jc577

True but then again passing a ball 5 yards is much easier than passing it 20... quite a rudimentary point to make but what i’m getting at is that this approach (short/shorter passing) could get the team playing more than the sum of its parts as players are in close proximity, always lending a hand if a teammate comes under pressure. I think what it comes down to (as it so often does) is balance, teams with less capable players technically can try and play a possession based style but slightly adapted for their level, so they may not try to play out from the back as much as say a Chelsea or Man City, but if the conditions are right and players have taken intelligent positions during build-up then they can do it successfully. As you’ve said, the likelihood of success is less of a guarantee, but even a broken clock is right twice a day

I’d definitely look at having Tosun feeding off through balls from Gylfi in the #10 position, and crosses from Richardson/Walcott. Or you could even have one/both of them coming inside and have attacking full-backs, as Baines, Digne and Coleman are all good going forward and have good delivery. You’ve got a variety of options, but getting a striker scoring is all about supply. The key is to figure out who is going to supply him, in what way, and then how to give these players the ball in good positions so they can deliver the final pass/cross. You could even experiment with Walcott or Richarlison up front if you wanted a more mobile forward, which would allow you to play a bit quicker and gives you a better counter-attacking threat with the pace of your attack. Everton have a really exciting squad this year - don’t stress, just enjoy!

I think ‘Shorter Passing’ works well in a 442 Diamond Wide actually, as players will have to move closer to eachother to receive passes, thus reducing the gaps the formation has.

Okay, let's say the opposition is playing a 433 or 4123 DM Wide as referred to in FM: The F9 drops deep essentially creating a diamond in midfield...how can you stop this using a 4231? Now, this is for the sake of argument, I wouldn't actually do this, but theoretically, could you ask your AM to man-mark one of the... as I'm typing this I've realised that no matter who marks who, you're still going to be outnumbered 3-2 centrally As you were folks.

I'm currently trying a similar thing with Udinese over in Serie A, trying to get a counter-attacking team spearheaded by the dribbling/passing prowess of my #10. If you want to play a true counter-attacking game, whereby you sit deep and soak up pressure, I think it's crucial that your wide players are in the ML/MR strata, as they will offer you far more protection from a defensive point of view; two IF-A's won't track back nearly enough and your full-backs will be horribly exposed. Don't think players in the ML/MR positions won't be attacking, they can be devasting in any system, but especially in a counter-attacking one as their deeper positioning should encourage the opposition's full-backs forward. In regards to your use of a DLP, that's entirely up to you. If you want to be solely reliant on AI triggered counter-attacks then maybe don't use one, but if you'd like to 'force' your own counters then a DLP is a great role to use as he launches attacks from deep. Either way, I don't think playmakers slow down counters that much for it to be a concern.

If I pick this save up again, this is what I'd like to experiment with for next season: https://gyazo.com/5ae725fbce1231ee159c197e02844b58 The TIs + team shape are all centred around reducing space between the lines, so we're more compact in attack + defence. The winger on support could easily become a winger on attack, which would result in the IWB-A changing to a support duty, or even a FB-S.

Keep going with the updates mate, very intrigued to see how it's coming along. Seems that you're doing quite well, analysing and tweaking which is good to see! I've been busy all day today, so haven't been able to digest all your posts, but one thing that did stand out was changing your wide players from two wingers on support, adding in a WP, awesome Didn't wanna give this away, but I initially started out with two wingers, one on support and the other on attack, and we didn't play through the middle at all which was quite concerning. We literally crossed and crossed, and crossed some more, which doesn't really work against packed defences. Changed one of the wingers to a WP and the whole dynamic of the tactic changed entirely.

You’re playing as a Stoke side that got relegated in the 17/18 season, and you’ve 7 wins out of 10... the words ‘managing expectations’ spring to mind The lack of efficiency you speak of is probably down to player quality if anything.

Got it, thanks. I’ve even seen the AI go 1-0 up and switch to defensive 4-1-4-1 immediately after!

Say for example you set up your team to play in a pressing style, and your reputation has increased over the years due to the success of the tactic, will the AI opt to hit longer passes from defence because they know you like to press, or is that just a symptom of defensive football causes by your increase in reputation? Really struggled to word this so apologies if my question isn’t clear

C/S combo can work, but for me when playing a 4231, I wouldn’t be comfortable with my CD’s aggressively trying to win the ball higher up the pitch, as top heavy formations are susceptible to counter attacks, and this will likely make it worse. Also, why try and play offside when you’ve got a cover duty CB dropping behind the D-line looking to sweep up through balls? Why does Zaza have to be a DF-S? You’re making massive changes to how the tactic performs on the pitch just by changing one role. I’m sure all three of your strikers can play as a DLF-A, so that they are creating space/making runs for your AP-S.

I had great fun using a 442 wide diamond earlier on in FM18, it kind of requires you to think tactically and keep an eye on midfield in certain games to see if you’re giving up too much space. I don’t wanna say too much as figuring out how the tactic works is a lot of fun

Makes perfect sense. I’m assuming this is why you didn’t use the WBIB instruction in your Possession Thread, because the roles & duties selected have a fair amount of patience in-built, coupled with the lower tempo selected, so WBIB, in your tactic, may have been overkill?

@yonko Occasionally I’ve noticed that my F9 receives the ball too early during build-up; he’s come deep to get the ball around the halfway line, but instead of playing a short pass backwards, he dribbles with the ball and takes a long shot, as neither the IF’s or the CM-A has moved past him. Maybe a fluid team shape will eliminate this problem?

Well the idea behind having an AP on the wing is that he can drift laterally into the half-space, giving him better access/passing angles to the wing & centre. Also, I think that the AP will combine better with the CM-A and than IF-S + Malcom is left footed, so didn’t want him to end up playing the role like a winger.