceptional good season or a solid run of results. In my Liverpool game I had a team that was even better than Barcelona's this season. Yet I still lost or drew against teams like Hull of Wolves. My reserve squad could even challenge for the title in the PL. When I play teams like Bolton or Blackburn, teams with almost no creative players, they still dominate the match. So I signed up here to look for some information and (hopefully) some advice.

This is what I normally do. I always keep things simple, I don't like to tweak things too much. The formation I often play is 4-2-3-1, simply because I think it 'links' the players the best and you don't have to adjust it to whatever formation the opposition plays. It has one weak spot (and I have tried several things to improve this), and that's the gap between the centre halfs and the central midfielders. You don't have a real DM. Using one DM and a CM doesn't make really sense to me, it leaves even more space. Does anyone know how to beat this?

Another thing are my player roles. I think I may have too many 'support' roles. This is what I have now in my Everton game:

GK (defend): Howard

DR (full back, automatic): P. Neville

DC (central defender, defend): Jagielka

DC (central defender, defend): Heitinga

DL (fulll back, automatic): Baines

MC (deep lying playmaker, support): Arteta

MC (central midfielder, defend): Fellaini

AMR (winger, support): Pienaar

AMC (attacking central midfielder, support): Cahill

AML (winger, support): Gueye

FC (deep lying striker, support): Yakubu

Maybe there isn't enough depth in my tactics, players don't run from deep that much. Does anyone have some advice how I could make this tactic more effective?

Thanks in advance!

[Corkey]

The DLF is taking up the space of tha Attacking Midfielder, change him to Advanced Forward

Also yes, you do have to many support roles. Have the Wingers on "Attack".

[Robbie Campo]

Thanks, I will change it!

Do you, or does anybody else, have an idea how to set up the defensive midfielder? Should I even play with a deep lying playmaker? I feel the centre midfield is the weak spot in this formation. I would prefer Fellaini as a ball winning midfielder (defend), but with this role he may be too much out of position, because in this case he closes down further up the pitch.

Something else I noticed was that the oppostion always attacks via the flanks. My wingers don't pick up the opposition's wide midfielders, they are always in between my winger and full backs. I don't want to play with wide midfielders, because it may lack support to the AMC and striker.

[FyB]

Your wingers will not pick up the opposing winger as they are playing in an advanced position. If you want your winger to pick up opposing winger drop them back to MR/ML you can still play them with winger role just that they play from a deeper postion and will help out in defense.

I would prefer you keep your wingers on support instead of attack as they will help you build up play. Playing on attack, they just wait for the final ball to be crossed or run onto and not build up play.

I agree that your FC needs to play an attack role.

Hope that helps.