You Can't Teach an Old Gold New Tricks - Attempted Tactical Replication Of Nuno Espirito Santo's Wolverhampton Wanderers

[Chevie]

Rather than this be lost in the other thread that may / may not be about re-creating Wolves' 3-4-3 or might just be about creating a 3-4-3 which works, here I go with my own separate thread!

What that discussion did do, however, is inspire me to actually try and re-create Wolves' tactics from this season.

Wolves have surprised a lot of people this season with how well they have adapted to life in the Premier League, claiming a few big scalps along the way - most recently my team, Manchester United, in the FA Cup.

I have based these tactics on the following article and video, but also what I have seen when watching them occasionally this season:

https://www.elartedf.com/wolves-tactical-analysis-nuno-santo/

 

I shall quote the points that helped me make my decisions for how I have come up with the two alternations of Wolves' 3-5-2 as well as their 3-4-2-1.

Mentality

Wolves aren't an overly attacking or defensive team, even when playing weaker or stronger sides. This mentality also allows me to use the team instructions to dictate the style of play rather than having to over compensate when things like Line Of Engagement are automatically changed by the mentality.

In Possession

"Wolves set the tempo of their forward play by building from the back against most sides."

"In terms of build-up, Wolves favour playing down that left hand side."

"Try to occupy positions nearby and play intricate triangular passes to move the ball up the pitch."

In Transition

"They counter press the ball in a similar fashion as they apply pressure in swarms of three."

"Immediately after winning the ball, their midfielders spray a diagonal pass to look for the attack-minded wing-backs. Simultaneously, forward runs are made by the front three and one of the midfielders to support the counter-attack."

"No Premier League team has made more counter attacks than Wolves this season."

Out Of Possession

"The 7th placed Wolves generally employ a mid-block"

"When the opponent crosses the center line, Wolves apply pressure from the front to force the opposition to retreat deeper in the wings and pass the ball back."

"They defend in a compact 5-3-2."

Goalkeeper

PI's:

None

Defence

"Positionally, they are spaced out wide to occupy the full width of the pitch."

"However, it is important to note that when there is no numerical overload in the forward press of the opponent, the midfielder does not have to undergo a positional switch to kick start the transition from back to front. Thus, one of the wide central defenders plays a vital tole in working as a ball carrier, taking on the onrushing pressers and dribbling past them to open up spaces in the middle."

"Directly switching through Conor Coady. In fact an astonishing 27% of Coady's passes are 30 yards or longer. And no player in the Premier League has completed more longer passes than Conor Coady."

I would ideally prefer to not have left and right sided defenders as BPD instead of CD in all formations but this was the only way I could add the PI to Dribble More to each of these players. I would have also preferred to give the central defender More Direct Passing but this wasn't possible on the PI screen.

PI's:

Stay Wider (Bennett and Boly)

Dribble More (Bennett and Boly - 3-5-2 (1) and 3-4-2-1 only)

Wingbacks

"But when Wolves have created that overlaod on the left hand side, they look to switch the play to Doherty on the right."

"Once Doherty has the ball one-v-one, he drives at his opposition looking to beat his man before getting a cross in or a shot away."

"Santo's side tend to attack using the wide positioning of their fullbacks to stretch the opposition defence."

PI's:

Stay Wider (Both players)

Midfield

"Moutinho creates overloads all over the pitch."

"There are situations when the opponent presses them high with three players. In such cases, one of their classy deep midfielders in either Ruben Neves or Leander Dendoncker drop in between Coady and one of the wider center-backs to overlad the press and then facilitates passing the ball out from defence."

"Moutinho in not only Wolves' top assister, but he's made more tackles than any other player in the Premier League."

PI's:

Roam From Position and Tackle Harder (Moutinho - All formations)

Attack

"This affords space for their inside forwards to make runs through the channels between the opposing team's center-backs and full-backs."

"They work incredibly hard off the ball."

"What makes the pair so dangerous is their positioning, either between the center back and the full back or coming off the line."

"When they've advanced enough, Diogo Jota drops off the line to link the play."

