[Revisiting FM 20]

So couple of days ago I got together with a friend of mine and we decided to go for FM save, first problem that hit us is that I havent bought FM 22 he hasnt bought FM 21 so we settled on middle ground and poped up the good ol' FM 20...

Now first things I noticed on FM 20 is that I completely forgot how it works, I mean FM "rules" are always pretty much the same, but on certain ME certain thing work and certain things dont, one of the things that I soon realised is I cant go strikerless really, ait was kinda underperforming, second thing that hit me is Fullbacks and Wingbacks act completely different in FM 20 version. After some debating we decided to go for EPL save and we decided to pick mid table teams. I picked Leicester since I really never played with them and always wanted to have Vardy on mine rooster but considering he was quite old even when he became famous and top hitter this was mine chance to try the Foxes, he decided to go yolo and proceeded with claims Newcastle is a mid team, they are strong enough and I will hope takeover happens (Funny enough he did get the takeover in mid December and almost got sacked cos new chairmen promised Brendan Rogers who declined them) after the whole ordeal of whom picks what I realised one thing, I dont want to do what I always do, I realised I played wingerless systems only back in FM 14 or FM 15 with Napoli. So I brought up the Leicester squad, saw a shitton of quality mids(Or so I thought) and decided to sell everything that doesnt fit mine 5-3-2 into 3-4-3 ish ide.

The whole transfer saga and team assesment will follow if you are uninterested in financial and player wise structure of team I'm advising you to just skip without getting bored

First issue I found after setting mine tactic up is the lack of interest for mine players (yes we do it "cheese" way without first transfer window restrictions, I'm guilty its funnier that way) second issue is although mid is packed with decent "names" all of them lack alteast one part of their game for me to use them, 3 mids are "too offensive" namely Tielemans, Praet and maddison, they would all compete for same spot, 2 mids are "too defensive" namely Choudri and Ndidi, tho their defensive quality is really good their total midfielder status is not much so. next issue was the strikers, Ihenacho is just a a bit of all decent type of striker, Vardy is still class on FM 20 with his amazing mentals and good physicals for his age, Perez is a miss for 532 and 343 since he offers almost 0 physical pressence and speed. But then came the biggest issue, the CD, Soyuncu is almost a world beater and its there for everyone to see, Evans is mentally one of best CDs in game but his speed is a real concer especially at his age when it can only drop further, the Bennet who is on loan suffers similar issues so i decided to never even use Bennet to avoid paying 5m clause he has in contract and to just recall Benkovic since they are similar and since it is better to develop mine own player then to use washed up loanie.

After some thought I figured I will need strong physical presence for multiple parts of mine game, 1 thing is i want to be able to hoof it up in 532 and then certain strong man can lay it off to pacey partner, other things is Im an underdog in a MP save, game gets really really funky in those i want to be able to score from set pieces so 3 "towering" CBs in addition with good stron striker should help me even with that. After some digging and initial failure to secure Giroud(imho most underused world class player in probs all of FM, Oscar Cardozo aside) I decided to go for the "beast from the east" and Mitrogol (Aleksandar Mitrovic) was more then happy to prove that he isnt championship beater only( he was tied for no 1 in assists and 3rd in goals scored across the season). Then I looked into the future and decided taht Raspadori might just become new Vardy he is only 15 years younger then him, but he could become mine next Fox of the decade. After some thinkering and persuassions Tsimikas and Rafael agreed to join as covers for respective wingbacks which solved most of mine issues since Chillwell and Perreira are probably among top 10 Wingbacks in game at start date on their repsective sides. The last addition which would impact first team games is Romario Baro, a player that kinda somehow got under mine radar when I used FM 20 back in days but I really enjoyed his wild long shots that sometimes surprise even him.

 

Then I gave it some though, Maddison was really nice, he had really good PPMs and I lacked only 2 PPMs on him to envision mine plan, but, he is worth a loooot of money and his anticipation is sub par if Im going to play over aggresive or over defensive, which are basically labels for 343 and 532 respectively, Praet suffers maddison issues but he is even worse in temrs of ability, tielmans is amazing, but again with money I can go to the moon, so I made a plan, I will sell them both, not now, but on the end of season and maybe try to get 100m-140m for both in total and I will try to secure replacements in terms of good young prospects at start of game, so I decided to hunt down few targets Verschaeren was mine no 1 pick to inherit Maddison, I decided if I can snatch Fabio Silva in 2-3 yeas I will have more then Mitrovic in that role since he is also a lot more technical and doesnt have weak off the ball and anticipation like Mitro does, Sutalo can provide more complete Wingback if Perreira gets snatched by some big club and he provided some DC relief when necessary aswell, Kotchap can be developed and used instead of Evans at some point, Kenneh can be snatched and resold for profit (it is a bussiness after all), I dug up another Croatian in Dinamo named Brekalo to invest into that wingback slot when Chillwell gets snatched.

