I came up with this tactic a few games into my 3rd season at Sporting Clube de Portugal, after playing around with various approaches and formations for the previous two season, with mixed success.
I've always enjoyed unconventional tactics, with either 3 at the back or 3 up front, but its hard to find a good balance within the team, however i think i have achieved that with my latest creation.
This tactic led the 3rd (in terms of reputation and financial power) club in Portugal, with a relatively low european reputation, to winning the Champions League, having never lost a game in the entire competition and facing european giants such as AC Milan, Barcelona or Bayern Munich.
Domestically we won the league, with a single defeat, boasting the best attack and defence in the league.
We also took home the cup against Porto (who were the only side to beat us all year in just two games).
We lost the league cup semi-final to Porto.
We achieved all this with a very young squad, composed mostly of portuguese players, and although we had some squad depth, it wasn't all that good, which is what i attribute our loss in the league cup semi-final to.
I know that the portuguese league is not a tremendously competitive league, however we consistently achieved great results throughout the season, and our performasnce in the Champions League backs this up.
In the last 50 games we scored 142 goals and conceeded only 37.
This is our formation, a Very Fluid 523:
View attachment 459883
I always have two tactics in training, a counter version and an attacking version.
I use the counter version mostly away to tough opposition and the Attacking at home to against any opposition (you can change to counter if you want to hold a result). You can use it in all your away games and simply change to the attacking version if you feel your team can push on without giving away chances to the opposition.
The idea behind the creation of this tactic was to make the team sit deep, giving away little space, only to break forward with great speed and power once the ball was regained. It foceses mostly on wide play down both flanks and a quick tempo, although the counter version has some changes to it.
For this to work effectively i needed to get my 3 strikers to defend and help regain balls in my own midfield, which could be hard, however, i found i could do this by adopting a very fluid strategy, combined with giving my forwards the roles of defensive forwards and a false 9.
Teams will have a hard time breaking you down, so they will opt to shoot from distance very often as you can see from the stats that i will post later. We concede very few goals and the ones we do concede are mostly from set-pieces, although this isnt an exploit tactic and i cannot guarantee clean-sheets and high scoring spectacular football every game. Although i've achieved both quite often
I will go into the roles of each position in further detail further down in the OP, with the aid of screenies of some of my players.
Here are our fixtures for last season:
View attachment 459880View attachment 459881View attachment 459882
Our Domestic League Table:
View attachment 459878
Our Champions League Group:
View attachment 459879
Examples of stats from various domestic fixtures:
View attachment 459877View attachment 459876View attachment 459875View attachment 459874View attachment 459873
Examples of stats from european fixtures:
View attachment 459872View attachment 459871View attachment 459870View attachment 459869View attachment 459868View attachment 459867View attachment 459866View attachment 459865View attachment 459864View attachment 459863View attachment 459862
We won the Champions League Final on penalties in the end, but we played with 10 men from the 60th minute onwards. We actually were in front during extra-time, but conceeded the equaliser late in the game.
Positions and Player Attributes:
The most important thing in this tactic is to have good all round players, because due to playing a very fluid system, they must perform different duties and adapt to different situations within a match.
View attachment 459861
CB's are quite straighforward, although i think that speed, positiong and anticipation are definately important, as is passing, mostly for wide CB's because they are important in the build up of play.
View attachment 459860
The Defensive CM should be a stong and tenacious, yet gifted player, capable of destroying opposition play and supporting team mates up the field. This player will sit a little deeper than his midfield partner, giving a little more defensive consistency and balance to the team. The attributes needed are quite straightforward, although i'd suggest to have midfielders with good long shots, because even if you instruct players to not shoot often, they will do so, so you might as well capitalise on it.
View attachment 459858View attachment 459857
The more creative Supporting CM also must help out defensively, as should the whole team, however his main aim is to support the attack with direct and risky passing, trying to turn defence into attack in an instant. This player should be similar to the Defensive CM, but more enhanced in his attacking attributes.
View attachment 459856View attachment 459855
The Offensive Wing-Backs are crucial to this tactic, as you can see from the 28 assists in 36 appearences from my right-back, who isnt even that good a player. A well rounded wing back will do. They are true pendullums, that go forward with great speed and offer great width to the play, constantly pumping dangerous balls into various areas of the box, where our 3 strikers await, although they can also pose a threat inside the area. Defensively they will cover wide areas, however they will also close down the opposition uite a bit trying to regain posession, because the wide CB's offer apppropriate cover to them out wide, leaving the other two CB's to cover inside the area. Besides the obvious defensive attributes, crossing and passing are very important.
