19 Games without Defeat in the Premier League-4-1-3-2 with average players but a great little club

[watsonsclarets]

Well after my old tactic which did well (finished 7th predicted 18th) I wanted something more stable I wanted to move forward and not always get done by the same thing( 2 striker formations)

 

I have always loved 4 central midfielders and love their combinations and I have always gone for 2 strikers.

 

This formation like my last is all about fullbacks mainly the right sided one and my mezzala who chips in with many goals.                                                                

 

The formation is 

1. I do not use PI as I find them well balanced as they are with my Right full back bombing on and providing me with real attacking width 

2. Key men are my covering Centre Back who has 19 for pace as you see below we play very high but he swallows up the balls over the top.

3.Mezzala to be decent in and around the box as you will see mind has 9 league goals by Christmas which is not something I have ever had on FM in all its incarnations is a goalscoring central midfielder.

4. I tend to play my quickest center-forward in the deep-lying position because he can get back to front quicker and will not be behind the play when we move forward.

5. I find the carrrilero who is my most defensive player really who is a DMC but played in that positions helps to be a DMC for balance I tried a more offensively aggressive player and it didn't work as well.

 

FINALLY, THE SET PLAYS WHICH MAYBE A A FLAW IN THE SYSTEM BUT IT SOMETHING I WORKED ON (and when your not an engineer or game buster or algorithm bloke just a football geek).

 

 

 

[watsonsclarets]

Throw Ins

Is this a cheat? I simply do not know I know the AI does not learn from its mistakes and allows me to be very dangerous at a throw-in due to its lack of movement centrally defensively.

As the picture shows it set to long but because my players doesn't have the attributes to deliver he throws it always short to the Striker closest to the ball, creating an instant overload with my 3 players lurking. The only player to press the ball is the front defender creating a really dangerous overload.

My player either takes the front defender on or lays it back to one of the three allowing a really good opportunity on, or he flys it towards the back stick where my Tall center-back is waiting.

[watsonsclarets]

Corners

After reading soccernomics and the Numbers Game and other publications about corners they are overrated most of the times so I wanted to change something.

 

So did I wanted to de-clutter the area and have my best headers go against theirs so I did that. It helps to have a great set pieces taker in Gronli and good headers of the ball in my center-backs.

So here it is only scored 7 directly from corners but have scored around 10-15 with flicks and rebound.

[watsonsclarets]

So the stats

 

Unbeaten in all league and cup comps.

 

Many goals from Midfield as shown.

 

 

[watsonsclarets]

Conclusion.

 

I'm not going to break it down massively it took 3 seasons and a half to come to this tactic after first creating this one.

I like to score a variety of different goals and only really have 4 constants

1. No wide men in the final third from the start

2.4 Central Midfielders 

3.Attack-minded full backs who are quick and can get up and down

4.Borja Mayoral who is my favorite player ever and has been for the last 3 FM'S.

 

Maybe my set plays do give me an edge but I'm at a small club with little money and can not compete with the big clubs so I guess I need all the edge I can.

 

It is much more stable and moves along nicely to my next challenge how to get  Szoboszlai in my team.

I play most games on 90 minutes and have racked up quite a lot of time (i do not like computers just FM).

From Inverting the Pyramid to Throw in wonders I have read so much and must thank @Rashidi

[watsonsclarets]

Oh, one last thing do not be scared to try new stuff I finished 16th last season and kept the job by a thread (9 points in 5 games at the start of this)...

 

[robot_skeleton]

I like your tactic very much! I always prefered wingerless tactics because they are more understandable to set up and there is more variety to them, btw the throw-in stuff is an ongoing problem, it was recognised by SI and are working on a patch. How is your deep-lying forward, is he dropping as much as you would like? Nice work! 😉

[watsonsclarets]

Yes, this is the public Beta version,  yes he dropping in very well and comes deep he allows my mezzala/Central Midfielder (A) to sometimes to move into his channel which creates chaos which is good and unpredictable.

For me not having players in positions makes the game more fun because players invade the space in different ways if that makes sense.

I love the defensive soundness to this formation 15 clean sheets in 23 games.