The 4-6-0

[TOUGHGUY]

Having sold all proper strong and manly strikers in the summer for mad money, I got the idea to make use of the small but slippery cowards that remain. While one such fast striker had a very good goalscoring record last season as the lone man in a 4-2-3-1 with the advanced forward role, it kept bugging me that he didn't get enough support from the attacking inside forward and he seemed to be way too ahead of the rest of the team sometimes – and at the same time not really suited to a deeper role. So I decided to abandon the approach that saw me stay clear of relegation, and tried fixing a thing that wasn't really broken. This is the result, and what I'd call the average positions from an average game.

The team is set to counter, with more direct passing being the only team instruction used. Both fullbacks are tasked to cross more (though they don't seem to do it that much, to be honest, not even the attacking right back), and the inside forwards are set to dribble more and stay narrow (more on how that works or doesn't later). Finally the advanced playmaker has more direct passes turned on. Sometimes he drops surprisingly deep, which is nice defensively, and the idea is that this passing setting might perhaps offset his deeper positioning by supplying a longer ball to the front.

However, both players used in this position are also very good dribblers, so perhaps having them carry the ball forward rather than passing it might work better. Particularly as during a slower buildup (as opposed to a quick counter) the positioning of the other three attackers in the attacking midfield band usually makes them hang around or in front of the opposition defensive line and this would help break it down. I was also hoping the attacking right back might offer more in such a scenario but perhaps the fullback role has its limits even on attack duty. Pictures: the starting eleven front four, from left to right.

Speaking of the right fullback, the formation is not balanced in that the defensive midfielder really ought to be on the right covering for him. However, that would put both supporting midfielders too close to each other on the left. Which in turn could be avoided by flipping the front four, but that would then mean one flank being on attack with the other on support and so on and so forth. This domino effect is down to personnel available (left IF an attacking goal threat, right IF more of a playmaker, right RB a better crosser...), and is more or less unavoidable for me right now.

Another issue is the inside forwards in general staying a bit too wide despite player instructions to the contrary. I seem to recall reading about this being a problem in this game version somewhere. But so far they have been playing rather well so it's not that big of a drawback. Interestingly enough, opposition shape massively dictates much of their play, as against a three man defence their positioning was much more central and incisive as seen on this heatmap from a Europa League game against Juventus contrasted with two more from games against stronger teams but with four men at the back.

The behavior of the inside forwards is disappointing but not the main concern with the tactic as a whole. Ideally I would have the whole setup look even less like a 4-2-4 and somewhat more like a 4-2-3-1 or perhaps even a 4-2-2-2 in that the wide men would stay more narrow, and the shadow striker push up forward a bit more. However, having the inside forwards do that appears impossible, and the striker cannot be tasked to do that either (and when switched to an actual lone striker shape, the purpose of this whole exercise is defeated). The first image indicates to a certain degree what I'd like the striker to do (alas with the inside forwards still too wide), the second shows why – even if the right wide man does actually cut inside, it might get congested.

In conclusion, even without an actual striker the setup works well enough given the available players. However, it sometimes lacks penetration as the otherwise staggered front four do get stopped in a straight line by the defense. With no dedicated striker to stretch the opposition more (albeit at the cost of sometimes leaving the forward isolated), having the quick and agile attackers beat the offside trap and latch onto through balls much more often would be the obvious solution without abandoning the strikerless principle. And while they do produce good performances, I imagine having the inside forwards more narrow would be beneficial.

Ideas for the future: Give the striker a free role in an effort to possibly push him higher or at least mix up his movement? Withdraw the playmaker to the central midfield band, give him more aggressive instructions to keep him higher up the pitch but slightly further back from the front men than he currently is? Or change his role or dribbling instructions for a more direct attacking contribution? Focus on more through balls, given the personnel and setup? Play a narrower shape? Push the whole team higher up to make up for the fact that the final band is in the attacking midfield area?

[TOUGHGUY]

Before applying any of the ideas from the last paragraph, another thought popped in my mind: trying a more rigid mentality. The goal being that with a more pronounced difference between the various roles and bands of players, congestion and the front four 'running into a wall' might be better avoided and the shape of the team even more staggered. While it is a very small sample, after some three or four games against both superior as well as equal opposition using a rigid setup, this appears to be the case so far.

The average position graph has changed only slightly with the team stretching and dropping deeper somewhat, but the difference in the behavior of the forwards is much more noticeable. The two players with an attacking duty stay higher up the pitch, whereas the other two on support drop deeper and help out the defense and the midfield duo more than before. On the other hand there looks to be less of an impact from the right inside forward in terms of attacking moves, but with only a couple of games with the rigid system that might be down to inconsistency rather than any tactical impact, hopefully.

Next stop: instructing the right back to get further forward and making the advanced playmaker dribble some more.

