Manutd1999
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Posts posted by Manutd1999
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Nice tactic
Whenever I see these 442/433 hybrids it always reminds me of Man Utd in the 2006-2009 era, with Ronaldo 'officially' playing as a right winger but more often supporting Rooney and Tevez as more of a front-3. Giggs compensated on the left by tucking inside and supporting the central midfielders. Almost identical roles and duties to the ones you have used in fact.
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Test results:
I setup a quick save with Man Utd and immediately went looking for suitable mentors. I was looking for:
- High determination and leadership
- 'Model citizen' personality or similar
- Very low value/reputation, so that they would accept emergency backup status.
I settled on Jose Vunguidica and David Edwards. Both are exactly the type of mentors I want, and were signed very cheaply. Note that being at Man Utd helps a lot here, it would be more difficult to find players if you were at a smaller club.
I immediately put them in the U18 squad and setup mentoring groups. Encouragingly, both players immediately became team leaders and had 'significant' effect on all players within their mentor groups. I then went on holiday for a year and waited for the results.....
First up, Charlie McNeill. This is exactly the type of player who should benefit from this strategy. He is a top-quality prospect, but has very low determination and a 'balanced' personality. Below are his attributes before and after 1-year of mentoring. Determination has increased by 2 points and he has also changed personality to 'fairly loyal'. Small changes, but better than nothing.
Similarly, Joe Hugill. Again, he showed an increase in determination, albeit only a small one (+1).
Players who were not part of the mentoring did not show any improvement in determination during the period. So it does seem to be having some effect.
The one issue seems to be the social groups. Even after 1 year, my two mentors were still not in any social group. Presumably this is because of their age/status realtive to the rest of the U18 squad. I have read that social group has a big impact on mentoring in FM, perhaps this is why the increases seen were relatively small?
If so, I don't think this aspect is particularly reflective of real-life (you don't need to be best mates with somebody to effectively mentor them), but I guess that is a SI's decision which we have to live with.....
So what have we learnt? Signing older players as mentors does seem to be an option which leads to some small gains for your U18 players. Perhaps over several seasons it coudl add up to make a significant difference. But at smaller/medium clubs, it's probably not worth the additional wages to be honest....
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However, if you buy a senior player you have to agree game time (squad status) with him
Like in the real-life examples, I think you would have to find an older player who was willing to accept 'backup' status. This would also lead to lower wages, which would make it more viable financially.
QuoteFor mentoring purposes I always make the ones that need it sit in the main squad wih 90min available for U18
As others have said, this results in less training and (presumably?) slower development. There are also potential issues if the U18 and first team games are on different days, as the rest and training schedule won't make sense. This is the mian reaosn for my idea of using older mentors in the U18s.
QuoteAfter returning from my holiday on 12th June 2021, I found that Ward is still all alone in the 'others' social group but was made captain by the under 18s manager & is now at the top of the hierarchy in the position of 'team leader'. Wahoo! However, his mentoring influence on the youngsters is still 'light' & he has had no impact on the determination of those that he is mentoring despite the estimated effect being 'significant'. I think this could be because he was not in any of their social groups & many of the players now have a better World Rep than him. However, some of my other players did experience an increase in determination so Ward's presence could have helped the squad as a whole but then again this could be a coincidence
Interesting stuff! I will try to do something similar as a test.
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Man Utd recently announced the signing of Paul McShane, who will act as a sort of on-field coach for the youth squads. Essentially he is there for his professionalism and to act as a mentor, whilst making up the numbers if needed on match-day. Lee Grant is doing something similar with the goalkeepers. I thought it sounds like a novel solution, and it gave me an idea for FM....
In previous additions, having a few older pro's with high determination and target personalities was a sure-fire way of improving youth prospects. However, it was almost too easy, and SI duly put a stop to it when they changed the mentoring. Players in the under 18/23s can now only be mentored by other under 18/23s. This might be more realisitic, but it essentially means there is no mentoring going on until the player is 18+ and ready for the first team.But perhaps we could also use the 'Man Utd approach' and sign a few 'model citizens' to act purely as mentors, whilst playing the odd game in the youth squads? Has anybody tried this before? Is there anythign in-game to stop you putting over-age players in the under 18 side?
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Awesome post
I'm not sure FM works exactly like this in reality but it's a good idea. Also, droppping the deeper midfielders back to DM allows me to use one of my favourite roles, the Segundo-Volante. So maybe something like this?
