ElJefe4

Liverpool 1-0 Manchester City: Mini Analysis This is my first 'proper' game trying this tactic out. Far from the spectacular results that @halfspace3000 has had early on but a few things I noticed while watching on comprehensive highlights we're definitely worth pointing out as I try to develop this tactic. We lined up in an asymmetric 4231 against City's tried and trusted 433. Let's start with the only goal of the game, it's a lengthy gif so I've had to split it into two. As I've been typing this I've realised I've actually got to do a double post as it'll exceed the max size for media. The 442 High Press: I absolutely loved this goal for a number of reasons. For a start, we see the high press in action which forces Man City to go long. - Nunez and Jota lead the press; High enough to spring onto City's centre backs when they receive the ball and close enough together to effectively take Rodri (16) out of the game. - Salah and Diaz; Block off passing lanes to both City full backs, meaning the only option is to take big risks by playing through our compact centre, or go long. - Fabinho and Thiago; Back up the 'front 4' and make it difficult for City to pass into KdB or Gundogan. - Back 4; Push high to limit space in between the lines. The risk here of course is if City are able to drop a ball over Matip's head, or if was to lose an aerial battle with Haaland. In this case we force a long ball which Virgil deals with.

I went with FB (S) with PIs of Hold Position, Cross More Often and Take More Risks. To be honest, I need to watch more of it before I can confirm that the above is exactly what we're looking for as the average positions/passing maps still have him pretty high and wide. I don't actually have a major issue with that being the case because if we're dominating the ball in the opposition half it makes sense for him to progress into a more attacking position. All I'm saying is don't take it as gospel just yet! I'm sure I'll be making plenty more tweaks.

I'll try to get up to there tonight. Do you have any good resources for passing maps, average positions etc? I struggle to find them. Pretty much. It's a 4231 with the AMC and ST offset. Carvalho (AMC) nudged one notch right of centre and Nunez the same but to the left. Logic was that it'd make it easier to press in a 442.

Downloaded the transfer update as I wanted to try this out with Darwin as a proper #9. Threw something together pretty quickly tonight and skipped through to the first pre season match just to see it in game. Need to look more into movements and defensive positioning tomorrow but early signs look promising. You can probably all figure out which players are missing but just for clarity, from the above screenshot to the Rangers match the changes would be: Kelleher = Alisson Konate = Matip Arthur = Henderson Keita = Thiago Jones = Diaz Carvalho = Jota

A change of shape for the Reds tonight after a poor start to the season. Will probably re-watch the match tomorrow with more of an eye on the tactical side but a few key points that were immediately evident were: - Double pivot in midfield (Henderson and Thiago) rather than a 6 and two 8s. - 4 very attacking players (Salah, Diaz, Jota, Nunez). - Could call it 4231, 442, 424. - Nunez as more of a focal point but with license to drift into wide areas. - Trent much deeper and wider, less movements into high and narrow positions. - Tsimikas often much higher and wider on left hand side. The tweet above shows some of the shape. Will be interesting to see if we stick with it. I'd like to see more of it, given the forward players at our disposal and (perhaps more importantly) lack of midfielders suited to playing in a 3. If we do it's definitely something I'll be taking a look at recreating in FM23.

In terms of build up play when your centre backs have the ball, you could try Hold Position on your wingers so they're less likely to push too far up the pitch? Failing that, maybe use a more conservative role/duty combination for Reyna. I've found CM (A) to be brilliant for aggressive runs off the ball but not great for getting involved in build up play. If your wingers are already high and you've got an AMC and 2 strikers, you can probably afford to have Reyna sit deeper and create a 3-2 in the build up phase.

