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5-3-2/3-5-2 Wingbacks: The toughest system to get right in FM. Making all 11 perform


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Hello fellow 352ers, lovers of the beautiful game.

I've seen interest in this growing and I write from the soul of many frustrated experiences attempting to get the formation I play at club level to work on FM.

The problems with this formation have always been simple to define for me- It seems like it's difficult to get one "band" of players playing well. The DC's, the 3 Midfielders, Or the attacking 3/2. In 99% of cases it's a problem with the front 3 (MCa/FC/ST); I have occasionally managed to fix their problems at the expense of defense/midfield.

In my view the KEY settings one needs to get right for this formation are Passing type and creative freedom. However, given my on and off success I may be wrong and am looking to work together towards improvements.

My faltering side looks like this:

...........................Doni................................

................................................................

..........................Mexes..............................

................Barzagli..........Luiz........................

....................|...........................................

Cicinho...........................................Guardado

..............Diego....De Rossi.....Aquilani..............

.................|......................^......................

.........................................|......................

.....................Trezeguet...Totti.....................

Fernandinho

Sakho

Adriano

Perrotta

Taddei

Riise

etc...

Settings:

Team: Team Mentality/Team Creative Freedom: Relevant if individuals are set?

Width: 15, Tempo 15, Defensive Line: 15, Tackling Hard, Passing Focus: Mixed, Tight Marking/Offside Trap on.

SW: Mentality: 8, Passing type: Short: 4, Forward runs: Mixed, Through Passes: Mixed

DCa: Mentality 10, Passing type: Short 4, Foward runs: Often,

DC: Mentality: 9, Passing type: Short 4 Foward Runs: Rarely

WB's: Mentality 13-4, Foward Runs: Often, Cross Aim: Trezeguet, (the rest dependent on personal attributes.) Pressing: 13-14

MCa: Mentality: 16, Creative Freedom: 16, Passing: 15, Run with ball: Often, Long Shots, Often, Through passes: mixed, Cross: mixed, Free Role: Yes. Marking: Zonal, Pressing: 17

MCd: Mentality 9, Creative Freedom: 8, Passing: 5, Forward runs: Rarely, Through Passes: Rarely, Run w/ball: Rare, Shoot: mixed, Pressing: 12

MC: Mentality: 11, Creative Freedom: 12, Passing: 11, Forward runs: Mixed, Long shots: Often, Through passes: rarely, Run w/ball: mixed, Cross, Rarely. Pressing: 16

FCd: Mentality: 13, Creative Freedom: 18, Forward Runs: Rarely, Pressing: 18

FCa: Mentality: 17, Creative Freedom: 12, Passing: 15, Forward Runs: Often, Hold Up Ball: Yes, Pressing: 18.

The settings I haven't included are player dependant. I don't think it's overly relevant that the FCd shoot long/mixed for this formation to rise/fall.

The positions I have had SERIOUS issues with and MCa and, MC. 1/10. I have two WORLD CLASS PLAYERS unable to get off a 6, Aquilani usually in the 5's in MC unless he scores a long shot. Diego losing the ball in the midfield from deep rather than dominating.

Positions I have had great success with: MCd, Back 3.

Reasonably Happy with the Wingbacks.

Strikers are *JUST* acceptable. Far from great.

I would rate the positions:

GK: 10/10

DC's: 10/10

WB's: 7.5/10

MCd: 9/10

MCa: 4/10

MCs: 1/10

FCd: 6.5/10

FCa: 6.5/10

Overall: 7/10- with this squad I should be doing much better.

The only solution I have come up with so far is making Diego playmaker in MCa to try and get him on the ball more, which has had good success. So I guess now for my system you could write "playmaker" ON in team settings.

I have tried Long and short passing on these problem MC's so i figure passing is not the problem, or it is overridden by another setting.

