rdouglasncfc
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I have been having a lot of success playing with a 4-2-3-1 formation while managing England on my YouTube channel. It has been requested a few times to make the tactics public and present a tutorial video where I go in depth about how I play the formation.
4-2-3-1 is arguably the most common/popular formation in Football Manager 2015 so I feel it may be the roles & instructions I use which makes it more unique & for the most part successful. Although I will often refer to my experiences with England, these tactics should be useful for any team/nation. However, it is my experiences with England which have resulted in the tinkerings I made lading to England being runners up in EURO 2016.
Similar to many 4-3-3 formations floating around, the tactic is based on having a solid back 4 with defensive midfielders for covers to reduce space and initiate the counter attack. Good passing & defensive attributes are key for the central midfielders over attacking talents which come very much secondary. In order to assist with building attacks (which very much suit my keeping possession style of football), the Left Winger is given the role of the "Inside Forward". This is so when the CAM & Right Winger create the killer passes, the Inside forward almost acts like a second striker to assist the Striker with the goal scoring threat. In the event of a quick counter attack, the Right Winger often moves in field and with the right shooting attributes will also being a lot of goals to your team.
View attachment 256341 View attachment 256336
(Not representative of my best starting 11)
As far as instructions are concerned, as mentioned before I prefer to keep possession & frustrate the opponent. Other instructions are in an aim to reduce unnecessary fouls & bookings such as keeping on their feet. If you have a striker with a lot of face such as Clough who I have in this example, I would recommend choosing "Prevent short GK distribution". This will often see the opposition rush the ball away from their area and give you back possession.
View attachment 256338
When it comes to player instructions, they follow a similar principle to my team instructions where I am looking to keep possession. I will ask my Goalkeeper to always pass short and to the Full Back who in turn have the instructions to keep the ball wide and help build play with the Wingers. My Inside Forward & CAM often have free roam to come and help others but apart from that the shape of the team must remain because especially when it comes to England at the moment. Although England have some Midfielders who are good defensively, they are incredibly slow (Barry, Carrick are prime examples). They must therefore do their utmost to be in the right place at the right time or we will constantly be getting caught giving too much space.
View attachment 256329
If you wish to listen to me going in depth about all my roles, instruction etc, I have a YouTube link for the full tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4Q6rxs8Kus
If you are curious about seeing my tactics in action then here is a link to my full YouTube playlist with England: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tty_b5_Nms&list=PLOP3uWGrWXbcWSQk8APXjUnnDkF78VxK2
And finally if you want to try the tactics for yourself then here is a download link through Steam Workshop: Steam Workshop :: Attacking 4-2-3-1 Wide
I hope this can be of some use to you, if you have any questions/queries then fire away! Have fun!
4-2-3-1 is arguably the most common/popular formation in Football Manager 2015 so I feel it may be the roles & instructions I use which makes it more unique & for the most part successful. Although I will often refer to my experiences with England, these tactics should be useful for any team/nation. However, it is my experiences with England which have resulted in the tinkerings I made lading to England being runners up in EURO 2016.
Similar to many 4-3-3 formations floating around, the tactic is based on having a solid back 4 with defensive midfielders for covers to reduce space and initiate the counter attack. Good passing & defensive attributes are key for the central midfielders over attacking talents which come very much secondary. In order to assist with building attacks (which very much suit my keeping possession style of football), the Left Winger is given the role of the "Inside Forward". This is so when the CAM & Right Winger create the killer passes, the Inside forward almost acts like a second striker to assist the Striker with the goal scoring threat. In the event of a quick counter attack, the Right Winger often moves in field and with the right shooting attributes will also being a lot of goals to your team.
View attachment 256341 View attachment 256336
(Not representative of my best starting 11)
As far as instructions are concerned, as mentioned before I prefer to keep possession & frustrate the opponent. Other instructions are in an aim to reduce unnecessary fouls & bookings such as keeping on their feet. If you have a striker with a lot of face such as Clough who I have in this example, I would recommend choosing "Prevent short GK distribution". This will often see the opposition rush the ball away from their area and give you back possession.
View attachment 256338
When it comes to player instructions, they follow a similar principle to my team instructions where I am looking to keep possession. I will ask my Goalkeeper to always pass short and to the Full Back who in turn have the instructions to keep the ball wide and help build play with the Wingers. My Inside Forward & CAM often have free roam to come and help others but apart from that the shape of the team must remain because especially when it comes to England at the moment. Although England have some Midfielders who are good defensively, they are incredibly slow (Barry, Carrick are prime examples). They must therefore do their utmost to be in the right place at the right time or we will constantly be getting caught giving too much space.
View attachment 256329
If you wish to listen to me going in depth about all my roles, instruction etc, I have a YouTube link for the full tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4Q6rxs8Kus
If you are curious about seeing my tactics in action then here is a link to my full YouTube playlist with England: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tty_b5_Nms&list=PLOP3uWGrWXbcWSQk8APXjUnnDkF78VxK2
And finally if you want to try the tactics for yourself then here is a download link through Steam Workshop: Steam Workshop :: Attacking 4-2-3-1 Wide
I hope this can be of some use to you, if you have any questions/queries then fire away! Have fun!