FM17 - Rediscovering Tactics & Tweaking the Leicester Style

[Jambo98]

8 hours ago, aditya said:

I have a question based on your tactic

I want to emulate Wengers 4-2-3-1 right now at Arsenal, with Sanchez (LW) playing as an inside foward, Ozil on AP and Walcott RW. since Bellerin will be playing on attack as RB, how should I balance my two CMs and LB so it does not overlap with the other position? I want the attack to expose opposition LB (Walcott run), while exposing the opposition center (Sanchez cutting in). Should my striker be moving into channel so the center area will not be crowded with LW,ST, AMC all in there? whats the suitable role for a stiker? 

Sorry, i think you have the wrong thread? That question seems to have no relation to the discussion in here / system i am trying to create? There are a number of Arsenal threads going already on the board i think, suggest you try those

[howard moon]

On 02/11/2016 at 19:02, howard moon said:

I've actually been trying to do something similar with Athletic Bilbao.  A low-medium block, solid defence and quick counters. All based on the team being solid, working hard.

They don't have a proper no.10 (and nor could I get one either, instead there's Raul Garcia who is more of an attacking midfielder), but they do have incredibly hard working midfielders, a proper no.9 in Aduriz, decent full-backs and good variety out wide with Susaeta, Muniain and Williams. 

I'd ended up with a similar set-up to yours, albeit without the asymmetrical wingers:

Flexible - standard (drop deeper TI, no PIs except short distribution for the GK)

GK 

DR: FB - s

RCB: CB - d 

LCB: CB - d

DL: WB - s

MR: W - s

RCM: CM - s

LCM: CM - d

ML: WPM - a

ACM: AM - a

ST: DLF - a

I have to say it's been a bit of a disaster in pre-season. Against weaker teams we have no penetration and the ball gets stuck in central areas in front of the opposition defence, and against decent teams we get pinned back in our own half and have absolutely nothing on the break. 

So I'd be really interested to see how you've changed things with Leicester as I feel like I'm hitting a wall with Bilbao.

Thought I'd give a brief update on this, to perhaps generate a bit of discussion as this thread seems to have gone quiet.

I'm now 7 games in to the league season, and have played 2 Europa League games. Had a decent start, which included winning away to Atletico 1-0. We lost our last match 2-1 against Barcelona, but that was our first defeat since the opening game. 

Defensively we've been really solid, even after having to stick a young central defender (Yeray) into the side alongside Laporte because of injuries. 

We don't play the prettiest football, but we're a hard-working team and we've been getting results.

Set-up is the same as above, but the wide players are now 'Wide Midfielders', one on attack and one on support, and the left-back is now a 'Wing Back - attack'.

Where we've struggled is scoring goals. Aduriz has been injured for some matches, but we've struggled to create chances for him (or his replacement Sabin). I think we lack creativity - we don't have a bit of magic on the ball, but also with fairly generic roles and low-ish mentality and creative freedom, perhaps we're a bit too predictable.

I'm going to try and change Benat to a DLP (s). I'm also thinking of either adding 'be more expressive' as a TI, or maybe even going up to 'fluid' as a style to increase the creative freedom (though I'm worried that might compromise other areas of our set-up).