4-2-3-1, goals 'en masse', Quadrouple with Sau Paolo - 130+ goals in league (v.19.2.3

Kringle

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Hello Football manager friends.
This is my first post so please have patience with me ;)

I've had a lot of succes with my 4-2-3-1 formation, tested with the brazilian team Sau Paolo..
Roughly it's a very common style of football, especially when playing 4-2-3-1. Quick short passing, with wingbacks being very offensive and providing lots of crosses. Invertible wings playing narrow to create the space for the wingbacks.

You can expect a s***loads of goals, and if it goes as well for you as it did for me, you will have a lot of players scoring 20+ goals.

It wouldn't be a real 4-2-3-1 without the gegenpressing, so of course i've added that. High pressing line, high defensive line, and with a good pressing intensity.
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Training:
My assistant coach takes care of the training and match preperation. It works fine for me, and i guess it will do so for you aswell.

Set pieces:
There is added corners and throw-ins. I think you should know, that both corners and throw-ins are heavily inspered by other FM-players, so i can't take fully credit for that. However the set-pieces works fine (read good). Corners should be taken by the wingbacks, RB on right side and so on. Same goes for the throw-ins.

Important things to know:
Key positions in this tactic are the AMC and the striker. You will see that later, where you can see the stats from Brenner(striker) and diego Souza (AMC). If you have great players on those positions, you should get loads of goals.

Players should fit the roles. I know that my players doesn't fit 100%, but i've experienced, that the fitting in roles can make the different between victory and defeat.

When you get a red card, take out your AMC, UNLESS you are behind, then i suggest you take out a CM, because your AMC will make A LOT of goals.

Goalkeeper and CB's: Make sure they are good with the ball, so you can minimize the amount of mistakes in the back. I'd rather sacrifice 2 points in tackling so i can have one more in passing, when i look for defenders.

Transfers:
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Many of the signings made, was just to have more width on the bench, as you play many matches in brazil. Some ended playing a bigger role than first expected. Ibanez was a signing made to replace rodrigo Caio, i had to sell Caio, because of the clubs financial status, and the offer from monaco was too good.
Lincoln has not been so good as i hoped, he is still young, so, as you already know, he will be a star. Brenner was my first choice striker instead.

And now to the thing you actually care about
Results:

So, the media thought that i would end up 6th in the Seria A, and they thought i would end 4th in the State championship, i proved them wrong, and won both. The board wanted me to finish in the top half, i think they were happy at the end of the season. long story short, i've won everything. I will know post my match schedule, so you can see the results:


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I hope you will give this tactic a try. It have worked so good for me, and i would like to se other players try it in different leagues and levels. Keep me updated, and tell me if you have any tweeks to it :)


 
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Attributes

What are the key attributes for each player's role?
 
What are the key attributes for each player's role?
'

For both wingbacks: Pace, work rate, crossing and dribling. Corners and throw-in attributes won't be bad, because the wingbacks are taking care of these to.

CB: Passing, as mentioned in the first post.

CM: Work rate and passing for the deep laying PM., for the box-box, he should have tackling, crosses and stamina, also longshots, as you will see a couple of these :)

Wingers: Pace, longshots, flair, dribbling, you know, pretty basic stats for invertible. Decisions, so he makes the right choices, very important, as the winger is a lot in the box.

AMC: Finishing, dribble, long shots, off the ball, and in my team, he also took free-kicks. Always good to have a specialist in that.

Striker: Finishing, anticipitation, work rate, passing and dribbling.

But to be honest, i really haven't thought that much about, because it seems to me like, no matter what player i put on the pitch, it feels like it's always working out :)
 
Hi, does it have the throw in cheat?

ehm, well i guess some call it a cheat, but personally i don't think i'm making that many goals on throw-ins. I score a lot on counter attacks and crosses. :)
 
Trying with Leeds Utd

Started using this tactic with Leeds. Just finished my first pre-season - here's a few observations whilst my team isn't fully fluid with the tactic
  • Does a great job in the friendlies absolute goals galore
  • Seems to be VERY reliant on the set-piece exploits, majority of my goals have come from throw-ins and corners
  • That said, the other goals have been very pleasant to watch with most coming from wide areas and some from ridiculous Pirlo like passes from Gaetano Berardi of all people playing at CB
  • I've had the most success playing my strikers (Kemar Roofe and Patrick Bamford) as the inside forwards, with Alioski in the False 9 role
  • The one decent team I've played so far was against Young Boys, their 2 very fast striker combination gave me all sorts of problems and the high press/defensive line looks like it'll cause me some problems
I play all the matches myself but do not adjust anything on the tactics, mainly just so I can watch the highlights and be in charge of substitutions so I can give youngsters plenty of game time.

