FM -17 Attacking Football - Advice and HELP

[James9]

FM17 Beta is out and I must say I like the improvements. Now because it is a Beta I am trying out a few things. During FM 16 I was confused on what type of of football I wanted to play, I did not understand the game and how it all fits together. I spent the last two months playing FM16 on FMT trying to understand and define my style of football. I have to give big shouts out to Herne, Rashidi and Summat because they have helped 

Now I have decided that I like attacking football I like to press the opponent win the ball back and turn around quick transitions. I do not want to be playing the ball back and sideways waiting and probing for an opening. 

I know playing Attacking Football comes with its risk which was highlighted in Cleon's thread on the art of attacking football. 

With my attacking football I want penetration I want attacks from different angles and I want fast transitions. So to achieve this I have gone with the following set up. I also want mobility. 

Mentality - Attacking 

Team Shape Flexible - I not 100% clear on team shape yet so I have decided to stick with Flexible.  

Team Instructions

Play out of Defence 

Close Down Much More - I am playing Attacking and I want to be aggressive

 

Player Roles and Duties

GK - Defend

WB Support

WB Support

Central Defender - Defend

Central Defendef - Defend

CM Defend - Coquelin 

DLP Support  - Xhaka 

Inside Forward - Support

Ramdeuter  - Attack

AP - Support

Complete Forward  Attack - The striker role will change depends who is playing. If Giroud is playing then DLF Attack. Lucas Perez Advance Forward Attack 

I am going to prioritise first touch as my main attribute because I am playing attacking football the ball will probably arrive to the players quite quickly so they will need to have decent first touch to control the ball. Anyone with a poor first touch will need to improve or they will get shown the door. I just now need to find out how to train first touch. 

If anyone has ideas on how I can improve my tactic then please comment and reply. Remember for FM17 I want Attacking football if this fails then I will have to try something new but right now Attacking football is for me.

 

 

 

[Fosse]

It's worth considering that you're Arsenal and as a result a lot of teams will sit deep and try and congest the play in their defensive third. From what you've posted you want quick incisive passing and the attacking mentality certainly increases tempo but it has knock on effects like increased forward runs, risky passes, individual mentality changes, shorter passing as a default for defenders etc...

The mentality structures are basically labels for how aggressive you want to be and you're playing very aggressively through a combination of roles, duties and mentality against sides set up to suffocate space where playing pinball football is made difficult. I suppose what I'm trying to say is you don't absolutely have to use the attacking mentality to create attacking football. So if you lower your mentality to control (still quite an aggressive mentality) your players will be just that little bit deeper and in more space to receive the ball and draw teams out.

[James9]

1 hour ago, Fosse said:

It's worth considering that you're Arsenal and as a result a lot of teams will sit deep and try and congest the play in their defensive third. From what you've posted you want quick incisive passing and the attacking mentality certainly increases tempo but it has knock on effects like increased forward runs, risky passes, individual mentality changes, shorter passing as a default for defenders etc...

The mentality structures are basically labels for how aggressive you want to be and you're playing very aggressively through a combination of roles, duties and mentality against sides set up to suffocate space where playing pinball football is made difficult. I suppose what I'm trying to say is you don't absolutely have to use the attacking mentality to create attacking football. So if you lower your mentality to control (still quite an aggressive mentality) your players will be just that little bit deeper and in more space to receive the ball and draw teams out.

Thanks Fosse.  Because this is the Beta I am actually testing different ideas. I also have a 433 running with Coquelin holding Ozil and Ramsey playing as AP and B2B

[LPQR]

even when playing attacking football, you need to pay attention to how you plan to defend. I still believe attacking football can be achieved through a number of mentalities, and can even result is an increased number of attacking movements if your team defends correctly and exploits space correctly. Given that you seem to be committed to be playing with an attacking mentality, though, there are a few issues i'd like to raise:

- your team will transition from defensive phase to attacking phase much faster due to the 'attacking mentality'. your tactics screen will show you your defensive formation, and starting with a 4-2-3-1 is ultra-attacking, especially given the raumdeuter is not a role that implies a lot of defensive responsibility. This could lead to your team being exposed in midfield, or not having enough numbers in midfield to re-cycle a move and start a new attack. your wide players will be very high up the pitch most of the time, and that could lead to severe balance problems, especially if your d-line is high as well. you say you want to press the opponent and win the ball back quickly, so an efficient pressing system is crucial to this type of football.

- attacking mentality already implies an increased level of closing down, if you maximize it this could have a negative effect on your team shape, especially if you plan playing with a flexible shape, which won't make players fill in for each other's gaps as much as a fluid or very fluid shape. 

- I believe first touch to be the second most important attribute when it comes to fast transitions. the first is 'decisions' i.e. the players' ability to make the correct decision under pressure. You also mention you want your team to attack from different angles and focus on 'penetration', so 'off the ball' would be another crucial attribute to keep track of. This also reflects on another issue:

- how do you plan to create/exploit space? in order to 'penetrate' or attack space you need to pay attention to how your team controls different areas of the pitch and how your team creates those open spaces for your attacking players to exploit.

the raumdeuter is a good shout for role choice in a space-exploiting system  

 

 

[moolochicken]

I am also playing as attacking Arsenal - even more aggressive than you. I am playing Overload regularly with 6 attacking duties, with 2-4-4-0 strikerless. It is extremely unbalanced and concedes a lot, but I usually scores 4 in a match to compensate with the defense. Got 13 wins 3 draws 1 defeat so far (Excl. friendlies).

A few things I have noticed that is useful for attacking football:

- Long pass is much much much better than 16 for both the quality of the pass and the action of the receiver, so you can always choose to go more direct. However it is different to choose the team instructions TI in more direct passing from choosing it in the player instructions PI. I personally like to choose mixed passing in TI and then pick the passing directness in PI based on each individual position.

- the positioning of the goalkeeper is better than 16, meaning I can put less man in defense and still hang on

- the space behind the wing back position is not as vulnerable as in 16. Playing wing backs in the wing back position is viable

- I agree with LPQR that raumdeuter is the best choice for space exploiting on the wing. In my case, I sacrificed a striker to give my 2  raumdeuter even more space to attack on. Sometimes Wallcot just surprises me how effective he is as raumdeuter.

- If you choose wing back support, it is probably more effective to use early cross. Are you planning to use crossing heavily?

- If you play 2 central midfielder, they will need to chase back a lot when both teams are attacking in tern very quickly. If my attacking phase is usually very short (Overload etc), I would have always played two defensive midfielders instead. It is completely true that 2 central midfielders will benefit your pressing, but if your attacking phase is short and your opponents always have 55+ possession, you cant always expect your pressing to succeed. Sometimes it will leak and cause you massive trouble.