False Nine: My first approach

[Der elegante Milanista]

Hi people! I wanted to share this tactic because it's very interesting to try. I've always been thinking how to utilize a "Trequartista" role to full extent, so I developed this tactic for testing and chose Man Utd to apply it as this exact team has all it requires to create a very solid "False Nine" system. I loaned Lars Bender, bought Jack Rodwell and most importantly bought Ezequiel Lavezzi for this tactic to work properly, as long as Berbatov is suffering from long injury.

This was my first approach for a "False Nine" system:

Edwin van der Sar: Goalkeeper - Defend
Wes Brown: Full Back - Automatic
Nemanja Vidic: Central Defender - Defend
Rio Ferdinand: Central Defender - Cover
Patrice Evra: Wing Back - Automatic
Michael Carrick: Deep Lying Playmaker - Defend
Darren Fletcher: Defensive Midfielder - Support
Antonio Valencia: Winger - Support
Wayne Rooney: Inside Forward - Attack
Ji Sung-Park: Defensive Winger - Support
Ezequiel Lavezzi: Trequartista - Attack

But I felt a lot of trouble applying this tactic. The supporting wingers and wing back didn't seem to be enough to connect the defensive midfield line with the attacking midfield line, which caused me a lot of disruption in midfield. In addition, and more importantly, Lavezzi getting back into the hole and Rooney ruthlessly running forward caused a lot of congestion between the two. Due to these weakpoints, I lost the Community Shield 2-1 to Chelsea, even overlooking it was Evans' stupidity that made Drogba score a brace due to absence of both Ferdinand and Vidic.

So I edited the formation to fix these problems to most possible extent, until I finally found the Assymetric 4-2-3-1 to be most efficient for applying the "False Nine" system the way I want it. Here's exactly what I reached:

Edwin van der Sar: Goalkeeper - Defend
Wes Brown: Full Back - Automatic
Nemanja Vidic: Central Defender - Defend
Rio Ferdinand: Central Defender - Cover
Patrice Evra: Wing Back - Automatic
Michael Carrick: Deep Lying Playmaker - Defend
Darren Fletcher: Ball Winning Midfielder - Support
Ryan Giggs: Wide Midfielder - Automatic
Antonio Valencia: Winger - Support
Wayne Rooney: Inside Forward - Attack
Ezequiel Lavezzi: Trequartista - Attack

Download link here.

This has proven to be a far more successful variant. The lines are much better connected and Lavezzi scrapes away well enough to leave Rooney and Valencia space to overlap the opponent's defence, which is why Rooney and Valencia are my current topscorers in the league. In addition, using a Wide Midfielder instead of a Defensive Winger gives me a chance to use Giggs or Anderson instead of Park who's the only one capable of performing as a Defensive Winger, while the Wide Midfielder still gives Evra a chance to overlap the left side and cross from byline. Maybe the only problem I have now is that Chicharito's really suffering to play well enough as an AMC, but that's not so much trouble I believe.

I don't think a weaker team could correctly utilize a tactic like this, unless they have a lone big star up front with extremely high technical and creativity attributes. Passing could be set to Shorter, but it fully depends on the style of players and what's needed to pull off at a certain situation.

With disciplined creativity status, the whole team carries the Trequartista's "carelessness" since he's the only one with high creativity freedom status (actually max) and very little defensive responsibility, which is why I intended to leave him apart from the rest of the team to keep the tactic solid and capable of performing defensively when needed (look up SAF's 2009 tactic with Cristiano Ronaldo alone up front acting as Trequartista). The best thing about this tactic is that you never know where the danger is coming from. Marking any key player of mine would be inefficient, hence forcing the opponent to apply zonal defence. I can't count how often Fletcher/Rodwell, Giggs/Anderson, and even Evra had the chance to score from a one-on-one situation.

However, I still can't claim this tactic's perfect or even close to perfection, as I haven't tried it enough yet. That's why I'm asking for advice, and at the same time asking everyone to tell us about his experiences with "False Nine" tactics, should he have any.

So, what do you think guys? Discuss/Fix/Share!

 

[thebatman]

i'll give it a try but where can I download it?

 

[AgentVinz]

Seems interesting but what's your results with it?Also can you give the attribute requirement of thr trequartista and inside forward?

 

[retslagoon]

and how about their PI, advanced TI ?
you need more screenshot mate

 

[Velveti]

Yeah, I've been using trequartista for false nines too. It seems to give the best results, especially in the players' goalscoring rates.

