Emulating Brazil's 3-4-2-1 - Luiz Felipe Scolari's 2002 World Cup Winning Tactic

[DylanTM]

Before I begin, I’d like to say that I’m heavily inspired by tactic threads made by the likes of Cleon, Ozil To The Arsenal and Herne. I’ve always loved the depth that they provide in their write-ups and their tactical know-how when it comes to Football Manager games. I’ve always wanted to do a write up on a formation, whether it be a formation I created myself (I may write about how my Torino 4-4-2 changed to a 4-1-4-1, but I doubt many are interested) or, both more interestingly and more challenging, a historical tactic.

Obviously, there are many historical tactics that have already been created in FM. Ozil has already done an Invincibles 4-4-2, Sachi’s 4-4-2 and Cruyff’s 3-4-3 Diamond. Cleon has written at length about The Brazillian 4-2-2-2 Box Formation, and countless other pieces on various styles of football. However, I’ve found myself wanting to emulate a tactic from around the time I first started watching football.

Also, please note that I am using FM15, however feel free to try and replicate in FM16 or, if it comes out before this thread is complete, FM17.

Introducing:

LUIZ FELIPE SCOLARI’S 3-4-2-1

(Note: In some images, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho switch sides. However, Rivaldo is always more advanced than Ronaldinho)

There are a number of articles showcasing Big Filipe’s tactic. The two main ones I’ve found are on thisisanfield.com (less depth) and zonalmarking.net (Zonal Marking level depth). Obviously, you’re all familiar with Zonal Marking, it is arguably the best website for tactical analysis. Of course, that is where I will be basing a lot of my information.

DEFENCE:

You can see the basic shape from the image above (courtesy of ThisisAnfield.com), however there’s a lot more than meets the eye. Here’s a passage about the defence from Zonal Marking:

Quote

 

Brazil’s three-man defence also worked wonderfully despite possessing the awful Roque Junior. One of the other two defenders, usually Edmilsonrather than as full-backs, meaning they scampered forward more than ever. , had the luxury of playing as wing-backs Roberto Carlos and Cafu , played as a sweeper with license to bring the ball forward from the back... The wide players,

Quite what convinced Scolari to then drop Juninho and insert Kleberson, another fairly defensive midfield player, alongside Gilberto Silva remains unclear. Perhaps Scolari had decided that Gilberto was not as mobile as Emerson would have been.

 

 

This lead to Brazil having many shapes in their defensive line: Two at the back, three at the back, four at the back and five at the back, depending on the situation. The two central midfielders then provided cover infront of the defence, with Kleberson roaming around while Gilberto holds his position.  Here are a few real life examples of this from The 2002 World Cup Final, Brazil vs Germany.

In this example, Brazil are defending with five men at the back. Edmilson has dropped back into the defensive line and both Cafu and Roberto Carlos flank Roque Junior and Lucio to form a five man defence. Gilberto acts as an invisible wall while Kleberson, the more mobile midfielder Kleberson, closes down the man in possession. He wins the ball and feeds Ronaldinho, who has dropped deep to receive the ball and launch a counter attack.

This is a bad example as you cannot see the defensive line, but right now there are 8 Brazillian players in view. This means that the three remaining players, the goalkeeper and the two defenders, are off camera. This means they’ve formed a two at the back. However, as Rivaldo has just lost possession, you can see Edmilson making his way back to strengthen the defensive line, forming three at the back.

Finally, in this example, Cafu and Carlos have dropped back to form four at the back. Another player (who I can’t recognize) sits infront of the defensive line, performing the ‘invisible wall’ role that Gilberto is so well renowned for.

ATTACK:

We’ve already read above that the wing backs are given free reign of the wings. However, we haven’t spoken much about the attack in this line up: the trident of Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo. The Three Rs.

Before we talk about these three players, I’m going to tell you watch this video that I’ve linked below. It’s a six minute long video showing every single goal which Brazil scored during The World Cup Finals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-kZyTfmOHw

Noticed something? One thing you should notice is that the large majority of goals come from wide areas. Almost all of the goals come from crosses from the wings, including two of Brazil’s most memorable goals: Edmilson’s bicycle kick vs Costa Rico and Ronaldo throwing himself at the ball to score against Turkey. Wide play and exploitation of the flanks should definitely be an instruction when it comes to replicating our tactic.

