jc577

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.

Just finished my first season with United, and I'm very pleased with how things went! OGS taking over inspired me to jump on FM and get United playing 'The United Way', and that's exactly what we did. This was THE most intense title race I've ever experienced on Football Manager. City pushed us all the way and were actually ahead by 1 point up until the final day. We took care of business and beat Wolves comfortably 3-0, whilst City lost at home to LIVERPOOL (of all teams) 2-1 at the Etihad. Can't say I wasn't fearing another infamous Aguero moment, but fortunately, that never came. In terms of tactics, kept things relatively simple in a 4231: This was my starting XI when everyone was fit and available. Sanchez was an absolute monster on the right, and Martial was equally good on the left albeit a tad inconsistent. Lukaku bullied the smaller teams, but struggled in the big games, especially when we were playing on the counter, but 25 goals in 38 league games is a good return so can't really complain. The whole team back to front was just solid, only conceding 15 goals in the league - Smalling deserves an honourable mention, never had a bad game whenever he was called upon. City had their chance to gain revenge in the CL Final, but we were one step ahead once again, beating them 2-0 AET. Going out to Liverpool in the FA Cup was really disappointing. We had so many chances, especially Lukaku, but we just couldn't put them away whilst Liverpool scored from two indirect FK's! In terms of transfers, pretty much wanted to keep the squad as it was, but Young popped up to me with this: So off he went to West Ham whilst we set a record for the number of wins in a PL season

I'm really intrigued to see if there are any comparisons between this tactic and your 442 from a few years ago Herne, more in terms of overall thought process as I know it wasn't meant to be a possession tactic. I think the development of that system was the physical manifestation of the lightbulb moment you mentioned earlier.

What does your tactic look like? Can’t really help unless we see it.

I think this is because these are the most common two roles for wide forwards IRL, plus a RMD and an IFa aren’t much different (in terms of needing to create space for them to be effective.)

Maybe removing the counter-press ti might help? I'm pretty sure defend duties don't engage in the counter-press, but your cm's will, and whilst the basic premise of your tactic was to stop cm's from drifting out-wide to stop counters, maybe the defensive wingers will benefit from the additional help during the transition.

Perhaps use a flat 451, with both outer CM’s holding position, middle CM has license to get forward. Flanks can be wingers/inverted wingers. Or, narrow full-backs/inverted wingbacks to cover the half-space, forming a square with the CB’s. Wide-midfielders on support so they’re keen to drop back in transition?

There’s no variety mate, your only real plan of attack is crosses into the box. Also, what’s the thinking behind having the midfielders staggered?

What does your new tactic look like?

Looking at the tactic you've created, I'd have a read of Cleon's 4231 article again. One thing he emphasis consistently is the need for variety in attack. Is there a need for an AP-S and an AM-S? Even though you've changed the RPM to an Anchor, you've still got the Volante, AP-S, AM-S and IF-A all looking to use the centre, plus the striker is there too. One thing I'd consider is who do you want the main goal scorer to be? If that's the striker (which I'm assuming it is because he's a Poacher, doesn't look to do much else), who's supplying him the ball? How are they doing so? Once you've done this, think about how you're going to get the ball to the supplier. For example, Poacher's thrive of crosses and through balls. So what does this mean? Well, you could have a winger (attack or support) swinging in crosses from outside. Next, who is going to give the winger the ball? If the winger is on attack duty, you could have the full-back playing more direct and/or risky passes, to try and find him early. Or the SV could be the provider, driving up the pitch with the ball, hopefully dragging the opposition's FB to him before releasing the ball. I'm not saying this is the only way of creating a tactic, but think along these lines and you'll be much closer to where you want to be.

The more I read this thread, the more I’m realising it’s actually impossible to replicate how City play. We can all debate on mentality, tempo etc but it’s frutile. What’s important is understanding the principles of how City play, and emulating them in the game. That is something we actually have control over. So, the 2-3-5 split in possession, whether that be with Wingers/IWBs or IF/WBs, is where I’d start. Also, for me personally, chance creation > possession. Possession in FM is rather easy to accumulate, but creating chances on the other hand is a bit more difficult, and that’s where the challenge truly lies.

Is there a difference between a DLP-D and DM-D in the way that they recycle possession? Obviously out of possession the DM-D is more aggressive, which may be good or bad depending on what you want, but I was wondering if there’s specific advantages in possession?

I've been re-watching a lot of city's goals from last season, and there's a couple of observations to point out. Firstly, the combinations on the left are a lot more prominent than on the right. Silva/Sane work a lot closer in tandem that Sterling/De Bruyne for example and play is concentrated down this flank a lot more also. You need to get the pair working close together. Another thing I've noticed is that Sane is quite aggressive with his runs in-behind, being played through on goal by through balls from Silva after quick one-twos, or lofted/diagonal balls from De Bruyne. I'd give him the WM-A role with Stay wider, dribble more and maybe cross more often, but I'm not sure on this. The Silva/De Bruyne tandem is hard to pinpoint. Silva is definitely more aggressive than De Bruyne, he likes to get in the box more often and is much higher up in the half-space. I think De Bruyne has more license to roam about the pitch, and isn't just limited to the HS, but still occupies it when needed. I'd go with Mez-S for Silva - could argue attack duty might be necessary, but he is City's primary controller imo so an attack duty might be too aggressive. De Bruyne I'd go with CM-S, with pi's of: roam from position, move into channels, and maybe more risky passes so he looks for those killer balls to Sane/Sterling (not sure if he has the ppm.) Sterling's role is the hardest to get. He's always either attacking the back post or making runs centrally into the box, and his role is more focused on off-the-ball runs rather than running with the ball, which is the opposite of Sane's role. He definitely has license to leave the flank, so I'd go WM-A with the PIs: Stay wider (for build-up purposes), roam from position, and get him to learn the trait 'moves into channels' if he doesn't have it. There's so much more I could write but it's almost half 4 and i've got an exam in the morning

Mata has the ppm 'comes deep to get the ball' so he's going to be deep more often than not. Giving him an attack duty might help, but ppms always trump over pi's.

I’ve tried both but neither seemed to work. I’m thinking maybe using a player with ‘cuts inside from x flank’ ‘might work, or using a Trequartista.