Attacking Fullbacks

[McGeady10]

Has anyone worked out how to get them working?

Every year I start as Celtic, my fav team, to get me used to the new interface/features etc before taking on a bigger challenge for a proper career game.

I decided this year I'd try and build a team that's very good to watch and play exciting football.

Had them set up with four at the back and two attacking fullbacks (set to full back / attacking), a defensive midfielder in front of them set to defend, two centre midfielders (both on support) and two wingers (cutting inside to allow room for attacking fullbacks) and a loan forward.

Can work okay at times but we give away a lot of chances down the wings. My idea is for the defensive midfielder to drop in and become three at the back when we're in possession so we are not prone to the counter attack.

Didn't work. Found myself 3 down at home to Dundee United and changed to keep my fullbacks back and results are improving.

Anyone know the best way to get some fullbacks bombing on?

[ShirazS]

Wing Backs on a support duty will get forward as well but be slightly more conservative. Although having your full-backs bomb forward is going to leave you open at the back and it is a risk you take. I, for one, love it and do not care if I concede lots of goals just as long as I score more and enjoy watching the game

[robterrace]

I've got it working with Wingback - Support as the duty, it seems to work in the Championship, as he's getting forward and going past my winger and midfield, who are both playing him in.

[däkkä]

For me attacking full-backs work best when the rest of the team supports them and leaves space for them. That means decreasing mentality of the natural attacking players and increasing the mentality of the full-backs. Changing the mentality structure this way should make the full-backs more focal to the tactic. Also, the players that are most likely to get in the full-backs way are the wingers ahead of them, so telling them to play more centrally (decrease RFD, wide play towards 'cut inside') should open up more space on the flanks. HUB should make the winger involve his full-back in the play more.

Incidentally, everything I mentioned above is what 'Look for overlap' does. In theory, the best combination to get a full-back bomb forward and exploit the flank is advanced playmaker / support + wing-back / attack with 'Look for overlap'. And maybe balanced philosophy to make the difference in mentality as great as possible.

[Kung]

in my inter save zanetti / pereira / nagatomo bombs forward as inter do in real life, i have them as wb in wb position with automatic duty

[thomit]

Very attacking full/wing backs = nice if you want a tactical approach to make it look as much as possible as real life ... but not so good for winning in FM, I'm afraid. Full/wing backs are not good enough in finding their defensive positions in FM, they tend to leave huge spaces available for exploitation by the opposing team, most of the time. Real backs don't make such mistakes as often as FM backs do - not even in lower leagues. Really - I want to have very attacking backs, want to play football like Barca, Arsenal and ... well, many of the best teams of the world, really. But I will always do better in the competitions if I set my backs to run forward rarely, or maybe sometimes - if I'm clear favourite to win the match. You're better off if you set their closing down to a quite moderate level too - for the same reason. FM backs simply don't have good enough "awareness" in FM. It's one of the major flaws in the match engine that is still with us.

I toggle between Full back - support and Full back - defend in my tactics. Never more attacking than that. It would hurt me in the end.

Sure you can do well with very attacking backs - even win things. But you will invariably do even better with more moderate settings. Win more matches. Lose less.

[Kung]

Very attacking full/wing backs = nice if you want a tactical approach to make it look as much as possible as real life ... but not so good for winning in FM, I'm afraid. Full/wing backs are not good enough in finding their defensive positions in FM, they tend to leave huge spaces available for exploitation by the opposing team, most of the time. Real backs don't make such mistakes as often as FM backs do - not even in lower leagues. Really - I want to have very attacking backs, want to play football like Barca, Arsenal and ... well, many of the best teams of the world, really. But I will always do better in the competitions if I set my backs to run forward rarely, or maybe sometimes - if I'm clear favourite to win the match. You're better off if you set their closing down to a quite moderate level too - for the same reason. FM backs simply don't have good enough "awareness" in FM. It's one of the major flaws in the match engine that is still with us.

I toggle between Full back - support and Full back - defend in my tactics. Never more attacking than that. It would hurt me in the end.

Sure you can do well with very attacking backs - even win things. But you will invariably do even better with more moderate settings. Win more matches. Lose less.

havent played so much vs quality opposition,but i got the park the bus achievement with my wingbacks bombing forward,i do use oi close down and weaker foot every game on all opposition wingers...

[papamogl]

Oh yes, I got them working, at least in FM12. Will try the same in FM13. One obvious thing that helps is fielding two DMs so your DCs get enough cover even when the DMs don't actually step back to the d-line.

I used some inovative settings for my wingbacks in FM12 and they were a joy to watch, tucking in some goals as well. Sorry for the tease but I want to test it on FM13 first before posting the instructions

[Soldatino]

I'm playing with a 4-1-3-2 formation. Firstly I was scored that leaving full-backs on attack duty would leave me too much exposed on flanks. But I was conceding goals mostly after a cross from side. Then I changed my full-backs to be attacking and since then my game improved a lot, possibly because my attacking minded full-backs keep opposition wingers/side midfielders busy?

