FM16- Youtube series with Sheffield Utd- Tactic that works 4-2-3-1

[thatdamgood]

Hi, I have posted this both here and in the career journey sub forum as I wasnt sure where it should go being technically both...Hope you all enjoy my my first attempt at a write up

Wow! What a season that was. Now to put my feet up and plan for what will be a tough second season in charge of Sheffield Utd, especially considering we are doing a Youth Challenge…even harder now… SPOILERS…. ( If you haven’t yet caught up with how our season went you can catch up on the journey here) https://www.youtube.com/user/MrWada811

Done? Good, welcome back, so yes even tougher now we are in the Barclaycard Premier League a task made to look impossible given the lack of reinforcements we can bring in. Before we even entertain thoughts of next season, I’m first just going to break down what has proven to be a very successful tactic. It may not be the sexiest of tactics, it may not create the most entertaining of games for the paying faithful, but I’m paid to win Football matches and it’s a tactic that has delivered;

• A League Title with a club expected to fight relegation – The Clubs first at this level since 1952.

• Only 31 Goals against - The best defensive record in the league

• Only Losing 7 games in a season…did I mention with a club expected to face relegation

• 18 match Unbeaten run

• Undefeated in the league from 31/12/2016- 10/5/2017

Can’t be a bad thing right? So join me as we explore the Sheffield Utd 4-2-3-1.

The first thing you must always do before creating any new tactic is explore what type of players you have and what type of tactic and style is best suited to the group of players at your disposal. Normally I like to play a possession based free flowing game however it soon became clear this wouldn’t be this group of players forte, well certainly not yet and I couldn’t go about changing that by bringing in reinforcements through the transfer windows and my current youth prospects simply weren’t ready to start 46 + games so expecting to build around them was a tough ask.

After examining pre- season footage, and an opening day defeat to Ipswich several times while making notes in a very old school way with a pen and paper, I quickly settled on not overloading this team with too many instructions. I settled on three key but simple instructions

Standard Mentality- I didn’t want to literally ‘park the bus’ but I didn’t want to be camped in their half, leaving our backside showing. Starting as ‘standard’ allowed me to view the game and act accordingly to what my eyes were seeing.

Get Stuck In- Simply put, it’s not pretty it’s not even very nice, but if we can’t outplay you we will at least out fight you and make life very difficult for you.

More direct Passing – simply put, It didn’t matter how long we had the ball for, it’s what we did with it I cared about. However great a nice possession stat is, they don’t award you points for it. This doesn’t mean to ‘lump it long’ because this isn’t what more direct passing is about. More direct passing is about using the ball quickly and effectively, getting the ball from A to B quickly be that in the air or on the floor. I wanted to focus on winning the ball back and then using it quickly and decisively, taking full advantage of a tactical breakdown or maybe a player out of position, giving us a good chance of creating a clear goal scoring chance.

I also wanted a versatile formation. One that allowed me to change things up in a very quick manner should I need to in game or in some cases even pre game. That took away some formations but left one very clear one…the 4-1-3-2 (or so I thought at the time). This could go to any manner of tactics. Having established a rough shape, I now had to refine it into a ‘diamond’ in terms of players and their exact positioning on the pitch.

The Back four

Having decided to play a back 4, I settled on personnel of;

Brayford- Basham-Alcok- Freeman

It was very clear I lacked any credible quality at left back but possessed two good if not average right backs in John Brayford and Kieran Freeman. So the switch to left back as an inverted wing-back for the younger Freeman seemed the more natural fit. Through watching the footage many times, I observed my two centre backs being beaten, both in behind and down the sides. They seemed to lack agility and concentration so protection for them was key. In order for this to happen, I instructed my two full backs to;

• Stay Back- Unadventurous fullbacks was the order. While we may miss out going forward, keeping a solid back line at all times was more important. If you don’t concede you can’t lose…right? That simple.

