retired_kaffy58

OK, I thought I'd ask for some help on here. I'm going to set out my current team, how we've been playing, where I think the problem lies, and perhaps some of you guys can diagnose a solution!

Ok, I started off with West Ham, and used the "out-the-box" 4-4-2, with the usual amendments to defenders' individual instructions. This was a very difficult season, as Etherington, V. Hleb, and Benniyoun underperformed. In fact, everyone underperformed, apart from Ashton, Harewood, and Kristoffer Haestad. We were down near the bottom, but a few good wins kept us up.

But - I didn't have much money, and had other priorities for strengthening the side than new wingers, so thought I'd dispatch with them. I designed a home formation which looked like this:

FC FC
AMC
<- MC MC ->
DMC
DL DC DC DR
GK

I've ended up with a lot of quite players who are physically strong, and technically confident. At home I play quite a slow pace, with a short passing game. We often control the game at home, and beat teams 1 or 2 nil. The DMC (Gabriel Tamas) is asked to do very little other than defend. There's little set for the two central midfielders, while the AMC has lots of freedon, very high attacking mentality, and lots of forward runs.

Away it looks like this:

FC FC

MC MC MC
DMC
DL DC DC DR
GK

The individual instructions aren't much different as it's basically just the AMC pulled back - but I also play a little bit narrower, on the counter attack, and don't let the fullbacks attack so much. I play a faster pace, and more direct passing. With Owen and Tevez up front I'm happy that if I can stop them scoring, and get it up to those two quickly... they'll usually bag at least one goal.

In season two, with the new formation, I lost my first game then won the next 7! I struggled in the second half of the season but finished in 6th. Season three was even better, again I won something like 8 out 9 from the start of the season, and stayed in the top 3 all year, throwing it away on the last day.

I've started this season though, and it doesn't seem half as good. I suspect that the AI has responded to my high league position (I'm predicted 3rd place) and so is now approaching me differently. I think I would now like to go back to 4-4-2....

Let me run through my squad and tell you the main problem with this. First choice players are asterisked:

GK

Amelia *
Degre

DL
Pisano *
McCartney

DR
Amaral *
Henckmann

DC
Barzagli *
Ferdinand *
Skrtel
Collins
Zebina

DMC
Tamas *
Schmoller
Muamba

MC
Haestad *
Noble *
Beckham
Pienaar

AMC
Evandro *
Carlos Saez

FC
Owen *
Tevez *
Breznikar
Jeffrey
Ashton

My problem is that in my current team only Haestad can play on the left, and Beckham and Pienaar on the right. We can forget about Pienaar, can't believe I offered him £30k a week, he was on a free.... Now I think Beckham and Haestad could do well, both are hardworking who can play a pass and cross - but neither are players who are very pacey, or will dribble past a man.

Can such a 4-4-2 work? I would balance the lack of drive on the wings with one of my attacking AMCs - Evandro or Saez - both of whom I think would do better regularly playing at MC.

Any advice on setting up a 4-4-2 with that sort of team much appreciated...!

retired_B-Scott

I think you will need also a specific tactic that counters the AI defensive 442, as it sounds like they are lining this up against you from what you say. (its the defensice 442 with two small farrows)

I have found that wingers who can double well with defensive duties can be succesful at eliminating the threat of this tactic and also scoring against it

retired_fitnessconnection

As a West Ham fan, the most obvious advice i can give is to update your game with the latest patch!.

Your squad is a little better, plus you have £15M to spend and if you ask for more funds at the beggining of the game you are given an extra £10M.

retired_bjohn32

i'd have to recomend designing your own ajax style tactic, it's worked beautifully for my west ham team. if you've got the time search for marz's thread, i think it should be the thread at the top of the serch for ajax. i'd recomend using a standard 4-3-3 shape, moving the LCM into the AMC position with a barrow to the original position. a farrow on your RCB to DMC and farrows on your full backs too. this is the closest i've ever got to creating a super-tactic on fm2006, and now i'm just tweeking it for FM07 its starting to work very nicely, but it does require a lot of technical skill and good mental atributes, look for high ratings in decisions/concentration/off the ball and positioning aswell as teamwork, to get your team playing fluidly.

retired_kaffy58

Socks answer is quite positive - yes, I do think I am now struggling against defensive 4-4-2s. In the games that I've won, both home and away, I moderated my formation to make it more aggressive - but am not sure if this was a fluke.

Haestad and Beckham are the sort of midfielders who could take that defensive role. If you're the big three you can get away with AMLRs who do nothing else but bomb on - less so when Villa away is still a massive challenge.

I'm not quite sure about that Ajax tactic you mention, sounds like Farrows all over the shop. I would like a successful 4-3-3 formation, I had a brilliant one with Ajax of all teams - if you can get FL/Rs scoring as well as the target man, plus have one strong MC - it's a very rewarding formation to watch.

However, I'd need more players for it, possibly I could play Tevez and Saez/Evandro in those spots, but I'd rather play them in their natural positions.

retired_B-Scott

I did design a tactic to deal with the def 442's tactic, help yourself, it could be a template for designing something that fits your team asI left it quite raw to allow for fiddling.Its at my download centre link.

Other than that, pehaps Numnuts super tactic is the way forward, but I havent tried it myself.

retired_kaffy58

OK, I'm going to toy with the 4-3-1-2 that I've seen - the mighty gigantic Gabriel Tamas, who also scores a bundle, will be asked to work his magic in the middle of the park.

I'll report back on what I come up with.

retired_kaffy58

Right - an update.

I went for sock's 4-3-1-2, with the outer wingers with diagonal farrows in to support the AMC. So far this has worked rather well - I even tried it away from home in a crunch match vs Monaco away, and had 25 shots on target!

We've won most of our home games - although I should say we were winning most of them anyway.

It doesn't work so well away from home, though (apart from at Monaco and Werder Bremen) - we lost the other 4 away league games, giving me simutaneously the best home record and worst away record.

I had also designed a standard 4-4-2 with quite defensive wingers, and an AMC who attacks, and finally tried this for my last away game, which I won 1-0.

I now need some quite dazzling wing-men that can come in and play a bit. Jeremy Menez is my current favourite, AM/FLRC's who can do the lot. Then I could get away with a DMC or a strong all-rounder like Haestad or Noble in the middle of the park.

Tamas can't play at MC, it's all gone wrong for him!

On sock's 4-4-2 I looked at, the full-backs have backwards arrows. What's the point of this? Is it to keep them from attacking?

Cheers,

Buzzler

retired_FaultyFate

Buzzler,

Barrows on FBs are not to keep them from attacking. Barrows work only when your team does not have posession. So they intended to prevent opposition wingers to cross from the byline. Personally I use them sometimes against teams with a very good fast wingers (e.g. MU), if my FBs are not very fast, or if I have to play my second choice FB due to injuries.

Hope it helps.