retired_infinite_dreams

Nice to see that other managers uses 4-3-3 also.

What do you experience that your biggest problems against weaker teams is? If your tactic looks like my defensive one i can belive that you have problem holding the ball and break down the opposition by controling the game and moving the ball around. The defensive tactic i have isnt suited to contol the games and outplay a weaker side.

I dont use the defensive tactic against teams weaker then mine. Reason for this is that if i play i weaker side i dont gain anything from being defensive. In fact im doing the weak team a favour by backing home and let them get into my half and control the game. When i play a weak team i use the attacking tactic to be able to control the game and press the opposition back.

Now to your questions.

1. Well the answer is both. When im playing at home and using the attacking version of the tactic i use i big and strong striker that is good in the air. Reason for this is that most of the chances will come from crosses, and short passes from the midfielder and it will be crowded in the box so you need someone that is physical to win the battle in there. For the away version i use a fast forward that is good off the ball since i play a counter attack style. Reson for this is that most chances will come from through balls from the central midfielders or the defensive midfielder so you need a fast forward to be able to run away from the defenders.

2. Well i didnt have any plans uploading the tactic. Reason for this is that i dont want ppl to think that this is a magic tactic that wins every game, then they download it try it out for a few games (without changes to it) and get very disipointed. I want ppl to read about the tactic and i they find it intresting i want them to implement it themself to get an understanding of what they are doing and why. And its hard for me to upload a single version of the tactic since i change it from game to game and during the match depending on how the game looks like. Even that it is very small changes like giving a player a little lower/higher mentality, change the width and tempo of play a bit i find that these changes are very important to get the most out of the team depending on the opposition.

But if you have a version that looks like the defensive formation already it wont be to much job setting the attacking one up.

retired_infinite_dreams

Thanks alot Evil!

Well i understand exactly what you mean, i love creating my own tactics also then buying players that fit well into the system. And it is this being a manager is all about, go from an idea of how you would like to play, implement the tactic, buying players that fit into the system.

retired_infinite_dreams

Well i guess the tactic i use can be compared to the tactic they used 05/06 in some areas. Sine i live in Sweden i dont see all the matches they play, but i will try and make a comparison out of what i have seen of them. If someone else that have seen them more then i have and have some comments, please tell me if im totaly wrong.

Well the back line in my tactic is very much like the backline in Chelsea, only big difference i can see is that Chelsea let their fullbacks attack much more then i do in my tactic.

Midfield set up is almost the same, both tactics have a defensive midfielder that should help defending and when the attack starts from deep down in the own half he should get the balls from the defenders and link it on to midfield. In Chelsea this player was Makelele.

In my tactic the central midfielder consists of a pair where one player is more offensive and another one that will try to help with both the attack and defence. The Chelsea tactic for 05/06 had the same setup, the offensive player in the midfield was Lampard. The player that will help both in the offence and defence was Essien.

Chelsea's 05/06 4-3-3 tactic did consits of fast wingers (Robben, Cole, SWP, Duff) that where encuraged to take on their defender get down deep and cross the ball for the striker. My tactic also want the wingers to behave like this.

I play with a lone striker up front, hes main purpose is to be in the box and win the battle when the crosses from wingers come. He should also be high up in the pitch to try and break the defence and beat them on through balls delivered from the midfielders. Chelsea'd Droga hade the same role in the 05/06 4-3-3 tactic that they used.

The positioning of the players and the roles in Chelsea's tactic and mine is very much the same. The thing that differs is how the team act home and away, in my away tactic i play a direct counter-attack type of football and defend deep with the whole team. Chelsea i belive play possession fotball both bome and away since they can hold the ball and outplay most of their opponents.

Well this is my comparison of the two tactis. In my eyes they look much like eachother. But as i said it is some differences also so i wouldnt go so far to call it a Chelsea 05/06 4-3-3 replica.

retired_trw422

;

Tried this tactic last night on my Liverpool team, yeah I know a lot of people say you can't go too far wrong with one of the top teams but believe me I hadn't been doing that great with my previous tactics. Finished my 1st season 4th in the premiership and flattered to decieve to be honest and was generally pretty erratic, also didn't do much in the cups finally going out to Real Madrid in the champions league.

After a sluggish inconsistent start to my 2nd season I had the same problem that a lot of people have had of mostly winning quite comfortably at home but struggling away.

Anyway I liked the look of this tactic and so set up both attacking and defensive tactics last night. Hope I'm not tempting fate as I've thought this before quite a few times when I think I've stumbled on a new tactic but hopefully may have found one I can settle with as the results (and more importantly performances) have been really positive :-

Sunderland (A) 3-0
Middlesbrough (L.Cup) (A) 0-0 (lost on penalties)
Man United (H) 2-1

I know the 3 results don't look that great on paper but it is the way I've dominated games and how my team have performed that has excited me. The 1st game was a dream, playing on the break I could have won the game 5 or 6 nil which is something I usually struggle to do away from home even against weaker teams like Sunderland. The next match looks quite bad but once again I should have won easily and totally dominated and was unlucky to go out on penalties and so was encouraged despite the penalty exit but the Man Utd match was the deal breaker, once again I dominated against a very strong Utd side with something like 14-4 chances in my favour and should maybe have won by a greater margin.