PI's:

Move Into Channels (Jota in both the 3-5-2's and Jimenez in the 3-4-2-1)

Bringing It All Together

Standard Formation:

Formation Against Teams Using a High Press:

Formation When Another Forward is Required:

 

I've not done any tests on these tactics to even see if they work yet but will report back once I've got a few results in!

Any feedback would be much appreciated

[warlock]

2 hours ago, Chevie said:

Any feedback would be much appreciated

I couldn't say how well that replicates Wolves - or how well it will play in FM19 - but it's certainly a thorough approach, and an excellent explanation of the thought process.

It's certainly made me want to fire up a Wolves save 

[Jean0987654321]

Hmm...I would say Jota is a Treq in the AM strata in the 3-5-2 and is a treq in the 3 man forward line. He is attracted to the ball and makes some killer passes

[Chevie]

2 hours ago, Jean0987654321 said:

Hmm...I would say Jota is a Treq in the AM strata in the 3-5-2 and is a treq in the 3 man forward line. He is attracted to the ball and makes some killer passes

Interesting thought.

I certainly like the idea of changing his role in the 3 man forward line so that the team’s not so one dimensional by being a mirror image of the AMR.

In the 3-5-2, I’ll use my next friendly to see how his movement differs by changing the role but I prefer the F9 for now because of where the video says he drops off the line rather than already being a little deeper.

A front 2 both on attack duties may also be a little isolated but I’ll definitely give it a try!

[Walshy]

@Chevie Great thread! Love how you’ve justified every decision with a quote from the video. Class! 

[sporadicsmiles]

A really nice post. This is how people should approach creating tactics. Every single thing you have done in the tactics you post, you have completely justified in terms of what you want from players.

I guess the next point will be to see how it works. Do you get the football you want? Can you provide examples of what works (and just as importantly, what didn't and how you adapted? People do not post about failures enough, it gives a false impression that everyone gets things right first time)? I look forward to seeing some match analysis, if this is what you plan to do.

Since I just conceded a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3 with Wolves, I am not their biggest fan right now though!

[Chevie]

@Walshy Thanks!

14 minutes ago, sporadicsmiles said:

I guess the next point will be to see how it works. Do you get the football you want? Can you provide examples of what works (and just as importantly, what didn't and how you adapted? People do not post about failures enough, it gives a false impression that everyone gets things right first time)? I look forward to seeing some match analysis, if this is what you plan to do.

Don't worry, I'm not going to be creating and running haha

Working through pre-season now so will report back once I'm done. Normally I'd blitz through this part of the season but taking a bit longer now I'm actually analysing what I've created.

[Robson 07]

Its a nice opening post.  Good luck.  And watch you don't get countered too often down your right side in those tactics you showed.

[Mutumba]

Great read, will deffo try this with my Wolves save.

 

Question:

Where can you see if the opponents are using high press or not? It didnt appear any such information in the scouting report

[RocheBag]

Excellent post. I've taken to watching Wolves a lot this year as it reminds me a lot of the football my Blues played under Conte, and watching Chelsea this year bores me to tears.

This is exactly how I would create the tactic, the only bit that surprised me was playing down the left. We'll just have to see if those switches over to Doherty happen often enough, as he is a huge part of the attack. There is actually no more common long pass in the Premier League this season than Coady --> Doherty. One could even make the argument that Doherty should be a CWB on attack. He pops up everywhere and at one point before Jimenez got firing he was their leading scorer.

I'm also happy you've recognized the real shape of the team. Most graphics show it as a 3-4-1-2 with Moutinho ahead of the other midfielders in the middle. He certainly plays on the left of the three though, it's clear when they defend.

Happy to see how this progresses. I made a very similar tactic and just tested it for a few games with Wolves before bringing it to a different save, because lower league management is what I enjoy most. 

[Chevie]

47 minutes ago, Mutumba said:

Where can you see if the opponents are using high press or not? It didnt appear any such information in the scouting report

If that's the case then I am going to have to base this on how it looks to me like the opposition are playing. Not ideal but then we all know teams like Liverpool are going to high press which may also help.

