SICARIO - Kill the ME ( No more goals from crossing conceded )

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adrianhbk

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Hello guys,

I'm a huge football manager fan since CM 02/03. Just like you i've played with tactic from here or from other places. There are some very good tactics this year but I got frustrated when i've see the same problem: goals conceded from crossing. So I've run some tests and I think i found a solution. It's very strong at the back and strong on the attack. Let me share this with you.

Tactic name:
Sicario - Because i want to kill the ME with it's own medicine.

Many thanks for SageLaiho for making a better version of original tactic. (Results with Girona are his)

Tactic formation: 4-1-2-3


View attachment 71288

SageLaiho said:
Sicario 4123 DM Narrow is a perfect fit for many underdog team with low transfer and wage budget.

I started the tactic with Girona in Spanish league. Media prediction was 20th. Played with the existing squad, no incoming transfers were made. The only thing needed was overhaul the entire backroom staffs, specially the coaching staffs. Try to get the best coaching team you can. Below are some recommendations for your backroom coaching staffs:
- 2 Fitness Coach
- 1 Goal Keeping Coach
- 1 Tactical Coach
- 1 Ball Control Coach
- 1 Defending Coach
- 1 Attacking Coach

Once you have the coaching staffs, suggested pre season training is Fitness with Match Tactics and after that you can stick with Tactical & Team Work. You may wonder why Tactical & Team Work? It is because the foundation of Sicario 4123 DM Narrow relies the team to work as a collective group in both Counter and Defending.

Why 3 version of Sicario 4123 DM Narrow?
No tactic can be used for an entire season without a change and also each tactic has advantage and disadvantage when coming up against different formations. During my Girona save, the most difficult opponent formation countered was Barca 4123 & Atlético Madrid 442. These two formation was the most vulnerable for Sicario 4123 DM Narrow. So to accommodate the need and evolve with the AI had to use 3 version of Sicario 4123 DM Narrow.

- SICARIO 4123 DM Narrow
This is the default version which you can use against most of the other AI formations. In this tactic your STCL & STCR will man mark both opponents DL/DR or WBL/WBR. By doing this your team will provide the necessary width during counter which stretch the opponents in final third of the pitch. However, you don’t need to man mark any other player with this tactic. You can leave your FB as normal, no marking is required.

- SICARIO 4123 DM Narrow (against 442)
When you face 442 Flat, you need to man mark both LM & RM as these are the 2 players who will make the most impact in the game. The other thing to note is opponent having 4 players in the midfield will outnumber your midfield 3. To counter this tactic, we had to ask our CML to man mark opponent RM and our CMR to man mark RL. You may think your DM will be up against 2 CM. Don’t worry, the AI doesn’t know that, when an AI implements a 442 they concentrate the attack from both flanks, which means your DM is sufficient to provide the midfield cover for those 2 CM’s. If the opponent keep switching to different formation, you can switch back to the Sicario 4123 DM Narrow default.

- SICARIO 4123 DM Narrow 4123 DM Wide (Barcelona style)

When faced a against this formation, the most vulnerable is when the opponent inside forward or wingers try to cut inside. Since we are an underdog team our Fullbacks doesn’t have the quality to stop the wingers, when our Fullbacks fail to stop the wingers it creates more space at the back and more pressure for your CB’s. To counter this scenario we had to ask our CM’s to mark opponents CM’s as they are the most key players who provide those killer balls to wingers and final third. If we can stop them, you are good. How we do is, asking you CMR to man mark opponent CML and your CML to man mark opponents CMR.

Hope these information would be help to you guys in your carrier as an FM manager.

Good luck and have fun!
Click to expand...

Tactic Information

I wanted to put pressure on their wingers and fullback so they cant cross anymore and bounce back. STCL has tight marking their DR and STCR it's marking DL. This forces them to make mistakes and goal opportunities arise

STCL and STCR requires pace and crossing. You can convert wingers to ST.
*same goes for fullbacks (pace and crossing)
Train fullbacks to have PPM: Mark opponents tightly

THIS ISN'T PLUG AND PLAY. It takes time to play very good. Try to play friendly matches yourself to see if your players fits.


Opposition Instructions:

DL / DR - close always, tackling hard, tight mark . DL show right foot, DR show left foot

Training:

Team Cohesion - Very High / Match tactic - Pre season
Attacking - average / Def.Positioning - Season



Screenshots:

View attachment 71287View attachment 71286View attachment 71274View attachment 71273

SEASON STATS

View attachment 71285View attachment 71282View attachment 71281View attachment 71276View attachment 71279View attachment 71275View attachment 71278

Final words: Give it time. Play yourself the friendly match to see if your players are good enough. STCL and STCR are essentials. With right players it will work fine.

