Help needed improving a 4231 for mid-table teams

[LordLex]

Hello everyone.

 

I'm managing Real Betis in Spanish La Liga and I've had moderate success playing a mixed-passing 4231 formation, but I've got kind of stuck on how to improve it. I believe I have the right (clearly not the best, but still) players for all positions. Key player at the moment would be Nabil Fekir, the AMC.

 

Aside from any other piece of advice on how to improve, that would always be welcome, I have two important questions:

 

Are there any glaring weaknesses/incoherences between the setup, formation, player roles and duties?

 

How can I make the right inside forward (AMR-A) the main scoring threat of the team?

 

[img]https://i.imgur.com/t32jKNd.jpg[/img]

 

Individual instructions are as follows:

 

CMR (AP-S): Roam from position

AMR (IF-S): Get further forward, sit narrower

AMC (AM-S): Take more risks, Hold up ball, Shoot less often, Move into channels

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited October 27, 2020 by LordLex

[zabyl]

47 minutes ago, LordLex said:

Are there any glaring weaknesses/incoherences between the setup, formation, player roles and duties?

WBs on the right with "overlap right" TI is a potential defensive weakness on that side. There is nobody giving him defensive cover on that side (neither APs nor BPDst) when he goes forward. By the way; overlap TI lowers your AMR's attacking tendency which you want to be the main goal threat. 

52 minutes ago, LordLex said:

How can I make the right inside forward (AMR-A) the main scoring threat of the team?

Wİth a RMD or an IFa with roaming PI without overlap/underlap TI on that side.

My suggestions for this are;

• Changing IFs on the right to an IFa role with only roam from position PI selected to free his movement for finding more spaces and not to force him to sit narrower everytime or a more aggressive attacker like a RMD.
• Changing RBs role to a FBs to make that side more solid in defence.

Using 2 playmakers on the same area is not a good choice of play. They are not very different from each other also. I see too many tactics like this. Are you trying to make an APs to play like a RPM with roaming PI? Using a RPM instead of an APs is the true way if you want a different playmaker who plays like a BBM with more creativity and ball attraction.

Using a playmaker in front of a BPD is not a good choice. Each of them try risky passes which increases the risk of losing the ball. By the way, you have too many risky passing options in this tactic.

Counter pressing TI best suits more attacking tactics like 4-2-3-1 and can be added to your tactic.

[Experienced Defender]

2 hours ago, LordLex said:

 

2 hours ago, LordLex said:

Are there any glaring weaknesses/incoherences between the setup, formation, player roles and duties?

AP as a role is not an optimal choice for a CM in a system like 4231 (top-heavy and hence inherently more vulnerable defensively compared to more balanced formations). On top of that, 2 playmakers next to each other usually leads to tactical overkill and more often than not isn't the best idea (there are exceptions, but your tactic is not one of them). 

WB on attack duty is also a pretty risky role in a top-heavy system with no DM. And this risk is even higher with the Underlap left TI you are using. Because an underlap instruction - just like an overlap, for that matter - increases the individual mentality of the related fullback/wing-back. And yours is already too attack-minded even without the underlap. FB on attack duty and without the underlap TI would be a lot more sensible choice. 

You have no meaningful central penetration. Instead, you have a fairly conservative AM and 2 playmakers behind him. On top of that, with both wide forwards played as IFs on support duty, your AMsu is likely to struggle for space and cannot be as effective as he could otherwise be. 

Hard to figure out what's your reasoning behind the combo of higher DL and lower LOE + get stuck in, especially when the rest of your tactic is taken into account. Because lower LOE (coupled with get stuck in) makes sense for counter-attacking football, but your setup of roles and duties looks much more as a possession-for-the-sake-of-possession style of play. 

[denen123]

On 27/10/2020 at 21:29, LordLex said:

Hello everyone.

 

I'm managing Real Betis in Spanish La Liga and I've had moderate success playing a mixed-passing 4231 formation, but I've got kind of stuck on how to improve it. I believe I have the right (clearly not the best, but still) players for all positions. Key player at the moment would be Nabil Fekir, the AMC.

 

Aside from any other piece of advice on how to improve, that would always be welcome, I have two important questions:

 

Are there any glaring weaknesses/incoherences between the setup, formation, player roles and duties?

 

How can I make the right inside forward (AMR-A) the main scoring threat of the team?

 

[img]https://i.imgur.com/t32jKNd.jpg[/img]

 

Individual instructions are as follows:

 

CMR (AP-S): Roam from position

AMR (IF-S): Get further forward, sit narrower

AMC (AM-S): Take more risks, Hold up ball, Shoot less often, Move into channels

 

Thanks in advance.

Your right flank is/might be vulnerable.