• Sit Narrow- I had to restrict the space between my two CB’S. Instructing the two fullbacks to play Narrower restricted any strikers looking for the channels and forced the opposition out wide to play the ‘David Moyes crossing game’.

[/size]

In terms of the two CB’S themselves their instructions were very clear and simple…DO YOUR JOB. I decided against overloading them and upon reflection the whole team with too many instructions. I wanted them to play using their instincts in their limited roles.

The Engine Room (Midfield )

When deciding my midfield positioning I had to keep in mind my need to not only try and hurt opposing teams but also the fact my two centre backs needed protection. Upon viewing my squad and deciding that my best Defensive midfielder in Chris Basham would in fact need to play at centre half, I settled on two holding Midfielders slightly altering my pre planned 4-1-3-2 into a 4-2-?-?. I settled on the young Louis Reed who would act as deep lying Playmaker pulling the strings in the team and collecting the ball from the two center backs. To help him I decided I would need an ‘ugly’ player alongside him, for this I went with a ball winning midfielder, someone whose main job was to sit in and focus on primarily winning the ball. I chose James Wallace a young 24 year old to do this and set his position instructions to sit very centrally, not allowing him any freedom of movement away from his two centre backs. He had to protect those two at all costs. …even with his life. Ok not that far but you get the jist.

The Striker(s)

Content with how we looked defensively, I now had to find a way to hurt teams with four players. I now decided to work front to back, would I play with two or one upfront? I decided to go with one upfront despite possessing 2-4 decent strikers. I decided to not only go with one up top but also to play with a target man because I was very aware that with my fullbacks sitting narrower I would have to employ two wingers in order to help those guys out and not be overloaded constantly by wingers and Fullbacks around the sides. I decided by going with one up top, this would have to be a target man (Brock Madsen or defensive forward (Sharp). They would need to run the channels, they would need to literally bully the whole opposing back four not only by their movement and aggression in getting the ball back but also display strong determination by holding the ball up and bringing…in most cases this turned to dragging our whole team up the field.

Back to the Midfield

Upon viewing my squad I quickly decided I couldn’t leave Florent Cuvelier out of my line up, he was just too good.

In addition to not wanting to give up the most vital part of the pitch in the centre midfield position, I felt I needed a player to get beyond the Centre forward. I decided I would play him as an attacking Midfielder ahead of the two holding midfielders and it was his primary job to get in and around our Centre Forward. A job that I felt his attributes naturally lent themselves to. To complete the midfield I settled on two players who could at any point if needed play winger, wide midfielder or if I felt the opposing team’s wingers or fullbacks were strong play as defensive midfielders.

Throughout the season and the many different games, this tactic was sometimes changed to a 4-4-2 or a 3-5-1-1 but at all times it had the basic concepts of;

• Protecting the two Centre Backs

• Remaining compact

• Using the ball quickly and decisively

My Motto through this season was very much ‘DON’T CONCEDE, CAN’T LOSE’ and this is very evident in the amount of games that ended 0-0, 0-1 or 1-0…and there we have it a guide to the tactic that delivered the championship league title in our first season in the championship with a squad predicated to finish 22nd and not a single penny was spent.

If you would like to view this tactic in action or join us on the next phase of our journey please visit my channel https://www.youtube.com/user/MrWada811

I hope this will at least serve to be a platform for all you FM player’s out there struggling with teams who don’t possess the best players or the biggest transfer budget…this series so far has proven you don’t need to spend anything to win things and yes you can bring youth players through and still deliver results.

Now onto the premiership… I will be posting further updates….if I last in the job…GULP!!

Follow me also on twitter @hmedressingroom or facebook The Home Dressing Room

[Cleon]

My beloved Blades

A good thread, more YouTubers should do this kind of thing and post in here.

[Guest]

Nice stuff......really interesting read.

[thatdamgood]

Cheers cleon...I trust you have subscribed to the YouTube channel being a blades fan I hope I have made you proud.

[thatdamgood]

Cheers Ivan...it was really fun reliving the tactic that made me ...I'm really glad you enjoyed the read.