Defensive Wingplay Question

[Darceon]

Hi all, before I come to the question refered to in the tactic, I'll tell you how my team is set up so there's a better understanding.

I've only recently picked up FM13, although I've played the series for many years. I've decided to make my own tactic again this year after a few years of using tactics other people made. However I'm a bit rusty in this and it would be nice to get some input.

I started with Arsenal, as is tradition , and I've chosen to opt for a 4-2-3-1. I really like how Arsenal started the season this year and thought I'd emulate it a little bit. And ofcourse I'm a big fan of the way Dortmund play as well.

I've chosen for the following:

Style: Balanced
Strat: Counter
Pas Style: Shorter
Creative: More Expressive
Closing Down: Press More
Tackling: Default
Marking: Zonal Marking
Crossing: Default
Roaming: More Roaming

Everything else is left to default. (No tinkering with sliders, I feel I'm not good enough understanding the ME.)

The idea behind these settings is to keep the shape of the team when defending, but when attacking they can cut a bit loose and become a bit less predictable in their play. And I since it's on counter the team will be passing the ball around looking for space if they can't counter.

Formation itself:

TM ( A )
IF ( A ) Trequartista/Advanced Playmaker ( A ) IF ( A )
DLP (S) DLP (D)

FB (Auto) CD (D) CD (D) FB (Auto)
SK (D)

Now, I've been trying out some stuff considering the 3 in the midfield. Ideally I'd like to have 2 guys who are really good allround but can pass really well and hold position. So I went with 2 deep lying playmakers, since Arsenal don't really have any Anchormen around. (And I prefer to start games without transferbudgets in the first window, plenty of transfers made by the team anyway before I arrived.)

So 2 guys deep who stay deep. The guy in front of them Cazorla/Wilshere is playing as an Advanced Playmaker, so lots of people who can pass the ball around and who are creative in the middle of the field. However this wasn't the first option. The original idea was to have him as a Trequartista, so he could just find space even when we would be defending. But this isn't doable with the way the wingers/IFs defend.

Sorry for the long text, but we've finally made it to the real question.

I'd like to defend in a way that when we lose the ball we put pressure as a team but not go gung ho, just limit their options and force them to make errors. Ideally I'd love to have 2 banks of 4 with the wingers deep. This way the Treq can find the space he likes and receive the ball to counter eventually.

This would mean the 2 wingers would now be moving up the pitch and coming from deep positions thus giving the team runners from deep, instead of just hanging about up the wings. (I like how Reus does it.) I'd like to keep the wingers at AMR and AML really, but I need a way to get them to fit in those 2 banks of 4. I'd appreciate any help from you FM geniuses. ^^

 

[herne79]

If you want wingers running from deep, I don't really see how you can set them as AMR / AML. A winger/support setting is probably the deepest setting you will achieve, but that will still be quite high up the pitch. A tight man marking instruction may also help, which should encourage them to close down opposition fullbacks.

Perhaps a better solution would be to have 4-4-1-1 formation, setting your wide midfielders as winger/support (or attack), or even having them play as defensive wingers/attack. This should keep the wingers average pitch positions higher up the pitch than your central midfielders (check the average positions on the post match analysis) whilst also encouraging them to help defensively and run from deep. Again, set them to tight man marking, but also have them moving into channels rather than just hugging the touch line all the time, so that they play a more direct role in supporting attacks.

Hope that helps

 

[seanhrfc]

Don't be afraid to drop the wingers into MR/ML, keep them on attacking so they bomb forward, but drop their mentality a bit (using the sliders). It may mean a little bit of position training however.

Do you play with the DLPs in CM or DM? Having DM, DM, MR, ML always seems to be pretty solid and gets as close to the 2 banks as four as you would like to see. The only problem with playing 2 DLP's is that neither get forward, plus with a counter setting the FB's are pretty defensive on automatic so theres few runs from deep from defensive positions as you move the ball up the pitch.

I've found having it on counter strategy a little bit too defensive, even with weaker teams, so if I want a counter attacking style I put it onto standard and then tick the counter attacking box.

Hope this helps.

 

[Shyftyy]

Sounds like you are better off with Attacking Wingbacks since that is really the only way to get those Wingplayers into the 2 banks of 4. Mine are constantly going forward until we lose the ball and score quite some goals but run back to their inital defensive position when we do not have it.

Have a look here for a better description. It seems quite similar to what you have in mind (Defensively at least) and hopefully help you with your own tactic.

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...6-2-2-0-counter-hypothesis-work-progress.html