HAVE FUN!

View attachment 71984
DOWNLOAD LINK


STABLE VERSION
(Works with small team too)

View attachment 71270
View attachment 71271 - use against 433 wide (Barcelona)
View attachment 71272 - use against 442



USERS RESULTS

​
kharza said:
View attachment 1141755View attachment 1141756

I had used Knap's Volante 442 with an anchor and Goodbye 343 to get promoted, but my players were just outclassed and I was especially vulnerable to crosses to the weak side so I went looking for an answer.. enter Sicario.. Now my tweak on this concept is probably a little different than the tactic posted and it is definitely tweaked for LLM and underdog sides. My philosophy is this:
  1. Stay structured and get men behind the ball defensively
  2. Man mark the fullbacks with the outside strikers to prevent 2v1s against my fullbacks
  3. 3 man midfield to not get dominated
  4. Win the ball between the penalty box and midfield and hit them HARD on the break (speed kills)
  5. Normal build up and chance creation when the counter isn't on (read as don't take stupid risks)
My first version of the tactic went counter/structured:
View attachment 1141757

We found originally in testing that the 3 man midfield was pretty sound and gave us a good base to build from.. and I love the new Mezzala role and had a pretty good player to fill that role.
View attachment 1141758View attachment 1141759

Counter/Structured worked pretty good and we started to get on a nice run. Parma had a great striker that torched me and they scored 2 goals off set pieces.. not much I can do there (need to improve my set piece defense!).
View attachment 1141760

All was going good until I ran into a team playing a 442 that just wrecked my system. I replayed and replayed trying all kinds of things and nothing I could do solved the 442 problem. So I channeled my inner Bielsa and said 2 strikers = 3 center backs.. and the Sicario 343 was born.
View attachment 1141761

The problem is that was a one trick pony and while it was good against 442 and some other teams I ran into my boogie team Palermo (this is foreshadowing..) and got trashed, trust me the 3-1 score flattered me in terms of how bad they made my team look. Back to the drawing board..
View attachment 1141762

So when I started to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the tactic I realized that I lost that midfield domination and lacked the punch I really needed. The next iteration went back to the 433 roots and attempted to try and solve the 442 issue. So up until this point I had stuck with the idea of man marking my fullbacks on the wide players and my wide strikers on the fullbacks. It was at this point I left that theory because if I wanted to have my fullbacks available to help against 2 or 3 strikers up top I needed to remove that man marking. So I did and left the man marking of the outside strikers on the fullbacks which worked a treat to increase my defensive posture. The other thing I noticed was a lack of counter attacking punch and that was due to the missing quick transitions. So I needed to fix that by making the move up the mentality ladder and settled on control/structured. Sage on Mr. L's Discord influenced the introduction of the F9 as I knew I wanted to revamp the strike force anyway and that center striker dropping deep to pick up the ball was ideal. So since he was dropping deep and creating space I need some folks to attack the space inside and outside.. enter the AF-A.
View attachment 1141763

Served me pretty well and I went on a good run and moved up to qualify for a playoff spot in the Serie B playoffs.
View attachment 1141764

Started to have some injury, form, and tiredness set in towards the end of the season and the 3 draws at the end actually were fair/good results considering Verona won the league and both Verona and Avellino played a 442 against me. I felt like going into the playoffs I just need one more tweak to give me the edge. When I watched the games and started to analyze lost opportunities I realized that I had the platform to be able to get my fullbacks more involved in the attack and I felt like that would give me the width I needed in the attacking third. I wanted to do it in a responsible way though...
View attachment 1141765

WB-Au is a very nice balance because it adopts your team mentality and more importantly doesn't come with ANY hardcoded player instructions. See I wanted the wing back but without the Get Further Forward instruction because remember I wanted to stay defensively responsible and only wanted to engage my wing backs when I had control in the attacking half.
View attachment 1141766

Good enough to make the playoff run and win a spot in Serie A (GOD HELP ME!).
View attachment 1141768

So remember that boogie team Palermo..(H)
View attachment 1141771View attachment 1141772

Big shout out to Titi Meister and Sage on Mr. L's Discord for the awesome collaboration on this.. it's been a blast and I've learned so much about how this match engine works as a part of this exercise!

Good
View attachment 1141776

Not so Good? (A)
View attachment 1141777

View attachment 1141773
Click to expand...