Results from preseason are below, will update as the season progresses, but certainly looks promising so far.

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Started using this tactic with Leeds. Just finished my first pre-season - here's a few observations whilst my team isn't fully fluid with the tactic
  • Does a great job in the friendlies absolute goals galore
  • Seems to be VERY reliant on the set-piece exploits, majority of my goals have come from throw-ins and corners
  • That said, the other goals have been very pleasant to watch with most coming from wide areas and some from ridiculous Pirlo like passes from Gaetano Berardi of all people playing at CB
  • I've had the most success playing my strikers (Kemar Roofe and Patrick Bamford) as the inside forwards, with Alioski in the False 9 role
  • The one decent team I've played so far was against Young Boys, their 2 very fast striker combination gave me all sorts of problems and the high press/defensive line looks like it'll cause me some problems
I play all the matches myself but do not adjust anything on the tactics, mainly just so I can watch the highlights and be in charge of substitutions so I can give youngsters plenty of game time.

Results from preseason are below, will update as the season progresses, but certainly looks promising so far.

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you draw wth young boys becasu of not getting up your players at 9.00 o clock lol :)
 
Leeds Utd reached January

Summary - Tactic has me dominating the Championship with a heavy reliance on throw-in exploit goals

Reached the end of 2018 as Leeds:
  • Dominating the league, 13 points clear after 25 games, scored 22 goals more than any other team
  • Early season was a struggle, didn't win any of the first 3 games, then went on a winning streak
  • Was conceding A LOT from set pieces (9 in the first 12 league games) so I tweaked the defensive set-pieces after the Blackburn defeat and have not conceded from one since
  • Very vulnerable to counter attack goals but 8 clean sheets shows it isn't a major concern
  • Conceded 4 goals to a poor Bolton side but that was mainly due to me having 2 players sent off (Bamford after going 1-0 up in the 30th minute, won 5-4 scoring 4 goals with 10 men and then another red after it was 5-4)
In terms of my team perfomance:
  • Still majority of goals coming from throw-ins, however when you're playing a team who does come out and try to attack in numbers you score plenty of superb counter attacking goals
  • Patrick Bamford has been my key player joint top of the charts with 14 goals in 24 games (21 starts)
  • Took me a lot of matches to get a settled team and also to figure out that playing the IFs on the SAME side as their strong foot works better, i.e. left footer as the left IF (Alioski / Harrison) and a right footer on the right (Roofe / Hernandez)
  • The attacking midfielder has been a struggle settled on Izzy Brown and Mateusz Klich but neither has really excelled. I would love to get Samu Saiz back and in this position, but he's on loan at Getafe and I'm unable to recall him
  • Adam Forshaw has been majestic in the DLP role, since he became available from injury fully in the Nottm Forest game
  • I sold my captain Liam Cooper in the summer window and brought in a few young players as well as a decent enough BPD and the experienced Tomas Hubschmann (mainly to cover for Forshaw until he was fit, but mostly because of his Perfectionist personality for tutoring my youngsters). Also signed some much needed back-up for the wing back positions who have actually become key players with Douglas and Ayling not being able to force them out after losing their place through injury.
  • Been blooding my youngsters slowly - Jack Clarke has been the pick of the bunch and will hopefully replace Bamford in the summer if I can sell him for some decent cash
Here's some pictures:

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Summary - Tactic has me dominating the Championship with a heavy reliance on throw-in exploit goals