Now first transfer window was done, but what i didnt mention is I used the good ol' Im gonna make mine club so deep in debt that I have around 3 seasons to start beating **** up or Im just gone, yeah the old Instalments trick, so with installments, for those who are unaware, you can sign a lot of players with smaller budget, since your budget looses only the immediate funds, the installments are cut from your future transfer budgets.

AI also got rid of all the deadwood, atleast I percieve them like that, namely Demarai Grey, Mendy, Justin, Amartey, Perez, eventually near the half of the season Iheancho, albrigton, james, Barnes,  Fuchs and others who were lacking in interested followed, thus allowing me to make mine super star signing. (deadwood sale is good for your current season since you will loose potential money you can get from non listed players but I needed to clear wages fast and I needed to get some starting money)

So the january comes and mine first golden bois arrive, Henrique from Gremio and none other then Tonali from Brescia, those 2 are perfect for my style, not only they have amazing mental stats for their age, but also have the physicals and technicals to back it up, a good allrounder mid duo. 

Mine only "mistake" is that I havent gunned for Florentino Luis when I could so Lilpool snatched him, while City baited Camavinga, but getting them was also unrealistic.

So in the end with all money spent, everything rearranged I finished season in 4th after dreadfull rund from game 25 onward, since matc hschedule decided to give me 2 Liverpool games back to back preceeded by Man City away game all in January which I did loose, the Lilpool ones, cos City got served cold, but boi I felt FMed, anyways at that point I thought its ok, 2 strongest teams in game 3 points from 3 games its ok, aaand then the draws and last minute goals kicked in, nothing I did made any difference, I mean even Felipe Anderson scored 2 goals in 2 minutes with headers marked by Evans with only 2 shots west ham had, total FMed. But without ranting what this wonderfull game sometimes does is it gives you pottatoes and you try to make lemonade.

So as the season closed and with me in 4th board was over delighted, ECL baby instead of potato European competition I will play the big bois, THE BIG BIG bois, so they gave me transfer money, I checked mine squad and it was all coming true.

The rebuild has begun

Chillwell, Perreira, Ndidi, Mitrovic, Tielemans, maddison, Evans Tsimikas, Vardy and Rafael all become wanted man, faced with crisis I did what i do best, promise money that i dont have and went for restructure, I decided taht I have to hold onto Perreira, there is no RB in game at start of season 2 that can come even close to him for a club of mine stature, but rest, well rest is for grabs, i will sell them all, but under 1 condition, you will bleed money for them, and you will bleed insta payments, none of that installment stuff. So I decided I can even undersell some of them simply cos I need the funds now not in 2 years i need it now. They all left along with some loan deadwood netting me 321 million euros (which Board was delighted to cut into 70% for you rest for the club, applauding that one, thank you board) and went on a spree, targets no 1 new qualitty left backs.

After some deep searching I found mine new targets, one who is not yet on the radar of the big ones and one who has it all what i need and will even probably outperform Chillwel, and plus he is already unsettled.

So Ait Nouri and Pellegrini joined after some drawned out negotiations to fit everything in. next order of bussiness after loosing mitrogol wa getting mine first wish, Olivier was on sale for 2.7m, I mean who can resist, mine favorite Target man of series is on sale and i must have him, a total upgrade in every departmet except in speed over Mitrovic, the sexy anticipation workrate off the ball balance and aeiral presence esp since compared to real life where he last time scored when he was in elementary school, he actually scores in game, wonderfull.

Next order of bussiness improve the back line, Evans is gone, he was one of team leaders but other then his mentals he lacked the speed to cope with EPL level, so Onguene's clause was activated and Milenkovic was stolen from Fiorentina.

Vardy short term repacement was prvided in Gabigol since he was still "cheapish" for his ability and he himself wants a step stone club and I want a step stone striker until Raspadori can fire on all 4 cylinders.

Since i sold every single one of my first pick AMC's (apart from Verschaeren who did so so in first season, tho no wonder with his low CA at start of game) I decided its time to get a new star in the making and splash it out really big on one of the games probably best players Reiners 109 million clause was triggered and all of a sudden we went for a new dawn at King Power stadium. The foxes are biting back.

If you skipped the "boring" part we now move onto tactical terms

So since I decided to go 532 and 343 I got the idea why not do it 2 ways, take what I like from Conte and Gasperini and then combine it to make tactic possible of holding the ball and also cappable of countering and sitting back if needed.

