Cheers Runeaa for the very detailed feedbacks. Appreciate your input and always love to see stuff like this.
And what a good timing I was just about to explain what I've been up to with the tactic. And pretty much it covers what Runeaa just pointed out.
___
The major keypoints in terms of things I need to improve from the first tactic was mainly
1. Fullback running all over the place and always out of position to cover their man and through balls from the middle
2. Passing from backline to midfield is sometimes not that smooth.
3. Too many passes around the box without any penetrating balls.
Okay so first of all was to address the defence. As mentioned I changed the settings a while back ago to support with deep crossing. That is proven to be more effective rather than having a very attacking fullbacks, considering I have no DMC to cover.
I then tried playing with wingbacks. This was to address the transition from backline to midfield. Since wingback is a bit further positioned than central defenders, they provided good passing option and can connect backline-midfield better. So yeah that issue is easily solved by wingbacks.
The downside with wingbacks was it's way too attacking. So I decided to go with 1 DMC and 2 MCs. It also to address the 'passing too much around the box' issue. With no AMC, the wingers were given more space to run into and create havoc in the opponent's area. The result were really good. A while ago I mentioned I had a good run with Chelsea using this tactic. Wingbacks are in particular dangerous here - popping up to dangerous position. Despite of that I decided to play with the formation further because the 2 MCs is pretty ineffective in this case because no one really 'in control' as playmaker was at MCR position and most of the play is done on right side of the field.
So I tried further by playing 2 DMC and 1 MC (playmaker). The idea was to have a 'central' playmaker that is not too further up the pitch and have 2 supporting MCs behind him to make passes. The result is not that good since it was too defensive and not enough ball forward. So the idea was scratched off immediately.
I then went back to the initial formation (but still with wingbacks), only difference was making the 2 MC more defensive and AMC more offensive. AMC is now more of a shadow striker as he makes run from deep often, to make space for wingers to run into. Results were so so. I did not like as the striker were disrupted by the presence of AMC and he did not get many scoring opportunities. So yeah, it was deleted immediately.
Finally (now) I'm doing a 3 MC formation. Playmaker is on central with higher mentality and run from deep with 2 slightly more defensive midfielder supporting on MCL and MCR. The idea is to have a similar to 4-2-3-1 formation but slightly back AMC to give space to wingers. So far so good as everything is going according to plan. I managed to get plenty of chances while surprisingly keeping possession very well (averaging 65% with Chelsea and ~60% with Newcastle). With some tweakings (will be discussed below) I've applied on the back, clean sheets were coming as well.
Now with this tactic. The area just outside is rather lacking of support as wingers are too attacking and make forward runs way too often. So I changed them to support with mixed run from deep. That way they sometimes drop deep and sometimes go forward. It gives them the opportunity to build up play as well as becoming a goalscoring threat.
Note that I've been having attacking wingbacks with this tactic. As said, it's good that they always pop up at dangerous position and sometimes having a go at the goal. The problem is; this causes the wingers to drift outside and thus becoming less dangerous. So I decided to 'sacrifice' the attacking fullbacks and having them as support, crossing from deep. This way they stay wide and wingers can attack the box better.
Finally, the defensive tweak. As many had mentioned, push up defense is better with a 4-2-3-1 formation, so I did that. It gave better possession and defend in overall. I also change the marking of backline to man marking as it seems like zonal marking is just messed up. I also change the marking to loose (not tight), as tight marking usually causes two players to defend the player on the ball too much and ended up opening up space for other players to run into. There are suggestions of having a cover defender but I'm really not fond of it as the space between the defender can be exploited by good forwards to break the offside trap.
Yeah that's pretty much it. Just to sum it up, the new version of tactic should still gonna be a 4-5-1, specifically 2-2-3-2-1. One slight 'issue' right now is that my striker is not scoring as much as the old tactic as now scoring chances are distributed rather evenly to almost all attacking players. I'm trying to improve the scoring opportunities given to the main striker, hopefully I can find it soon.
Any suggestions from what I wrote will be welcomed.
