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Hello. I have been a regular FM/CM player since before Nottingham Forest were relegated from the Premiership for the first time. Yes, it's a small eternity since.
I have been fumbling about with tactics the past 2-3 versions, and I think I finally seem to be on to something.
The 4-3-3 is a surprisingly versatile formation that you can use with most sides. The downside is being able to use only one full-fledged striker. Of course, since goalscorers are prohibitively expensive, it may also be seen as an upside.
I started my first FM'08 game in the Norwegian First Division as Bodø-Glimt. It's a fairly good side by those standards, but with room for improvement.
My standard 4-3-3 was this:
DL AML
DC MC
GK DM SC
DC MC
DR AMR
Fairly standard. I had a handful of friendlies before the season, most against supposedly better teams. Given that my team was fairly simple, but with one or two decent passers, I adopted a direct passing approach with tempo moved to just the notch below Fast. Pressing's magical properties has eluded me for a while so I left it at mixed, put it to just over 0 for my DCs, and about 5 for my full-backs. For the DM, who's also supposed to be the Great Passer Of The Ball, I left it at two notches above mixed, while the MCs were told to press almost constantly. The AMs got basically the same assignment. The SC was left at mixed. I left my Defensive Line unmoved and Width at wide.
The first games went hellishly wrong with 1-5 and 1-4 defeats at home. I then had a friendly against a worse side, and we won 2-0. The MCs broke up the opponents play well, but MY side were definitely not dominating in possession. I decided to turn tempo down to two notches under mixed (towards slow), passing two notches below mixed, and then left the rest intact. I decided to set team instructions individually. I had noticed that putting the slider too far towards attacking for MCs, AMs and the SC compared to the DM left a midfield as a great huge black hole. Deciding that The Midfield Black Hole could be categorised as a Bad Idea, I implemented a tactic of two notches above mixed for MCs for mentality and four for AMs and the SC. This kept the formation better and the DM wasn't left as a lone Major Tom in outer space.
For the DCs, I followed conventional wisdom and left them at defensive. The full-backs were at Normal at home and three notches towards Defensive away and against other teams using AMs on the wings. I focused passing to the flanks, and tried to match creative freedom with creativity for attacking players (MCs and forward).
I felt it unwise to give the back four much creative freedom. Two players were allowed to have mixed/direct passing; one DC with good passing and my DMC, who by all accounts was the would be playmaker. I did not tick playmaker, but did use Target Man ticked and put my SC as target man.
The results started turning my way and we went to the top of the table and never left it. The formation was by and large left alone for much of the season, except for pulling the wingers down to midfield in tough away ties.
Now, for the strengths and weaknesses of this, as observed throughout one season:
Defence: Very good record. Even with average players, we let 24 in in 30 games. The opponents rarely had a lot of shots on target, and using tight marking also left them with fewer options in the final third.
Attack: Okayish. We scored 58 in 30 games. Not great, not bad. The formation really needs a Great Striker to score enough goals. The wingers will try to cross, and even if they miss the SC, the MCs had good stamina and off the ball and had a fair amount of chances.
Possession: Low. I was constantly having a lot less possession than my opponents. :eek: We had more chances, but simply did not hang on to the ball a lot. Of course, this did also leave us vulnerable when we tried to run down the clock. I am not sure why we were poor at that, but we were, and I need to find out why.
Shots/goals: Good. We converted about 1 out of 3 chances into goals and generally created quality chances.
Conclusion: I liked this formation because of its versatility. It did not need constant tweaking as long as a solid DMC and SC were present. I do think high work-rate and passing are necessary for the MCs to make sure you do okay defensively.
4-3-3 - Beautiful when it works 
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