Cleon

I always tend to get bored playing FM after a while and find myself loosing the fun factor. As I tend to always try and keep a clean sheet, or pefect my tactic that much it becomes boring as all my tactics end up playing the same way.

So for something different and in the hope I can re-discover the fun element of the game, I'm going to try and recreate classic frmations from the past. This was something I did on FM07 and actually enjoyed, as it was quite a challenge. Let's take a look at the first formation I'll be hoping to recreate;

The W-M (1925)

The 1925 amendment of the offside rule meant that an attacking player need only keep 2 opponents in front of him and not 3 as stated before. This made the offside trap a much more challenging proposition. If one defender made a mistake, then the goalkeeper would be left on his own to defend the goal... Unsurprisingly, the number of goals scored in the English First Division rose by 43%, from 1,192 to 1,703.

The perceptive Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman, along with his captain Charlie Buchan, devised a system to stop this problem after a 7-0 drubbing by Newcastle. They noticed that it was the centre-forward doing most of the goalscoring. Thus, the centre-half was pulled back to become the stopper, or the centre-back. To fill up the gap created in midfield, the two inside-forwards were pulled back to create a four-man midfield which the Italians called the magic square. The team thus had the general shape of a W of defensive players and an M of attack-minded players, giving rise to the name W-M. The typical W-M centre-forward was brawny and could score well.

Arsenal's W-M was very successful because of a few special touches that Chapman put in: Firstly, his defensive W was a lopsided one. This meant that when an attack began on the opposition's left flank, Arsenal's rightback would come in for the challenge, while Arsenal's defensive right midfielder, stopper, defensive left midfielder and leftback moved to respectively deeper positions as shown in the diagram to your right. Secondly, the Arsenal wingers could also cut in to score goals. Thirdly, one of the inside-forwards was used as a playmaker, to fill up the gap from the loss of the centre-half
Brazil's version of the W-M in 1950 was the diagonal system, with only 2 fullbacks, covering the centre and right part of the defensive third of the field, the left flank being the job of a withdrawn left midfielder who was expected to help out in attack. This led to some defensive vulnerability, but lots of attacking firepower. Its vulnerabilities were only exposed once, by the Swiss, which held the Brazilian team to a 2-2 draw with their bolt system. This was enough, and the Brazilians switched to an orthodox version of the W-M, which proved very successful, taking them to the Final where they lost to a highly adapted Uruguayan team using a sort of metodo which was really more like a 4-3-3.

Advice on the W-M: To use the orthodox W-M successfully, the defense has to be alert, and passing within the team must be good. In other words, as with all other formations, teamwork has to be strong so that communication is done efficiently. Scoring must not be a difficulty to the forwards as there are now less forwards up front, and where attacking play is concerned, the midfield has to help out as well as the movements upfront have to start with the midfield.

To use the Arsenal version, your wingers should have about the same skills as a 2-3-5 centre-forward, for scoring goals is another of the new responsibilities of the wingers. You can use all four midfielders as a bridge between the defense and offense, as the role of playmaker will be taken up by one of the inside forwards. For the Brazilian version, strong defenders with lots of stamina are the thing to have because if the withdrawn left midfielder gets caught out, then the two backs will have to cover the entire defensive third of the pitch.

Cleon

The W-M on FM

Even though I hope this will be fun, there will still be elemments of the formation that I'll not be able to work around and just have to accept. If you take a look at the shape, you'll see what I mean;

The W-M Formation

No matter what, I've to keep this shape at all times if I'm to recreate the formation, as close as possible. Because the shape needs to stay the same, you'll notice problems with the midfield and the space the opposition will have. Especially the wings, these will be very vulnerable at times. As you can see, the tactic is split into two banks of five. Five defensive players and five attacking players.

The problems I can see happening will probably happen away from home, when teams decide to have a real go at me and exploit the space. However I'm still optimistic and see great potential in this system. Going forward, I hope to break quick and at speed. If I can pull that off, then I can see me scoring a good amount of goals over the season. The downside of playing this way though will be the defence. I will get caught out of position a few times and probably let in one or two goals. But one things for sure, there is bound to be plenty of goals in these games.

The Start

The early indications are that it's lethal going forward, but a bit vulnerable on the counter attack. Here are a few early results;

So far, so good

I've choose the fast striker over the targeman type at the minute, but that might change the further I get along, especially away from home if I find my chances are limited. I hope to play around five league games, then watch them all on full afterwards and write down all the faults I find and try and fix it in later games, rather than tweaking in game.

The reason for that is because I've got new players trying to gel together and all players learning to adapt to a new formation, quite different from what they are currently used to.

What i'll do is, I'll upload the PKM's of all my games so far incase anyone wants to view them. Don't bother too much about the performances in the friendlies though as they are pointless. But instead concentrate on the football being played and see if you can see the good and bad points.

PKM's download link

I will post about the tactic more once I've actually watched the games myself and made alterations.

dbestfm

Cleon are you going to just do the main ones that people will know or can we suggest some more obscure ones after you finish the W-M

Cleon

I'll be doing all the famous ones like the Swiss Verou etc

www2

Nice one Cleon

Dyl Hero

talk about rubbing salt in the wound, most people struggle when they use the best formations while you choose random formations from 80 years ago and still win.

Drewstar

Cleon you never stop amazing me!! Great stuff!

ObaMartins09

You should have a go at the 4-3-3 that Juve used when they had Ravenelli, Del Piero and Vialli. What a great tactic they had back in those days.

I saw it in the book 'soccer systems and strategies' which goes into depth on formations and tactics, both old and new.

In fact, I might try and replicate it myself Cleon. :thup:

Law_Man

You love the W-M don't you Cleon!

I think the reason why this thread (and the other that you're hopefully going to do) will be so successful is that you're actually creating a playable tactic and playing the game with it, this will be fantastic for everyone! Especially if you can come up with a solid tactic for a variety of popular formations

Cleon

I do take too much on at times

This formation at the minute, is kind of, you score 2 i'll score 4. I'm sure I can get it solid though, after watching a few games.