31 minutes ago, RocheBag said:

This is exactly how I would create the tactic, the only bit that surprised me was playing down the left. We'll just have to see if those switches over to Doherty happen often enough, as he is a huge part of the attack. There is actually no more common long pass in the Premier League this season than Coady --> Doherty. One could even make the argument that Doherty should be a CWB on attack. He pops up everywhere and at one point before Jimenez got firing he was their leading scorer.

You're not the only one disappointed about not being able to get Coady to Doherty to work. Even with his PPM of "Tries Long Range Passes" he still really doesn't do it enough for my liking so far. Although from the below you can see he is certainly receiving the ball a lot, high up the pitch too:

I've now played 6 friendlies so working on a bit of analysis for how it's going so far, will post my findings here soon.

[SixPointer]

Loving how you have set about this. I recently have been trying to recreat a replication of a juve style tactic when pirlo played and I was getting frustrated from not seeing what I wanted to see. Reading this and the way you have went about it had gave me fresh ispriation. I think your nailed on with a lot of it. I think the JOTA role is the hardest to replicate I don’t see him as a true false 9 as he does some times break in behind the defence line. But then he does drop deep and link. Tough one but I look forward to seeing your results and findings. 

[RocheBag]

19 minutes ago, SixPointer said:

 I think the JOTA role is the hardest to replicate I don’t see him as a true false 9 as he does some times break in behind the defence line. But then he does drop deep and link. 

 

35 minutes ago, Chevie said:

You're not the only one disappointed about not being able to get Coady to Doherty to work. Even with his PPM of "Tries Long Range Passes" he still really doesn't do it enough for my liking so far. Although from the below you can see he is certainly receiving the ball a lot, high up the pitch too:

 

Coady is a tough one, are you able to give him more direct passing in PI?

As for Jota, in my tactic I have him as a Shadow Striker offset to the left at AMCL. He drops deep and bursts forward, I'm pretty happy with it.

[SixPointer]

2 minutes ago, RocheBag said:

 

Coady is a tough one, are you able to give him more direct passing in PI?

As for Jota, in my tactic I have him as a Shadow Striker offset to the left at AMCL. He drops deep and bursts forward, I'm pretty happy with it.

Shadow striker could be the answer. I can’t say I’ve watched a lot of him specifically but from the games he does burst forward from deep but also creates. I don’t think there is anyway to replicate the coady passing the amount he does. I had a Similar issue trying to create bouncci type passing. 

[Chevie]

Early Friendly Analysis

So in these early friendly matches, there were a few key aspects of these tactics I wanted to see happening:

1) "In terms of build-up, Wolves favour playing down that left hand side."

2) "Their midfielders spray a diagonal pass to look for the attack-minded wing-backs."

3) "Positionally, they [the defence] are spaced out wide to occupy the full width of the pitch."

4) "No player in the Premier League has completed more longer passes than Conor Coady."

5) "Santo's side tend to attack using the wide positioning of their fullbacks to stretch the opposition defence."

6) "Moutinho in not only Wolves' top assister, but he's made more tackles than any other player in the Premier League."

Now to see if any of this is actually happening yet ...

 

"In terms of build-up, Wolves favour playing down that left hand side."

Pretty conclusive. As you can see from the above heat map our play is certainly focused down the left. As, as a bonus for @RocheBag , you can see that Doherty's side of the pitch is also well used.

 

"Their midfielders spray a diagonal pass to look for the attack-minded wing-backs."

Matt Doherty:

Jonny Otto:

I am happy with the amount of passes which are being received by the wing backs. Especially as a lot of them are relatively long distance.

 

"Positionally, they [the defence] are spaced out wide to occupy the full width of the pitch."

Ryan Bennett:

Willy Boly:

From these touch maps, the two outside center backs do keep decent width. I would possibly like this to be slightly more exaggerated but don't want to risk the team's solidarity by asking them to play with more width.

 

"No player in the Premier League has completed more longer passes than Conor Coady."

My first real disappointment with this tactic. Conor Coady is not passing long anywhere near enough for my liking. He has the trait "Tries Long Range Passes" but that clearly isn't enough to counter-act the shorter passing central defenders seem to be plagued with. I have started him on a training regime to add the trait "Likes To Switch Ball To Other Flank" which will hopefully help up the number of passes he sends out towards Jonny and Doherty.

