jonathansmith
Member
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2013
- Messages
- 442
- Reaction score
- 61
- Points
- 28
433 PHOENIX RISING
View attachment 11831
Hi again, this is my second tactical upload of the year and probably the last as the last major update for the game (19.3.4) has been released and there should be no more Fecking updates that will ruin my hard work… so as you know from my previous work that I prefer to think outside the box and follow the musings of the STRIKERLESS website and philosophies just because of how unique they are and how they perform tactically, the first tactic that I shared for FM19 had not 1 but 2 strikers and this tactic is no different, the difference between normal tactics like a 433 or 4231 and my tactics still are the fact that I think outside the box for ideas on how to create a tactic that not only plays well against the ME but has sound tactical applications behind it that would translate into the real world of football.
For some of you that are accustom with my previous work I like to be a bit more in depth with why the tactic works rather than a few screen shots and the tactic just thrown up there, I do this so hopefully you will understand the rationale behind it rather than just taking the tactic and plug and play then when the ME is changed and the tactic inevitably fails then you can make tweaks yourself having the knowledge of how the tactic was designed in the first place… that’s the dream anyway, but that is enough rambling about me and how I operate let’s get into this shall we…
CONTENTS:
View attachment 11831
Hi again, this is my second tactical upload of the year and probably the last as the last major update for the game (19.3.4) has been released and there should be no more Fecking updates that will ruin my hard work… so as you know from my previous work that I prefer to think outside the box and follow the musings of the STRIKERLESS website and philosophies just because of how unique they are and how they perform tactically, the first tactic that I shared for FM19 had not 1 but 2 strikers and this tactic is no different, the difference between normal tactics like a 433 or 4231 and my tactics still are the fact that I think outside the box for ideas on how to create a tactic that not only plays well against the ME but has sound tactical applications behind it that would translate into the real world of football.
For some of you that are accustom with my previous work I like to be a bit more in depth with why the tactic works rather than a few screen shots and the tactic just thrown up there, I do this so hopefully you will understand the rationale behind it rather than just taking the tactic and plug and play then when the ME is changed and the tactic inevitably fails then you can make tweaks yourself having the knowledge of how the tactic was designed in the first place… that’s the dream anyway, but that is enough rambling about me and how I operate let’s get into this shall we…
CONTENTS:
[*=center]– Intro
[*=center]– The Tactic
[*=center]- Testimonial (stats + results)
[*=center]– Team Instructions
[*=center]– Player Roles (best Atts)
[*=center]- Misc.
[*=center]– Outro
1. INTRODCUTION:
So I usually focus on unusual tactics typically strikerless and I tried my hardest to make this tactic in the typical strikerless formation with 3x central attacking midfielders, this didn’t work with the team not creating chances or retaining the ball like I wanted it too so over the course of a season the tactic went from 0 strikers to 3 and the style of play went from control to full on direct gung-ho attacking with early crosses and balls through to the strikers at every available opportunity… so with how the tactic came to be lets crack on and deep dive into this beast.
2. THE TACTIC:
View attachment 11831
Here is the 433 rising phoenix, this is a reincarnation of the infamous Diablo FM moons ago, I’m not claiming that this tactic breaks the ME but I am saying that in style and how well it performs in general it is very similar to the one they call DIABLO.
