Positional Play : Liberos, Volantes, Enganches, Poachers & 3-6-1.

[dannyrefc]

Hello , hope everyone is well!. So an accumulation of reading an article about Girona, having fun with the new match engine features & waiting for the known issues to be ironed out i am experimenting with the positional play aspect of the ME

i would love to go into further detail on my own experiments but i am currently on my phone so cant lay things out as id like to , so this is mostly looking for discussion. id like to firstly start by reitterating this is purely experimental and not a tactical experiment i think id use in a serious european game for example, nor am i any form of a tactical wiz on FM, i wish. leave that to the tried and tested persona's who hang around here😂.

so i have been thinking alot about ways to form different shapes in the new match engine purely from an offensive point of view, thinking of ideas myself from my limited knowledge of FMs roles / tendencies & inspirations from real life trends. like i mentioned theres also a few issues known that im waiting to be fixed such as most my games being 5-10 goal thrillers so why not create something attacking anyway thus here we are.

i was reading about girona amongst other managers and teams who have taken the 2-3-5 & 3-2-5 variants of build up shapes and sacrificed a man in the build up for a 6th man in the attacking phase. So i played one of my games and tried something new , to see what i can do within FMs new positional play. 

This is just my ideas , im not trying to build up like girona position for position or anybody else. As this is just a fun experiment im also breaking the rules on what a "logical" setup would look like as you will see. Im also trying to squeeze as many of my favourite roles into it too😎. 

the formation i have chosen to use is the 4-2-3-1 DM. im looking to build up as mentioned in the 3-1-6 shape , so for that i shall use a back four of two Inverted full backs , and a central defender on Cover. the first fun role i love which will partner the CB is a Libero. this will be my 1. on a support duty he will push up into the DM and be my playmaker, this will allow the CB to go central and the two IFB to narrow up and create a back 3. i put the defender on a cover duty just for extra fun to mop up anything over the top & to create a diamond of sorts is what i was trying haha. There is now tons of ways to create this 3-1 i could of used a DM or an IWB, i wanted to try something different and get a libero involved. now it gets crazier. DM two volantes 🤷, like i said im breaking the rules and experimenting lol. these guys will push up into the half spaces , and do a lot of running in the channels , they will never make sense in a fm logic context , well mabe not until now being able to have players behind fill in for them in DM but my idea with them will make more sense a little hopefully in a second lol. accross the AM and winger roles i have two standard wingers on support holding the width , i see them as wide pivots creating triangles receiving the ball out wide and playing through balls into the channels/cross to the onrushing volante / poacher. in AM i have one of my favourite roles that ive been looking forward to use in the new ME, that is an Enganche. the idea for him is to do what enganches do and sit in the middle , drop off a little if he wants   get the ball into feet and control the play. the double volante idea is to allow him to be fairly stationary with all the running happening around him / ahead of him. Positioning / partnerships are alot more intelligent this year and now they will make logical spacial movements most the time and not just pile up on top of one another. they will flank either side of him doing all the mobile running, creating the 3 number 10's i noticed in the girona analysis. also making underlapping runs into the channels for the winger to thread balls through too. upfront my final favourite role is the Poacher. the striker im looking to stretch the defence back vertically as much as possible allowing space in the  AM strata to open up , with the wingers staying out wide to stretch the pitch horizontally as much as possible to open up space  and gaps for runners in the channels and between the opposition defence. this is a big part of the tactic and positional play in general. we need to stress the back line by stretching it vertically and horizontally otherwise the AM area will be too crowded and there will be no space to play through the channels or no gaps created in the defence. this is what positional play is, im trying to position my players in areas where i can move the ball which will stretch and pull apart the opponents defensive organisation and free up a spare man/runner to then take advantage of the gap thats been left behind In my opinion of course. there is enough going on from defence to attacking mid that i feel he has no need to bother getting  involved in the build up. i want him occupying and pushing back the centre backs always in the 6 yard box for those low crosses in from the wingers & volantes so i feel poacher suits what im looking for , where as an advanced forward i find will get involved more than i want.

defensively well im not concerned about that , just getting the 3-6-1 build up shape. as we can see two volantes in mid , this is very vulnerable to counters / anything behind our front third lol, therefore my one and only defensive thought is win it back as high & soon as possible😂