So far i've found my adjustments of creative freedom and pressing have GREATLY improved the team. Creative freedom giving my boys more freedom, sometimes sees the MCa overlapping cicinho and that type of thing. Just more movement- I don't think this formation can be played rigidly with low creative freedom.

Secondly, the pressing, which of course has to be relevant to your side/attackers work rates... I have mine quite high which is not ideal but I think it's a vice I struggle to get away from- this formation should have high pressing. Let me know if you think this is causing the trouble! (having not ideal attacks press quite hard)

Paul

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Hey mate, im a big fan of this formation as well, and have come across a few problems as well. A flat 3 midfield seems kind of hard to get huge rating but I think I've got a couple ideas that could help in this area, and across the board.(due to my serious FM addiction which has really gone into overdrive in the last week). Anyway...

GK and CB's are great and should be left alone.

WB's I think should be a bit more attacking, maybe mixed forward runs, and at least mixed run with ball. This should see them sprinting down the touchline and putting balls into the area. Also, if you set Cross from to byline, you should see Aquilani and Diego making runs into the area. So if you set their Cross Aim to mixed, they may cross to Trezeguet, or lay it off for your midfielders if they're nicely placed. Cicinho and Guardado are very good on attack and this can help you.

CM's De Rossi looks perfect and there's no need to touch his settings you have. Aquilani and Diego are both strong on Attack. If you have crosses set to from deep, they should hit the target man, or drop balls ove the d-line into space for the Strikers to run onto. I would also reccomend reducing long shots to mixed for both these guys. This will encourage them to shoot only when they see a good oppurtinity rather than just shoot at will. Other than that, Diego's settings look very good. Personally, I've found him a bit inconsistent in this game, especially from MCa position. Aquilani is an excellant distributor, and I think perhaps you could increase his through balls to mixed.

As far as Strikers go,I dont know much about split mentalities there so I cant really comment on that. I dont think it makes too much difference to be honest. Some things I've noticed in improving their ratings:

The most lethal strikers in this game are the fast ones (as i find out every time I play against Obafemi Martins)

Dont underestimate the use of through balls. With capable strikers a quick one-two can unlock the tighest defense.

For the Fast Striker, I reccomend you use Run With Ball often, in tandem with Forward Runs Often and low/mid creativity. This will encouage him to run at the goal directly and should create some good chances for himself. Basically, like a younger Michael Owen.

Anyways, these are just my thoughts, hopefully it helps!

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ah my friend. the beautiful game indeed but i share a lot of your problems. i play the attacking midfielder in the hole behind the front 2 and he just never performs. i also get my assistant telling me there is a gap betwen defence and midfield and i just cant close it down. most games i draw 1-1 or about win 5-2. my wingbacks always perform great but midfield just not consistant. i have all my team pressing high apart from my back 3.

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Hi there, Thanks for the reply. Typo there- Forward runs is on often for the wingbacks. I'm not worried about defense we hardly concede, I will try your suggestions for Diego/Aquilani though, and for cicinho. The problem IMO from watching appears to be that they are too deep when they get the ball and are confused/don't know what to do with it and lose it. Which is strange because I think they both have a number of options. In any case- what about mentality, creative freedom, forward runs, passing for aquilani? To be honest i've tried countless variations and I beginning to wonder if it's possible to get that position to play well. Occasionally Taddei plays well there- he has a great work rate/team work..... could be my pressing settings bringing him down.

What do you think about adjusting the entire team's mentality settings so Trezeguet is on 20/20 attacking and therefore Aquilani and Diego higher up the pitch as is perhaps more natural to them.... would be riskily attacking i suppose... but the defense is strong/fast so maybe it could work.

@ Littlebear: The gap between the midfield/defense message is because the mentality of your back 3 and midfield is too far apart. As a loose rule: Your entire side should be within 10 or 11 mentality Clicks.. It's stupid and i didn't get it either, but, if your FC is on 20/20 attacking, then your DC should be on 10/20, and your midfield somewhere in between at intervals. WWFan's download at the top of the page is a good resource for explaining some of the odd things in the game.

