A question of shape

[jcafcwbb]

In a way to end the cycle of getting a formation which slowly but surely stops being effective I tried to emulate my real life team, AFC Wimbledon, and went with a three formation set of tactics. We have played a 4-2-4, 4-2-3-1 and a 4-3-1-2 this season. So I tried that in my game and won the title fairly easily.

I found being favourite at home I was better off playing 4-2-4. We seemed to far better at breaking down the opponents. There were times when we struggling at this we reverted to the 4-2-3-1 and that made the problems ease.

At away games I usually went with the 4-2-3-1 as that gave me more control in the matches that a 4--2-4 did not. We were more open with the 4-2-4 and could either be picked off or struggle to get in the game. 

Finally the 4-3-1-2 is very effective at dealing with the teams playing a three man central defence. I find you need two strikers on their back three or you struggle offensively. It is especially effective at nullifying the 3-4-1-2, 3-4-2-1 or any narrow four defender formations with an AMC - you do not need a player in the DM line either.

It is strange that rather than micro-managing the tactics screens I can follow my challenge and only use the presets and handle the adjustments with changing the formation, mentality and the roles/player mentalities. I have actually got the control possession idea to work. It will interesting to see how this holds playing in a higher division but adjusting shape seems to be more effective than some of the tweaks to the tactics screens. May be old hat to some of your but it is exciting to me to see an idea work out.