If i am really struggling with the lack of midfield support i will change one  volante to a Defensive Midfielder, allowimg the other volante to push up. the new positional play will allow him to create a partnership with the enganche who will then shift to the left / right to allow the Volante to enter the AM, this then creates the 3-2-5 build up shape. i will change the Wingers to Inside Forwards & give them the stay wider PI , with the inside forwards , poacher and volante all boming on you have lots of runners for the enganche to play through balls to. this is just wonderful stuff to me having the flexibility to morph into these different shapes all from 4231,433,442 and so on.

so that is it really , if you read through my jumbled thoughts and ideas on tactics then i appreciate it. i shall show you how it looks below.

in the first image you see how the 4-2-3-1 morphs into a 3-1-6 in the build up phase. in the second is one of my ideas on how it works , the full backs narrow up to a back 3 as play progresses , the ball has just came straight from the gk to the libero so the screenshot is captured right when moving from early phase to midfield phase. Libero has threaded a ball straight in  to the enganche already .which i notice we seem to be able to progress the ball into AM fairly easily. he has time and turns and plays it out to the right winger. he hold it for a second and plays it through to the channel to the onrushing volante who takes advantage of the gap created between CB and LB by having the winger stay as far wide as possible , he runs with it to the right of the area and plays a low ball across to the poacher. resulted in a goal. we get overloads on both sides of the pitch and most the goals we score i imagine will come from goals similair to this. sometimes the 3-1 can become a little isolated from the 6 but i havnt changed anything cos also most the time the enganche / volantes will come towards the ball to help progress it or one of the IFB will step out and give an option to recycle it out to the wing and back inside so not noticed it being a big issue yet. we won this game 6-2 not surprising currently lol.

Im not looking for any advice, this was just a fun experiment breaking the rules and having a blast with the new positional play features and seeing what crazy shapes and partnerships can be created. im hoping more for this to be a discussion, id like to hear what roles / partnerships you are using / enjoying.

i think my next one will be trying narrow formations such as 4312 with an enganche and 3 Dms (two SV) iwb 😂excited to use roles such as the Enganche this year and see what this ME can allow it to flourish into now with partnerships.and also see what i can do with the half back in 2 DM formations. besides the issues that will hopefully be ironed out soon , im having a ton of fun with this aspect of the game, very grateful for the hard work to get this into the game, i understand they got what they could get in this game with the positional partnerships and such, great effort. look forward to future evolutions, for example a partnership i was thinking of was having a 442 , one striker drops into the AM in say a dlf or f9 , a CM/DM pushes up into AM and creates a partnership with the striker , allowing the 5 to form again 😂 an iwb and IFB at the back and a DM / CM who sits and you get your 3-2-5 from a 442 that way with a ST/CMorDM partnership in AM. so many ideas look forward to hearing everyone elses, this got alot more detailed than i thought it would on a mobile. 

I highly recommend just having a go and trying new/strange things , break the rules and have fun, cheers.

Edited November 18, 2023 by dannyrefc
fixing typos

[TheJanitor]

Great write up! I actually have a similar idea with one SV and more static midfielder, like a DLP, to give me a 3-2-4-1 build up.

Your setup reminds of Ajax a bit, circa 95. Kluivert and Litmanen as the 9# and 10# combo, two wingers, two box-to-box midfielders, Rijkaard figure dictating from deep and a back three. Happy to hear that you are doing well with it.

[llama3]

Nice ideas there - some interesting ones to think about. 

[LuboM25]

Love the attacking plays this creates. Although the enganche doesn’t get that good a rating most matches, everything goes through him. It’s lovely to watch, thanks for posting.

[dannyrefc]

18 hours ago, LuboM25 said:

Love the attacking plays this creates. Although the enganche doesn’t get that good a rating most matches, everything goes through him. It’s lovely to watch, thanks for posting.

i have noticed that , may try another role but i like the way the enganche tends to sit and let everything happen round him. could try and get it from a different formation

[Rowingkid]

Interesting ideas.

 

How does it work when the OP have the ball? feel like a narrow 3 at the back could easily be countered on by teams with wingers

[bobhali]

I created my own tactic very similar to this ever since the beta came out. I was heavily inspired by Cruijff's 3-4-3 diamond tactic. On paper, my formation is 4-2-3-1 with DM-CM-AM but turns into 3-1-6/3-4-3 on the pitch with one of the fullback act as inverted wing back, DM SV on attack, CM Mez on support, AM AttMid on attack.

Edited November 25, 2023 by bobhali