My Tactical Journey

[alanfishead]

I’m trying to get more involved in creating a tactic from the very bottom. I’ve spent the last 2 seasons guessing but not really having a clear plan in mind which makes it very hard to analyse where things are going wrong. I’ve scoured the various online blogs/forums and came up with an amalgamation of 2 or three people’s tactics. Arguably a good way to go about things as I started with Newcastle, won the Championship with half a dozen games to spare and then guided them to 4th in the Premiership in the first season. A victory yes, but a hollow one as I can’t fully claim it all as my own work. So having spent a fortune thanks to the fat man up top in Mike Ashley, I have a pretty decent squad as you can see below. And my season expectations are still only to finish in the top half despite the 4th place last season. So I thought let’s try and get that sense of achievement out of it and build something from the base up.

 

So here is the squad I’m working with.

A very young but talented group of lads. I’ve only added 2 this season in Ben Davies and Geronimo Rulli to make up for some departures in the summer.

 

So onto my system. I think I just need to ask myself and answer some fundamental questions about what I want in order to start piecing together a decent tactic.

 

How do I want to attack?

I want to attack open space behind the opposition defensive line using wide players.

 

Who do I want to attack?

I want to attack using the wingers and wing backs exploiting the wide areas behind the opposition's defence and ultimately score themselves or assist the striker.

 

So that means my attacking players will be both full backs, both wide midfielders (will decide on which strata they will fall into later) and my striker. So I’ve got 5 players attacking the opposition half and two central midfielders to decide on as well.

 

I also need to consider what happens if a scoring opportunity doesn’t present itself in the initial attack and I need to retreat and start again. Two support roles in the midfield should accomplish this. I want to achieve 3 things with the midfielders:

 

• Hold a deeper position to offer an option if there is no immediate scoring opportunity.

• Attack from deep, making a late run into the box. I’m thinking a box to box midfielder.

• Be in a position to quickly support the DM and centre backs should I lose possession and the opposition launch a counter attack.

 

I may be asking a bit much of them but we’ll have a look and see how we get on. I suppose I want one MC to support the attack and one to remain supporting the defence. I just want to make sure the MC supporting the attack is in a position to quickly get back into a defensive position. Everything pointing towards a box to box guy so far.

 

Who do I want to defend?

The rest of the team will defend - leaving 2 central midfielders, the defensive midfielder and the 2 centre backs.

 

As my aim is based on how I want to go forward and score goals, so I’ll come back to the defence later.

 

Everything I want to accomplish points to a Counter mentality in my eyes, as that will create the space in behind. The first objective is to win the ball back. I’ve already established that I want to want to win it in my own half, so I don’t want anyone closing down too high up the pitch. To that end I’ll leave the closing down shout for now. Having read in a few different places explaining team instructions, I want to employ the Get Stuck In shout (if I’ve understood this correctly). Combined with the lack of closing down it should get the team waiting until the opposition are in my half before they tackle hard.

 

Thinking about a couple of TI’s, as soon as I win the ball I want to look for a pass into that open space. Pass Into Space will more than likely be getting used but i need to make sure my attacking players are good off the ball.

 

With regards to passing, I don’t want to ask my whole team to pass shorter or play more direct passes. I want my central defenders to pass shorter but quickly to a more creative midfielder. Depending on the passing ability, composure and vision of my defensive midfielder, I may want to limit his passing range too. I need to be careful because whilst I don’t want aimless balls smashed up field by my central defenders in order to clear it, I also don’t want to slow down the transition to attack by making 2 or 3 short passes before the ball finds a player with better passing range. Things like this will become evident on match day so I can tweak this later.

 

The formations I have in mind for this is either a 4-1-4-1 or a 4-1-2-3 with wingers in the AMR/L positions. In order to address potential defensive frailties, I think I’ll go 4-1-4-1 as I’ll be able to create an IF role using the WM and a few PI’s.

 

The only issue I have is the AML. The reason I want to play this system is because I have a very very talented left winger. He’s a regen I picked up for around £2m. He really looks the mutt's nuts so I want to base my tactic around this guy to really get the best out of him. Downside being he’s really really awkward in the ML position as opposed to the AML position. So I may have to leave him further up the field. I know some people say don’t worry about positional familiarity too much as long as their attributes fit, but him being deemed as “Ineffectual” really doesn’t fill me with confidence.

So now I’ve set out my goals, how I want to play and have a vague idea of the initial setup. Now to put it all together.

