Jump to content

Mike_Cardinal

Members+
  • Posts

    813
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Mike_Cardinal

  1. 27 minutes ago, DarJ said:

    The reason I've not done that is that there is no guarantee that the player dropping deep is the CM. If I was sure then I'll do that no question.

    I've tried this but it doesn't totally solve the problem. 

    I don't have problem with DMs I'm more concerned about AMs

    I'm leaning towards accepting the fact that this is a problem I'll always have against those types of formation. I'm still doing well, it's more for games that I absolutely need to win so I'm prepared for it.

    There's a knock-on effect, though. The AM might be the problem, but if the DM is in space, it could be making things worse.

    You would need to look at your matches to diagnose it properly, but if their DM is constantly unmarked, but your FCs won't drop in on them, then your CMs could be closing down higher up the pitch to shut them down, leaving the AM free.

    A flat 442 will always have this against a diamond to an extent though, you're right. Defending more narrowly should help.

    The other side of the coin is that going forwards, they will have problems with you - your full backs should be free, so if you can make the most of 2v1s and overloads on the flanks, then you could make up for conceding more goals at the other end.

  2. I would probably use the Tighter Marking OI on the opposition AM, which should mean one of your CMs will drop deep to mark them - that's much safer than one of your CBs stepping forward out of defence, when they already have a 2v2 up front.

    This leaves you man-for-man against their front three, but they will have a 3v1 left in central midfield.

    To try to prevent them from playing through the middle too easily, I suggest defending more narrowly, with 'Force Opposition Outside', which should help your wide players to tuck in more and help out.

    EDIT - Against strong teams, you could also ask your AF to man-mark the opposition DM. The DLF should already help out a little more in the middle without any specific instructions

  3. On 02/12/2021 at 16:14, Ö-zil to the Arsenal! said:

    Sit narrower, hold position and cut inside with the ball. The reason I go with FB(S) over FB(D) is that FB(S) is nice and compact with Saka as IW(S) in defence as they're both a Positive mentality. FB(D) would create a gap between them.

    This may have changed on FM22 with the UI issues, but I've had success on FM20 with a setup where I used a full back on FBd with Sit Narrower, a winger on IWs with Get Further Forward and Stay Wider and a MEZs. That was with a Positive team mentality and crucially, the Underlap turned on, which meant the FBd and IWs both had a Balanced mentality and the MEZs was on Positive. It helped create some lovely positional play patterns, with Pep-style movement on the flanks (think Walker/KDB/Mahrez).

    Apologies for the slightly off-topic hijack, but always good to see you posting on here.

  4. It's difficult to say without knowing more about the reasons why you are struggling, but just one small general suggestion - you might have a better balance defensively if you swap the central midfielders, so the DLP is on the left and the BBM is on the right.

    On the right hand-side, the DLP has 'Hold Position', and the FB is more of a reserved role, whereas on the left, both the WB and BBM will get forward at the same time to support attacks. 

    With your current setup, you might be defensively exposed by counters when you attack down the left, particularly against stronger opposition in Europe. That might also not be helped by Counter-Press, which can be a risky strategy when you don't have the right players, or are not much stronger than the opposition.

  5. On 18/10/2021 at 10:37, Jack722 said:

    Having seen the new FM22 livestream, it seems as though defending deep is going to be much easier and realistic this year! It looks as though the attacking forwards help more to block off passing lanes into midfield while a CMd paired with a CMs will roughly stay more in line with each other.

    So hopefully in FM22 we can just set up a 442 in the way we'd like to attack, and the defence should take care of itself. 

    Is that anyone else's experience of the beta- do we still need both CMs on Support duty to defend in a flat line of four?

  6. I've made a couple of tweaks to my setup with real success recently, partly inspired by Ozil-to-the-Arsenal's classic threads, including the use of Support duties for 'Very Fluid' total football.

    I also wanted to really minimise TIs, and come up with something like a universal tactic for this style of play - I tested it on FM20, but I think it could be applied to any of the recent games.

    Positive

    Much Shorter Passing, Play Out of Defence

    More Urgent

    SKd

    IWBs - CDd - CDd - IWBs

    MEZs - CMd - MEZs

    IWs - F9s - IWs

    The IWs have PIs to 'Stay Wider' and 'Get Further Forward'. And that's it!

