Manchester United's new Formation discussion/tactic thread

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Raikan007

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After watching the boys destroy Newcastle on Sunday afternoon I was eager to implement this new formation and style of play we have been trying to implement over the past couple of games (well the game against Cluj and Newcastle, the latter having a new formation) which is based on possession and off the ball movement, a fluid, interchanging approach which was pleasing on the eye's...

So I set off this morning when I got into the office to replicate this on Fm by starting a new Fm game with United...

I was needing a good solid ball winner type mid, who was still good at playing the ball to rotate with Fletcher and a good attacking mid, well I just wanted to try Hamsik as I have not bought him on any version of FM for a couple of years, got him for £10m and Macheda :)

Fellaini was purchased from Everton for about £15m with Anderson going to Spurs for £13.5m and Nani to Chelsea for £20m

The tactic:

View attachment 278213

United set out with a 2 man defensive blanket covering the centrebacks and assisted in playing the ball around drawing the Newcastle players out of position trying to close down the ball player, and with the off the ball movement of the players in front and beside the player with possession, created space going forward..

The DLP is perfect for Scholes (retrain) and Carrick as he just looks to play the ball around, recycling possession and at the same time, creating chances!
The DM looks at winning the ball back and assisting in playing the ball around to create space for players ahead of them!

The fullbacks have been set to run from deep often and attack so that they sit mostly on the halfway line, assisting in playing the ball around and adding width, they have been set to cross from mixed so expect them to push up to the byline as well!

The central AMC is the main Rooney playmaker role, he never runs from deep so he looks to drop back into space as there is quite a large gap between the defence and midfield and look to bring the two together, the DLP has been set to pass close to direct which will assist in getting the ball further up the field, quicker!

The two wider AM's are set as attacking mids, these guys move into channels and interchange with each other trying to find space ahead of the central AMC, you will find them quite often on the touchline which is exactly what I wanted as Welbeck and Kagawa played wide yesterday and looked at bringing the ball in field squeezing the defence in while, creating space for the fullbacks to overlap (byline crossing as mentioned above) which completely opens up the wider area's for crosses into the box...

The forward is set similar to the wider AM's as well, he roams around the edge of the box and sometimes pushes wide, that is why I have set crossing to often as he often finds himself outwide and crosses the ball in for the 3 attacking mids to get on the end of!

I have set the keepers distribution to mixed which is unique as he will attempt to kick the ball 3/4 of the field to one of the wide players and launch a quick attack from there, then he will throw the ball or play it short :)

Results & top players:

View attachment 278214View attachment 278215View attachment 278216View attachment 278217View attachment 278218View attachment 278219

I used a different tactic for the Newcastle game (I was using it with West Ham and its working very nicely, will be released in Fm13 once I have updated it) the Tottenham game was a write off completely... lol! my players were retarded and useless!

I use the following shouts:

View attachment 278220

These shouts aim to recycle possession and prevent the centrebacks from just hoofing the ball upfield and for the attacking mids to play in the striker with clever through balls and bring others into play!

for away games I drop to defualt freedom and play a little more direct and set the fullbacks to support and not run from deep and cross as often while crossing set to Deep, not Mixed!

Feel free to post anything you have tried that works well, anything that you would like to see in the tactic, anything I have missed etc ;)

tactic download

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Looks promising mate, how would i intergrate this with Rooney and Van persie do you think ? :)
 
what are your game stats? like ccc? possession? ;)
 
Another clean sheet and hammering

Hernandez hattrick, set his role to Poacher, this must be done when playing him or Welbeck as the striker!
 
Nice work, team instructions look bang on, (but United will often switch to control the game)

But United's starting formation last night and against Cluj was a 4-4-2 narrow diamond. Both Welbeck and Van Persie would be advanced forward (Hernandez Poacher if you are going with Cluj). Rooney would be AMC AP support , with Roaming perhaps. Carrick DM defend. Kagawa stayed a little higher than Cleverley, and drifted out, so I would give him moves into channels.