Reached the end of 2018 as Leeds:
  • Dominating the league, 13 points clear after 25 games, scored 22 goals more than any other team
  • Early season was a struggle, didn't win any of the first 3 games, then went on a winning streak
  • Was conceding A LOT from set pieces (9 in the first 12 league games) so I tweaked the defensive set-pieces after the Blackburn defeat and have not conceded from one since
  • Very vulnerable to counter attack goals but 8 clean sheets shows it isn't a major concern
  • Conceded 4 goals to a poor Bolton side but that was mainly due to me having 2 players sent off (Bamford after going 1-0 up in the 30th minute, won 5-4 scoring 4 goals with 10 men and then another red after it was 5-4)
In terms of my team perfomance:
  • Still majority of goals coming from throw-ins, however when you're playing a team who does come out and try to attack in numbers you score plenty of superb counter attacking goals
  • Patrick Bamford has been my key player joint top of the charts with 14 goals in 24 games (21 starts)
  • Took me a lot of matches to get a settled team and also to figure out that playing the IFs on the SAME side as their strong foot works better, i.e. left footer as the left IF (Alioski / Harrison) and a right footer on the right (Roofe / Hernandez)
  • The attacking midfielder has been a struggle settled on Izzy Brown and Mateusz Klich but neither has really excelled. I would love to get Samu Saiz back and in this position, but he's on loan at Getafe and I'm unable to recall him
  • Adam Forshaw has been majestic in the DLP role, since he became available from injury fully in the Nottm Forest game
  • I sold my captain Liam Cooper in the summer window and brought in a few young players as well as a decent enough BPD and the experienced Tomas Hubschmann (mainly to cover for Forshaw until he was fit, but mostly because of his Perfectionist personality for tutoring my youngsters). Also signed some much needed back-up for the wing back positions who have actually become key players with Douglas and Ayling not being able to force them out after losing their place through injury.
  • Been blooding my youngsters slowly - Jack Clarke has been the pick of the bunch and will hopefully replace Bamford in the summer if I can sell him for some decent cash
Here's some pictures:

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"heavy reliance on throw-in exploit goals" thats really bad.

Did you try remove the exploit and see how it goes?
 
Mate this tactic summary is really spot on!! If only you tested every tactic haha bravo!
 
Summary - Tactic has me dominating the Championship with a heavy reliance on throw-in exploit goals

Reached the end of 2018 as Leeds:
  • Dominating the league, 13 points clear after 25 games, scored 22 goals more than any other team
  • Early season was a struggle, didn't win any of the first 3 games, then went on a winning streak
  • Was conceding A LOT from set pieces (9 in the first 12 league games) so I tweaked the defensive set-pieces after the Blackburn defeat and have not conceded from one since
  • Very vulnerable to counter attack goals but 8 clean sheets shows it isn't a major concern
  • Conceded 4 goals to a poor Bolton side but that was mainly due to me having 2 players sent off (Bamford after going 1-0 up in the 30th minute, won 5-4 scoring 4 goals with 10 men and then another red after it was 5-4)
In terms of my team perfomance:
  • Still majority of goals coming from throw-ins, however when you're playing a team who does come out and try to attack in numbers you score plenty of superb counter attacking goals
  • Patrick Bamford has been my key player joint top of the charts with 14 goals in 24 games (21 starts)
  • Took me a lot of matches to get a settled team and also to figure out that playing the IFs on the SAME side as their strong foot works better, i.e. left footer as the left IF (Alioski / Harrison) and a right footer on the right (Roofe / Hernandez)
  • The attacking midfielder has been a struggle settled on Izzy Brown and Mateusz Klich but neither has really excelled. I would love to get Samu Saiz back and in this position, but he's on loan at Getafe and I'm unable to recall him
  • Adam Forshaw has been majestic in the DLP role, since he became available from injury fully in the Nottm Forest game
  • I sold my captain Liam Cooper in the summer window and brought in a few young players as well as a decent enough BPD and the experienced Tomas Hubschmann (mainly to cover for Forshaw until he was fit, but mostly because of his Perfectionist personality for tutoring my youngsters). Also signed some much needed back-up for the wing back positions who have actually become key players with Douglas and Ayling not being able to force them out after losing their place through injury.
  • Been blooding my youngsters slowly - Jack Clarke has been the pick of the bunch and will hopefully replace Bamford in the summer if I can sell him for some decent cash
Here's some pictures:

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******* **** mate, that's some analyzis. Good to hear it works out well for you. Everything you written is written down, and i'll try working on that. I've never really experianced conceding from set-pieces, but good to know you fixed it.

