Thoughts on a 4-3-3

[StueyT]

Its a quiet day at work, and so I'm thinking of properly sorting out my current tactic for my Man City team currently in 2014.

My formation currently looks like this:

-----------P----------

IF------------------IF

----BWM-AP-DLP----

-----------------------

WB----CD---CD----WB

Team instructions generally are fluid+control, short, slow and expressive, high def line, wide, pressing, zonal and loose, with 1xCD tight marking their front man (teams usually play 1 striker and two atacking wingers/IFs against me). DLP and BWM on support, AP and 3 attackers on attack and wingbacks on attack. Shouts to retain possession, look for overlap and exploit wings (I wanted to get that triangle on each side linking up well).

It worked fantastic for the first 8 games of the season, all of them wins including a 3-0 against Chelsea without them getting a shot on target from 3 total,

however, it suddenly went off the boil soon after that

I think my issues are player roles more than anything. I'll admit that I've never paid much attention to the individual instructions when selecting a role, and just gone from what I assumed it did. After some reading on here, I'm thinking of keeping the same tactical layout, but amending the roles to the following

--------------T(s)-------------

IF(a)-------------------------IF(a)

----CM(d)---DLP(s)---CM(d)----

-----------------------------------

WB(a)----CD(d)----CD(d)-----WB(a)

Norm-deep Def Line, Balanced, Loose zonal marking for all. I'm not sure here what to do when it comes to mentality and passing. Control, show and short, or attacking, quick and direct? I'm thinking the latter as my front 3 are pacey, and my wing backs are quick and hardworking generally too.

One issue I've always had is one of my CDs leaping forward when we're defending, leaving a gap for an attacker to go one on one. I'm thinking that this was down to me having no DMC, and a midfield 3 with a supporting BWM and attacking AP leaving just the supporting DLP in the middle when caught on the break, ending up in a CD trying to cover the gap between defence and midfield (regardless of the very high def line and CDs manually instructed to close down in own area only). I think this was a result of me not paying attention more to the role of a BWM. To counter that, I'm changing the MCL and MCR to CMs on defensive, to ensure that they don't go chasing the ball all over the pitch and leaving the DLP on his own when we're defending, and hopefully they drop back into the defensive hole when required.

When on the attack, my current idea is to have a trequarista on support up front, especially when playing against a back 4 as we usually do, who can occupy the attention of one of the opposition CDs. He would often drop back into the hole, pulling that CD with him and it allowing my IFs to overwhelm the other CD. I would still be looking for the WBs to overlap, occupying their FBs.

Obviously, at work, I can't try this now but does anyone have any input into my initial thinking? Also, as the WBs would be pushing forward often, I would ideally like my two CMs to help should the opposition try to break down the wing. I don't know how to make this happen though. Any ideas?

For info, my first eleven for this would be:

-------------------Aguero---------------

Neymar-------------------------------Cavani

--------Milner---Silva/Thiago---Yaya-----

----------------------------------------

Alba--------Nastasic-----Kompany---Zabaleta

Cheers

[Phelix]

I assume it's only a typo, but Trequartista's can only be played on an attacking duty, not support.

I definitely like the look of the new roles better than the old. There is a much better balance amongst your squad. The trequartista will drop deeper, allowing for space to open up for your wide men to move into.

There isn't much more I can offer except try it out. It all seems pretty solid, so experimentation is now the key.

[StueyT]

I only had limited time last night, so only two matches played. The first was at home to Zilina, who I beat 5-1. We only had 8 shots, 5 on target and 5 scored, but they had a fair share of chances to. I need to analyse that game a bit more as I wanted to rush into the next game, Man Utd at home. they played the wide 4-2-3-1, with Hamsik as AMC and Rooney up front, both pacey. I had Nastasic and Varane as my CD pair, both pacey too. I found that Utd were playing high up the pitch, and Hamsik/Rooney we getting behind my defensive line, so I dropped that very deep and had to drop Toure from CM to DMC and man-marking Hamsik whilst still at 0-0 (just about hanging on). From that point on, the game changed. Hamsik was out of the game and whenever Rooney had the ball, he always had to get past Nastasic and Varane, which wasn't happening. They still had plenty of shots, but only 1 on target since that change at around 30 mins in.

So the tactic I was originally discussing worked at home against very poor opposition although still allowed them plenty of chances. It didn't work at all against Utd and I had to change it. I'll give it more thought when I play more tonight. I think Zilina may have had too pacey a striker for my high line as he was also getting in behind the CDs often. I just don't think I was as thoughtful and reactive to it as I was in the next game with Utd.

Cheers for the input Phelix

[SpartyOn]

Most of the tactic looks good, but one problem I see is that with 2 CM/D and a DLP, you've got 3 guys in central midfield set to run from deep rarely. You should definitely have at least one of them getting forward a little bit.

I like Toure as a BBM, or even CM/S could work. Silva is also probably better suited to AP than DLP, but he may start moving into the same space as your Treq.