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is unbelieveably effective! I've always been a fan of attacking football, sometimes using four attacking midfielders in a 4-1-4-1, but I recently started a game with Real Madrid. Given that you desparately need to win something (and Real has no good attacking midfielders), I took a lesson from Capello, ditched my usual system, and now play 4-4-2 with two holding players in midfield. It gives me really poor results (strings of 1-0 victories with scrappy goals poached by Ronaldo), but it works!
To play boring, ugly (but effective) football, you need boring players. My line up:
Casillas
Cicinho Cannavaro Ramos Pocognoli
Cassano Diarra Emerson Reyes
Van R. Ronaldo
Leave everything to default for the team instrucions, except for passing, which is direct.
Player instructions: use the natural presets, but hard tackling for holding players.
ML and MR: arrows going forward
My reason for this tactic was mainly my dislike of Guti as a player, so I wanted to use him as little as possible.
When I came up with this, I was expecting a bit more flair, as I reasoned I was basically using a wing forward system, so I would have lots of pacy runs, dramatic dribbles and great crosses. But I was wrong! What happens is that the play revolves around the holding players, as they win the ball then hoof it in the hope that someone will get hold of it and score. It works wonders for the spanish league, as the holding players foul the opposition playmakers out of the game (Emerson managed to put Ronaldinho and Messi out for the count, but somehow avoided being punished). As it is, I have won 19, drawn 2 and lost 1 (the only game I didn't use this system). The major downside is that you get so bored of your team playing crap football; however, if you have a team that needs success very quickly (like Real Madrid), then try this. it's not quite catenaccio, it's just boring, dirty, ugly football. The great thing is, you will never have to worry about an injury crisis (for some reason, the worse the holding player is, the more successful they are in this tactic) to key midfielders.
There is a risk of losing the holding players to suspensions, but holding players are easier to obtain than playmakers, especially for loan deals.
I always set up my team to win 1-0 if I can help it. I used to play 5-3-2 all the time and go even more defensive if we took the lead. Now, as I don't trust my defenders as far as I can digitally throw them, I play quite a defensive 4-1-3-2, changing to 4-5-1 or 5-4-1 as soon as I can/dare.
I play with pretty mediocre teams, so it's necessity which dictates my approach. However, if it can work with "big" teams as well, then I may give it a shot. Viva Bolton!
It's a case of efficiency more than anything else (it also heightens the realism: if you were appointed manager of Real Madrid at the moment, you wouldn't care about how nice your football was, just about getting results). This tactic means that I no longer have to worry about injuries, as I don't depend on any one particular player (I find that when I use a playmaker, I never have appropraite back-up, as that would entail buying someone who is a star in their own right). Plus, it is satisfying to be thouroughly outplayed by Barcelona, and still beat them because of a dodgy goal (probably scored off someones arse).
Ugly, Ugly, Boring Football 
Linear Mode