--------------------DLF(a)
------------SS(a) ------- AM(s)
WM(s)------------------------------- WM(s)
------------SV(s) ------- DLP(d)
------BPD(d) - -- CD(d) --- BPD(d)
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Thanks for the advice
Re the original question, do think it makes much difference whether the midfielders are in the DM or CM strata?0 -
For the TIs, I haven't finalised them but "dribble less" was intended to encourage a 'pass first' mentality without resorting to using shorter passing or lower tempo. Similarly, 'low crosses' is to encourage cut-backs instead of aimless crosses.
QuoteIn terms of roles and duties, I would only either switch the DLP's duty to support or swap the positions of the DLP and BWM.
Is there not a risk that a DLP(s) - - BWM(s) pairing could lack defensive cover? Although maybe with 3x centre-backs it's less of an issue....
QuoteDefense-wise, vertical compactness may prove an issue, so keep an eye on that aspect of play
Agreed, if I switch to a DLP(s) I may try dropping the LoE back to standard.
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Well, it is still a work in progress but something like this:
The wide midfielders would have different PIs, with the left-sided acting as a more attacking winger and the right-sided more defensive/static.
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Quite a few midfield roles (e.g. DLP, BWM, RPM) can be played in either the defensive midfield or central midfield 'strata'. Simple question, what are the main aspects I should be thinking about when deciding between the two?
For example, I am developing a 3-4-3 system with a box midfield, similar in some respects to what Tuchel has used with Chelsea. Roles and duties are not too important at this stage (just for illustration), but the midfield 'box' would look something like this:
SS(a) - - - AM(s)
DLP(d) - - - BWM(s)
Essentially the two deeper midfielders could be in either strata.
- Playing them in the DM strata is appealing in order to create more space, but perhaps this is just a visual illusion in the tactics screen more than anything else?
- If they were in the central midfield strata, could TI's be used to encourage them to drop deeper during the build-up? (e.g. play out of defence). Maybe this is a good compromise?
- Conversely, what are the best methods to 'encourage' defensive midfielders to contributed in the final third ('get forward' PI perhaps)?
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I may be wrong but I'm quite sure this is something Solskjaer has never tested in reality. On theory it should work reasonably well.
I think this is pretty close to how Solskjaer wants to play, he just doesn't have the players for it at the moment.
James has always looked more comfortable cutting inside from the left compared to a more traditional "winger" role on the right. In any case, his end product is nowhere near consistent enough. This is where Sancho could make a huge difference and offer a more creative threat to compliment Rashord and Greenwood/Cavani/Martial.
In midfield, Fred and McTominay are somewhat strange players. Both have good work rate and press well, but are not great tacklers (Fred especially commits so many cheap fouls). Both are happier playing short passes, but they also give the ball away far too often. Essentially, they are both a sort of low-budget Kante, probably best suited to a BWM type role but not really fitting together as a duo.With a 4-2-3-1, I think you have two options for the midfield. Either:
1) Play a deep-lying playmaker, who is positionally disciplined but plays progressive passes into Bruno (i.e. the 'Carrick' role), alongside a more mobile, ball-winning midfielder (Fred/McTominay). Essentially the Jorginho-Kante approach that Tuchel uses. The problem is, Man Utd don't have a playmaker. Maybe James Garner could fit into this role next season?
2) Alternatively, you could play a pure 'destroyer' alongside a more mobile playmaker (roaming playmaker in FM). On paper this suits United better, with Matic alongside either Pogba or Van De Beek. The problem is, I don't think Ole trusts the centre-backs enough to have just one holding midfielder, especially in transition when facing pacy opponents.
If you put Sancho, Ndidi and a fast centre-back into that team in place of James, Fred and Lindelof, it would start to look a lot better
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Apologies if I have missed this, but has there been any word as to when we can expect the January/Winter update to be released this year?
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i disagree with your conclusion as many low XG chances do not equal some big ones - that is bcs a fraction of a Goal is allways never a Goal and multiple fractions of a Goal are simply multiple fails that do not add up
QuoteIn terms of xG I fail to understand why if you have loads of chances at around 0.03 you expect to score because they eventually all add up to over 1.
If you are constantly shooting from 30 yards out and they go miles wide they should eventually add to a goal if you do it often enough.
Thats now how the stats or football work at all.
I'm not sure about how all this is implementedf FM, but from a stats point of view I disagree.
