Any tips about tactic. 4231 wide

[Kivepsa]

[Experienced Defender]

Sorry, but this is not 4231. Rather 433/4123/4141dm wide.

[BoGdy]

As Experienced Defender said this is not 4-2-3-1.

Anyway, i don't see any reason why you play a central midfielder on a defend duty.You already have a DM who comes down between your central defenders and he can protect them pretty well.Try to play one of your central midfielders on attacking duty, so one on your central players can help your lonely striker.I also recommend you to put your striker on support, otherwise you will end up having a huge gap between him and the rest of your central players.If you wanna play with a balanced mentality you should instruct your players how to pass the ball, because if you let them on default, your players should have high decision attribute to pass the ball in a good fashion.Short passing will do it in my honest opinion.

 

[AFCBeer]

My concern here is your play will be very one dimensional. There is no creativity from midfield and little support out wide from the full backs. It looks like you will be overly reliant on quality crosses from the wingers. That’s great if they are exceptional players, but a Pressing Forward (even on attack) might not be in position to take advantage. 

The worst thing is, given your reliance on wide players for creativity, you focus play through the middle. The only way I see your current roles working is as part of a direct and wide counter attacking system. 

You’ve not given much detail as to what you perceive as your specific issues. That said you are 5th in the league so it’s not disastrous. The main advice I’d give is to look at the attributes of your players and think about the best way to exploit that. 

[sporadicsmiles]

Just a few observations.

1. Why a HB, but not attacking full backs? I normally would use this when I want to turn a back 4 into a back 3.

2. As noted, why play the DLP on defend? What is the thinking behind that?

3. Who do you see scoring your goals, and how are chances created? Right now, I only see one way you will score often, and that is down the flanks. This can leave you vulnerable to sides that can shut your crossing game down.

4. Related to this, why are you playing with two wingers AND trying to force play through the centre with a TI? I guess this is because you do not see much play through the middle, but this is not the correct way to go about it.

The biggest weakness of this tactic is the middle. I would rework it significantly. If you are not pushing FBs high, you do not really need a HB. You can have a holding player (A, DM) in front of the back 4 in the DMC strata then. This frees up the DLP(D) to become something a little more supporting (DLP(S) would work fine, but experiment). The BBM should probably work fine, but he needs to actually be involved in the game. Having the DLP closer should help, keep your eye on it.

I would also think about varying your build up play a little. Do something with the wingers (you can play around here, actually, to try things out). Think about how the wide players link with the two central midfielders too (for example, BBM and IF on the same side, could cause issues). You could also play around with the full backs to provide width of provide central support.