View attachment 459854View attachment 459853View attachment 459851
The second most important positions in this tactical setup are the Defensive Forwards. They are not only the first line of defense, but also the first line of the counter-attack. These are the players that our team tries to play to when breaking quickly forward. they will use the wings mostly to run at the defence, but are quite adept to do so in the middle too. These players will look to fashion chances for themselves, cross into the area or play passes into their strike partners. They also pair up very nicely with their wing-backs, sitting in just a bit narrower and in front of them, looking for a quick ball played into space. Pace, dribbling, flair, off the ball, creativity, passing, crossing and finishing are important in this position.
View attachment 459850View attachment 459849
The False Nines is intended to be a poacher with increased mobility, that has the ability to sit back and help out defensively, the ability to finish both with his head and his feet, but also the ability to hold onto a ball and pass it around without losing posession. He will look to be in finishing areas, trying to get in behind passes or crosses from his strike partners, the wing-backs or even the supporting CM. But he will also find himself in deeper areas, receiveng the ball, and looking to play in team mates up the pitch quickly. Finishing, composure, passing, off the ball, heading, technique, first touch, team work and work rate are all important, but not crucial, just try to find the best all rounded you can, just as for all the other positions, well rounded players are essential to the success of this tactic.
With this forward set-up and Wing-backs constantly sending balls into the area, you increase your chances of success, because you have a player atacking the first post, one attacking the second post, and one in the centre of the area. (no more trying to decide which crossing set-up is better for your wing-backs coz they will all work for once!
)
Download Links:
View attachment 459848
View attachment 459847
I hope i have managed to explain my approach and intent with this tactic in a way that not only you can understand it, but also be compelled to try it. I only hope it brings you as much success as it has brought me. I must say, winning the Champions League with Sporting came as a total surprise to me, which made it that more enjoyable.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
If you think that you can improve on my work please do share, coz nothing is perfect.
All i ask of anyone that tries this out, is to please give me some feedback.
Thank you and Enjoy!
Veez
EDIT:
Forgot to mention:
Set training to def. positioning and average balanced (pre-season fitness very high and tactics only)
Also get your defensive coach to do opposition instructions before every match
I've always enjoyed unconventional tactics, with either 3 at the back or 3 up front, but its hard to find a good balance within the team, however i think i have achieved that with my latest creation.
This tactic led the 3rd (in terms of reputation and financial power) club in Portugal, with a relatively low european reputation, to winning the Champions League, having never lost a game in the entire competition and facing european giants such as AC Milan, Barcelona or Bayern Munich.
Domestically we won the league, with a single defeat, boasting the best attack and defence in the league.
We also took home the cup against Porto (who were the only side to beat us all year in just two games).
We lost the league cup semi-final to Porto.
We achieved all this with a very young squad, composed mostly of portuguese players, and although we had some squad depth, it wasn't all that good, which is what i attribute our loss in the league cup semi-final to.
I know that the portuguese league is not a tremendously competitive league, however we consistently achieved great results throughout the season, and our performasnce in the Champions League backs this up.
In the last 50 games we scored 142 goals and conceeded only 37.
This is our formation, a Very Fluid 523:
View attachment 459883
I always have two tactics in training, a counter version and an attacking version.
I use the counter version mostly away to tough opposition and the Attacking at home to against any opposition (you can change to counter if you want to hold a result). You can use it in all your away games and simply change to the attacking version if you feel your team can push on without giving away chances to the opposition.
The idea behind the creation of this tactic was to make the team sit deep, giving away little space, only to break forward with great speed and power once the ball was regained. It foceses mostly on wide play down both flanks and a quick tempo, although the counter version has some changes to it.
For this to work effectively i needed to get my 3 strikers to defend and help regain balls in my own midfield, which could be hard, however, i found i could do this by adopting a very fluid strategy, combined with giving my forwards the roles of defensive forwards and a false 9.
Teams will have a hard time breaking you down, so they will opt to shoot from distance very often as you can see from the stats that i will post later. We concede very few goals and the ones we do concede are mostly from set-pieces, although this isnt an exploit tactic and i cannot guarantee clean-sheets and high scoring spectacular football every game. Although i've achieved both quite often
I will go into the roles of each position in further detail further down in the OP, with the aid of screenies of some of my players.
