How to get 3 at the back working.

[maxchaplin55]

Okay so I've always been one to try and make a successful 3 at the back tactic on FM, and by all means I've had some great success, but when I've then gone to a similar set up but with a 4 at the back formation, I tend to get better results. Obviously every opponent is different and there's no fixed perfect tactic- but I wanted to know what peoples MUST haves are in 3 at the back tactics.

My most success seems to come with not setting any kind of defensive line positioning, and go with a counter attack approach. But I'd just like to hear how other people make their 3 at the back tactics and what essentials you perhaps have that I don't. Fire away!

 

[kallemannen]

I played it with 2 stoppers on the sides and a cover or defend CB in the middle
Also , I use wingbacks, but not complete attacking wingbacks, I use wingbacks on attack duty, more balanced

Im also a fan of the, 2 CM, 1 CAM, 2 ST

 

[maxchaplin55]

I played it with 2 stoppers on the sides and a cover or defend CB in the middle
Also , I use wingbacks, but not complete attacking wingbacks, I use wingbacks on attack duty, more balanced

Im also a fan of the, 2 CM, 1 CAM, 2 ST

This is interesting for me- may I ask if it's successful for you? And what team you use it with?
I'm trying one out at the moment with a lower league English team, Basingstoke, but am struggling to find consistency. I can dominate game but not results. I think it's because I'm sticking with wide midfielders and not wing backs, I have had success with Wingbacks before but really wanted to use wide midfielders. I agree with the central diamond but with wide midfielders I kind of need 2 defensive midfielders I feel, and I've been tinkering whether to have the head of the diamond in CM or CAM. I've even tried a reverse diamond with the point in DM. Struggling to find a way to block out long balls over the top of my defence though. :/

 

[bear1]

I've played three at the back with Wingers (on support duty generally), two centre mids on support and defend duties (occasionally a DM), somehow it worked though seemed like it shouldn't.

 

[adit 99]

I used 3-4-3 for a good amount of time, FM13 using FC United, smashing through to Championships (and the game crashed), and an experiment using my local team in FM 14:
View attachment 268026
I scored a lot, but gave away many goals too, mostly through the middle, via counter attacks, the wings was great though, supplying to the DLF, then pass it to the poacher or doing the Robben.

Another version of it was the FM13 version using Winger (Support) on each sides, and AF (Support)-Poacher (Atk)-CF (Support), not bad, but not awesome either.

 

[BBassic]

I've tried to play a sort of mutated three at the back that looks like this:

-----------AF------------
---IF---------------IF---
--------CM---CM--------
--WB-----DM-----WB---
-------CD-----CD-------
-----------GK-----------

I haven't had much luck but then I've mostly tried with fairly weak teams. I have a feeling it'd work a wonder with a stronger team.

 

[ImAddicted]

I've tried to play a sort of mutated three at the back that looks like this:

-----------AF------------
---IF---------------IF---
--------CM---CM--------
--WB-----DM-----WB---
-------CD-----CD-------
-----------GK-----------

I haven't had much luck but then I've mostly tried with fairly weak teams. I have a feeling it'd work a wonder with a stronger team.

For me having an anchor would strengthen the defence. But I guess you could turn that into a pretty decent counter attacking tactic but I could be wrong because I'm no tactical expert

 

[cZeur]

I've tried to play a sort of mutated three at the back that looks like this:

-----------AF------------
---IF---------------IF---
--------CM---CM--------
--WB-----DM-----WB---
-------CD-----CD-------
-----------GK-----------

I haven't had much luck but then I've mostly tried with fairly weak teams. I have a feeling it'd work a wonder with a stronger team.

Playing a halfback instead of a DM will push the centre-backs out wide and push the wing backs up in possession, allowing your inside forwards to operate in that dangerous central area without giving up width.
The halfback position in FM isn't perfect though - the centre backs stay split even when the ball is in the 10 area (they should tighten back up once they're not immediately involved in the build-up phase) leaving you horrifically exposed on the counter.