​

 
Last edited:
my first match using this tactic in the carabao cup.


im arsenal btw.
and the goal?
crossing from the left wing back
 
Yeah i mean same here, lost a goal from a low cross inside, also defenders get up front a lot for some reason...?
 
kalel said:
my first match using this tactic in the carabao cup.


im arsenal btw.
and the goal?
crossing from the left wing back
Click to expand...

Hi! Did you plugged in this tactic? Did you set the marking and OI? Show me the attributes of your fullbacks and left-right striker. Thanks, bro.

Shirafune said:
Yeah i mean same here, lost a goal from a low cross inside, also defenders get up front a lot for some reason...?
Click to expand...

Hmm...interesting. Central defenders? You need fast players to not get caught. That's why I recommend to play friendly matches to see what is leaking. It takes time to learn the formation and the movement.
 
Last edited:
adrianhbk said:
Hi! Did you plugged in this tactic? Did you set the marking and OI? Show me the attributes of your fullbacks and left-right striker. Thanks, bro.



Hmm...interesting. Central defenders? You need fast players to not get caught. That's why I recommend to play friendly matches to see what is leaking. It takes time to learn the formation and the movement.
Click to expand...

screenshot OI
 
fifa said:
screenshot OI
Click to expand...

Opposition Instructions:

​
DL / DR - close always, tackling hard, tight mark . DL show right foot, DR show left foot
ML / MR - close always, tackling hard, tight mark . ML show right foot, MR show left foot
AML/AMR - close always, tackling hard, tight mark . AML show ​
left foot, AMR show right foot
 
adrianhbk said:
Opposition Instructions:

​
DL / DR - close always, tackling hard, tight mark . DL show right foot, DR show left foot
ML / MR - close always, tackling hard, tight mark . ML show right foot, MR show left foot
AML/AMR - close always, tackling hard, tight mark . AML show ​
left foot, AMR show right foot
Click to expand...
I'm Russian ,not many speak English , so better picture
 
Unlikely promotion..

So full disclosure I've been following Sicario since it started on Mr. L's tactic Discord channel as I was trying to solve the same problem of stopping the insanity of weak side defending and crossing. I am currently in the middle of a youth academy save (the CA of my team is under 100) with Messina and had just been promoted to Serie B probably a season early and was in dire straights..

View attachment 71363View attachment 71362

I had used Knap's Volante 442 with an anchor and Goodbye 343 to get promoted, but my players were just outclassed and I was especially vulnerable to crosses to the weak side so I went looking for an answer.. enter Sicario.. Now my tweak on this concept is probably a little different than the tactic posted and it is definitely tweaked for LLM and underdog sides. My philosophy is this:
  1. Stay structured and get men behind the ball defensively
  2. Man mark the fullbacks with the outside strikers to prevent 2v1s against my fullbacks
  3. 3 man midfield to not get dominated
  4. Win the ball between the penalty box and midfield and hit them HARD on the break (speed kills)
  5. Normal build up and chance creation when the counter isn't on (read as don't take stupid risks)
My first version of the tactic went counter/structured:
View attachment 71361

We found originally in testing that the 3 man midfield was pretty sound and gave us a good base to build from.. and I love the new Mezzala role and had a pretty good player to fill that role.
View attachment 71360View attachment 71359

Counter/Structured worked pretty good and we started to get on a nice run. Parma had a great striker that torched me and they scored 2 goals off set pieces.. not much I can do there (need to improve my set piece defense!).
View attachment 71358

All was going good until I ran into a team playing a 442 that just wrecked my system. I replayed and replayed trying all kinds of things and nothing I could do solved the 442 problem. So I channeled my inner Bielsa and said 2 strikers = 3 center backs.. and the Sicario 343 was born.
View attachment 71357

The problem is that was a one trick pony and while it was good against 442 and some other teams I ran into my bogey team Palermo (this is foreshadowing..) and got trashed, trust me the 3-1 score flattered me in terms of how bad they made my team look. Back to the drawing board..
View attachment 71356

So when I started to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the tactic I realized that I lost that midfield domination and lacked the punch I really needed. The next iteration went back to the 433 roots and attempted to try and solve the 442 issue. So up until this point I had stuck with the idea of man marking my fullbacks on the wide players and my wide strikers on the fullbacks. It was at this point I left that theory because if I wanted to have my fullbacks available to help against 2 or 3 strikers up top I needed to remove that man marking. So I did and left the man marking of the outside strikers on the fullbacks which worked a treat to increase my defensive posture. The other thing I noticed was a lack of counter attacking punch and that was due to the missing quick transitions. So I needed to fix that by making the move up the mentality ladder and settled on control/structured. Sage on Mr. L's Discord influenced the introduction of the F9 as I knew I wanted to revamp the strike force anyway and that center striker dropping deep to pick up the ball was ideal. So since he was dropping deep and creating space I need some folks to attack the space inside and outside.. enter the AF-A.
View attachment 71355