    Here's why I think it works so well:

    The full backs, Mezzalas and wingers are on Positive mentality, the False Nine is on Balanced, and the rest on Cautious.

    I experimented with an Attack duty up front, but I do think the False Nine is perfect for this style of play. The key was playing on Positive team mentality or higher - the role is too passive otherwise, being Cautious with a Balanced team mentality.

    With a higher team mentality, I found my IWBs were getting too far forward with Underlaps - this creates an Attacking mentality, and we were being exposed on the counter.

    It also led to them sitting on top of the Mezzalas, which is completely contradictory to positional play principles. 

    I took off the Underlaps, and also found great success in moving the DM to CM, which forces the Mezzalas wider. They make runs outside more often, they press the flanks better to stop counters, and there is generally excellent spacing and interplay between them, the IWBs and IWs - I cannot recommend testing this out strongly enough.

    Without a DM, I found the Support duty worked well for the Mezzalas, rather than Attack. They helped out in defence more, so we weren't exposed in the middle, and as I increased Mentality to Positive, they still got forward plenty. I didn't want them shooting constantly on Very Attacking mentality.

    The CMd also seems to have the effect of pushing the defensive line higher, indirectly, and works really nicely supporting attacks in a line of '3' with the IWBs in possession, whilst dropping deep as a holding midfielder out of possession. I often use a 'Tighter Marking' OI on opposition AMs, which works well. 

    The IWs also benefit from a Positive mentality, as the lack of Underlaps means they get forward a little more, and form a proper front three with the False Nine - I still think this role is the best way to give Pep-style width in buildup, before attacking the box at the right moment.

    The only essential team instruction is Much Shorter Passing, genuinely. Shorter Passing gives me around 62% possession on average, Much Shorter Passing gives around 68% - it seems to prevent the CBs from ever kicking it long on Positive, and everyone focuses on neat, simple passes all over the pitch. 

    We naturally work the ball into the box - the IWBs cross less often by default, and we don't use Wingers, who Cross More Often. We are patient, but always building towards creating chances.

    This means the attacking play is varied without being over complicated and players have the freedom to score all types of goal, without being given too many instructions, or forcing the ball to a designated playmaker. Again, try it out, and I think you'll see how a very simple approach can give really effective patterns of play, as players decide how to best unlock the defence, using the overloads created by a 235.

    A truer Pep recreation may be achieved with more tinkering, but in terms of results on FM, this has given me the best results with a 235 by far, as well as some seriously beautiful football.

  7. Great stuff with the patterns of play there.

    For what it's worth, this is the closest I've managed to get to creating those situations with a 2-3-5 (trying to keep Team Instructions to a minimum) on FM20:

    Balanced
    Much Shorter Passing, Play Out of Defence, Low Crosses, Underlap Left, Underlap Right, Focus Play Through Middle
    Counter-Press
    Higher DL

    SKd

    IWBs - CDd - CDd - IWBs

    Ad 

    MEZa - MEZa

    IWs (Get Further Forward, Stay Wider, Close Down More) - IWs (Get Further Forward, Stay Wider, Close Down More)

    F9s (Close Down More)

    That's not the most adventurous setup, but I was playing in the Football League with less talented players, rather than being expected to win the PL/CL every season - still, the results were very solid - particularly defensively. If I needed a goal, I would increase the Mentality, drop to Shorter Passing, and sometimes use Be More Expressive and Work Ball Into Box together to break teams down. You could also use more aggressive out of possession instructions if you have the players for it.

    As you've done in your latest version, I found that the key to getting the 'free 8' to make those runs beyond the wingers was:

