[Following the steps of Antonio Conte.]

57 minutes ago, LaRegista4 said:

Sure, real life can be busy as well  !
One question though, why aren't you playing with the updated squad? I mean the likes of Godin, Barella, Lazaro, Lukaku and Sensi would probably make your tactical observations more accurate, with regards the 3-5-2. 

Because I am too lazy to update the game. 

Besides to me playing with updated squads feels somehow wrong. I much rather start at the place the team starts in reality without winter transfers and the likes.

That is just the way I see it.

[Following the steps of Antonio Conte.]

5 hours ago, LaRegista4 said:

Any updates on this? Following this with excitement. I myself am trying to get a hold on the 3-5-2 and how to get it to work in FM19!

I am nearing the first half of my first season. I had some stuff to do so I have not been able to play as much as I wanted to. After the first half of the season I will talk about some changes I have made to the tactic.

[Following the steps of Antonio Conte.]

We ended up having a very successful pre season in which the changes I made before our second game saw us beat Feyenord, Sevilla and a few lesser teams. Not telling my team to dribble less made us much less dependent on Valero for our build up and the whipped crosses seem effective with most of our goals coming from headers despite not having a dominant aerial threat inside the opponents box.

In addition to the team instructions all the players have personal instructions to tailor the way they play to something that suits the style I am trying to replicate.

Goalkeeper: pass it shorter + take fewer risk

Central Defender: pass it shorter + take fewer risk

Ball playing defender: Close down less

DLP: more direct passing + take more risk

CWB: cross more often

BBM + BWM: get further forward + dribble less + pass it shorter + take fewer risk

DLF: pass it shorter + close down more

AF: close down more.

It was quite a short pre season, especially in number of matches but the results have been excellent, now is just a matter playing through the season. For our first year I would be happy with a champions league spot, preferably second place, not to far behind Juventus, my squad is not as good as I would like but the tactic seems to be working fine against both small and big teams.

 

[Following the steps of Antonio Conte.]

The second half against River showed an improvement from our part. The change of roles have been an improvement as have been the instructions selected:

Our first attack in the second half resulted in a goalpost. Valero (who was told to try more risky passes because he can afford to make the extra risk, and we need someone to take that risk) made a pass into space for dalbert who outpaced River's players and crossed a ball to Lautaro Martinez. Through the match Asamoah and Gliacherini trusted in Valero and passed the ball to him more often meaning an increase in both possession and presence in River's third of the field, at times the also looked for the wingbacks but the passes were far more reasonable.

Most crosses fell to the hands of the goalkeeper and Dalbert was far more productive than D'Ambrossio but actually forcing the goalkeeper to work was a huge improvement. I want to try to play whipped crosses since my strikers are not great at the aerial game (in trying to replicate Conte I will need to find a Target Man sooner or later but right now I believe the squad has more pressing issues).

We didn't just play through the wings. Although rarer we were able to use Zone 14 to our advantage and take some shots from outside the area. By restricting the creative freedom of other players apart from Valero I was able to funnel possession through a quality playmaker. He was truly outstanding during the game. 

I was unhappy with D'Ambrossio, Dalbert was doing better but he failed to do anything useful in attack. I changed D'Ambrossio for Candreva who had a much better crossing, dribbling and off the ball and the results were inmediate. Now both Wingbacks were contributing in attack. It is evident that two good attacking wingbacks are key to this system and D'Ambrossio was just not good enough (I will try and sell him and play with Sime and Candreva).

Icardi's change into an AF proved to be key to our eventual victory. Valero (who else) played a pass to his feet and he dribbled inside the box to finally make a crossed pass into an arriving Lautaro who calmly shot a precise strike into a corner of the net. 1-0. It goes without saying that our defence remained solid as a rock.

 

let us looked back to our problems:

1.- The wingbacks now strech the field and deliver crosses into the box.

2.- Our passing game was much more clever and structured with possession kept until Valero found the defence spliting pass to create a chance.

3.- Icardi was much more mobile and even if he was not everpresent he contributed with runs and a few passes

4.- Our defence was not sacrificed in order to improve our attack.

