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It is my understanding, and general consensus on this board, that a sweeper system will not work.
However, i am fascinated by this type of play/player, and would like to know from the community exactly how a well played sweeper system would work.
I'm a football novice, my experience is limited to this board almost daily from FM 05 onwards, and to various internet sites and Wikipedia.
In various sweeper threads in the past the discussion quickly turns into a general acknowledgement that the game engine won't support this style.
But what if it did? What would the system, in FM terms, look like? What is the formation? Fullbacks, or wingbacks, etc..?? Home, away? What does the sweeper do, and what style of play does the team play?
I apologize for my lack of knowledge on this subject, but with FM 08 in the distance and threads abut the W-M etc.. popping up, i would really like to experiment and see if i can understand and maybe somehow recreate what a sweeper system is supposed to do. At least if i know whats expected i can mess around with it.
Thanks in advance to anyone who will participate. Oh and if anyone has any links to explaining the system that would be great as well.
Not sure were you read sweepers can't work though. I've used them plenty of times and I know Rashidi as too. It's not a case of them not working, I think its more a case of people not wanting to stray away from a flat back 4
Thanks Cleon, i don't know why i hadn't seen that thread before.
By the way, can you provide any football strategy/formation websites that might be a good read. I have difficulty googling any, and ones i do find often are paysites.
If not, thats fine, and thanks for replying to my question. I am an avid reader of this forum (bothers me i hadnt seen that sweeper thread..lol).
I just search google myself. Depends heavily in what you are looking for though, I tend to look for just certain aspects like sweepers etc and take it from there
I used to have lots of links though but lost them when I changed PC's, I never thought of saving them at the time. Wish I had now though. I might spend sometime next week searching sites and making a thread just full of good football links in for tactics, it could be useful.
Originally posted by dreghorn2:
Now that would be something i'd like to see.
Hope you find the time to start a thread like that Cleon.
My problem on the game is that i like to find 'exotic' formations. I just cannot stand the look/feel of a 4-4-2. I don't know why.
However the REAL problem is that i don't have a football background and thus do not properly understand what i should be expecting from my players.
I like to be different too, playing 4 at the back limits what you can do. So I tend to recreate formations of the past and find different weird formations and see what works and what doesn't.
You don't have to have a football background to know what you want from your players. When you pick a formation have a think about how you want the players to play. The next step is then to make the individual players play exactly how you want in your head. Then watch a match and see if they are doing exactly what you thought they would, if not just keep messing around with different settings until you see something that looks right. Thats all I do.
I've been interested in trying a sweeper system as well. I have a few question, if Cleon or someone else who has knowledge of the subject is kind enough to help:
1. In the limited reading I've done on the subject, it seems as though the sweeper was used in a man-marking defense, where everyone had a marking assignment except the sweeper (hence, "libero"). Do you find it's best to give marking assignments to my other players, or at least to my DCs and perhaps a Defensive midfielder, or will a sweeper work just as well with the rest of my defense playing zonal assignments?
2. It seems like most people believe that for a sweeper system to work well, you need to find an exceptional player to fill the sweeper role. Do you find this to be true?
3. In FM07, will a sweeper make forward runs and contribut to the offense a la Franz Beckenbauer, or will he stay back with the DCs?
4. In a Sweeper system, should the back line push farther up because they have a sweeper to get their back should they get burned, or should the play farther back?
5. The default farrow setting for a sweeper in the stock "5-3-2 counter" is to have a farrow up to the DC spot in the middle between the two DCs. Would it be a good, bad, or ugly idea to extend the farrow to the defensive midfield spot, assuming you don't play a defensive midfielder?
Thanks for any help you can provide. I'm pretty new to this game
1) I hate man marking on FM, its one of my little gripes with the game. It simply doesn't work imo.
I tend to just use zonal even when using a sweeper.
2) You just need to find a good defender, you can always retrain him to sweeper if you wish. The player you use here though needs to have good mental stats though.
3) Depending on how you set him up he can go forward yeah. But you will be probe to quick attacks then as he will be out of position if you get caught out. But if your up for a challenge then you'll have fun playing this way and makes the game less boring. Although you'll be swearing when he does make a mistake
4) Both work just as well, but I prefer my sweeper to push up and mop up the balls my other defenders cannot handle. So for this I like mine a bit further back as he will mop up the balls played over the top. The other way works just as fine but for me it lacked what a sweeper was all about
5) I'm not keen on farrows full stop, but on a sweeper they are excellent for making him get a bit forward so he isn't too isolated at the back. You can try a long one to DMC position if you wanted, but depending on the system you and shape you choose you could just as easily make the other defenders cover the DMC positions.
How to play a sweeper? 
Linear Mode