I did a lot of experiments, switched a lot of roles, PI's, set piece combinations until I clicked them both to what works in FM 20 engine, the engine is really weird since in 343 you are probably better of with ML and MR instead of WBL and WBR stratas since they do press higher and they also start higher up the pitch, but i wanted to stay true  I wanted to make it work with WBs

 

The "343"

YOU SAID 343 ITs 5212 INSTEAD, I qualify this in mine book as 343, we can disagree but for me its a 343.

What's happening here is that your players will try to keep hold of the ball by making passing triangles all over the pitch and exploit the overload on defences in wide area where WBs can penetrate with good timed runs or with central overloads when BBM and AM join attack, whole movement of front 3 is very chaotic, they are all told to roam, vs teams with flat back 4 it is devastating since PF(s) (the Mitrogol, Giroud role) is a storng presence in air and with good off the ball moves he will come deep and unsettle defenders, the CF(a) will do it all, he will drop, he will probe (esp since I use AF types here who will have the PPM for offside traps) and he will create general havoc with his moves and try to open himself to recive pass and then shoot, or play in partner WB or AMC. AMC is really specific position here, he is told to get forward by his hardcoded PI but, I want to use a player that has comes deep to get the ball, paired with gets into opposition area PI, the trough balls, long passes, one twos, they are all bonus, those 2 are most important since you will make a killing machine out of him, he will come deep for the ball, play it out and then surge forward when presented with a chance. you could simply switch him to Trequartista and teach him move into channels along the first 2 but I didnt have workrate AMC atm so i optet for AM(A). WB(A) are your wide players and basically only ones doing so, you need real quality in there (reason why I spent so much in that area) they need to do it all and on top of it be quick to be able to catch back in defence and to push up in attack. BWM is a BWM in name only, I picked that role cos I didnt want a DLP who would crate endless passes with AP, I didnt use Mezzala cos in transitions he would move up too far if he doesnt have a PPM, CM (S) isnt that aggressive even with tackle harder, RPM is just a big no no, Carilero is an interesting choice which can work but Id say I need to experiment vs weaker sides with it more to advise the switch to it. BWM is perfect and if you asked WHY U SELL NDIDI WHEN U USE BWM? Thats the trick BWM is BWM in name only, I introduce you to Tonalis role, his PPMs (esp since no one else on team has dictates tempo) make him mine BWM. Think of him as reversed regista, regista sits back and does pirlo stuff, but this guy does Gattuso stuff and then goes Pirlo mode, mine logic was if I win the ball up the pitch I want the guy who won it to make maximum use of that position so I need a guy who will do long pass, trough pass and dictate it and turn it into quality possession, thus Tonali was reborn. BBM needs a complete player whowill run from deep, decent long shots for some screamers, and overall agression and ability to play passes, finish chances and track back, This is mine Baro/matheus henrique, They are both fairly technical and offer a chance in possession battle and are both capable of doing long shots and pick some good passes. PPM wise I would suggest gets further forward and tries long shots if he is long shot god, one twos is also a neat addition as is switches play(if he has good passing/vision, dribles trough center is also an option.

the back 3 are the part where I suffered the most, I lacked speed, and I lacked lot of it, In season 2 I fixed those issues and we will see how it will go but I would suggest that you have at least one 14 pace 14 accel with 14 anticipation at least for that cover role, and at least 12 pace 12 accel with 14 anticipation on wider roles, along those attributes dont forget concentration decisions, aerial presence, positioning, you know the CD stuff. If you get ur hands on ie Chris Mepham put him on either of sides he likes and teach him long passes and you will see those over the top ICBMs. Both wide CBs are told to stay wider in order to ease recycling of possession and to try to avoid the high press.

The keeper is on attack duty simply cos kasper can do it, he is really good for that poor mans Neuer in his prime sort of thing, and he will occassionaly blunder but he is probs the best you can get so id stick with him.

 

The 532:

WHY 2 SUPPORTS IN ATTACK? PAIRS AND COMBINATIONS SAYS NEVER DO THIS

First of all this is a hard hitting counter tactic which I used for some away games(took me more then long to sort it out since I rarely play on breaks) and for holding onto lead(cant hold the lead when you get FMed)