Also, while we’re on the topic of Edmilson, he has to charge forward aswell as cover back, a role which is hard to replicate in the game. I’ll cover this more in a later piece: The Defensive Midfielder vs The Half Back.

So, now I’ll quote this brief passage describing The Three R’s.

Quote

Elsewhere, the team was a joy to watch, in a free-flowing 3-4-1-2ish formation that saw as wonderful an attacking trident as the tournament has ever seen in Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho. Ronaldo was the spearhead, with Rivaldo remaining in close contact, and Ronaldinho dropping deepest to collect the ball... The misconception amongst the British media is that Brazil are at their best when they possess as many creative players as possible – far from it; they have always been their best when they play a relatively rigid shape defensively that allows two or three flair players to express themselves without the worry that their failings will cost the team defensively.

 

The first part of the passage does not help much. After all, it is our basic shape. Ronaldinho acts as the prime creator, while Rivaldo acts as an aggressive attacking midfielder or maybe even a second striker. Rivaldo’s role will probably the second hardest to replicate behind Edmilson, as there are many roles which could replicate how he could play. Experimentation will have to be done, and I will write more about this in another part The Attacking Midfielder vs The Shadow Striker vs The Deep Lying Forward. Ronaldo acts as the most attacking player, and for such a complete player as himself, there is only one role for him.

The second passage however, notes something very important, and it does help when it comes to replicating the tactic in FM. When you use something like Very Fluid and Attacking, it makes the entire team attacking from back to front. There should only really be three attacking players, The Three Rs. The rest should be mainly focused on defending. Keeping the two central midfielders in primarily defensive positions is vital. Let the trident do the work, and then remain firm at the back. The wing backs can be used to devastating effect in attack, but they have to help out in defence to the form that 5 at the back that we want. Even the Edmilson role should be primarily defensive before supporting and attacking.

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Next part, I’m actually going to start getting into the Football Manager side of things. I’ll be playing as Santos and I’ll post what tactic I’m starting with, why I’m using those roles and instructions, etc. Hopefully, ya’ll will remain interested!

Edited August 18, 2016 by DylanTM

[DylanTM]

It is worth noting before you read this that this is not going to be a thread where I’ve already posted the finished formation, and I analyse it. This is the first draft after I have just started, and it’s not even remotely related to a finished product. I’m showing you this so that you can see my starting point and travel with me as I explore how it plays and make changes to make things work. Please do not go using this base tactic in a save you have thinking that it’s going to be amazing.

That said, I will say once again that if you want to form your own thesis, go ahead! I’d like to see what you come up with! Even if you want to move away from The Brazil ’02 Formation and evolve into different shape, I’d be very interested!

Now, I introduce to you...

Also, I’m fairly sure that SI Forums limits the amount of pictures in each post, and this post has a lot of pictures. Because of this, I’m leaving them as links.

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THE FIRST DRAFT – EMULATING FILIPAO’S 3-4-2-1

https://i.gyazo.com/42064a530a00f6ecd12a9896fb70be92.png

https://i.gyazo.com/c140e06513710c8aea1c361b8f175603.png

https://i.gyazo.com/d2946bf5632f23c2b07274bfd9818c11.png

A first draft, but by no means is it a final one. This is going to need work in the key positions: namely The DM and The AMC(L). I would say that the Team Instructions are pretty close to final, barring ‘Be More Expressive’. I’m going to experiment with Flexible and Structured to see which is more solid too. Anyways, here’s my thinking for now.

GK-D (PI: Take Long Kicks, Distribute Over Opposition): This was a time before sweeper ‘keepers and playing out from the back. Marcos took huge kicks into the opposition half to try and keep the opposition on the back foot. ‘Distribute Over Opposition’ allows my offensive players to run onto a breaking ball.

CD-D x2: Two regular centrebacks, with nothing fancy added in. We aren’t the type to play from the back, so Ball Playing Defenders aren’t necessary. There’s no advantage of to having Limited Defenders, so regular CD’s it is.