Not sure what roles i would give without delving into the game though, perhaps Cleverley DLP support (RFD mixed) and Kagawa AP attack.

The formation did change to a 4-5-1 later though.
 
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I used Control for quite a while, found attacking worked better in the final third :)

It was sort of the exact formation the starting lineups screen thing had (you know the one that puts players in certain positions prior to the match??:))

I did notice they played similar to that, will introduce that type formation into it and see how it goes :)

Peace :)
 
Raikan007 said:
I used Control for quite a while, found attacking worked better in the final third :)

It was sort of the exact formation the starting lineups screen thing had (you know the one that puts players in certain positions prior to the match??:))

I did notice they played similar to that, will introduce that type formation into it and see how it goes :)

Peace :)
Click to expand...

Attack perfectly sums up the first 25 minutes, where we were relentless. Yeah see thats what I saw when they announced it (i actually expected 4-2-3-1 myself) but, that wasn't how they were positioned in the game, so i looked up their average positions in espn soccernet, and its a diamond.

Then again Ferguson has been changing the shape frequently to match opponents, but I very much agree with your team instructions, that in my view would also be the current style of Manchester United. Edited my previous post to add roles i think they might use.
 
Testing it right now, seems quite good. won all my pre-season matches, including against Juve and Real Madrid! Creates alot of chances but ive failed to score on many yet, winning 1-0, 2-1 etc.. match prep. attacking movement maybe? Also, you think Kagawa is ok as the AM support or as backup for the Rooney role?

Btw : was destroyed at home vs Dortmund, i had 7 shots 0 on goal the first 10 minutes, then they took over, beating me 3-0 at old trafford, having almost 70% posession. hmm.... they also missed a penalty..
 
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Runeaa said:
Testing it right now, seems quite good. won all my pre-season matches, including against Juve and Real Madrid! Creates alot of chances but ive failed to score on many yet, winning 1-0, 2-1 etc.. match prep. attacking movement maybe? Also, you think Kagawa is ok as the AM support or as backup for the Rooney role?

Btw : was destroyed at home vs Dortmund, i had 7 shots 0 on goal the first 10 minutes, then they took over, beating me 3-0 at old trafford, having almost 70% posession. hmm.... they also missed a penalty..
Click to expand...

hey bud, set to attacking movement.. its by no means perfect :) its a discussion thread as well as the tactic for a template for you to mess around with :)

I have noticed that before as well.. change to direct passing, aggressive tackling and closing down (the whole pitch for each player) set to get ball forward and maybe push the two DM's into CM and push the wider AM's into wingers :) making it a 433
 
I have made a few changes to the player settings this morning and just walloped QPR 5:1 at home!

Here is a breakdown of the tactic so far:
 
Raikan007 said:
I have made a few changes to the player settings this morning and just walloped QPR 5:1 at home!

Here is a breakdown of the tactic so far:
Click to expand...
y

have you uploaded the tactic with the changes made to the player settings? if not could you send it to me? it doesn't work very well with lower league teams. to be honest i dont thi8nk my players have the technical ability to pull it off but it definately works well with top teams. going back to real life i would like to see ferguson instruct valenci to be more direct with his play. the beauty with when we had ronaldo was as soon as he had the ball he headed straight for goal and took the most direct route to get there no matter how many players were ahead of him. valencia is too cautious and holds the ball up (well) he has the pace and strength so i think fergie should tell him to to be more direct
 
pokerjoker_num10 said:
Rainkan007 after wacthing the united game i thought sir alex used a 433

View attachment 278344
Click to expand...

that could also work, however! the two wider strikers would have to be set at DLF - support some sort of defensive forwards as they actually sat just behind RVP upfront.. while setting both wider CM's to ball winners or DLP-defend and setting Kagawa as the AP - attack in the centre..

this will provide more fluidity and give your team more shape as the settings now will make your team a bit all over the place to be honest...

I might try what I said above and see how it goes :)

how are your results though? what are your team instructions?
 
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