4-1-2-3 With Specific Man-Marking

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jackrai

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Hi mates!

The tactic I present here includes 4 specific man-marking duties which may make your defence stronger. I say that it may make your defence stronger because this tactic needs to be tested more.
I selected 4-1-2-3 as the formation and 4 men as specific marker. They are right and left strikers (SCR-SCL) and two central midfielders (MCR-MCL).

I use central midfielders as the marker of the opponent wingers. On the other hand, the marking role of the strikers may vary wrt the opposition formation. If they play with 4-2-3-1 Denmark or 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 etc, then your strikers should mark two central midfielders. I mean that if your opponent has at least 2 central midfielders, your strikers should mark them. If they play with 2 defensive midfielders, then your strikers should mark these players.

I am going to try to explain the effects of this tactic:

View attachment 366715

You can see how the players get position. The opponent right back holds the ball and is looking for the pass opportunities. As I said above, our SCR, Draxler, is marking the opponent MC and SCL, Farfan, is marking the other MC. In addition, our central striker is ready to close down the oppoent centre back while our MCL, Meyer, is ready to mark the opponent winger.

View attachment 366710

The right back is being closed down by Draxler and chose to pass to AMR who is being marked by our MCL.

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When the opponent winger has the ball, Draxler becomes ready to mark MCR, Araujo, again. Then, the winger, Fierro, chose to pass to him but Draxler made a successful interception.

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Does the strikers marking the CM's not interfere with their running onto through balls? I've noticed that when you have attacking players man marking players - main example being wide attacking players marking FB's - it does make it more solid defensively, but the through ball is deemed as a loss of ball and so the player won't attempt to run onto it and just runs off to mark their man instead. I would guess with the 3 up front you have the free striker on a more advanced role to get onto through balls? I like the concept. What results have you been having?
 
dave256 said:
Does the strikers marking the CM's not interfere with their running onto through balls? I've noticed that when you have attacking players man marking players - main example being wide attacking players marking FB's - it does make it more solid defensively, but the through ball is deemed as a loss of ball and so the player won't attempt to run onto it and just runs off to mark their man instead. I would guess with the 3 up front you have the free striker on a more advanced role to get onto through balls? I like the concept. What results have you been having?
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You focused on an important point. Thank you for the message.

I have also examined the marking of FBs before than this approach. It was also a promising approach but as you said, the strikers were losing their positions much more than I expected. When we got the ball, the strikers were far away from the position where they should be placed. By the new approach, I can enhance the effectiveness of the strikers during the game. I did not observe any problems related to the run of these strikers. Marking MCs and wingers is more effective than marking FBs. However, there is a risk that FBs can make long passes behind the defence so your DCs should have good speed and heading/jumping.

I think to change the role of center striker who is playing as a F9. Maybe I can use him as a complete forward or a poacher. This part needs to be tested. If you have any idea, I will appreciate you.

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On early impressions, this is VERY good!!! I'm only 10 mins into my first friendly but winning 2-0 already haha The CM's strangely find a fair bit of space and the team play some lovely football at the top end of the pitch
 
dave256 said:
On early impressions, this is VERY good!!! I'm only 10 mins into my first friendly but winning 2-0 already haha The CM's strangely find a fair bit of space and the team play some lovely football at the top end of the pitch
Click to expand...

It's nice to hear your pleasure. This tactic is very effective against especially 4-2-3-1 Denmark and classic 4-4-2 or 4-1-4-1/4-4-1-1. However, I have to enhance it against 4-4-2 Diamond and 4-1-2-1-2. When I faced the teams playing with 4-1-2-1-2, I became a bit confused and had to use only 2-men marking system. Until now, I couldn't decide what should the marking system against these teams be.
 
trupek2009 said:
What about OI's?
Click to expand...

I am not using any OI because it may affect the defensive shape of my team. Instead of using OI, I created a 4-men marking system. In fact, my team is playing as if I use OI for MCs and wingers.

As an objective, I want to create a hardworking team which is strong in defence and quick in offence. Me team, Schalke, usually fulfills my target. As an example:

View attachment 366232

It was a great result for me but I have to admit that we had an important fixture advantage. Bayern had defeated Chelsea only 3 days ago and as you can see, there was a large difference between the conditions of the players at the end of the match. However, it was a great success that Bayern had only 2 shots (min. 75 and 85) during the game.
 
Are going to tell me that you are the first 4-1-2-3 tactic creater for Football Manager 2014 with a really balanced and usefull tactic?
 
ChristianEriksen said:
Are going to tell me that you are the first 4-1-2-3 tactic creater for Football Manager 2014 with a really balanced and usefull tactic?
Click to expand...

I don't think that I'm the first one to create a good 4-1-2-3 based tactic. As I read the posts, I saw that there are several successful tactics which are 4-1-2-3 or similar to 4-1-2-3 such as 4-6-0 etc. I want to share my ideas about the defensive positioning of the players and develop myself by your advice and comments. If you have any idea related to the ways of reducing the pass opportunities of the opponents, please share with me and I will appreciate you.
 
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In my first season, I became the German champion and were eliminated in the semi final in the champions league against Barcelona (after penalty kicks :/ ) My only transfers were Defour and Cerci. I think that this tactic is really a balanced tactic. By using this tactic, you can trust on your players because they are playing as they know their capability. They are not running like crazy people on the whole pitch. They know what they should do.
 
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