Arrigo Sacchi's 4-4-2: High Pressure, Attacking Tactic for Top Teams and Underdogs

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Domestic Season
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Our most successful season in our history and my best season on any FM, ever! Won every single game bar 2 draws, one league game against Brescia where I played a few too many U19 players and against PSG when we had already easily finished top of our group stage. This was achieved using a 20 man squad that contained 14 home-grown (2)/sammarinese (10) /U18s (2) players.

World Cup Glory
​

The World Beating 11:

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Group Stages
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We looked a bit shaky in the group stages, we were lucky to get a draw with Belgium and our defence was leaky against the lesser nations of El Salvador & Ghana. We got through and were drawn against current world champions Holland - I thought they would dump us out the competition this time round!

2nd Round (3-0 Holland)
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We proved my doubts wrong with an emphatic 3-0 victory over the world champs. I was feeling a lot more confident after this result! We were drawn against the greatest nation in football history - Brazil - in the quarter-finals.
Quarter-Final (4-1 Brazil)
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Our ability to put our chances away was crucial in a big victory over a Brazil side full of great regens. Our next victims would be England.

Semi-Final (2-0 England)
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Now every great team needs a bit of luck and this is where we got it. A really open, even game and somehow we've managed to get through it as 2-0 winners, despite the game being destined for extra time & penalties from the stats! Spain beat Belgium on penalties to face us in the final. I have to admit I was pretty worried that we were going to get thrashed, they had already done over Finland 9-0 in this tournament, a side that won their next two group games and Germany to get to the quarters.

Final (5-0 Spain)
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Yes you read that right. 5-0. I'm never one for text speech but OMFG. It wasn't even a fluke either, we had 6 CCCs and Spain failed to even get a shot on target. This is my greatest victory on any FM and I don't think I will ever be able to top it.

This also has been my best ever FM save, here's a breakdown of what I have achieved in 9 seasons:

Serie C Champions & Serie C Super Cup
Serie B Champions + Italian Cup Semi Final
Serie A 3rd Place
Serie A Champions 7 times in a row
Italian Cup 6 times in a row
Champions League 6 times in a row
Italian Super Cup 6 times in a row
European Super Cup 5 times in a row
Club World Champions 5 times in a row

Euro 2020 Champions
Confederations Cup 2021 Champions
World Cup 2022 Champions

That's 41 Trophies in total, in 9 seasons, which has taken me to the top of the Hall of Fame:

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I think I may have a little 'break' from FM :)
 
Did u use the tweaked version or the original tactic?

seanhrfc said:
Domestic Season
​
View attachment 329282View attachment 329283View attachment 329284View attachment 329285

Our most successful season in our history and my best season on any FM, ever! Won every single game bar 2 draws, one league game against Brescia where I played a few too many U19 players and against PSG when we had already easily finished top of our group stage. This was achieved using a 20 man squad that contained 14 home-grown (2)/sammarinese (10) /U18s (2) players.

World Cup Glory
​

The World Beating 11:

View attachment 329293View attachment 329288View attachment 329291View attachment 329296View attachment 329287View attachment 329294View attachment 329297View attachment 329289View attachment 329290View attachment 329295View attachment 329292

Group Stages
View attachment 329298
We looked a bit shaky in the group stages, we were lucky to get a draw with Belgium and our defence was leaky against the lesser nations of El Salvador & Ghana. We got through and were drawn against current world champions Holland - I thought they would dump us out the competition this time round!

2nd Round (3-0 Holland)
View attachment 329301View attachment 329300
We proved my doubts wrong with an emphatic 3-0 victory over the world champs. I was feeling a lot more confident after this result! We were drawn against the greatest nation in football history - Brazil - in the quarter-finals.
Quarter-Final (4-1 Brazil)
View attachment 329307View attachment 329306

Our ability to put our chances away was crucial in a big victory over a Brazil side full of great regens. Our next victims would be England.

Semi-Final (2-0 England)
View attachment 329309View attachment 329308
Now every great team needs a bit of luck and this is where we got it. A really open, even game and somehow we've managed to get through it as 2-0 winners, despite the game being destined for extra time & penalties from the stats! Spain beat Belgium on penalties to face us in the final. I have to admit I was pretty worried that we were going to get thrashed, they had already done over Finland 9-0 in this tournament, a side that won their next two group games and Germany to get to the quarters.

Final (5-0 Spain)
View attachment 329311View attachment 329310

Yes you read that right. 5-0. I'm never one for text speech but OMFG. It wasn't even a fluke either, we had 6 CCCs and Spain failed to even get a shot on target. This is my greatest victory on any FM and I don't think I will ever be able to top it.

This also has been my best ever FM save, here's a breakdown of what I have achieved in 9 seasons:

Serie C Champions & Serie C Super Cup
Serie B Champions + Italian Cup Semi Final
Serie A 3rd Place
Serie A Champions 7 times in a row
Italian Cup 6 times in a row
Champions League 6 times in a row
Italian Super Cup 6 times in a row
European Super Cup 5 times in a row
Club World Champions 5 times in a row

Euro 2020 Champions
Confederations Cup 2021 Champions
World Cup 2022 Champions

That's 41 Trophies in total, in 9 seasons, which has taken me to the top of the Hall of Fame:

View attachment 329318

I think I may have a little 'break' from FM :)
Click to expand...
 
