3412 Inshallah Merchant 2021-06-07

Created with the intention of finding a back three tactic which I created myself. I normally opt for a four at the back formation but had started to get a bit bored so I decided to try this. Initially started out with a 3421 but found that it was incredibly reliant on the number 9 playing well and that it was far too inconsistent. The tactic is a high pressing, high scoring tactic.

The goal of this tactic was to take me up the league and it did just that. Within 2 seasons of using it, I moved from a team that was challenging for the top 6 to a team that won the treble and wiped the floor with more or less anyone (I even beat Man Utd 9-1 in the Champions League quarter final).

I would recommend trying to find centrebacks who are quite athletic as they will have to do a lot of tracking for having no fullbacks. Hence it also helps to have athletic wingers aswell who can help the centrebacks in transition. The tactic generally relies on at least one top-quality striker (relative to the league) as the main goal of the tactic is to get the ball to the strikers as quickly as possible.

The set-piece routine of the tactic also helped a lot. My central defenders scored about 15-20 goals between them in all competitions (Bastoni even scored 8 goals for me in the Prem).

It doesn't really matter what footed the players are, as long as the left striker is left-footed and the right striker is right-footed. I've also found that some wingers excel quite well when using the same foot as the side they are on, despite them playing as inverted wingers (Nuno Santos got 33 goals contributions in 39 games in all competitions). I have also had success with using players that are opposite footed to the side they are playing on. It helps to have your deep-lying playmaker to have at least 13-14 flair, as sometimes your wingers can get quite stuck (since he works by himself on the wing without the help of a fullback/wingback).

The goals for the team are quite well spread out. In the season I won the treble, my front three got a combined (goals & assists) goal contribution of 133. My wingers got 57 goal contributions between the two of them and even my deep-lying playmaker got 24 goal contributions. It totalled about 173 goals in all competitions. In my current season, I have already scored 31 goals in 6 games (including an 8-0 win over Watford, a 4-0 win over Tottenham and a 3-0 away win against Man City).

With regards to player instructions, I normally just do whatever my assistant manager tells me to do and I let my players decide who takes set pieces.