As explained above the tactic started as a strikerless control style tactic, this didn’t work and I wanted to try and attack the opposition at every available opportunity and the only striking roles that look to do this constantly are the poacher, originally I had 3 of them all doing the same thing but that didn’t work as if the opposition had a deep defensive line then they were very ineffective…
changing the central striker to a DLF on support gave the team an advanced pivot to play off, if the D-line dropped deep the DLF would be able to drop off the defence and be available to feed the ball into and then run off him to create another level or layer to the attacking side…
from the defensive side it’s a typical back 4 with attacking FB, the FB provide all the width for the team on both sides of the ball so need to make sure that you are well equipped in that area for both 1st and 2nd team as they will be the most frequent subs in most games just due to the work that they get through…
in the middle of the park we have a typical triangle formation with a DM for protection and 2x CM to cover the remainder of the central area in both phases of the game. The roles for the central players are designed to always be looking to be smart with the ball but look for the “killer ball” at all available opportunities, this will be done by the APs more than the DLP, the DLP will be the pendulum and will shift the ball around to the AP or FB as they are going forward, the APs on the other hand will only play it back to the DLP if a through ball isn’t on, the general ball they will play is out wide to the FB who is now in the final 3rd ready to take a touch and put the ball into the danger area…
the other ball that the AP will play is typically when the ball is recently won back, they will look to play the ball either into the DLF for them to turn the ball around the corner to the poacher or they will send the ball over the D-line to the poacher who will be sat on the last man…
either ball will lead to a chance of some sort as the FB will cross the ball and the strikers will be on the last defender so they will usually be the first to the ball as it comes in… if not and the defender wins the ball we have the 2x AP on the edge of the area to pick up that loose ball and recycle the ball wide to then get another ball into the box... when watching the matches I had a sequence where in 1 passage of play the team put in 12 crosses with the 12th cross being won by the striker and finishing it off…
this was purely down to the fact that the team I was facing had a deep D-line and also had 2x DM which meant that the space in the box was next to zero. As you can tell this tactic will create 40-50 crosses a game and if the success rate is between 15-20% then that means that from crosses alone we are creating 8 to 12 chances from very close range, for a GK to stop that many shots is unheard of in FM… on top of that you have the number of half and clear cut chances that the tactic serves up with the ball over the defensive line for the poachers to chase onto and have a 1v1 against the keeper…
on this year’s game goalkeepers turn into a brick wall in a 1v1 situation and it’s almost impossible to score from them however, the strikers when they get into a 1v1 situation they will be far enough out that they will have time to put the ball away around or over the keeper, if that doesn’t work then there will be a second poacher coming in for a simple pass around the keeper to slot home into an open net…defensively this tactic can have weak moments because of the nature of the attacking options of the tactic with attacking FB and 3x strikers means that we can be overloaded if the opposition plays a control style but that can also play into our hands as a control style usually plays with a high defensive line which means when we win the ball back we create chances for days over the top for the poachers to chase… the best form of defence is offence is a common clique in the world of sport but for this tactic it really works, with the pressure that the FB and 3x strikers apply to the defence they are all forced to play the ball long which means that our CB which are set to a high line will engage with the ball and head it the DLP/AP/FB who will be coming back from the attacking phase, if the attack comes from a cross then the AP are positioned on the edge of the box to make sure that they can mop up the ball from the clearance and restart the attack to constantly apply pressure and keep them on the back foot…
Set Pieces –
Corners – the corner set up on this tactic that should be in the download looks like this:
this is designed to create an increased success rate against normal corners that are lumped into the box, the reason for this is the variance of the cross coming in from the angle that swings into the goal area with more pace and better direction than you can get from the by-line, the FB will play the corner short to the poacher and he will take a touch and look to put the ball in from about 5-10 yards from the by-line which creates a better crossing angle to swing the ball in, the ball in has a much better chance of being won by our attackers because its classed as a 2nd phase of the play, the ball in if short will be attacked by the DLF who is attacking the near post, if just over him then it will almost be like a shot as the keeper will have to deal with it or it will be a goal scored(I have seen 2 or 3 scored like this, if hit longer towards the far post then it will be towards the 2x CB who are standing on the far post or attacking it, if the CB on the back post is the winner he will head it back into the box for the DLF or other poacher to smash in or if the CB attacking the far post wins the header then it will more often than not lead to a goal… all in all I would say that this set up will generate 15 to 20 goals a season which is a decent return but also doesn’t just have 1x player getting the goals as its spread across the team…
throw-ins – this set up is again to give variance to how we utilise this from an attacking sense, so the general set up looks like this:
as you can see the throw-in taker is set to throw it long with the DLF attacking the near post to flick it on to the poachers in behind them, this is only half of the implementation as I have 2x players set to come for a short option whereas the strikers will set up as if the ball is going into the box, the defence will react to the players lining up for a long throw and leave 1 or 2 of the players who have come short available to receive the ball, if this happens they will dribble towards the box with the ball and take a shot from the edge of the area or play it back to the Fb to cross the ball in all of which create chances and throughout the season will give the same return as the corners so around 15-20 goals.