If a particular chance has a very low XG, lets say 0.05, you would expect an "average" striker to score one in twenty of these opportunities. If you have 20 such chances per game then, on average and discounting short term variability, you would expect to get 1 goal.
Similarly, if your team instead takes just 2 shots but they are all good quality chances with an XG of 0.5, you would also expect to average 1 goal per game.
That is the definition of XG. It accounts for the quality of the chance as part of the calculation.
Clearly these are extreme scenarios, most real-life teams will have a mixture of low and high XG chances throughout the game, which probably makes the whole concept easier to apply. In FM, I suspect these extremes are more common (i.e. 30+ "poor chances" per game), hence the weird results.
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Quote
I also see that you create a lot of smaller chances, very few high jumps in your xG total charts
I know what you mean, but that is how XG is supposed to work. They might be "low percentage" chances, but if you add them all up, a few of them should go in. Unless your strikers (or whoever the chances are falling to) are really poor, you should be scoring >1 goal from XG of ~4.9, that's literally the point of the stat.
My first check would be to see who is taking the shots. Is it often players with poor attributes? XG is the number of goals an "average" player would score, so if your players are below average......
The other (quite likely) option is that the ME has issues with particular types of chance, or an imbalance between user and AI chance conversion.
Finally, it could be the XG algorithm itself essentially generating incorrect stats (although there are lots of shots on target, so this seems more unlikely.....).
My bet is it being a mixture of all of the above
Adding XG to the game is great IMO, but it does highlight all of these small (or not so small) flaws in the ME which we might not have noticed otherwise......
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Awesome post
I really like the idea of almost separating the attacking/defensive mentality. The more I think about it, the better this represents some of the most famous systems.
Pep's Barca - aggressive defending to win the ball back, but relatively cautious attack (focused on retaining possession)
Klopp / Gegenpress - aggressive attacks and aggressive defence
Alex Ferguson's United - aggressive, quick attacks but a more cautious defence/press
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Following this with interest. I also have plans for a fluid-counter attack, asymmetric system
I'm particularly interested to see how you set up the right-wing and playmaker.
QuoteI m a big fan of Italian football too,Great post!However I m wondering that you talk a lot about Italian football,about mezzala,TQ,why you use DLF and AF role? A
I also wondered why you chose the DLF role? You probably don't want the ball-magnet effect of a trequartista but maybe a shadow-striker could also work?
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Your setup is not unlike the formation Solskjaer has been using for Man Utd this season
Neither McTominay or Fred are natural 'holding' midfielders in the classic sense but their energy makes up for what they lack in positional discipline.
If your players have similar attributes (high work rate + reasonable acceleration/pace to recover) it should work.
You could consider changing to Trq-A to an AP-A to increase that player's contribution in defence.
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The ME blog has perfectly captured the issues with the FM20 match engine - especially central play, 1v1s, attacking movement. If FM21 actually does fix these isues like the blog suggests it will be incredible. Fingers crossed
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Some interesting replies here - it seems like we are all in broad agreement
QuoteScholes ALWAYS played center-left
Agreed, I had overlooked this but it works much better with 'Carrick' covering on the right and 'Scholes' on the left. Some of the other main differences:
Scholes - DLP vs RPM
This probably doesn't make too much difference, but I still think RPM better replicates his forward movement and general link play. DLP is a bit passive sometimes.
Ronaldo - IF vs IW
An interesting one, in reality he was probably an IF playing the IW position
I do find that, even in the AMR slot, the IF does drop back into a flat midfield 4when defending, so I have stuck with my original choice at the moment.
Tevez/Rooney
I like the idea of playing them both as support strikers but it is probably too passive in FM (although maybe it could work with an attacking mentality...?). Even the CF-S/DLF-A combo can cause problems against packed defences. Having a AF-A or PF-A seems to occupy the centre-backs better and creates more space.
This is my current version of the tactic. I don't believe Man Utd ever played 'fairly narrow' under Ferguson, but it seems to help us control the game better so I am trialling it as a compromise for now. This also gives the WM-S a better position.
It's still working ok, although I am currently going through one of those mid-season slumps that make it very hard to belive that FM isn't scripted in some form. Exhibit A - the opposition DM (long shot attribute = 9) scores a 30 yard screamer to equalise in the 90th minute with their only shot of the game, the other goal coming from a header from a free-kick...
This game finished 2-2........