 

"Santo's side tend to attack using the wide positioning of their fullbacks to stretch the opposition defence."

From the wing back's heat maps, I'm relatively happy with their positioning. Jonny could do with being a little higher. I don't both of my wing-backs to be on Attack duty so I have instead got him training to learn the trait "Gets Forward Whenever Possible". Hopefully this may even the above out a little bit.

 

"Moutinho in not only Wolves' top assister, but he's made more tackles than any other player in the Premier League."

With 3 assists in 5 starts, Moutinho is currently the top assist maker in pre-season (alongside Jimenez who has started all 6). Good start.

In terms of tackling, he has made 15 tackles in those 5 starts. Good finish!

 

Hopefully all of the above will improve more as the tactical familiarity improves with more and more matches played. I will experiment with making Doherty a CWB and Jota a SS / TQ in the next four friendlies to see if I prefer their movement with these new roles.

[Chevie]

16 minutes ago, RocheBag said:

Coady is a tough one, are you able to give him more direct passing in PI?

Unfortunately not, I'm now going to experiment with adding more PPMs and see if that has the desired impact.

[Sebas]

Maybe Coady's problem could come from using play out of defense in conjuction with having a DPL directly in front of him? 

[RocheBag]

43 minutes ago, Sebas said:

Maybe Coady's problem could come from using play out of defense in conjuction with having a DPL directly in front of him? 

Shorter passing in general too.

[Sebas]

hace 1 minuto, RocheBag dijo:

Shorter passing in general too.

Its pretty annoying because the most direct solution would be to increase Coady's passing but using those TI's doesn't allow it to be done in the PI's interface. If memory doesn't fail me i think that you could do that in FM18 which is very weird.

[Chevie]

42 minutes ago, Sebas said:

Its pretty annoying because the most direct solution would be to increase Coady's passing but using those TI's doesn't allow it to be done in the PI's interface. If memory doesn't fail me i think that you could do that in FM18 which is very weird.

Yeah, I seem to remember it being possible in previous versions too.

My only alternative could be to remove Shorter Passing and Play Out Of Defence and then give all other players the PI to pass the ball shorter and give Coady more direct passing.

I’d rather not have to give out so many PI’s but that might be the only solution.

I think I’m going to leave it as is for now and wait to see if the PPM I’m adding to Coady changes anything since if I recall correctly they override TI’s ...

[divij13]

Great thread!

I think to get Coady to spray the passes you’re looking for him to do, it would probably be better to remove the Shorter Passing TI and also change Neves role from DLP to DM / Anchor Man with direct passing. 

I know Neves is the brain behind the system but the way it is now it seems like Coady is playing most of his passes into the DLP. 

[RocheBag]

11 hours ago, Chevie said:

Yeah, I seem to remember it being possible in previous versions too.

My only alternative could be to remove Shorter Passing and Play Out Of Defence and then give all other players the PI to pass the ball shorter and give Coady more direct passing.

I’d rather not have to give out so many PI’s but that might be the only solution.

I think I’m going to leave it as is for now and wait to see if the PPM I’m adding to Coady changes anything since if I recall correctly they override TI’s ...

Yeah, maybe remove those and add shorter passing to Boly/Bennett, and direct passing to Coady. Could be worth a shot if the PPM doesn't work.

[RocheBag]

Just now, RocheBag said:

Yeah, maybe remove those and add shorter passing to Boly/Bennett, and direct passing to Coady. Could be worth a shot if the PPM doesn't work.

Just to add on to this. You might want to try it even with the PPM. When we're talking about someone who has completed the most long passes in the league, you may want all the instructions and PPMs you can get.

[Chevie]

@RocheBag this is definitely my thinking, I am going to use the next few friendly matches I have scheduled to test if removing these TI's and adding the PI to Coady have a positive impact (without being detrimental to the rest of the side).

[RocheBag]

46 minutes ago, Chevie said:

@RocheBag this is definitely my thinking, I am going to use the next few friendly matches I have scheduled to test if removing these TI's and adding the PI to Coady have a positive impact (without being detrimental to the rest of the side).

