Possession 4-5-1

[Letissier1980]

Hi and thanks for reading this.

I have currently started off unemployed as a Sunday league footballer and have taken over at the mighty Lowestoft Town Football Club who are bottom of the National North league.

My vision for this save is to create a possession based 4-5-1. I want to be tight defensively with the four defenders and the middle midfielder acting as a holding man. The two central midfielders next to him working as attacking and defensive workhorse midfielders providing a link and support for attacking and defensive transitions. Finally I want my wide midfielders acting as inside forwards linking with the DLF (S) playing one-twos, running at defenders and generally creating havoc in the oppositions final half.

So just to re-affirm:

Who I want to score the goals - Both WM + dlf

Who I want to recycle the ball and provide depth - All three CM from there respective positions and both of the FB

Who I want to provide width - Both Full backs

So this is what I have come up with....

With instructions like this:

I have managed to achieve my possession goals. Normally I tend to manage around 60% or over. What I am unhappy with is the movement of the WM and the 'support' midfielders. We just do not seem to get forward quick enough to support the forward and the opposition team seem to manage to get back into their defensive shape. Definitely a consequence of our possession mentality!

I have tried changing the wide midfielders to an attack duty but found that they were too far forward in the transition process and it was causing our attacks to fail.

So if any of you would like to give me any of your thoughts, please jump in as they will be appreciated!

[StayUnited]

I would say that midfield of yours is far too negative, the bwm(s) doesn't make nearly as many forward runs to overlap the dlf(s) once he gets and holds up the ball. You do need runners around him, so change one of your bwm(s) to a cm(s) or bbm(s) to encourage more forward runs from them. Also, perfect symmetry for your entire tactic makes it predictable and easy to defend against, try changing one of your wm(s) to a wm(a) and the corresponding fullback to a support duty.

Also, I don't quite understand how cm's would provide depth as that's mainly the forward's job to push back the defence and give space for creative midfielders to work their magic? It sounds like what you really want is an overlap through the middle (if that even makes sense), with the cm's pushing forwards in possession overlapping the dlf(s) who feeds them the ball. This links back to your desperate need for an advancing midfielder.

[Letissier1980]

Thanks for your reply, I have decided to change the 2 x cm's to B2B mids. Hopefully I will see these trying to go beyond the dlf along with the two wm whist keeping to the philosophy of possession football within the 4-5-1 framework.

So next game was home against Fylde, who were a mid table team playing a flat narrow 4-3-3. I have rarely played against this formation and found this quite frustrating with three strikers causing a dilemma for the back 4 and my cmd, and their rampaging full backs that caused a lot of width and were in many ways the engine room of their system. Anyway I ground out a boring 0-0 draw, whist still achieving a high possession rate but in my opinion, futile if we cannot create chances like what our opposition did. So anyway here are the match stats:

As you can see the crosses & shots are quite a concern so looking back at the highlights to see where my players were and reading the commentary to understand where the player was attempting to cross to, I will change the crossing to centre. As this is not a formation I play every day, I will not make anymore changes and wait until after the next match.

As always any feedback welcome.

[StayUnited]

Looking at your tactic again i've realised i've missed out something major - your lack of playmakers in your squad. Now this wouldn't be a problem if you set a very fluid team shape, but on highly structured where you need creativity to break down teams, it's no surprise you're struggling, that team of yours is too workmanlike i imagine!

Given that highly structured does aid with your possession philosophy, i suggest a roaming playmaker, as well as a wide playmaker (s) to aid with creating the chances. Play will build up on the side the wide playmaker is remember, so be sure to put him on the side with the more threatening full back.

As a united fan i can't bear anyone playing the workmanlike way even in a fantasy world

[Letissier1980]

Hi,

I have tried changing the fluidity and keeping the roles the same but unfortunately I just cannot get my head around this game, and dare I say this has been the case for the last 3-4 years. I cannot tell whether tactical weaknesses are from weak players stats wise, their ppm's, roles I am selecting or is the type of formation & players I am facing.

Over the last three to four years I have tried watching the games, seeing how players interact with each other and yet still I cannot achieve what I want. I have read every thread that has been written on here for the past god know how many years and the most frustrating part is that I know it is me and not the game!