Hopefully things will pick up a bit as we enter the season finale. Preventing the IF (Asensio for me) from taking too many long shots is my next area of focus (as you can see above, this wastes a lot of our chances)
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Part 2 is up
QuoteThere's probably 3 reasonably distinct variations SAF employed throughout 07/08 at least.
QuoteSAF had Rooney playing as a right midfielder defending against the advances of Aly Cissokho. A flat 4141 if I recall correctly. Anderson was crucial in the middle.
Completely agree with both of these points. My interpretation is basically how they played at home in games they expected to dominate. Away, particularl in Europe, they used a different system. Ji-Sung Park and Anderson were crucial in these games but rarely featured in others. But re-creating that is for another day.......
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So…. The results
I am currently managing Benfica, trying to bring through their ‘golden generation’ of Dantas, Alvaro, Tavares, Florentino et al. I’ve also added Sandro Tonali, Tiago Almada, Matias Arezo and Renyer, so the future is looking bright J It is a shame that FM20 will be the last chance to try this, as most of the real-life team have been sold over the last two years.
Line-Up
Here is how we line up:
AC Milan inexplicably allowed Donnurumma to leave on a free transfer, so he is my clear No 1. Andre Almeida is a solid if unspectacular right-back whilst Grimaldo has a much stronger all-round game (dribbling, crossing, passing etc). Overall, very similar to Wes Brown and Evra for United.
Unfortunately I had to sell Ruben Dias once Man Utd came calling (80 million + extras) but instead signed Franco Acerbi, who is the classic ‘stopper’ (aggression, heading, tackling etc but a bit slow). However, alongside him I lack a natural covering defender. Ferro has the ball-playing attributes but is too slow, so at present Pedro Alvaro gets the nod. In time he will develop I’m sure, but he is not quite the ‘Ferdinand’ I need yet.
In midfield, Florentino is the perfect holding player, with excellent positioning, anticipation etc. Adel Taraabt is a player re-born for me, acting as the perfect playmaker with excellent vision and passing. I managed to get Gigi Wijnaldum from Liverpool and he has all the attributes to play on the left (dribbling, passing, ‘cuts inside’ PPM), although he is not a true “winger converted to CM” like Giggs.
Up front, Marco Asensio is this team’s Ronaldo. Signed on loan from Madrid, he is simply a class above other players in Liga Nos. He seems slightly over-powered in this game vs real-life. He can dribble, shoot, pass – basically everything. Alongside him I have two other new signings – Morelos (20 million from Rangers) and Higuain (another free transfer). Both have the work rate and good all-round games to mimic Rooney/Tevez as best as possible.
Results
In summary, it has been an ok start to the season. We have won 8, drawn 2, lost 1 in the league. Unfortunately Porto’s excellent form puts them 3 points ahead in the table at this stage. We have safely progressed in the cup competitions and have qualified from the Champions League group stage with a game to spare.
As the results show, we are defensively solid and concede very few (similar to Man Utd 2008). Going forward, we create lots of chances and would probably have scored more if my forwards (or any forward in FM20 for that matter) could finish 1v1…..
In terms of player ratings and stats, Asensio is clearly our top performer (8 goals and 6 assists from 16 games). It’s slightly surprising that Taraabt only has one assist, but in some ways this is a lot like Scholes IRL. He often makes the “assist to the assist” and has some of the highest ‘key passes’ stats in the league, but probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves in terms of pure numbers.
In general, I feel the tactic is performing well. If we can keep this recent unbeaten run going and make a few tweaks to help break-down more defensive sides then I feel we will be successful.
In-Game Analysis
I have picked out some screenshots from the game vs Aves to illustrate how the tactic is working on a good day.
Here is how we line up when in transition. As you can see, the basic shape is close to what I wanted to achieve. Almeida holds his position to form a back 3. Asensio has dropped deep to offer another option, whilst Wijnaldum drifts inside. This allows Grimaldo to push up and offer an option for an overlap on the left.
As we move into the final third, Grimaldo dribbles towards the box. Almeida pushes a bit further forward to support on the right. Florentino covers, whereas Taraabt and Wijnaldum sit on the edge of the box and the forwards form a 3-man forward line.
Here is a plot of the passes and heat map from Taraabt in that one game. I think this replicates Scholes quite well. A nice mix of long and short passes with lots of time spent just outside the oppositions box, directing the play.
