Tactical genius needed!!

[Theredkop]

Firstly i'm playing football manager 2012 in the first season.

Lately i've been experimenting with the 3-5-2 formation which has the shape below

-------------------------------GK

-----------------CB-----------CB----------CB

--------RWB---------------------------------------LWB

------------------------CM-----------CM

-------------------------------AM

--------------------------ST----------ST

What I'm most curious to find out is the best roles and duties for the midfield three and the centre backs.I've currently been using two deep-lying playmakers in Barry(defend) and Huddlestone(support) and an advanced playmaker,Jadson.Its been only three matches where I've won twice(against relegation candidates) and lost one to Aston Villa.The centre backs who suffer from a severe case of ball watching are Hangeland,Jagielka and Shawcross who are all set to central defenders-defend.The strikers, Tevez and Remy(Revez) have gotten 7 goals and their partnership is flourishing:applause: so that area is no problem.The wingbacks,Maxi Periera and Riise have also been decent and aren't a worry yet.Other players include Dempsey,Dembele and Ruiz

[waldywaldy]

Tactics section might be your best bet on some decent advice.

However I'll give you my two cents for what it's worth.

I found that playing a 3-5-2 wingback formation like yours made me vulnerable in transitions from attack to defense and vice versa. When I started to play a flt 3 in center midfield with one deep lying playmaker flanked by two box2box midfielders I almost always outnumbered my opponents in both attacking and defending phases of play.

[Cougar2010]

Firstly i'm playing football manager 2012 in the first season.

Lately i've been experimenting with the 3-5-2 formation which has the shape below

-------------------------------GK

-----------------CB-----------CB----------CB

--------RWB---------------------------------------LWB

------------------------CM-----------CM

-------------------------------AM

--------------------------ST----------ST

What I'm most curious to find out is the best roles and duties for the midfield three and the centre backs.I've currently been using two deep-lying playmakers in Barry(defend) and Huddlestone(support) and an advanced playmaker,Jadson.Its been only three matches where I've won twice(against relegation candidates) and lost one to Aston Villa.The centre backs who suffer from a severe case of ball watching are Hangeland,Jagielka and Shawcross who are all set to central defenders-defend.The strikers, Tevez and Remy(Revez) have gotten 7 goals and their partnership is flourishing:applause: so that area is no problem.The wingbacks,Maxi Periera and Riise have also been decent and aren't a worry yet.Other players include Dempsey,Dembele and Ruiz

Well IMO you have several options but the first thing you need to recognise is the weakness of the formation and thats the huge gap in front of your DCs - You could find this gets exploited by opposition AMCs and you'll need to find a way to deal with them when that happens.

As it stands though:

DCs - My personal choice would be the outer two on "Stopper" orders with the central DC on "Cover" orders. When facing an AMC its possible you could try swopping them over with the central DC on "Stopper" and the outer two on "Cover" orders which may help to close down the AMC without altering your shape too much.

Midfield three - Again my personal choice but one of your two MCs needs to be a tackler IMO so "Ball Winning Midfielder/defend" to break up play. That leaves either your other MC or the AMC as the playmaker (I would play around with deep & advanced to see which seems to fit best).

If your AMC is your playmaker (Advanced/support maybe) then your other MC can be something like "Central midfield/attack". On the other hand if you could do AMC (Advanced PM/Attack) with MC (BTB/support) as well.

If your MC is your playmaker (Advanced/attack prob my pref) then you need a supporting AMC.

[Cougar2010]

Hmmm it won't let me edit my post above but I wanted to add:

EDIT

Just for completeness one of your STs should be on "Support" and the other on an "Attack" duty while your wingbacks I would use both on "Attack" or one "Attack" with the other on "Support" (Supporting WB on the same side as the attacking ST usually).