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3-4-2-1 Possession Tactic (64% Average Possession)


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HEl

**For download link, please read disclaimer at the bottom of the article**

**Scroll down for TACTIC TWEAK, better results slightly less possession**

I’ll start off and state possession stats mean NOTHING, as Wigan recently proved after pipping Pep in the Fa Cup, but it’s nice to have possession and control the tempo of a game, right?

This is the idea behind this tactic, my sole focus is on playing possession football and hoping results will follow. It’s too easy to exploit the match engine on FM18 (3 striker formations), so instead I’m aiming to play beautiful football.

So before I go into the tactic and how we’ll be playing, here’s the final league table and the average possession stats after 38 games.

7

1 point separating 1st and 4th.

10

7000 more passes than any other team in the league.

 

This is the base of this FM18 Tactic, it’s not to win every game 6-0 (though 3 central strikers exploiting the broken match engine would probably achieve this) it’s to control the tempo of every game we play, regardless of the opposition. Shape is everything, and I wanted to create a system where my players always have more than 1/2 options to pass the ball, I therefore needed a shape with as many ‘triangles’ as I like to call it, as possible.

1

Here’s the shape, the most eye catching part of our tactical set up is the 2 red zones on each wing, where we seem to be missing wing backs! I do tend to ignore these warnings, as generally my wide midfielders will fill in with their defensive duties.

Instruction wise, here is how we’re setting up:

3.PNG

As you can see, we’re playing SO narrow and the reason behind this is to completely overload the midfield so we can gain control. If we for example were to play wide, then our weaknesses (red zones) would be open for exploitation. A much lower tempo allows us to control the game and frustrate the opposition.

IMPORTANT

**Tip #1**

As with any FM tactic, we’ll have games where it just isn’t going to plan. As this is a very expansive formation, we’ll get picked off if for example, we are down to 10 men. It’s so important to manage these situations. If we can pretend Ozil is invisible(which he’s pretty good at for Arsenal in real life in some games), here is how I tend to change when down to 10 men >

4

**Tip #2**

Away from home, if you’re struggling results wise please do consider using the v2 of this tactic which is the 3-5-2 for more solidity.

Also, there’ll be games when we’re not playing well, this happens regardless of what tactic you use or what style of play you operate. A key switch of shape is needed to stabilise the performance, again I switch to a 3-5-2>

5

If for example we’re only 1-0 down or we’re drawing on 70 mins, I’ll tend to change back to a 3-4-2-1 and take a risk for a potential victory.

**Tip #3**

 

This is all about key player attributes to look out for when signing players. As this is an expansive formation, our transitions from attack to defence and from defence to attack is so important.

Therefore, this tactic is more suited to players with HIGH natural fitness and stamina. Please do bear this in mind when selecting your team and picking out transfer targets.

Match Stats

So you’ve seen how the league table ended, but below are some example matches and match stats>

11

12#

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Download link?

Please do download here >

https://defencefirstfm.com/2018/02/21/my-fm18-possession-tactic-3-4-2-1/

(scroll to the bottom)

Thank you for reading and I hope this draws some tactical inspiration for your own saves.

 


**Disclaimer**

Logo attempt two TRNS

 

This tactic is designed for teams predicted to finish near the top of the league and is solely focused on possession football, so please bear this in mind.

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I think most of us play FM to WIN not to prioritize possession. Those results you achieved with Arsenal are quite poor.

I would be disappointed not winning the league with a club like Arsenal.

You should see KNAP's tactic WOF 3421, which in testing with Arsenal achieved 98 pts.

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2 hours ago, Chief Scout said:

I think most of us play FM to WIN not to prioritize possession. Those results you achieved with Arsenal are quite poor.

I would be disappointed not winning the league with a club like Arsenal.

You should see KNAP's tactic WOF 3421, which in testing with Arsenal achieved 98 pts.

Thanks for speaking for the majority of the FM community, this tactic is something different and the point of the post was to represent SOME FM players who prefer to build a club philosophy and sign players to suit a certain style of play :) This is a base tactic with one season of testing focusing purely on possession...as per the disclaimer ;) 

 

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16 hours ago, defencefirstFM said:

Thanks for speaking for the majority of the FM community, this tactic is something different and the point of the post was to represent SOME FM players who prefer to build a club philosophy and sign players to suit a certain style of play :) This is a base tactic with one season of testing focusing purely on possession...as per the disclaimer ;) 

 

totally agree. if you want to get a tactic which is plug and play then good on you but those more seasoned of us like to see a philosophy around a tactic

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TWEAK

** Download Link > http://bit.ly/2GJa22h **

Better Results, less possession. Following V1 being released it's clear whilst the tactic succeeds in very high possession stats, results are slightly unstable.

19.thumb.PNG.44344510b6b6fe0023e1cb8513904395.PNG20.thumb.PNG.3ee7ae12e5aa26dfce2246220bc3ca5d.PNG

Tweaks have been made to the formation as can be seen below and we achieved a higher league position whilst also gaining more points. Our possession stats were slightly affected, but we still did average the highest in the league with 56.61% per game.

With this tactic being much more stable, there is no need for a backup formation for some away games or for tough games.

22.thumb.PNG.6a3b4f90047fe4796ff9f7d27ac1cf8e.PNG

 

 

 

 

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