DM-S (PI: Get Further Forward, More Risky Passes): Subject to change a lot, as I’m planning a future piece comparing this to a half-back. Basically, I’m choosing a DM-S first since he steps into midfield when we are in possession, and ‘Get Further Forward’ allows him to charge into the opposition half. ‘More Risky Passes’ also allows him to hit through balls himself, when the time is right. However, he doesn’t seem to step back into the defensive line when out of possession. He sits in the hole, which is not what I want. The reason that I’m opting for a role in the DM slot instead of a BPD or a Libero (aside from the fact that Libero’s don’t work as intended in FM) is because of another article on Zonal Marking. It was talking about an article in The Guardian about the return of the sweeper. It noted that the modern day sweeper wasn’t a CB bursting into midfield, but rather a midfielder dropping back into defence. Think Sergio Busquets. Yaya Toure has also played this role during his time at Barcelona. The skills required to play this role are, I quote: ‘good reader of the game, an excellent passer (especially over long distances), a decent tackler and competent in the air’. Most DMs have these qualities, and these were the exact qualities an old school sweeper had. We’re just slightly changing how they move, but essentially, they are the same role.

WB-AU (PI: Stay Wider): Wing backs are great for wide attacking play when they are the lone wide men, and the automatic duty allows them to bomb forward and track back to form the four at the back (due to the absence of our third CB/DM). I’ve decided not to activate ‘Get Further Forward’ so that I can keep this effect. Choosing a specific way to cross isn’t necessary(does anybody ever do that?) I’ll consider whether or not to activate ‘More Risky Passes’. It just seems to be an extra, unnecessary instruction. However, I have activated ‘Stay Wider’ which has two advantages. It stretches the opposition in attack and gives me width in defence.

CM-D: Acting as one of the two Anchor Men in midfield, this is the Gilberto role. The Invisible Wall. The holding midfielder keeping the midfield together in the absence of the injured Emerson. He already holds his position and closes down opposition ball carriers. He’s the perfect match for the position. No need for a fancy role, your friendly neighbourhood Central Midfielder is all you need. May try out a DLP-D aswell, but this role is likely to remain the same.

BWM-D: The second, more mobile central midfielder in The Kleberson Role. This could easily change to a BWM-S or even a BBM-S. A box-to-box midfielder however, might end up travelling too far forward and congesting the attacking third, especially with three other players already solely focussed on attacking.  The BMW should operate as a solid defensive midfielder who can feed the more creative players infront of him.

AM-A (PI: Run Wide With Ball): The Rivaldo Role. There are many possible roles that can replicate Rivaldo’s role. I’ve mentioned them many times, but I started with a generic Attacking Midfielder role. I tell him to ‘Run Wide With Ball’ because that’s what he did a lot for Brazil, as did Ronaldinho. He runs wide and links up with his wing back, distributes the ball into the space he just left, or takes on the opposition centre back or full back.

AP-A (PI: Runs Wide With Ball, Roam From Position): Ronaldinho was Brazil’s prime creator. There’s only one role for him, which is The Advanced Playmaker. It’s worth noting, that just because it’s an attacking duty instead of a supporting duty, doesn’t mean that he’s automatically more advanced. With an attacking duty, he drops deeper and attacks from deep, just like Ronaldinho did. I have ‘Run Wide With Ball’ and ‘Roam From Position’ to emulate how Ronaldinho played.

CS-A: There’s only one role for Ronaldo. He is THE Complete Forward, so he has the Complete Forward role with an attack duty. Basically, he’s up there and he does what he wants.

TEAM INSTRUCTIONS

Play Wider & Exploit Flanks: I’ve already gone through this in the first post. The majority of Brazil’s goals come from wide play, and there is a clear emphasis on using the wings. I’ve used both of these roles to stretch the opposition and play in the wing backs and the attacking midfielders.

Pass Into Space: Watching some highlights from the Brazil team, there’s another notable source of goals. Through balls into space. Often, centre backs cleared the ball long over the top of the opposition for Ronaldo to break away and run onto. In other cases, Ronaldinho or Rivaldo just threaded a simple ball through. Attacking the space, especially the space created by running wide, was a large part of the Brazilian game.

Close Down More & Prevent Short GK Distribution: Brazil press their opponents and force them to make mistakes. They hassle and hassle and hassle. That’s the Brazilian way. Also, you can see in watching Brazil matches, let’s say for example the final versus Germany, that Ronaldo tries to close down Oliver Kahn making him pump the ball long.

Get Stuck In: There’s no doubt about it, Brazil have some of the hardest hitting defences in the world. Many players have noted that Brazilians are the most rugged and aggressive players they’ve ever faced. Alongside closing down their space and hassling them, this is also good for dispossessing the opposition. Brazil’s defence was physically strong and a very organised unit, and this should create that. Fouls may be a problem, and I’ll keep an eye on that as we move forward.