Nice post. Interestingly, I actually made some of the changes you've recommended last night but haven't had a chance to test them in game yet. Mentality - I personally believe Positive mentality is ideal based on the description the game gives: "it aims to move the ball around the park and to patiently probe the final third to find space as and when it opens up." With a lower mentality I feel as though I'd have to introduce more attack duties which I don't think suits the style of play. Underlaps - This is one that I have removed. It was initially done to pre-emptively reduce the amount of crosses but seeing as I already have Work Ball Into Box selected, it's probably overkill on the TIs. Width and Focus Play - This is an area that I admittedly haven't quite wrapped my head around. I'm aware that Pep's idea is to make the pitch as wide as possible in possession, i.e. wide forwards stay high and wide, pinning back the opposition full backs, involve themselves in build up play at times but also threaten in behind and in doing so, create more room for central players such as Xavi, Iniesta and Messi. Based on the game description of Fairly Narrow "This instructs players to look to narrow the field and play in the middle of the pitch." The key here for me was that it encourages us to play in the middle of the pitch. My logic was/is that this instruction, combined with my wide forwards having the 'Stay Wider' PI and Breaks Offside Trap player trait, would mean that we would retain width and threat in behind through them but would be more likely to favour our central players in terms of build up play. My (perhaps incorrect) understanding was that my selecting Fairly Wide or above would encourage us to move the ball down the flanks too often. Can anyone confirm this either way? Worth noting also that Fairly Narrow on a Positive mentality seems, to my eyes at least, to be the same as Standard width on a Balanced mentality. Again, not sure if what is displayed by the UI directly correlates to the Match Engine here so if anyone could confirm that would be great. Centre Back Roles - I completely get the logic on this one. However, my centre backs do currently have the highest pass completion % in my squad, so it doesn't seem to make a huge difference as far as I can tell. Wing Back Roles - Again, completely agree. I'm using Alba as the more attacking of the full backs with Wing Back (Support), as you say the Alves role is maybe impossible to replicate in the Match Engine as he was such a unique footballer. Last night I changed the RB role to Full Back (Support) to replicate the difference between Alves and Abidal. Unfortunately my first choice RB is Sergino Dest who has Get Further Forward as a player trait but hopefully we see some change. Flat Midfield Three - Not something I'd considered to be honest. I assume you would be recommending Busquets as a Central Midfielder (Defend)? Xavi and Iniesta and Playmaker Roles - I've definitely gone away from the idea as Iniesta (Pedri) as a Mezzala, while it's a very effective role in the Match Engine and does provide some of what I would like, it feels far too detached from the rest of the midfield for my liking. I have the same problem, as you mentioned, with the aggressive nature of Central Midfielder (Attack). I did consider Advanced Playmaker (Attack) but I'm currently undecided on whether to use that role or to go with Central Midfielder (Support) with PIs such as Get Further Forward, Dribble More etc. With Xavi, it's interesting that you say you wouldn't consider him a Roaming Playmaker, but would instead use him as a Central Midfielder (Support). Would you recommend any PIs here or would you expect his positioning in the middle of a possession heavy team to see him orchestrate the play enough anyway? If I feel as though he doesn't have enough influence I may revert to Deep Lying Playmaker (Support). Wide Forwards - For me, Pedro and Villa have to be Inside Forwards. I've found that with the Stay Wider PI they hold plenty of width in the build up phase. My only question mark is if they should be on Support or Attack. This largely depends on what I do with my striker... Messi - I too would prefer to see him in the AMC position, but I find it impossible to pin teams back when there is no striker for the opposition to mark. They push high up, the midfield becomes completely congested and impossible to play through (see screenshot on my previous post) and we resort to chipping the ball over the top into space. Unfortunately, the F9 is nowhere near aggressive enough and doesn't provide much of a goal threat for me. Really not sure how to resolve this one.

I'll give it a read through tonight, cheers mate! I definitely would like to play a strikerless 433 with my Messi player joining in with the midfield, picking up the ball and then driving forward. @Ö-zil to the Arsenal! advocated it in his excellent thread - Unfortunately, when playing a strikerless version I often find myself with the following situation: With either of my wide forwards attempting fairly low percentage cross field passes to try and exploit the space behind the opposition back line which has been caused by them pushing up due to having no striker to mark.