Finally, here are two examples of our goals. The first comes via one of our most potent attacking threats, overlaps from Grimaldo then a cross or cut-back into the 6-yard box. The second is Taraabt doing his best Scholes impression, sitting on the edge of the box and slamming it into the corner when given the opportunity to shoot.
gif to add...
Things to Improve
One thing is also clear from our results so far, the tactic isn’t perfect. Particularly against defensive sides, of which there are a lot in Liga Nos, we struggle to create clear chances. Our play seems a little bit too rushed at times and we can’t seem to dominate possession.
With that in mind, I have a few tweaks which I will be trialing the next few games:
- The left midfield role isn’t working as well as I had hoped. Wijnaldum gets relatively low match ratings and doesn’t seem to have much influence on the game. I am going to try a WM on attack duty and see if it helps give us more penetration
- Change Almeida from a FB-D to FB-S. We simply don't need the additional defensive cover against sides who refuse to attack.
- Reduce the tempo a notch to try and reduce the number of turnovers.
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It is getting to that stage where people might be a bit bored of FM20 and/or waiting for the new edition to be released, so I thought I would write up a few tactic re-creations and experiments I have been using recently. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome
First up is a re-creation of one of my all-time favourite sides – Man Utd 07-09.
Man Utd dominated English football between 2007 and 2009, winning three league titles in a row. They added the Champions League in 2008 and were just two games away from winning an unprecedented 5 trophies in 2009 (League cup, Premier League and World Club Cup winners, FA Cup semi-finalists and CL runners-up).
This was probably the last great Ferguson side and in lots of ways reflected the changes that were occurring in the Premier League at the time. Ferguson moved away from the 4-4-2 which had brought him so much success in the 90’s and became more flexible, adjusting the formation and players to suit the situation. The squad was also much more multi-cultural than before, with a young Cristiano Ronaldo flourishing, becoming the first Man Utd player to win the Ballon D’Or since George Best.
As I said, in a lot of ways the tactics changed to suit the opposition, so perhaps the first thing to acknowledge is that the perfect re-creation of this side isn’t really possible! However, I am going to try and start with the following side, which in my (completely uninformed) opinion, is about as close as this side had to a first choice when playing at home. The formation was a 442/433 hybrid, with Ronaldo starting on the right wing but drifting inside to support the forwards in attack.
Defence
Edwin Van Der Sar was a ‘classic’ goalkeeper whose role was first and foremost to makes saves, not play as an extra defender/midfielder. For this reason, I’ve gone with a simple GK-D.
In defence we have one of the all-time great partnerships - Ferdinand and Vidic. A classic “stopper-cover” partnership is pretty easy to replicate directly in FM, with the ‘cover’ assigned as a BPD to give more creative freedom.
Wes Brown played a hugely underrated role as the more defensive full-back, staying deep to assist in the build-up and provide cover for the free-roaming Ronaldo, only getting forward once the ball was well inside the opponents half. The simple FB-D replicates this quite well in FM. Meanwhile Patrice Evra had much more license to get forward and would often surge into the final third, overlapping Giggs. I went with a CWB to give a bit more freedom, as Evra sometimes drifted inside and didn’t just run/cross exclusively from wide areas.
Midfield
Moving into midfield, Man Utd employed a lop-sided midfield 3 consisting of Carrick, Scholes and Giggs.
Many people would say Carrick was a deep-lying playmaker, but I would argue this was only later in his career. In 2008 he was the positional discipline which allowed Scholes and the forwards to flourish, so I feel a simple DM-S is more appropriate.
Scholes was the playmaker of the side, dropping deeper than he did earlier in his career and just running the show. In terms of dictating the tempo, knowing when to play short/long and picking the right pass, I don’t believe England has ever had a better player. In FM I was torn between DLP and RPM but went with RPM to allow a bit more forward movement and contribution in the final third.
Finally, Giggs’ role is perhaps the hardest to re-create. By this stage of his career he was still starting on the left wing, but running less and playing much more centrally when United had the ball. I found a wide midfielder or inverted winger didn’t sit narrow enough (even with PIs added), so went in the end for a wide playmaker. There is a risk having two playmakers next to each other like this, but it seems to work ok.
Attack
In Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez, Man Utd were blessed with probably the best front 3 in the world at that time. All three would swap positions throughout the match and were often given complete freedom to do as they saw fit. Needless to say, the results were spectacular.