Much Higher Tempo: Higher tempo is crucial to the tactic. The Brazilians may have played with flair, but their work rate was crucial. Jaap Stam has said: ‘Cafu just kept going – up and down, up and down – and never gave up.’ Laurent Blanc said: ’I played against him in Italy when he was with Roma, and he never stopped running up and down the right side of the field. He has brilliant energy and stamina, and oh, what skill too.’ Work rate doesn’t just apply to Carlos and Cafu, but the rest of the team too. Kleberson’s mobility and work rate pushed him into the side ahead of Juninho. The entire team is a group of hard workers.

Be More Expressive: Looking back, I probably shouldn’t of added this TI, but I don’t think there’s much harm in having it for now. I know that I mentioned that quote about Brazil actually being a very structured team with individual bits of brilliance, but giving players like the two CMs the freedom to maybe move outside of their roles could make the team work. I’ll keep an eye on how we play over the next while with this on and off.

MENTALITY AND SHAPE

Control: Control is the lightest (for the lack of a better word) form of the Attacking side of mentalities, yet it’s still an attacking mentality. As much as Filipao’s side had that rigid defensive structure, I’m not sure if you can replicate the attacking prowess of The Three Rs and the wing backs with just Standard. I will experiment with Standard too, but I think Control could be the mentality all the way through this tactics development.

Flexible: For those who don’t know, Team Shape basically contributes towards to primary things: (a) the compactness or sparseness of your team shape, i.e. how much space is between your lines and (b) the creative freedom your team has. I know that I definitely do not want to go to the Fluid side of things as I want to keep the core of the team (CBs, DM, CMs) strong defensively and organized without wanting to be involved in the attacking phase. At the same time, I do want some roles (namely my WBs) to get involved a lot. I will experiment with both Structured and Flexible to find The Gold Standard.

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Let’s see how this works initially in Defence. I’ll take this from a friendly versus Peru side, Cesar Vallejo. Note: This is with the tactic currently at ‘Competent’, just over half full. I will wait until it’s completely fluid to judge fully.

DEFENCE:

https://i.gyazo.com/d4cfaa0ef7ad96692c5e7cd075114c95.png

He we are defending, just before our first goal. Our wing backs have tracked back to form a four man defence (but, frustratingly, they are quite narrow). Alison, our DM, doesn’t fall back into the defensive line but instead sits in the hole. He ends up acting as an invisible wall to their #8, which is fine. Lucas Lima, in The Gilberto Role, does the same to their #7, which is also promising. Our ball winning midfield, Leandrinho, emulating Kleberson as a mobile anchor, closes down the player in possession. We are in the right positions and we win the ball back, leading to a goal. A best case scenario, but this is only one case early in the game.

We defend well for the rest of the first half. We remain rock hard and stubborn, denying them any easy chance. However, in the second half, we crack.

https://i.gyazo.com/a37ab958a1d94e01acd11fcb3efe702b.png

Trust me, this diagram makes sense when you read this. Basically, our #3, loses a high ball and gets caught out of position. Our two wingbacks, (#16 came on because of an injury) drop back to cover, but Alison tries to close down the man in possession. The space marked with the yellow box is exploited as their #11 makes a run and the easy pass is picked out. Vladmir makes the save, but Zeca stops tracking his man and their #9 scores the tap in. Perhaps just a set of mistakes due to tactic unfamiliarity, or something else I’m missing. Again, let’s see if this becomes a recurring problem in future once the tactic is fluid.

https://i.gyazo.com/6e171e65511887772be2743d6eab2b9e.png

Interestingly, Valencia does come deep to become part of a somewhat deformed back five (which does appear to have mild scoliosis). However, once again, we are too narrow. Look at all the space that the #9 could exploit. Our two anchors act as invisible walls, but their #14 is free. This is probably the wrong time for Valencia to form a back five. Instead, he should be on #14, like above, forming 4 at the back. This play leads to nothing as our WB disarms their #15, but literally one or two passes could shift the play to the other side of the field  to their #9 (or to their unmarked #14), which could potentially leave us in some serious trouble.

On some other occasions, Valencia tracked back to form the five at the back. This makes me wonder why Alison was keener on going forward than staying back.