3. TESTIMONIALS – (stats + results)
so the only stats I have is my current save which is a none league save with Blyth Spartans in to my 3rd season and in league 2, I will be testing with my Bayern Munich save and update once done but for this I have finished half a season with the tactic and some of the results in here are disgusting… the jump from non-league to league to is one of the hardest jumps to make and sustain and that is reflected in the fact that I was predicted to go straight back down and that it was the first season that the team were a professional outfit rather than a semi-pro team… because the tactic is based on sound philosophies I don’t have a doubt that this tactic can be used at all levels of the game and even be better for bigger teams as this tactic is all about manipulating defences and finding space so in theory the better the players used the better the tactic will perform right?!?
Just to prove that I shouldn’t have been promoted, I had the media prediction was to go straight back down and the board expectations was to “fight bravely against relegation” and therefore wasn’t given a chance.
as you can see from the league table I am winning the league at a canter, comfortable margin at the top of the league and bare in mind where I was predicted to finish this is an outstanding achievement…
the fixtures really highlight the fact that we were dominant in the league but what I would like to draw attention to is the games in the cups and some of the friendlies, in the games where we played higher league opposition we won some and came close to beating others and were competitive in 80% of the games which realistically we shouldn’t even get close to being competitive in which is a highlight for me.
some team stats now, as you can see the team performed really well with the entire team rating well… highlights being the FB getting very high numbers for assists which is to be expected when teams sit deep against us leaving the main point of attack being around them with crosses, the other highlight is the fact that if you look at the ability of the team overall, the team is nowhere near the standard for this league and largely would struggle to get out of the national league which is a testament of how well the tactic is performing.
now for some individual games to highlight the dominance we have shown in games, in here will be some of the cup games against higher league opposition to show that even when the team are not at the quality of the opposition that we can still be competitive due to the tactic.
Even though the stats look rather even they didnt have a chance that would have troubled us and majority of the shots were from outside the area but didnt class as long shots, either way we were able to deal with them.
this is what the tactic can do when everyone turns up to play, bolton at the time were 4th in league 1 and they feilded a slightly rotated side but it still had players like sammy ameobi in it.... to turn them over and leave them with only 1 shot on target was very pleasing
and when everyone turns up in a league game when the standards are more equal we have the tactical power to do this to teams, this can happen in half the games if the team turns up and at higher levels when the consistency is better along with the better quality.
this one i had to include as this was with a fully rotated side... my full 2nd XI which based on the star ratings are suited to struggle to stay in the national league never mind do this to a league 2 side.
4. TEAM INSTRUCTIONS:
The different phases of play being defence attack and in transition between the 2 is something that I have studied for years during relevant coaching badges I’ve picked up in various sports and to finally see FM catch up with that giving clear instructions for the different phases of play is exciting for me as I’ve always created tactics with specific philosophies and styles of play that I want both in and out of possession, with that in mind I will describe what I have selected and why from the 3 different menus relating to the different phases and how that relates to the overall philosophy of the team…
The overall philosophy of how I want to play and make the team work, when defending I want the team to cover the key areas of the pitch extensively and be constantly harassing the player on the ball and not allowing the player to have time to think let alone pass the ball effectively.
