Louis Van Gaal Ajax 91-97 Tactic - Help Needed !

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Hi guys. I've recently been working day and night to try and recreate Louis Van gaal's great team of ajax 95. But i've been coming against some huge problems which I need help with as I don't have the greatest knowledge of how the match engine works.

First I'll post some links for everyone to see how the ajax of Louis Van Gaal played so everyone can have a better understanding and help me and all Louis Van gaal followers can give me greater insight on how I can make this tactic work.

P.S – The shape doesn’t have to copied directly but if you have any idea of to make the tactic and shape to be apparent on the pitch by using all the tools given by FM please let me know.

Basic Shape
View attachment 262318View attachment 262320

Formation Renovation: Ajax 1994-1996 | The Other 87
La Croqueta: 3-3-1-3, Ajax, Johan Cruijff and Louis van Gaal: the love affair.
Dissecting the Ajax team of 1995: Ajax 2
De Boer balances his influences to take Ajax back to basics - Half-time Oranje - FourFourTwo - This is a mixture of De Boer, Cruyff and Van gaal but still give us an idea of the style of play
Cruyff to Van Gaal to De Boer: Can Ajax rejoin Europe's elite? - Half-time Oranje - FourFourTwo - Once again a mixture but helpful

Key styles to play

- Ball-Retention/Circulation.
- Patience in Build-up.
- Wingers not to attack fullbacks rather cut inside and pass into space.
- Use of sweeper to sit deep and clean up any attacks that come through.
- Wingers to hug touchline to give space for two CM's to bomb through the centre/Make space for long diagonal straight to Striker
- However CM's never to overlap the Wingers to maintain positional play and to ensure team is not cut open.
- Striker to come receive diagonals and long balls and balls to feet then drop deep and play through AM who runs past the striker.

Key Positional Play - Defence

- Use of sweeper to sit deep and clean up any attacks that come through.
- Sweeper be able to bring ball into midfield (contribute to holding high line) and play straight diagonal to ST – however only when opportunity arises (see wingers positional play) as ball circulation is important.
- The two Wide CB’s to push forward when in possession to give width and an extra option out wide. However without the ball to get back into defence centrally (BIG PROBLEM IN FM FOR ME – check problems later).
- The central defender ahead of CB to mark opposition striker when not in position but when in possession to push up high into DM to make a diamond in midfield to help circulate ball in midfield and retain possession. Always dribbles and moves through the centre
- Please check the links for more information – this is just basic information to help along the way.


Key Positional Play Midfield

- The central defender/Deep lying playmaker to sit into midfield to create diamond.
- LCM to link between defensive/offensive duties. Late runs to draw opposition’s marker to make space for CF – maybe the straight ball to the target man. However this CM is to be just a bit more defensively capable as he has to be the link between the defences/mid and attack on occasions.
- RCM – to be the link player between midfield/attack. Once again to make late runs to draw opposition marker – however never to overlap the wingers position (see winger positional play). With the RCM being the link between midfield and attack this leaves the AM with only attacking duties.
- RCM should look to drive through the centre and link up with ST/AMC with quick one twos and lay offs as off wingers drawing marker and staying wide – see winger positional play.
- AMC – To roam across frontline with freedom and look to overlap ST when he comes deep when receiving the ball. Basically to play with a lot of freedom within the system.

Key Positional Play Wingers
- When ball is at their feet only look to take on defender if he is exposed. If doubled up on just hold up and look to play square as space was created with opposition players coming to close down – therefore increasing ball circulation and ball into more space.

- Wingers stay wide and hug touchline when without the ball to draw markers and give more space for two CM’s and ST to receive the ball and drive into central space.

Key Positional play Striker


- To come off the defenders to receive balls to the feet and in the air and hold up for AM to overlap and feed balls to Wingers/AM.

This is a link to the CL Semi Final they played against bayern munich at home in 1995.

