I'm doing reasonably well with an attacking, very fluid 4312, basic lineup being:
Handanovic- Dodo, Juan Jesus, Vidic, Nagatomo - Hernanes/Obi (LCM-am-sup), Medel (CM-bwm-def), Kovacic/Guarín (RCM- - Guarín/Palacio - Osvaldo, Icardi.
close down more, offside trap, stay on feet
look for overlap, push higher up, play narrow
shorter passing play out of defence, run at defence
Got beaten by Fior the first week, but only victories and draws since, sitting at 2nd place in December 2014, behind a Juvemerda apparently being impossible to catch up to.
Icardi plays poacher, in front of a false9 Osvaldo, and an advanced playmaker (Guarín or Palacio).
I've bough Gino Peruzzi from Catania, so that Yuto and dod could be rotated as LWB, while Peruzzi and Jonathan do the same on the right.
The system has a certain lack of wing attacks, but the two wingbacks provide enough crosses, and even though they rarely result in a direct goal, the front three (all roaming from positions) have scored a lot from rebounds and opposition mistakes after whipped crosses.
Late november the board also granted a further 25m (euros), so I'm planning to buy a couple of decent wing AM talents - something the current squad desperately lacks, or one or two CMs to be able to hold possession better.
As for variation, when facing an opponent against whom I'd need some more wings, I put Obi in the postition of LM instead of LCM, and Guarín into AMR (am-sup) instead of AMC - switching off "Play narrow".
Not exactly a world-beater, but seems to be enough to get the ECC quali - which I had to promise to both Nagatomo and Icardi to keep them calm and happy.