Relax, the 2 support roles on top are there because how they work, remember the magnet roles of FM? Well I do, and those include F9, Targetman and Trequartista for ST strata, as i previously stated Treq lacks the pressing part and I want them to sometimes press, well not sometimes always but only when they come out. F9 is F9 only in name, dont be tricked, this is your Advanced forward, he has the F9 tag so he starts from deeper position and doesnt get isolated in transitions, I tried with CF both on support and Attack, and with AF and Poacher, Poacher had some smaller succes tho, but F9 is the one I decided to use, if your AF player also has amazing workrate and teamwork this will work wonders. The Target man is self explanatiory pop it long for the big guy, this is what I want to see now taht Giroud is in, Mitrovic was awesome but I excepct much much more from Olivier. Front 2 will try to play each other in, hold the ball for onrushing WBs and Mid duo and generally try to cement themselves and provide a thorn all the time. Mezala in here is to try to provide width and a bit of overload on right side so you can get some triangles untill a chance opens up, this is pure Conte play in which you need workhorses, When  I switch, mine mezzala is player from AMC so that he can again come deeper and not be isolated in transitions and help with ball carrying. BBM stays the same, he is there to do what he was doing and cos he has further PPM he will be above mezzalla in transition thus making a ladder for ball to "climb" up. Tonali goes back to his Tonali role, offering an outlet and trying to regista stuff but not from regista role, cos remember, regista role is for when you press high ie 442 diamond of sorts, but here I need him to close down aswell and provide safety in the back by shielding the line a bit. When we go from the back CD cover will drop, CB left and right will offer options on sides and DLP will come in middle making nice diamond to relieve pressure, its all about diamonds. WB and CD have pretty much the same roles.

What is wrong with these tactics?

Wing backs are wrong

THE END!

Well let me try to explain

If you use WB(S) on either side, their mentality and hard coded part will make them defend super good, but on offense they dont have same penetrative power as on attack, they come up later and since you face a lot of formations where you have ie 442 451 4231 you get the picture, then there are 2 guys waiting for him, and they get forced into 2v2 instead of 2v1(in 2v1 case STCR, MCR help them overcome the obstacle)

In 343 situation I can outright say switch them to ML MR strata, make them DW, WM, W role set overlap or underlap and lower their mentality and just press press, It will work better then WB 90% of time

but in 532 situation, you loose a lot of defensive stability by doing so especially since WCB doesnt exist in this FM(I stated before havent tried FM 22 but heard wonders about new role)

One of the ways to make your wingbacks behave in different manner is overlap and underlap, because there is no one in front of them it will just increase their mentality but also in case of underlap force some of the play trough the middle making them search passes inside and on overlaps making them go a bit wider forcing your team to find them wider in wide positions for crosses)

CWBa roles can work but Im sorry i dont have Trent Arnold or Dani Alves in his prime to use those, those are really demanding roles Id suggest avoiding for 99% of the game time(maybe its just me)

If you train WBs to have long range passes and switches ball to other side then you could arguably use them as WBs since then you will have ICBM launchers from deep that will unlock any defense simply cos of their low starting position and cos diagonal potential they have from their position with all the movement in front of them.

Try it I guess, WB experimenting is always super fun.

Other issue is 3 man backlines in FM 20 are prone to loosing players on side passing, basically if team starts their attack from right and moves to the left without challenge you can face free ppl on right side thus making you prone to those nasty crosses, best way to avoid it is by having good CBs and good WBs, the other way Id suggest is making wide BPDs stoppers which will in turn make them protect the channels, but for mine players that was too risky due to their overall lack of pace in season 1. 

During the matches I tend to change stuff, mainly I change mentality cos attacking is higher risk high reward type of play, players also get tired a lot lot more and you are prone to counters when facing such teams, I tend to switch after I secure the lead, but not like insta switch more like I try to get 2-3 goal cushion then shut the opposition and do the counter attack, I also remove pass into space since those balls make overturns.

On 532 I have pass into space and hit early crosses by default those arent a mistake those are there simply for the reason that if I start vs Liverpool away i want to try to murder them with over the top balls, and if I switch to hold the lead I would remove those 2 instructions and add play for set pieces and waste time, a dick move, but effective dick move.

 

 

Final word

All in all FM 20 is still fun, whom am I kidding, FM was always fun.

Game works, it can remind you of some older days or if you try to lure friends into FM sect FM 20 was the free one, you can lure them in hue hue hue 

 

Instead of sharing the wins i will share the getting FMed games, jk I will share both and some final results just so that those AcTchualy Knap Viking Storm raid monastery Scotland Tactic for 20,4,4,124124 version performs the best in FM 20 people can gimme some hate (no hate to Knap he came to mine mind as super tactic creator, keep up with the good work)

Why am I posting this? Just of funs, since I tend to stick to particular systems I mastered read 442 4231 451 and variations of the same, so I found this as a good source of furthering mine game knowledge and some other aspects of game that I wasnt aware of, namely no winger systems and counter systems aswell.

There are probably a lot of typos, pardon me for that.

Ill leave the tactics here if anyone wants to even boot up the ol' reliable 20 and give it a swirl or to experiment around with different ideas:

532:NO I COUNTER YOU!.fmf

343: NO I ATACC YOU.fmf

Before meme games league standing  and stuff like that:

On side Note Vardy missed almost last 2 months of play cos broken leg time... As you can see I overscored all but Liverpool but mine "great defence" made the score for the end.