    • Mezzala on Attack - rather than starting from an AM position, you want them to start deep, then push high up into the halfspaces. The Attacking mentality means they get into dangerous areas - I've found the Mezzala on Support doesn't get forward enough to give a well-defined front five for overloading a back four.
    • Inverted Winger on Support at AMRL - rather than starting from the MRL strata, you want them to start high at AMRL, then move deeper. The Support duty means that they will drop off to receive the ball, which creates space. What's also important is to have them on 'Stay Wider', so they maintain the width. The Inside Forward comes inside too much even with 'Stay Wider', and the Winger is hardcoded to 'Run Wide with Ball' and Cross More Often, which I find means they will try and beat the full back down the inside more often than making those inside passes, even with 'Work Ball Into Box' or 'Narrow'. I also like them in the AMRL strata so they will press the opposition as a front three with the FC.
    • Underlap - this encourages those inside passes even more, but also increases the mentality of the Inverted Wing Backs and reduces that of the wingers. I wouldn't personally feel the need to use an Attack duty at full back, as I really like the positioning that IWBs and Underlap gives you - they will support attacks, but also provide cover against counter-attacks to make up for the aggressive Mezzalas.
  8. That final setup looks interesting. I've been thinking about using an IWB and DM on one flank, with an IWB on the other side, to create something like City's 3-2 shape when playing out from the back this season, where one FB and the CBs form a back three, with the other FB and DM playing as a double pivot ahead of them.

    The idea is that although an IWB on Defend duty seems to move into the DM strata rather than forming a back three on FM, if there is a DM on their flank, then this doesn't happen as much. My hope is that the presence of the DM might mean the IWB tucks alongside the CBs more, but they might just play like a Full Back instead. But even then, the IWB would still have Hold Position and Sit Narrower instructions, which you had added as PIs for your Full Back on Support, so it might give the same result.

    What I hadn't considered is that the security offered by an IWB on Defend and a DM on a flank could then allow you to move your CB into the central slot. It would make natural sense to have that central player on Cover duty, as they sweep up behind and form the base of a triangle in possession.

    The knock-on benefit of this was that it could allow you greater security to play the other CB as an off-centre Stopper on the other side. The Stopper could help with aggressively defending any gaps in front of the defence on their flank, as your DM is off-centre, as well as pushing forwards more in possession.

    EDIT - That probably doesn't come across very clearly, but this is what I'm thinking visually:

    IWBsu CDst CDco N/A IWBde
          DMde  
  9. I think you're on the right track, with some nice players to get the best out of. Here's my suggestions for a couple of tweaks based on what you're already thinking.

    Van Den Bergh looks like a great playmaker, but he's not really a goalscorer. He already has 'Gets Forward Whenever Possible', and I think playing him as an AM on Attack isn't making the most of his skillset. I'd lean towards playing him on a Support duty.

    As a side note, I also think you could use him as your most advanced player on the right of a midfield three, with Campbell/Mancebo at MCL and Mancebo/Onana in a holding role at DM.

    If you did play Van Den Bergh as an AM on Support, I would probably tweak Moyle to an Attack duty. He'll still play a supporting role to create for Cresswell as a DLF, but would also give you more of a goal threat, which he's more suited to than Van Den Bergh.

    Based on what you said about your right back being more of a defensive player, my suggestion would be to change him to a Support duty. To make up for this, I would just swap your CM roles around. Mancebo can use his energy to support attacks on the right, making up for the more reserved full back. Campbell is a naturally left-footed player who can dictate from deep, as well as sharing the defensive work in the double pivot with Mancebo, who I would want to give plenty of gametime to develop.

    To summarise, I would suggest something like this if you want to play a 4231:

    SKd

    FBs - CDd - CDd - WBs

    BWMs (Mancebo) - DLPd (McGregor) 

    Ws (Williams) - AMs (Van Den Bergh) - IFa Cresswell

    DLFa (Moyle)

    EDIT - As another subtle variation for the tougher games, you could also use a BWMd or CMd at MCL (possibly bringing in Onana), with a DLPs at MCR, so you would have two midfielders who 'Hold Position' for a bit more solidity.

  10. 4 hours ago, retrodude09 said:

    I actually disagree with this slightly. 

    An IWBd would still move into the defensive midfield area & this probably represents Cancelo's role at the moment. Although, I would argue that he's an IWBs considering he's popping up everywhere. The opposite FB would possibly be a FBd to give you your 3 & the player in front is probably a DMd to give you the 3-1 shape.

    The 6 in front are probably a little harder to create & it will depend largely on the formation you use as a starting point.

    Yeah I take your point - I guess the main thing is that it's a FB forming the back three, not a DM.

    I would say Cancelo is playing at least as an IWBs, probably even as an IWBa last night - I find the IWBd tucking inside makes them more suited than an FBd to this role, but it would be a case of trial and error with the match engine.

  11. On 25/01/2021 at 18:24, acmilano112000 said:

    Agreed, good to point this out. This Pep 3-1-6 is a different method of achieving roughly the same overall shape.