 

[maxchaplin55]

A lot of the above is helpful in creating a 3 at the back tactic. @bbassic - I feel just having a BPD in the middle may be more beneficial than any DM to be honest! Who knows I've never tried a 2 at the back defence.

My main problems with 3 at the back tactics tends to be defending- attacking wise I can have many clear cut chances in a game, like you'd expect when you take away a defender and put in a midfielder/striker. At the moment I think I'm going to stick with counter attacking, with no set defensive line, and just have all 3 defenders set as CD defend. Although I like the idea of 1 stopper and two covers but it never clicked for me. I like the phrase "the best form of defend is to attack". So I may actually try as push all my players up a bit, shove the defenders to the stopper cover tactic, play a high line and play high tempo attacking football, I'm determined to get it to work. Thanks guys, keep posting success stories/ideas for 3 at the back tactics!!

 

[BBassic]

This has inspired me to get my Mutation tactic to work.

I'll try both the Half-Back and Anchor man suggestions and feedback.

 

[ImAddicted]

A lot of the above is helpful in creating a 3 at the back tactic. @bbassic - I feel just having a BPD in the middle may be more beneficial than any DM to be honest! Who knows I've never tried a 2 at the back defence.

My main problems with 3 at the back tactics tends to be defending- attacking wise I can have many clear cut chances in a game, like you'd expect when you take away a defender and put in a midfielder/striker. At the moment I think I'm going to stick with counter attacking, with no set defensive line, and just have all 3 defenders set as CD defend. Although I like the idea of 1 stopper and two covers but it never clicked for me. I like the phrase "the best form of defend is to attack". So I may actually try as push all my players up a bit, shove the defenders to the stopper cover tactic, play a high line and play high tempo attacking football, I'm determined to get it to work. Thanks guys, keep posting success stories/ideas for 3 at the back tactics!!

For me 2 Defend and 1 Stopper has always been my favourite just because if the stopper fails at actually stopping the attacker, the other 2 defenders on defend have enough time to make up for his mistake. And since your sticking with counter attacking or high tempo attacking football, how about try a BPD they actually work wonders!

 

[maxchaplin55]

For me 2 Defend and 1 Stopper has always been my favourite just because if the stopper fails at actually stopping the attacker, the other 2 defenders on defend have enough time to make up for his mistake. And since your sticking with counter attacking or high tempo attacking football, how about try a BPD they actually work wonders!

So you pair the Stopper with 2 Defends? Not 2 Covers? I may try a BPD, it's just i'm in Sky Bet league 2 atm and none of the defenders are that good with the ball haha!!

 

[Nomad Ekaria]

I've tried to play a sort of mutated three at the back that looks like this:

-----------AF------------
---IF---------------IF---
--------CM---CM--------
--WB-----DM-----WB---
-------CD-----CD-------
-----------GK-----------

I haven't had much luck but then I've mostly tried with fairly weak teams. I have a feeling it'd work a wonder with a stronger team.

I wanted to adress this as it comes up a lot in the thread. The problem with a 2-3-2-2-1 with IF's is that there is nothing providing forward looking momentum. IF's mean that the wingers are moving more tword the center of the pitch. this makes it so that they don't link up well with your wingbacks or your central midfielders.

Its the basic justification for why the barca 4-1-2-3 works. That gives you fullbacks who link up well with inside forwards as well as a DM that can abandon its defensive responsibilities to allow the midfielders to push up.

What I've had success with is just forgoing the wingers and getting a monster AMC pairing of a hulking rooney style big man alongside an italian style technical small man. You can switch it with 3 strikers (DLF-s-s-a is popular) if you don't have the staff.

And thats the real problem with a werid thing like that. WB's,AMC's are few and those that there are arn't very good it seems. There are a lot more and better fullbacks and wingers.

 

[ImAddicted]

So you pair the Stopper with 2 Defends? Not 2 Covers? I may try a BPD, it's just i'm in Sky Bet league 2 atm and none of the defenders are that good with the ball haha!!

Yeah they tend to stop the opponent before they get into the box. Covering defenders tend to be a bit more lenient before they take action.