Anyway to fit Ramsey and Pogba in midfield together?

[StokeyGooner]

Hey, I am just about to start my third season now with Arsenal. This is my team and tactics

I was wondering if there was anyway to fit Ramsey and Pogba into that midfield two or will it imbalance me too much? Last season I tried it shortly with mixed success, playing Ramsey RP (S) / BBM (S) and Pogba DLP (D).

Also how are the rest of my tactics? Will having Neymar upfront work?

Thanks

[leggie1973]

Hello, I'm no expert but...

Part of the CFa role is to hold the ball up so I would guess that Neymar may not be entirely suitable for this position.

I'm guessing that you've bought Pogba because you like the way he plays at Juventus and he's more of a BBM there than a DLPd so I would suggest that you either bite the bullet and sell Ramsey and play Pogba as a BBM or RPs or you change formation to accomodate both as I don't think you could play them as a two in midfield, but I always set up a 4231 as 4321 with the outer CM's on defend roles and the FB's on attack.

If looking to play Sanchez, Neymar, Ramsey and Pogba, I would probably go strikerless and play

IFa, ENG, IFa

BBM, BBM

DMd

FBa, CDd, CDd, FBa

that would then allow you also play Ozil as the ENG and another controller type player at DM with plenty of players making runs around Ozil for him to feed.

Finally, one of the things that seems to be working for lots of players is a massive reduction in team instructions and I would do the following -

Remove the roaming instruction, and instead select the PI roaming instruction

Remove Run at Defence, all your attacking duties should be running with the ball often in any case

Remove Be More Expressive, you're playing Control so Creative Freedom is already 'quite' high

Remove Pass Into Space, it kind of conflicts with the idea of Retain Possession in that you're asking all your players to attempt through balls more often, plus I think it works better in a situation where the opposition is pushing up and leaving space behind, one or the other would be the way to go

Remove Exploit the Middle - never liked the idea of directing my team to only play through one area on the pitch

Remove Play Narrower

Look for the Overlap I only use when the opponent is dropping deep

[Cocu]

I'm no tactical guru either, but I have a lot of Pogba experience. All my saves terminate with me getting bored, buying Pogba, and thrashing the world.

I just observed that you have him used as a Deep Lying Playmaker. This is good. I noticed that no matter what role I place him in based on the tactics of my team at the time I buy him, he and the team will always function best if I just give in to his best role and make him a DLP. Whether I want my midfield to play defensively, whether i play on the counter or not, whether I play with wingers, whether I play a 4-3-3, it is always best to keep Pogba as a DLP. This is all anecdotal.

Also, with the retain possession instruction, you might be severely restricting your crosses. You're playing shorties in the starting, but you might consider taking this out and making passing more direct when you play Giroud!

Finally, if you're playing tiny through balls, I suggest trying Ozil as a Shadow Striker. It has worked very well for me in an almost identical formation.

[pataroka]

It pretty much depends on what kind of opponent you're up against. In any case, when having an attacking midfield triangle, you need to balance those three out to carry four main tasks - aggressor, holding, defensive support, creator. Obviously, Ozil is your main creator in the AMC position, and since his defensive attributes are below par, you wouldn't get much from him in a support duty to carry a secondary defensive support task. That leaves the other three tasks to be given to the MCL and MCR positions. I'd never use BWM with a defend duty in this setup, cause it's far too aggressive for a holding midfielder. Hence, that leaves your holding midfielder to be either DLP/D or CM/D. I think Pogba would do quite well with both, but you may lose some of his box-to-box potential in giving him a defend duty. If you go for the DLP/D option that leaves the other MC slot a couple of options, and it will need to carry out the aggressor task. So you can go for Ramsey in a BTB role, or Le Coq in BWM/S role. Both will do fine there - I'd use Coquelin against tougher opponents to try and disrupt their build-up play. If you decide on CM/D role for Pogba - then you'll lose on Pogba's creativity, but can right away slot in Ramsey as a secondary creator and defensive support midfielder in RP, BTB or CM/S role. In any case with this midfield formation if you want to have all three(Ozil, Pogba, Ramsey) on the pitch you'll have to sacrifice some of Pogba versatility to not lose the balance in midfield. In my opinion he is by far the best RP in the game and that would be the perfect role for him, but then Ramsey will probably not be at his best in a CM/D role...

[summatsupeer]

Looks like you have Real Madrid Syndrome

[wwxxyyzz]

I'd be tempted to play Ozil as a false nine to allow you to put a defensive midfielder in behind Ramsey and Pogba, and then put creative or box to box roles for both

[noikeee]

You've got the ideal team to play pretty much a copy or a derivate of Cleon's possession setup. Pogba's the ideal RPM; Ramsey's the ideal BBM; Ozil's the ideal F9 or can play AP/S on a wing; Neymar and Alexis are ideal IFs.