 

44 minutes ago, Experienced Defender said:

Since your team is doing a good job in defense but struggling in attack, let's focus on the latter. I think the "Dribble less" TI is absolutely unnecessary. I would leave the dribbling TI on default and instead use the related PI to tell my players who are not good (enough) at dribbling to dribble less. Actually, the Dribble less TI could well be the cause of the risky passes played too often and when they shouldn't be.

Not sure if the "Hit early crosses" TI would make much sense in your tactic. If you played counter-attacking football with both strikers on attack duty (who are also fast at that), the early crosses could be an option. But you do not even use the "Counter" TI in transition to at least encourage more counter-attacks when an opportunity presents itself.

As for roles and duties... It's hard to say what's best to do without proper knowledge of your players' attributes, but here are a couple of ideas you might find interesting as food for thought:

- change the RWB's role from CWBsu to WB on attack or keep him as a CWB on support but add the "Overlap right" TI

- change the LCM's role from BBM to MEZ on support, but then also change the LWB's role from CWBsu to WB on automatic duty and then add PIs "hold position" and "sit narrower" so that he would provide some cover for the mezzala (another option if you decide to try the LCM as a MEZsu is to play the LWB on defend duty but with the "Overlap left" TI added)

And of course, you don't need to make all these changes/tweaks all at once. Try them one by one to see how it works before making the next step. Inter is a good team, so I would assume these changes should not be too risky.

Another thing that likely makes your attacks a bit too sterile is the defend duty of your DLP (Valero). What could you do provided you want to use a DLP as a role in any case? I would just move him to the RCM (instead of the BWM), change his duty from defend to support and play an anchorman (or standard DM on defend) in the DM spot.

So the setup would then look like this:

AF     DLFsu/F9

 

MEZsu      DLPsu

                                                        WBaut            ACM            WBat (or CWBsu (with overlap TI)

CDde   BPDco    CDde

But as I said, this is just an idea. Don't use it if you don't feel comfortable with such a setup.

You make some interesting suggestions. I think you are right about dribble less, I should adjust dribbling individually just like I did with passing. The Anchorman idea while interesting is not allowed by my self imposed rules. If I am going to replicate Conte's Juventus the playmaker must sit between the defenders and the front 6. As far as this match goes the DLP on defend duty with the take more risks instructions seems to be the perfect fit for my vision of Conte's play. Thank you for pointing out the possible problem with "Hit early crosses", I think that telling my wingbacks to cross more often is a better choice. I am a bit scared of using the overlap instruction because It could compromise our defence.

In our next match against Feyenord I will try out the change to crosses and Dribbling and see if it make us better when in possession. You might have saved me a lot of guessing and tinkering. The two midfielders seem to be aggresive enough with the get further forward instruction so I see no need in a Mezzala (a role I don't entirely understand).

I have read a lot of your posts and you have helped me a lot with other saves so thank you very much. A problem you often come across is one-dimensional attacks, during the game against River we seemed one dimensional in the sense that every cross, shot or dangerous pass was started by Valero but I think that as long as he has options upfront a one-dimensional build up is not as problematic as a one dimensional attack.

[Following the steps of Antonio Conte.]

Having listened to your suggestions I chose to play a friendly against River (I need to test my tactic against teams of a similar level to my competition). I watched the first 45 minutes and found there were indeed several problems with my attack. But first let us talk about defence.

As Conte's Juventus did in real life the wide attackers where closed down by the wingback and a midfielder, The three man defense and our compact shape meant that no River man was free of mark inside our area and even the only "free" man, outside the box would soon be closed down by Asamoah. The deep fullnack to the right isn't a realistic passing option which means my team effectively shuts down the passing options with the current instructions. I was a bit surprised to see Lautaro help but I guess that being a DLF on support has something to do with it.

ignore the tripple clock, paint was acting weird

This time the team attempted an overload on their right flank but our midfield was able to contribute to the defensive task and once again River had no realistic way of hurting us, no free attacker no easy backpass, nothing.

