crusadertsar

You could also try something simple like this and it would probably make you more threatening in attack then your previous 4-2-3-1 tactic. It's just a very simple balanced formation that's guaranteed to provide attacks from different strata, not just striker. It actually just allowed me to win second Super Cup trophy with Real Sociedad by beating a very strong Barcelona team. Albait I kind of exploited the fact that Barca was silly enough to use a narrow 4-2-2-2 formation against me. So us dominating against such a narrow shape was not so unexpected.

433 is a good idea. Because with a defensively-responsible DM, both of your CMs can act as number 8s to get forward and provide more attacking threat from deep.

@HanziZolomanIn FM sometimes you just have to score more than your opponent to win. With your very conservative double pivot your attack is not very threatening to the opposition. All they need to do is shut down your striker (or the moment their keeper has a great game). You need to have at least one other source of goal penetration from your midfield. Particularly when your attack is set up the way it is. Wings are not a consistent source of goals in the game. And you are only using one striker. While your AMC is a playmaker role (attack duty won't make him score more). So in this tactic you rely on all your goals from your AF. That's not good. The moment he has a bad day, your game plan goes out the window. At least with 442 you would have more chances of salvaging a game, if one of the strikers wasn't doing well.

Have you watched some of these matches in full or at least on comprehensive highlights to actually see what's happening on the pitch?

Stop looking at the heat map and actually test some of the advice we are giving you. I have tested and written about overloads and channelling ball into specific side on here before and trust me 80% of the time, the trick is in the roles you choose.

But you have more aggressive attacking duties on your right flank. While IW and DLP are not an ideal combo. DLP tends to launch cross-side thoroughballs rather then dynamically connect with your left attacker (via one-twos for example). If you want to play more down the left side then make sure to change the role of DLP to RPM or BBM.

My guess it's because of the increased individual mentality. I do the same thing myself. It helps the player make more risky decisions when it comes to passing, ect. Especially when you have a technical player. At the same time it's prevents player from getting marked out as often happens when you use a playmaking role there. So DM role on support is great. You can customize it to your heart's content and make him into a hybrid anchor/playmaker. DM(D) is just too conservative for what I need this player to do in a progressive possession 433 tactic. Especially when building up from the back.

Thanks for the kind words mate. I think we all secretly wish that we had @Rashidi 's footballing brain. He does make it look easy and it probably is if you have the time to watch matches in full, and analyze every minute detail ect. Unfortunately, a lot of us, myself included, who have been playing this game for over a decade just don't have that kind of time anymore. I don't play/stream FM for a living, wish I did haha. And the aspects that I enjoy the most are mostly youth development and growing my club longterm over time. Sometimes tactics get in the way of that. Like recently I have been struggling with Real Sociedad for past 5 seasons with barely any trophy to show for it (except one Spanish Cup). Just can't break the Barca Real Madrid deadlock on the league. Despite trying to include all those new Positional Play bells and whistles in my tactics. And I refuse to use those overpowered Geggenpress tactics. Maybe one day I'll finally give up and switch to one of those

True this. Can't help but notice that the forum has become more toxic then ever due that kind of "group speak". I play this game and write about it in this forum to have fun and to share this joy with other like-minded individuals, not to incessantly argue with those few angry players that keep saying that the game is broken because there is only one "meta" way to succeed. Sure there might exist some game-breaking strategies. They always did, even going back to days of Champ Manager. But this doesn't refute the fact that with some hard work other styles of football can be viable in FM. In fact there are threads every day on here that prove this.

I would just try a simple CM(s)

Personally I would not use a AP role in midfield in this formation. Because of Positional Play it will move up and stay mostly in advanced midfield strata leaving only your BWM to hold position in midfield. In a 442 thats not really ideal. You usually want two holding midfielders in a 2 player midfield, especially when the wingers are more aggressive. Besides you already have WP cutting into the same space from the flank. Let him be your sole playmaker. From the wide position it will also be easier for him to escape markers. The rest looks good though. Have fun testing it!

Overlap left is a good idea as it raises the mentality for your left Wingback (d), making him a bit more proactive while not abandoning his defensive responsibility. I find this is a good compromise. But i wouldn't use overlap right just because your attack and support duties there make the players overlap naturally. And I would not make your right wingback even more gung-ho to throw off the balance of this system.

Take RateMyTactic with a grain of salt. It's only meant to be a rough guide. Not something I would use to get good advice on tactic. You can still make great tactics even if they don't check off everything on RateMyTactic. Also it doesn't take into account the positional play in FM24 which is honestly the biggest game changer in this version.

Aha! the 2004 Czech Republic team! What a beautiful team that was. The maestro himself Nedved directing it. I had a ton of fun trying to recreate it and writing about it back in the day. Would love to try same in FM24 maybe. Now you are giving me ideas

Oh yes sorry forgot, when I use AMC(a) or AMC(s) I always give him the instructions to recreate Shadow Striker role. I just like deeper defensive positioning of AMC role compared to Shadow Striker.