    In some ways, depending on how our teams set up, I think this might be an easier way of creating the 3-1-6... just a few roles change.

    What I like about this is that it feels like it jives with the ME rather than trying to cut against the grain of how the ME wants to operate. In the sense that the various attempts to have a CM or DM drop back and become the third member of the back three feel to me like tricking the ME and that player just doesn't truly want to be there. Having either a real back 3 with 3 CB's, or 2 CB's and a FB or IWB who joins them feels more natural to me and fitting of how the ME interprets the roles.

    Yeah, I think it probably would be easier to achieve, without having tried it! Asking the CB on the other side to the inverted full back to 'Stay Wider' should give you a more natural back three shape than with a DM dropping backwards, as well, which always looks slightly awkward.

    It's worth asking not only can we recreate a trendy tactical shape like the 3-1-6 in FM, but also ask the question of why real-life managers are doing it, and in what circumstances we might want to replicate it.

    I'm sure plenty of the knowledgeable posters on this thread will be very familiar with positional play and the 2-3-5 shape, which was achieved differently by Pep's City (full backs tuck into midfield, wingers stay wide, 8s push forwards) and Klopp's Liverpool (full backs push high up, wingers come inside, 8s hold a deeper midfield position).

    An interesting variation on that is that Pep likes to play a 3-2-5 against teams who leave two strikers forwards in attack. Basically, he wants one more defender than they have strikers when in possession, to make it easier to play out of defence and cover against counter-attacks.

    The thinking behind the 2-3-5/3-2-5 was that it exploits the natural gaps in a back four to break down defences, whilst guarding against counter-attacks. The 3-1-6 is clearly a more attacking development, but also a potential solution to the fact that after Conte's Chelsea saw great success with an unusual system (at the time), attacking in a 3-2-5 with both wing backs pushing forwards, PL teams turned to a back five themselves to try and nullify them.

    That has me thinking about a setup where you tailor your positional play approach in possession to the opposition's defensive formation - you aim for one more defender than they have strikers (i.e. a back three in possesion against a front two, or two CBs against a lone striker) and one more attacker than they have defenders (i.e. a front five against back fours, and six attackers against a back five), with the rest of your team sitting in midfield.

    For example, you would aim for a a 3-1-6 against a 5-3-2/3-5-2, a 2-3-5 against 4-5-1 shapes like a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, a 3-2-5 against a 4-4-2 (whether it's flat, a diamond or box-midfield), and maybe a 2-2-6 would be effective against teams who play with a 5-4-1/3-4-3. Food for thought...

  12. 1 hour ago, acmilano112000 said:

    Sorry for double post, but I should mention on its own this excellent article about Man City 2020 that mostly covers how Pep arranges against a back 5... spoiler alert he puts 6 to stretch the 5. ...and then a 1 and a 3 behind his 6. :)

    https://spielverlagerung.com/2020/09/18/analysing-manchester-citys-attack-structural-considerations-and-variations/

    Good graphics as well:

    City-3-1-6-with-Jesus-1024x925.png

    Nice post, worth noting that Pep's approach shown here is not like most in this thread - using two attacking full backs and narrow wingers in a 4-2-3-1/4-2-4, with one DM dropping into defence.

    Instead it uses one full back tucking into form a back three (i.e. an IWBd in FM terms), with the other pushing forwards as a conventional wing back. Then you just need the winger to come inside on the flank of the attacking full back, and the the winger on the side of the defensive full back to stay wide and stretch the play. The striker, 'free 8s', DM and CBs do their jobs as normal.

  13. Does anyone know if the player ratings issue (for fullbacks particularly) was affecting FM Touch on Switch as well, and whether the minor update has been rolled out to the Switch to fix this? I understand that the updates aren't made as regularly for the Switch, so I'm guessing it may still be an issue, but would be grateful if anyone could confirm before I get the game on the Switch for now...

  14. Nice thread, great setup to replicate.

    The first thing I would suggest is that I think you want both strikers with Moves Into Channels, taking advantage of the wingers coming inside, as both Nihat and Rossi did for Villarreal under Pellegrini. Because of that, I would suggest changing your Poacher to an Advanced Forward, or possibly a Complete Forward on Attack if you have the right player. The CF on Support could also work well as a Deep Lying Forward.