I've just discovered one more option. You could set Coady as a libero on support. On this role you can apply direct passing to him even with play out of defense on, then you can set him to hold position so he doesn't go wandering off. You could also train him go stay back at all times.

I'm still testing it in my tactic but it looks alright so far.

[Chevie]

50 minutes ago, RocheBag said:

I've just discovered one more option. You could set Coady as a libero on support. On this role you can apply direct passing to him even with play out of defense on, then you can set him to hold position so he doesn't go wandering off. You could also train him go stay back at all times.

I'm still testing it in my tactic but it looks alright so far.

Great find! I definitely prefer this solution. Thanks for the help 

Hopefully this will allow me to keep Neves as a DLP too.

[RocheBag]

1 hour ago, Chevie said:

Great find! I definitely prefer this solution. Thanks for the help 

Hopefully this will allow me to keep Neves as a DLP too.

Cheers 

[Harryseaess]

This looks a good tactic. I'll have a play around with my United side. Will be playing de Ligt as a Libero in the middle CB role, will also have passing set to standard with everyone except de Ligt on short passing (he'll be on more direct).

I'll also be playing with an AML on Inside Forward (with the sit narrower instruction) and a Pressing Forward up top, but further to the right, will see how we get on.

[RocheBag]

Just beat Tottenham 3-1 away and Man City 2-1 at home on the bounce. Comfortable with both goals conceded. One 25 yarder from Eriksen and one poor clearance by Bennett that fell to the foot of Mahrez.

I don't have internet on my laptop so I can't do screenshots, so I've attached an awful cell phone picture.

PI:

Goalkeeper - Pass shorter

Stoppers - Stay wider, pass shorter

Libero - Hold position, more direct passing 

Wingbacks - Stay wider, close down more (without this I found the central mids closing down the wings, this helps the wingbacks do it instead)

Shadow Striker - Close down more 

Usually I have Moutinho in place of Gibbs-White and as a roaming playmaker, but hes out injured.

It's been great so far.

[Chevie]

Tactical Update

So, based on the feedback given so far in this thread, I amended Coady's role to a Libero on Support duty with hold position and more direct passes, whilst removing the TI of shorter passing. The results were pleasing:

You can see from the above that the passing is looking much more like how I wanted it to when originally making the tactic.

These are the only changes I have made so far because I feel that having Jota as a F9 means that he drops deeper to get involved rather than starting deeper if I used him at AMCL (this movement matches the video I linked a little more).

[Jean0987654321]

1 hour ago, RocheBag said:

Just beat Tottenham 3-1 away and Man City 2-1 at home on the bounce. Comfortable with both goals conceded. One 25 yarder from Eriksen and one poor clearance by Bennett that fell to the foot of Mahrez.

I don't have internet on my laptop so I can't do screenshots, so I've attached an awful cell phone picture.

PI:

Goalkeeper - Pass shorter

Stoppers - Stay wider, pass shorter

Libero - Hold position, more direct passing 

Wingbacks - Stay wider, close down more (without this I found the central mids closing down the wings, this helps the wingbacks do it instead)

Shadow Striker - Close down more 

Usually I have Moutinho in place of Gibbs-White and as a roaming playmaker, but hes out injured.

It's been great so far.

Umm...you could just alt+F9 and move the pic to your phone storage via USB but ok...

[SixPointer]

28 minutes ago, Chevie said:

Tactical Update

So, based on the feedback given so far in this thread, I amended Coady's role to a Libero on Support duty with hold position and more direct passes, whilst removing the TI of shorter passing. The results were pleasing:

You can see from the above that the passing is looking much more like how I wanted it to when originally making the tactic.

These are the only changes I have made so far because I feel that having Jota as a F9 means that he drops deeper to get involved rather than starting deeper if I used him at AMCL (this movement matches the video I linked a little more).

Brilliant!!! Looks a lot more like coady. How is his positional play? Is he staying in the back 3? Is he been caught out of position. 

