FOR TESTING PURPOSE ONLY NOT YET COMPLETE
Hopefully people test these tactics see what any improvements that are need

View attachment 130409 this is my counter 3-6-1 this formation is for games your not expecting to win but looking for a draw or ****** a win.

View attachment 130410 this is my attacking 3-6-1 this formation is for games that you should/need to win also I use domestic cups.

Im still trying different shapes for my possession based 3-6-1
 
tactic looks very interesting mate, i might try and have a go at that
 
Right, thought id help out a little and give this a go as well. Came up with three versions of my own for the 3-6-1 tactic:

Results to follow
 
Tactic 1

GK - Defend

RCB - Defend - Stopper - Man Mark
LCB - Defend - Stopper - Man Mark
CB - Defend - Cover - Zonal

DM - Defend - Anchor Man
RM - Attack - Defensive Winger
LM - Attach - Defensive Winger
RCM - Support - Ball Winning
LCM - Support - Box to box
AM - Attack - Attacking Midfielder

ST - Attack - Target Man

Team instruction - short passing and focus through the middle


Not the best result but there was some promise and some tweaking to be done
 
I don't see why not. I got a 3-4-1-2 to work well and a lot of Argentine teams use it (in real life and in the game), so a 3-4-2-1 should work. The others look like they could work, too, especially one with two defensive mids.
 
Tactic 2

GK - Defend

RCB - Defend - Stopper
LCB - Defend - Stopper
CB - Defend - Cover

RDM + LDM - Deep Lying Playmakers - Defend
RM + LM - Defensive Wingers - Attack
RAM - Tranquivista (or however its spelt) - Attack
LAM - Attacking Midfielder - Support

ST - Target Man - Attack


Match was only against a **** team but very promising - will need testing against better teams
 
give a whole new meaning to back 4
3 defenders and one keeper hehe :)
i like tactic 2
 
Tactic 3

GK - Defend

RCB + LCB - Defend - Stopper
CB - Defend Cover

x2 DM - Defensive Midfielder - Defend
RM + LM - Defensive Wingers - Attack
CM - Advanved Playmaker - Support
AM - Attacking Midfielder - Attack

ST - Target Man - Attack


Although playing a weaker team - not a great result - Teaking again needed cause there was still promise
 
Im now going to tweak the tactics and get to the competitive games where the proper testing begins.

Two games at home and two games away with each tactic and I will provide a much more detailed analysis
 
I thought id test my best tactic in the last pre-season friendly against Real Madrid - not their strongest starting 11 but a result that I was delighted with
 
Tactic 1 - Competitive Testing

Right then, first four competitive games out the way so lets look at it a little more closely

Firstly I'd like to give you a rough idea of the formation that has been slightly revised since I first came up with it:

GK - Defend

RCB + LCB - Stopper - Defend - Tight Man Marking
CB - Cover - Defend - Zonal Marking

DM - Anchor Man - Defend - Zonal Marking
RM + LM - Defensive Wingers - Attack
RCM - Ball Winning Midfielder - Support
LCM - Box to Box - Support
AM - Attacking Midfielder - Attack

ST - Target Man - Attack


First Game of the season is away at Everton - a tough place to get a win
We won the game 0-1, a win is a win although not a great score but the most worrying thing was the amount of possession we had - 38%. The team instructions have been set to short passing with a focus through the middle to exploit the pure numbers in midfield, but this left the centre of the park very congested for both teams.

View attachment 130459

View attachment 130460

View attachment 130461

View attachment 130462

Second game - Europa League Qualifying against Cerle Brugge - a 0-2 away win. I played my second team for this game but against such a small team you would have expected a better result, and more possession - a mear 41% this time

View attachment 130463

View attachment 130464

View attachment 130466

View attachment 130465

Next was Wolves at home - a much more satisfying 4-1 win, but again less possession than the opposition

View attachment 130467

View attachment 130468

View attachment 130469

View attachment 130470

And finally the return leg against Cercle Brugge - another 2-0 home win with the second team and again only 44% posession.

View attachment 130471

View attachment 130472

View attachment 130473

View attachment 130474


In studying the passing movements of the opposition in all of these games, it become obvious (and probably not suprising) that the vast majority of the opposition pass camw down the flanks, with hardly anything able to go through the middle of the my team. The positives seem to be the fact that little to nothing came from this in any of the games due to the defensive wingers tracking back. In fact the majority of the wide possession could well have come from the fullbacks who would have been unchallenged.

View attachment 130476

So lets compare the strengths and weaknesses of the formation with possible solutions.

Weakness
Room for opposition wingers given the fact the formation does not accommodate fullbacks
Solution
Defensive wingers who track back when defending, If they are not back in time, either the left or right sided centreback moves across to cover and the sweeper slots into his position

Weakness
Susseptable to counter attacks
Solution
If the Defensive Wingers are caught high up the pitch, there is still a four man defensive unit to break down the counter attack. The anchor man can partol infront of the back 3 and drop back in to form a back three if one of the centre backs is drawn out to defend a wide position. Having a ball winning Midfielder in the centre also aids in quickly and affectively closing down opposition attack and, if need be, perform a "tactical foul" to stop the opposition.

Weakness
Lack of attacking width with defensive wingers
Solution
Setting the striker to target man allows for the ball to be held up, this gives the wingers enough time to get forard to join the attack if nessisary. An attacking midfielder is also able to get around the target man for knockdowns, flick ons, and through balls. The attacking midfielder also has licence to pull wide and the box to box midfielder take his place.

Weakness
Lack of posession
Solution or Problem?
I have never used a formation that yielded so little possession, but i beleive that it is quality possession and not just hanging onto the ball that counts with this formation. The congested nature of the middle of the park could be why this happens and maybe trying to utilse less short passing would aid this.

Strengths
1. Unbeleivably solid through the centre of the park
2. Solid defensive base to build good attacks

Negatives
Working with only defensive midfielder out wide puts huge strain on their energy and ability to work back and forth the whole match. I found that by 70 mins these two players would almost always need replacing. These positions also need players with high team wrok and workrate.


If you'd like to test this formation here is the attachment and please feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

View attachment 130477

And in answer to the original question of this thread, it looks very possible for this formation to work successfully but it needs far more testing for a whole season.
 
I like the idea but should i try it with a strong team or a small team?

Strong team Napoli havent got the players in depth Im using Tottenham but already Lennon, Defoe and Bentley havent got stats to be used
 
yeah I made a very goog one the links in my sig if you want it
 
yeah I made a very goog one the links in my sig if you want it

apparently wing backs are defenders so thats a 5 man defence not a 3 man defence. but thats the way i would do it.
 
Trying to get the controlled 3-6-1 working with Spurs still not high possession but not been beat and scored a throught just starting the league so ill be testing it for 4 games then (For me this has to be right because ill be using this for nearly every game)

View attachment 130565

Defence positions
View attachment 130566
Black- Defenders
Red- Midfielders
Blue- Forward

View attachment 130567
same again
 
Top