Young Mourinho 433 dm

[Novem9]

Mourinho 2002-2010 and Mourinho 2010-2018 are two different coaches. The first is the best coach on the planet with bold but clear principles and innovations in tactics and psychology. This Mourinho wrote history. The second is much less effective in terms of results. He is categorically not like the early Jose, betrays his own principles and lagged behind tactically. This Mourinho alternates relative successes with resounding failures.

The early Jose never used the bus as an ideology and knew how to control the opponent. A more modern analogue of the early Mourinho in the Premier League is the top version of Jurgen Klopp (13.5 shots; 5.5 on target; 51.5% of possession). Jose was much closer to this indicator than to his current one. Mourinho built the defense much more aggressively and considered possession an important tool.

"The result is not made in the possession or non-possession phase, but in the third phase, when the ball does not belong to either team.
The faster the team moves in this phase of the game, the higher the chances that the final possession numbers will be in our favor.
Tools for achieving such goals have been known for a long time - high active pressure when the ball is lost by the maximum possible number of players.
Good defense is defense for the least amount of time possible."

Jose Mourinho, 2010.

Agree, this is not at all like the "bus" Jose, who was fired from several clubs?

"The philosophy of Barcelona has influenced me more than any coach. The four years that I spent at this club had a fundamental impact on me”

In his presentation to the management of Porto, the main tactical goal was dominance in episodes when the ball was transferred from one team to another, but effective possession of the ball immediately followed. Jose even explained how he would achieve it: positional play, creating lines to advance the ball, triangles, controlling the pace of the match.

“Mourinho made us press very high. He wanted the team to react quickly to the loss of the ball so that we could get it back in midfield. We pressed as a team, not 1-2 players"

Maniche, who worked with José at Porto and Chelsea.

“The myth that that Chelsea was just defending and giving all the best on the field was created by the media. It is not true. If there was a lot of struggle in a match, we didn't shy away from it and won. If the pattern of the game was open, we had players who are strong in such a scenario. We found ways to win those matches. This was the secret to Chelsea's success.

Steve Clarke, Chelsea

Moreover, it was José who accused Tottenham of parking the bus because the opponent was "defending, defending, defending"!

Since I did not take the original for quotes, but translated them back into English, inaccuracies are possible. Anyway, I was really inspired this and made the tactic based on this:

In possession. We don't need possession for the sake of ownership. However, if the opposition closes, my team can have 60-65% possession on vertical passes! In general, this tactic has proved to be very versatile, as it creates real chances both when taking the initiative and when playing from an opponent (no ball possession). One of the key roles is WB(a) on the right flank. For example my RB in Portugal D2 the best league assistant with 128 key passes. This works the same in other teams.

Quite a chaotic screenshot, but a typical right-back run:

Typical key passing of right WB:

I also rediscovered the role of PF(s) because in FM22 (which is the version I created the tactics in) this role is almost perfectly cosplayed by Didier Drogba. PF (s) goes deeper to disperse attacks, has time to return in order to successfully complete or give an assist.

 

In the absence of a nominal playmaker, BBM took on a key role in the creation. Its an engine of this system:

 

Out of possession. As we realized before, early Jose was pretty active in pressure. But I believe default pressure on the attacking mentality is enough for this tactic, because main things happen in transition. Also I use both lines higher, because DM is the really good backup. The basic idea is that when the ball is lost, the team applies balanced pressure. The key word here is balance, since the team must maintain the structure of the formation, but not be passive at the same time.

Screenshot: Playing D2 against Sporting in the Portuguese Cup, the team has the level of impact to create problems with promotion, but without opening up space.

By the way, we lost that match 0-2, conceding after direct hit and pass from set pieces.

In Transition. Main thing, but just two buttons. Counter is clear, but counter-press is also mandatory thing for early Jose Mourihno (and this tactic). With a dm as a backer, two frontline midfielders and an attacking trio, a team can engage in aggressive tackling for dropped balls. This is followed by a natural rollback to their positions (standard pressure). This is actually a very cool combination of counter-pressing and pressing settings.

Some results:

York won Wrexham in first round.

18 AG, also a lot of troubles in finishing.

Created chances - 140 (second team 102), shots 614 (509), on target just 301, poor players attributes (second team 219), dribbles made 465 (401), expected goals 65.83 (54.30).