Probably the worst Get FMed game in mine time playing FM

[Is it raining goals yet?]

I enjoy playing FM in late stages, by that I mean I enjoy every iteration of our favorite game in period after June or July after everything gets sorted out(9/10 times FM 19 Im talkin bout you), so I had an idea this time around, what if I try to combine a lot of tactical styles and try to make them core part of a certain way of play. For everyone wondering this isn't gonna be some download this tactic 99.914124% teams cant stand it, click download now and get 2+1 free! I intend to write this as an idea which was achieved after 2 whole seasons with one too many transfer tactics just to get players I needed, by that I mean I used every trick in the book I knew of how too boost mine players, how to unsettle AI players and to work around everything so I can get a group of players I wanted to work with.

Enough of the boring writing of introduction, let's get to what this actually is.

Somehow when I was a younger version of myself I liked 4-2-3-, I mean Arsenal played it and while you can say its 4-4-2 in its core it looked a lot different to me back then, but as I grew up of sorts I started to appreciate the 4-5-1 DM Wide as FM calls it, or simple flying V as I like to call it. And no wonder one would appreciate the 451's and its versions and tactical systems based on it, I mean, Mourinho at Chelsea, Pep in Barca, Sarribal at Napoli, Klopp in Liverpool and many others, everyone used 451s and made it work differently, so what if we could try to use influence of each and everyone of them in a single tactic to get amusing and highly offensive style of play?

 

I decided best course of action is to first pick what is the most important part of each of these types of tactics and to "steal" that bit while still being able to fit it in a same tactic and solution I found was this:

 

 

Concept

So lets start from beginning, if there ever is one, I usually like to start from the defensive side but in this case I think it might be wiser to go from top.

Mourinho influence:

if its shut you brute force that open, that is the idea behind the forward trio, all 3 of the forward roles will score, but, the Advanced Forward is gonna be mine main threat, and considering how FM 20 and 21 both have one super duper OP AF (who could it be Eirling?) I kind of tailored the role to suit him and to suit his teammate in later days, yes the Moukoko, I I think I never was hyped about developing a striker in FM as I'm in case of Moukoko, he is just Mbappe in the rough, the possibilites are off the charts. The role of AF is simple, attack space, break offside traps and score, and score more and more, with Haaland type of striker in your side he just gets more goals simply cos of his aerial prowess and ability to use him in setpieces and in tactic both.

Right Wing slot is reserved for Inverted Winger, this role was a tough one, I will argue Winger on attack would do the same job maybe even better but I will leave that for later, the point of this role is the threat on the right side, Inverted winger can stretch the play almost the same as winger but he isn't "one dimensional" as Raumdeuter or inside forward is, he is like a hurricane of sorts but still responsible for his defensive part and not a ball magnet like Trequartista or Playmaker roles, which made him perfect for this role, the role of IW is to occupy opposing left side defensive workers, at times he will draw FB's only, at times DM's and at times CB's and that is exactly what we want, if he doesn't lure them away that means we have a runner free which will net him a goal or two. Creativity wise think of him as Willian sort of player, he will cross, he will pass trough, he will dribble and he will keep hold of possession and help in mid battle to some extent.

On Left wing we have the Raumdeuter and some people will now say, wait like 2 mins ago you said WE DONT WANT RMD COS HE IS ONE DIMENSIONAL! And yes I did say that, but I want that sort of player in here, let me try to give you some insight on it, since the introduction of this role in game I think this has to have been the role most people got confused about, is it a winger? is it IF who is lacking passing ability, is it a deep poacher? well id have to say he is bit of all and nothing of aforementioned at all, he does sit narrow, he does act as deep poacher and he might act as a winger if he decides to do so, this is one role in game which has a lot of hardcode in it but also, from mine experience, relyes on PPM's heavily, example wise Muller will act as deep poacherish like player in it, while hazard will act like drifting half-wing or mezala of sorts, it comes down to the player you have at disposal. I would argue it might work to change the role into Inside forward but that would highly humper the roles hard code part which is offensiveness, RMD acts as focal point and that is the roles hard code, this role is selected as a sacrifice for the rest of the team, and no we are not playin Skyrim Boetiahs calling quest, we are sacrificing this players ability pace and football IQ to block opposition in defense, he will most of the time block FB and CB at same time tying them down and making extra room for our AF and marauding FB behind him, also at times he will provide space for our B2B since with his drifting even DM and CM strata get lured away by him, if he is left alone he will score cos his inner poacher ability will make him find the space and time to do so since in similar sense AF is doing the same thing with both or all 3 CB's depending on oposittion.

 

So those are them 3 out of the way, the Mourinho idea is brute forcing them via the constrictions, those 3 players are tying down a lot of oposing defenders in a manner that leaves space for our mid and FBs to exploit while also making a dilemma at each step which one of those 3 should they leave alone and if they should leave them alone.

