Christopher S

I accidentally ended up using a system that apparently ticks most of the boxes for "meta gegenpressing tactic". I looked at my players, knew my teams level compared to the rest, noted down the key tenets of how I want to play based on players + my personal footballing philosophy. That resulted in a 4-2-3-1 DM, with Attacking, Shorter Passing, Higher Tempo, High Pressing and Pass Into Space. The problem I've come across is that I've not been able to get my players to do what I deem "correct" in a give situation without most of those settings. And at some point, it becomes a matter of "How much time can I defend spending on finding an alternative way of getting them to do do what I want them to?". No Segundo Volante, no Advanced Forward AND I use an AP-sup as the 10, so I'm halfway excused. Yes, it feels kinda bad playing a meta system. But on the other hand, it closely replicates how I think football should be played, and if I can't achieve that without spending unreasonable amounts of time (by my definition), why shouldn't I use the system? Plus, the results are phenomenal. Won the League + Cup in Norway 3 times with Vålerenga, plus a UCL semifinal AND winning the UEL (Jan 2023 - Jan 2028). Took over Real Betis in 2028 in January, sitting in 17th place on track to get relegated. Ended up in 5th that same year. Won the league the following two years, and am about to win a third (Real are pushing me REALLY hard though). Can confirm that Real + Barca are hard as nails, though; we're 23 games into the season in 31/32, and all three of us are undefeated still. Complete madness. Somewhat related; I honestly think the mentality settings do a lot of heavy lifting this year. From my experience, I notice a significantly bigger difference between Positive > Attacking than I do between Balanced > Positive, for example. I honestly wonder if the various "under the hood" sliders are just set too conservatively across the board. The type of movement, passing and decision making I used to see consistently on Positive in FM22 (my previous version, I skipped 23), I now almost exclusively see on Attacking. It's probaby a lot more complex than that, but effects of Mentality and specifically "Pass Into Space" seem to be exaggerated in the ME to me.

Honestly wouldn't hate if there was some kind of rule/guideline/prevention method against this, moderation wise. I have *many* gripes with the game, both how it functions and how it's presented, but no one is constructively served by people regurgitating variations on the concept of "Playstyle X is OP, game broken". I hope you are aware that your contributions are highly regarded and appreciated by a lot of us in here! Somewhat related to said gripes, I do take issue with something @Rashidi said further up, and want to offer a rebuttal: I take issue with the statements of it being easy. Easy in FM is very much a matter of perspective. I think it's almost completely inarguable that FM fails almost completely at giving players accurate and reliable information in relation to tactics. Player role descriptions will differ anywhere from somewhat to wildly from their descriptions, and so will Team Instructions and Player Instructions. Solving the issues you mentioned is easy if you know what to do in the game to accomplish it. Figuring that part out, however, is not easy. It's very, very timeconsuming, as FM provides a limited amount of reliable feedback, in terms of specificity and consistency, on most moves you make - unless you know exactly what to look for. Obviously, none of this is to say it can't be done, nor to say that it's something only a select few will be able to do. But I think it comes off as discouraging and unhelpful; saying "it's so easy" with no further elaboration on *how* mainly conveys a sense of talking down on the person, instead of lifting them up. I hope you don't take this as general criticism of you and/or your work or contributions in general, as you've done more than most to enrich, encourage and teach in this scene. Just figured I'd offer my two cents in a discussion that's pretty relevant to the current forum zeitgeist.

A DW on Defend with Sit Narrower might actually fit the bill if you put Cafu as a CWB on Attack behind him

This looks like a really well crafted 4-3-3 - kudos! I've been trying to do one of these types (IFB+IWB, 3+2 buildup, box midfield kinda thing) of systems my self with limited luck. Looks like your LB, DM and two CMs will create an almost diamond in the midfield? Looks cool! Care to elaborate on PI's and such? I see your Left Winger has player specific instructions as well?

For what it's worth, this is indirectly addressed for next years game with the transition to the Unity Game Engine. It'll offer the developers a significant increase in ability to replicate and display the underlying numbers graphically.

I'm seeing the same issue in my lone striker tactics so far. Averaging 15-25 passes to the forward over a game, regardless of playing a PFa, AF or Poacher. Adding screenshots of the latest two systems I've used where this is happening; My 4-3-3 I've tried this system with AFa and PFa, and in both scenarios I get the above outcome. Results and performance as a team isn't bad by any stretch, but I still fail to get my striker involved in play. I sometimes change the mentality to Positive, and the CMa is sometimes changed to a MEZZa. Left IFs is told to Sit Narrower. Similarly, I had the same issues in this 3-4-3 system: The left sided VOLs has Get Further Forward enabled, and the right IFs is being told to sit narrower.

Hey! Your download link is dead, any chance of a reupload?

You care to share your Team Instructions and the likes?

Curious; what TI's did you pair this up with?