[Johan Cruyff's 3-4-3 Diamond (Very Fluid)]

Youth development has been, I must admit, slightly disappointing. Nunnely quickly became a key player in my first team as well, claiming the golden boy in '19, '20 and '21. Aside from him, Justin Kluivert and Matthijs de Ligt get their games in the first team, but to be fair, in the big matches others are preferred.

Then there are two promising regens. A goalkeeper called Willems, who's looking very good, though sadly not for a sweeper keeper with passing and first touch < 5... And a wonderkid striker, Groeneveld, who is a fine athlete with his physical attributes > 15, yet lacking the vision and passing skills to really function as the supporting complete forward.

Groeneveld's development has been hindered a bit by not getting too many games in the first team. This is due to me not making the decision to part with either Milik or Zivkovic, and having signed the talented Robert Moldoveanu the year before Groeneveld came through the youth academy. This Moldoveanu is a fine goalscorer, and a bit of a favourite of mine, for having 19 flair and ppm's such as lobbing the keeper and making bicycle kicks - he's good for some spectacular goals and that's good fun as well.

I also found it difficult to sign suitable tutors for my talents. In the first couple of years with Ajax, you do need to sign these, as the team barely has older players that make for good tutors. I was only satisfied with the signing of Esteban Cambiasso, who did make a great tutor for Donny van den Beek. I didn't succeed in signing Miroslav Klose as a tutor, which I still regret, I suspect he's golden asset to have when you have some young strikers in the squad.

My '20 CL final team figured: Cilessen; Tete, Ajer, Riedewald; Nunnely, Bazoer, Van den Beek (DLP), Strootman, Delgadillo; Klaassen; Moldoveanu.

[Johan Cruyff's 3-4-3 Diamond (Very Fluid)]

Playing with Ajax with this tactic as well, and it is going great I must say! I'm just into '20/'21 and 2020 really has been our year. If, fingers crossed, we manage to win the Clubs World Cup we'll have repeated Barcelona's 2009 record of 6 prizes in a year...

As posted earlier in the topic, I did encounter difficulties defending attacks through the middle when up against 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-2-3-1 formations at times. These did not occur too often, but whenever they did, I was too exposed for comfort, a high conversion to goals from such attacks. Now I use two, very slightly different versions of this tactic depending on the opposition's formation. The only differences are in defense, without possesion.

When up against two-striker opponents, I use the instructions as outlined in the thread, though, if attacking wingbacks are giving me trouble I do switch my wingers' mentality to support.

When against a front three, I wasn't always happy with how the covering centreback and the DLP worked together to neutralize the opponent's centreforward. For in my opinion, the DLP in this system should not be seen as a pure midfield player, but rather as a defender stepping into midfield when in possession.

My setup against such opponents now features the mid-CB as a stopper, with the DLP man-marking the centreforward. This effectively means the DLP and the CB split, or share, duties. When the stopper loses a duel, the DLP will have him covered. Pretty satisfied with their defensive interplay now.

[Johan Cruyff's 3-4-3 Diamond (Very Fluid)]

Hi ö-zil, thanks a lot for this post. I can tell from your OP that you must have had so much fun when this finally came together! Every new version of FM I try to create a diamond 3-4-3 that works as it should (with Ajax) sometimes based on Cruijff's principles and his famous Barcelona side, sometimes a more rigid and disciplined version that would be more akin to van Gaal's Ajax '95 side, which was the football I grew up with. Now, I am not too sure about Cruijff's version, but in van Gaal's 3-4-3, the DM (or DLP in this tactic) would pick up the opposing striker when playing against a front 3 (or 1). Obviously, you're not in the business of recreating van Gaal's side, but it seems to make sense to me to have it like that. For, having played your tactic and very much enjoyed doing so, I did notice when up against a 'smart' opponent playing 3/1 forwards, having the centre back pick up the centre striker is risky. If it is a targetman-like striker, not so much. Then it becomes a bit of a battle of strength between the centre back (i am talking about the 'real' centre back, on cover duty) and the striker. With a player like Ajer, you'll be fine most of the time. But a 'smart' striker would drop deep, drag the CB up the pitch, leaving a gap where that CB used to be, and inside forwards or attacking midfielders overlapping the opponents' deep-dropping striker will have a blast. This is the main weakness I found in this tactic, such that, if I would be up against this one, I would definitely try to exploit this and play with a false nine coupled with an AM... I am not sure if you have encountered such movements, but wonder if you have suggestions to protect oneself from such kinds of attacks. Personally, that's why I referenced it, I think the DM/DLP picking up the striker and the CB playing even more as a cover would resolve the issue. Ideally, without possession, when up against 3/1 forwards, the DLP would play more as a CB on stopper duty, coupled with a sweeper on defend, who, well, actually covers instead of closing down the striker. Setting it up like that in FM, however, has as its downside that the CB on stopper duty doesn't venture up the pitch far enough to act as the DLP one would want him to be in possession. I tinkered around a bit with playing with a CB(stopper) coupled with a Libero (attack), such that, they kind of reverse roles when transitioning from without/with possession, and interestingly, the match engine this time around does not quite stop the Libero from pushing up beyond the CB in front of him. I found the Libero would more or less step into midfield, as one would want him to, in order to play a DLP-ish role - yet he also, does not venture into midfield quite far enough to my taste.

I digressed a bit... To summerize: it seems to me the problem when facing 3/1 forwards is to find a way to have a DLP/CB hybrid. Man marking the striker when playing a proper DLP does not quite seem to do the trick for me... I wonder if you have any ideas on this? I Always find it difficult to 'concede' and play a 4-3-3 versus 3/1 strikers. For, yes, that diamond sure looks nice doesn't it? ))