Cup 1/4

 

Also 18 AG after 35 games. Unfortunatelly no games of Italy Cup in this season.

This tactic also works in bigger teams, I just not tested full season yet.

Average possession:

No details for York City, because I finished season before I have a plan to write this article. But it looked the same.

 

In fact, I tried many times to create early Jose tactics. How easy it turned out this time is certainly the merit of FM22, in which footballers have become much more intelligent and flexible 

Play beautiful!  

[gennamitico]

Great job! I always early jose sides (porto 4312 and chelsea 433) tactically very interesting. Also first Inter Milan 4312. It’s a shame he didn’t update his tactical playbook. Do you think your tactic could work in fm23? Do you use specific player instructions?

[Novem9]

11 минут назад, gennamitico сказал:

Great job! I always early jose sides (porto 4312 and chelsea 433) tactically very interesting. Also first Inter Milan 4312. It’s a shame he didn’t update his tactical playbook. Do you think your tactic could work in fm23? Do you use specific player instructions?

Oh yes, 4312 in Porto was a brilliant for its time! I also tried to create this formation in FM22, but this not stable yet. It's looks like too uncomfortable without wingers in modern football. But some results were good, also I enjoyed CAM (Deco position) in Trequartista role.

I don't use any PI. One thing I do is change mentality for cautious to save a result or opposite team is really stronger. I believe it will work in FM23 because this is realistic settings, not an exploit.

Oh, one thing I forgot to attach:

It was precisely the cautious mentality after red card. Usually players in this tactic don't have many cards, especially red cards, but in this game Harramiz was a real moron  
I can't say that a cautious mentality is always that effective, but it's plan B for me

Edited March 27, 2023 by Novem9

[gennamitico]

Yeah unfortunately tactics without wingers are not so efficient in these days, and this reflects in the game also

[crusadertsar]

25 minutes ago, gennamitico said:

Yeah unfortunately tactics without wingers are not so efficient in these days, and this reflects in the game also

Nevermind my previous comment. Didn't look at the context that you were discussing football in general and not Football Manager 

However narrow tactics work very well in the game. Maybe you are just not setting them them up correctly. 

Edited March 27, 2023 by crusadertsar

[Novem9]

19 минут назад, crusadertsar сказал:

However narrow tactics work very well in the game. Maybe you are just not setting them them up correctly. 

I beat Bayern Munich by Brno (Czech Republic) in ChL playoff by 4312 lower loe   It was simple tactic with AM(a) - DLF(s) - AF(a), nothing special, run&hit.

But in general, this tactic in fm22 seems cramped to me. It is narrow in formation structure and narrow in meaning. In my mind of course. Perhaps I can rethink 4312 Porto in the future, as I rethought 433 Chelsea.Obsession to use trequartista, which complicates the replica 

Edited March 27, 2023 by Novem9

[The3points]

I wouldn't claim to have any knowledge especially on Jose's earlier sides, but one thing I noticed when I was watching his Chelsea team (League Cup Final 2005, FA Cup final 2007) was that the fullbacks were really deep and conservative in buildup. Not really like inverted wingbacks but just really deep ones. Something that also resonated with me was the extreme way Chelsea would go to press the midfielders and win the ball the back. I think Mourinho started with defensively solid attacking football, and then after the 2nd Chelsea stint it lost a bit of the "attacking" part.

This tactic looks like it encapsulates a lot of Chelsea elements and mixes it with Porto elements (I guess stuff like WBs, high line, Prevent GK Distribution etc.). One question I have though only. Don't you think the attacking mentality is overkill? You know, push the directness too far, everyone too high etc? Or is this a goal of the replication.

Edited March 27, 2023 by The3points

[Novem9]

1 час назад, The3points сказал:

This tactic looks like it encapsulates a lot of Chelsea elements and mixes it with Porto elements (I guess stuff like WBs, high line, Prevent GK Distribution etc.). One question I have though only. Don't you think the attacking mentality is overkill? You know, push the directness too far, everyone too high etc? Or is this a goal of the replication.