Yes, there is sometimes problems in the backs as you say, and you can also see that in my results, however, i'm that type of manager who rather win 4-2 than 2-0, like goals, and i don't mind conceding, as long as i score more ;)

But again, crazy good summary, thanks! Keep me updated, and tell me how it goes after the promotion to premier league :D
 
End of First Season with Leeds

So after the first year in the Championship I can say for certain that this tactic does exactly what the OP says:
  • Promoted after 37 games, Champions after 38 and after the final game of the season my Leeds team were the Championship record holders for; most points in a season (110), most wins in a season (34) and most goals in a season (129)
  • I had the Golden Boot winner and runner-up in Patrick Bamford (28) and Kemar Roofe respectively (20). Alioski and Kalvin Phillips also reached double figures in the league
  • Bamford was also top of the assist charts with 17, with Forshaw and Phillips (Both players played in the B2B / DLP position) also getting over 10
  • I had 6 players in the team of the season and Phillips also picked up the Player of the season award
  • Defensively conceded 51 goals, keeping 15 clean sheets so very respectable
  • Reached the quarter finals of the FA Cup knocking out 3 Premier League teams (Leicester, Crystal Palace and Everton) before losing to Arsenal 2-1 in extra time
  • Still most of the goals came from throw-in / short corners but was plenty from counter attacks
  • Concede most goals from counter attacks especially against teams playing a 4-3-3 with an advanced forward and quick wingers (hence the 7-5 win over Aston Villa)
  • I'll try analyse my squad in the next post :)
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End of First Season with Leeds - Player Analysis

Goalkeeper:

Kiko Casilla played 41 of 46 games for me in the league facing just under 5 shots on target per game on average. The majority of these were good chances mostly one on one, therefore reflexes and one-on-one attributes are majorly important for your keeper. I was quite lucky to have him from the start and he saved me alot of dropped points through the season.

Bailey Peacock-Farrell played the remaining games and did the job just as well. I tried to loan him out in January as I was quite sad I couldn't give him more gametime

If I start to tinker with this tactic, I would maybe try a Sweeper Keeper to try encourage him to run out and get to long punts over the top.

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Wing Backs:

Started the season with only Barry Douglas and Luke Ayling really. Gaetano Berardi is the wrong type of player for this system and was injured nearly all season anyways so I'll ignore him. In the summer transfer window I brought in two players Josip Juranovic from Hajduk for £700k and Steliano Filip on a free transfer (coincidentally seems he was released by Hajduk in the real life January 2019 transfer window).

These two went on to form my wing back duo in the first half of the season. Ayling played 14 games and did well, but I found him quite wasteful when watching the games and conceding lots of fouls so he was sold to Watford in January for a decent £9m. Kyle Walker-Peters was brought in on loan and did very well in his 8 games. Barry Douglas was so frustrating in the first half of the season for someone who is such a great crosser, after January though he was fantastic.

All wingbacks chipped in with a few goals (Juranovic with some belters) and plenty of assists.

Offensively they are fantastic in this tactic, defensively they are in a world of trouble if the opponents play with AMR/L wingers, mainly because nobody in this tactic is set to cover any of their runs forward. The IFs on attack means they really don't track runners defensively, and the DLP support sits too far forward to be a shield for the CBs.

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Centre Backs

Sold Liam Cooper in pre-season for £6m to Swansea - he's great and would suit this formation but just wanted the cash. Brought in Alex Perez from Sporting Gijon who looks, to be honest, terrible. But I thought he could be brilliant for his passing and he actually did a solid job. I brought in Lukas Mai on loan from Bayern but he was pretty poor, looks too slow for this formation with only 10 acceleration and not great positioning.

Pontus Jansson is a total monster and a legend already for us Leeds fans. Played RCB nearly all season and caused havoc at corners

Tactically, they have literally zero protection from counters as described above so positioning is key, a bit of pace if you can find it and a decent GK as a get out jail free card.

Bigger aerial threat should be on the right CB slot for maximum chaos from corners

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Central Midfield Duo

Was really lucky that I had Kalvin Phillips already, another player turning into a hero for Leeds in real life. He's perfect for the box to box role likes to get booked but was just fantastic as he won player of the season.

The DLP Forshaw was great, he's a perfect all-rounder so can play in either of the positions. Later in the season when teams were harder to break down I took Mateusz Klich for this slot, as he was struggling in the AMC position, and he improved vastly. Early in the season when Forshaw was out injured Tomas Hubschmann did a good job for me there, after bringing him in for £180k. At 37 years old he was just brought in to mentor youngsters and did well for me, but didn't play once Forshaw was back. I brought in Alex Blesa from Levante in the winter window to train up for this position, played 4 times, scored 2 worldies and looks promising.

Tactically they work well together, helps if they're good crossers or long shooters as they are involved in the set-plays. For the box-to-box you are really looking for a great all-rounder, look at Phillips, he isn't exceptional at anything highest stats are 15 in bravery and stamina, but he was perfect. The DLP is a little trickier both Forshaw and Klich were great at it. Klich was more offensively dangerous and his defensive weaknesses didn't seem to have a major impact, but with Forshaw being a bit safer I was still winning, so just someone who can pick a pass, smash one from 30 yards and is reasonably mobile will suffice.