I'm due to play Zaragoza at home in the champions league tonight so will see if the run continues.

What I love is the defensive solidity coupled with the way I can totally dominate teams and attack with power at home through my wingers and midfield. Alternatively away from home it appears really solid playing on the counter attack.

Cheers Zenith, will keep you posted!

:thup:

retired_infinite_dreams

Nice to see that it is going good for you Kozma!

Liverpool must have the ideal players for the midfield setup of this tactic i think. Sissoko as the defensive one, Gerrard as the offensive center midfielder and then Xabi Alonso that is great both defensive and offensive for the last slot.

As you wrote the tactic seem to be solid at away games. I rarely win with more then 2-0 away. But i rather win with like 1-0 and feeling comfortable, then winning a game with 3-2 that could have gone either way.

Let me know how it goes for you. I have done some changes to the one that i posted yesterday that seem do make it better. Im going to test it out some more then i will post the changes here.

retired_trw422

Your right, those 3 midfielders are the hub of my team and pretty much dictate most things.

Interesting point above about different types of strikers, I haven't used a tall, target man type of player yet mainly because I have Michael Owen in my side who has got something like 11 goals in 15 matches for me so can't be dropped really, even though he relies more on pace and running onto through balls he has slotted into the tactic both home and away really well but it will be interesting to see how someone like Peter Crouch would fare in the line up.

I'll let you know how I get on tonight but I'll be interested to see how your updated tactic works.

Godfather

zenith great job.. i like urs tactic so much.

but i got few question here.

1. do u ever try no foward run for urs DMC ?
chelsea 433. makelele is never go foward.

2. do the tactic no tight marking on it?
do u every try set few players play tight
marking , how its work?

3. do give defender short passing, midfielder mixed passing and striker short passing are the best setting?

retired_infinite_dreams

Thanks alot Nistelrooy!

I will try to answer as good as i can to your questions.

1. In the tactic i posted i had the DMC on mixed forwardruns. But right now i use to have him on "no forward runs". Had thought to write a post later about some updates to the tactic and this was one of the points.
I sometimes use mixed for him, it all depend on how the game looks like and if i think i can afford to let him do forward runs. Say that im trailing late in a game that im desperatly need a result from, then i let him go up there and join the attack. If you have a DMC with the quality of, lets say Xabi Alonso, he can be a good weapon late in the game when you need a result.

2. Yes the tactic uses no tight marking, and all players in the back four have zonal marking. Also here i can use tight marking from game to game, it all depends on the opposition. If the opposition have a quality winger that need to be neutralized i can let the fullback use tight marking to handle with the threat from him. Or if it is late in a game and the opposition switch to a 4-2-4 i sometimes let the fullbacks have tight marking to deal with the two extra attackers. Havent done so much testing on letting the whole back four use tight marking, i will do it later and post the results of it and what i see as a difference.

3. I assume you talking about the home tactic right? In the away tactic i use a direct passing style. Reason why i have given these settings in the home tactic are the following. I want my defenders to play short passes to the midfield when we start the attack deep down in our own half. I dont want the defenders to send the ball long up the pitch to the wingers or attackers since the possibility that we loose the ball and the possession is much bigger then. The midfield on a more mixed passing is because sometime they need to deliver a long pass out to the winger and sometime a short pass to the other midfielders or striker. Reason why striker is on short is that if he has the ball my side most likely is very high up on the pitch and then there is no need to play a long ball that opens up the defence He is better of playing short passes because then he can play a one-two with one of the other attacking players.

Hope this answered your questions. Just let me know if there is something else you are thinking about.

retired_infinite_dreams

I also use a small fast striker at most of the time since he is way better then my tall target player type of striker. The small one seem to good enough at the home tactic to keep his place in the starting XI. He do some goals at home even though that this type of play shouldnt suit him. But to be honest my most goals at home comes from the wingers or the midfielders. What i have noticed is that the small striker scores mostly on early crosses when he can use his pace to get behind the defender and connect on the cross ball. Dont think i have seen him score once on a cross that is delivered from the cornerflag when the box is full of defenders. Im going to try and get a hand of a better striker that is more the target man type of player and see how much difference this makes to score on crosses when it is crowded in the box.

I will post some updates to the tactic when i have tested them enough so i exactly can describe the difference between them and the tactic i posted. Right now i can give you one change that i have found very useful.

If you reduce the arrow that go from your offensive midfielder to the FC position by half. The arrow should just go straight up to the AMC position above the midfielder instead of to the FC position. This will get more out of your offensive midfielder, because i found out that he sometimes go to far into the box so the other midfielder cant reach him with a short pass. Now the midfielder will be in the box sometimes and sometimes just outside the area. The passing between the to players on the central midfield will be much improved, and if he is good at long shots he will be very dangerous since he is just outside the area and can go for goal if a good chance come by. This would be great for you with your Steven Gerrard.

retired_createdfit

Great post Zenith. :thup:

Very informative as i've been using the same formation with Southampton but have been too attacking away from home from looking at your away tactic advice and conceeding too many goals away from home.

If i can sort my away form i will get promoted no doubt. Definately try it tonight.

I look forward to seeing more posts from you Zenith.