Cheers
Wall of text. If someone actually read that and gave me an input, I will give you a free candy.
And what a good timing I was just about to explain what I've been up to with the tactic. And pretty much it covers what Runeaa just pointed out.
___
The major keypoints in terms of things I need to improve from the first tactic was mainly
1. Fullback running all over the place and always out of position to cover their man and through balls from the middle
2. Passing from backline to midfield is sometimes not that smooth.
3. Too many passes around the box without any penetrating balls.
Okay so first of all was to address the defence. As mentioned I changed the settings a while back ago to support with deep crossing. That is proven to be more effective rather than having a very attacking fullbacks, considering I have no DMC to cover.
I then tried playing with wingbacks. This was to address the transition from backline to midfield. Since wingback is a bit further positioned than central defenders, they provided good passing option and can connect backline-midfield better. So yeah that issue is easily solved by wingbacks.
The downside with wingbacks was it's way too attacking. So I decided to go with 1 DMC and 2 MCs. It also to address the 'passing too much around the box' issue. With no AMC, the wingers were given more space to run into and create havoc in the opponent's area. The result were really good. A while ago I mentioned I had a good run with Chelsea using this tactic. Wingbacks are in particular dangerous here - popping up to dangerous position. Despite of that I decided to play with the formation further because the 2 MCs is pretty ineffective in this case because no one really 'in control' as playmaker was at MCR position and most of the play is done on right side of the field.
So I tried further by playing 2 DMC and 1 MC (playmaker). The idea was to have a 'central' playmaker that is not too further up the pitch and have 2 supporting MCs behind him to make passes. The result is not that good since it was too defensive and not enough ball forward. So the idea was scratched off immediately.
I then went back to the initial formation (but still with wingbacks), only difference was making the 2 MC more defensive and AMC more offensive. AMC is now more of a shadow striker as he makes run from deep often, to make space for wingers to run into. Results were so so. I did not like as the striker were disrupted by the presence of AMC and he did not get many scoring opportunities. So yeah, it was deleted immediately.
Finally (now) I'm doing a 3 MC formation. Playmaker is on central with higher mentality and run from deep with 2 slightly more defensive midfielder supporting on MCL and MCR. The idea is to have a similar to 4-2-3-1 formation but slightly back AMC to give space to wingers. So far so good as everything is going according to plan. I managed to get plenty of chances while surprisingly keeping possession very well (averaging 65% with Chelsea and ~60% with Newcastle). With some tweakings (will be discussed below) I've applied on the back, clean sheets were coming as well.
Now with this tactic. The area just outside is rather lacking of support as wingers are too attacking and make forward runs way too often. So I changed them to support with mixed run from deep. That way they sometimes drop deep and sometimes go forward. It gives them the opportunity to build up play as well as becoming a goalscoring threat.
Note that I've been having attacking wingbacks with this tactic. As said, it's good that they always pop up at dangerous position and sometimes having a go at the goal. The problem is; this causes the wingers to drift outside and thus becoming less dangerous. So I decided to 'sacrifice' the attacking fullbacks and having them as support, crossing from deep. This way they stay wide and wingers can attack the box better.
Finally, the defensive tweak. As many had mentioned, push up defense is better with a 4-2-3-1 formation, so I did that. It gave better possession and defend in overall. I also change the marking of backline to man marking as it seems like zonal marking is just messed up. I also change the marking to loose (not tight), as tight marking usually causes two players to defend the player on the ball too much and ended up opening up space for other players to run into. There are suggestions of having a cover defender but I'm really not fond of it as the space between the defender can be exploited by good forwards to break the offside trap.
Yeah that's pretty much it. Just to sum it up, the new version of tactic should still gonna be a 4-5-1, specifically 2-2-3-2-1. One slight 'issue' right now is that my striker is not scoring as much as the old tactic as now scoring chances are distributed rather evenly to almost all attacking players. I'm trying to improve the scoring opportunities given to the main striker, hopefully I can find it soon.
Any suggestions from what I wrote will be welcomed.
Cheers
Wall of text. If someone actually read that and gave me an input, I will give you a free candy.
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