SS19

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A common problem for many FM tacticians. Creating a Barcelona-esque tactic and want to start build up from the back? With Barcelona, sure, but you also want your centre backs to get wider to allow fullbacks further up the pitch and making pressing harder for the opposition.

Or playing with a narrow midfield diamond (often labelled as 1-2-1) and you want your central midfielders to go wider to offer support for the fullbacks.

Or you want your wide forwards (AML/R or STL/R) to make diagonal runs and make runs towards the goal instead of staying wide?

Or you want to create a "central winger", n.10 who drifts wide to support the wide players instead of finding space between the opposition centre backs and defensive/central midfielders?

Or you want to limit your striker's running from wide areas towards the centre, not the other way around?

Any of these sound familiar? If you try to create tactics with fluid movement across the pitch, then, yes. I myself have struggled often with the wide forwards making runs towards the goal, which seems to be the most common case. In my current save I'm trying to build some sort of 3-4-3 tactic. It involves problems with centre backs, central midfielders in a narrow diamond, and the striker's running.

When taking a look at the tools for sideways movement we have some options available.

Team width. Team instruction rather than a player one, so can might cause problems in asymmetrical formations or if you want your wide forwards to play narrow while fullbacks offer the width. Also affects the player positioning rather than the movement.

Roam from position. Affects player movement but not so much runs to deep and, more importantly, doesn't specify the direction of the movement.

Wide play. The most obvious but still extremely limiting. Cut inside and hug the touchline being on-the-ball movements (according to TheBetterHalf and my own experience) and move into channels causing more runs towards the corners rather than the goal (not even mentioning that move into channels doesn't really affect centre backs if you want them to go wider) we find ourselves in a situation where we can't affect the players sideways movement that much, actually we can do it very little. And when we affect the movement, we can't properly control the movement (direction of the runs).

In this thread I would like to see discussion about your experiences, ideas and possible solutions to the problems mentioned above. Also I would like to hear your experiences of creative freedom affecting the movement.

If you have found a solution to any of the problems, please, post it here. It will hopefully help others to create their own tactics.
 
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Width and Tempo

With a narrow 4-1-2-1-2 formation in FM2012 I got my central midfielders to go wide by setting the width as wide as possible, and setting the tempo to the slowest notch that was still normal. The width gave the players better passing angles. The slower tempo gave players more time, which led to more forward passes, rather than just passing back to the goalkeeper or center back.


Off the Ball Movement

In FM2013 I use a 4-4-2 in the Blue Square Bet North league. My wingers (ML and MR) sometimes provide good diagonal runs in front of the fullbacks and my Deep Lying Forward (STCR) creates these chances. The DLF drops deep to receive the ball, which pulls a center back to him. This opens up the middle of the field, either for the Poacher making a run down the middle, or for the right winger running to goal past a ball watching fullback. The third option is a center midfielder making a run from deep.

My main DLF has 10 goals and 12 assists in 28 starts and 2 sub appearances with Passing 5, Technique 5, Creativity 9 and Flair 5. In lower leagues you don't need great players to stretch a 4-4-2 defense.

Teams with a defensive midfielder defend the DLF dropping deep much better. I don't have any easy answers for that, but I have tried changing one of my central midfielder from Deep Playmaker (support) to Advanced Playmaker (attack). This puts pressure on the defensive midfielder by overloading the middle of the pitch.


When to Cut Inside

If a team parks the bus, cutting inside can create chances against overmatched fullbacks.

I had a weaker team use a 5-3-2 formation against me. They set a deep defensive line and stood off, waiting for a chance to counter. Instead of trying to cross balls into outnumbered strikers I had my wingers cut inside. With the ball my team turned into this free flowing 4-2-2-2 formation with a lot of ball possession. Eventually the defense makes a mistake and we scored on through passes from the wingers.
 
PPM's.

I have always found this sort of movement best recreated through PPM's.
 
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