skyzekaizo

Creating depth in FM, the eistance between your defensive line and your front line, depends on your opposition's pressing engagement because it sets where your defenders are going to sit during build up, and their defensive line because it sets where your front line will sit during build up. In order to open that space you need to create a threat which they can't cover for with their defensive shape. If they play high press/high def line, switch to a more direct style of play with more attacking duties, early crosses and forget about playing out of defense. If they play a mid block with high def line lower the tempo and consider using a HB to get them to commit to the press and open up their defensive shape (also becsuse of the high line you still need to consistently threaten them with direct pings). Against standard or lower defensive lines you generally should not struggle in creating depth unless all your players are crashing the box simultaneously

I would recommend against FM24 and try FM23 or 22. FM24's match engine is insanely bad and players rarely make any good decisions, their movement is 100% reproduction of how players move on table football, and they consistently choose the worst passing option and loose the ball instead of recycling in away games. Also tactics rarely make a difference in FM24 and you're better off simulating games to get realistic results rather than playing them.

Point 2 and 3 are true, point 1 is completely false though. You can have more than 2 playmakers but you need to space them a bit otherwise you don't give them enough space to shine. Also it's perfectly fine to have playmakers on the wings as they will have more space to breath, it's also completely false to say the AI will close them down easily. I remember using a tactic made by @Novem9 with an AP-s on the wing which spelled all kinds of trouble to the AI, exactly because when the AI tried closing him down they left tons of space for the other players to shine and the AP would rarely loose the ball.

There is a way to do that through OIs I think, I often see the AI doing that to my wingers but Im not really sure how

Yeah funneling the play centrally is tricky, but I found something quite interesting and I'd like to share, because it's funny how counter intuitive this might seem: If you want to play through the middle, play with narrow attacking width, and have your midfielders stay wider, and play with wing backs with stay wider, then you can try 2 BPD with stay wider but generally the game is buggy because when they stay wider the defenders rarely consider passing the ball between themselves. Then you need to play with standard or slightly shorter passing, don't tick play out of defense it's crucial, and and have at least 3 to 4 attacking duties up top. Now it seems counter intuitive but, having the back 4 and the midfielders instructed to stay wider, it opens up the midfield, the opposition cannot high press without leaving tons of space in the middle, your midfielders will have tons of space to receive the ball, plus the attacking duty and the lack of restraint on the passing directness means that if the opposition try to play a high defensive line, they will get plundered. The attacking duties create tons of space for the midfielders. Bonus point if you have your wingers sit narrower with instructions to overlap, the AI tend to tight mark the wingers while funneling the play towards them, if you make them tuck inside it leaves tons of space for your wingbacks to overlap. Alternatively you can have your wingers stay wider and instruct to underlap. Also somehow, it made my F9 shine, he had way more space to receive the ball and he made so much more impact in game

I was hoping more for an explanation on how they differ and what happens when you combine them

do you see a difference between getting further forward, getting into oppositon area and beating offside trap? What happens when you combine them?

My bad, actually when you put overlap on the wing back's side he's pushing up to the front line, so you can create a 325 with a WB in FM24, it's just not as smooth as the previous edition, but it still works out fine.

Isn't gegenpress when you both counter and counter press?

1. When your DLP is on support, its easy for the opposition to either mark him or to force you outside, this will make him less available than the FB. Having him on defend duty will make him more available for a progressive pass from the CBs and for a recycling pass from the RPM, moreover the difference in duties between the two DMs will allow them each to have more space. 2. Your RPM passes primarily to the IW because he's by far his best option to progress the ball. You play with shorter passing so the poacher is not an option until you reach the final third, the left winger is too far, the AM sits in the middle with literally no space to receive and might often be marked out, and the DLP might be hard to find because they sit on the same horizontal line. While the IW has more space to receive and because of his support duty he will come short for the pass. 3. Against a team with a high defensive line or a team forcing you outside, your dlp and rpm are not safe options for your CBs, I had the exact same problem playing a 433 with a dlp-s in CM on the right and a fb-s on the left. Most of the time the team progressed through the fb and not the dlp. (I think if you remove POOD you might see more passes from CB to DMs) Also the attack duties are not to pump balls up front but to create space for your DMs, because if nobody is making the runs, the opposition can easily deny space from your DMs.

I think there are 2 problems in this tactic: You're not creating space for your DMs You're not giving a single realistic outlet to progress the ball forward Try something like this maybe: And if progression is still not going through the middle, try swapping the duties of your ST and AMC.

I really feel like the F9 is too passive and needs other roles to attack the box

How important is it for the CF-s to be strong? Can an dwarf with 5 heading/ jumping reach and 8 strength still make it as a CF-s?

If you want your player to start as a pivot and then go further forward after build up, I think you can try a regista, a RPM in the DM position, a DM-s or SV-s with traits or PI to go further forward. A BWM-s or CM-s will push up because the current ME does not know what to do with central midfielders, it just sticks them into channels and hope for the best.

This does not work, the dlp does not drop consistently enough to make it a viable 3+2 build up shape. Push your wing back up a slot, put your dlp on the DM slot, and normally it should fit in just nice. For some reason the 2 are competing for the same spot during build up, the dlp will be shy about dropping into DM and the wing back will stay deep. While if you put the DLP as a DM there is no competition anymore for the same space, you will see him more available than not because AI has a hard time marking/pressing DMs while it easily marks/press the CMs. Also pushing your wing back up a slot will make it much harder on the opposition to stop you from progressing on that side for multiple reasons