the defensive line is set to high but not ultra-high and this is down to watching countless matches and testing where the defence sets up once in the defensive phase of play after the transition, if set to much higher than the defensive line will try and attack the ball when the ball comes through the middle which will lead to a ball round the corner for an onrushing midfielder or winger coming inside and led to too many chances being faced, on standard D-line the team dropped to around the penalty spot and the DM would be in the D and that left too much space in front of us and not enough immediate pressure on the ball when their CM had the ball but on higher the DM would be 2-5 yards in front of the D and the D-line would be on the edge of the penalty area and even though they would come out with the striker if he dropped deep the space for him to work with would be mitigated by the DM in that triangle in tandem with the CB, the line set on the edge of the area also means that the CM are close enough to the opposition to eliminate them as an option. The only real option is for the play to go wide which is where the FB come in, they will look to engage the player on the ball if it goes wide and that will be supported by the AP on either side as they will cover the run of the opposing FB as they are only on a support duty, if the opposition doesn’t play wingers and only width is from FB/WB then the AP will drop back but drift inside to help support in pressuring the ball in the middle. … The shape does move but in a structured way to make sure that there are minimal gaps to exploit and them able to transfer into the attack quickly and efficiently…
In transition from defence into attack is where the magic happens because there is so much movement at the point when the ball is won that the defence don’t know who to pick up and who leave, this leaves us to have some lovely counter attack goals and chances created on a very frequent basis, general formula is that the player who wins the ball (typically the DLP or CM) will look to play the ball to the player in space, this is 9/10 going to be the AP on either side as they will drift wider into the space between the lines to not be picked up by a CM or DM but narrow enough to not be picked up by a FB, this space is the area of the pitch that is the most difficult to pick up and defend… from there the AP will look to play the ball over the top to the Poacher who will be making a run off the last man if the ball is on the left the left poacher will be running into the left channel and the right PF will be running into the space between the 2 CB, if the defence have dropped deep then the AP will look to play the ball to the other AP or the DLF to create a different angle for the ball over the top or will play the ball to the FB who will be going past him into an attacking position.
once in an attacking phase, this is where the pressure element comes into full effect, the APs will be 5-10 yards away from the penalty area floating around always creating angles to receive the ball and looking to thread the team in to create chances, the DLP will be holding around the edge of the half way circle looking to recycle the possession to the APs or towards the FB if the pass is on… these 3 players working together to keep the ball in the opposition’s half and apply constant pressure is the reason the tactic does so well in an attacking sense, this is due to the fact they move the opposition around which then allows the other players who are also on the move to find space which then can find to create chances.
when transitioning from attack to defence this is usually after the cross has failed to find its target we have the triangle of the 2x CB and the DLP ready to sniff anything out or at the very least halt the progress of the opposition to allow our players to fall back in, if the first ball isn’t won by the CB or DLP then they will pressure the ball until the ball is played backwards, at this point we will have the FB back in and the AP to support the DLP in the middle, the DLF will drop in to cover off a ball back to a DM if they have one and the 2x poachers will sit between the FB and CB and pressure the ball if it goes back to the defence, if the pressure is too much then they will be forced back to the keeper at that point the team will move in tandem to cover off the passing options available… a poacher will press the keeper, the DLF will move into the poachers position with one of the APs going to cover off the DM if they have one.
