Ajax 2018/19 4231 in FM20

[Zendahl]

Ajax 2018/19

The 4-2-3-1

The way they played and how I created my interpretation of it in FM20

Ofcourse alot of you have seen the young successful side of Ajax in the champions league, but how did they get there and how did they set up? And how does it translate into FM?

In this thread I will try to answer those questions as well as I can with my knowledge of the game and logical thinking.

Given I have only played FM since the 2015 version you might have other ideas of how things function or you might know better than me how things function, but after spending hours of watching matches of Ajax and various other sides inspired by the Total Football that has it's roots back in Rinus Michels' time as Ajax and Dutch national team manager I feel confident I can translate this pretty well Into FM.

 

The Squad

I have been using my Leiria side that is currently in the 2031/32 season for this tactical development and what you will notice is how much i have focused on the "DNA" of the squad. By DNA I refer to 5 key attributes I want all my players to have a decent value in.

This is the squad:

The first thing you notice is that all outfield players except one have a 12 or above when it comes to Work Rate. And only one is below 11 for Teamwork. This is crucial for my high pressing to work how I want it to. I need my players to be willing to work hard and with their teammates, or the high press will be exploitable by players slacking in the press or not working with each other.

Another point I want to touch upon is that you can notice similarities in my squad to Ajax's squad in that it is an overall very young side playing on a high level mixed with a couple of older heads to bring the experience and mentor the up and comers.

Lastly I want to touch upon the fact many players in the squad can play more than 1 position. I use players in different positions based off of what I want from them in a particular match. I am not bound to play the 4-2-3-1 in every match and I don't do that. I use 2-3 formations every season but with the same philosophies and only slight adjustments in TI's. But more on how I set up the team tactically later.

 

The Tactic

So, here it is in all it's glory. Actually it is a fairly simple tactic in essence. Now you might go "De Jong wasn't a regista" well.. I am aware that most people wouldn't say he isn't a regista, but it is the role that makes the most sense in how it plays.

So how have I reasoned?

Starting from the back André Onana is a Sweeper Keeper of real quality, I would go attack if I had a GK capable of playing as one but for now I don't

For either full-back I could have done a couple of things but I settled for Wing-Backs on support as both Tagliafico and Mazraoui are adept both going forwards and backwards. I want them to overlap my wingers who will be cutting in.

For the CB pairing I went for a Covering BPD to act as that Sweeper type at times as Daley Blind did behind De Ligt who had licence to move forward to his right. This was generally more occuring than the other way round compared to what is shown in the picture from Spielverlagerung.

For the Lasse Schöne role i opted for a simple DM on support, he is more of a playmaker but I did not want him to have a ball-magnet role as De Jong was the heartbeat of the team.

Now for the De Jong role, I chose the regista because of how it is described in-game:

 

with dribble more, my regista recieves the ball in deep areas driving into space in the middle before playing a pass, very much in the manner of how De Jong likes to play. And off the ball the regista takes alot of defensive responsibility as he has high work rate and very solid defensive stats.

Moving forward we have Donny van de Beek, for me a simple AM on attack. Wants to get in behind the dropping striker creating space behind him and chipping in with a few points here and there.

For the left sided wide player I went for an IF on support, David Neres is not afraid of getting in behind the defensive line recieving balls to finish but also drops deep at times to recieve it and drive forward. Involved alot defensively hence the support duty.

On the right Ziyech is more creative and not as keen on getting in behind, rather recieving the ball out wide then cutting in on his left foot to either find a ball or go for a shot. Perfect match for the IW IMO.

And lastly up front, Dusan Tadic. Playing as the false nine dropping off recieving the ball deep and then advancing forward.

PI's and TI's coming a bit later on

(Thread will be developed in the coming days)

 

Edited June 10, 2020 by Zendahl

[DanP123]

This is the thread I've hoped to see! To add some context, I've just taken the Ajax job in 2024 and my intention is to have a young, technical squad capable of playing as an Ajax team can. I've set up a 433 formation & a 4231 based on the team from last season. Quite luckily I have a DM/CM who could take up the Frenkie De Jong role with enough attention and training. I will be keeping an eye on this thread closely that's for sure. Also interested to see the dynamic of the front 4 you suggest. 