Wedstrijd van toen: Ajax - Bayern Munchen - YouTube

- At 00:38 you'll see danny blind push high up into midfield and a play long straight ball to kanu who drops off the CB to alot of space as of Wingers and CM's drawing OPP markers and giving space for the pass. Key trait
- At 02:22 You'll see a problem this problem might face on occasions(one that im facing myself) With no Full backs and and no wide midfielders are given space wide to exploit.
- At 02:51 you'll see a key component of this system. Overmars a hugely gifted and extremely quick winger doesn't take on the winger, however draws the FB then looks to the centre and finds the space created by other players positions and runs leaving Finidi George alone to smash it home.
- At 04:53 look where Kanu picks the long ball by blind, he once again dropped the CB's to create space for the AMC litmanen to run into space - Another key component of the play.
- At 07:51 you see once again Kanu starts at a deeper position than the AMC litmanen who then makes a forward run to screate space which leads a marker with him giving the kanu the time and space to pick out advancing overmars.

Here's my version of the tactic - this isn't a plug and play tactic i've only used it for 6-7 games with very mixed results with the bad being really bad and the good being great - ill point out the problems below.
Also please leave me comments on how you would set up team instructions and player instructions and help me have a better insight on how to work within the constraints of the match engine. Use the tactic please and tweak it or please create you're own and try to replicate and let me know how it goes and things I should look to change as im obsessing over this system lol.

Problems

Playing against the 4-2-3-1/4-1-2-2-1
- Here when I play 3 CB's the wingers on the opposition team have a field day as of the space they get out wide
- Options i'm dealing with/tried.
- Playing the CB in the FB positions but still this doesn't solve any problems and the central players seem to get alot of freedom and the central defenders get outnumbered.
- Having the two CM's mark the opp WIngers however this pushes them too deep and the wingers are too far from them and then they get to them the play in the centre seem to excel easily.

In general dealing with width - Ruining system - too far from how I want replicate the style

- When I played against fulham away they lined up with a 4-1-4-1.
- I tried to deal with this by fielding the two CM's in WM positions to deal with OPP WM's this worked well but it became a wide diamond with the two WM staying too wide and not coming into midfield to help ball retention and in general didn't fit with Van Gaal's system - which is what I want - I don't want an unbeatable tactic - one which simply works well with how Van Gaal wanted his ajax team to play.

Please comment on ideas such as narrowing width - Making CM go wide to deal with Opp WM but then in posession come in to central positions. How to make flat back three work within the ME and the Van Gaal system at the same time.

Okay well I hope you've stayed on until now. This is my first post on an FM community so please help as much as you can and hope you all try to replicate this system along the way.
All help is MUCH appreciated.

Oh and sorry here is the tactic that I've done. About to play Bolton who I scouted and are lining up with 4-1-2-2-1 so I'm facing trouble but hopefully with ure help i can deal with it. Will post screenshots for you all to see of the game to see how the tactic is working/failing. This is only third draft of the tactic I will keep tweaking and uploading updates. Please let me know If you need any additional info.

Download Louis Van Gaal Ajax Draft 3 (Arsenal, Sep 2014).tac from Sendspace.com - send big files the easy way
 
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Damnn, Forgot to post pictures of the basic shape sorry will do now
 
link for tactic don't work.
I'm trying to build this tactic since CM2, and CM2 was last manager where this tactic was successful. I suppose, that's because of match engine.
 
Hey chule, really, Okay I'll try and upload the tactic again. Could you please tell me any tips on how you may have found success even if it was little on making this tactic work since CM2 please. I really want to know more also if you have any further insight into the style of play of the team. Looking forward to hearing from you thanks
P.S i think to make the download link work u have to open it in a new tab please try and tell me if it does or doesnt.
Also in this version of the draft the two wide CB are FB as I was preparing for a game where i was to come up against advanced wingers so change it if you need. Also I move the BPD in DLP with defend in some situation depending on opposition so change all upto u. Please give feedback
 
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Okay so i just finished leage cup 3rd round game away against bolton. I'll post screen shots.

First Ill just show you the basic split view results.
View attachment 262338
- Here you'll see I dominated posession but only created one CCC so pretty disappointing - Maybe this is because I have time wasting sometimes. Please feedback on how I can improve this. Will post team instruction screenshot aswell

Now I'll show you my passes.
View attachment 262340
- Here you can see that most of my passes completed are coming from my defence and there isn't enough ball circulation, As this system involves most central players getting on the ball and passing as much as possbile once again could be attributed to my time wasting on sometimes so I can keep the ball longer.

