Two New Systems
These may not quite reach the heights of my 3 manager inspired 433, but I'd like to think they're good in their own right. Any suggestions to tweak these is appreciated. (exploits aside)
343 - Antonio Conte Inspired
This looks to re-create the more offensive Chelsea. Rather than counter attacking / grinding out results with the Matic and Kante combination, this rather goes with Kante and Fabregas. By always being outnumbered in midfield, these players will both need to work-hard and the Roaming Playmaker role chosen for Fabregas, will require that player with great technical, passing and creativity attributes.
Surprisingly it actually didn't score so many goals - but also surprisingly it conceded less than I'd have thought too. The result being a number of closer games where a result was grinded out. We scored 63 and conceded 19, with the second best defensive record being 31.
It's a high intense tactic with a hard-working side required just how the Italian likes it. But this resulted in quite a few injuries over the course of the year and notably in my Pool save Salah was out for a few spells. This of course led to an inability to score enough goals.
Given the shortage of goals, it's very much an Italian style of defend like warriors and produce a bit of magic in the opponents third to sn-atch the wins. I think this tactic does that quite well. And we still achieved good success with it.
We reached two domestic cup Semi Finals, won the Premier League and also won the ECL, grinding out a 1-0 vs Real Madrid with the winner coming from the spot.
So if you're a Conte fan and like to keep things tight at the back, you may have fun playing with this one.
4141 - Big Sam's No Hopers
Okay a little lie there. This isn't the heavy direct style of Mr Allardicio, but probably his softer version when some of his sides do actually try and play football which is a must if you want to win league titles and hence the direction I chose for this 4141 falling under the slightly more direct bracket. And you can have a slow back-line, with only a standard line and loe used. Enough to pressure the opposition away from goal, and comfortably retreat into a strong defensive shape.
The feature of this system is relying on a useless lump of a target man at the top of the pitch with no goal-scoring ability. Think of a Peter Crouch or Andy Carroll, able to hold up the ball and bring his team mates into play.
This is where I'd tried to implement a midfield that can play football to a degree, but bring a direct offensive threat from the midfield. Here think of Kevin Nolan. A deep lying playmaker on support will bring that player who can try to direct things from the middle of the park with a solid defensive midfielder right in behind to help the back .
The system will counter-attack regularly with the two pacey wingers bringing the threat down the flanks and the central midfield on attack duty to support our lone target man. With these guys bombing forward you'll have four men looking to cause the damage at a good speed. And of course having a tall man up top does have its advantages.
It's definitely more suited for a lower level of football I believe. However to try and find that balance of direct play and being successful, I tested this with Dortmund in the Bundesliga first season. With wheeling and dealing to bring in personnel to suit the game plan (notably target men up top in Mandzukic and from January Cavani), we conquered the league amassing 77 points, a few ahead of Bayern (whom we did the double over).
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Not prolific systems, but they can do the job and win you things. Would be great to know if anyone does try the 4141 at a lower level to see how it fares.