That's definitely an option. I've struggled to get enough attacking movements out of a Central Midfielder on Support even with PIs, but a combination of PIs and the correct player traits might work. Thanks! Yeah I was going to mention that as well. I'm thinking of teaching Fati (my false nine) to come deep to get the ball so he pops up in midfield more often. I'll try the lower tempo first and see if that helps. And I agree regarding the Support duties on the wide forwards. I initially wanted Fati (Messi) to play as a SS (A) in the AMC slot with the inside forwards on Support but I wasn't a fan of how it played out (opposition line pushed up and led to lots of low % chipped 'through balls' to wingers) so I switched to F9. I was worried that having a F9 and 2 wide players all on Support duties would lead to a lack of penetration, combining this with a lower tempo could make this worse? I do have my wide forwards learning to beat the offside trap though so that would still encourage runs in behind. I'll try the shorter passing as opposed to much shorter as well. Do you think Pass Into Space could help with through balls/runs in behind or would this be overkill on the TIs? Also not sure if it only comes into effect in the final third or if it'd lead to too many risky passes in the middle third as well. Really appreciate the input. I did start with a HB but I found that it struggled to actually progress the ball that much. I'd see lots of aimless passing between the HB and 2 CBs and once we had the ball in midfield Busquets wasn't really supporting the play enough at the base of the midfield. Definitely a useful option if I was playing against a 2 man strike force though. Lower tempo seems to be the consensus here as well so I'll give that a go, thanks mate!

Hi all, I know it's not exactly the most original idea in the world but I'm currently working on a recreation of Pep's great Barcelona team. Specifically around the 2010/11 season. I'm about halfway through my first season and while there are plenty of issues at the moment, the results on the whole have been fine. I'm not expecting scintillating attacking football straight away as there's a fair few players who either don't suit the style of play or aren't up to scratch. One area that should be fairly strong, however, is the midfield. The aim is to have Busquets obviously in his own role. de Jong is first choice for the Xavi role as the heartbeat of the team and then Pedri is my Iniesta as the more advanced of the midfield three. Couple of things to note: - Frenkie is currently injured so Gavi (#16) is deputising for him. - The midfield is flipped, i.e. Pedri (Iniesta) is playing RCM as opposed to LCM. My main issue is that I'm seeing very little in terms of link up between the midfield, particularly between the Xavi and Iniesta roles. According to the analysis they only combined 5 times in our last match. Admittedly, it was Real Madrid away, hence why we're quite deep. But I'd still expect far more passes between these two. My set up is currently as follows: Does anyone have any ideas how I can get my Xavi/Iniesta combination linking up more? I'm thinking the obvious thing to do would be to change Pedri's role to one without 'Stay Wider' hard-coded so that the distance between them is reduced. My alternatives would be: - Central Midfielder (Support) and use PIs such as Get Further Forward, Move Into Channels etc. Even with these PIs though I've often found that this role isn't aggressive enough in joining the final third. Possibly some alterations to Pedri's player traits could help here. - Central Midfielder (Attack) is definitely aggressive enough in terms of movement but I've found that the role doesn't get involved too much with build up play and effectively becomes exclusively a third man runner into the box. - Advanced Playmaker (Support) is another option but Get Further Forward isn't an option. This was definitely part of Iniesta game in my opinion. - Advanced Playmaker (Attack) maybe? I'm not actually a huge fan of having 2 playmakers. I feel like it might slow us down too much if I have two players who effectively act as ball magnets. But given my lack of success with other options it might be worth trying. Would really appreciate people's thoughts on this. Also, if there's anything which looks off in the rest of the set up, team instructions, player roles etc, please share your thoughts!

When you're leading a game late on, the opposition will often leave an extra man up top if you get a set piece, sometimes they'll have a 3v2 and a good chance of a counter attack. There should be an option, probably via suggestion by your Assistant Manager, to leave an extra man back with just one click. As far as I know this doesn't exist so you have to go into the set pieces menu and manually drag an extra player onto 'Stay Back'. It's the kind of thing which, in real life, would be sorted by a simple shout from the touchline - so would make sense to bring it into FM as well.

Is there any way to get players stationed in this sort of area from attacking corners? I feel like I'm always being countered on after our own corners because the ball is headed into this area, usually the wider areas, and opposition players pick up the ball first and end up with acres to run into.