Catenaccio Tactic- Football, Italian Style

[maxy67]

"Catenaccio! Even today the very word strikes fear into the hearts of football fans all over the world"



I'm quite new to Football Manager and this is my first tactic that I've decided to upload..


I decided that I wanted to try to create the style of catenaccio (loosely translated as padlock in English), a style of football although first introduced in Switzerland under the coach Karl Rappan in the 1930's. Catenaccio is now considered to be an Italian style of play due to the success of how Italian teams have deployed it. Made hugely famous by the great Milan sides of the 1960's: Helenio Herrera's all conquering Great Inter side and Nereo Rocco's Milan, who between them won 4 European cups in the 1960's

In its simplest form, Catenaccio is simply removing a striker, and instead adding an extra defender in the sweeper role. However Herrera's inter were also flexible, and capable of devistating counter-attacks. I believe my tactic to be also of a similar nature. Many of my goals have come from swift counter attacks against teams of far superior quality than my own.


The Tactic is a 1-4-3-1-1 formation: The tactic has a defensive sweeper as the rock of the defence behind the two central defenders. (I used a sweeper instead of libero due to the lack of quality players available in the lower divisions to perform such a hard role as the libero, but I think if you could get the quality then the libero could be very helpful in support play.) Two full backs, who are set to automatic. A ball winning midfielder set to defend in the middle of the park, along with a deep lying play maker (support) and an advanced playermaker (attack), as well as an attcking midfielder behind the striker (attack) and a complete forward on his own up front (attack)


How I've done with the tactic in my save-
I've been using my tactic with lowly San Marino, and managed to get back to back promotions from Serie C2 to Serie B- not losing a single game in Serie C2 and winning the leauge with weeks to spare. Now I'm in serie B, i holidayed the first season in Serie B and finished 16th, when i was predicted 21st. Now in my second season in serie B im predicted 20th, and its november and I haven't lost a game all season, and only conceded 2 goals (scored 16)

I leave my match preperation up to my assistant and also my opposition instructions.

Hope that I've made sense, and everything is clear, any feedback would be really helpful!

View attachment 191335View attachment 191336View attachment 191337View attachment 191338View attachment 191339View attachment 191340

 

[Steve*]

Wow, nice op for a newbie. Glad to see somebody making a defensive formation. MAy actually download this later after the footie, Good job mate

 

[Donnelly1]

A tactic with a sweeper :wub:
Looks good, may give it a download if I start a new save.

 

[rulebrit]

Nice job. Most people start their tactics at a team like Barcelona and then test it on lower teams. In my opinion creating a tactic first with a team like San Marino and testing after with the bigger teams is a good idea. Might give this a go later.

 

[maxy67]

Thanks for the replies lads. Hope to hear some feedback. Just let me know if there are any problems.

 

[lipecamara]

will use it for my rostock team! seems good work pal!

 

[maxy67]

Good luck with using it, hope it gets you good results mate.

 

[Falahk]

if one really should be picky then a Catenaccio used a heavy man marking system infront of the sweeper who remained in place to clean up anything that got through (and the sweeper was often also the player that playmaked and started of the counter attack), but as far as the ME and the modern game goes, to get this kind of stuff to work, then maybe full zonal is better

will surly give this a try, just to see if you are onto something

 

[Steve*]

Forgot about this, downloaded now and going to try it out

 

[maxy67]

I've created a new tactic that im going to upload now.. This tactic is a lot more suited to lower leauge football as it dosent use much width. And also falahk- sweepers could be purely defensive like Armando Picchi of Inter in the 1960's or more of a playmaker such as Beckenbauer so it depends on how you want to set up.

 

[Falahk]

And also falahk- sweepers could be purely defensive like Armando Picchi of Inter in the 1960's or more of a playmaker such as Beckenbauer so it depends on how you want to set up.

ofcorse, both options did exist, which is why i said "often", instead of using a more precise discription

 

[SnowyPadley]

I'm just wondering does this tactic work with the top teams aswell or is it just for lower league teams ?