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Another Question regarding Wingback formations:

Usually when a formation is attacking- for example playing with 15+ width and tempo- the passing focus recommendation is set to "focus out wide", has anyone tried this with wingbacks and what have you found- Is it better mixed, out wide or through the centre? Any suggestions?

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Have been having occasional luck with the MC-MCA, Diego on playmaker, forces the ball to him in good positions more than normally happens when he is without that setting.

Am discovering the importance of Work Rate if you want to play a pressing side- It kills players ratings if you ask them to do it and they are unsuited to the task. (which is ********)

Am still unconvinced over the Width, Tempo and Focus Passing settings. Am going to tinker in the following season. I am unconvinced over a high tempo focus out wide passing system for the 352/532.

Am finding a gap between MC-FC despite playing Mca on 16 and FC on 12. Will update!

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I've been tinkering with my tactics and have the current problem. in some games I'm having up to 70% possession but still only draw or get hit by a sucker punch. i have a very attacking mentality and good players for league 1 but just can't kill teams off.

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yeah i'm running 9.2. My team plays well but its my midfield that struggles. i have tried them in a bank of 3 . with the defensive mid behind the other 2 or my prefered which is the attcking mid in the hole behind the strikers. whatever i do its just not consistant. my defence is playing a lot better due to this thread as is my attack but my mid just won't work.

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yeah i'm running 9.2. My team plays well but its my midfield that struggles. i have tried them in a bank of 3 . with the defensive mid behind the other 2 or my prefered which is the attcking mid in the hole behind the strikers. whatever i do its just not consistant. my defence is playing a lot better due to this thread as is my attack but my mid just won't work.

I play a flat 3 in the midfield, De Rossi the defensive player with no forward runs, short passing and mixed long shots... I play him flat because he's a good attacking threat but it may in fact be more useful to play him outright DMC with forward runs on mixed and often longshots.... I will try and look at his ratings and the general performance...

One thing that probably works with getting the midfielder 3 to play better is to either:

a) make one a playmaker and get the ball to him more

b) play very attacking and focus passing out wide, and get them to overlap and cross- so crosses often, wingbacks forward run often, width and focus out wide...

c) getting the pressing right is important- try to use work rate as a guide for pressing...

What exactly is the problem, other than low ratings? have you watched on extended or full match?

I don't like the focus out wide and CM's crossing for the 352 as it's not really how 352 is supposed to work- i'll be trying a more centrally focussed tactic and will let you know:)

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I've been reviewing my tactics after reading the tactical theorums download mentioned. my team does play very good football and i'm getting the results but still the mid ratings aren't that great. slightly better but not brilliant. I'm now in the championship so gonna invest in some better quality players as the main problem seems to be too many short passes going astray in the middle

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i just don't think its possible to get this tactis to work properly

I agree, though i have a friend who's playing multi-play and won the league with a rubbish squad with it, so.. ergo.. it is. I do think, however, that you have do to have some settings that don't come naturally or logically to the mind when you think of a 352...

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Have just started multiplay season #4 with a 2-7 away win and a new 352/532. A 532 is not really a system that usually focuses on pressing, most clubs i've played with that have used it have been fighting relegation, sitting deep, keeping a shape and when they do have the ball, using the sweeper and DMC to either play very slowly, or launch a direct counter attack. This is not to say you have to sit in your half with it if you're playing as Milan, but it is to say that it doesn't particularly work well as a pressing system in FM, and, without a lot of training in reality also. With this in mind I cut the pressing, dropped the D-Line and have at least one quick striker, porbably two, and an AMC playing direct and through balls, with the rest of the side playing relatively short.

I've always found counter attacking systems to be good on FM as all you have to do to trigger them working is sit deeper, press the button and stick someone fast up front... not sure if it means anything but eh.. 2-7...

