Just seen this thread and have signed up to comment as it is very similar to a save I started few weeks ago.
I was looking for a side I could take over to bring back the glory days alsousing a back 3/5 system.
I’ve seen a lot of talk about how it is difficult to make a possession based back 3/5 system to I wanted to try and build a shape that would allow a high line, pressing and possession football as well as being flexible enough to progress through the leagues and changes in opponent quality without needing to make large changes to shape or set up.
In my third season so far in a 3421 and so far so good. Won the league season 1 with record division points total, record number of goals and player top scorer record with over 65% possession.
Season 2 lost in playoff final to Granada after both my keepers were injured in training the week prior to the semis as well as missing Villares through injury. Top scorers in the league.
Half way through third season and I’m currently top of the league, only conceded 3 in the last 8 games and we are top scorers and top of the league for possession (61%). We have often got mid 70% with the highest at 78%.
So far the shape has only needed small tweaks to the central midfield role and support striker role depending on opponent and if home or away.
Yet to make a signing for a fee, relying on frees and loans but I’ve retrained Zalazar to a support striker who has been incredible and regularly scores a beauty.
I’m expecting a drop off soon though where some bigger changes will probably be needed as it seems to be going too well at the moment and it can often change quite quickly.
I’m also kind of joint we don’t go up this season as the squad quality is way off la liga (we were predicted to finish 14th this season in this league) and we have very little money to spend though I have invested quite heavily in back room staff. Particularly the u19s who have just had a golden generation come through (one of them a 16 year old keeper who played in the playoffs for me last season).
Good luck and I’ll keep popping in to see how you are getting on.
Just catching up with this again. I started to tread water in the top flight and ended up having to tinker a lot to keep results. So much so it felt like it was just tinkering for tinkering sake to cling on. That coupled with work and limited time I lost a bit interest and once I knock myself out of the habit I always end up starting a new save. On with Wrexham now, again with a back three and have back to back promotions and currently top 6 in league one despite projected being to avoid relegation and I’ve not changed anything at all in 2.5 seasons in this new tactic so might test it for other sides as I’m not sure if Wrexham are just ridiculously overpowered. For some reason I really struggle with a back 4 (especially 442)and can never get consistent results but with back 3s I do well. I did come up with a version of Guardiolas 235 that got Haaland scoring over 90 goals