davidbarros2

As a lifelong Porto fan I watch almost all of Benfica games and in fact they play a very good brand of football. Regarding player roles I can make a few observations: André Almeida (right back) - not even close to a complete wing back. I would say FB (S) or WB (D), most adventurous guess would be WB (S) Ruben Dias and Jardel/Ferro (centre backs) - regular centre backs, nothing fancy about them Pizzi (right midfielder) - wide midfielder on support with PI's to mimic a wide playmaker, perhaps with get further forward Rafa (left midfielder) - mostly an atacking inverted winger. I would put him in wide midfielder on attack with PI's to make him act as an inverted winger João Félix (forward) - the player role you assigned him could work (i like it ) but I would put him in AM strata as a Trequartista (just like Foriestieri used to play for Sheffield Wednesday under Carvalhal - Lage's former boss) Seferovic (forward) - he doesn't run with the ball nor does he play very high on the pitch, so I would opt out of advanced forward or poacher. He's not technically very gifted and he's a workhorse, probably DFL on attack or defensive forward on attack

Gotta love that simplicity !!!

@dan_bre_1988 If you want Pogba to shine you gotta give him space to do just that. In my opinion you got some issues such as: IF may occupy some space Pogba could operate TM isn't drawing away the defenders, pushing them next to their goal or give them something to worry about I can't clearly see your TI's so I'll just focus on the player roles There can be many ways to address these issues, and I'm sure you are capable of doing that perhaps even better than me. Anyway, I managed United in a save with default squad and my setup was pretty much like yours so I'll tell you how I lined up (and Pogba did some monster seasons!) GK defend - De Gea CWB support - Dalot (WB attack when I played Young) BPD cover - Lindelof CB defend - Baily FB support - Shaw DLP defend - Matic BBM support - Herrera (but I reckon a carrillero can work just as good) Mezzala attack - Pogba Raumdeuter attack - Lingaard or Sanchez (Lingaard was amazing due to his off the ball and work rate) Winger support - Martial (he will play much life an IF cause he's right footed, but will be closer to the line giving Pogba those sweet spots on the center-left side of the pitch) AF attack - Rashford For strikers it's all about supply and support, and creating variety of routes to goal, which I think you achieved in some way, but a miedfielder (mezzalla), will attack the space constantly, so you gotta give him just that, space! Even a slight modification could have a chain reaction sometimes, for instance, if you set up your right WB to attack instead of support, he will push higher up, deliver more crosses, which would turn your Raumdeuter more centrally, ocuppying more the centre backs, giving them a hard time to look out for your Raumdeuter and Target Man which in its turn will give your mezzala more space or time on the ball, and so on...

As a Porto fan all my life, I can contribute a little to this discussion cause that team is still pretty much alive in my mind (one of our best seasons ever...). Vitor Baia (GK-D) - played as a regular goalkeeper Paulo Ferreira (FB-A) - didn't spent much time in advanced positions, but when he bombed forward, he was more incisive than Nuno Valente Jorge Costa (CB-ST) - a bulky stopper (played on the right) Ricardo Carvalho (BPD-D) - one of our first ball playing defenders. He swept everything cause he was fast, not cause he was on a mission to cover his colleagues (played on the left) Nuno Valente (WB-S) - a non flashy, straight up wing back Costinha (A-D) - typical anchorman Pedro Mendes (CM-S) - a discrete player, conribute to defense and attack without deviating so much from his position Maniche (BBM-S) - just like Pedro Mendes, but had license to roam a bit and get forward to trie his long range shot Deco (AP-A) - responsible for dictating our play, dribbled a lot, pure magic without forgetting his defensive duties Carlos Alberto (T-A or F9-S) - tricky one... a magic brasilian wonderkid used to be a number 10 converted to a withdrawn striker... he dropped deep, dribbled a lot, moved wide... perhaps the player with least defensive responsabilities in this team Mccarthy (P-A) - a poacher... played very simple and tried to shoot when the opportunity arises. Sometimes Derlei played this position (he was injured for 3 months in the final months of the season), and Derlei was more a defensive forward on attack. He used to play left winger (cutting inside) on our 433, but he was extremely hard working and used to play upfront on our 442 Diamond. Regarding team instructions I can only say, Balanced mentality. If this team was just one thing, it was pure balance! Our players were very mature and wise to know when to press, when to drop deep, when to pass short/direct, when to play wide/narrow, etc...

Excellent article and well thought. It might work with Parma due to the space other teams concede against you, but I'm curious on your thoughts about breaking a defensive team down or when you are 1-2 goals down against you...