For this match I changed my team's shape and tweaked team tactics and player instructions. I'll upload the further updated tactic after I've tested it more. Here's the shape and changed team instructions.
View attachment 262343
- I changed Very fluid to fluid as I they players didn't in the van gaal didnt overlap each other of swap position ever as they has to maintain position to be in position to recieve the ball.
- I went for more disciplined so I could keep the position on and off the ball and just change player instructions for those I wanted to venture forward more such as RCM and AM.

How I played the match - Bolton away

- Bolton lined up with a 4-1-2-2-1
I chose to experiment and put my WCB back from FB to CB and changed their player instructions to Hug touchline so they would be better equipped to quickly get to man marking OPP wingers once we lost the ball as I expect hold the ball most of the game in this Van Gaal system.
- I also pushed up the DW further up to close down OPP full back and mark them closely to maintain position but still get the ball quick and start to circulating it again.

Evaluation

A good performance however I was playing against a really weak team who's been relegated to the championship and the team I inherited after moving from wigan is pretty beast as you can see so nothing spectacular but ateast the system worked well.
Please leave feedback Ill keep updating you all
 
Your defenders are positioned very narrow. Perhaps you'll find better success against wingers if you stretch them to cover the fullbacks position even.
 
Hi SAM1, thanks for the feedback. Yeah I said in the OP that when the opposition was playing with wingers I moved my two Wide CB to FB positions however that left a lot space in the middle and the cb and sweeper were left too exposed. I've tweaked the tactic around and found a few solutions. I'm going to play two or three more games so I can face more challenges as in different tactics/different level of opponent then I'll put up un updated version of the tactic and additional screenshots and information to how you can deal with different opponents.
Please anyone who sees this try and use it or leave feedback. As my point of reference may not be so valid as i'm only seeing it from point of perspective as i'm only playing save at the moment which is with arsenal in the 4th season and the team is pretty strong so I don't know how it will fare for lesser teams and different leagues. I'll obviously open up another save after this season but please give feedback I really want to replicate the Van Gaal system perfectly. Thanks
 
I really want to know more also if you have any further insight into the style of play of the team. Looking forward to hearing from you thanks
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Hi rear1946 really appreciate you giving feedback. Did you give the links and the video a look ? I'm in the process of downloading more games from that era so I can see all the problems it had aswell as make more in depth analysis. I'm working on an updated version of the tactic at the moment really looking to play at least 15-20 games so I have a much more refined tactic to show you all with alot of screenshots and detailed analysis. Please have a go at it and tweak it as you will then we can discuss how to improve this style. I'd really like to hear everyones opinion on this. Also just read over the OP and saw some horrendous spelling mistakes. I was pretty eager and maybe tried to cram in too much info without reading it over. Forgive the bad writing and lets celebrate Van Gaals work.

P.S what more would you like to know rear1946 would love to discuss more
 
ANyone had a chance to look over the stuff ? Intrest anyone ? Sorry i havnt put up an updated tactic as of yet or any new screenshots it's because i've started a new save with feyenoord to see how the tactic will be in another league. Please take the time to read and leave a reply
 
Okay so after playing and editing for a full week constantly I've come up with a tactic which does replicate Van Gaal's Ajax but not fully as in some situations in game it does have to be adjusted because the ME does not let me replicate certain things without me conceding easily. I'll give you the tactic and upload screenshots, add analysis as to how I managed against different tactics and which sort of players from the game you may need for it to be succesful. Also the most important thing this tactic needs alot of patience and alot of things sometimes need to be adjusted in game, before game and alot of analysis to make sure it's able to work such as right training methods. This will definitely fail it you just plug and play.

Louis Van Gaal 1
View attachment 263959

- I've adjusted the SW to come into the BPD position as when I was playing him as SW and DMC there was too much space in between and the defence became too narrow and open to crosses. This tightens that gap whilst still giving him the ability to play as Danny Blind did. Having a free role to step out of defence to intercept and sweep balls behind. Also to come into midfield and become the extra man and push the opposing team further back.
- For this tactic I adjusted the DW to come back into a WING position. This was so that they could help maintain posession of the ball and close down the opposing FB and pressure opposing WM/WING when we didn't have the ball. However I do adjust this in certain situations. I'll tell you more in the match analysis section.
- I've made the creative freedom go to more disciplined as this team moved forward and defended as a unit under strict instructions of how to play but with this discipline they were able to showcase their talents. I've adjusted the creative freedom of the player in the P.I section to suit my players and the system to keep it realistic. You can adjust this if you have more versatile and disciplined players.