I've actually started with the 4-1-2-3 to see how I get on as I've always preferred this shape and it's well set up for a counter mentality. I'm hoping the 2 central midfielders will help the defensive situation as well as going for the Central Defender on cover duty next to the CWB on attack.

   

As you can see I've stuck by pretty much everything that I said, but I know it's not as simple as that. How this performs in the match engine will probably different to how it performs in my head - I'll be very surprised if I'm right first time. I've gone for a fluid shape to increase the creative freedom that is lost in the less aggressive mentality and I also want the team to move up and down the field as a unit.

A couple things I want to watch out for are my obvious exposure on the wings and the distance between the half back and the two CM's.

So that is what I've settled on so I'll go and get on with some pre season friendlies. If anyone is interested in this thread then I can come back with some findings. Also, if I've made any glaring errors then please point them out  

 

 

[djsmiley]

will be interested how this pends out

[sipsi]

I'm playing a quite similar setup against better teams in Europe. I began the season with the same formation fluid control. But in later stages as I lead the team to top, weaker teams began to close so I found myself relying on set pieces.

I'll write more later. In my team my winger was in support mode on the right and my inside forward was in support mode on the left (he is close to a raumdeuter mode but his shots suck).

I'll chip in and say that fpr the attacking winger is "places shots" ppm is extremely useful. I loaned Brekalo and used him as right winger in attack mode instead of my great crosser Quaresma. He began to open the opponents with his suprise runs into the area and placed shots.

By the way I'm playing low tempo to provoke the opponents and hit. My Complete Forward Aboubakar is in beast mode. I've lost in the quarter finals to Bayern Munchen 3-4 agg. I've drawn just twice. On in domestic cup and one in league due to my rotation habit and injuries.

Defending is also a bit tedious as you said because of the gap between your DMC and two creative midfield so I'm using one of my player Gokhan Inler as a deep lying playmaker in defend mode.

I like 1-0, 2-0 steals so I train attacking set pieces and keeping a few weapons in my team Besiktas.

[alanfishead]

I've made a few changes since the first post and I'm currently 5th in the league so still doing pretty well considering I'm expected to finish mid table. With the original set up I wasn't engaging the opponents quickly enough and conceding a lot of goals from crosses. So I've moved up to a standard mentality with a slightly higher line. So what happens now is the midfield 3 win the ball back round about the half way line and there is still plenty of space for pacey wingers to run into.

I've actually got the best defensive record in the league in terms of goals conceded despite having 2 attacking full backs and 2 attacking IF's (switched to IF's as they cause havoc with the opposition defence if they're ever out of position.  I've stuck with the DM and have a DLP just ahead of him alongside a CM (A) who adds a lot going forward but is still there or thereabouts to win the ball back.

I'm at work at the minute so can't post any pictures but I will as soon as I can.

[Rashidi]

Your opening post sounds pretty clear, you obviously have a good handle on what you want to create and have headed for systems that will help you do them naturally. I just want to suggest that you not think of mentality=stance of your team. Counter just means that your team is taking less risks when moving the ball forward and pretty much with everything else that they do. I like what you have done with your passing instructions, having direct passing on your more creative players will see them try for more penetration with passes. Good luck.

[Torskus77]

38 minutes ago, Rashidi said:

Your opening post sounds pretty clear, you obviously have a good handle on what you want to create and have headed for systems that will help you do them naturally. I just want to suggest that you not think of mentality=stance of your team. Counter just means that your team is taking less risks when moving the ball forward and pretty much with everything else that they do. I like what you have done with your passing instructions, having direct passing on your more creative players will see them try for more penetration with passes. Good luck.

 

One of many things I have learned from reading your posts and watching your videos. I avoid team instructions unless I feel they are totally needed. Using selected players on more direct passing , although may seem really simple and obvious, was a real lightbulb moment for me. 

 

To the OP. 

 

I have used this formation for pretty much all of my 9 season old save, it has evolved and gone back and forth a lot, but I really like it as a formation. It offers stability in defence, but allows your midfield to be more adventurous and has players in attacking positions that can press high up the pitch.

 

I'd question the need for complete wing backs, just something to think about, because it gives them roaming I believe.  Especially behind your Winger attack. I just read that you are actually doing okay defensively, but it is something to think about. I also never really got the half back role to work. I tend to change a few things around depending on the team/formation I am up against, depending on where I need to defend, or more so where the space I want to attack is.  Just a few of my personal thoughts, I know you weren't really looking for advice as such. I will follow, looks like you know what you are trying to do, which is the hardest part.