Play the right way - glorious 3-6-1 (patch 20.2)

[papamogl]

Hi everyone,

 

This is a set of tactics I have used to great success with Ajax Amsterdam. I won the League and the Champions League in the first season. If you have seen one of the tactics I made for previous versions of Football Manager, you probably know that my philosophy is to play the right way. I like quick, short passes, fast attacks, and free flowing moves. Another important part is to win back the ball quickly, and high up the pitch.

The base tactic: Custom 3-6-1

The idea behind the particular set up of the defence is the following. With four defenders, it has become a staple to have a DM drop back between the DCs to build a line of four defenders when in possession. This allows the wingbacks to play more offensively. What I wanted was to have two DCs join the attack - a nightmare for opponents, because the natural player to mark a DC is the opponents striker. And that would draw him way out of position. To achieve this, I use a back three. When the DM drops back between the DCs, this allows the two outer DCs to move to the sides, and join the attack as fullbacks. There is no role for this in Football Manager. So I used the workaround to place the outer DCs on the fullback positions. It is an idea I have never seen employed in real life football. But here in FM 20 it works very well for me.

6 players in midfield allow to dominate possession, and create a lot of passing triangles.

 

I used this as the basis tactic. In case it didn't work well, I switched to this one:

 

Custom 3-3-3-1

 

When in front and I don't want to chase another goal, I switched to this tactic:

 

Custom 4-3-3

 

This set of tactics is quite demanding on the players. They need to be technically gifted to succeed with the short, quick passing game. And the high octane pressing is demanding on their physicality as well. I have not tested it with lower league teams, but I suspect that it might not be possible for them to create the passing game nor the relentless pressing. If somebody wants to try though I'd be interested to hear how it goes.

 

Feedback is appreciated. Let me know how it works for you.

 

 

 

Custom 3-6-1.fmf Custom 3-3-3-1.fmf Custom 4-3-3.fmf

[papamogl]

Results:

 

[papamogl]

Edited December 21, 2019 by papamogl

[SavetroN]

first season win cl with ajax wow mate.

[papamogl]

Any takers? The style of football it produces is really quite nice, as are the results.

[RichS24]

still ok on the latest patch?

just tried your 361 tactic.  i'm top of the league, against bottom of the league away.  lost 5-0

[papamogl]

Thanks for trying the tactic. Works for me on the latest patch. Give your team some time to settle with the tactic. Allthough a heavy defeat, one game doesn't tell much.

 

 

Edited December 22, 2019 by papamogl

[CarlosEsDios]

After the TFF debacle, I'm suspicious now of any tactic on here.  It's never entered my head until now.

Sad times.

[papamogl]

Sad indeed. Let me assure you that this is the only account I have, and the results shown in the opening posts are the real results I got in the first season.

[Nimmy]

I've tried to get something like this to work for several years, especially once the 3 man attack became the standard in the modern game.  I'm curious how it works; I know it won't work against 2+ strikers, but most of the top sides use a lone striker now.

[papamogl]

Yes, most teams play with one striker at the moment. There is also a 4-3-3 variant of the tactic against teams that play with two strikers.

[GPower88]

This looks brilliant. Are the laser guided long balls not causing problems to the CB? 

[papamogl]

Thank you @GPower88 The offside trap is in place because of it, and having fast defenders helps a lot with it too. But it is the risk that comes with having a higher defense line. All in all I found that the advantages of the high defense line (compact team, many passing options etc.) far outweigh the risk. Against very fast strikers I did drop the defensive line to normal occassionally though. Against Liverpool for example.

[Hamzin67]

Hi,

Which of these version you recomend for an underdog team?  Thanks.

[papamogl]

The style of play is the same in each tactic, so I wouldn't change anything and use the 3-6-1 as your base tactic. I'm curious to hear how it works for underdog teams.

[Nimmy]

Let's talk about the fullbacks. Cruyff preferred to play like this, but he admitted it is extremely hard on the outside defenders because they have to do so much; not only did they have to bomb forward, play defense, but also had to be great footballers. He cited Reiziger a lot as an example of the type of player he would want.  In FM, I would almost imagine that you'd want to just go ahead and play midfielders at fullback, kind of like the Kimmich type of guy, or in your side Blind.  What are your thoughts; I do notice you aren't using Dest or the traditional FBs.

[papamogl]

You are absolutely right. If you have a midfielder you can retrain as a fullback that works very well. I play Blind as a fullback from time to time. But usually he is too important as the deep lying playmaker in my side. If you can afford to put such a player in the fullback spot that's awesome. If you can't, a 'normal' fullback can fill the role as well.