    As you have pointed out, although they played with a Brazilian-style box midfield in possession, without the ball they fell back into a fairly solid two banks of four - Regroup is probably a sensible idea to create this effect.

    The main thing I am a little surprised at is that you have used Inside Forwards in the AMRL strata - I would have said that these players were textbook Wide Playmakers in the MRL positions, as they really tracked back quite well. If you find that this means the wide players are too close to the central midfielders, I would suggest dropping the BWM to Defend duty (which comes with Hold Position so that he doesn't get as far forward) and/or dropping the CMs to the DM strata - I think the central midfielders were closer to being DMs than the wingers were to being AMRLs in this tactic. Either way, the positioning looks good in your screenshots - I am guessing that was helped by the Much Lower LOE.

    I worry that the Much Lower LOE would invite too much pressure and easy balls over the top, though. By dropping the wingers back, you wouldn't need to have a Much Lower LOE  - I don't think that works with Prevent Short GK Distribution (would probably remove that instruction altogether, as Pellegrini teams adopted more of a relaxed South American approach to pressing). I would go for Higher DL and Standard LOE, or Standard DL and Lower LOE against stronger opposition.

    Another benefit of using Wide Playmakers is that they will see more of the ball than Inside Forwards - your DLP might be too much of a focus of the team's play with the current setup. They are also more difficult for the opposition to mark when they drift inside from a deeper position into the space between the opposition midfield and defence.

  15. It can make sense where you feel you have the numbers to win the ball back in the middle, but don't want to encourage the opposition to exploit your weaknesses on the flanks. For example, if you're playing with a 4-3-1-2 or another narrow shape with only one player on each flank, but you aren't confident in your ability to deal with crosses into the box.

  16. Even with a lower LOE, forwards on Attack duties will look to play higher up the pitch, which might explain why you're still seeing a gap between midfield and your front two.

    From a counter attacking perspective, that might be exactly what you're looking for, as they are available for an outball when you win the ball back to break.

    The way I see it, you could look at it two ways:

    1) Bring the forwards closer to the midfield - you could do this with at least one support duty (e.g. by changing the TM to support) and/or changing the AF to an Attack duty role that doesn't play as high up the pitch (e.g. Pressing Forward on Attack)

    2) Encourage your two banks of four to be more aggressive in winning the ball back - you could do this with Get Stuck In, More Urgent, a higher team mentality as a default and possibly removing Regroup.

    You could also consider changing your midfield pairing to a CMd and BWMs - this is a fairly subtle change, but the BWMs will press higher up the pitch than your current BWMd or CMs, but will leave you with less of a focus on team shape.

    There's not necessarily anything wrong with your system. All of these changes come with a trade-off - they might help with the issues you're seeing, but they could cause other problems as well - bringing the forwards back might dilute your threat, and making the midfield more aggressive might make you less defensively secure, so it will be trial and error.

     

    EDIT - I suppose you could also try a Much Lower LOE with your current attack duties, although that tends to be a more extreme option. I suspect that playing this way on Cautious mentality might be causing you issues - you can generally get away with More Urgent pressing on Balanced with a Lower LOE - it's a nice mix of drawing the opponent onto you then snapping into tackles.

  17. On 10/06/2020 at 10:57, Ö-zil to the Arsenal! said:


    I agree about the Support duties indirectly effecting a style of play but strongly disagree about the realism; and the bigger issue is the lack of functionality.

    Take Pep Guardiola's recent Manchester City and Bayern Munich teams as an example. It's pretty clear that they play extremely disciplined possession football; both teams very much play to his instruction, but at the same time everyone contributes to the team as a collective.

    In Football Manager 2018 this would be very simple:

    1. Control mentality
    2. Lots of Support duties
    3. Highly Structured team shape

    You'd have extremely disciplined, possession football where everyone contributes to the team collective.

