mattyd

Tactical Formation
4-4-2 Diamond

Style of play
This Tactic is based on a balance in defense and offense. It is rather for smaller teams that cannot afford to buy in World-Class Players. Based on possesion and a slow & narrow, shortpass gamestyle without lots of time wasting.

Team Instructions
The Team Mentality is varying from Very Attacking to Defensive depending on the opponent and score. If playing against a similar opponent i tend to use 12-13 (home or away). If the opponent is weaker than me, then i apply 16-18 (home or away) and when facing teams like munich i prefer 7-9. When going behind against a similar or stronger team i switch to a more attacking mentality as there'd be nothing to lose anyway, and most of the times i pull back and even manage to win the match.

In use is a slow & narrow, shortpass system to make sure that the ball gets to where it should go. Time wasting is set very low, as i dont want my players to dwaddle the ball around and finally losing it.

Depending on the opponent the Defense Line is variated between 8-12. If the opp is Bayern i prefer playing a deeper defense (8), as to when i face Mainz (12).

The Closing down is set to mixed most players have their individual instructions on how to close the opponent down

The Tactic uses a Target Man, but it isn't really necessary, just creates more chances at goal. After using it with and without Target Man (10 matches played, loaded and played the same ten matches again), it scored the same amount of goals.

The counterattcking box is only ticked if i use a deeper defense line, which is mostly when i play stronger opponents.

Individual Instructions
The GK is just using normal settings (set to - GK), just a little more enhanced in his Mentality (5), Passing style (Direct) and Closing down (5).

Individual Mentality Instructions are all set to Team (except for the Goalie and the Strikers)

The Full Backs are used to Close down (12-15) the opponent in order to gain possesion and run forward (often) and cross balls (often) towards the Stronger (Jumping, Heading) Striker.

The DC's are set to a Tight Marking without the need of closing down often (rarely), when in possesion, they rather look for a direct opportunity to pass (direct passing), rather than dwaddling the ball around in the defense until they get to lose it. Rare Forward runs and rare running with the ball should make them stay in their position. (rest is set to mixed)

The DMC is there to help out the Defense and try to not even let the opponent get there by Closing down a lot (18). Its his part to try and take the opponents Creative Midfielders out of play. Often Trying Long Shots, but not crossing much to make him lose his position.

The MR & ML are trying to close down the opponents wingers whenever possible (17) to apply their forward runs (often), to cross the ball (often) into the box, searching for the Stronger Striker (near post, far post, depending where ur heading-jumping striker is)

The AMC is the most Creative man of the Squad (Freedom 14-18 depending on his stats), having his own style of passing (mixed) will assure to make him less predictable. Running with the Ball (often) might even get him into the position where he can score or give the deadly pass (Through Balls often), while we dont want him to get out of his position by crossing the ball (rarely).

The Strikers. I used the guide of wwfan on how to set up a Tall Striker, combined with a quick one.
Found here

Home or Away or Both
As mentioned above, i use the Home and Away just playing around with the Mentality and Defense Line sliders.

Tweaks
The more attacking i go with it, the lower i set the width, passing, tempo and time wasting.

Player Attributes
As said before, you will not need World Class Players for this formation/tactics to work (atleast i dont)
You might wanna watch out that your players are all reasonalbe on Team Work (13+), which is the major factor of this tactics, as its based on Team Play.

Track Record
The Tactic was tested for 7 seasons.
Its been used on 3 completly diferent Teams (same nation though, Germany).
Düsseldorf 3rd league team 2 seasons
1st season - got promoted with only 2 losses (one being the 1st, one being the last match of the season), and getting into the semi finals of the german cup. I only singed in free players with a high Team Work attribute.
2nd Season - got promoted again but this time it was rather close as i came in 3rd with just the better goal diff than 4th, but still only losing 4 games within the season, often drawing.
The got sacked cause i wanted a bigger stadium and set an ultimatum (stupid me)

Hired at
Borussia Dortmund 1st League 2 seasons
1st season - Lots of Money to sign good player, but i only signed Gourcuff and Bianchi (following the Team Work principle there). Came in 3rd in the Bundesliga and won the German Cup, unfortunely i wasnt able to play in Europ as Dortmund didnt qualify.
2nd Season - No players out, none in. Won the Bundesliga and got into the Final of the CL, losing it vs. Chelsea in the Penalties - (2-2) full time (4-4) extra time. Then i resigned cause my fav Club (Stuttgart) got relegated and i wanted to bring them back up.

Hired at
VfB Stuttgart 2nd League 3 seasons
1st Season - No Money, youth players. Promotion (1st 1 loss) + German Cup.
2nd Season - No Money, same players. 4th in league + German Cup + UEFA Cup
3rd Season - Finally Money, bought Jo and Aguero, sold Gomez. League Winners and UEFA Cup winners again.

So far i only tested in in Germany, but i hope it also works in other countries.

Feedback and/or Suggestions welcome

mattyd

Sorry forgot Link

TLW 4-4-2 Diamond

retired_maggie92

Good post, well layed out mate.

Might give this a go when I get the time, and when I can be asked to get back into FM.

retired_lswearne

nice one mate, will give it a go with my ajax team

retired_kmccaule

Good Topic ,ill try it with reggina i had many problems with this team .

Thank you

mattyd

can't wait to see how it works in other leagues beside germany

retired_Cat1123

I am having a go with it in my 3rd season test game in which i had been using Rashidi's tactics which had been wonderful in its first two seasons, but i've been dogged by injuries and the usual AI bullshit for much of the third!.

I went unbeaten in my first 9 games using this tactic and have just lost my first game with it away to Villa in a game i led 2-1 until the 89th minute when Villa nicked two goals in the final minutes to beat us 3-2.

It looks strong, although early testing with the normal tactic was'nt great, the attacking tactic has been working a treat and i have switched to the defensive tactic if 2-0 up in a game or in the last ten minutes to protect a 1 goal lead. This had also faired well up until the last game, so it could be a one off?.

The only problem i've witnessed so far is that i have only kept 1 clean sheet, but as the game loves the opposition to score with virtually every shot on target, i cannot blame the tactic/s for this.

I also have 8 of my first choice 16 out injured at the moment, including 3 strikers and both first and second choice left wingers, so this may be a detrimental factor in how this tactic continues to perform?.

So far the tactic itself looks good!.

retired_maggie92

Waits for Hammer to get f***ed over by the AI, and the moan about it. \o/

mattyd

the point u mentioned about rarely getting a clean sheet happened to me too, but i still went undefeated for quite a while. Most of the time it happened to me early in the match going 1-0 down, but with the great amount of team work i nearly always got back to winning the match.

retired_Cat1123

Drawing 0-0 away to Arsenal in my last game i lost my RB and a DC to injury in the first half.

Three minutes into 2nd half and my replacement DC gave away a penalty. I went on to lose BOTH my strikers to early 2nd half injuries, so played the final 30 mins with 10 men.

Arsenal won 4-0

I now have 10 of my first squad of 16 out injured and no quality replacements, so i'll need to start another game to be able to test the tactic properly.