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Right, I remembered in the dark recesses of my mind from last season a certain thread about creating your own "supergoalie", which pretty much (in my head, anyway) destroyed the whole myth by showing that the human player could be just as big a cheat as the AI.
What I liked about sjm's tactic was that it was brilliantly simple, played the game of football as an exercise in winning rather than looking good with the flashiest players and, crucially played 3 centre backs.
This is the big question - how to employ 3CBs? If you study most matches that play three or five at the back it's very easy to notice a few basic problems which I feel it's important to mention:
1) There's often the major problem of the full backs getting caught out of position. Evidently, with fewer forward players, the wingbacks or fullbacks have to fill the holes. The centrebacks can either be too unwilling to close down the area and leave the opposition with a free cross or close down too quickly and leave a gaping hole for the opposition midfield.
2) The centre of the three centre backs has a habit of walking off. Especially against two strikers, the central player tends to nudge himself forward into a more DM role or fall back to a SW role, leaving a gaping hole right in the middle of the back line causing no end of damage.
3) While you may form a cohesive unit, both width and depth become a problem. You are effectively denying yourself an extra attacking player and leaving people isolated, plus it's difficult to get the width of 5 at the back proportional to three in midfield or vice-versa. Do you play only one striker? Do you forgo wing play? Difficult compromises both.
How then to get it to work? I'd like to hear some thought. I have my own theories which have served me well in Romania and the lower echelon of The Football League, but I'd love to know who else uses a 5-x-x or a 3-x-x and how they get the defensive unit to gel - particularly if it's used at a big team.
Another thread I quite enjoyed and borrowed extensively from in my games was the 13thDuke Boro tactic which is quite effective in '06. Not yet seen an '07 version -http://community.sigames.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1519717/m/3772064822?r=3772064822#3772064822
Playing three centre backs and the "Supergoalie" 
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