[Zendahl]

4 hours ago, DanP123 said:

This is the thread I've hoped to see! To add some context, I've just taken the Ajax job in 2024 and my intention is to have a young, technical squad capable of playing as an Ajax team can. I've set up a 433 formation & a 4231 based on the team from last season. Quite luckily I have a DM/CM who could take up the Frenkie De Jong role with enough attention and training. I will be keeping an eye on this thread closely that's for sure. Also interested to see the dynamic of the front 4 you suggest. 

Hopefully I can explain it in a way that makes sense for you, as you will see in later updates the front four is working like a treat.

[Margent2]

patiently waiting...

[AceCream]

Looking forward to your thread. 

I have an Ajax save which I enjoy very much and I use it for tactics and other stuff. It's going really well, except against the bigger clubs in the champions league which I understand. 

My 4-2-3-1 Tactic

The idea is to create overloads on the left side of the pitch, an idea I learned from a creator called @crusadertsar found here: https://dictatethegame.com/2019/06/14/creating-overloads-in-fm19-a-guardiola-masterclass/.

That is why there are only support mentalities there as well as the inverted wing back and the underlap. I then attack with speed on the right. The key to this is to have the winger, BBM, DLP, IWB and BPD with the Like to switch ball to other flank trait.

Quincy Promes is surprisingly good in this game.

The Eredivisie

Spoiler

 Results

Spoiler

Squad view

Spoiler

Anyways, I just saw the thread and have recently been experimenting with on my own.

Edited June 9, 2020 by AceCream

[Zendahl]

21 hours ago, AceCream said:

Looking forward to your thread. 

I have an Ajax save which I enjoy very much and I use it for tactics and other stuff. It's going really well, except against the bigger clubs in the champions league which I understand. 

My 4-2-3-1 Tactic

The idea is to create overloads on the left side of the pitch, an idea I learned from a creator called @crusadertsar found here: https://dictatethegame.com/2019/06/14/creating-overloads-in-fm19-a-guardiola-masterclass/.

That is why there are only support mentalities there as well as the inverted wing back and the underlap. I then attack with speed on the right. The key to this is to have the winger, BBM, DLP, IWB and BPD with the Like to switch ball to other flank trait.

Quincy Promes is surprisingly good in this game.

The Eredivisie

  Reveal hidden contents

 Results

  Reveal hidden contents

Squad view

  Reveal hidden contents

Anyways, I just saw the thread and have recently been experimenting with on my own.

Very nice setup and use of the roles and duties whithin the game, will probably make a post with the current Ajax squad to go full circle with this thread as the players in their squad is basically the same makeup of player types as last year. As for the overload tactics go I also do enjoy them and very much recommend @crusadertsar for players wanting to learn the principles of overloads aswell.

As for the struggling against bigger sides I have the same thing as I try to play a very fluid high tempo football where we are exploitable on the counter, although this season we have really started well and as of this post not lost yet. Also I like the fact that you give the young players in the squad the chance to play some decent amount of first team football.

[Zendahl]

The tactial setup of roles and duties and what I want to see from each player is coming tonight in an update to the original post, and more in-depth game analysis is coming most likely later on this week or perhaps at the start of next week depending on how much time I have to play

[Zendahl]

I will clean the post up later on.. just wanted to get this update out as quickly as possible

[3rik]

I have been playing a lot with Ajax in the previous versions but not yet in FM20, this post inspired me to take a look at them again!

[Karlo]

Hi @Zendahl are you going to continue with this? Really interesting read so far. 

[Zendahl]

2 hours ago, Karlo said:

Hi @Zendahl are you going to continue with this? Really interesting read so far. 

I have fiddled around with this doing some tweaking, but been busy at work.

However I will continue this thread now that I have more time on my hands for sure @Karlo

[Novem9]

Looks lovely