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So.. here it is. It's working fairly well, though it could take some tinkering depending on your players. The corner routine I like though the rest of the set pieces are experiments...

http://files.filefront.com/352+catenaccio+Roma+Sep+21tac/;13183767;/fileinfo.html

Key things: As i'm playing a slow tempo/possession, I wanted to play a sweeper that moves forward when we have the ball. However this just leaves you too open to through balls and I don't think it's something the AI can stand. So i've put a DC in the center and given him a lower mentality than the DC/l/r. Therefore I have my "defender going forward" in DC/l and my DC and DC/r as the man markers. If you choose to play like this a creative/good with the ball/passing DC is useful for the DC/l position, and someone you can put on mixed passing.

Pace up front is essential; I doubt the formation will work without it.

My current side is:

.............................Doni..............................

.................................................................

...............Sakho......Luiz......Mexes.................

..................................................................

De Silvestri.......................................Guardado

..................Aquilani........De Rossi....................

...................................................................

.............................Diego...............................

...................................................................

..................Bendtner........Aguero....................

As I said i'm still working things out but early signs looks good- you can change the set pieces and the Aquilani & Bendter positions may be able to be tinkered/improved upon!

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cheers , i.ve had a look at your tactics and they look good but a lot different from mine. i like to play at a high tempo , keep my 3 dc's in shape and have my wingbacks more attack minded. I'm getting very good results now although my mid's still suffer from rating drop now and again but i think this is a problem with the game as if i sub them the player coming on always does well.

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cool. Am having trouble with my flat MC too.

I've always had a similar problem with these types of players in FM-

Players who have no particular attribute you can set up player instructions for- strikers like inzaghi/van nistelrooy (can't dribble, shoot long, cross etc. but are nonetheless fantastic players) - aquilani is the same. Amazing player amazing stats, but because he has low dribbling, crossing etc, and long shooting is bugged in this version, especially from the MC position, i can't get him off a 5... which is absurd if you take a look at him... just have him on everything mixed, creative freedom 15/20...

having said that.. just started the season with 3 wins including a 7-2 over genoa and 4-0 over milan...

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now i'm in the premiership my tactics seem work even better. infact i was able to win the fa cup whilst still in the championship.

do you change your tactics throughout the match. i have standard , attacking and defensive versions of my tactic and shift between them.

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So.. here it is. It's working fairly well, though it could take some tinkering depending on your players. The corner routine I like though the rest of the set pieces are experiments...

http://files.filefront.com/352+catenaccio+Roma+Sep+21tac/;13183767;/fileinfo.html

Key things: As i'm playing a slow tempo/possession, I wanted to play a sweeper that moves forward when we have the ball. However this just leaves you too open to through balls and I don't think it's something the AI can stand. So i've put a DC in the center and given him a lower mentality than the DC/l/r. Therefore I have my "defender going forward" in DC/l and my DC and DC/r as the man markers. If you choose to play like this a creative/good with the ball/passing DC is useful for the DC/l position, and someone you can put on mixed passing.

Pace up front is essential; I doubt the formation will work without it.

My current side is:

.............................Doni..............................

.................................................................

...............Sakho......Luiz......Mexes.................

..................................................................

De Silvestri.......................................Guardado

..................Aquilani........De Rossi....................

...................................................................

.............................Diego...............................

...................................................................

..................Bendtner........Aguero....................

As I said i'm still working things out but early signs looks good- you can change the set pieces and the Aquilani & Bendter positions may be able to be tinkered/improved upon!

I'm starting a go in the German league using this formation, mainly because i want to implement a libero type defender. If you're not having success with a sweeper who advances forward, have you tried playing with a DM/CMd who drops back and covers him?

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well, have just about officially ruled this out as a system- is only possible to get it working with massive crossing which goes against the reality of the system so there's not much point for me. pure CM's get woeful ratings playing in a logical way but make them cross (despite have 12 for crossing) and they're rating shoots up 2 points and your team wins easily... ridiculous

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have eventually come to the same conclusion most come to after studying this in depth: FM09 is a frustrating joke!

