4-3-3 counter tactic

guy.almighty · June 17, 2017

I've never posted a tactic before but I've had some good success with this one so here it is.

I've only tested this with one team, Liverpool, for about 9 seasons. It has worked well and we've won pretty much everything. I've also used this with France and Portugal at the international level and it has done well.

It is set up on fluid countering and honestly, this is actually more attacking than when set up on control or anything else. I've scored a lot of goals with this, usually around 90-110 a season. My current champions league group has me on top with 22 goals for and 2 against. Likewise, with Portugal in Euro qualifying, at the end of the group I had 43 goals for and 2 against.

Here is what I look for in each position and seems to work well.

Defenders

CB- Pace. That is one of the most important things for me. My slowest defender has 14 for pace and pretty much the same for acceleration. Team work and positioning are also pretty high up there. I always look for 1 defender to have very high 15+ leadership to keep everyone organized.

WB- Crossing. I always look for pacey WBs but I've actually found that crossing is way more important for this tactic. Jon Flanagan is a beast in this tactic as he is very defensively sound but when going forward the guy has wonderful crossing. Jetro Williams excelled as does Moreno. I picked up a pacey WB with crappy crossing which I'm trying to develop. The dude is wonderful defensively and going forward until he has to put something into the box. One day, I'm sure he will be able to find someone at the end of a cross that isn't sitting in the top row on the other side of the stadium.

Midfield

RP- Passing, tackling, dribbling- I have used a number of players in this position. This guy drives your team through midfield and will often have over 100 passes. Renato Sanches is awesome in this position if you can afford him. But I have used Emre Can, Kondogbia, Saul, Hendo, and Jordan Rossiter in this position. All did really well.

CM(d)- Tackling. This keeps the midfield together and stops everything coming through the middle. I used to use a DLP(d) in this position and it was good but it wasn't as solid as using the CM(d). This guy just sits in the middle, a little deep, and stops everything. I look for a taller player because he often intercepts any long goal keeper clearance or from defenders hoofing it up field. Kondogbia is very solid for this position, great tackling, pace, and height.

CM(a)- Dribbling, finishing, touch- This guy drives forward in attack and gets into the box for pull backs. I used to use an AP(a) but once switching to the CM(a) the goals started to flow. I also tried out using another RP in this position and it also works well but the shape of the midfield was compromised by the wandering of this dude. So I found that the CM(a) has really worked well.

Forwards

IF- Pace, dribbling, finishing- Pretty straightforward with these guys. The foot doesn't really matter as I've used right footers on the right side and left footers on the left side as well as the traditional right foot on left and left foot on right. It never had an impact at all so I've never been worried about who I put in these positions. These guys will nab a lot of goals and assists.

CF- Finishing, pace, vision, and passing- With the support duty, he tends to hang out on the edge of the box during build up, holds up the ball and will pass to the charging CM(a) or one of the IFs. This guy will also score for you.

OIs- I have it as a general instruction that the opposition DMs are marked tightly. The CMs are marked tightly and closed down and the AM is marked tightly. This is set every game, regardless of who I am playing. Then, before the match I look at specifics of certain players.

For opposition forwards and midfielders, look at their technique, if it's lower than 13, show onto weaker foot. I also do this with the opposition full backs. If their bravery is lower than 13, tackle hard. For opposition WB, FB, look at their technique, if it's lower than 13, weaker foot. I sometimes look at their bravery and might tackle hard but only if I think they are going to be the marauding type of full back. For the CBs, look at their concentration and composure. Choose the defender that is lower. If composure and concentration add up to lower than 25, close that defender down. If not, leave them alone. So a team like Real Madrid, both CBs were high in these ratings so I didn't close down either of them. Other teams usually have one weaker CB so I will close him down.

And if anyone on the other team is injured, tackle the crap out of him. Let's see if we can't send the guy to the infirmary.

In game adjustments

If the opposition striker is pacey (15+), I'll drop my line to normal. Otherwise, pacey CBs will prevent anything over the top. Likewise, if teams sit deep, in a 451 or a 4141, I'll sometimes drop my line to normal to draw the opposition more forward and create some space behind.

If I'm getting destroyed on the wings, I'll adjust the WBs to support or defend. Arsenal are good for this with Bellerin on the RB. I'll usually set my LB to support against them because they kill people with the overlap. I'll also look to play more on that side to take advantage of the space left by the attacking FB. I don't do this with many teams because my players can usually cover and cope but occasionally I have to make this adjustment. My philosophy is all about getting points. I don't care about draws, especially away, as long as I'm getting points. If the game is tied and coming into the last 15 or 20 minutes, I don't open it up or adjust my mentality. I keep it the same and will take the point. I will only bump it up to overload if I'm losing and there are about 20 minutes left. Then, have at it. So far, I've managed to come back and draw almost all of the time. Then I fall back to counter to finish out the game.

Shouts

I use assertive or aggressive shouts most of the time. If we are leading or just scored around the 25 minute mark, I'll assertively tell them to concentrate. Any nervousness, I'll assertively tell no pressure. And I'll do this again at about 40 mins too just to make sure we see out the half. The same in the second half, about 60 mins then again 75-80, assertively or aggressively concentrate.

If the match is tied, depending on the opposition, I'll give an assertive encouragement if against good opposition, and assertive or aggressive demand more/show some passion if the opposition are weaker.

If we are somehow losing, aggressive push forward/demand more/show some passion.

Team talks

I use assertive at beginning and half. For the fans or pick up where you left off at the start of the match and don't get complacent at the half. If it is tied I'll change depending. Sometimes I'll say keep working if we are playing well but just can't seem to crack them or I'm assertively unhappy. If we are losing, aggressively unhappy.

Training

I always have my team set on team cohesion as my default. Then every month I rotate 1 week of ball control or tactics training. My match preparation before the season is match tactics until they are mostly fluid. Then I put it on attacking focus for the rest of the year. When I first started this tactic, I had tactic preparation until mid-October then switched to attacking.

So, that is my tactic. I've built a really good team and I'm not sure how well it will work with lower leagues but I have no idea. If it works for you, wonderful, if it doesn't work for you, sorry, tweak away. This is not really a plug and play tactic as I don't really think those exist anymore. Once the team is fairly fluid in their understanding, it looks good and your team will play some nice football. You will not win every match with this tactic and you may need to grind out some results, especially when the team is still learning the tactic.

If you tweak and the tactic works better, please let me know. I'm always looking for advice and the like. I've found that sometimes I struggle against a 4231, especially big teams that play this set up, so any ideas are welcome.

4-3-3 Tony_3866D74F-570A-4E1F-A60C-65A1A3F2CD0C.fmf

kingjericho · June 18, 2017

Can you post some of your results?

guy.almighty · June 18, 2017

Sure thing. These are the results so far this season. As well as a previous season and most reason match. I made the team mentality switch at the beginning of the 2023/24 season and the results have been pretty sold as you can see. The previous years I was on a control mentality which also worked but I had some difficulty with top 4 away matches. As you can see from the results, I'm not really having many problems with top 4 any more and we have run up some pretty decent results.

If you want to know anything else or want any other results just let me know. I'm happy to provide whatever I can.

If anyone does decide to try out this tactic, please let me know how it goes and if you do any tweaking to make it more effective, I would really like to know. Especially if you can solve the wandering defender problem. Sometimes both defenders decide to wander forward and it opens up for opposition strikers.