Hi everyone
So i'm an Arsenal fan and we are doing a bit alright at this football thing. So i decided to try and replicate how we play, while not perfect of course it's FM, i've gotten alot of the offensive movement that i've been looking for, so i'm happy with that.
My question is about pressing. More specifically about if there is a way to make my team engage a press in a very specific way. I've tried quite a few things, and none of it seem to work, so i'm just throwing this question out, knowing there quite possibly isn't a way to do it in FM.
So this is how my tactic looks, not quite spot on of course, but i do think i've got mostly the right roles for the kind of movement we get, apart from the poacher, but that is just because i find Jesus drops far too much if he plays anything other than P or AF.
So my question about pressing is if i can get certain player to trigger the press in a specific way Illustrated below.
So i will try to explain what i mean with this picture. When we press IRL, Nketiah or Jesus engage either CB and tries to move them to one side. Here they engage the opponents Rcb and try to get them left. Here Saka will be waiting between the Lcb and Lb, keeping the Lb in his cover shadow. When the ball gets played to the Lcb Saka jumps the press, and Ben white who is not initially marking comes tight on the Lb if the ball would be played towards him.
It could be vice versa in the other side with Zinchenko and Martinelli having the same dynamic.
This is what it often looks like when the press has happened
Usually we will have forced the opposition into a long ball from here, or even better recover the ball high up the pitch. How the midfield three move obviously depend on how the opposition player move, but above is what it would resemble if the opponent build in a 4-3-3. If the opponent build with a double pivot Ødegaard and Xhaka mark up high while Partey and the 3 other defenders that haven't joined the press high man mark.
So now that i've described, in hopefully understandable language since english isn't my first, i will say what i've tried so far. I have tried to use OIs in hopes of showing onto certain foot to block passing lanes, an example would be lcb shown onto right foot, in attempt to get saka to cover the lb in his covershadow. I've also tried the trap inside in hopes of achieving the same cover of passing lane to fb. And while both sometimes kinda did it, it just wasn't very consistent.
Now comes the second problem i encounter, and that's the positioning of Ben White.
I would also want Martinelli wider, but its usually fine because he moves wider later usually. And the position Saka is in, is perfect. Midfield far too deep aswell, another issue. But the most annoying thing here is my RB, he's way too far back. Here i would want him in line with where Ødegaard is, ready to jump the press.
What happens because of this often, is Saka presses the Lcb, Lcb passes their left sided cm, who has no issue doing a first time pass to the Lb because Ødegaard isn't tight, and then the Lb has loads of space in front of him, because my Rb hasn't pushed up to be ready to press.
Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers