davidbarros2

Can your post your current setup so we can jump in to help?

I don't often use the Mezzala (I favour the MC-attack) but the forum it's full of topics and posts - even stories and challenges - of people using the Mezzala to a great effect. You got so much success stories to dwelve into if you want.

Looking forward to re-read it. Many thanks!

I'm sorry to dig out such an old thread... but someone remembers about this? I remember reading it in the days, but can't really recall some aspects of it and now every single screenshot is gone... I appreciate some pointers if someone still has this present

Glad I could help in any way. I would go with your first option, having time to turn and space to run ahead, being is on an attacking duty. At least that's what I would do if I were playing, run with it till I no longer can

Indeed true and thank you for pointing that out. Either way I can be glad 'cause giving space and time to the number 10 will eventually lead to good things, so I'm okay with it.

I would say at 00:40?

Done now. Thank you for the help mate.

NOTE: Can someone point me how to embed youtube videos inside a post? Looking forward to it in order to update this post... What really grinds your gears? We all like to see stuff like this, at least I know I do: But not everything always goes according to the plan, and sometimes I see this: Okay, it was a goal, I liked the play overall, but why not a through ball? My number 10 seems to have time on the ball, he seems to have space (AC Milan playing 4-4-2 surely helped for that), he has players ahead of him, he is on a high mentality and so does the player ahead of him, he is instructed t otry more riskier passes... I'm not complaining 'cause I'm overall satisfied, but sometimes we can get nervous at the game for a playing not doing what he's instructed to do... but, the same happens in real life. Wouldn't it be boring if every player did (just) what the manager told him to? Either way, I would like to hear your opinion... when something like this happens, who/what do you blame? The player? The attributes? His companions ahead of him? The tactic itself? The opposition? Player traits? Bad luck? Or... it just happens sometimes? I'll stick with the later

Post 4: The number 10 in a wingerless formation -> updated

Thanks mate. Be aware that DLF(a) worked just as fine as DFL(s), they just produced different things. My instructions were just what I wrote on the thread, I tried to be faithfull to the original tactic just to show how a balanced tactic can be timeless, and I added pressing and distribution according to my personal liking. But I do like the attacking mentality 'cause I'm accostumed to manage top teams, so I'm confortable with it and knew what it could give me. I didn't thought about it but there isn't any reason why it woudln't work in a more shorter passing/possession style. But I can tell you this, in an attacking mentality and with so many space in front of the midfield, no reason for pass into space, my players were already doing that but I reckon that could be helpfull situationally or with combination with some team instructions led to produce a different football style.

You make a valid point @camoulton21. I'll hopefully release the next post in the next hours, but I will give you something in advance... wingerless formations are trickier. It's been a tough challenge, not only 'cause I choosed a mid table team this time, but mostly due to the natural flaws of the formation itself - the splace on the flanks and the overcrowdment of the center of the pitch. But...what if... it isn't vital to have attacking runners ahead of the AMC for him to develop killer balls? The main challenge again, is to create space. The same principles I used in the 4-4-1-1 are still valid, but this time I lack width. If I can explore width I will disrupt my opponents horizontal compactness, which means, I will create space on the center. As long as I have space in the center, even support duties can be released on one-on-ones against the keeper. But yeah, that's just one approach, obviously yours is common sense and a pretty valid one.

Nothing to be sorry about, that was precisely what I was after. I didn't spoke about the deep 4-2-3-1 because it's explained in detail in the @Cleon thread, but i do love the formation and it's always helpfull to have some ideas of how other people are addressing (and fixing) the same issues. Really appreciate your input.

I do agree with everything you just said @Djuicer. I feel the 10 can work in the game and my aim is to show - at least one of the many possible ways - the WHY and the HOW. These few first posts are just to give people some context. Identify the issue, then formulate a theory, and at last prove it (hopefully right).