[lam]

Run from Deep - Often

Cross from - Byline

Then just make sure they have space to run into..... ie, make sure your winger is not in the way.

Just be carefull about making them run with the ball as some of them are simply better at just getting forwards rather than 'taking' the ball forwards.

[Kenco]

Very attacking full/wing backs = nice if you want a tactical approach to make it look as much as possible as real life ... but not so good for winning in FM, I'm afraid. Full/wing backs are not good enough in finding their defensive positions in FM, they tend to leave huge spaces available for exploitation by the opposing team, most of the time. Real backs don't make such mistakes as often as FM backs do - not even in lower leagues. Really - I want to have very attacking backs, want to play football like Barca, Arsenal and ... well, many of the best teams of the world, really. But I will always do better in the competitions if I set my backs to run forward rarely, or maybe sometimes - if I'm clear favourite to win the match. You're better off if you set their closing down to a quite moderate level too - for the same reason. FM backs simply don't have good enough "awareness" in FM. It's one of the major flaws in the match engine that is still with us.

I toggle between Full back - support and Full back - defend in my tactics. Never more attacking than that. It would hurt me in the end.

Sure you can do well with very attacking backs - even win things. But you will invariably do even better with more moderate settings. Win more matches. Lose less.

I disagree with this theory. I find that having the DL/DR set as wing-back but on support duty rather than attack works best. This way they will be looking to get forward a lot because of the WB setting but on support duty they choose the opportunities more wisely and I have found they only really get forward when the ball is on their side of the pitch whilst the other one tends to hang back.

In addition to this I don't play wingers, which gives the wing-backs more space to get into. Overall, I find they do a great job in both defence and attack.

Edit: This is for FM12 btw, can't comment on FM13 just yet.

[thomit]

I disagree with this theory. I find that having the DL/DR set as wing-back but on support duty rather than attack works best. This way they will be looking to get forward a lot because of the WB setting but on support duty they choose the opportunities more wisely and I have found they only really get forward when the ball is on their side of the pitch whilst the other one tends to hang back.

In addition to this I don't play wingers, which gives the wing-backs more space to get into. Overall, I find they do a great job in both defence and attack.

Well, it isn't so much a theory, but rather an observation. I ran with my Arsenal team for a whole season with very attacking wing backs. I got to fourth in the table at season's end, 14 points behind the winners. Not bad. Team played visibly quite well in attack, so no objections there. Defensively ... well, not so good. You may say; very much like the real Arsenal.

But

Then I restarted the same season, with the same players, but with a much more careful approach regarding the wing backs. I won the league, 8 points more than number two (97 points). Also my goals against was considerably less. Won more matches, lost less.

The formation and tactic setup was exactly the same otherwise, only the wing backs had different settings.

This was with a very fluid, short passing, high tempo, controlling tactic in both cases. Wing backs in the first season play-thru was set up as Wing Backs/Attack, in the next play-thru they were set up as Full Backs/support when I was confident of a win, Full Backs/defend when I was a little bit of an underdog, or when I just wanted to protect a narrow lead. In spite of this rather more conservative set-up, I would still see my wing backs making forward runs - only with a much higher awareness of when and where, more considered - but with the added stability of them finding good defending positions when needed, and being much more considered when to hold back, when to put themselves properly between the attacking wingers or wide men and my goal.

That's why I say: you can play well and even win things with very attacking wing backs. But you probably will do even better with a more careful approach. And in my view; visibly more satisfying too.

[Cleon]

Very attacking wingbacks never worked on FM11 or FM12, they always acted like DL/DR's no matter what. It was a pretty big well known issue.

[däkkä]

Hmm, that's interesting do you have any links to relevant discussions or can you shed some light to what are the limitations?

I have seen that the full-backs tend to return back to their nominal position pretty fast after roaming away from it, which I don't necessarily like.

[Shakes]

Love attacking fullbacks in FM12 but right now they don't seem to work right in FM13.

Hard to say how this will translate to the full game due to the beta state of the match engine, but in FM13 I'm finding attacking fullbacks ridiculously over eager to get forward. Playing a 4-4-2 box with my fullbacks set to wing back attack role and even on a counter strategy several times a match they'll be up holding hands with their opposite numbers. I mean I want them to get forward and I want them to attack the opposition but they also have to show some kind of sense about finding space for themselves to receive the pass. They're forming a line of 4 with the strikers when if they just stayed deeper they'd be in a ton of space to get the ball and try to whip in a cross. Add in the fact that being that high up the pitch is complete suicide when the team loses the ball with crosses so deadly right now and playing a narrow formation that relies on the fullbacks for width doesn't seem much fun. Hopefully the full version will have big changes.