#### the main goals that will be conceded on this tactic is down to the quick counter over the top to a striker rushing past the defenders who don’t react in time or the long ball out wide (again on the counter) if the CB doesn’t win the ball or isn’t close enough to get there the opposition winger can run down the wing and put the ball in for the striker who gains a yard against the defenders and taps it in… there isn’t much that you can do about it without losing something offensively either with reducing the width or changing the roles in midfield to give more protection… I’ve tried to tweak this in to cover off by dropping FB to support and having 2x DLP and 1x AP in the middle and the chance creation or cross completion dropped significantly which didn’t seem worth it for the 5% of the time that the opposition will have some joy on the counter… it’s all about risk and reward…
5. PLAYER ROLES (BEST ATTS)
So I will now give my OPINION on what I look for in each role based on what I need the player to do in their role and as part of the team tactical… giving the key attributes that I look for in each player
## I only look for between 5-6 key attributes but will decide to pick a player based on the overall attribute picture…
#### the key attributes are the bare minimum that I require and the level needed will change depending on the league you’re playing in but in England I separate this into broad spectrum's
Europe prem – 13 -16
prem – 12-15
Championship – 11 – 14
League 1 – 10 – 13
League 2 – 9 – 12
the reason for the broad ranges for each is due to the fact that I prefer to have a player in the top prem for example to have all 6 or 7 key attributes at 13 rather than 4 at 15 or 16 and the other 2 at 10 as I view that all the KEY Atts to be as important as all the others and missing 1 or 2 for the level that your at can have a detrimental effect on the overall performance of that player and due to the fluidity of the team it will have a domino effect causing the team to suffer as a result
GK – Nothing special required here, just needs to be able to save the ball and distribute the ball safely but due to having the distribution set to short there is no chance of that, only other consideration is the communication side of things with the defence being isolated at times the keeper being able to communicate effectively could be the difference between conceding and not…
Key att – reflexes, one-on-ones, positioning, agility, concentration
CB – these players need to be quick, strong in the air and comfortable receiving the ball when required, don’t need to be flashy like running out with the ball. Just win the ball back quickly in the air or be able to cover the ground to eliminate the quick counter
Key att – acceleration, jumping reach, positioning, tackling, marking, decisions, concentration
FB– these players provide the entire width for the team both offensively and defensively and will cover more ground than any other player in the team and need to have the quickness to get in the right positions along with the endurance to do it for 90 minutes, defensively they need to just be there to stop crosses coming in with blocks and interceptions, don’t need to have great technical ability in the defensive department. technically if they can beat their man and get the ball in or prefer to get the ball in early will depend on their movement off the ball and the space they have between them and the defender the key is to have a good first touch which then gives them the most amount of time to pick the right ball
key att – acceleration, stamina, work rate, off the ball, anticipation, first touch, dribbling/crossing
DLP – this guy is the defensive pivot and any and all recycling of possession goes through the DLP, he will require great endurance and be skilled in the art of defending, picking a killer pass out isn’t necessary as he is designed to just shift the ball in short passages and rarely switches the play, due to the amount of times he will receive the ball in a game having a good first touch is paramount, as the enforcer of the team he will get through a lot of grunt work and the quicker he can cover the ground the better…
Key att – stamina, work rate, first touch, tackling, acceleration, passing
AP – the AP will be the difference maker in games where the opposition sit deeper and try and keep a clean sheet, he will look for space between the lines and thread the ball to the strikers or wide to the FB, between them and the DLP they will have the most touches in the game dictating the pace of the game but where the AP is different is that he will be looking more prominently for a “killer ball” with a big switch of play to the opposite wing or even a ball over the top for the poacher to chase if in the transition between defence and attack for a quick counter. . Defensively they will drift back out wide to help the FB to make sure that they don’t overloaded on the wings, they will sit 10 - 15 yards inside the FB to cut out the passing lane rather than being touch tight, if the opposition only has WB as their wide threat the APs will sit narrower and help support the DLP as they will have more players in the middle of the park…
Key att – passing, vision, first touch, off the ball, dribbling, flair.
DLF – the DLF is the attacking pivot, they will drop from the D-line to give an option for the team to feed the ball into feet rather than going over the top every time which won’t work all of the time… once in possession he will look to turn the ball round the corner to the poacher who will be going beyond the D-line as if they don’t have a DM a CB will follow the DLF out which leaves a massive gap for the poacher to run into… if that ball isn’t on then he will either play the ball back to the AP or will push the ball wide to the FB and then attack the box from deep… defensively he will drop off the D-line and cover off a DM if they have one, he will only engage the back line if they don’t have a DM or if the ball goes back to the keeper which the poacher will be pressing...
Key att – off the ball, anticipation, composure, first touch, finishing, strength, balance, (passing/vision and jumping are not essential but would be nice to have)
Poacher – a glorified poacher but with more responsibility when the team loses the ball, when attacking he will sit on the defender’s shoulder looking for a through ball or to be the first to the ball if the cross goes in early, he if that ball doesn’t come then he will drift wide into the channel and look to come inside if the WB has the ball to attack the near post or if the AP has the ball to be slipped in between the CB and FB, in my current save my 2x poachers have over 30 goals between them and if one has scored more than the other that will be because the other one will have more assists… defensively they will constantly pressure the CB, FB or GK not giving them time on the ball.
