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For the last few weeks, I've been trying to create a basic, yet effective 4-3-3 formation. This seems harder then ever before. I'm playing as Willem II Tilburg in 2016. I've been champions for the last 3 seasons, but my squad isn't all that great. However, because of my reputation, I do encounter a lot of defensive opponents.
Please note that the tactic I discuss later is in no way a super tactic. There are just some things I discovered about 4-3-3 in this thread, these are some things I'd like to discuss. The formation I currently use is very basic.
On this edition it seems like 4-3-3 is even more difficult to create than ever before. The problem seems to lie in midfield. The biggest problem I encountered, was that it takes a long time for the wingers to get in formation after you win back posession. Therefore, a counter-attacking style seems very hard to create. The 4-3-3 formation needs a lot of space to work.
Home formations are relatively simple to make, playing wide is a must more. I'm not sure about the tempo yet, but quick seems to work best for me. Away formations are not so simple. One of the things I discovered was that it worked better not to tick the counter-attack button. 4-3-3 relies heavily on its wingers's dribbles. When you win back posession, going for a counter, your formation is still very compact. Therefore, the wingers have too little space to go past their opponents. Also, I didn't make the formation narrow, it worked much better when I keeped it in the middle.
Defense.
My defense is a basic four-man flat line. All four defenders have 8 for mentality. This might not be the best setting, but I'm still heavily experimenting. Therefore, I thought it was important for my team to play as a unit, I think this makes it easier to pick out errors. The defensive line is 8 for away matches and 12 for home matches. Passing is 10 for all defenders, for the same reasons the mentalities are the same. Closing down 10 for all. So far, not a lot of difference from a normal flat 4-4-2.
Midfield.
The midfield has been my main focus the last days. Right now I'm playing a basic flat three-man midfield. In other words: three MC's next to eachother. They all have mentality 13, with the middle one set on forward runs - often. The other ones having forward runs - rarely. This is something I learned from WWFan yesterday, seems to work quite well. I've made closing down high for all three: 15. Sitting in bath, I've been thinking about passing a lot. I kind of had a eureka-moment. In the beginning, the ball stayed in midfield too much, my wingers weren't involved in the play enough. First I tried to change play to "focus down both flanks." However, this ended up in a predictable, hurried passing system. Therefore, I decided to give my midfielders a little more creative freedom -all three of them- and increasing passing to mixed. This worked very well, the midfielders now pass great trough balls to the wingers, when they feel it the time is right. Now, on to the attack part..
Attack.
Like I explained earlier, I had a problem with my wingers being out of position when I won posession. Therefore I decided to set their closing down quite low, and giving them 16 mentality. I don't really know how to put up my striker, but everythink seems to work really. Whether you give him run with ball, forward runs, and long shots often or rarely, it doesn't make that much difference. That's because all he really does is receive crosses and try to score, in the way he feels is most appropriate.
With these, still realy basic, settings my play has improved a lot. The main problem with the 4-3-3 is that it isn't as versatile as the 4-4-2 system. I think the best thing about it is, that every player has a really clear objective. With a 4-4-2, an assist can come from every player really: ML/MR, MC, FC. With the 4-3-3, they just come from the wingers. The midfielders steal the ball, the defenders just defend, the striker scores, simple as that. This can be both seen as bad and good. Allthough it makes your play slightly more predictable, I still think it's a good thing. Why? Simply because your players do the things they're good at, getting the full benefit out of their ability.
Testing.
There are a lot of things that aren't clear to me yet. Especially the team instructions, like tempo, defensive line and width haven't really been tested by me. I'd like to know what the effects of a target man and a playmaker are too. There is much more stuff to explore about 4-3-3 and I could use a little help on doing this. Therefore, I hope that this makes for a good read, and it would be great to get a good discussion going on..
Yes that's true, a good header is neaded here. However, what I noticed in FM07 is that the crosses to your feet are very effective as well, so finishing is a must as well.
The last 10 games I've been experimenting with very high width (17-20) for both home and away games. 4-3-3 and counterplay just seems to be a bad combination. Results have been surprisingly good. IIRC, playing high width away from home would kill you in FM06..
Like I said, I haven't actually tried to set my striker as target men. But then again, I don't really have a tall, heavy striker in my squad.
The 1 DM - 2 MC combination seems to be working well too. As you've probably noticed, I'm still in the experimenting stage very much.. Being Dutch, I've always been obsessed with the 4-3-3 system I couldn't find one that suited my stile, therefore I created this thread. I'm just not sure how popular the 4-3-3 formation is outside of the Netherlands, so far this thread hasn't been very popular..
Yes I already use passing down the flanks, seems to work better, unlike what I previously said about it..
Like I said before, the thing I really like about 4-3-3 is that the players can really concentrate on what they're good at. Example:
A good AML/AMR mainly needs pace, acceleration, pace, dribbling, and crossing; while a good ML/MR has a lot of defensive tasks on top of those as well. Same goes for the strikers: A 4-3-3 striker can really concentrate on scoring, he doesn't have to be a real creative player.