[BigBobJoylove]

Really liking this one so far. There are probably more effective tactics to use in the lower English leagues but sometimes style is better than substance eh? Finished slightly below Swindon's expected position of 4th but gained promotion via the playoffs. We usually had 55%+ possession, sometimes as high as 72% while mostly having the better chances. Will chop and change the team a little to fit the tactic more.

[papamogl]

Cool, thanks for the feedback @BigBobJoylove Sounds like the framework of the tactic works for lower league teams as well. Please let me know whether you are scoring more with players that are better suited for the tactic.

 

And yes, the style of play is an important factor for me. Though I want to win too, of course

[Matsbrunsen]

I was inspired by your post and the old USA WC'98 tactic of the 3-6-1. I've been experimenting with a slightly similar formation with much success. It eventually morphed into a 3-5-2 (FM describes it as a 5-2-1-2).My set-up is DL(D) L(S) DR(D) CWBL(A) DLPML (D) DMCR(D) CWBR(A) AMC(S) AF AF.  I average around 60% possession with a variety of goals from many different passing combinations. I am managing PSG. The first season I finished with 110 Points. The 2nd season I had three more draws than the previous campaign but scored 148 goals and won the ECL.  Sorry for the formation format

[papamogl]

Interesting @Matsbrunsen

It's a great formation to dominate possession and dictate play. Very good for a short and fast passing game because there are lots of triangels. I arrived at that formation because of the style of football I wanted to play. Works very well for me.

[papamogl]

Does anybody else have some results to share? The tactic works extremely well for me, so...

[Mark H]

I've downloaded the 361 and 433 so will update later/tomorrow

 

[papamogl]

Thank you Mark

[FM Base]

Some very nice results. Would you be happy for us to test this?

Edit: Already tested lmao. I can't keep up!

[papamogl]

Thank you for your testing@FM Base

It's currently marked as 'pending test'. Looking forward to seeing the results!

[FM Base]

5 minutes ago, papamogl said:

Thank you for your testing@FM Base

It's currently marked as 'pending test'. Looking forward to seeing the results!

Yup, they'll be up soon. 😁

[papamogl]

vor 15 Minuten schrieb FM Base:

Yup, they'll be up soon. 😁

Awesome. Looking forward to it 👍

[Rober82]

Testing done? Eagerly awaiting this.

[Abulafia]

Loving this tactic. I like to watch the game (no instant results) and this is the best I've tried so far. Good job papamogl!

I'm playing with Blackpool, first season, had to retrain Kaikai and Delfouneso to play as attacking midfielders and they're doing very well.

As carlosesdios wrote in his post, after what happened with tff I was more than souspicious about premade tactics. Glad I've tried this one

 

[papamogl]

Thank you @Abulafia glad you like it.

[kanonz]

Hey @papamogl been a while since you posted but I tried it out.

The tactic produces really good football. I advise everyone who plays for big clubs and has straight up better players than opponent most of the time / don't care about the result.

But there's a problem... not every team is Ajax. I tried this out in cup games and games where I was supposed to be better because your tac is like the ultimate "Let's just style on them".

 

However, downsides: too risky for teams who are worse than Ajax at passing (spoiler: there aren't many). Also the possession is great and it's funny that the opponent never has the ball. But when they lose it, and sometimes it can happen at Sporting CP, which was the team that I tested this with, if they are good - they can punish you harder.

So my suggestion would be to try using and tweaking this tactic for a team like Sporting/Porto/Benfica or any good club at around that level, because it has a lot of potential and if it's viable for worse teams, a lot more people will download it!

Edited January 7, 2020 by kanonz

[papamogl]

Thank you for the feedback @kanonz You raise valid points. I'm busy at the moment. I will try to make some balance tweaks when I have the time. I like the core of the tactic very much. But I'm certain that I can come up with  improvements for lower tier teams. Thanks again for bringing this up.

[PODSYMAN]

Has anyone used this with the new patch, please, and does it sill work?

[papamogl]

Am 7.2.2020 um 07:59 schrieb PODSYMAN:

Has anyone used this with the new patch, please, and does it sill work?

At the moment I have very little time for testing. I would be interested to know this as well. I'll see what I can do with testing in the coming weeks, but can't promise anything.

[BarraBravaDCU]

Am 22.12.2019 um 19:12 schrieb CarlosEsDios:

After the TFF debacle, I'm suspicious now of any tactic on here.  It's never entered my head until now.

Sad times.

Sorry if OT (going to test the tactic today), but I haven't been on this forum in a while... what's the "TFF debacle" you're referring to?

 

EDIT: nevermind, I found the relevant threads on here and over at Base. Wow.

Edited February 12, 2020 by BarraBravaDCU
Question became obsolete

[papamogl]

vor 12 Stunden schrieb BarraBravaDCU:

Sorry if OT (going to test the tactic today),

Thanks BarraBravaDCU. Please let us know how it went.