 

Sarri influence:

Sarriball was popular few years ago, it was a new take and many recognized Pep Barca styles in them but the main selling point for me was the deep metronome, I grew up when Serie A was THE THING, you can say EPL has 6 great teams fighting, BBVA had 2 strongest teams at the world fighting and Atletico lurking at them, but Seria A in early 2000's was better then all combined, you had 4 strong teams dukin it out each year with amazing talent in each squad but what was really interesting for those times was the metronomes, most of the top sides had metronomes and the one that was most adored was probably Pirlo, once he stepped on big stage nothing was the same anymore. So once I saw Sarri and Jorginho I kind of fell in love with it.

The Right CM is a mezalla the role of mezalla is creative side as well as runs frop deep, mourinho influence made me constrict the oposition and now if someone is running from deep he will insert confusion in opposing team, the other part of mezalla contriibution is also constriction and ball protection, he is most offensive mid player but at same time he has the ability to work with top 3 since he will find himself in halfspaces on right side with option of playing trough balls for RW and ST while also looking to exploit left side with diagonals from a perfect position, in combination with the B2B he will keep the ball and work toward creating a breaktrough needed to shuffle the opposition and find space for a chance.

B2B role is often fairly simple and one thing no one ever does is roaming Ball wining midfielder, but in this case that is exactly what he does in a sense, if I'm playin strong oposition and I find it difficult to control the situation he will even switch role to BWM's, although that happens really really rarely, the idea behind this role is gap filler, since RMD makes a lot of space I found it optimal to have a player able both on and off the ball while still being able to contribute in defensive bussiness a mandatory need on this side of the pitch, protect the marauding fullback, use the space he is left with to recieve and offload passes and provide stability in mid and in possession battle this is his main role. I would argue same and sometimes even better effects could be achieved by switching this role to another but more of that later.

The Metronome, now this can be most integral part of the team, you need a player who is not just a metronome but can also do his defensive work, cos if he cant defend it all falls down, there is no strong screen infront of him, no Gattuso or keane like monsters to break a leg or 2 and hand him the ball, he will have to work for the ball as the rest of the bois, main thing to do if he is unable to cope with the pressure is to swap the role to DLP support if its needed for still being able to contribute in ofense or DLP defense if facing strong Top heavy sides who can overwhelm the CBs with pace and skills. Offensive wise he will look to control the play and unleash runners, the 3 forward influence can benefit the most from regista while also if he gets closed down a lot he can attract players to him while freeing rest of mid free so they can work their magic instead. This is porbably the hardest role to fulfill in whole of the idea and I would never even go for Regista if i didnt know the game has Kana and Camawinga liek players, without players of that sort this would be impossible to fill out, fun fact I used Eric Garcia in this role aswell and he was good since he fullfiled defensive side of matters to an amazing extent.

 

Pep and what does it mean to be a FB:

In modern football FB or WB call it however you preffer is a role that is most tiring and requires people with godly physical condition, able to run up down, dribble and after all of that cross for others and yet somehow every year Golden Ball gets in strikers hands, hmmmmmmmm sus. Jokes aside it is what I said it is demanding role which needs players able to fulfill pretty much everything on the pitch, but even if they can do it matter of quality is when, how and why they do it.

Right side has a WB on support which is based on mine forward role and also on protection and gap fill for mine mezala, in case I had a glorious winger in front I would use IWB on support here, reason for WBs at this time is to provide width so that he can get into position to cross and help in mid battle by being at hand for possession game, when i use him as IWB it triggers poetry in motion, in case of IWB role he becomes our mid player which releases mezala, helps in mid battle and offloads pressure from Regista the downside of this is that sometimes we could face issues with width since even with winger in front it might get cloged, it is possible to use IWB with IW setup which means they will sort of alternate who gets to stretch the width but I avoid it mainly for the reason of liking him in the wider areas, lurking for a chance at cross. In recent years we all saw what Lahm did and what partnership Alves and Abidal had under Pep, Alves was the driving force while Abidal was the more cautios one.

Left Side is the home of probably best Arsenal player and he had to get a note for that, but in this case he will act as our space provider and our crossing outlet, RMD will tuck inside opposing markers and FB on attack duty will find the space  and time to do so while still being cautious of defensive threats, I felt WB and CWB on attack left too much of open space while support duties lacked the punch to provide the needed penetration on the wing so I opted for Fullback on attack which has a great mix of offense and is still highly responsible in defense, so in the case of defense we have Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde, opposite sides of pitch opposite roles both relevant for the control of the pitch.

 

Centre Backs are straightforward, BPD so that they can launch spliting passes at times if I felt one of them lacked in the department of passing he would be downgraded to Puyol and just sit around and do the defensive part, one can experiment with making the left in the pairing a cover duty but I felt like using offside trap for some reason so I opted out of it.

