retired_chelseamike

I am almost near the end of my first season with Leeds United in the Championship. Thanks to some brilliant young players like Jose Sosa and Didier Digard i am about to win the Championship and get promoted to the Premiership. However my style of football is very counter attacking based and the basis of my success is my good defence. I usually have low pass completion because of the wide spaces, and the possession is often not so great. However whenever i play Premiership sides in Cup tournaments i get hammered. The reason being my 4-1-2-1-2 formation which gives opposition a lot of space in the middle of the pitch.
Heres my formation
--------------GK-----------------
DR------DC----------DC---------DL
-------------DMC-----------------
MR-----------------------------ML
-------------AMC-----------------
-------FC-----------FC-----------

For the Championship this has been ok, but i dont think this is appropriate for the Premiership. If i give any room to the opposition they will be ending up beating me with no trouble. So for the Premiership i was thinking of reverting to Argentinas 4-3-1-2 formation in 2006 World Cup.If thats the case then my formation should look like this:

--------------GK-----------------
DR------DC----------DC---------DL
-------------DMC-----------------
------MC------------MC-----------
-------------AMC-----------------
-------FC-----------FC-----------
Although it could improve my possession, pass completion, and make my team more solid defensively, i will be losing the width. Any idea on how this could work in the Premiership?
And for those of you who remember Argentinas formation, where exactly should the arrows be?

retired_lachina

Hi, I have used this 41212 with aston villa. I didn't like big strong strikers with no pace, so I thought of this 41212 tactic.

In my 41212, the MC are running sideways. This will help combat the width. The 4 midfield players are in a tight diamond shape so I let all 4 of them play on short passing, while the full backs and strikers are on mixed. DCs are on mixed but just 1 click away from Direct.

I set my DMC to be the playmaker. With 4 midfielders in the centre of the pitch, the DMC can afford to be less defensive and be more distributive ala Andrea Pirlo.

Its hard to implement real life in the game as I dun really understand what certain sliders mean and how it affects the tactics.

retired_chelseamike

Thats actually what i really want to know about. In the Argentine World Cup team, Sorin used to play up and down the left flank which could mean the slider could go as far as the AML position, whereas the right back would go as far as the centre of the pitch. On the other hand Cambiasso stayed mostly in the middle, whereas Maxi Rodriguez played through the middle yet came up more.
So i just wanted to know how to place these arrows or sliders to implement a proper 4-3-1-2 formation. I dont wanna have the same tactics as Argentina, but there must be a balance. I have to ensure where to put my arrows to ensure i have enough width, and to ensure that i dont leave too many gaps.

retired_e_fores

AC Milan use this domestically, with Pirlo as playmaker, Gattuso as a defensive MC and Seedorf as an attacking one, and everything goes through Pirlo and Kaka. Lots of throughballs to Gillardino and Ronaldo (or Sheva last season) and the full backs get forward a lot for width (a la Sorin for Argentina).

If you think about it the two teams almost match:

Abbondizieri
Bursdisso Samuel Ayala Sorin
Mascherano
Cambiasso Rodriguez/Gonzalez
Riquelme
Crespo Tevez/Messi/Saviola

Dida
Cafu Maldini Nesta Jankulovski
Pirlo
Gattuso Seedorf
Kaka
Gillardino Shevchenko

Both have quality centre backs. Attacking fullbacks. One attacking and one defensive MC. Quality AMC.

The main differences are that the playmaker for Argentina was AMC (Riquelme) and at Milan it's DMC (Pirlo). Also Argentina used one tough striker (Crespo) and one fast one (Tevez) whereas Milan used two (Shevchenko and Gilardino) who are very good off the ball and at anticipating through balls).

What's also interesting about the Argentina version is that they could switch to 4-3-3 quite easily by bringing on Messi for a midfielder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R_iYLca2gc

Everyone's seen it but it is excellent. I just watched it and actually thought about the system used for the first time. I noted a few things:

a) Most of the build up is concentrated on one side and Argentina acheive local superiority on the left, not worrying about the right. The left back (Sorin) and left striker (Saviola) push out so that there are plenty of passing options availiable.

b) Lots of players drop deep and then the team move up towards the goal slowly as one. Rodriguez, Mascherano and Riquelme stay pretty close to each other.

c) None of the midfield get forward till late when the play is streched by Saviola's pass. Also, Sorin at full back doesn't dart forward but rather moves up with the play and then darts forward late taking a player with him.

d) Serbia and Montenegro's defending is damn awful.


The problem I've had implementing this is the full backs and balancing them in attack and defense. At home they've go to get forward a lot but away they shouldn't so much, but then you lack a bit of width. Sarrows on the midfielders seems good. Also, the default AI version has sarrows on the forwards, which opens up space for the AMC, but then they get too wide for my liking.

I might try it tonight.

silversam7

just a little thing i noticed with argentina at the world cup was that they played Burdisso & Sorin as the full backs (Sorin was more attacking than Burdisso) and then they had Maxi Rodriguez on the right & Gonzalez on the left. Because Sorin attacked Gonzalez stayed slighty more defensive and tucked in whilst Rodriguez did all the attacking down the right hand side because Burdisso is more defensive.

So, to me at least, their take on that formation is slightly lob-sided.

Not much actuall help i know, it was more of an observation.