The tactical system is ****ed, is like trying to understand a broken car.. andddd basically.. I believe that, for people who previously had a method... today.. what the game finds right are things that most people would never try because it goes against principle. I don't know if i have to make my wingbacks press, my defenders tight mark fast strikers, or my Central midfielders sit back in a 352, but i do know that those are all things I would never try...

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I love 3-5-2 and have tried to play in all the fm series and championship managers before that but I have never been able to get work very well.

Very frustrating as the game seems biased in favour of 4-4-2! :mad:

However I have just got Huddersfield promoted from league1 with following tactics which worked fairly well and got the team playing how I wanted them to,

-------------------------------------Jose Carvalo-------------------

------------------Ezomo Irekipen------Peter Murphy------ Andy Butler

Mirnes Sisec----Jonathan Worthington ---Andy Hodlsworth------ Fransico Marida---Junior

---------------------------Fred Sears-------------Andy Booth----------------

GK- Normal pre-set GK instructions

Middle defender- Attacking mentality, through balls often, long shots mixed/often, run with ball mixed/often

Other two defenders- normal mentality, everything set to rarely

Andy Hodlsworth - Deep lying playmaker type instructions (but no freerole or holdup ball)

Jonathan Worthington- Box to box midfield type instructions (but no freerole or holdup

Fransico Marida- Attacking mentality gung ho, full creative freedom, advance attack playmaker instructions, free role, but not set as the playmaker.

ML/MR- Cross from byline, run with ball often, all other instructions mixed,

Fred Sears(Very fast)- Same instructions as Fransico Marida, Attacking mentality (deeper than Booth)

Andy Booth(Good Heading/Jumping)- Long Shots often, through balls often, run with ball rarely, Forward Runs mixed, Gung Ho mentality

Fransico Marida chipped in with goals from midfield as I wanted him to.

Andy Hodlsworth got plenty of assists and split defences apart with good through balls.

Both wingers got plenty of crosses in with Booth scoring plenty of headers.

Fred Sears ran at defences and put good crosses in for Booth or scored himself.

Peter Murphy came out and won the ball from headers etc with the other two sweeping up at the back with their pace.

However i could never get the final central midfielder playing well (Jonathan Worthington). I tried everything changing the position a MCa, MCd, Attacking advance playmaker, I tried 4 different types of players (on loan) their but couldn't get anything to work. The idea was just to get him charging around tackling people but he just ended up ratings of 5.5-6 while the rest of the team were getting ratings of 7-7.5

The formation isn't working for me at all in the championship though. Maybe because most of the team was on global mentality settings and they were very good for league1 but very poor for the Championship. I just get the opposition punting long balls into wide areas or doubling up on the flanks

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Hi guys, I also like the 5-3-2 formation. There is a fantastic tactic on this forum it is called 3-2-3-1-1 raptor...here's the link http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=103544...I have been using it with Arsenal and have been getting some fantastic results. My team is as follows

Cech

Song Fazio K.Toure

Rafhina/Sagna Marcelo/Clichy

Fabregas Y.Toure Nasri

Walcott

Balotelli

I have also tweaked it to playing 2 strikers up front, but I have used this as a base and tweaked it to suit.

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bah. don't you think it sucks that people have to resort to these cheat tactics rather than just being able to apply football logic?

If I play one way the strikers and the flat MC get 5.4's, then i change it, and the strikers and MC go up but it compromises the defense. Then I get the defense ok and the DMC and the strikers go to ****. It's a joke- you should be able to pick a simple setup with mixed setups and not have to worry about world class players consistently getting 5's..

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Are you saying that because I used someone else's tactic that I am cheating?

... i thought it was pretty clear that i was saying that it sucks that simple logic doesn't work and that you have to resort to some mystery formula to make world class players perform....