Yet another example of our succesful defending. River's atempts amounted to four longshots that were nowhere near close to threatening Handanovic and two headed corners from narrow impossible angles.

Now lets talk about the bad part, our attack. I identified two big problems with our attack: laughable passes into space and bad contribution from our wingbacks.

Dalbert has just lost the ball, he was nowhere near wide enough and got tackled as soon as he received the ball, the same can be said of his partner in the other wing, he should be wider. The one nice thing about this moment is the regrouping and marking done by the wingack, Valero and the defenders.

This could have been a very good chance for us, Valero is acting as a pivot ready to switch flanks or play a thoughball, Asamoah is running from Zone 14 into the space created by Icardi and Lautaro and is free from mark. But Dalbert decided to cut inside and get closed down rather than cross the ball or make a pass to Valero (although this could be Dalbert's fault, he has little going for him aside from speed)

Our only shot during the first half came when Dalbert did his job. He received a pass from Valero, moved wide pulling River's defensive setup with him and opened space for Asamoah to ran into resulting in a nice long shot that was sadly denied by the keeper.

Most attacks never even materialised because Lautaro, Asamoah and Gagliardini kept wasting possession with speculative passes to Icardi or D'ambrossio (who despite having similar Off the ball and Anticipation as dalbert and sharing the gets further forward trait kept missing those passes, is it because he is slower than Dalbert?). 

In Conclussion:

1.- Wingbacks are not wide enough and don't cross the ball often enough

2.- Too many long passes are being made by people who shouldn't be making them

3.- Icardi is not reaching those passes and not seeing enough of the ball

4.- Defence was faultless these 45 minutes.

This is my proposed solution to these problems:

Gagliardini, Lautaro and Asamoah are told to pass it shorter and take fewer risks (Lautaro is hardcoded to take more risks but passing it shorter should help reduce the bad speculative passes), the wingbacks got turned into Complete wingbacks to make them more adventurous but not in an attack duty so that they still help in defence, Icardi is an Advanced forward now so that he is not as static as before.

I have told the team to hit early crosses and play wider to try and further resolve the issue with the wingbacks.

45 minutes to go, lets see if my changes help.

 

[Following the steps of Antonio Conte.]

The man in the picture above needs little introduction to football fans around the world. His name is Antonio Conte and he is arguably one of the 5 greatest managers alive. He is undoubtly the greatest expert ever when it comes to three man defences employing them in a sophisticated and complex way that surpasses those envisioned by Carlos Bilardo or Franz Beckenbauer.

Conte played as a Midfielder for Lecce until he was called to play for Juventus in 1992 and played there for thirteen full-seasons. he proved himself an extraordinary captain and team leader and has retained that capacity to motivate and discipline his squad to this very day. 

In 2005 he started his coaching career with Siena as an assistant manager to Luigi di Canio and a year later he would face the difficult challenge of managing A.C Arezzo in Serie B. Conte finished 20th with Arezzo, descending, but the team was doomed from the start because of the quality of the players in comparison to the opposition and the fact that they started with a six point deduction. 

In December of 2007 Conte replaced Materazzi as manager of A.S Bari and after saving the team from relegation he reinforced it and led it to Serie A the following year. After speculation linking him with Juventus and a contract renewal that was mutually terminated almost inmedietly Conte ended up in Atalanta but had to resing after a poor run that saw the team win 13 points in 13 games.

Half a year after the Atalanta disaster Conte returned to A.C Siena this time as a Manager and managed to return the recently relegated club back to Serie A. By this time Conte had garnered a reputation as the man to trust if you wanted to reach Serie A but also as someone who would never make it in the top Italian League. This is when a Juventus that hadn't properly recovered from the 2006 relegation decided to take a huge risk an appoint their ex-captain as Manager.

It was 2011 and Conte had what seemed to be his one final chance of proving his worth. He implemented a 3-5-2 system and won three Serie A titles in a row starting a domination of the competition that continues to this day. After three great years Conte left Juventus for the Italian national team because of disagreements over the transfer policy. 