ATTACK:

https://i.gyazo.com/a8424ec0df0aa7dafeb066b73d1846e8.png

In this picture, yellow is player movement, white is ball movement. We open the scoring early through our DM, Alison. This is a good thing, since I do want him bombarding up the field whenever possible to help out with the attack, while also defending (which he doesn’t do correctly, as you have seen above in the ‘Defence’ part of this post). Leandrinho, our BWM in The Kleberson Role, wins the ball back in midfield by closing down and tackling their player. He quickly feeds The Complete Forward, Ribeiro, with a through ball into space. Our Ronaldo runs onto it as our DM (Alison, #6), our AP (Crispim, #7) and our AM (Rodriguez, #11) bomb forward into the opposition half. The defensive line pushes forward in unison while our two holding midfielders, #9 and #8, hold their position in front of the defence.

https://i.gyazo.com/2db153e13083e0cce1592bc900136b84.png

As the complete forward continues his run, Alison, Crispim and Rodriguez continue bursting forward to support him and get into a scoring position. Meanwhile, both of the wing backs abandon their defensive line to support the attack, leaving us with a two man defensive line with the two anchormen sitting in front of them.

https://i.gyazo.com/96cf497460effda32ae09a26ce919290.png

The #3 for them is forced to come across to meet Ribeiro, who pulls the ball across. Alison meets it with a strike which hits the bottom left corner of the net. Also in this picture, you can see the best angle for seeing out defensive line and holding midfielders. Our wing backs, especially #5, can easily track back if a counter attack were to break away.

So, here are the positives: exploiting the width, exploiting the space, hard working wing backs, transition to two at the back, DM gets forward, late runners, defensive solidity in case of a counter attack.

https://i.gyazo.com/9fa77c739553438e85c476daed359588.png

This is the next goal, mid-way through the second half. Edwin Valencia, #22, my DM, has won the ball in midfield. He immediately feeds Crispim, the playmaker, who plays the ball wide to our wing back (who once again has changed, due to injury). Guedes moves forward before playing the ball back to Crispim. We move into our two at the back as our wingbacks and DM move forward (I didn’t put the DM movement on the diagram). Once again, our anchormen stay back. Their defensive line drops back.

https://i.gyazo.com/39282d2d128a471782795e417b18734c.png

Both wingbacks continue moving forward, but instead of playing the through ball into the space that our WB is running into on the bottom right, he plays it centrally for Valencia and then Gabriel (who moves out slightly to get the ball, drawing out the defender). Oliviera runs a ‘C’ line, coming onside before running onto the space in behind. Gabriel plays him through and Oliveira scores at the near post. Out CBs remain back while our two anchor men, who dropped slightly to the right of the pitch to offer a recycling option to Guenes and Crispim, move back centrally to cover their #9.

So, the positives we see here are: exploiting the width, exploiting the space, hard working wing backs, DM gets forward, defensive solidity in case of a counter attack, creative freedom, anchor mobility.

That said, we’re not perfect, as you’re going to see in the ‘General Play’ section.

https://i.gyazo.com/83799cc6543188d5fd76726f50d892be.png

Strangely enough, we seem better on the counter than anywhere else. Here we are defending a corner. The ball gets cleared down the wing for our complete forward Oliveira to run onto. I can’t really make out specifics, so basically, everybody and their mother come flying out of the box to support (or defend, in their case).

https://i.gyazo.com/27d680d29f181a30db7c5f80e7fdd8fc.png

This is a rough estimate to what happens. Oliveira runs to the edge of the box and their defender comes to meet him. Our DM (Valencia), our playmaker (Crispim), our AM (Gabriel) and even one of our anchors, Lima, bomb forward. Possibly worrying? Probably not, considering a such a counter attack where they’ve committed so many men forward. Anyways, the wingbacks attack their respective flanks and our defenders get into position.

https://i.gyazo.com/578c769a184dafe5c4a97fe17f9ed2b2.png

Oliveira draws the defender and passes (my inner rugby player is impressed). Gabriel, in our Rivaldo role, takes the ball and fires it into the bottom corner to make it 3-1. I’ve noted how congested all of their players are too. They’re all in a small area on the right side of the pitch. No danger of anything dangerous coming from that.

So, once again, we have the same positives: exploiting the width, exploiting the space, hard working wing backs, DM gets forward, late runners, attacking midfielder scoring.