Here are our fixtures for last season:
View attachment 459880View attachment 459881View attachment 459882
Our Domestic League Table:
View attachment 459878
Our Champions League Group:
View attachment 459879
Examples of stats from various domestic fixtures:
View attachment 459877View attachment 459876View attachment 459875View attachment 459874View attachment 459873
Examples of stats from european fixtures:
View attachment 459872View attachment 459871View attachment 459870View attachment 459869View attachment 459868View attachment 459867View attachment 459866View attachment 459865View attachment 459864View attachment 459863View attachment 459862
We won the Champions League Final on penalties in the end, but we played with 10 men from the 60th minute onwards. We actually were in front during extra-time, but conceeded the equaliser late in the game.
Positions and Player Attributes:
The most important thing in this tactic is to have good all round players, because due to playing a very fluid system, they must perform different duties and adapt to different situations within a match.
View attachment 459861
CB's are quite straighforward, although i think that speed, positiong and anticipation are definately important, as is passing, mostly for wide CB's because they are important in the build up of play.
View attachment 459860
The Defensive CM should be a stong and tenacious, yet gifted player, capable of destroying opposition play and supporting team mates up the field. This player will sit a little deeper than his midfield partner, giving a little more defensive consistency and balance to the team. The attributes needed are quite straightforward, although i'd suggest to have midfielders with good long shots, because even if you instruct players to not shoot often, they will do so, so you might as well capitalise on it.
View attachment 459858View attachment 459857
The more creative Supporting CM also must help out defensively, as should the whole team, however his main aim is to support the attack with direct and risky passing, trying to turn defence into attack in an instant. This player should be similar to the Defensive CM, but more enhanced in his attacking attributes.
View attachment 459856View attachment 459855
The Offensive Wing-Backs are crucial to this tactic, as you can see from the 28 assists in 36 appearences from my right-back, who isnt even that good a player. A well rounded wing back will do. They are true pendullums, that go forward with great speed and offer great width to the play, constantly pumping dangerous balls into various areas of the box, where our 3 strikers await, although they can also pose a threat inside the area. Defensively they will cover wide areas, however they will also close down the opposition uite a bit trying to regain posession, because the wide CB's offer apppropriate cover to them out wide, leaving the other two CB's to cover inside the area. Besides the obvious defensive attributes, crossing and passing are very important.
View attachment 459854View attachment 459853View attachment 459851
The second most important positions in this tactical setup are the Defensive Forwards. They are not only the first line of defense, but also the first line of the counter-attack. These are the players that our team tries to play to when breaking quickly forward. they will use the wings mostly to run at the defence, but are quite adept to do so in the middle too. These players will look to fashion chances for themselves, cross into the area or play passes into their strike partners. They also pair up very nicely with their wing-backs, sitting in just a bit narrower and in front of them, looking for a quick ball played into space. Pace, dribbling, flair, off the ball, creativity, passing, crossing and finishing are important in this position.
View attachment 459850View attachment 459849
The False Nines is intended to be a poacher with increased mobility, that has the ability to sit back and help out defensively, the ability to finish both with his head and his feet, but also the ability to hold onto a ball and pass it around without losing posession. He will look to be in finishing areas, trying to get in behind passes or crosses from his strike partners, the wing-backs or even the supporting CM. But he will also find himself in deeper areas, receiveng the ball, and looking to play in team mates up the pitch quickly. Finishing, composure, passing, off the ball, heading, technique, first touch, team work and work rate are all important, but not crucial, just try to find the best all rounded you can, just as for all the other positions, well rounded players are essential to the success of this tactic.
With this forward set-up and Wing-backs constantly sending balls into the area, you increase your chances of success, because you have a player atacking the first post, one attacking the second post, and one in the centre of the area. (no more trying to decide which crossing set-up is better for your wing-backs coz they will all work for once!
)Download Links:
View attachment 459848
View attachment 459847
I hope i have managed to explain my approach and intent with this tactic in a way that not only you can understand it, but also be compelled to try it. I only hope it brings you as much success as it has brought me. I must say, winning the Champions League with Sporting came as a total surprise to me, which made it that more enjoyable.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
If you think that you can improve on my work please do share, coz nothing is perfect.
All i ask of anyone that tries this out, is to please give me some feedback.
Thank you and Enjoy!
Veez
EDIT:
Forgot to mention:
Set training to def. positioning and average balanced (pre-season fitness very high and tactics only)
Also get your defensive coach to do opposition instructions before every match
Last edited:
