3 strikers--can it work?

[Tajerio]

It's 2019 in my save, and I'm managing Derby County after holidaying for three years to let the game mix itself up a bit.  Upon inheriting the squad, I noticed that there was a lot of quality at striker, not much in the way of wingers, and pretty good fullbacks.  I balanced out the squad a bit in the transfer window, and mostly played a fairly boring 4-4-2 for the 2018-19 Championship campaign, in which we won promotion.  I've still got four strikers capable of starting in the squad--one brilliant false nine (Zach Clough) who scored 23 league goals for us last season; a poacher with blazing speed (17s for pace and acceleration) but rubbish technique, dribbling, and passing, a defensive forward who also weirdly has blazing speed (18 accel, 16 pace) but has mediocre mentals, and a target man.  I think it'd be an interesting change of pace to see if it'd work, but I'm afraid that the congestion in the middle will be just horrific if I go for it, not to mention how exposed we might be on the flanks.  So should I just offload the excess, or try to play 3 up front?  And how would one play 3 up front anyway?

[dankrzyz]

The 3-4-3 is a formation that fields three forwards.

Alternatively, you could play two of your forwards as Inside Forwards in a 4-1-2-2-1.

There are plenty of threads for tactics that use both formations - and you could supplement that with non-FM study of the two formations. A "real life" tutorial always helps me understand before trying to apply it to FM.

[tmason122]

 

6 hours ago, Tajerio said:

It's 2019 in my save, and I'm managing Derby County after holidaying for three years to let the game mix itself up a bit.  Upon inheriting the squad, I noticed that there was a lot of quality at striker, not much in the way of wingers, and pretty good fullbacks.  I balanced out the squad a bit in the transfer window, and mostly played a fairly boring 4-4-2 for the 2018-19 Championship campaign, in which we won promotion.  I've still got four strikers capable of starting in the squad--one brilliant false nine (Zach Clough) who scored 23 league goals for us last season; a poacher with blazing speed (17s for pace and acceleration) but rubbish technique, dribbling, and passing, a defensive forward who also weirdly has blazing speed (18 accel, 16 pace) but has mediocre mentals, and a target man.  I think it'd be an interesting change of pace to see if it'd work, but I'm afraid that the congestion in the middle will be just horrific if I go for it, not to mention how exposed we might be on the flanks.  So should I just offload the excess, or try to play 3 up front?  And how would one play 3 up front anyway?

3 forwards can work well! I can vouch for it I can also vouch for Zach Clough working well in such a situation, in fact in my system he becomes lethal as he has a lot of opportunities to score and create goals for others in that F9 role.

I have utilized both a 3-4-3 for quite a bit (used for over 2 seasons with success), but now have transitioned to a more solid 4-3-3. 

With the 3-4-3 tactic I have achieved some of my biggest competitive wins (more than a few 7-0s) in the premier league. But it can struggle against aggressive teams with strong wide-players (such as Arsenal in my game) as your back 3 can get pulled out of position. My tactic looked a bit like this:

http://lineupbuilder.com/?sk=c399

Like I said, defensively it was a bit lacking, so this season I have started trialing this 4-3-3 below, which I find to be more defensively compact. This formation is much stronger defensively, but still allows a lot of attacking options with the creative freedom to play through the middle, but also a lot of space for the WBs to exploit out wide.

http://lineupbuilder.com/?sk=c39s

Hope either prove useful for you

[hoppo1982]

If you wanted to play with a front three and had concerns about the flanks you could ask two of your strikers to mark the opposition fullbacks

[Tajerio]

The reason I'm worried about the flanks is because I played a 3-4-3 with RC Strasbourg Alsace, but with players in the AML and AMR slots, and we got exploited by crosses all day long.  Still did well offensively, but I never felt that a lead was safe.

I may try the striker marking thing, and I'll have a look at those tactics.  Thanks!

[Tajerio]

Tmason, may I ask why the two roaming playmakers in the 4-3-3?  I just used it against Tottenham in one of our first matches of the campaign, and we battled to an extremely respectable 2-2 draw in which we actually had 55% possession.  Victimized by central defenders' mistakes both times (Michael Keane posted a 6.0 for us and Loick Landre a 6.3), otherwise we might have edged it.  But I noticed that the roaming playmakers kept getting in one another's way.  Changed one of them to CM(s) and that seemed to work all right, but they still didn't do that great a job.

Also, what shape, mentality, and TIs do you use?  I just went with bog-standard Standard and Flexible, and used Play Out of Defense (because I hate CBs bombing it long and Michael Keane's PPM is gonna make him do it anyway) and Push Higher Up (so they wouldn't have to bomb it long).  Then midway through the match my coach said "We should try more long balls forward," so More Direct Passing went on and it worked a treat.  But other than that I didn't do much.

[tmason122]

Quote

Tmason, may I ask why the two roaming playmakers in the 4-3-3?  I just used it against Tottenham in one of our first matches of the campaign, and we battled to an extremely respectable 2-2 draw in which we actually had 55% possession.  Victimized by central defenders' mistakes both times (Michael Keane posted a 6.0 for us and Loick Landre a 6.3), otherwise we might have edged it.  But I noticed that the roaming playmakers kept getting in one another's way.  Changed one of them to CM(s) and that seemed to work all right, but they still didn't do that great a job.

Also, what shape, mentality, and TIs do you use?  I just went with bog-standard Standard and Flexible, and used Play Out of Defense (because I hate CBs bombing it long and Michael Keane's PPM is gonna make him do it anyway) and Push Higher Up (so they wouldn't have to bomb it long).  Then midway through the match my coach said "We should try more long balls forward," so More Direct Passing went on and it worked a treat.  But other than that I didn't do much.

 

I just have two very creative and physically strong CMs who both excel in that RPM role and it seemed to waste them in other roles. When playing that formation I didn't really have any problems with them taking up the same positions, but I imagine that is partially because they prefer different feet as the left-sided RPM has a very strong left foot and right sided one a very strong with his right foot. When I substitute one of them off, I usually replace them with a BBM player, so perhaps try that?

I can't remember all the instructions I give my team, and can't look as I'm at work at the moment. But from the top of my head it is something like this: Team instructions: Control, fluid, press higher up the pitch, pressure opposition GK, be more expressive, etc. I'm pretty sure I have ~ 10 team instructions (some people argue that is too much, but I've never encountered problems with it). 

I also have a lot of individual instructions with pretty much all players aside from the CBs told to mark tightly and tackle hard. I like to win the ball back fast in all of my formations so I can break and counter.  

[eriktous]

I've had the AI switch to a three striker system at half time against me with great success many times, showing how horribly exposed my tactic usually is. 

[noikeee]

3-striker tactics used to be lethal in some past FMs, notably when played by the AI themselves, although I also had immense success playing a narrow 4-3-3 in FM10(?). Not sure this is still the case in FM16, I haven't tried it. 

From a purely theoretical point of view, irrespective of FM version, I don't think it's the best structure but you could make it work by having 3 very mobile forwards (I'd try possibly two advanced forwards on the sides so they could drift wide, and one DLF or F9 or Trequartista in the middle) so they don't just sit on the area all match long; and two very attacking fullbacks to provide width. I also recommend the trick of telling the wide strikers to mark the opposition fullbacks to counter the lack of width defensively.

[Tajerio]

9 hours ago, noikeee said:

3-striker tactics used to be lethal in some past FMs, notably when played by the AI themselves, although I also had immense success playing a narrow 4-3-3 in FM10(?). Not sure this is still the case in FM16, I haven't tried it. 

From a purely theoretical point of view, irrespective of FM version, I don't think it's the best structure but you could make it work by having 3 very mobile forwards (I'd try possibly two advanced forwards on the sides so they could drift wide, and one DLF or F9 or Trequartista in the middle) so they don't just sit on the area all match long; and two very attacking fullbacks to provide width. I also recommend the trick of telling the wide strikers to mark the opposition fullbacks to counter the lack of width defensively.

My worry about that kind of forward setup is that then I'd have three guys up top looking to move into channels if I used an F9 or a TQ (which would seem to make the most sense to me), and wouldn't they sometimes be heading for the same channels?  If I use a DLF, on the other hand, he's looking to hold up the ball, which I think would tend to work against our ability to attack at high speed.  Wish there was a forward role that dropped deeper but didn't have any other instructions...

[pocketspace]

On 25 august 2016 at 23:16, Tajerio said:

My worry about that kind of forward setup is that then I'd have three guys up top looking to move into channels if I used an F9 or a TQ (which would seem to make the most sense to me), and wouldn't they sometimes be heading for the same channels?  If I use a DLF, on the other hand, he's looking to hold up the ball, which I think would tend to work against our ability to attack at high speed.  Wish there was a forward role that dropped deeper but didn't have any other instructions...

DLF holds up the ball if he's not having any nearby support and does that until a teammate comes and help him. You could use the roles that are moving into channels on the left and right strikers, while giving the central striker a more advanced role. I think that way you could avoid having two strikers moving in the same flank. But the best way is to check it in game and see how it works.

[Jean0987654321]

It can work but you will be have 2 players less when defending. So, I hope your defense is the best defense you got or you're going to have to rely on those three strikers to score more than your opponents...