From 4-5-1 to 3-5-2 ?

[xavierm]

Hello, 

I'm trying to set up a tactic which would BE a 4-5-1 defensively and would become a 3-5-2/3-6-1 in offensive phases.

Defensively (don't mind the players, I'll have some suitable ones) :

When winning the ball back, I'd like to see my left back getting higher up the pitch, the other 3 at the back would slide to the left. My left midfielder would come in support of my forward, while the right midfielder would stick to the line. I expect the offensive set up to be something like this :

The idea behind this is to always keep 4 players behind the ball, to avoid being nailed with counter attacks. My DM is supposed to stop players running at my defence, while the 3 at the back take care of long balls and can come and help the DM if needed.

Offensively, the main scorer must be the left winger coming into the box, with lots of assists from the right midfielder or the forward which runs into spaces. The left wingback should also provide a decent amount of crosses and goals from the right midfielder.

Therefore I designed this tactic :

The only PI I have is on my right DFB : sit narrower.

I have a more defensive form, based on more defensive TI (no players roles/duty modifications). I select this tactic when facing better teams or away against similar teams.

First of all, let's say results are quite cool. I switched to this tactic just before facing Real Madrid. (I was using a defensive 4-5-1 before)

Defensively, it's superb. My opponents have to shoot from outside the box. During 5 last fixtures, the opponents shooted 26 times from outside the box, and only 10 from inside the box, and they do not seem to create that much CCC. Last ten fixtures : 15 CCC created, 6 CCC conceded.

Offensively, it's quite cool, I have most of the time the possession, my top scorer are the players I wanted to (left midfielder and right midfielder). Surprisingly, my left WB has more assists than my right winger. My forward is more balanced, with a decent amount of goals and assists - which was what I wanted too.

My only concern is the defence I can't seem to tweak as I wanted to.

Here's the average position of my players without ball. Totally what I wanted. Great. You'll notice that was the game against RBL and I selected the defensive version (my team is REALLY narrow) :

 

But with ball :

I'm quite comfortable with the offensive side : right winger is just where I wanted him to, left wing back also.

My main concern is with the right DWB. It seems I can't have him acting like a third CB. Any ideas ?

(of course, he doesn't take the throw ins)

Thank you for your advices - if you have some advices to lower my long shots ratios I'll also take them.

And, btw, apologies for my poor english

[SeanRTG]

Not something I've ever tried, but you could try an inverted wing back to sit in front of the defence and a half back to sit in and create a back 3?

[khodder]

Not sure if it may be the case, but you could check to see if there is a PPM on your right back that notes he likes to get forward.

Other than that, you could experiment with an asymmetric formation with no RB and three CBs.

[xavierm]

Il y a 20 heures, SeanRTG a dit :

Not something I've ever tried, but you could try an inverted wing back to sit in front of the defence and a half back to sit in and create a back 3?

I'm going to try it tonight. I'm not sure whether the IWB will stay enough in front of my defense to replace my DM - gonna take a look at it.

I don't like the idea of moving two players instead of one.

I'll let you know.

[xavierm]

Il y a 19 heures, khodder a dit :

Not sure if it may be the case, but you could check to see if there is a PPM on your right back that notes he likes to get forward.

Other than that, you could experiment with an asymmetric formation with no RB and three CBs.

Alas, no PPM. I'll try the asymetric formation, but I fear it's going to unbalance the defense.