Key att – Acceleration, off the ball, anticipation, composure, first touch, finishing (team work and dribbling are good too but not key)
6. MISCELLENEOUS
I will list off the general maintenance that I have with this tactic such as training and player’s sent off etc…
1. player sent off – take off the DLF to slot into the gap but leave the 2x poachers up top to make sure that you still have the threat going forward… also drop the D-line to slightly lower to make more defensive stability.
2. OIs – don’t set any up and don’t leave it to *** man either as the tactic is designed to press zonally to keep shape and move as a fluid unit.
3 player training – for each position I train the same general depending on position and then set a specific for each player if they are weak in either position
GK – sweeper keeper (attack) – agility and balance
CB – ball playing defender (defend) – quickness
FB – wing back (attack) – attacking movement
DLP – Segundo Volante (attack) – quickness/passing
AP – advanced playmaker (attack) – quickness/endurance
DLF – deep lying forward (attack) – quickness/passing
P – Pressing forward (attack) – attacking movement/passing
4. pitch size – standard
5. set pieces – for throw-ins and corners set the LB to take them on the left and RB to take them on the right. Best free kick taker on free kicks and same for pens.
6. subs – always look to sub off the FBs at 60-70 mins, final sub is usually the DLP if they are on a yellow or one of the APs depending on who has worse conditioning, when making the subs I swap the poacher’s around to give the opposition something different to think about if dominating the game by 2+ goals.
7. seeing games out – typically if I’m winning then I just leave the tactic through to the end of the game as we should be able to see the game out without changing anything, also there is the fact that I am lazy… but from time to time in tight games where I’m only up by 1x goal or drawing away from home against a promotion rival I will move the poachers to the wings as inside forwards on support, change the role of the striker to DLF on attack, and on team instructions I remove pass into space change from attacking to positive, and drop the defensive line to slightly deeper, all of those changes will solidify us defensively with the entire team working to apply pressure on the ball and provide extra support on the wings (I don’t care if the ball is red for them as they will do it whether they like it or not), taking off pass into space and changing to positive will mean that we will look to keep the possession of the ball until worked into a wide area then the FB at that point have the licence to put the cross into the DLF who will be higher up the pitch or the inside forward on the other side meaning we still have an attacking threat… doing this I’ve seen the team kill games off and keep that 1 goal cushion and I’ve seen the team go on and score 1 or 2 more in the closing stages… on the odd occasion I’ve seen us concede a very late goal which we don’t have any time to react to but as you can see from the results it has never let me down to the point where I have lost a game…
8. Recruitment strategies – I will always look for players that are physically better rather than technically, the tactic demands a lot out of the players physically, especially in CM and WB and my preference is that my players are taller and better in the air, it’s all about winning the first and second ball and then keeping things simple when in possession and having the physicality to win the ball back if lost on a frequent basis, I would much rather have a player that is 6ft2 and will run quickly for 90 mins without tiring than have someone who is a slow and small technically gifted player… that is the same across the board… I don’t care if my CB have a decent heading ability just as long as they are over 6ft 2 and have phenomenal jumping reach…doesn’t matter the direction you head the ball just as long as you win it and stop them from doing so…
7. OUTRO
So there we have it, we are done… I think I’ve covered everything off for this one… (at 5500 words I blood well hope so) please enjoy the tactic and upload some screenshots of how you’re getting on with it… any feedback or tweaks you make along the way are welcome too… if you post screenshots I’ll try and add them to this post in the testimonials section and credit you accordingly obviously… Finally I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this and hopefully it will have given you an insight into how I have designed the tactic and the theories behind its creation… if you did skip to the end just to get the tactic I don’t hold any hard feelings (honest lol) and hope everyone one of you enjoy the tactic.
View attachment 11831
