vs 4-2-3-1

[SWaRFeGa]

Got a great tactic sorted and has served me well for many many years. I do well when I come up against 442 or 451 formations.

Yet when faced with a 4231 using wingers and an attacking number 10 type - I get absolutely hammered byt 4 or 5 goals without fail.

Any thoughts?

[herne79]

Are you seriously telling us that "without fail" you lose by 4 or 5 goals every time you play against a 4231?  You sure you aren't exaggerating a bit?

Anyway, you'll need to post your detailed tactical set up, not just the formation + roles & duties.  Specific issues of how you concede would also help.

By the way, your two fullbacks with the auto duty actually have their duty set by whatever mentality you are using, so if you have used the attack mentality (for example) both fullbacks will have the attack duty set.  (Defensive mentality = defend duty; counter, balanced and control mentalities = support duty).

[SWaRFeGa]

Quite difficult to be too detailed as I play on the fly.

Those full-backs might be limited defending full-backs or wing-backs at any point during the game depending on how things are going, either with DEFEND, COUNTER or ATTACK as my focus.

I'm more interested in the actual "defending position" of my players. How to combat a solo striker and two wingers who constantly get in behind the "full backs", as this setup doesn't seem to work.

 

[harryleechinyeow]

Off hand, without seeing ur TIs and PIs if u hv any, a narrow system like urs will naturally struggle with a 4231 wide. It has plenty of width, which is what u lack, especially defensive cover.

Having BWMs like u do may help with this, but on support duty? He's probably somewhere near the opposition CDs after trying to close them down.

[sporadicsmiles]

I usually find AI teams with a 4231 tend to drop their midfield quite deep, and push up at least one full back (Chelsea and Man City almost certainly push both fullbacks up). I imagine your tactic playing out something like this. 

- AI teams receives the ball and plays it to midfield.

- Your BWM charge out of their position to close down the deep lying midfielders

- AI fullbacks bomb forward, the ball bypasses your BWMs (good teams can avoid pressure like that). You now have a 6 on 4 situation in defence. The "3-1" part of the 4231 and the two fullbacks. Hell, it is 5 on 4 even if they only push on fullback forward. That is a recipe for conceding goals.

I'd say the answer is quite clear; your pressing of their midfield needs to come from your strikers, so you are not so horrible exposed. I'd change the BWM to something else, and set at least the two deeper players to close down much more. You will probably have to do some refining to get that working right, I guess. 

[SWaRFeGa]

Thanks guys, I'll try and implement some of those thoughts.

It's 2063 and STILL struggling when faced with this formation. It's gets worse as my team improves - if that makes sense. Only recently have I started coming up against the likes of City and Chelsea rather than, say, Barnsley and Colchester.

[SWaRFeGa]

Encouraging!

Just faced Palace (who I lost to 1-5, as seen above).

I've made my BWMs into Defending rather than Supporting  midfielders, and made my Defensive Forward into Deep Lying Forwards. Also adopted a more direct approach of getting the ball forward, instead of my trademark possession style.

4-2 victory including a hattrick for my AF (which never happens...)

But time will tell. Only my first game vs a 4231 opponent.

 

 

[SWaRFeGa]

Yeaahhh. False hope.

Just lost 7-0 to Liverpool :/

 

Back to the drawing board.

[Bitner]

You use 2 defensive forwards? Maybe man-marking their fullbacks with them? Worked for me at FM15 (i guess) while i played the same shape at Norn Ireland

Cheers,
Bitner 

[herne79]

As I said above, we have no idea what you are doing.  All you have told us so far is you play "on the fly", you change your fullbacks to different duties, and you tried changing your 2 BWMs to defend duty from support, switched 2 striker roles and went more direct for one match.

Then you lost 7-0 to Liverpool.  How?  Detail the exact tactical system with which you started the match.  What did you then change "on the fly" during the match?  What precisely did you notice during the course of the match that led you to those changes?  What level of highlights do you use to watch matches?

We don't really have much to go on here as we have no real idea how you are playing.  Fill in the blanks and we might be able to give you some prescriptive ideas, rather than just generalisations.