Again though, we aren’t perfect.

GENERAL PLAY:

Again, I’ll have to wait until this tactic is fluid and I’ve played a few games, but right now there are quite a few problems with how we are playing at the moment.

Firstly, we seem to by trying too much direct balls. I’ve no problem with the passes into space since they work (as shown by Alison’s goal), but it’s almost every time we get a ball. When we’re defending we clear it in a panic. When we’re in possession of the ball in our own half, we seem inclined to just boot it blindly. This become quite annoying since once we get into the opponents half, we seem fine with playing the ball around with short passes (as seen by Oliveira’s goal). This in turn creates our next problem.

We don’t get enough possession. The possession stats are astonishing, and as seen by the heat maps below, we are always on the back foot.

Our shots are all coming from long range. We don’t seem to be able to get into their box, due to our lack of possession. We were quite lucky to win, because they decided to abandon their possession tactic and go more attacking, which allowed us to get our second and third goals.

All of these above problems can be fixed by doing one or more of the following: activating TI’s (shorter passing, retain possession, work ball into box, etc), decreasing mentality (standard), increasing tactic fluidity (currently competent, just over half way), more conservative roles. (support roles in the front three). Most likely, I will try and get them to do ‘Shorter Passing’. I will keep ‘Be More Expressive’ so that they can try to play the ball long if they want when the time is right. However, I will wait until the tactic is completely fluid before I decide.

Here are the stats, and heat maps. It’s also worth noting that Alison picked up MOTM:

https://i.gyazo.com/5fc6465d5c0c1a22c87bb5879228dc86.png

https://i.gyazo.com/05eb1f0faa1320f1c16d0c59f59336ef.png

https://i.gyazo.com/32479f2f2a83d0d96d477e8a68714c6c.png

You can see what I mean. We were kept back in our own half for the majority of the game as they kept possession and pressed us. We only had our Complete Forwards operating in the opposition half. Everybody else was pressed back by the opposition. They had their lone striker and five midfielders. They had more shots, better passing, and more possession. I know shots mean nothing without showing where they’re from, so I’ll show you where both teams’ shots were from.

https://i.gyazo.com/adda89a81d6c2d42ec726bf73ffb9ef5.png

https://i.gyazo.com/c55f3ff045b1dcbab52547e19e677097.png

Us first, then them. Our only four shots of the first half were four outside the box. We only started getting chances in the box when the opponent abandoned their possession game and tried to play a more attacking game. God knows why they did that, because up until that point, they were dominating. That said, they still had too many chances inside our area. We really need better over from our DM and WBs.

Had they had a more competent finisher, they would’ve definitely won that match by three or four goals. I guarantee that.

Another thing I’m interested in is our low passing completion, probably due to our constant long passing. This also most likely caused our lack of possession (which is more evidence to why ‘Shorter Passing’ may work.). I’m curious to who the culprits are...

https://i.gyazo.com/f4e787e0ce06483b397bf39e48fbc72f.png

Aside from our goalkeeper, who is supposed to take long kicks, our main culprits are our two CBs our DM, our AP and our AM. Here are their incomplete passes in that order, from top to bottom.

https://i.gyazo.com/eac31b03b36c51b9d3c4a53ea2ba57cd.png

https://i.gyazo.com/930851e758c5a67fe391f5b63a74101d.png

https://i.gyazo.com/0c0fdc52788a594186651fd83cec61e2.png

https://i.gyazo.com/c51566e4d42547a62c8e1e4d3d4c7729.png

https://i.gyazo.com/be364c259a52e1458f4f0b6f2ed8abf5.png

The vast majority of the incomplete passes are long passes. More reason to try and go for shorter passing.

In comparison, here are their completed passes, again in the order of CBs, DM, AP, AM top to bottom.

 https://i.gyazo.com/2a2d63b251e7566902ad4be01459050b.png

https://i.gyazo.com/4a4890a42c5af73bba2f321cd9983cdd.png

https://i.gyazo.com/80b786ae55b72633a3d2a0906d477aca.png

https://i.gyazo.com/031727f01e249267981dc57b6aa49626.png

https://i.gyazo.com/428197a57f953a621f4660c76b4f676e.png

Interestingly, the majority of our CBs completed passes are also long passes. Considering how good they seem to be at long passes (or lucky clearances), I won’t try to work from the back. However, the rest of these players show clearly that they completed all of their short passes and only missed out on long attempts (depending on your definition of long, one may argue a case for The Attacking Midfielder, who completed a decent amount of medium length passes). Shorter Passing seems to be becoming more and more likely, but this is only one match.

Finally, I want to do a small bit about my Advanced Playmaker, The Ronaldinho Role. I’ve already highlighted his passing above, he makes a fifty attempted passes and forty-two completed ones; more than anybody else on the team. He also made 10 attempted runs, completing 7 of them. Again, that’s more than anybody else. You can see them all below.

https://i.gyazo.com/e4233a6a40367c878aa4993913adeb25.png

Ronaldinho was able to skip past opponents with ease. Let’s see if Crispim can become a player like him...

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That’s how I am starting out. I will use this formation without change for my opening few games to see how it plays before I decide to make any changes. I already know that I will try out a number of different roles for different positions like The DMC and The AMC(L) , but I may also try out different CM roles like DLP-D or BWM-S or BBM-S. For now, however, this is my base and my starting point.

Edited August 21, 2016 by DylanTM

[DylanTM]

Reserved - The Attacking Midfielder vs The Shadow Striker vs The Deep Lying Forward

[DylanTM]

Reserved - The Defensive Midfielder vs The Half Back

[DylanTM]

Reserved - The Ball Winning Midfielder vs The Box To Box Midfielder vs The Deep Lying Playmaker

Edited August 20, 2016 by DylanTM

[DylanTM]

Reserved - All Elements In Practice: Testing The Beast

Edited August 20, 2016 by DylanTM

[DylanTM]

Reserve - Eliminating The Problems: Fortifying The Prison

Edited August 20, 2016 by DylanTM

[DylanTM]

Extra Reserve

Edited August 20, 2016 by DylanTM

[DylanTM]

Alright then, let's leave it at that. If any of you have already created a similar tactic or tried to emulate Brazil's play style before, then feel free to share! I'd love to see how you all put together your side. The next part will hopefully be going up in the coming days.

[herne79]

Interesting start .

3 hours ago, DylanTM said:

If any of you have already created a similar tactic or tried to emulate Brazil's play style before, then feel free to share

Have a read through some of Cleon's articles.  He's done a lot of work with Brazilian teams before so you may pick up a few more pointers there.

[DylanTM]

15 minutes ago, herne79 said:

Interesting start .

Have a read through some of Cleon's articles.  He's done a lot of work with Brazilian teams before so you may pick up a few more pointers there.

Thanks. I've already read through his Brazillian Box 4-2-2-2 thread, but I'll check his blog for other Brazil related content. Thanks again.

[BoxToBox]

I really love this formation, looking forward to see what you do here.

[BoxToBox]

I really love this formation, looking forward to see what you do here.

[Ö-zil to the Arsenal!]

Great start! I'll be following with interest 

[DylanTM]

1 hour ago, BoxToBox said:

I really love this formation, looking forward to see what you do here.

 

1 hour ago, BoxToBox said:

I really love this formation, looking forward to see what you do here.

Love it so much, you had to say it twice?  Just messing with you  . Thanks, good to have some support behind this.

1 hour ago, Ö-zil to the Arsenal! said:

Great start! I'll be following with interest 

I'm flattered! Thanks very much!

[BoxToBox]

23 minutes ago, DylanTM said:

Love it so much, you had to say it twice?  Just messing with you  . Thanks, good to have some support behind this.

It does that every time I post in a new thread for some reason, but yes!

[DylanTM]

Post Two: THE FIRST DRAFT – EMULATING FILIPAO’S 3-4-2-1 has been updated!

Also, a new part 'The Ball Winning Midfielder vs The Box To Box Midfielder vs The Deep Lying Playmaker', has been reserved for future writing.

[BoxToBox]

Hmm, while it's quite broken in that it doesn't do what the classic liberos should, the may do something like what you want. It does sit in the DM role and help build up play when in possession, dropping back in line with the CB's when defending. Can't say I recall exactly how aggressive Edmilson was in bringing the ball forward.

[DylanTM]

31 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

Hmm, while it's quite broken in that it doesn't do what the classic liberos should, the _______ may do something like what you want. It does sit in the DM role and help build up play when in possession, dropping back in line with the CB's when defending. Can't say I recall exactly how aggressive Edmilson was in bringing the ball forward.