Going to try this with my PSG team. Started witha 43 million budget and in the January transfer window they gave me another 23 million. I bought Cavani and some young prospects for the future :D
 
One question, do I use this tactic for all games? Home and Away?
 
seanhrfc said:
Yes keep everything the same. Just have your more defensive options in DM, M R/L when you face tougher opposition.
Click to expand...

Alright, thanks! Currently in a game against Schalke in the UCL, 15 minutes in and we're 3-0 up!

Edit: Final score: 5-2. Pastore scored a hatrick, Cavani scored one and Ibrahimovic scored a nice chip from just outside the box.
 
Last edited:
I was at New York redbulls for three years and won everything, building up a nice reputation. I decided to move to europe and the bright lights of the premier league. I applied for a number of job but eventually chose to take on swansea. Their manager has been sacked for two seasons of finishing 17th, narrowly missing relegation. Their squad deserved more.

I wanted to build the team around this tactic as people seemed to be having success and I wanted to play two strikers. I made some strong regen signings for the future and some end of contract players like altidore. Also got podolski and javi garcia on loan. Garcia is great in the DM position.
Currently 20 games into the season and we sit 6th and one game away from a league cup final. After a media prediction of 15th :)
 
I read with envy that so many people is having success with this formation.

I am probably in my 7 or 8 season with Man utd. I have a pretty strong squad. However, this formation just wouldn't work for me. I tried for about 2 months and i made my board pretty upset for all those losses. LOL
 
donchen said:
I read with envy that so many people is having success with this formation.

I am probably in my 7 or 8 season with Man utd. I have a pretty strong squad. However, this formation just wouldn't work for me. I tried for about 2 months and i made my board pretty upset for all those losses. LOL
Click to expand...

What is your team? It may not fit the tactic, or it is something else. Screenshots if you can.
 
FatTony said:
Hi Sean, i must admit, i may well be the cause, especially as i tend to adopt a "less is more" attitude when it comes to being a Manager.I have also struggled to bring in the reccomended players, as apart from the very best and most expensive, they don't have a lot of the right stats.I don't use OI's neither, having never being convinced that they either help or hinder the tactic. I've hit a little bit of good form, so will carry on for a little longer and will update how things have gone.Cheers
Click to expand...

Maybe try the OIs?
 
Anyone thinking about trying this tactic out, just download it and use it. It'll take a few games for your team to learn this tactic but once your team is fluid with this tactic it's unstoppable!

Just won 5-1 against Manchester Utd in the UCL quarter final and 5-2 against Montpellier HSC.
majrpe.png
 
seanhrfc said:
How good is your AI? Are you following the training instructions from first page? Do you have the right players?

Need a little bit more info to be able to help.
Click to expand...

Well to be honest my team was thread bare, I just made it through to my 3rd season and have overhauled the squad, I did win the Coppa Italia though, so that's something, I'm going to get on it tonight and see where it takes me with a 25 man squad and good positional cover.
 
Have to say that I first used this with my Villa team without OI and had only marginal improvements. 4 games ago I started to really focus on my opposition, identifying those players who could/should be targeted. Since then I've won away at Spurs and Man Utd plus had good results against Everton and Man City. Attention to detail has paid off!

Thanks for a great tactic and advice that has given me my enthusiasm for FM back!
 
johnny1980 said:
Well to be honest my team was thread bare, I just made it through to my 3rd season and have overhauled the squad, I did win the Coppa Italia though, so that's something, I'm going to get on it tonight and see where it takes me with a 25 man squad and good positional cover.
Click to expand...

Best of luck!

stuartar said:
Have to say that I first used this with my Villa team without OI and had only marginal improvements. 4 games ago I started to really focus on my opposition, identifying those players who could/should be targeted. Since then I've won away at Spurs and Man Utd plus had good results against Everton and Man City. Attention to detail has paid off!

Thanks for a great tactic and advice that has given me my enthusiasm for FM back!
Click to expand...

Pleased to have helped out :)
 
Congratulations on that epic world cup victory! :)

I just wanna stay in the same save for that long. Now I'm with Spurs (and doing great, only 1 loss in all competitions at Swansea) but it's almost certainly that I'll start a new game lol. Guess I'm a "save cheater" lol :)

How do you guys do to maintain that long in the same team?
 
seanhrfc said:
Well I just proved myself wrong - I JUST WON THE 2022 WORLD CUP!!! Screen Shots to follow!!!
Click to expand...
Massive achievement, really well done :).

One thing I haven't seen covered yet is individual training. Looking at your San Marino team, many players have pretty decent stats which must reflect individual training regimes? Do you set your players training for their individual roles, or micro manage it even further by training a specific attribute for a certain amount of time before changing to a different attribute?
 
jukilo said:
Congratulations on that epic world cup victory! :)

I just wanna stay in the same save for that long. Now I'm with Spurs (and doing great, only 1 loss in all competitions at Swansea) but it's almost certainly that I'll start a new game lol. Guess I'm a "save cheater" lol :)

How do you guys do to maintain that long in the same team?
Click to expand...

I guess its just about knowing what your goals are and sticking at it till you achieve them. I was expected my San Marino game to last til 2030!
 
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