So I'm posting an update to elaborate a little bit on the tactic. I've been using this tactic pretty much since day one of FM21 and it hasn't dissapointed me yet (thus all match engine versions).
The tactic was inspired by how Ziyech used to influence Ajax's game and as we have seen off and on at Chelsea when he was not injured. In practice however it was very difficult to get the right midfielder to provide many inside curling crosses from deep, however the tactic still works quite good.
The tactic requires a midfielder type player on the MR (Ziyech, Odegaard, Antony) who doesnt have to be very fast (always a pro ofcourse) but is mainly good in dribbling, first touch, passing and crossing. My preference is a left footed player, however I've also had good results with right footed players. I've also tried changing it to an IW, however this didnt seem to work very well.
The AML position needs to be fast, have good dribbling and quite importantly, decent finnshing (incl. composure and anticpation). Players like Ansu Fati, Vincius have worked very well for me, but in my Villa save also Grealish is doing a fine job even though he's less fast.
The striker seems to work quite well regardless of what player I put in this position. Ofcourse players like Haaland will perform very well, however I've also had great success with Anwar El Ghazi as striker (see Villa screenshot), who scored 20+ goals in the first half of the season when I did not have a proper striker yet.
The AMC position needs to be someone who can score goals as well. Thiago Almada has proven a great choice when there is less budget, otherwise players like Aouar, Felix and Pedri have provided great results.
I do not use any OI or PI and have not focused much on set pieces. There may be room for improvement here, however I've never felt the urgency and don't really like configuring set pieces. Because I used Diablo's 4-2-4 (FM20 version) as starting point, you may see that Diablo's set pieces are still used.
I'm curious to see what results other are able to achieve with this tactic, so please share your results
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)