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If these people had read my post, they would have seen that I said that I TWEAKED, yes TWEAKED the tactic to suit me...so there may be something in another persons tactic that I did not think of and decide to try it. How would it be if someone's child asked their parents how to do something better and they said "Mind your own business", surely this is how we learn, from our mistakes and from other peoples advice, ie help each other, share knowledge and stop being selfish, if not then why the hell are thay on here?.

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I love 3-5-2 and have tried to play in all the fm series and championship managers before that but I have never been able to get work very well.

Very frustrating as the game seems biased in favour of 4-4-2! :mad:

However I have just got Huddersfield promoted from league1 with following tactics which worked fairly well and got the team playing how I wanted them to,

-------------------------------------Jose Carvalo-------------------

------------------Ezomo Irekipen------Peter Murphy------ Andy Butler

Mirnes Sisec----Jonathan Worthington ---Andy Hodlsworth------ Fransico Marida---Junior

---------------------------Fred Sears-------------Andy Booth----------------

GK- Normal pre-set GK instructions

Middle defender- Attacking mentality, through balls often, long shots mixed/often, run with ball mixed/often

Other two defenders- normal mentality, everything set to rarely

Andy Hodlsworth - Deep lying playmaker type instructions (but no freerole or holdup ball)

Jonathan Worthington- Box to box midfield type instructions (but no freerole or holdup

Fransico Marida- Attacking mentality gung ho, full creative freedom, advance attack playmaker instructions, free role, but not set as the playmaker.

ML/MR- Cross from byline, run with ball often, all other instructions mixed,

Fred Sears(Very fast)- Same instructions as Fransico Marida, Attacking mentality (deeper than Booth)

Andy Booth(Good Heading/Jumping)- Long Shots often, through balls often, run with ball rarely, Forward Runs mixed, Gung Ho mentality

Fransico Marida chipped in with goals from midfield as I wanted him to.

Andy Hodlsworth got plenty of assists and split defences apart with good through balls.

Both wingers got plenty of crosses in with Booth scoring plenty of headers.

Fred Sears ran at defences and put good crosses in for Booth or scored himself.

Peter Murphy came out and won the ball from headers etc with the other two sweeping up at the back with their pace.

However i could never get the final central midfielder playing well (Jonathan Worthington). I tried everything changing the position a MCa, MCd, Attacking advance playmaker, I tried 4 different types of players (on loan) their but couldn't get anything to work. The idea was just to get him charging around tackling people but he just ended up ratings of 5.5-6 while the rest of the team were getting ratings of 7-7.5

The formation isn't working for me at all in the championship though. Maybe because most of the team was on global mentality settings and they were very good for league1 but very poor for the Championship. I just get the opposition punting long balls into wide areas or doubling up on the flanks

back on topic!

Yeah- had the same issue with the flat MC. As i said, i've just found that no matter what, with the 352 there always appears to be one area of your team that is compromised unless you resort to one of these "tactics" built by nasa based on slider clicks and inconceivable tactical notions!

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I thought a 3-5-2 would do for my Pompey Side. It lines up Like this:

Gk: James

3 DC: Kaboul, Campbell, Hyland

LM: Kranjcar

RM:Johnson

3 CM: Diarra, Nekounam, Carioca

2 ST: Crouch, Utaka

We are out of Fa Cup 3rd Round League Cup Third Round Uefa Cup Group Stage 1 Fighting relegation in Prem.

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  • 1 month later...

After 15 seasons playing a counter-attacking 4-4-2 I set out to change up my play and developed a possession oriented 3-1-4-2. It worked like a treat the first season, landing me in fourth place in the PL with Wrexham. The next season I went 7 games without winning, and most importantly, not scoring (fatal for a formation which is so focused on attack) and changed the formation up a bit. I used the 2-6-2 Mentality (just without FB's) as descrived in tactical theorems and frameworks, Now I'm scoring heaps of goals, but concede lots as well. I think I'll go back to 4-4-2 next season as the current formation relies to much on the form of my attacking players.

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