The number 10 in a wingerless formation It's time for a wingerless challenge! I have no experience with such kind of formations but I do love a good diamond in miedfield, my team (Porto) actually won a Champions League while using such a formation so, oh boy, it brings me back memories. Once again I resorted to @Rashidi - this time in FM 15: Wait... 2 tactics? Well, this thread is about different options to achieve the same goal - give the AMC space to perform. I wrote about the different AMC's and what you can be expecting from them, so, once again this is a good framework to fiddle around with the AMC role and decide what do you want from him. For example, you can use a scorer role like SS and squeeze goals out of him if that's what you want your AMC to contribute. I ended up using both tactics just to get acquainted with the formation itself as I am a rookie in wingerless formations. Perhaps I ended up playing the first one a little more than the second one. These are the tactics revisited for FM 20: Team instructions are again just to suit my personal tasting, and you can see that not many changes were made from the original tactic. If you look at the players behind and in front of the AMC you can see that I used the same principles I applied to the 4-4-1-1. I would love to see how other people are "creating space", so feel free to comment/criticize, I'm always eager to know more about the game. Now... the 4-3-1-2 is actually tricky. There's much space on the flanks and between defense-midfield, so not every player is suited to these roles. It's kinda obvious that the full backs and midfielders will run a lot - with and without the ball - so if you don't have these kind of attributes in your squad, you're much better using a different formation. I've chosen Sampdoria for this challenge, and I did good (better than I was expecting) but I always felt my players were not good enough for these requirements. I really need to thank set pieces, and perhaps my Ass Man as I was holydaing through the season, for the position I ended up at the league table The most interesting league stat for me was this, I liked my squad but I never felt they were capable of this: Let's meet the number 10 ... ladies and gentlemen I give you Gaston Ramírez! Decent player traits, natural AMC, and fairly inconsistent if I might add. I don't know if it's player related, formation, the opponent's quality or the deep formations I faced. He had a good season - to my standards at least - and here's more stats: Even when not scoring/assisting, he was always there to spread our play and ended up getting higher ratings even in games with no direct influence in the result. These are not his best performances, but you can see he's heavily involved within our play to make an impact: (Gotta love those 10 key passes ) I leave the rest to the FAQ's, and feel free to judge and comment 'cause I do believe this work can be fine tuned even further with your contribution. FAQ: Is it okay if I change some team instructions? Yes, if you know what you are doing. Can I change some player roles? Yes, you can. On purpous I showed two different variations of the same formation just to show that it's possible to change player roles and even duties. @Rashidi used an AM instead of an AP to a great effect and there's no reason why that can't still work. How were the goals spread up to your team? Both my strikers were my top performers goals wise, seconded by the AMC. Full backs and midfielders also contributed. Did the assists from the AMC came from set pieces? Some did. I scored a lot from set pieces, mostly direct free kicks 'cause both Gabbiadini and Quagliarella were up to the task. But I did see Gaston Ramírez assisting from corners a few times. Who's the most important player? Believe it or not I would say everyone minus the front three. Sounds contradicting but this formation have heavy requirements and I did feel my players were not the most adequate for it. But if you can't have decent full backs and ball winning miedfielders you're front three won't be fed 'cause the ball won't get to them, simple as that. The downfall of this system relies on the flanks, so, attacking attributes are quite nice to have but the full backs need to be good defensively aswell, and you must pay attention to what is happening on the pitch and restrict your flanks to deal with the opposition attack, such as changing the roles to FB (S) - just an example - when the AI is throwing everything at you down on that flank. Did you use OI's? No I didn't. But this is the kind of formation where I probably should've used. Having obvious flaws in the flanks and no CDM I could use OI's to mitigate those risks. Did you use any PI's? Yes, the wider players on the MC strata have "Hold position" and "Stay wider". The strikers and the AMC have "Close down more" and "Tackle harder". If your AMC has good finishing and your strikers can dribble and cross it might pay off the tell your strikers to "Stay wider" aswell. Why Sampdoria now? Italy is the home of the Trequartista. The italian league gave me what the german league could not, teams that sat deep and usually lined up with deep formations, this time the challenge would be not to see if my AMC could perform while being harassed but instead see if he could perform when there are opponents parking the bus ahead of him.