 

Last role is Keeper who is like a Neuer, I thought of using attacking sweeper keeper but considering how he saw ball really rarely in game I didnt want to give him the option to FM me with Neuer vs Stankovic style of play.

 

Is anyone still reading? Are you insane? You just wasted a lot of time....

 

In possession:

 

 

Considering everything described I should explain how these shouts work together, the shout most people get confused about is probably underlap/overlap and more disciplined/more expressive ones.

Mine understanding of more disciplined is when its on its telling them OY, I TOLD YOU TO RUN LEFT, SO YOU DONT EVEN THIS ABOUT TO RUN RIGHT! sort of thing, meaning disciplined shout will sort of 'enhance" the behaviour to be more like instructions, both role and team ones, they will try to follow them more then to try to express their personal skill or flair while expressive is the other way around. So disciplined could be interpreted as word of God that Moises himself bestowed upon them while expressive is more of a guideline to follow and afterwards do their own thing, I preffer the discipline shout and the attribute that affects it by mine personal experience is Teamwork, so in general I look to sign players with higher teamwork stat.

If you are a good team you want to use play out of defense since just hoofing the ball out might come back to bite you.

Tempo is set to a bit higher since mine team has good passers and I do defend in specific manner I want to go towards the goal with greater urgency whilst their defensive setup is still in shambles so higher tempo gives me just that.

Run at defense is self explanatory, more disciplined combined with it makes mine attack minded players dribble their marker and generate threat and draw more oposition to them while freeing others.

Play narrow and other focus play shouts were reworked for FM 21 and now they don't do same thing they did in previous FM's, now it will ask players to search mid outlets and pass the ball to them which helps to get out REG and MEZ on ball more often which can be rewarding

and now overlap and underlap, this is a bit tricky to explain, but on left side overlap means we will search more width on that side and give mentality increase to our FB so that he makes those runs a bit more often and provide more width, that one was the easier of the 2.

Underlap on right means that players on right side should try and seek ANY and I mean ANY player on the pitch making a rund forward, that means if mine FB RMD MEZ AF anyone of them makes a run IW should try to pick them up with a pass supporting their run, it also puts our WBs mentality up a bit more so that he gets into forward positions a bit faster which helps with transitions and passing outlets.

 

In Transition:

The jurgen part, who could have guessed that Jurgen part is a press similar to Gegen press, I would expect Jurgen part was the use and style of Kuba Błaszczykowski in BvB German cup finals, alas it is still gegenpress thing.

In transition i want to counter since then I can use mine oppressing trio to their full potential since they can act like Ottomans in 17th century if given the chance and mine roles are setup in ladder way so that mine players have options for quicker transitions. 

After loosing the ball I want to press and press hard, I want to win it back and be able to counter again, in few rare cases i might opt to remove counter press and even go for regroup but those cases include games in knockout stages when I get favorable lead and just want to peg them on counters while they commit more and more players forward, so I used it vs juventus once and vs PSG since I was kinda afraid of their forwards and the pace.

Other then that I left GK part alone, I run with pass to CBs a bit but I felt he was missing few passes to mine strikers so I left it alone and I let him decide whom to aim for.

Out of Possession:

Since I already stated its Jurgen def it has familiar settings.

Tighter marking is mandatory since I want to close them down as fast as possible and I don't want them to run circles around any of my players.

Get Stuck in is optional I use it to intimidate and if I get one too many yellows I turn it off and sometimes even switch to stay on feet cos stay on feet makes it easier to close down mid players

Prevent gk dist makes sense but can be turned of, I mainly use it all the time but its more important vs bigger teams so they cant craft from back, while vs weaker teams it sometimes help to leave it off since it drews them further from their own goal.

Pressing intensity all the way even If I'm regrouped when they enter mine space I don't want to let them pass or do anything.

Offside trap is self explanatory which leads us to engagement lines.

The defensive line is set to high at all times in mine case, I don't change it, but the engagement line is something i like to play with if I'm chasing lead I would go all out with attacking even very attacking and push the line to the top, If I'm satisfied with the lead I would just drop it to standard to draw them out and then counter them, it also helps vs buses to just drop it down a notch and lure them out and make space for your forward 3 to run into, with regroup shout I would 90% of time go to standard aswell.

 

Anyone still left alive after this blob of text? Don't tell me I didn't bore you to death....

 

Changes:

As I mentioned before There are few changes which can be applied, main one being Regista role into Deep lying playmaker roles, I changed REG into DLP defend vs Juventus cos I didn't wanna leave space for Dybala Ronaldo duo to go 2v2 on mine CB's, I switched REG to DLP Support vs Liverpool when they went 4231 since Regista would easily be outmatched by AMC who can tag it esp if its Firmino, you get the picture when and why I did it.

