4-4-1-1

[AngryDad]

Right, I have developed a new tactic, which is a 4-4-1-1.

The theory is that I should focus on creating chances for my team and stopping the other side creating chances. We will look to create chances via the right sided midfielder, who is a technically decent player for League 2, getting on the ball, getting down the wing, delivering crosses or playing the ball behind their defenders. The box-to-box midfielder should break late into the box, as should the AMC, who is a decent finisher and quite quick but not a good dribbler. They can feed off knock downs or break late when the ball is played up to the target man.

I've made the Left Back an attacking full back, but only because I see that you should always have one defender with an attacking mentality - I don't feel comfortable with that, but whatever works. Being a league 2 team I'm not looking for my defenders to mess about with it - they need to play the ball up to the midfielders, but we don't have the pace to play a more long ball game. The centre backs are fairly decent aerially, but can be exposed to pace, and I'm not quite sure what to do about that, but I like them to mark tightly and defend by keeping the ball outside of the area, letting the opposition have possession out of the danger area, but closing down quickly if ever they're near the box.

Does this tactic have any obvious flaws? We've yet to play any friendlies so I haven't put it into action just yet...

[bababooey]

Love seeing 4-4-1-1's, here's my take:

- I wouldn't have 2 attack duties on one flank. Try to keep it balanced. You don't really need a defending duty for a fullback IMO.

- So, try doing 1 attack + 1 support on each flank. Make them asymmetrical. 1 fb attack 1 wm s, 1 fb s 1 wm a.

- The AMC/Striker combination is incredibly important. From what I gather you're doing a bit of the big man/little man partnership. This can be tricky to pull off when not using 2 strikers. But I think you've done it just fine here. The SS is a very cool role.

- The CM's look good to me.

Remember that playing on standard mentality = a little bit of everything. So the team won't be aggressively going for goal, but they also wont be totally sitting back either.

I would perhaps remove "tighter marking" but i've had bad experiences with it so I am biased.

I would be careful with hassle opponents, but it IS incredibly useful and effective. Especially with lower mentalities that do not normally close down much on their own.

[SnUrF]

Love seeing 4-4-1-1's, here's my take:

- I wouldn't have 2 attack duties on one flank. Try to keep it balanced. You don't really need a defending duty for a fullback IMO.

- So, try doing 1 attack + 1 support on each flank. Make them asymmetrical. 1 fb attack 1 wm s, 1 fb s 1 wm a.

- The AMC/Striker combination is incredibly important. From what I gather you're doing a bit of the big man/little man partnership. This can be tricky to pull off when not using 2 strikers. But I think you've done it just fine here. The SS is a very cool role.

- The CM's look good to me.

Remember that playing on standard mentality = a little bit of everything. So the team won't be aggressively going for goal, but they also wont be totally sitting back either.

I would perhaps remove "tighter marking" but i've had bad experiences with it so I am biased.

I would be careful with hassle opponents, but it IS incredibly useful and effective. Especially with lower mentalities that do not normally close down much on their own.

I know it's the 'standard' to use A+S on one flank and S+A on the other, but I personally go with A+A & S+S in a 442. With the same mentalities on the same side means the players are closer together. Attacking winger quite forward with attacking FB closer to him than a FB with S duty would be. For the defensive side, I've got DLP(D) playing on the side of the attacking wide players so he tends to cover for the FB(A).

-SnUrF

[AngryDad]

Thanks guys! I will need to give this some thought before the next match. First friendly resulted in a disappointing 2-2 draw at Margate, 2 divisions below us. We had 69% possession, 22 shots with 8 on target, but only 2 clear chances, both of which my box-to-box midfielder put away. They had 8 shots, but 2 clear chances which they also finished.

Biggest problem seemed to be through the middle. They seemed to have a target man who played their other late-breaking striker in, with my centre back (despite being tight marking and marking the player specifically) was too far away, with my left back nowhere in sight. The striker burst through and scored twice. Possibly some poor performances or lack of familiarity with the tactic, but I'm still not sure I want my left back so far up the field.

Next up is Coventry, from the division above, so I'm going to try and tighten it up, as much to try out a defensive set up as anything. My CM will become an DM anchor man, which does leave the other MF as a box-to-box midfielder - will this leave the central midfield too exposed? We shall see.