Have you ever wanted your teams to play beautiful, free flowing attacking football? Wanted to see a dominating midfield and bucket load of chances for your strikers? Well, for the attack minded managers out there, I give you…
The 4-3-3 System
Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Formation
3. Defence
4. Attack
5. Team Instructions
Introduction
In Football Manager 4-3-3 is one of the most free-scoring tactics but it is also surprisingly strong in defence. If you set up with a flat back four and a defensive midfielder then they defend as a solid unit which is strong when under aerial attack and counter-attack. The midfield unit outnumbers the opposition as the majority of teams play a 4-4-2 which only has two players in the centre of midfield. Finally, the attack. Traditionally 4-3-3 has been a formation which scores goals and it most definitely does due to the variety of attacking options such as two bow to box midfielders, the wingers and the central striker all posing threats of their own.
The Formation
When I play a 4-3-3 I my preferred formation is a 4-1-2-3 (GK, DR, DL, DC, DC, DMC, MC, MC, FR(AMR), FL(AML), FC)
Formation
Second Formation
There are many different variations of the 4-3-3 formation but those seem to work best for me so I recommend you use one of those as a starting point and alter it from there as you see fit.
Defence
In every tactic I use, my defensive set-up is a flat back four with a DMC sitting in front. The defensive line is set to normal, playing offside trap and marking tight to the opposition. I allow my full backs to attack on occasion as they can offer variety down the flanks when one of them comes forward and crosses from deep. I also use staggered centre backs, where one has a mentality and closing down of one or two notches and the other is a few notches higher. The deeper DC is usually the one with the better aerial ability unless I play against a particularly fast striker. Finally, everyone in defence is set to zonal marking.
If you have a really good DMC such as Xabi Alonso of Vieira who has very good anticipation, positioning, and tackling, plus very, very good passing then I strongly recommend you give the player a free role, minimum mentality with closing down of 3 or 4, set him as playmaker and give him long passing.
DMC Role in Defence
DMC Role in Attack
These two screenshots from bbc.co.uk illustrate perfectly the role the holding midfielder will play in defence and attack.
Attack
There is so much attacking potential to be discovered within a 4-3-3 and you have just got to bring it out of your team and make it work you your advantage.
The three players in the centre of midfield will ensure the attacking players with a reasonable amount of possession and the forward movement of the midfielders and other attackers mean there will be a lot of options available to your players in attack.
I would recommend that you play one central striker with two wide players and support coming from the remaining two of your midfielders who aren’t directly involved in the defence.
The two midfielders joining the attack should have a relatively attacking mentality of somewhere between 11 and 16 whit instructions depending on their ability I.e. if they have got good long shots then let them do that.
I find the best results come when the wide players keep have a lot of possession and are running with the ball taking on the fullbacks hoping to get a cross in from the byline, and if this is not working I direct their arrow towards the striker spots making them more likely to get on the scoresheet.
The remaining centre forward is probably the most flexible of your positions, whatever I seem to do he gets goals. For example, at Hibs I played Riordan with a mentality of 11 and a free role. He scored 38 goals in that season. On the other hand at Bilbao, I played Urzaiz with a mentality of 18 and forward runs, plus holding up the ball and he scored bundles too.
Team Instructions
Playing 4-3-3 gives you the advantage of playing wide, the formation seems to work best with a reasonable width which does not compromise the defence if you play with a DMC.
Normally, playing with width means the gap between the two central defenders is larger leaving a big whole for the opposition to attack. This is shown in this screenshot:
Gap Between Defenders
Playing with a defensive midfielder plugs this gap as he sits just in front of it.
Defensive Midfielder
Also, at times the DMC will move further back and act with the centre backs as a defensive trio giving the full backs freedom to attack.
Tempo will really depend on your players. Playing high tempo basically makes your team play one touch football the advantage of this is that if your players perform it well they will rip apart the opposition whereas if they don’t suit the system well then the opposition will dominate.
Counter attacking is a must, this encourages the defence to get the ball to an attacking player as quickly as possible and the attacking players will go straight for goal rather than a slower build up.
Everything else in the system really depends on your players and personal preferences. So now it is up to you, go out and give your team the freedom to thrill and play beautiful attacking football. The chances are you will not get the system working first time so watch the highlights and try to identify the problems and alter the instructions accordingly, if you still have no success try posting on the forum and someone should be able to help you out!
Nice post Cleon, since you quoted it, I take it this is somewhat older information from FM2006? Or did you type it right now? I agree with you on most things, also the counter-attacking part makes sense, and so does the tempo. So do you suggest playing wide both home and away? I do that right now, seems to be working quite well..
Johnwalker - not sure what you mean by that. Width is a team instruction, not a player instruction. If you mean where to play the wingers, that would be in the AML/AMR position:
for a 433 it makes sense playing wide, as you need width for it to work effectivly. There would be the odd game where I might play slightly narrower though, but most fo time id be wide home and away yes.
I've been quite succesful doing so as well. So far, it seems playing 4-3-3 is only for very good sides, not a lot of teams get away with playing wide away from home. I'll be playing some more, I'll probably post my findings so far later today, maybe that will encourage more people to take a look in here
I will not be releasing it in a .tac file however, I'll just give most instructions, so people can tweak it a little themselves. I've never enjoyed downloading tactics myself, I think it's far more rewarding when you do it yourself, even if the idea is not entirely yours
4-3-3 Discussion. 
I couldn't find one that suited my stile, therefore I created this thread. I'm just not sure how popular the 4-3-3 formation is outside of the Netherlands, so far this thread hasn't been very popular..
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