Ronaldo in 2008 was just starting his transition from winger to centre-forward. He typically started on the right but cut inside to cross or shoot. He also did the least defensive work of the three and just drifted around looking for space when out of possession. In FM, I think he was closest to an IF-A, but with added roaming. Rooney and Tevez were harder to replicate, as in real-life they were both similar players who inter-changed and shared the different attacking duties. I went for a simple DLF/AF combination, but added swap instructions so they rotate throughout the game. This helps encourage the teamwork of real-life, with one dropping deep and the other leading the line.
Mentality
I don’t believe the effects of team mentality are particularly well explained in FM, but nevertheless it is clearly a crucial aspect in any tactic. I went with ‘Positive’ as a starting point, mainly because Man Utd were clearly a side (particularly at home) who set out to dominate games. I briefly trialed ‘Attacking’ but felt this was probably too much as it seemed to lead to lots of unnecessary dribbling. ‘Positive’ seems to give a better balance, leaving room to add further tweaks with player instructions.
Player Instructions
The ‘stopper’ centre-back is instructed to pass short to mimic Vidic in real-life, who would mostly pass to Ferdinand or Carrick. The DM (Carrick) is also given ‘pass shorter’ and ‘hold position’ to keep him as the more defensive anchor in midfield. Up front, the insider and deep-lying forwards are told to ‘roam from position’ and the DLF/AF are instructed to swap position. This was intended to re-create the fluidity of the Ronaldo-Rooney-Tevez front line, although a true re-creation of their movements probably isn’t possible in FM. Finally, both centre-forwards are told to ‘close down more’ in order to increase their work rate and implement a split-block (albeit with only two players).
CD-X – Pass shorter,
DM-S – Hold position, pass shorter
IF-A – Roam from position
DLF-S – Close down more, roam from position, swap position with AF
AF-A – Close down more, swap position with DLF
Team Instructions
The final decisions to be made were the team instructions. Having initially tried lots of different varieties, I think I have finally learnt (the hard way) one of the key tips for FM tactic-building. DO NOT USE TOO MANY TEAM INSTRUCTIONS! I found the more I added, the more my team seemed to ignore them. In the end, I scrapped the lot and started afresh with just 4 instructions and guess what, results improved immensely.
Overlap left – IMO this had to be included in order to mimic Evra’s attacking runs.
Play out of defence – perhaps slightly controversial as United were not a ‘tiki-taka’ side, but they didn’t play long balls out of defence very often either, so I felt this was appropriate.
Higher line of defence – added in order to increase compactness and put more pressure on the opposition
Use offside trap – added to counter-act the negative effects of a high defensive line. Some people suggest this isn’t appropriate when using a covering defender but so far I have found it to work just fine J
I also add Counter-press and Be more expressive in some games if we are struggling, particularly home games against weaker opposition who, in this version of the ME, are remarkably adept at playing keep-ball……
There is also the option of increasing to ‘Attacking’ mentality for short periods, which also seems to help against very defensive sides.
So, where does that leave us? A set of roles and duties which I believe match quite closely with the Man Utd 08 side.
Next up – the results!
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^ an unnecessarily aggressive response don't you think?
A left wing-back moving into the centre of a back 3 is unnatural behaviour. Maybe it is tactical, maybe it is not. I was merely suggesting that he let SI take a look and they can decide whether the bug is "imaginary" or not.
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It could be worth submitting this to the bugs forum?
Maybe your pressing and defence set-up is contributing, but regardless of how you set your team up that shouldn't be happening IMO.
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If you can use one of the central midfielders instead, then a CM with defend duty and the 'stay wider' PI will get close the behaviour you are looking for when in possession (assuming there are no conflicting PPM's etc).
This is the closest I can get to how Arteta has used central midfielders to cover for his full-backs.
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I do find that, even in the AMR slot, the IF does drop back into a flat midfield 4when defending, so I have stuck with my original choice at the moment.
This game finished 2-2........
3-2-3-2 African Submarine: advice needed
in Tactics, Training & Strategies Discussion
Posted
I like this shape a lot, interested to see how it progresses!
Maybe you could switch the Trq to the AM slot to give you room for two goalscoring strikers? Something like this:
PF-A DLF-A
TRQ-A
Having 3x 'attack' duties is probably going against the classic advice on this forum, but with both the TRQ and DLF dropping deep you might get away with it?
Maybe also consider changing the Winger on the left to something more defensive?