quaazi Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 I stumbled upon this tactic when fitting some players into my Bayern squad at the first winter transfer window (brought in Reus to replace the chronically injured Ribery) while keeping in mind my settled system in FM14. Basically, after years of exclusively using the control and attacking mentalities, I've come around to using the counter system for my attacking tactical blueprints. It might seem counterintuitive at first, but it allows for amazingly exciting football when executed properly. In combination with the counter mentality I also have my system set up as "very fluid". Simply put - rigid systems have always been defensively shaky for me, as I am not content with simply sitting back. So to accompany those two aspects, I also implemented an extreme pressing system. That is, "close down much more" + OI's for each position to be always closed down. In conjunction with the high fluidity (no problem with players being left isolated when pressing as there will always be another player ready) and counter mentality (everyone is willing to put in the shift in pressing, even the attacking players) this ensures that all my players are constantly harassing the opposition and winning the ball high up the pitch to make sure that they cannot build attacks as well as giving me the opportunity to score goals while the opposition is unable to transition into defense. Anyway, here are a few pictures to illustrate. The TI's seem really extreme, don't they? Well I find that those extremes are the only way I can actually get the team to play the way I want, which is a high-pressing quick-passing hard-running free-scoring side. Now, scoring goals isn't much of a problem with this setup, but the odd thing that I did not quite expect is that this system is, defensively, solid as a rock. In fact even against the strongest of teams, this system allows me to dominate all aspects of play - possession, winning the ball, passing accurately, winning headers, everything. Here's a few results I've got with this system - German cup 3-0 v Dortmund, CL aggregate 7-0 against Monaco, friendly 4-1 v Man Utd, German Super Cup 3-0 v Dortmund, Champions League final 2-2 v Arsenal, Euro Super Cup 3-3 v Madrid (more on these two later), league wins 4-0 v Hamburg and 5-0 v both Leverkusen and Schalke. Now, the problematic games in that series of fixtures are the two score draws in European finals. I won the Champions League on penalties and lost the Super Cup on penalties. However, lets take a loot at the statistics from both games. v Arsenal, 2-2 Now, it was a good match with chances on both sides, but you cannot say my team was outplayed, now can you? We created a massive 8 clear cut chances (for an European Cup final, I'd say that number is massive), but our finishing let us down completely - in fact our two goals came from Holger Badstuber on set pieces. We were superb in the tackle, winning almost 9 out of 10 tackles. We were also great in the air despite having normal heigth player. We didn't just throw away possession as evidenced by the 82% pass completion ratio (contrast the passing accuracy out the back). And finally, as a team, we ran 7 more kilometres than the opposition, showing how intense our pressing actually was. It was a close match in a way, but had I lost the penalty shootout, I think I would've been justified in feeling hard done by. One of the main issues I had, though, was that Reus was cup-tied and I had to resort to Mario Götze on the left winger position (what a problem to have, huh). Götze is superb technically, but he lacks the directness and physical power that Reus brings to my pressing game. Fittingly, he only had an average game, providing no key passes while Robben, Lewandowski and Müller all provided at least 3, same with shots and tackles attempted. v Madrid, 3-3 This one I have sore feelings about. Madrid was completely out of it. I was completely in control of the game, dominating in chances created, edging possession, passing the ball much more accurately, winning the ball back with more reliability and less fouls, and, once more, completely outrunning the opposition (8 km more ran this time around). Yet Madrid scored 3 goals from scracely any attacking play at all while I hit the woodwork twice. The magnificent performance of Gareth Bale was really all that got Real through, as the guy made 14 runs with the ball, provided 4 key passes and took 7 of Madrid's 12 shots (scoring one). Perhaps the most telling factor in who was in control of the balance of play and who wasn't is the fact that my CBs only tried two (successful) interceptions in our own penalty area, Madrid's CBs were forced into interceptions in their penalty area 27 (!) times. Granted, the reason here is that I put in way too many crosses to my liking as the high amount of corners very often resulted in impotent swings into the box. Even then, Madrid was completely pinned back and really got to the shootout by being clinical, not by outplaying us. So there. That's the story of my 4-2-4 system so far. As an added bonus, here's a heatmap from the Madrid game so you'd understand why I'm calling this a 4-2-4 instead of whatever the hell it looks like on the tactics creator. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bittah Dreamer Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Do you use any player instructions? How does Reus do as a right footer playing as a left winger? Did you consider setting him up as a wide midfielder with a cut inside PI? What type of goals are you conceding and how often? Given the aggressive TIs and player duties, I imagine that if you do lose the ball you're fairly exposed for a quick counter. Though as long as you score more that probably doesn't matter. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
quaazi Posted December 5, 2014 Author Share Posted December 5, 2014 Reus has the cuts inside PPM so he does that a lot. I don't need to give any specific PIs thanks to the PPMs my players have, generally. All I use is "more direct passes" for the DLP sometimes when I need the ball out the back even quicker, as well as telling Neuer to distribute to the playmaker or the flanks, depending on the opposition. I don't even concede that many goals from counters, oddly enough. Apparently I've conceded 12 goals in 19 games, which I think is a fair enough result. In fact, in the league I've only conceded twice in six games - one a penalty and one from a long shot from outside the box following a longer passage of play at the end of a game I already won. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
imabearlol Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 I've got a similar setup with a 433 going, but I use mixed passing instead of shorter. Instead I use Work Ball Into Box and I feel this works better, especially for a team like Bayern who do sometimes play long balls. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthemanwhocan Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 Dude I think that is a very defensive shape. The positions you select here are the denfsive shape. How you use instructions determines how you transition I think. Or something similar Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gechal Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 How do you think this tactic would work for a team with worse players than Bayern? Is this an elite team only tactic , or could you see it working lower down? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
quaazi Posted December 6, 2014 Author Share Posted December 6, 2014 It seems defensive simply due to the formation as presented in the tactics creator. In actuality, as visible from that heatmap, my players are very high up the pitch, compressing the space for the opponent to play in. As for weaker teams... yeah, I am afraid that only the very best rosters can probably pull this off. The front line needs both pace, intelligence and technique, whereas the defense has to be very good at interceptions and creative for quick counter-attacking passes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustinAero Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 What front two striker combo do you think would work best instead of a F9 and a SS? By that I mean two players actually at striker and not AMC and ST. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
quaazi Posted December 10, 2014 Author Share Posted December 10, 2014 Well I like the other striker to attack from deep, so possibly a DLF/A? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sadak Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Okay, so I can see I am not the only one shooting like hell on the goal and scoring a small fraction of my shots... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RTHerringbone Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Okay, so I can see I am not the only one shooting like hell on the goal and scoring a small fraction of my shots... There can be many reasons for that. If you start a thread detailing your system, you can probably get some advice to help you resolve your issues. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.