Something like could potentially create what you are looking for because of the way positional play works in FM24.

It's a good question. I think from the start maybe the name I chose for my systems was a bit misleading. By "Defense-First" I never meant the style of football that is very low block passive, defending in own half. I don't really see it doing that well in the current match engine. My goal has always been to achieve very balanced style with focus on attacking well and defending well, irrespective of whether it's defending in rest defence or not. Honestly i try to make my tactics simple to set up, simple to recreate and as simple as possible to understand for others. And all this recent talk on the forum of "rest" this or "rest" that is making FM more complicated than it needs to be. So I'm probably too old school to discuss that style of defending. I wouldn't really be able to tell you a good rest defence system from a bad one or what "rest" attack is. You can go to @Rashidi threads for that. My knowledge of football mostly comes from watching alot of it in late 90s and early 2000s and reading about amazing teams of yore. I mostly like Mourinho style of defending that is not overly aggressive but still has a bite going forward. In fact, my last series of tactics have more than a little influence from Mourinho's 4-2-3-1 from his Real Madrid era. Meaning that my Real Sociedad team has improved too much for us to constantly play on the back foot. So maybe it did become a little more offensive but hope that balance has not shifted too much. It's still a sensible, balanced approach where the objective is to simply win the game, not to score gazillion goals. Trust me if I was after scoring 120+ goals per season, I wouldn't be using my "Defence-First" system What I am able to achieve with this style of somewhat pragmatic football is go through whole seasons while keeping goals conceeded in low 20s and staying among the leaders in clean sheets. And that's just how I like it. Regarding your other question I will try to post some other defensive stats but I started a new season so not sure if will still have access to stats from last season.

Nothing more beyond what's mentioned in the thread.

Thanks! Yes pretty much since FM19 I think. Although I didn't start writing about them until FM20. My favourite so far has got to be my FM21 save just because I had amassed some really nice newgens and we actually managed to win LaLiga in our 3rd or 4th season. But I didn't try for a strict Basque-only policy back then. I still remember my amazing Belgian and French players in that team. You can see some of them in my "Swiss Knife" thread below. Although seeing how the FM24 save is going, and because I'm so motivated by its Basque-only challenge, it might become my fave soon. Thanks for reading

That's a nice tactic!

@mikcheck I updated the other thread with some end-of-season stats and results if you are still interested.

End of Season Mini-Update So 27/28 season is over and Real Sociedad has once again proven that they are the "best of the rest" improving on the 4th place finish last season and equaling our position from 2024 and 2025 seasons. Still can't break into the 2nd place position but then Barcelona and Real Madrid are not easy teams to beat, even 5 years into the save. Although there have been a few signs of better things to come especially seeing how my latest tactic (4-2-3-1 from last update) has performed against these two footballing giants. A lot of positives to take from above screen. For a non-Meta tactic I am rather happy with our passing and possession stats (56% average possession). While at the same time only conceding 24 goals all season long is probably the best achievement for a "Defence-First" non-gegenpress tactic. There was a huge divide between top 3 goal concession stats and the rest of the league. Also Real Sociedad was only 3 clean sheets behind League Winner Barcelona. I can't be anything proud of the boys after performing so well against the top 2 teams. Especially when Barcelona's highest valued player is worth 282 million euro (Yamine Lamal) while ours is aging Mikel Oyarzabal (86 million). And here are some of the results against elite teams. And here is how the tactic looks at the end of the season. A few small adjustments but mostly the same as at start of season (All the PIs remained the same as explained in my previous update). And on that positive note I will be moving on to 2028/29 season. Hopefully the Spanish Cup success will provide us with momentum to achieve even more success with Defence-First Football. Happy managing and Happy Easter everyone PS: I am the guy wearing the blue and yellow polo shirt

Personally when using a Raumdeuter I wouldn't want a striker that will take away the thunder from my Raum. Meaning when you use Raumdeuter then you should really be focusing most of your goals through this player. So then you would want a supportive striker that drops deep to give room for your Raumdeuter to flourish. So False 9 or DLF is your best bet.

It's totally dependent on your tactical set up and the rest of the roles. And right now you didn't give enough info to answer that question. For example if you have a good creative type (IW or AP) cutting inside on the opposite side from your Raumdeuter then I would totally play Raum on same flank as his dominant foot so as not to congest the middle and take advantage of overload on opposite flank.

Hmm 🤔 sorry I thought I shared some in my last post here. What exactly are you looking for? Any stats in particular? I can tell you already my possession is usually all over the place although it's always over 50%. I just finished the 27/28 season so will try to post a few more stats before the weekend.