AC Milan Golden Years

[TacticNewb]

I grew up watching AC Milan when they were at there peak with Maldini, Nesta, cafu, pirlo, gattuso, seedorf, kaka, inzaghi and shevchenko... just to name a few and wanted to create the 4-3-2-1 and 4-3-1-2 tactics that they commonly used. I've had a few attempts at these but just can't seem to make it work properly. I've tried to create the gattuso mould on the right cm slot with a pirlo type in the middle and the dribbling from a kaka type player but I seem to never create anything and get absolutely pounded. Any suggestions or templates i could tinker with would be much appreciated.

[Marsupian]

I'm currently trying to create something similar with Palermo. Basically I'm just trying to replicate some classic Italian systems with a prima punta, secunda punta and trequartista in attack. Two hard working and hard tackling midfielders with a holding passer in the center and a back four with two wingbacks. It's been decently effective but somewhat inconsistent as I was tinkering a bit at the start of the season.

Currently I've settled on this:

Formation: 4-3-1-2

Shape: Structured

Mentality: Counter for tough games or against fast attackers, control when trying to take control of the match or trying to keep slow attackers away from my goal (think Luca Toni, don't want him anywhere near my goal).

Team instructions: Play out of defense, Play wider, Prevent short GK distribution.

        SK(d)
WB(s) DC(d) DC(d) WB(a)

  BWM(s) MC(d) BWM(s)
        AP(a)
    AF(a) CF(s)

Player instructions: Front three close down much more. AP(a) roams and moves into channels, CF(s) moves into channels, WB's stay wider.

I'm having a hard time getting my version of a trequartista working how I want it to and I'm not playing a deep lying playmaker in the hopes of making my Treq the creative focal point. I like how it's playing at the moment. The idea behind preventing GK distribution and the higher closing down is I want the front three to do the initial press to direct build up away to the flanks after which the midfield three shifts to that flank and creates a defensive man advantage to win the ball back. It's weak to fast switches to the other flank but it's working decently so far. 

[DreamsDefined]

Well, this is more 2002/3 Milan, rather than the Kaka era (but I'm working on that one at the moment!).

So it features 2 out and out strikers (Shevchenko/Inzaghi) rather than the lone forward of later years, and a more traditional No.10 (the Rui Costa role). The only break from reality is the focus play down the right, which was more of a 2004 Milan feature with Cafu on the right and Maldini playing a much more conservative role on the left. The reason for that is Abate in the modern Milan side is a beast (for me, at least). So you may want to tinker and make the two wing backs more balanced.

The Gattuso role is most difficult to replicate, because he did the work of multiple players and was basically the primary reason the formation functioned at all. In game that's obviously difficult to achieve, and my biggest problem at the moment is finding someone who can remotely come close to that. At the moment I've gone with BWM-D as I think it's the best base role to start with to recreate Gattuso - but still needs a lot of tinkering. 

The Regista is obviously the Pirlo role and fits quite well I think.

There's two areas I'll likely be changing:

1. The strikers... Neither Shevchenko or Inzaghi were DLF type forwards... they were both Advacnced/Poacher/Complete forwards. Inzaghi more a Poacher, with Shevchenko having a little more creative/complete forward abilities. The DLF/AF setup I have at the moment is to fit my team to make sure we can get results. This tactic is a long-term goal, and I have to build up a team who can fulfil it. 

2. The two centrebacks... Nesta/Maldini (apart from being gods) played more of a Cover/Stopper role to my mind. Maldini as Cover, Nesta as Stopper. Again, don't quite have the players to make this work quite yet, so that's a work in progress.

Anyway, feel free to use this as a baseline... don't expect it to be a plug and play type thing, I make lots of PI and OI changes each match to get the desired effect and result, and the formation itself is difficult to pull off without getting defensively slaughtered.

Here's the formation and roles (click on the image to expand and ignore the players/injuries):

Here are the team settings and instructions (click on the image to expand):

[TacticNewb]

I just imagine that it'll be hard to transfer the way they played into football manager. The left back and two centre backs stayed pretty much static and the right back bombed up and down (cafu) with the right centre mid covering for him. The middle cm was the playmaker and the only word I can even think of to describe the left center mid is the 'shielder'. The attacking mid basically just ran and dribbled his way through the middle either shooting or laying it off to the two out and out forwards. They three pretty much stayed up that end of the field and were the attacking outlets.

This is all from a pretty foggy memory of mine so I could be way out on certain parts or even every part.

The roles and positions are pretty straight forward apart from a few exceptions e.g the gattuso role. It's the way they played that I'm having problems with.

Dreams defined - your tactic is pretty much how I want the positions set up and how the roles should be minus the ones you said you were going to change at a later date.

Do you feel that it plays the way it should? They sat deep and played the ball up towards the front 3 and then a few players supported them but I don't know how I could get that across on the match engine.

[Jean0987654321]

I had some fun emulating this before

 

 

[DreamsDefined]

5 hours ago, StevenCopland said:

I just imagine that it'll be hard to transfer the way they played into football manager. The left back and two centre backs stayed pretty much static and the right back bombed up and down (cafu) with the right centre mid covering for him. The middle cm was the playmaker and the only word I can even think of to describe the left center mid is the 'shielder'. The attacking mid basically just ran and dribbled his way through the middle either shooting or laying it off to the two out and out forwards. They three pretty much stayed up that end of the field and were the attacking outlets.

This is all from a pretty foggy memory of mine so I could be way out on certain parts or even every part.

The roles and positions are pretty straight forward apart from a few exceptions e.g the gattuso role. It's the way they played that I'm having problems with.

Dreams defined - your tactic is pretty much how I want the positions set up and how the roles should be minus the ones you said you were going to change at a later date.

Do you feel that it plays the way it should? They sat deep and played the ball up towards the front 3 and then a few players supported them but I don't know how I could get that across on the match engine.

It does okay, not sitting that deep as it's on Control, but I found that was needed otherwise the front 3 could get very isolated. May need to look at changing Team Shape to reduce space between the lines, although Structured should be doing that.

I agree that it's super difficult to get it to work, as I find the Gattuso role simply can't be replicated... his work rate was the main reason the formation held up defensively, he was able to cover so much ground and allowed the players like Pirlo and Kaka to basically do nothing defensively. In game you can easily get cut apart against certain teams. Seems to work okay in Serie A because many of the teams play very narrow anyway, but in the Champions League I find it doesn't work that well at the moment (ironically).

[TacticNewb]

7 hours ago, Jean0987654321 said:

I had some fun emulating this before

 

 

Thanks Jean, I actually spent a good hour or two reading yours after I found it on here.

[TacticNewb]

7 hours ago, DreamsDefined said:

It does okay, not sitting that deep as it's on Control, but I found that was needed otherwise the front 3 could get very isolated. May need to look at changing Team Shape to reduce space between the lines, although Structured should be doing that.

I agree that it's super difficult to get it to work, as I find the Gattuso role simply can't be replicated... his work rate was the main reason the formation held up defensively, he was able to cover so much ground and allowed the players like Pirlo and Kaka to basically do nothing defensively. In game you can easily get cut apart against certain teams. Seems to work okay in Serie A because many of the teams play very narrow anyway, but in the Champions League I find it doesn't work that well at the moment (ironically).

I think I'm just going to have to settle on using control and put that team and tactic down great players making the tactic work. Thanks for the help and ideas @DreamsDefined