The Making Of: 4-2-3-1

[Pozzati]

Hello. I always had many ideas and theories for FM. But most of them haven't worked. The reason for this is that although I know a lot about football and tactics, I'm struggling a bit more with the way to implement this into Football Manager. Now I have tried and played a season with Liverpool. It didn't work too well, but I played very good football. We can say that I was very unlucky with injuries (Torres injured all the time, also the other attackers. I only had N'Gog).

Anyway here's my team start of second season:

GK: Reina, Cavalieri

DR: Arbeloa, J. Boateng, Santon

DL: Guilherme, J. Boateng, Santon (retrained), Insua

DC: Carragher, Skrtel, Agger, Hyypia, R. Foster

MCl: Mascherano, Lucas, Plessis

MCa: Alonso, Feghouli, Gerrard

AMR: Kuyt, Marquinhos, Russotto, Babel (retrained), Balotelli, Santon

AML: Riera, Marquinhos, Babel, Balotelli

AMC: Gerrard, Russotto, Feghouli (Babel, Marquinhos)

S: Torres, N'Gog, Laurito, Marquinhos, Babel, Balotelli

This is my team, but I have shown several players more times as I've listed all the places they can be playing. But my best line-up is probably:

GK: Reina

DR: Arbeloa

DL: Guilherme

DC: Carragher, Agger

MC: Mascherano, Alonso

AMR: Kuyt or Marquinhos

AML: Riera, Balotelli or Babel

AMC: Gerrard

S: Torres

Assigning individual settings

GK: Normal

DR/DL: FWR and Crossing Often and from mixed. Long shots rarely. The rest set to Mixed

DC: Everything on rarely.

MCl: Through balls on mixed. Rest on rarely. Hold up ball ticked. Closing down on 17-18

MCa: Through balls on often. RWB rarely. Rest on mixed.

AMR: FWR often. Long shots rarely. Rest on mixed

AML: FWR, RWB and Crossing on often and from byline. Rest on mixed.

AMC: FWR, RWB and TTB on often. Rest on mixed.

S: RWB often. TTB and crossing on rarely. Rest on mixed.

This is my outline when I go to a match. But it depends on who I play in the desired positions. I don't use the same settings on Riera and Babel for instance. From the outline you can see that Riera is the first choice. If I put on Babel I would actually set crossing to rarely and from mixed because I want him to cut inside. If I use Kuyt on AMR I use the settings on the outline. That's because I don't want him to do anything spectacular. I want him to run up and down the right wing and play simple. If I put Marquinhos there, I would change a lot. I would have set RWB on often, and upped his creative freedom and perhaps lowered his closing down a bit. The AMC is probably the most important. I have Gerrard there and that is the reason he is on FWR often. The AMC should be played on his strength and you should set up his instructions according to his stats. I never use long shots often though, because I think the match engine is crazy with the long shots and there are too many of them even if no-one have long shots often.

But what about mentality?

I use the role theory from TTF. 3 defensive: DCs and MCl. Support: DR/L, MCa, AMC. Attack: AMR/L, S. I would like some suggestions on mentality, because I think this has been a problem.

Team Instructions

I put the two first (Mentality and Creative Freedom) where they are. I use individual instructions for these. I put low to medium creative freedom on the defensive players and medium to much on the offensive ones (I'm Liverpool. The players are good and should handle this). I also use individual settings on passing but the most of them are on short except DCs and MCa. Agger plays mixed on passing and Carragher and Alonso are on direct.

Tempo and width are 2-3 clicks from the middle of the slider, although I'm a bit worried on playing to wide when I play mostly on short passing. Time wasting are on the middle from the beginning. It varies depending on the opposition or throughout the match. That's also the case for Defensive line. I use medium tackling for the most of the team except the wingers and the strikers which are on easy.

I also use Target Man with Run Onto Ball (I have Torres). That is very optional I think because I'm not really sure if that has been good for me.

In the end I would like to say that this is a idea, theory and discussion thread. I just told you on how I would do it, but I'm VERY open to new ideas.

[Pozzati]

After a couple of matches I found that the team plays better when dragging the wingers to MR and ML roles. Don't know why, but I'm experiencing a huge difference. Also when you are playing good teams or you are up, but still feel a bit nervous I would set the full backs on Forward Runs mixed and on a couple of occasions Cross Ball mixed, too (depends on the players). I have also changed Gerrard to be RwB mixed and Long Shots often.

