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4-4-1-1 A very flexible tactic. Hello, this is my first post after years of lurking. I first wrote it in swedish then i translated it with google (Im lazy yes). Then i tried to fix some small errors but there might still be some of them left. Other parts will be written in English and even if its not my native language I hope it will be better flowing. This thread is quite long now, so I have collected all the posts here! Post 2 Inverted wing-back and inverted winger. Post 3 Attacking midfielder. Post 4 Winger + mentalities. Post 5 Central midfielder + 4-4-1-1 Arguments. Post 6 Deep lying playmaker. Post 7 Summary of roles + more. I also started a new series about positonal play. Will my team be able to pass their way to world domination? Stylistically, I (as a Man U) fan have always liked the direct 4-4-2 that Sir Alex Ferguson's first teams used (arguably 4-4-1-1 with Cantona). They focused mainly on wing play for the creation of opportunities and played a relatively direct style. Later, I was obviously amazed by Pep Guardiola and his Jugo De Position,overloads and diagonal movements. The most recent manager that influenced me was Jürgen Klopp and his Dortmund, who won the german league two years in a row and made it to the final in the Champions League. Klopp's team was known for its extreme counterpressing (gegenpressing) where they then tried to attack at high speed once the possession was won. The goal is to succeed in creating something that is a hybrid and with some influence from the best of them different styles. Of course, compromises will have to be made as I only play in a second division (at the moment). The pace and the length of the pass is something that I would really like to have balanced / standard but with better players (or that the current squad is developing) it should probably go away eventually. For now I have decided that I will start with these instructions for the team. The mentality is positive which is the first one that is "offensive" and the 5 out of 7 different where 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 goes from most defensive (1) to most attacking (7). It will, in turn, increase our playing width, tempo, passing directness, LoE, back line, press to slightly higher than standard. That is the whole basis of our game. After that, some adjustments are made to squad quailty and to get to the overall style I want to create. I Would like to have possession but not for the sake of it, press high but not too high, other instructions are to complement this. I try to stay away from extremes. So, I had to start somewhere and I didn't want to start in an top divison. The Premier Leauge has always been the "league for me" so I started looking for suitable teams in the Championship. Fulham with Mawson, Cairney and Mitrovic had enough ability to create a style of play that I was comfortable with. To increase the challenge, I tried to stick to players from the Nordic countries, Great Britain & Ireland, Brazil and Argentina (cause FLAIR). Thus, a large sale was initiated. Tried at all costs to get rid of players who did not meet these criteria. After that, a little more interesting phase began as I tried to strengthen the squad for this year's challenges. Most acquisitions are for the future and squad depth, but a few offer something from the start. Among others, the 22-year-old lightning fast forward from Blackburn Adam Armstrong. Well-rounded midfielder James Garner from Manchester United who came on loan will also get a lot of playing time. Other key players, as previously mentioned, include Alfie Mawson, a so-called ballplaying defender. Cairney is easiest to describe as a classic playmaker with good flair, technicals and vision. Our third designated key player Mitrovic, a physical phenomen that also possesses surprisingly good techique and touch for a lad of his size. As a base, I start to build from the back with 2 regular roles (fullback and central defender) and 3 more specialized roles (sweeper keeper, ball playing defender and inverted wingback). The idea behind this is that the Sweeper keeper is important to be able to build possession from the back, the regular full back to the right will overlap every now and then, the ball playing defender will help the SK to build out from the back. The regular center defender should primarily defend and only add short simple passes to the more technically gifted players around him (IWB, BPD) The inverted wing back is very important to start building the game deep, he will also occasionally appear in the opponsitions penalty area to end the attacks or make killer balls into the penalty area. This happens because the player gets an attacking mentality when I use "look for underlap" on the left. This player is almost playing like a marauding playmaker and is one of the most important roles in my system. The player in question who currently holds this role is Joe Bryan. Here there is plenty of room for a better player to have a greater impact on the team. Dwight Mcneil would be a quality signing for this, originally a winger but with 12 tackle, 10 marking and 11 positioning he is already a capable defender who has a lot of room for development. (Joe Bryan) The regular full back is a basic role (zero preset pi’s) and it can look very different depending on who is playing there. UNE (Jakob Une Larsson) makes the role very safe and secure and often thinks of the defensive side of the game in the first place. (UNE) If Cyrus Christie or Rankin-Costello plays, it will be much more buzzing. Christie (and Costello) because of his traits will be much more attacking in his interpretation of the role. Often advancing further up the pitch and when he plays it is almost like having two inverted wing backs at times. (Christie) The midfield is pretty basic and doesn't have that much finesse but hard work and grit is most important. I Would like to have great physical players centrally in the field. On the wings I like to see a classic winger (fast) on one side and one more “Arjen Robben (not because Robben was not fast) inspired” on the other. Something else is that in the middle field I handed out my first PI or personal instructions and that I have done to all players, they are all told to "push more" which the defenders do not have. This is to create a so-called "split block" as one half of the team pushes higher up the pitch and the other half of the team is standing off and more trying to steer the opponents out of dangerous areas. The exception that confirms the rule is the defensive midfielder, which I count to he defensive part of my split block. So, pressing we have midfield and forward except cmd. Low pressing we have cmd and defense. The defensive midfielder also has some other PIs so he looks as follows. Since the mentality is careful, I have increased the pass length to direct, then I have instructed the defensive midfielder not to dribble. This is because the defensive midfielder is rarely good at just this but also to speed up the game a bit as I would rather see a quick pass to a more technical player. The offensive is largely handled by two players where one is thought to be a link between the lone striker and the rest of the team. The spearhead should try to create as much disarray as possible for the opponents. An APA (advanced playmaker attack) links the play less than an APS and an AF is the striker who is most willing to move into channels and pull apart the opponent's defense. Combined with Mitrovic's ability to play with the back towards goal, I think the mix between the role and the "traits" will be perfect and it will be as a combination between several roles. Thoose two also are included in the pressing block and have thus been given this personal instruction (pressure more). When Armstrong plays at the top, the opponents often have problems with his high pace and they often have to adjust their back line to get control of him, or else he will probably score. The whole tactic thus looks like this: my preferred eleven is this: Next part I will try to analyse this and see how it plays out (and show some results). Also i will discuss some development and future plans.