[RocheBag]

56 minutes ago, Jean0987654321 said:

Umm...you could just alt+F9 and move the pic to your phone storage via USB but ok...

If I were home and had access to these things I would have internet on my laptop.

[RocheBag]

1 hour ago, Chevie said:

Tactical Update

So, based on the feedback given so far in this thread, I amended Coady's role to a Libero on Support duty with hold position and more direct passes, whilst removing the TI of shorter passing. The results were pleasing:

You can see from the above that the passing is looking much more like how I wanted it to when originally making the tactic.

These are the only changes I have made so far because I feel that having Jota as a F9 means that he drops deeper to get involved rather than starting deeper if I used him at AMCL (this movement matches the video I linked a little more).

That is looking great mate, much better than before.

[Chevie]

1 hour ago, SixPointer said:

Brilliant!!! Looks a lot more like coady. How is his positional play? Is he staying in the back 3? Is he been caught out of position. 

Early signs are that he pushes slightly ahead of the other two defenders up until just before the half way line before stopping and falling back in line.

[SixPointer]

12 hours ago, Chevie said:

Early signs are that he pushes slightly ahead of the other two defenders up until just before the half way line before stopping and falling back in line.

Perfect. And does he sweep when defending?

[RocheBag]

The only issue I'm having with Coady is something I think we won't be able to fix. Ideally he would stay behind the other two CB at all times when we're in possession to make himself always available for a pass. I can't get him to do it on any role or duty. I think it's just a problem with back 3s in the match engine.

[Chevie]

1 hour ago, SixPointer said:

Perfect. And does he sweep when defending?

He’s mainly in line with the others from what I can see, but I will keep more of a keen eye to see if he’s sweeping behind much or not. I’ll report back soon on that.

[SixPointer]

3 hours ago, Chevie said:

He’s mainly in line with the others from what I can see, but I will keep more of a keen eye to see if he’s sweeping behind much or not. I’ll report back soon on that.

Perfect man think you may have solved my issue with the bouncci role. 

[Dong21]

Really interesting thread @Chevie! Looking forward to seeing how your tactic evolves as you continue to iterate and experiment.

[yellowforever]

Good stuff @Chevie. Eagerly following this.

[mernild]

Very nice read. Please do keep us updated.

[Chevie]

@Dong21 @yellowforever @mernild thank you very much!

@SixPointer He doesn't seem to be doing much sweeping, more so staying in line with Bennett and Boly. That may be impacted by the "Hold Position" PI I've had to give him to stop him from roaming forwards too much when we're in possession. I'm also not playing a high line so there's no real need for the cover in behind which may also be stopping him from dropping off.

[SixPointer]

7 hours ago, Chevie said:

@Dong21 @yellowforever @mernild thank you very much!

@SixPointer He doesn't seem to be doing much sweeping, more so staying in line with Bennett and Boly. That may be impacted by the "Hold Position" PI I've had to give him to stop him from roaming forwards too much when we're in possession. I'm also not playing a high line so there's no real need for the cover in behind which may also be stopping him from dropping off.

Thanks man! Gives me food for thought! 

[Chevie]

Tactic Analysis

So, before we get into this, I made a couple of changes to the tactic quite early on. I changed Bennett and Boly to normal CD's rather than BPD's as I felt the PI of Take More Risks meant that they were going more direct with their passing rather than using Coady for this. In order to get them to dribble more, I have got both of them to start learning the trait Brings Ball Out of Defense. This hasn't taken effect yet so will need to report back on how this impacts the way they play.

I also changed Doherty to a CWB rather than just a WB. This has resulted in him being more involved in the game and has led to him being more of a goal threat too.

Lastly, as you will have seen from the discussion above, I amended Coady's role to a Libero and removed the TI of Shorter Passing to improve his passing range.

 

The following screen shots have all been taken from a recent 0-0 draw at home to West Ham.

Wolves set the tempo of their forward play by building from the back against most sides.

In terms of build-up, Wolves favour playing down that left hand side.

Immediately after winning the ball, their midfielders spray a diagonal pass to look for the attack-minded wing-backs.

They defend in a compact 5-3-2.

Positionally, they are spaced out wide to occupy the full width of the pitch.

