The 3-5-2 Thread

[nickdc]

I have always played a 3-3-2-2

3xCD (Roles change depending on facing one striker or 2. I like 1 stopper if against 1 striker, or play a sweeper against 2)

LM, CM (DLP) RM (All support)

2xAM (Treq + AM) (Attack)

2XCF (Poacher and Adv Fwd) (All attack) (Swap positions)

Control, high defensive line, Play through middle, play ball into box, lots of creative freedom, DLP is playmaker.

From an attacking point of view it works brilliantly. The wide men are only there to off load the ball and keep possession but the interplay between the front four is joyous. The advanced AMs mean opposition central midfielders are always pushed back and occupied (which helps with defending) allowing the DLP the space to dictate play.

The opposition defence finds it impossible to know who to pick up. If they go toward the AM running with the ball it leaves the through ball open for the pacy strikers, or they back off allowing the AM rack up the easy assists or shots on goal.

Short passing or direct it works very well.

Defensively the full back position is at first suicidally exposed but eventually your L/RM will track back and be helped in closing down the attacker with that side's CD. The other two CDs move over and are joined by the opposite flank's wide midfielder retaining the 3 at the back. Though this does take time. Especially if you start in the lower leagues like myself.

The one CM means the opposition's play isn't in generally spread out wide and so coming up against the three CDs will then play in your favour.

CDs need to be quick and capable with dealing with the crosses so height, strength, jumping and heading... you know, defender stuff, are key.

4231 is the nemesis formation, in which case against better opposition I would break out the counter attack with the DLP becoming anchor etc.

This formation works well as the role each position asks is very simple, allowing the best of each player to shine through. Only the L/RM have a tough time. All the work and little glory. Though once the team became very good, premier league good, do the wide men have the ability to influence their skill more.

Another benefit to this formation is that it allows for a small squad size with both midfielders and strikers generally able to play in the AM roles, or your AMs generally with striker of midfield skills too. Wide midfielders with advanced wingman positional skills are not difficult to retrain into the AM and I've gone through some seasons with only 16 players.

Just my 2 cents there.

[Falahk]

valehannes: from my experiance the back 3 did not seam to function properly on man marking, try changing to zonal and see if that helps

[liamgriffiths85]

Just switched to a 352 formation with my Bangor City side and so far in the league I've played 7 won 7, Scored 16 goals and only conceded 3!

I play 3 CB (D) a DM(d) - DLP(d) and and an AM(a) with W(a) on the sides with a P(a) and DLF(a)

The middle of midfield isn't a flat line either, all 3 are behind each other if that makes sense

[Letissier1980]

Hi. I would like to start with a 3-5-2 for fm14 playing the game with my football philosophy. I would like to base that on Glenn Hoddle's 3-5-2 a bit of cleons Yorkshire libero thread and my passion for an effective AM (role to be determined). I would gladly appreciate your input and in getting my team to play the way that I want rather than the old way I used to play in just scouting for 5 star players and putting them in my team!

So here goes:

GK Defend

Lb Support

DC Stopper

DC Stopper

LM Defensive WInger Attack

LCM Ball Winning Mid Support

CM Deep Lying Playmaker Defend

RCM ?????

AM ?????

ST ?????

ST ?????

After listening to Hod the God talk about football on talk sport recently about retaining possession especially in Midfield and picking the right pass whether long or short and giving his team 3-4 different passing options, I feel his vision is the one I want to follow.

So in my am position I want someone who can draw the defence out then split them with a devastating pass to a striker who is a mean pacy dribbler and can slot the ball home. So I guess a would need a Poacher In a striking role. What would compliment him up front? A tall target man for the defensive winger to cross to? another poacher to stretch the defence a shadow striker?

[liamgriffiths85]

AM = Advanced playmaker (support)

[liamgriffiths85]

After my pres season worries about my wingers being too far forward and having no cover down the wings, I dropped them both back to the centre line and put them on attack. The result is that both of them both regularly hit the line and get crosses in, and also track back, which is reducing the amount of crosses going in to my back post, which was the major issue.

I don't wat to go jinxing it, but after 4 seasons of struggling to stay in League 1, it looks like Ive finally found the right formation to suit my players.

Here's my results so far, in November.

And the league table

The football Ive ben playing has been great too, the best Ive seen on this FM. All the front 5 interchange great, using one two's and feeding it don the line, then getting the return ball in and tapping home for a lot of the goals. I stil concede obviously, and the majority do come when they manage to get down the wing and get a cross in, but Ive manage to stem it enough to make sure Im usually outscoring teams. Really happy with the way this tactic is working out. Its not a super tactic where Im smashing teams week in week out, but its night and day to the previous seasons. And I think as my youngsters get better and better its looking good for the future.

Have you used that tactic in europe yet?

[liamgriffiths85]

Just switched to a 352 formation with my Bangor City side and so far in the league I've played 7 won 7, Scored 16 goals and only conceded 3!

I play 3 CB (D) a DM(d) - DLP(d) and and an AM(a) with W(a) on the sides with a P(a) and DLF(a)

The middle of midfield isn't a flat line either, all 3 are behind each other if that makes sense

Ok so i used this tactic and went a whole season undefeated in the league and hardly conceding any, Now started a new season and after 7 games i've already conceded 11 goals!! I've not changed anything and my defence is still the same! Do you think it's just a case of teams in the league now knowing how to get past me more? I'm still winning games but just conceding more!