It's more about adaptation of old tactic for modern football issues and football manager logics things I guess. I agree in some games, important games firstly, Chelsea fullbacks were deep. However is it was 433? I don't remember details and write this text by phone. For example Chelsea won Barcelona 4:2 by 442 formation. 

I use attacking mentality because it gives balanced pressure on default, pretty high tempo and risk of decisions. I just realized this is the best mentality for my vision of this model. Attacking mentality doesn't mean attacking tactic by itself. As you can see my defence and goal difference are good. 

Vertical passing in 433 works in very interesting way. This formation is my favourite, because almost in every situation you have 2-3 good options to passing. 65% possession with vertical passing is not rare in this tactic.

I was surprised to read Jose liked high lines IRL. He said this, his players said this. If we talking about FM, it looks balanced because one of key things is default pressure. Team uses pressure in a specific way in this setup. It's allow you to apply pressure without having to park the bus, but keep the structure and not create open spaces for opponents.

My goal was strong defence and scores 2:0, 3:0 as priority.

I hope my answer is useful for you 

 

P.s. another important factor is DM. Clear DM is very helpful in this settings and allows attacking trio + 2 cms play higher, use higher loe and prevent gk option.

Edited March 27, 2023 by Novem9

[Novem9]

After my success with Farense, I moved to Famalicão. This team failed last season, media prediction for the second season is the middle of the table. An interesting point with the squad. I was forced to sell the leading player (DLP), because he doesn't suitable for DM-BBM-CMa and I don't want to change system for this stage. But the leader of the midfield of the former club perfectly approached the new team

 

Results before WC22 pause:

First time my right wingback is not so powerful in assists:

But there are a number of reasons for this, including the growth of offensive players and their physical attributes. Player Rating 7.14 still (0 goals, 1 assist). 

Famous FM scripts work on my side (sarcasm )

 

"fly in the ointment" in this barrel of honey:

Shot stats 4(0) - 23(9), but just 1-1 and lose by penalty. I became overconfident. The composition for the cup match turned out to be too unplayed and suboptimal However, the players also became too complacent. 

I definitely like that this system does not need the best players, but balanced ones. One of our best players Ivan Jaime is not really helpful:

Although his successor Rodrigo Valente very organically fit into the structure.

   

BBM (18) still a key player, while CMa (10) behaves close to the shadow striker. The team split into triangles and solo striker is continues to combine midfield and attack duties.

Strong defence is my FM fetish

 

 

Our possession gained in the dm zone for further counterattack on empty spaces

shot map:

Still not satisfied with the level of players, besides, the team cohesion is still not good with the new manager. It is very interesting how this philosophy will manifest itself at the top level.

Edited March 29, 2023 by Novem9

[coach vahid]

How did you approche games vs Porto, Benfica or Sporting ? Just mentality to cautious ? Cautious to attacking when you losing ?

Thanks.

[Novem9]

8 минут назад, coach vahid сказал:

How did you approche games vs Porto, Benfica or Sporting ? Just mentality to cautious ? Cautious to attacking when you losing ?

Thanks.

My mentality with Benfica was cautious until they scored. I changed it for attacking mentality after this and switched back for cautious in 1-1. 

With Porto I started in attacking mentality. But Porto pushed me a lot and I changed to cautious. It wasn't help me. Honestly I don't remember my mentality when we scored first goal, but it 100% was cautious in second goal. But cautious is not panacea, I prefer attacking as possible. Cautious is good to... dry off (not sure about English term), I use it in ending of halftimes in many games.

Edited March 29, 2023 by Novem9

[Novem9]

One step away from the Champions League! Draw in the last round deprived the Famalicão of hope for a dream. Although, to be honest, I have no idea what we would do there with such a composition and salary cap

But I'm enjoying 19 goals against, absolute domination of this season! 

The plans are to try a different combination of roles in attack. PF(s) plays for the team, I want to check how it works with a striker who is focused on scoring goals himself. I guess it needs CM(a) -> AP(a) and PF(s) -> PF(a). CMa works like shadow striker in the current system, he plays a lot on the same line, as pf(s). So if PF(a) will play higher, effect of CMa will be lost. But I'm not sure when I'll check this setting. Currently focused on the second season and the Conference League. So be aware if you are using this tactic and need a clean scorer.

[gennamitico]

wow 19 goals against is something incredible