    In Football Manager 2020 you'd use a Positive team mentality and then:

    • EITHER select Support duties, giving you a Very Fluid shape.. which doesn't do anything anyway. Maybe say "Be more Disciplined".
      • I have no idea how this would play, but it's extremely messy.
    • OR select a mixture of Attack, Defend or Support duties to get Highly Structured but then your players no longer have players playing as a collective unit; attackers would attack, defenders would defend etc.
      • I think this would get you a very different style of play.
    • OR.. vertical tiki taka! :lol:

    To your point about Attackers and Defenders in a Fluid system; take Arsenal's 'Invincibles' as an example. Clearly a free-flowing, attacking team with Henry, Pires, Cole and Bergkamp making an extremely fluid attack counter-balanced by Gilberto Silva as an out and out defensive midfielder even known as the 'Invisible Wall'. He'd be an MC(D) in a Fluid, Attacking system; this would give him a cautious mentality (9 in old terms) and he'd hold position in midfield.

    The 'Makelele' role in the Galacticos would be a similar example.

     

    This entire thread is brilliant, but I was particularly interested in your 'Highly Structured' 4-3-3, using a more disciplined passing game with the younger players. This immediately made think of my attempts to incorporate positional play with lower league teams in FM20, and how affording less creative freedom might be a better idea with more limited players.

    After playing around with the excellent Mentality Calculator (https://theresonlyoneball.com/2020/05/22/an-individual-player-mentality-calculator-for-football-manager-2020/), I struck upon the following setup as a potential solution - using a Cautious team mentality with lots of Attack duties, rather than a Positive team mentality with lots of Support duties:

    Team Mentality Cautious  
    Approach Play Left Overlap Left  
    Approach Play Right Overlap right  
    Focus the Play Focus play through the middle  
                 
          ST - At      
          Positive      
                 
    IF(L) - At           IF(R) - At
    Positive           Positive
                 
        CM - At   CM - At    
        Positive   Positive    
                 
          DM - De      
          Defensive      
                 
    DL - At/Su   CD - De   CD - De   DR - At/Su
    Positive   Defensive   Defensive   Positive
                 
          GK - De      
          Defensive      

    Given that this setup uses 4 Defend Duties, 7 Attack Duties and nobody on Support(!), I'm pretty confident it would give us a 'Highly Structured' label on FM20, although I haven't tested it in-game yet. 

    The mentality calculator also seems to think that the Full Backs would still have a 'Positive' mentality with a Support duty, which might influence whether the game labels the tactic as 'Highly Structured'. Either way, the consensus seems to be that this feature is largely cosmetic now.

    In terms of how this could be set up for positional play, you could use the Striker as a Trequartista, or maybe a Deep Lying Forward on Attack, so that they link up with the midfield. Alternatively, you drop him into Attacking Midfield, and he would have a Positive mentality as a Shadow Striker, which I think was your interpretation of Pep's Barca.

    The central midfielders could play as either a Mezzala or Advanced Playmaker on Attack - or possibly a combination of the two.

    You need to play the wingers as Inside Forwards (specifically) on Attack duty. Otherwise, you will be stuck with either a winger with a 'Balanced' mentality (if you use Overlap and a winger on another Attack duty), or a full back on 'Balanced' (if you use them on Attack duty without the Overlap). Still, with a 'Stay Wider' instruction, I think the Inside Forwards should maintain width in the early phases, before going for goal in the final third.

    By comparison, you would have plenty of options to play with at full back, such as either Inverted Wing Backs or more traditional Wing Backs/Complete Wing Backs on either a Support or Attack duty, depending on your preferred combinations.

    Finally, the defensive diamond should give a solid base to build from, and means that you aren't asking too much of your central defenders in terms of mentality. You could always use a more aggressive Sweeper Keeper, as well.

    The other significant factor on FM19/20 is how much you can customise the Defensive Line, Line of Engagement and Pressing Urgency - I'm confident that an aggressive approach could be counter-balanced quite nicely with the Cautious mentality, so we get a patient, controlled, but progressive approach to build-up play.

    Now I just need to test it out on the game! 

  18. I would just like to second this - playing FMT on the Switch, and it's frustrating having to click on players individually if you want to select several at a time. I also find it easy to misclick on the Switch (probably my fat thumbs), which means that you end up selecting one player only, and then have to click them all again.

    I've found this not just with scouting players (as I understand the limit on 50 at a time), but also if I wanted to promote several players to the senior team, offer 10 youth players out for loan at a time, etc.

    The obvious solution to me would be if one of the unused buttons could act as a Shift key does on the PC, as BuryBlade mentioned. This is a small change, but would make a big difference to me in the Switch experience being more viable.

×
×
  • Create New...