[siambluebird]

I got promoted with the tactic I outlined above with Oxford City. It has been harder in the BSP. We are doing okay in about 15th.

Some things I have learned.

Three at the back and man-marking does not work. They head to the same player to often.

One back on cover and two on stopping seems effective.

The shout harass, but stay on feet works okay.

Set team tackling to hard (remember the stay on feet shout)

I use the WBs to man mark opp wingers.

Cheers

[liamgriffiths85]

I need to somehow change it to a more defensive cautious approach when playing teams in europe, Moving the wingers further back as wingbacks would probably be the best bet

[hehehemann]

I'm not liking how the engine uses players in the traditional wingback position. When I change my 3-5-2 to a more defensive outlook I am finding using them in the fullback position with attacking mentality keeps them wide and high up the pitch but also has them in a solid defensive role. Means the formation changes to a 5-3-2 though but within the game its playing out as a good looking 3-5-2 defensive formation.

[jac4121993]

I need to somehow change it to a more defensive cautious approach when playing teams in europe, Moving the wingers further back as wingbacks would probably be the best bet

Or switching the wingers to defensive wingers.

[liamgriffiths85]

They are anyway

[RocheBag]

Has anyone who's been using a defensive diamond with a dip or defensive mid and a libero accompanying the two centre backs had any issues with the libero and defensive mid getting in each others way? When I set my holding mid to a dip, he sat in the hole just like I imagined but when the libero had the ball and moved forwards with the ball, he got to the dlp area and then played passes from there so they ended up sort of both standing in the same place, has anyone got any tips with how to stop this?

That's kind of the whole point of it though. Going by the Juventus formula, Bonucci (who I think plays more of a Libero role than Centreal Defender) steps out of defense and becomes the playmaker only when Pirlo is marked out of the game. So if Pirlo is free he should collect the ball, if someone is marking Pirlo, Bonucci just steps right up into his area and becomes the playmaker. You don't want them both handling the ball in two seperate areas.

[MeesterCat]

I've just taken over at Schalke a few seasons in and given the players I have at my disposal, I've decided to take on a 361 formation and see how it goes. The basic formation lines up thus:

GK

DCl (stopper)

DC (Cover)

DCr (Stopper)

DM (DM-D)

ML (DW-S)

MC (Either DLP-S or MC-S)

MR (DW-A)

AMCl (IF-A)

AMCr (AP-S)

STR (Poacher)

I generally play with Balanced/Control and with Press More and Drill Crosses. I also generally use the Shouts Retain Possession, Work Ball into Box and Play Wider from the start.

After a slightly shaky start, things are starting to pick up and it's looking really impressive. As long as the opponents wide players aren't top drawer (hello Dortmund) it really controls the game. The Control instruction pushes the back three up against the opponents forwards and not allowing them any space. The CM/DM pairing sits deeper and mops things up while instigating attacks. The two AMCs provide movement and support, whilst the use of the poacher is designed to give the team a focal point. I luckily have two physical beasts in the Defensive Winger position, so they do all the shuttling.

I'm still refining things, but I think the formation has been vindicated by a 3-0 dismantling of Man Utd in the Champions League.

[TimEdwins7]

I play a 3-5-2 in my game as Charlton. Done very well! Won the Championship first season and finished second season 12th in the Premiership.

I'm not quite sure of the midfield roles though, will keep the DLP, but not sure about having 2 BBMs?

[TimEdwins7]

Changed the left midfielder to CM/Attack and the right midfielder to BWM/Support. Beat Arsenal 2-0 and they didn't have a clear cut or half chance. Now 2-0 up at Newcastle after 14 mins!

[Candre168]

TimEdwins7

Your formation is very similar to the one I used at Rosario Central and Sao Paulo FC...I was incredibly successful. I think you don't have enough creativity in midfield like that, I'd consider switching one of the MC's to Advanced Playmaker or Central Midfielder, so they play through balls more. That's just my suggestion.

I've switched to a 4-2-3-1 after using 3-5-2 throughout FM, I simply have too many quality AMRLC's, I'm trying to think of a 3-5-2-esque formation I could fit them into though, as it's the formation I understand the most.

[RonnySanchez]

I play 3-4-1-2,

DLP(a) AF

AMC(a)

WM(a) CM(d) DLP(d) WM(a)

CD(s) CD© CD(s)

and 3-1-4-2,

DLP(a) AF

WM(s) CM(a) DLP(d) WM(s)

CD(s) CD© CD(s)

I choose the tactic and formation depending on the opposition, depending on where I play (home or away) and depending on the weather. I let individual player instructions on default except that I change the Wide Midfielders to make them some thing in between a Defensive winger and a Wide Midfielder, I want them to behave as Defensive wingers (with holding ball and tight marking but I also want them to have runs with the ball on mixed as a wide midfielder and to press as a wide midfielder and not as a DW)

One thing that is very strange is the cross completion ratio of my wide players, it lies between 16 and 18 %. I think that is too low…

I was wondering if you guys also have that % for the wide players, if you have any higher % would be nice to analyze that fact.

What’s your cross completion ratio for the wide players?