Santo's side tend to attack using the wide positioning of their fullbacks to stretch the opposition defence.

Directly switching through Conor Coady. In fact an astonishing 27% of Coady's passes are 30 yards or longer. And no player in the Premier League has completed more longer passes than Conor Coady.

Once Doherty has the ball one-v-one, he drives at his opposition looking to beat his man before getting a cross in or a shot away.

Key Stats:

Doherty has 3 goals and 4 assists in 27 games giving him the third highest goal involvements after Jimenez (11/4 - 27 games) and Jonny (2/9 - 28 games), level with Jota (7/0 - 21 games).

Moutinho in not only Wolves' top assister, but he's made more tackles than any other player in the Premier League.

Key Stats:

Moutinho has made 63 tackles this season, second only to Neves' 65 - He has however, played one less game (25 compared to 26).

Moutinho has 3 assists this season. He is 4th behind Jonny (9 - 28 games), Jimenez (4 - 27 games) and Doherty (4 - 27 games).

When they've advanced enough, Diogo Jota drops off the line to link the play.

 

So, from what I can see, the tactic is playing out how I would expect it to. A lot of the key points from my opening post are happening which is pleasing. The results at the start of the season were much better than I ever expected by beating Tottenham, Liverpool AND Chelsea. Form has dipped recently though which may be because the AI has started to adapt their tactics to counter this system but I have stubbornly stuck with the same tactic every game for this tactical replication. We currently sit 10th at the end of January.

Results:

Table:

[RocheBag]

Great post, just a note - the AI doesn't counter your tactics, it merely approaches you more or less cautiously depending on your form. At the start of the season teams attacked you and you made use of the space, then they started being more cautious because you were winning.

[Chevie]

1 hour ago, RocheBag said:

Great post, just a note - the AI doesn't counter your tactics, it merely approaches you more or less cautiously depending on your form. At the start of the season teams attacked you and you made use of the space, then they started being more cautious because you were winning.

Yeah, when I said countering the system this is what I meant 

Clearly the club's reputation has outgrown the tactic now haha - Hopefully form can pick back up for the remainder of the season and I'm not removed from my post before I can give a season overview ...

[Chevie]

4 hours ago, Chevie said:

Hopefully form can pick back up for the remainder of the season and I'm not removed from my post before I can give a season overview ...

Well, that went well ... Won the next next game at home to Burnley 2-1 but still got the sack! Guess the experiment is now over. I may create a new career and give it another go but that's me done for now.

If anyone else is trying to replicate this tactic, let me know how you've got on with your versions!

[RocheBag]

2 hours ago, Chevie said:

Well, that went well ... Won the next next game at home to Burnley 2-1 but still got the sack! Guess the experiment is now over. I may create a new career and give it another go but that's me done for now.

If anyone else is trying to replicate this tactic, let me know how you've got on with your versions!

I'm in the same boat. Not using Wolves but I've been playing 3-5-2 on FM since 2013. When I started watching Wolves this year I was amazed they play exactly like I want my teams to play.

I started the season great, killing teams on the counter attack, scoring for fun and conceding nothing. Now I'm sitting in 1st and I can't buy a win. There's no space at all, teams are just defending deep and I've got absolutely no answer for it.

I've tried throwing more men forward, I've tried being more cautious, moving the mentality up and down. Nothing works. The only thing I haven't tried is abandoning the formation which I'm not willing to do.

[Jean0987654321]

6 hours ago, RocheBag said:

I'm in the same boat. Not using Wolves but I've been playing 3-5-2 on FM since 2013. When I started watching Wolves this year I was amazed they play exactly like I want my teams to play.

I started the season great, killing teams on the counter attack, scoring for fun and conceding nothing. Now I'm sitting in 1st and I can't buy a win. There's no space at all, teams are just defending deep and I've got absolutely no answer for it.

I've tried throwing more men forward, I've tried being more cautious, moving the mentality up and down. Nothing works. The only thing I haven't tried is abandoning the formation which I'm not willing to do.

Have you setup your set pieces. I found a couple of set piece "cheats" that gives me loads of goals from there...