Fernando Torres is scoring like **** when he's not injured. Another thing is that he when he runs with the ball he often cuts inside from the sides and pass out 45 degrees. It saw Alonso score 5 goals in two matches (!) as he was sitting outside of the box.

[Sardaukar]

4-2-3-1 is very solid formation for teams that have 2 very good DMC/MCs. Mascherano/Alonso combination is one of the best.

I play 4-5-1/4-3-3 and I think I may have to drag the arrows of wingers back or remove forward arrows, since there, like in your formation, is sort of vulnerability on flanks. Especially if DL/DRs are set to FWR often. I always keep them mixed to be covered at least most of the time.

If you have DMC/MC with good tackling (Macherano), I'd put his tackling Hard. He'd take more cards, but it makes opposition lot harder to run with ball in front of your defensive line.

[Pozzati]

Yeah, forgot to mention that I have Mascherano on hard tackling and hold up ball. Does anyone else have any opinions on setting up a good 4-2-3-1 or does everyone agree with me?

[PhroX]

After a couple of matches I found that the team plays better when dragging the wingers to MR and ML roles. Don't know why, but I'm experiencing a huge difference. Also when you are playing good teams or you are up, but still feel a bit nervous I would set the full backs on Forward Runs mixed and on a couple of occasions Cross Ball mixed, too (depends on the players). I have also changed Gerrard to be RwB mixed and Long Shots often.

I agree with putting the wide men at MR/L instead of AMR/L. The latter play like wide forwards rather than wingers - they play almost level with the striker and rarely if ever track back. It's fine for a all out attacking formation, but for general play a 4-4-1-1 seems to work better. If you give the MR/L relatively high mentailities, and FWR often, then the formation plays much more like a real 4-2-3-1.

[Rashidi]

4231 is easily one of my fav formations...there are several ways you can make it work. The challenge becomes harder when you use weaker teams. With Liverpool it should be fairly simple to make it work.

I would do it slightly differently, by giving free roles to the AML and AMR and by keeping them upfront. You could play a narrow 4231 or a wide one, but in both I would have them cross ball mixed, and never often, I'd even opt to make one of them never cross ball, and have the corresponding fullback Cross ball often.

You could even tell one of the wingers to RWB rarely but tell him to FWR often and play TTB mixed. That way there will be a lot of give and go and chances are if your winger has high off the ball ratings, you would get players behind the defensive line relatively quickly.

The beauty about the 4231 is that while it can be a defensively tough formation to crack it can also be devastating upfront with the AML/AMR getting into loads of good goal scoring positions. In my 4231 my top scorers are the wingers, and the one playing them through is the lone striker.

[michelco]

I want to construct a 4-2-3-1/4-4-1-1 counter attack style sort of like Valencia used to play. I'm trying out the Benitez 5x5 theory but haven't got it to work yet. Anyone have any suggestions?

[Golden_Team]

4231 is easily one of my fav formations...there are several ways you can make it work. The challenge becomes harder when you use weaker teams. With Liverpool it should be fairly simple to make it work.

I would do it slightly differently, by giving free roles to the AML and AMR and by keeping them upfront. You could play a narrow 4231 or a wide one, but in both I would have them cross ball mixed, and never often, I'd even opt to make one of them never cross ball, and have the corresponding fullback Cross ball often.

You could even tell one of the wingers to RWB rarely but tell him to FWR often and play TTB mixed. That way there will be a lot of give and go and chances are if your winger has high off the ball ratings, you would get players behind the defensive line relatively quickly.

The beauty about the 4231 is that while it can be a defensively tough formation to crack it can also be devastating upfront with the AML/AMR getting into loads of good goal scoring positions. In my 4231 my top scorers are the wingers, and the one playing them through is the lone striker.

Rashidi

What about 2 MCs in 4231? They have both the same instruction? and what instruction you give them? Sorry for english

[jaycar]

I'd also like to know this one, the hardest part of the formation to crack is the 2 MC's imho. They just dont seem to be able to dominate the CM area.

EDIT: Also, the ST, often TTB?

[dankrzyz]

Bumping this thread... though there are many on the 4-2-3-1. I like R's suggestions for varying winger play in the formation.

- What are everyone's experiences with 2 DMC or 2 MCd? Prefer one over the other?

- Is this a direct passing or counter-attacking formation only? Is there an effective slower possession version of this? Or would another formation be better for that type of play?