3-2-3-2 African Submarine: advice needed

[goalash]

I mostly do international management in Africa lately. During the course of the save I came up with a new tactics, which I called African Submarine.

The basic idea is to play three at the back with no wingbacks, whose predictable vertica movement I’m not a fan of, opting for wide midfielders instead. Paired with the Segundo Volante/Anchor Man combo, my Ivory Coast team seems really solid at the back. We haven’t conceided a single goal since 7 games.

The part I'm still working on is the front trio. Current Treqaquista/Pressing Forward/Attacking Midfielder setup seems to work well enough in terms of keeping the ball, but I feel the whole concept could do with some enhancements. (The previous incarnation of the tactics consisted of a a Complete Forward, a Preassing Forward and an Enganche).

I went for short passing style for the sake of Segundo Volante and Treqarquista and due to the lack of attacking wide men as well. When facing an opposition fielding dual wide players, I tend to go with wider defensive width and narrower attacking width. If I'm not potentially overwhelmed on the flanks, I leave the width on Positive default.

I feel I could do something more offensive in the middle. I tried switching the Anchor Man to a Defensive Midfielder (Defend) and the Attacking Midfielder (Support) to a Shadow Striker - in order to force the MCL/AMCL segment wider up the pitch, but the passing seemed to suffer and despite more action in the final third it don’t think it was really worth it overall.

I'd appreciate any thoughts and/or recommendations.

Edited February 20, 2022 by goalash

[prched55]

Who is trying to score goals for you? The Tq is primarily a creator, the AMsu is primarily a creator, and the PFsu is a link up center forward. So you have no real goal threat. I would make the Tq an AF or Poacher or PFatt and have the PFsu become a Tq. You could also make the left midfielder a winger on attack and have the AMsu stay wider or move into channels to support that winger. 

Cool tactic. I love this shape and what you've come up with. 

[goalash]

Good point over the primary goal scorer: I was after having two and ended up with having none 

I thought about switching to the PFa and TQ setup, but this way I’m going from having one of the two forwards  help out in defence (PFs) to most likely none. Does a PFa drop as deep as a PFs?

I had the LM on attack for a while and there was simply too much ground to cover for the Anchor Man and the DCL. With the support duty there it makes way more sense defensively, however if facing a narrow opposition, I might indeed consider switching to the attack duty.

The AMC role is the one I have most problems with. AMCs is fine, but I feel I could do better here. With PFa and TQ around, a Shadow Striker would be an overkill.

Do you think that an Enganche with the Stay Wider shout might work alongside a TQ and with a Segundo Volante behind him? 

[prched55]

12 minutes ago, goalash said:

I thought about switching to the PFa and TQ setup, but this way I’m going from having one of the two forwards  help out in defence (PFs) to most likely none. Does a PFa drop as deep as a PFs?

With the lower line of engagement the PFa should still drop deep and defend. But just try it out and see what happens. If you're not scoring you're not winning so it doesn't matter if he defends or not on support. 

13 minutes ago, goalash said:

The AMC role is the one I have most problems with. AMCs is fine, but I feel I could do better here.

What does the AMC not do that you want him to do? Also I don't think a SS would be overkill if you have the right player. 

[Manutd1999]

I like this shape a lot, interested to see how it progresses!

Maybe you could switch the Trq to the AM slot to give you room for two goalscoring strikers? Something like this:

                   PF-A             DLF-A

TRQ-A

Having 3x 'attack' duties is probably going against the classic advice on this forum, but with both the TRQ and DLF dropping deep you might get away with it?

Maybe also consider changing the Winger on the left to something more defensive?