I don't know if it's ok to share external links but here it goes: https://sparkyunited.wordpress.com/2019/02/13/the-4-4-2-diaries-1-angel-of-the-norf/ I find this very close to my interpretation of Ancelotti's Napoli... hope it helps!

Anyone tried or had success recreating OGS tactic at Manchester United? Started to thinking about it and decided to share my view so you can give me some feedback and spot any incoherences that I might have. Team instructions: Attacking Slighty shorter passing Higher tempo Focus play down left Play out of defense Be more expressive (Perhaps shoot on sight?) Counter-Press Higher defensive line and much higher line of engagement (Perhaps standard defensive line and higher line of engagement?) Prevent short GK distribution Press slight more urgently OI: Fullback and wingbacks - pressing and direct to center (funnel inwards pressing) Side midfielders and wingers - pressing and direct to line (funnel outwards pressing) Central (defenders, defensive midfielders and midfielders) - marking My intention is to force play through the sides, in defense the opposition would clear away or, if ball is played to the center of the field I would gain advantage due to marking and start a counter on the most dangerous zoneof the pitch. On attack, I still want to force play through the sides but forcing the play to the line, cause the middle of the pitch would be the most dangerous zone - in this scenario - for my team. Player roles: De Gea - GK ( D ) Valencia - CWB ( S ) Baily and Lindelof - BPD ( D ) Shaw - WB ( S ) Matic - DLP ( D ) (on the center or at the DMCL spot?) Herrera - CAR ( S ) at MCR spot or SV (S) at DMCR spot? Pogba - MEZ ( A ) or CM ( A ) at CML spot? Lingaard - AM (A) or AM (S) with get further forward at AMCR spot? Martial - IF ( A ) Rashford - AF ( A ) So, anyone wanna join the discussion? I would appreciate your suggestions/feedback. And I'm sorry in advance if something wasn't clear enough - I don't have all the answers, full of questions marks - and I don't play the game in english so I might fail some words here and there...

Fantastic thread @herne79, as usual! In what situations do you use the other mentioned TI's (push higher up and drible less)? I can guess push higher up is against weaker oppositions or when you are one goal down and need to react?

Using the default Napoli squad and the players' PPM, this is by far the best replication of Sarriball! I just switched the DLP (S) to (D). But I am conceding tons through crosses, my center backs seems to close down on the crosser and the man who taps it in is always alone inside the penalty area. Sometimes just one center back close down and the other seems to be sleeping and gave no opposition whatsoever... I tried it with default Napoli Koulibaly-Albiol and with FC Porto Marcano-Felipe. Anyone seeing this issue?

Amazing thread! The kind of story that makes me wanna play LLM again. I have a cousin that actually played for Walsall, Jorge Leitão, but he only got to the club 1 ou 2 years after 1999!

Pepijn Linjders is from the dutch school of football, I'm very familiar with his tactical philosophy as he was responsible of coordenating the youth academy of my team for years. With that in mind, probably he wanted to say that Coutinho was the Liverpool player with more ability to hold up ball and not give away possession, therefore, good at defending and taking away balls from the opponents as the dutch school of football advocates having the ball is the best way to defend

Obviously this thread is still very pertinent....so, it's easy to catch up how you tinker with the defensive miedfield role to exploit some issues with the 4-3-3 (4-1-2-2-1) and the 4-2-3-1. But the "main tactic", I mean, with the DLP (D), when does it have to be used? I mean, if the opposition uses different formations besides 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1, what will be the best role to use on our defensive miedfielder?

I've been playing with Wolves, trying to recreate their real life tactics with Nuno as manager. So far having inmense success with it, and the play style, well, I'd say it's pretty close to real life. As I play the game in portuguese a screenshot would be basically pointless, so, here is how I set it up: GK (d) CD (st) CD (d) CD (st) WB (s) WB (s) CM (d) DLP (s) IF (s) IF (s) F9 (s) TI: Standard-Flexible Pass to space Press more Higher defensive line Get stuck in Thight marking Prevent short GK distribution PI: Both WB - stay wider Left IF (Diogo Jota) - sit narrower, roam from position Right IF (Cavaleiro/Costa) - sit narrower, roam from position, get further forward (to replicate the heat maps where is more advanced than the rest) F9 (Bonatini) - roam from position If you wanna try and give me some feedback, I would appreciate it. Hope this would help out someone...

Testing it myself and so far looks great! Any reason for changing the milito role from support to attack and the other way around? How about the second tactic, when do you use it? or it was just for testing purposes?

Lovely sttuff! Cheers!