jc577

Really enjoyable thread! Whatever direction you go in, very eager for more.

True, but then I'm entirely reliant on the FBs, AM + Striker to create movement.

@Jean0987654321 Sorry just seen your post, I'm playing the 4-1-3-1-1 DM AM, so narrow. Think I'm due a restart tbh

To be fair, if you're using Joaquin and Guardado as your starting wide-midfielders, I can see why defending the flanks will be difficult. Also doesn't help that Garcia and Carvalho as awfully slow, and will be required to cover a lot of ground in this formation.

This 4-1-3-1-1 is kicking my ....

That's a shame, was really enjoying this thread, but you still did a great job replicating the tactic. Well done mate

This is the key, I’m trying to find ways to achieve this, but it’s proving difficult so far. Working with the 4-1-3-1-1 DM AM, but I’m still torn between using the abundance of players centrally to dominate possession, or play more defensively and shun the opposition out wide before counter-attacking. This issue with the latter is that we usually defend with 10 men behind the ball, so with only the striker being advanced, breaking out is quite difficult. In terms of spreading the team out horizontally, using a higher mentality could be the key, which could push the outer CM’s to defend almost as wide-midfielders. Naturally this formation leads to using at least one Mezzala, but I don’t think this is enough to provide the width we need (as the FB on that side would have to be conservative). Still plenty of work to be done.

I’d start again 😂

Count me in please Jambo! Glad it's Real Betis... did a save with them earlier on in the year but was utterly disastrous, now I've got a second chance

Personally, I think Rashidi is saying you may need to adjust some of your roles and duties, depending on what you want and who you want your main goalscorer to be. Currently, you're overloading the left-hand-side (DLP-S+IF-S) which in turn frees up the W-A for a cross on the other side. However, you may not consistently have players in the box to for these crosses, as both the IF-S + DLF-S will attack the box a bit later, plus crossing against defensive teams isn't the most effective route to goal. There are various TI tweaks available, but I'd start with focusing on who the main goalscorer is and how you want your goals to be scored.

So would you say that prioritsing central play over flank attacks in a 532 is counter-intuitative?

Clearly not Herne, but I'd say a BBM-S/CM-A pairing in a 433 is a bit too aggressive if attempting to play a possession-based game. Both roles are 'runners', which may leave the DLP at the only player able to recycle the ball and initiate attacks. Another thing to mention is that your left side looks very attacking - (WB-A, CM-A and IF-A), and they're not really creating space for one another, with the CM-A and IF-A, in particular, looking to use the left half-space/central area.

He’s a pain in the a** tbh, probably going to move him on. Usually play him as a Carrilero although he doesn’t really suit this role, but it’s what the system needs. Occasionally play him behind the strikers as an AP-A, but he’s too selfish and hammers those long-shots. Really and truly he needs to be played in a midfield three, may look to create another system as Gomez and Zapata are both out atm.

Wow, your roles and duties are exactly the same as mine (playing with Atalanta over in Italy) except I’m using another WB-A instead of the CWB-S. How does your front three perform, especially your AM? Whilst doing well, i’m struggling to get any sort of combination play from my front three, and the AP-A only really spreads balls out to the WBs but never tries through passes to the strikers.

Interesting that he has ‘Plays Simple Passes’... I think ‘Dictates Tempo’ would be more appropriate, allowing him to pick and choose when he plays aggressive passes between the lines - which he does quite often.