I'd be tempted to try set the DLP to a defend duty to screen the defence a bit more if I was gonna try tinkering.

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Inside Forwards

First things first, strong foot to be the same as the flank they play on worked much better for me.

Secondly, these are ****** annoying, will have games rating at 6.30 / 6.40 and then banging in 2 goals and some assists in the next game

Kemar Roofe was great on the right, 20 goals in 41 games not much more to add really, played most games and frustrated me every game he didn't score!

The left side Alioski was fantastic second half of the season, Jack Harrison was starting to show some promise but then got a bad injury so sent him back to Man City. Signed Jacob Bruun Larson as a back up to both flanks due to his either preferred foot and did a decent job for me in his 6 month loan but nothing special and extremely frustrating at times

Tactically as I said they are frustrating. if they're not scoring then they get poor ratings, their attack duty means they don't track back and defend, becoming a liability massively if the opponent's full backs are getting forward, as your defence will be majorly outnumbered.

Good finishers are a must, crossing is important too as they set each other up commonly. I also think if Roofe and Alioski were better aerially I think they'd score even more as they got plenty of chances with headers. Also try avoid the 'Shoots from Distance' trait here, I managed to get it off both Alioski and Roofe and they definitely performed better without it.

Tried players like Pablo Hernandez and Izzy Brown in these position but weren't great so I'd avoid creative types here.

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Attacking Midfielder

This position is the spawn of Satan. I couldn't get anyone to perform well here consistently. Izzy Brown, Pablo Hernandez and then Phil Foden (loan signing in January) played here. All different styles of pleyer

Each one of them would dominate a game or two, then be shocking for the next couple, their average ratings were decent enough over the season, but there were so many games where I had no idea what they were trying to do. Hernandez was good in games where the opponents didn't have anyone in the DMC slot so he can just ping killer passes everywhere, but he just got bullied every other game. Brown was good in games we dominated possession and he could just sit at the edge of the penalty area. Foden was a happy medium and I think he'd have been superb if he got settled in but kept getting injuries for a week or 2 at a time.

Will get Samu Saiz back from loan for the Premier League so I think he'll be the top boy for that slot as he's a hybrid of the 3 mentioned above (see mid-season post).

Tactically if they can impose themselves in the game by playing to their strengths you'll be grand, if not they're basically a passenger. Good dribblers (Foden) seemed the most effective

If I was to tinker, as soon as I get into a defendable lead this guy would be off, and a half back throw-in to the CDM slot to try hold a lead, whilst threatening on a counter

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Striker

Patrick Bamford was great here. I think the 'comes deep to get ball' helps tremendously. He's key to the team and also to the set-piece exploits. I think if he could cross better his assist numbers would be insane, same with long shots and his number of goals. A lot of the time he recieves a throw-in drifts inside and thumps one home. Bamford is great for this as he's very strong on his left and fairly strong on his right so can cut in from either side.

Basically he needs to be a decent header of the ball, good finisher from anywhere, decent passer and a good crosser (he'll receive the ball at short corners) so really not asking for much haha

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This tactic does rely on the set pieces a lot but it's actually been one of the most fun tactics I've used in a long time and is a lot more than just a throw in exploit.

I haven't touched anything other than defensive corner set-ups and its been fantastic. I think if I took a more active approach in game management (adjusting to trying to defend a lead etc.) I'd have done even better than what is an already astonishing season.
 
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******* **** mate, that's some analyzis. Good to hear it works out well for you. Everything you written is written down, and i'll try working on that. I've never really experianced conceding from set-pieces, but good to know you fixed it.

Yes, there is sometimes problems in the backs as you say, and you can also see that in my results, however, i'm that type of manager who rather win 4-2 than 2-0, like goals, and i don't mind conceding, as long as i score more ;)

But again, crazy good summary, thanks! Keep me updated, and tell me how it goes after the promotion to premier league :D

Yeah defending corners was an issue for me, the guys on the posts just did nothing. Defending set pieces are one of those that you'll need to make specific to whatever team you're playing as, so I wouldn't even worry about it :)

And yeah this tactic is a lot of fun, doesn't need changes as it is because it definitely works!
 
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Anyone Tested on 19.3?

This was working great on the last version of the game- I think it was 19.2.3 if i'm not mistaken. Has anyone got results from 19.3?
 
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