B2B can be changed to BWM's and to CM's BWM's to make him more of a defensive tool and CM's to make him more of a pivot since B2B can become too offensive if given the space

 

Right flank rework: as I mentioned IW can go into Winger Attack and RB can then go IWB support, I mean you can do it into IWB support anyway but thats already covered,

I like to use Opposite footed wingers PPM trick from time to time, idk if you are all aware of it but, if you have a player who can play AMR but has left foot as main foot and has PPM cuts inside and you use him in a winger role, he will act as a Winger Inverted Winger hybrid, and I like to use that from time to time, the hybrid will spend more time out wide which in turn gives you more width, he will still run towards goal as IW would but he would have to traverse greater distance and that in turn gives more time to teammates to pick his run up and provide him with ball, it can get really nasty with fake wingers provided you have players for that, I like Reus and Sancho in that role on AML in mine previous save, try it, its fun.

 

Closing word:

First of all for everyone who says result where, team where, this where, that where? I already said it is just a bit of write up for anyone that wants to read on some tactical idea I had and that served me, I used top of the line players in mine save cos I enjoy rebuilding Arsenal in each Fm, I would enjoy more if they had a proper team once in a while and win something, but it is what it is, every year I pick Arsenal up make a restoration project,a buy players I want and use tactics I want. 

Set pieces are in the tactic and corners are set for Haaland type of player atm, you can change him for CB on near post if you wish so....

I'm open to discussion and to see if anyone has any changes in mind, and sees something I overlooked since I do have a pretty strong squad and it is harder to spot a mistake or two with a strong team. Remember PPMs heavily influence the behaviour of players and you might not enjoy mine success if you opt to try it out and fiddle with it.

That is kinda it  I will leave tactic download bellow if you want to test it out or to joke around with it....

Revelation.fmf

[VAR always makes the same decisions]

Dude VAR is always the same, if VAR gets called in FM 20 (Still using 20 cos no point in 21 till August) the decision will be the same, if its suspected penalty, offside, foul itll always ring it, on top of it offside rule chalked off atleast dozen of mine Sensi goals since Skriniar or someone else stays in box after free kick or corner and when he whistles a 25 volley past the goallie its offside even tho no one touched it or was near the play area, the offside rule and VAR cost you much more then stupid reff mistakes of the past 

[The Art of Possession Football]

1 minute ago, herne79 said:

Just to echo this and fill in a bit more, in the 4-4-2 I use (and have written about) technically it's a 4-4-1-1 using the STCL + AMCR positions for my two "strikers".  Whilst it was never a key intention to create a possession based tactic, such a simple positional change made a significant difference to the amount of possession (I see 60%+).

Obviously tactical settings are a large part as well, but the move away from a "flat" 4-4-2 can make quite a difference if more possession is what you are after.

I'm aware of the insight you provided on positional switch and domination with slight tweak, I liked that topic, but idea here is to also have transitional options, and like really good options, I have players in each strata for transitional play an quick goal smashing provided it plays like I imagined...

[The Art of Possession Football]

1 hour ago, Cleon said:

I like this 442 and it's not that different from a few I've used and other people on here. One thing I would say though and that I mentioned in the article, is the 442 isn't that great for possession based tactics.

I'm aware that 442 isn't best for possession styles especially due to the fact that you lack midfield depth with only 2 players in there, but mine idea was to make passing options so that players join the middle to even that battle and to do so without loosing 442 strength which is wide play, by doing so I feel it makes a variety of options available for mine team when in possession while still providing decent cover when I'm in defense, final idea is to use STCR(DLF) to mark opposing midfielder so I can get 4411 style when I'm defending, and I don't want to use DF since his passing is really short but DLF gives greater variety to attack, that was the ideak DLF helps with def bottle necks and helps with midfield domination....

[The Art of Possession Football]

Wanted a second opinion on this on, Idea is taht WP cuts inside and gets to left side to link up with WB(A), DLP(D) holds position for recycling, on right side FB(S) is told to sit narrower and cut inside, that's mine try to replicate IWB(S) movement without him having roam and more risky passes PI, BBM is told to Get further forward, idea is to use him as runner from deep, and DLF(S) is there to link up WP(S) BBM and W(A) especially for wingers sake so he isn't isolated, if it was a technical player I would've gone with F9 instead of DLF(S) but with this setup I think I have covered all terms, the width, the passing lanes, the connection between roles and overall balance, other PI's for players are for strikers to perform high block and for wingers to perform medium block duties.

 

I'd like to hear second opinion if some areas would be overcrowded by too many players in them and if BBM can be in truth used as deep runner, thanks in advance.