I think you're missing a word there. I'm guessing you mean DLP?Edmilson wasn't extremely aggressive on the ball, but he did push forward when his team was in possession (see Costa Rica)

[BoxToBox]

1 minute ago, DylanTM said:

I think you're missing a word there. I'm guessing you mean DLP?Edmilson wasn't extremely aggressive on the ball, but he did push forward when his team was in possession (see Costa Rica)

Aye, the missing word is role(or libero would have worked there too, I guess), what I mean is that while the Libero doesn't do the bombastic attacking that most want, it might work out for the kind of play Edmilson was doing. It definitely pushes into midfield when the team are on the ball, but mostly sits behind the CM's.

[TheJanitor]

Enjoying reading this so far, the three Rs were truly magical. Replicating Rivaldo is in my opinion the most difficult part of the attack trident puzzle, but you have a good start in my opinion. Good luck!

[harryleechinyeow]

Amazing read! Do keep up the good work!

[DylanTM]

16 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

...while the Libero doesn't do the bombastic attacking that most want, it might work out for the kind of play Edmilson was doing. It definitely pushes into midfield when the team are on the ball, but mostly sits behind the CM's.

I'm not exactly convinced about The Libero in FM, but I will go ahead and try him out. I'll talk about him in the Defensive Midfielder vs Half Back (and, I guess now, vs Libero) post. Might aswell see how he gets on. Who knows, maybe he'll be the best option!

16 hours ago, TheJanitor said:

Enjoying reading this so far, the three Rs were truly magical. Replicating Rivaldo is in my opinion the most difficult part of the attack trident puzzle, but you have a good start in my opinion. Good luck!

Thanks! Rivaldo's role is definitely a tricky part of the tactic, due to how many different roles can suit him. I'll need to watch more matches from 2002 to see which one fits him perfectly! Good job in your own thread, btw!

11 hours ago, harryleechinyeow said:

Amazing read! Do keep up the good work!

Thanks! More parts to come!

[Ö-zil to the Arsenal!]

Brilliant! This really got me thinking, which is always the sign of great work.

I am particularly interested in the effect of team shape and mentality on overall 'playing style'. I've done a fair amount of research at the more 'fluid' end of the scale - playing teams such as Ajax, Holland, Barcelona, Milan and Arsenal - but with the clear definition between attacking and defensive units this represents something new and interesting.

Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho are also one of the most iconic attacking combinations of my life-time!

 

[ramie]

Looking forward to seeing this develop 

[Jonny2J]

Great thread!

[luton]

This is brilliant and has got me thinking about a formation for FM17!

[summatsupeer]

Interesting, I loved watching Cafu and Roberto Carlos marauding down the wings.  Never realised how much they relied on crosses though with the three R's up front I thought there would of been more through ball / passing moves.

FYI: Not sure if your aware but Automatic duty is just linked to your team mentality, on Control it is the same as using Support duty.  Attacking/Overload is an Attack duty.  Contain/Defensive is ab Defend duty.

[DylanTM]

On 23/08/2016 at 15:19, summatsupeer said:

FYI: Not sure if your aware but Automatic duty is just linked to your team mentality, on Control it is the same as using Support duty.  Attacking/Overload is an Attack duty.  Contain/Defensive is ab Defend duty.

I knew that the two were linked, but I was not sure if Control gave them a Support duty or Attack Duty. Thanks for notifying me!

I will try and get the next part up in the next week or so. I'll try and keep my PS3 addiction behind me...

[DylanTM]

Alright, I'd like to apologise for the lack of activity that's been in this thread. I've had lots of school stuff, but now with a week's break (which could be extended further because Irish schools are all deciding to implode on themselves), I'm going to have a crack at expanding this again.

I'm still using FM15, however hopefully all of you will be able to take something from this to use in your FM 17 saves!

So, the plan is for The Attacking Midfielder vs The Shadow Striker vs The Deep Lying Forward to be released within the next seven days.

[Paracoolo!]

I did a better tactic and im winning games with DR-Congo:

 

 

[Erne141199]

Il 2/11/2020 alle 15:06, Paracoolo! disse:

Ho fatto una tattica migliore e sto vincendo i giochi con DR-Congo:

 

 

Sai dirmi qualcosa in più sulla tattica sono molto interessati .... Impostazioni individuali .... allenamenti .... Risultati