 

[Der elegante Milanista]

A download link will be available soon if anyone wants to try it out, but I'm not showing off the tactic or whatever because as I said, I haven't experienced it long enough yet. I actually posted the tactic to ask for advice, and to get to know other people's experiences with false nine tactics. Therefore, I don't think there's much need for more screenshots, for now.

Though I'll keep in touch via this thread. When I play multiple games against strong teams I'll start posting results. The early signs are already very promising, however.

Agent Vinz: The Trequartista would need high passing + creativity + flair + dribbling + first touch + technique + off the ball (around 15) and less importantly crossing + finishing + long shots + decisions + teamwork (no less than 11). I'd also prefer his preferred moves NOT to include "shoots from distance" or "runs with ball often" so that his high creativity freedom doesn't backfire.

The Inside Forward would need high finishing + dribbling + composure + anticipation + decisions + off the ball + teamwork + work rate + acceleration + pace and preferably good physical/aerial attributes and bravery as well.

 

[SS19]

Okay, not sure how it will work, but I would like to know how it works if you change wide midfielder to MCR advanced playmaker support and change Evra to wingback position, not only role but also position. In attack it would give strong midfield MRC sending more passes going forward. Then Evra has big role, creating the wide support and joining the attacs.

Though my main consern isn't attacking, but defending. I like to press hard to win the ball upfield, so I want to know how well is their right fullback marked, and who will defend him. Put OI closing down to their right back and see what happens.

Thanks if you are willing to try that one.

And why Carrick and Fletcher doesn't have their duties other way around?

 

[AgentVinz]

Wouldn't Deep Lying Forward(Support) better for a false nine?Because naturally the DLF drop deep a lot whilst Treq usually do nothing in defending. Also it's pretty hard to find an inside forward who have good finishingXD

 

[SS19]

Wouldn't Deep Lying Forward(Support) better for a false nine?Because naturally the DLF drop deep a lot whilst Treq usually do nothing in defending. Also it's pretty hard to find an inside forward who have good finishingXD

Retrain your stiker to inside forward, there you have finishing, dribbling, pace and hopefully some other necessary skills for inside forward.

 

[*JK*]

Nice Tactic.

 

[Der elegante Milanista]

Probably my first truly remarkable result. I haven't yet played any of the Premier League biggies, anyway.

(note: Rooney missed three one-on-ones in that match oO))

SS19: I didn't properly understand what you meant due to my poor English. Could you please re-phrase what you said again in a more understandable fashion?

Anyway, I'm giving the DLP a Defend duty and the BWM a Support duty so that the BWM participates in penetration (he runs from deep sometimes). I'm convinced a fluid tactic must have the most possible variety of penetration options, but I'm not experienced enough to totally assure this. Tell me if I'm wrong!

AgentVinz: I don't exactly know, but I originally developed this tactic to utilitze a Trequartista up front. Anyway, I think from a theoretical view that a DLF would work best as a False Nine when using a 4-3-3 variant (specifically with TWO Inside Forwards, cutting inside from wide positions). A Trequartista is the best option for a False Nine IMO when using a 4-4-2 variant.

Perhaps the best "ready" AMC Inside Forwards are Mirko Vucinic, Thomas Muller and Pedro. There are also some other choices you can retrain to work as AMC Inside Forwards, such as Rooney, Pato and to less extent Villa. Most of these have kinda low work rates however which is a real pain the neck, so I'd say always target Muller, Pedro or Rooney (if you can move him away from ManU lol) when looking for an Inside Forward in a AMC position.

 

[SS19]

SS19: I didn't properly understand what you meant due to my poor English. Could you please re-phrase what you said again in a more understandable fashion?

Nothing, I think my idea was quite bad, not helping your tactic.

 

[Der elegante Milanista]

Nothing, I think my idea was quite bad, not helping your tactic.

Nevermind mate. I can't judge what I don't know, lol.

Anyway, here's the final outcome of arguably the most difficult match in the whole Premier League, against Chelsea in Stamford Bridge!

(for your information I'm using a Jan. transfers update editor which means they had Luiz and Torres (H))

Lavezzi got injured the match just before this one (against Sampdoria in Luigi Ferraris, a match I won 1-0) which forced me to use Berbatov as the False Nine, hence weakening my counter attacks since Berbatov is considered slow when compared to Lavezzi. Still, Carrick's long passes and the Trequartista playmaking fashion worked wonders to break the Blues' defences twice when paired with Rooney's amazing runs.

Thread updated with download link. Enjoy!