In the European Cup Conte employed a similar 3-5-2 but with certain differences due to the players at his disposal and after dominating the group and outsmarting Del Bosque he lost to germany 6-5 via penalties (that game includes one the most ridiculous penalties ever thrown, authorship belongs to Simone Zaza). No one would blame Conte for the result and he would have most likely kept the job but he was called by Chelsea and the offer was good enough for him to switch jobs,

At chelsea, after a rocky start, he employed what is to this day the most interesting system seen in the premier league a 3-4-3 that retained many of the Juventus DNA but that produced a different kind of football because of the different formation and player roles.

After winning the League, a 5th place finish the following year was deemed enough to fire him (Chelsea does stuff like that all the time).

He will know manage Inter the following season.

 

As a fan of Inter Milan and an admirer of Antonio Conte I felt the urge to try and replicate his tactics with Inter Milan. I will first focus on replicating his Juventus side (fight fire with fire).

(Ignore the fact that Barzagli and Bonucci are switched)

 

Asamoah and Lichtsteiner provided the width as the only flank players and supported a front two consisting of a pure goalscorer and a more all around forward that was more focused on supllying the ball to team mates. Pirlo was the main creator and was accompanied by hard working midfielders that would both drop deep as a passing option and make runs to form a front 6 with the wingbacks and the strikers. 

The usual build up involved short passes between Pirlo and the defenders until one of the four saw an opportunity for a long pass to the front six. Juventus would patiently move the ball between the back three + the playmaker while the other six players moved into space waiting to  receive a long pass that they could transform into a shot on target or chance for on of the strikers. Asamoah and Lichtsteiner would sometime drop if the long pass wasn't coming as did Pogba and Vidal but most of the time this deep movements where m¡used as a tool to explit man marking schemes and create space for the deep striker to move into so a common pass patern was: Barzagli - Bonucci - Pirlo - Bonucci - Pirlo - Chiellini - Pirlo - ! - Vidal - Pirlo - Llorente - Goal. There was a key moment that both Bonucci and PIrlo could read where the slow build-up transformed itself into a direct attack.

In defence Juventus played a low block or specifically they defended with 8 outfield players, the Strikers sat upfront and pressured the opponents defensive line. The Wingbacks dropped deep to help the three defenders and the three midfielders formed a line in front of the defensive line and shut down passing lanes while putting some pressure on opponents trying to bring the ball through the middle. These 8 players defended in a disciplined and compact shape with the team swinging left and right in accordance with the position of the ball. Another detail is the presence of a left footed leftback and a right footed rightback.

This is my current interpretation of the tactic described above.

The Goalkeeper is just a traditional goalkeeper nothing more to say about him. All the back three is told to pass shorter with the exception of De Vrij who is a BPD and has no particular ppassing instruction meaning he will have the freedom to choose his own passes. In front of the defenders sits Valero, my most creative midfielder, While Pirlo was often called a Regista I do not thin it is the right role for him in Juventus, he held his position most of the time, rarely stepped forward and contributed to the defensive phase just as much as marchisio, Pogba or Vidal. Gagliardini and Nainggolan are my workhorses, both are told to get further forward and have a high teamwork attribute meaning they should offer themselves as passing options if required. Martinez and Lautaro are my two strikers, Lautaro is the more creative one so he gets to be the deeper one while Icardi is expected to bag in most of the goals, I have told both of them to press more urgently.

I have chosen Balanced Mentality because a more positive mentality meant a higher block and more intese pressing while a more cautious mentality meant shorter passing for the whole team and I only want a few players to play shorter passing. Play out of defence and dribble less were chosen to replicate the build up when combined with the personal instructions. Distribute to centre backs stops the keeper from kicking the ball into the opponents half allowing the more creative players to do that at a better time. Regroup is my way of telling the players to get into position as soon as the ball is lost. Defende narrowe and the lower line of engagement are meant to create the compact low block that made Juventus such a solid team.

Now I need to think about the DNA needed to pull this off and the training schedules that will build up my players in the way I want.

I invite all of you to create your own Conte tactics and share them with the community and please criticise any mistakes I've made, this is my first Football Manager game.