3-4-3 - Advice and Help Improving My Tactic

[SuperBiggles]

Hello all,

So, recently I downloaded the file that adds tier 10 English teams, and decided to pick one and do a save were I'm attempting to win it all with an absolute minnow. Obvious inspiration coming from watching and thoroughly enjoying WorkTheSpace's Tow Law save on YouTube.

Team I decided to pick was Whitchurch, and after pre-season I decided to go with this tactic;

 

So, it's as appears there. The only unseen addition I believe is asking both the left and right sided CB's to go wider when in possession. To break down my thinking, this is how I thought it might work for me;

Strikers

My thinking behind this 3-4-3 is assuming that in lower league defences and goalkeepers are generally terrible, so the way to win is to just outscore the opposition. I felt just lumping 3 strikers onto the pitch would aid in this. In terms of the strikers roles... I've gone with two PF(a) either side because those players are pretty good stat wise for those roles, and again, felt that pressuring any opposition backline could help me. The central striker being a Poacher is more out of necessity, and probably the position I'm most wanting some advice on changing. Most of my strikers I've got so far are pretty 'meh'. Nobody excels in the air, otherwise I may have attempted a Target Man of some kind. 
 

Midfield

So, gone for what I felt balanced itself out more or less, from my own very limited and often wrong understanding of FM. Felt on the left side having a DW with a MEZ next to him compliments each other, maybe? I thought the DW wouldn't attempt to get higher up the pitch and would be the... well, more defensive player out of the two pairings. Winning the ball back and laying it off to the MEZ who attempts to attack some of the wider areas. 
On the other side I've gone for a CAR and a Winger. Did this to exploit the fact that the player in the Winger role, Cooper, Is my star player for this side (albeit still crap, but good for the standard I'm playing in). My thinking for this is that the Winger is going to attempt to get further forward, thus leaving a space behind himself... this space is what the CAR will cover and help deal with, thus freeing the Winger to belt forward and cause trouble. 

Defence

Pretty straight forward here I thought for a 3 man defence. The central CB is on Cover owing to the fact that he's fairly pacy for this league (11-13 for all running related stats), so thought it was alright for him to be there to attempt to run back if the opposition attempt to break quickly on me, or my team is left short. The left and right sided CB's are alright players, with the only thing being instructed on them is to go wider when in position, to give passing oppositions to the midfield, since most of them operate wide (from what I understand)

Instructions

For the instructions... asked the players to be more disciplined because not many of the players have any particular flair or anything, and I feel playing a slightly safer pass is better. Should I change this? I also put Dribble Less because my entire squad is pretty dire for dribbling, bar Cooper the right Winger... and with his role he's encouraged to Dribble More anyway, so I think he balances himself out.

I've gone for Re-Group because I don't think Counter Press is a good fit for this low a division, as the amount of running the players would be doing would just utterly shag them out. I do ask them to Press more Intensely, so I feel I'm getting some kind of press on, but without overexcerting the players. Counter is just to lump the ball to the three strikers as soon as, same as the higher tempo.

I'm not to sure about the defensive lines I've got going. I've been told before that if you aren't playing with a DM of any kind then the best bet is to have a slightly lower attacking line in relation to the defence, so as not to leave space/give passing options. Should I drop lower in general if I'm attempting to just play a lump up top on the counter?


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Now, I will be the first to admit I'm not exactly au fait with managing in this low a league, so I could be completely going wrong. So far I'm still early days into this save/season, and I currently sit at 6 wins, 2 losses, 2 draws. So I feel it is kind of working. I always create plenty of chances, the only downside is the finishing sometimes, and I can mostly attribute that to the poor quality of players. And the times I do concede is down to struggling to get a decent 'keeper so far.

Any tips or advice people can give? Keeping in mind the quality of players I've got and the fact that this is tier 10 of English football.
 

[denen123]

If it is working then there's no need to change it.

[wixxi]

10th tier football and you're playing a mezzala in a 2 man midfield?

[SuperBiggles]

16 hours ago, wixxi said:

10th tier football and you're playing a mezzala in a 2 man midfield?

Sorry if it's a stupid question, but is there something wrong with using a MEZ in such a lower league? I've seen conflicting stuff about playing the so called "exotic" roles down in the lower leagues. Some people say the players are too stupid to do it, and I've seen other people saying the opposite. 

If I'd gone for like a Treq or CF somewhere I'd understand some bafflement, but a MEZ isn't too far fetched is it? I dunno, more than willing to be told otherwise. That's why I'm asking for feedback in improving my tactic..

The only reason I've got the MEZ on the squad is from attempting to gel with the DW who plays next to him in the midfield 4. I'm not bothering with any playmakers as such, because the whole shtick for this league I thought was more or less lumping it forward, and hoping for the best.

[camoulton21]

56 minutes ago, SuperBiggles said:

Sorry if it's a stupid question, but is there something wrong with using a MEZ in such a lower league? I've seen conflicting stuff about playing the so called "exotic" roles down in the lower leagues. Some people say the players are too stupid to do it, and I've seen other people saying the opposite. 

I think he's comment had more to do with the fact that the Mezzala is quite an attacking role. Given your chosen 3-4-3 formation it makes more sense imo for your 2 CMs to hold their position and protect the back 3 rather than get forward to attack. I also think that you'd benefit from having 1 or 2 of your STs dropping to link the play, if you'd rather keep your STs in their current roles maybe think about getting the ball forward to them earlier.

It's important to think about your TIs as well as the roles. It might be worth having a re-think about what style of play you are aiming for because some of the choices you've made are quite conflicting. 'Distribute over the defence' and 'play out of defence' for instance don't make a lot of sense when used together.

The most important thing when managing any team is to build a balanced tactic that suits the players. That doesn't mean you cannot use "exotic" roles because if a players attributes suit a role of course they can perform in it. I'd just be careful because some roles take a well-rounded player to perform them well and from my experience lower league players tend to excel in one area and fall down in lots of others. 

[just_joe]

I don't buy into this "exotic roles can't be used in lower league" thing. Have always used them to good effect. It's important to remember that your players are performing against other players of roughly their ability - sure, if you play against Liverpool every week then your poor mezzala won't perform in that role very well, but that'll probably be the least of your worries.

I find tactics with a lone wide player are exceptionally difficult to balance without a full or wing back. However if you want to persevere with the 343 then you can probably get something reasonable by making a few tweaks.

1. MEZ-su --> CM-de (despite the aforementioned support of the mezzala role, you still need a holding midfielder )
2. W-su --> W-at (otherwise nobody is stretching play on the right-hand side)
   I would then say the same or similar on the left flank *BUT* we need some more movement between midfield and attack, so:
3. DW-su --> IW-at (or put this role on the right flank and the W-at here; whichever suits your players best)
   Then we need to get that attacking line to support the midfield a bit better, so:
4. Both PF-at --> PF-de
5. That lazy P-at --> PF-su *OR* DLF-su

Then you'll have a much better balanced system with better movement between the lines. It's not the most solid tactic in the world, but will do - and anyway you said you wanted to outscore the opposition, right?  

 Now to the instructions; my only recommendation would be to drop the Play Out Of Defence TI. Seems a bit risky when there are so few outlets for the CBs; and anyway you have loads of players in forward positions that they can lump it to, even if they aren't the biggest!

Best of luck!

 

[wixxi]

My comment was more aiming towards the fact that a double pivot midfield will require both players to do their fair share of defending, so an aggressive role like a mezzala with get further forward, move into channels AND roam from position will make it quite a risk to play. Personally I don't have much experience with LLM saves so I can't comment on the use of more demanding roles such as Complete Forward, Mezzala etc. being used but I would assume that you have to be more selective when using them since these roles will require strong mentals as most of these roles have movement PIs built into them such as roam from position, move into channels etc.