Hello everyone!
Today I'm presenting to you a 433 (narrow) I've made, which includes a Target Man as the central striker as well as a Ball-Winning-Midfielder in CCM, two roles I haven't used a lot so far.
There are also numerous instructions for certain positions.
This tactic has been tested by holiday-ing an entire season with Valladolid, tests have been run with Sassuolo, Milan and Juventus as well. All in all, the results were mixed and - at times - interesting.
Valladolid (predicted to finish 18th, finished 9th in reality) was easily the most impressive result in terms of placement. They came 9th in the league, only 3 points off an EL spot, and they managed to reach the Fifth round (aka quarter finals) of the Copa del Rey. Most notably, they didn't have an exceptionally decent record in terms of scoring a lot or conceding very little goals compared to their contenders in the league.
Sassuolo (predicted to finish 12th, finished 9th in reality) didn't overperform as much as I would've hoped, and they lost out on 6th place by 3 points after a terrible spell at the end, where they only won 1 of their last 5 games (against Juventus of all people). However, it was then that I realised that this tactic can do very well offensively, with Sassuolo scoring the second most goals of all teams, only finishing behind Juventus. And after those two tests, I also realised that this tactic could work decently without a huge player at TM (although I would opt to change the crosses in that case), even though it was originally meant for teams who can field a Target Man like Ibra, like Haaland, like Mandzukic.
Milan (predicted to finish 4th I think, finished 3rd in reality) is another team which didn't quite do as well as I'd hoped, but that comes down mainly to how utterly dominant Juve and especially Napoli were during that season. Out of my 7 losses in the league, 4 came from the game against Juve and Napoli (as well as the ONLY 2 games I lost by 2 goals or more - 0:2 against Napoli and 1:5 against Juve). Funnily enough, Sassuolo did wonderfully well in that season, and the impression Milan gave was quite the opposite to the one Sassuolo gave in the previous test. Milan didn't score exceptionally well, in fact, they only came 5th in terms of goals scored, with 6th and 7th just one goal behind them. They did, however, boast the joint-second best defensive record.
All in all, this tactic gives off the impression of a very solid base-tactic, that can be molded and adapted in quite a few ways.
It is mainly aimed at underdogs, but it can do the job for mid-table teams or even contenders. Personally, I wouldn't recommend using this tactic without any adaptations for teams that are established at the top in a competitive (in FM terms) league, like Juve, for example. The tactic is quite structured in its' approach, and as such doesn't necessarily use all of the potential a team like this has.
EDIT: FM-BASE has tested this tactic as well. It scored a total 17 points in the sub-top category, so that's where it should be used.
Today I'm presenting to you a 433 (narrow) I've made, which includes a Target Man as the central striker as well as a Ball-Winning-Midfielder in CCM, two roles I haven't used a lot so far.
There are also numerous instructions for certain positions.
This tactic has been tested by holiday-ing an entire season with Valladolid, tests have been run with Sassuolo, Milan and Juventus as well. All in all, the results were mixed and - at times - interesting.
Valladolid (predicted to finish 18th, finished 9th in reality) was easily the most impressive result in terms of placement. They came 9th in the league, only 3 points off an EL spot, and they managed to reach the Fifth round (aka quarter finals) of the Copa del Rey. Most notably, they didn't have an exceptionally decent record in terms of scoring a lot or conceding very little goals compared to their contenders in the league.
Sassuolo (predicted to finish 12th, finished 9th in reality) didn't overperform as much as I would've hoped, and they lost out on 6th place by 3 points after a terrible spell at the end, where they only won 1 of their last 5 games (against Juventus of all people). However, it was then that I realised that this tactic can do very well offensively, with Sassuolo scoring the second most goals of all teams, only finishing behind Juventus. And after those two tests, I also realised that this tactic could work decently without a huge player at TM (although I would opt to change the crosses in that case), even though it was originally meant for teams who can field a Target Man like Ibra, like Haaland, like Mandzukic.
Milan (predicted to finish 4th I think, finished 3rd in reality) is another team which didn't quite do as well as I'd hoped, but that comes down mainly to how utterly dominant Juve and especially Napoli were during that season. Out of my 7 losses in the league, 4 came from the game against Juve and Napoli (as well as the ONLY 2 games I lost by 2 goals or more - 0:2 against Napoli and 1:5 against Juve). Funnily enough, Sassuolo did wonderfully well in that season, and the impression Milan gave was quite the opposite to the one Sassuolo gave in the previous test. Milan didn't score exceptionally well, in fact, they only came 5th in terms of goals scored, with 6th and 7th just one goal behind them. They did, however, boast the joint-second best defensive record.
All in all, this tactic gives off the impression of a very solid base-tactic, that can be molded and adapted in quite a few ways.
It is mainly aimed at underdogs, but it can do the job for mid-table teams or even contenders. Personally, I wouldn't recommend using this tactic without any adaptations for teams that are established at the top in a competitive (in FM terms) league, like Juve, for example. The tactic is quite structured in its' approach, and as such doesn't necessarily use all of the potential a team like this has.
EDIT: FM-BASE has tested this tactic as well. It scored a total 17 points in the sub-top category, so that's where it should be used.
