Vizzini

That is some season, congrats! Tempted to try it myself now, any PIs?

IF on the right will offer more penetration. AM, W and SV is already supporting attacks, you don't need an additional creator. Also, the AP is ball-hog, so will slow down your attacks.

How do you work around the fact that most teams in the game employ a formation with 1-2 DMS? I found playmakers in the AMC-position to get quite low ratings as they are usually marked/crowded out of the game, not really getting on the ball much. The only success I have had has been with an AM-A or a SS-A, but they are basically second strikers, so would not class them as a classic 10.

Echoing this, hope there is more to come! Brighton would be a fun side!

Who are they crossing to? Also, no aggressive runners from midfield.

Won the league and the league-cup first season. Varane was off during the jan. window, replaced by Geertruida. Also added Valentin Barco and Tammy Abraham to the side. Clearout in the summer, sold: Heaton (released), AWB, Maguire, Lindelöf, Evans (released), Malacia, Casemiro,, Ambrabat (loan ended) Van de Beek, McTominay, Bruno, Sancho (loan with obligation to buy) and Martial (released). In came: Fresneda, Antonio Silva, Marc Guehi, Lucas Gourna-Douath, Gabriel Moscardo, Pedri, Khepren Thuram and Savio. Squad 24/25 SWK-A/S: Onane, Bayindir IWB-S: Dalot, Fresneda BPDR: Geertruida, Guehi BDPL: Silva, Martinez FB-S: Shaw, Barco DM-D: Gourna-Douath, Moscardo CM-A: Mount, Thuram AP-S: Pedri, Eriksen W-S: Antony, Savio IF-A: Rashford, Garnacho CF-S: Høylund, Abraham Crazy turnover, but just a fun beta-save.

Negotiated, so will probably accept, can get Pedri, Gavi, Simons or Even De Jong for less money.

Just been offered £195 million for him, feels too good to turn down.

4-1-2-1-2 Diamond. Cas/Amrabat as a halfback would create a 3-man defense in possession, wingbacks high and wide, Mount and McTominay/Amrabat as shuttlers, Bruno as the AMC. Would leave no room for Antony, Garnacho or Sancho, but the former two could be retrained as PF-A/AF-A and Sancho would make a great AMC with his vision, technique, first touch, passing and dribling.

3-5-2 perhaps? Not sure United have good enough wingbacks for a system like that, but you can have Casemiro deep, Mount and Bruno in front and Høylund + Rashford up top, could make for a good counter-attacking system.

Look at what the role is asked to do: Gets further forward: Pace, stamina, off the ball, anticipation, work rate More risky passes: Technique, passing, first touch, vision, composure The role also gets in the box and a lot (and occasionally goes wide) so other important (but not vital) attributes would be finishing, crossing, and maybe long shots. Traits are also important, so I would look for gets forward whenever possible/gets into opposition area, tries more risky passes, plays one-twos. As for model players, think Bruno Fernandez, Kevin de Bruyne, Dominik Szoboszlai.

Kane can play any role, I used him as AF-A, and he got 30 league goals in 32 apps last season.

Finished the first season with Tottenham and came 3rd. Made no transfers except for Alex Scott, who went out on loan. Just about to start the second season after a busy window. Notable outgoings were Hugo Lloris, Davinson Sanchez, Eric Dier, Ben Davies, Ivan Perisic, Lucas Moura, Joe Rodon and Harry Winks. To strengthen the squad I picked up Milan Skriniar on a free, Dominic Calvert-Lewin for 25.5m, Diogo Costa for 65m and Josip Sutalo from Dinamo Zagreb for 19m. In addition, Pedro Porro and Dejan Kulusevksi were made permanent. I have also decided to give Giovanni Lo Celso, Destiny Udogie, Tanguy Ndombele and Bryan Gil a chance to impress after coming back from loans abrod. Going into the season we are looking like this:

I use Turati as a backup for Raja in the PL. He has been reliable for me. Top 6-side

Brilliant! Reminds me of the "where are the goals going to come from?" after Fergie sold Ruud in 06. As you said, it is not about one player but the whole system.

Because the gap between them is to big with the advanced player pushed more forward while the fb is more careful. If the FB overlaps you are creating an overload, making space for the IF to exploit. Risk Vs reward.

All of your players in the AM-Strata is being asked to push forward. If you change your IF-S to an IW-S and your right back to a FB-A it will be more balanced.

You need quite capable players to pull of a system such as this. You are basically trying to force turnovers high up the pitch and you are also trying to play at a breakneck speed with the ball, while telling your players to take a lot of risk, so if you give away the ball (due to high risk and high tempo) or the opposition beats your press you will concede big chances on a regular basis.

I play a simple 433 atm. Balanced mentality: left overlap, right underlap, shorter passing, counter, distrib short kicks, mid block, drop off more. (From right to left) GK-D, FB-S, BPD-D, CD-D, FB-A, DM-D, MEZ-A, AP-S, W-S, IW-S, AF-A. Really solid base to build from imo.

Just wanted to say thank you for a great write up! Made me realise I was trying to force the issue too much. After removing a couple of TI's my tactic has a much better balance to it.

AP-S dovetails very well with a mezzala.

AP-A maybe? Great dribbler, vision, etc. More of a pure creator than goalscorer, also suited to his PPM's

Have you thought of using an IWB on the left to cover for the CM-A or do you prefer to overload the left flank?

Steam workshop or the mad scientist on twitter