Match Screenshots
View attachment 263963View attachment 263962
- With the exelcsior game it was pretty early on with the tactic and team were still getting used to it so the results of the passing and precision weren't so great. It takes time for the team to really get used to it.
- FC Twente was my most recent game. Mixed in terms of shots but they did have 5 long shots.

I'm only into January at the moment in my Feyenoord save so this is only a small update I am still changing alot of things on the way ut I just wanted to share the tactic and the ways in which it can be played

Match Analysis - Dealing with OPP

- In my two games against Twente theyve fielded a 4-1-2-2-1.
- In the most recent game against twente early on I realised they were playing alot of balls over the top leaving defence split in behind.
- HOW TO DEAL - Switch the CM to WM and man mark the opposing wingers with DEF mentality. However keep them on moving into channels and run with ball sometimes and run from deep always to make sure in attack they can join up.
- Also Push DW back to the highest line to close long balls over the top by OPP FB.
- I also made the width narrow so players would come in when we have the ball not taking them too wide. I would recommend have small width on you're pitches to deal with this problem.

Against a 4-4-2

- I tend to leave the formation as it is and the CM's have the duty to go and mark the OPP WM. But if the OPP WM seem to be getting alot of joy and keep getting in behind I switch my CM to WCM.
- In terms of player man mark instruction I have some already in there. But you may have to change pre game to deal with different formation.

Question

- After watching many more Ajax games from that era they seem to press in really compact zones and hard aswell without losing positional sense. When without the ball the OPP seems to have no space from the way in which the team tracks back in their position and keeps the space so tight with hard zonal pressing aswell.
- Is there anyway to replicate this please let me know because alot of the time my amc two dw and dont come back and press the positions like Ajax did, they seem seperated from defensive duties leaving a gaps for teams to exploit. PLease tell me if you have any ideas.
Tomorrow
- I will update the OP and put in players what players and main attributes you need in every position and give much more analysis. Pretty tired atm so ain't able to cover too much.
- Also put up Louis Van Gaal not too different just too adjust to different situation

Download Louis Van Gaal 1 (Feyenoord, Jan 2012).tac from Sendspace.com - send big files the easy way

View attachment 263964
 
for the pressing you reall y have o set th defensve wingers to man mark. Thats the nly way they ever track back. Man mark tight.
 
Thanks for the reply. Yeah I set the DW to man mark the opp FB to hurry them but then they only man mark the FB so they never end up tracking back. Do you suggest I just get my DW to man mark the opponents wingers ?
 
Wengerball said:
Thanks for the reply. Yeah I set the DW to man mark the opp FB to hurry them but then they only man mark the FB so they never end up tracking back. Do you suggest I just get my DW to man mark the opponents wingers ?
Click to expand...


Hmmm....well if you were strictly playinmg van gaals tactic then you will have only 1 cb and a sweeper. I am actually trying it out now. You would need to set your fbs to mark the mf. Maybe set the dw to mark zonally and tight so they foollowo anyone they are marking back
 
Yeah well I was playing strictly van gaal but then there Rijkaard would always step into midfield and thats too hard too replicate in the game. So I decide to play him as DM. Yeah I do that occasionally but what happens is that they only go out wide to mark the wingers once he's got the ball becuase I play them as CB's. BUt when I play them as FB they leave too much space in the centre. ALso thanks for the pressing tip I'll try it out today.
 
Don't give up Wengerball, later on I will post my template for 3-4-3 Ajax style for you to check and see how you can adapt it to your team
 
Wow thanks alot. I followed you alot on sigames and you're recreation tactics and on fmbase tips and threads. Helped me try recreate many classic tactics. Definitely looking forward to ure template. I'll keep working I thought this idea didnt intrest many people. Ill try more tonight but the huge problem is that the cb's dont stretch wide when in posession. Thanks alot for the reply
 
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