Turns out tweaking the right back was a disaster. Not only has his output in terms of crosses or passing not particularly increased, but in the last ten games the right side has been leaking goals when in fact until the change its figures had been comparable to the left side. Perhaps it is down to the fact that the squad is still not good enough and an attempt to push forward more is easily handled by the opposition but at the same time leaving the defense exposed.

Furthermore, having both the striker and the playmaker set up to dribble more did not work out particularly well either, though why I don't really know. Maybe it's one of those inexplicable FM things, but since the change, the forwards would suddenly fail to convert any of the fairly numerous chances. Against a stronger team, the numbers kept telling the same story as before: face more shots, but few clear cut chances. And on the other hand, shoot less than the opposition, but have more clear cut chances. Except this time, everyone would fail to convert any of them. As for weaker opponents, those would be clearly outmatched in terms of shots or chances but again, the forwards wouldn't finish (and the opposition inevitably scored).

Eight goals in ten games doesn't sound too bad but take away a freak 4:1 victory over Dortmund in the cup and it's just four, and none of those were scored in the last five games. The fact that three of those were friendlies mitigates the disappointment slightly, but doesn't change the fact that the numbers were heavily in our favor and it wasn't a case of players simply shooting from long range for a lack of better options. Perhaps it is just a phase.

What's next: Right back restored to the previous setup of an attacking fullback with the more crossing instruction. Kept more runs with ball on the striker, removed it from the playmaker. Added more attacking mentality to the left inside forward just to mix things up.

[TOUGHGUY]

Instant impact. Removing the higher attacking mentality setting from the right back immediately changed the team's fortunes – from conceding four goals out of eight from the right, it's just one in seven now. And that's not the only change with a positive outcome. After changing a few more settings and several successful games I believe I have improved the original concept significantly. Perhaps to a degree which can be hardly improved upon, not massively anyway, as I don't see an issue or problem in need of an immediate solution or tweaking.

Having lost many games in a row and often being subject to way too many shots – though few clear cut chances – I have switched back from counter to balanced to alleviate the problem. Perhaps the counter mentality was unnecessarily negative and too inviting for the opposition. Then, in order to achieve some of the things mentioned in the first post, I have added the drill crosses and pass into space team instructions to make use of the fast but withdrawn forwards and perhaps lure them forward and past the opponents with balls behind the defense.

I have removed the more direct passing and dribble more instruction from the advanced playmaker. He keeps getting assists but I can't help but feel he ought to be even more creative and aggressive in his passing. I suspect I might revisit changing him into an enganche or some such crazy role, though that will undoubtedly come at a cost of leaving the front four less staggered and a lesser defensive contribution. I have added the get further forward instruction to the left inside forward in an attempt to turn him into an even bigger goal threat, but there doesn't appear to be a noticeable change in his play or stats so far.

But in terms of player instructions, the most significant change was with the right inside forward – tasked to dribble more right from the beginning of the tactic to make use of his good technical skills, I have now removed this setting and the results are rather promising. His goal and assist output has not been impacted negatively (in fact the right side has now created more goals than in previous games, though that might be down to fixing the other problems on this flank mentioned earlier), but he now keeps a more central position much often. It is only logical, I guess, as running with the ball often might presumably take him wider rather often. Compare the recent average positioning with some of the previous heatmaps.

As things stand, I am content with the current setup:

– balanced mentality

– rigid fluidity

– drill crosses

– pass into space

– play narrower

– both fullbacks on cross more often

– both inside forwards on stay narrower

– left inside forward on dribble more and get further forward*

– shadow striker on dribble more*

– deep lying playmaker on more direct passes

* these are the settings I might experiment with in the near future, but big changes in team settings appear unnecessary at this point. Some things that might warrant a detailed look at some point: getting the striker to be more attacking but not as isolated as a lone striker (probably impossible), having the playmaker be even more dangerous (probably difficult without affecting the rest of the team and its shape), possibly tweaking the team as a whole to move towards the desired narrower but still staggered shape.

Quick update: the above changes have been nothing short of a revelation, and have been supplemented by the play narrower team instruction as it only makes sense to keep the front four close to each other and I turn it on during most games anyway. The forwards now do what I had originally set out to achieve much more often: plenty of bursts through the opposition defense to either latch onto a through ball by one of the playmakers or fashion chances for themselves with some good runs, particularly the inside forwards. The change in results after the tweaks in this post is astonishing. From two draws and eight losses in ten games (including three friendlies) to a 5-3-3 WLD record, including a penalty shootout loss against Bayern after a 1:1 draw in which the team matched them in most key stats and only conceded in the last minute to a wonder long shot.

However, these solid games against stronger opposition also reveal a potential problem – how will this setup fare in the future when the focus is on me to probe and find the opening against a deeper defensive setup. Given its reliance on an almost counterattacking approach and faster players I suspect the answer is not particularly well.