Ajax 18/19-style - Help with roles

[Ledz96]

On FM19 I am trying to build something inspired by (not exactly replicating) Ten Haag's Ajax that almost reached the Champions' League final.

I am struggling with the midfield, as I would like my three (future?) stars, De Jong, Gravenberch (who's grown a lot, on my second year) and Van de Beek to perform at their best.

Here is what I am envisioning:

De Jong would, ideally, be the one that starts building up play. He comes back deep, even forming a line with the defense when needed, and has my CBs, (left) full back and even Onana as passing alternatives when pressed. When he can go forward, he should carry the ball and help the team get further on the field, and then pass the ball either up wide to one of my wingers, or to one of the other two midfielders. Let's move on to them.

Gravenberch here should be something in between a box to box midfielder and a playmaker. First of all, he should be very actively pressing the opposition. From a more defensive standpoint, he should be able to get back and offer Frenkie an easy pass forward when needed. But mostly, he should be the more creative player in the final third of the pitch when we are attacking, getting to the  edge of  the box to try key passes to the more offensive players.

Finally, Van de Beek: my favorite of the three, for the kind of player he is. He should basically do three things: when we lose the ball, start the counterpressing. This is really important, as he has pretty good workrate and stamina, and can get back a lot of balls just by pressing the opposition and putting them in a difficult situation. Second, on the offensive side, he should be ready to get ball and quickly dispatch it on either side, or to Gravenberch, possibly, if the play is being build up. Third, which sometimes directly follows the second step, sometimes even overwrites it: he should run past the opposition and even my striker, to allow through balls and score.

Now, once we are done with this tactical analysis: what roles have I thought of for them?

I have two alternatives in my mind right now (or three, depending on how you see it), basically depending on Van de Beek's role, which is the one I can't seem to get right.

1) A 3 men midfield, like this

De Jong (regista)
Van de Beek (BBM or CM(A)) Gravenberch (RPM)

2) An asymmetric 4-2-3-1, with the De Jong as the left DM, Gravenberch as the right CM (same roles mentioned before) and finally Van de Beek as a Shadow Striker.

Now, all three seem to have their issues with Van de Beek.

With the first one, either he doesn't get into the box nearly as much as he should (despite the get forward instruction and get into the box ppm) or he doesn't really cover as much as he should (as a CM(a)).

With the second one, he doesn't cover at all, staying always up the pitch when the opponent builds up play past the first two passes.

Any idea?

[stevenvdijk]

Have been playing around this this a lot in Fm19  and the nice thing with these players is that you have loads of options for midfield setups. Since they are all three quite allround you can really tailor made a few tactics, so you have something against weaker sides but also against the topteams.

Option 1:

When using FdJ as regista this means you give him a great wild card to do what he does best and since he has quite some unique potential this can give a lot of fun. What I found out to be the 'unlock key' is to learn them the right ppm - so you make sure they do these things you describe above even more. 

This means for FDJ as regista i would try to learn him:

• Comes deep to get the ball
• Runs with the ball through the centre
• Tries to play his way out of trouble
• Dictates tempo

For vd Beek i would try to have him have:

• Gets into opposition area
• Moves into channels
• Gets forward whenever possible
• Plays one-twos

If you have FDJ as regista, i would not recommend to use Gravenberch as APM or RPM as this actually means he will move towards the ball - while actually when FDJ comes up with it you would like him (and vd Beek) to move away, draw midfielders out of position and make space for FDJ to get creative. Therefore i always found the Mezzala a great role for him. And to use vd Beek optimal as goal scoring unit the CM in Attack mentality combined with the preferred moves of 'gets into opposition area' will make him come into the '16' a lot. Im not a fan of BBM for neither Gravenberch or vd Beek, because when playing with a Regista two many of them run out of position and especially against topteams this gives some gaps in midfield. 

For both vd Beek and Gravenberch having 'plays one-twos' are great additions as this will give some nice one touch attacks in play

So one of my most used midfield setup has been like this:

Vd Beek: CM (A) - Gravenberch: Mezz (S)

De Jong: Reg (S)

Against weaker teams i often switched Gravenberch up to attacking mentality.

Hope this gives some food for thought!

Edited July 5, 2020 by stevenvdijk

[denen123]

Experiment with the Volante(s) & volante(a) combinations.