[What Makes A Goalscorer?!]

Nothing "hidden" that I know of. DLF is, as it says in the name, less forward positioned striker - especially vs. a Complete Forward. Good choice to swap to stop a striker being isolated.

I assume your DLF still has "Hold Ball" which will also help link up play

[The Art of Analysis and Tweaking (The Brazilian Box 4-2-2-2)]

Going going to have to read and study this one since I'm playing in Brazil and avoiding playing the 4-2-2-2, instead trying to find it's weak spot and revelling it that joy.

You've been warned Cleon

[What Makes A Goalscorer?!]

Ahhh we found a bug

I did wonder why he would occasionally charge down a man where others wouldn't.

[What Makes A Goalscorer?!]

That's no longer an option on FM16 it seems

Quite the shame as I'm not sure he's pressing much more than another striker on "sometimes" closing down as well. I'll have to keep an eye out and rewatch my last match where he played the entire game.

The roles and duties you use really is the key to all of this. It'll only be a top heavy formation if the strikers are not dropping back. But with the use of a DF and DLF on support that shouldn't be much of an issue and you should create some nice movement. However I would worry about those games where you need width to stretch the opposition and to use the full pitch. You can find yourself very narrow to take advantage of counter attacks at times.

If you win the ball back in their half of the pitch you you already have 3 players there so they should be able to do well and cause the opposition all kinds of issues. How you support these attacks with the midfielder depends though.

So far, I've found that the 2 strikers on support don't quite drop back as far as I would like - but then I'm not sure they'd ever track back to follow DCMs/MCs so I'm not too worried. Especially with the DCM at the base we've still got a solid three defending.

Fortunately I seem to be facing the 4-2-2-2 nearly every week (you must of had similar with Santos) and the lack of width isn't too much of an issue. I have got WB-S on each side so they have been great at providing that width support between the MC-ST line, helped my Roaming Playmaker spread the ball out quite wide at times and, with the extra space thanks to few wingers/Wide Midfielders, passing can be done into space.

I have also set the two supporting strikers on Roam From Position and swap with each other to try and mix things up and spread them out. But, yes, sometimes we can get bogged down if we pick it up at about 30ish yards and my WBs aren't forward enough to collect the ball and tempt the defenders out. I assume the solution here is WB-A so they hang around further forward more often? I'd loath to try it though as I wouldn't want them to Cross More Often which is a default setting for that duty.

Finally, for the support, I actually re-read this whole one and your Counter Attacking one and realised that my CM-A was probably charging forward too quickly and not being made a passing option in/around the edge of the box to tempt defenders out. Changed that to a CM-S for the last game (close down more as well) and that seems to have made a difference, so thanks for the thread. Feels odd though to have only one player on attack duty though

[What Makes A Goalscorer?!]

Okay looking over this and I think I might have to ask for a bit of advice on making a 4-3-3 high-block work with the striking partnership.

Since there are 3 strikers I've taken one from each of the categories: Creative (DLF-S), Support (DF-S/D) & Attacking (AF) with the hope that they'll press the backline/keeper into either a mistake or a long ball which we can quickly recycle. Managing in Brazil at the moment, it seems I face the 4-2-2-2 formation a lot of the time, which helps as with a DCM that long ball is hopefully collected by us and recycled into a forward attack.

Now two thing's I've noticed, in the table above it said that the DF has "Close Down More" as a choice - doesn't seem I have that so am I missing something or is the table off?

Secondly, was this:

I’ve purposely chosen this tactic as it is very top-heavy and it lacks someone who can control the game from deep.

I'm wondering if a 4-3-3 DCM is too top heavy as when we win the ball back, our strikers are already on their defensive line. I am finding a fair bit of success with a Roaming Playmaker as he's pottering around and spreading the ball, and if the opponent is closing us down it opens up a nice gap, but teams are starting to twig onto that.

Really, then, the advice I'm asking for is where can I go from here to turn either a stolen ball into a counter attack high up the pitch, or a long ball from the opponent into quick attack while defenders/midfielders reset themselves?

--

Sorry to bombard this thread, I can always make a different one with lovely pictures if people would prefer

[Funny Screenshots Thread]

Yeah, James Milners is the number 10 attempt

[Ajax - When Real Life Meets Football Manager - FM14]

Makes sense completely! In my head I was thinking that the 'tactical roles' develop players quicker/more because they focus on more skills rather than just one.

However I guess that they spread the load out more, thus more gradual increases, whereas a focus on an attribute has more potential of seeing a spike in that attribute?

[Ajax - When Real Life Meets Football Manager - FM14]

Ah okay - do you see much change in that 2 month period?

In my head I imagine it takes 6 - 12 months for anything to happen

[Ajax - When Real Life Meets Football Manager - FM14]

I almost went with Anderlecht

How do you mean the annual date?

Serbia and Croatia has a few other excellent youth development clubs, although Belgium is pretty vogue at the moment

On this thread, it was pointed out that if you set reminders on your notes they move a day or two annually. But I assume you don't set reminders?

[Ajax - When Real Life Meets Football Manager - FM14]

Really awesome thread and concept. Loved the previous one and am glad I can keep us with this one, especially about tracking development. Tempts me to do a game in Belgium now

Notes section was interesting and I'd love to see more about how you track developmen, reminders etc. Does the annual date move make it slightly difficult though?