Served me pretty well and I went on a good run and moved up to qualify for a playoff spot in the Serie B playoffs.
View attachment 71354

Started to have some injury, form, and tiredness set in towards the end of the season and the 3 draws at the end actually were fair/good results considering Verona won the league and both Verona and Avellino played a 442 against me. I felt like going into the playoffs I just need one more tweak to give me the edge. When I watched the games and started to analyze lost opportunities I realized that I had the platform to be able to get my fullbacks more involved in the attack and I felt like that would give me the width I needed in the attacking third. I wanted to do it in a responsible way though...
View attachment 71353

WB-Au is a very nice balance because it adopts your team mentality and more importantly doesn't come with ANY hardcoded player instructions. See I wanted the wing back but without the Get Further Forward instruction because remember I wanted to stay defensively responsible and only wanted to engage my wing backs when I had control in the attacking half.
View attachment 71352

Good enough to make the playoff run and win a spot in Serie A (GOD HELP ME!).
View attachment 71350

So remember that bogey team Palermo..(H)
View attachment 71347View attachment 71346

Big shout out to Titi Meister and Sage on Mr. L's Discord for the awesome collaboration on this.. it's been a blast and I've learned so much about how this match engine works as a part of this exercise!

Good
View attachment 71342

Not so Good? (A)
View attachment 71341

View attachment 71345
 
Last edited:
kharza said:
So full disclosure I've been following Sicario since it started on Mr. L's tactic Discord channel as I was trying to solve the same problem of stopping the insanity of weak side defending and crossing. I am currently in the middle of a youth academy save (the CA of my team is under 100) with Messina and had just been promoted to Serie B probably a season early and was in dire straights..

View attachment 1141755View attachment 1141756

I had used Knap's Volante 442 with an anchor and Goodbye 343 to get promoted, but my players were just outclassed and I was especially vulnerable to crosses to the weak side so I went looking for an answer.. enter Sicario.. Now my tweak on this concept is probably a little different than the tactic posted and it is definitely tweaked for LLM and underdog sides. My philosophy is this:
  1. Stay structured and get men behind the ball defensively
  2. Man mark the fullbacks with the outside strikers to prevent 2v1s against my fullbacks
  3. 3 man midfield to not get dominated
  4. Win the ball between the penalty box and midfield and hit them HARD on the break (speed kills)
  5. Normal build up and chance creation when the counter isn't on (read as don't take stupid risks)
My first version of the tactic went counter/structured:
View attachment 1141757

We found originally in testing that the 3 man midfield was pretty sound and gave us a good base to build from.. and I love the new Mezzala role and had a pretty good player to fill that role.
View attachment 1141758View attachment 1141759

Counter/Structured worked pretty good and we started to get on a nice run. Parma had a great striker that torched me and they scored 2 goals off set pieces.. not much I can do there (need to improve my set piece defense!).
View attachment 1141760

All was going good until I ran into a team playing a 442 that just wrecked my system. I replayed and replayed trying all kinds of things and nothing I could do solved the 442 problem. So I channeled my inner Bielsa and said 2 strikers = 3 center backs.. and the Sicario 343 was born.
View attachment 1141761

The problem is that was a one trick pony and while it was good against 442 and some other teams I ran into my boogie team Palermo (this is foreshadowing..) and got trashed, trust me the 3-1 score flattered me in terms of how bad they made my team look. Back to the drawing board..
View attachment 1141762

So when I started to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the tactic I realized that I lost that midfield domination and lacked the punch I really needed. The next iteration went back to the 433 roots and attempted to try and solve the 442 issue. So up until this point I had stuck with the idea of man marking my fullbacks on the wide players and my wide strikers on the fullbacks. It was at this point I left that theory because if I wanted to have my fullbacks available to help against 2 or 3 strikers up top I needed to remove that man marking. So I did and left the man marking of the outside strikers on the fullbacks which worked a treat to increase my defensive posture. The other thing I noticed was a lack of counter attacking punch and that was due to the missing quick transitions. So I needed to fix that by making the move up the mentality ladder and settled on control/structured. Sage on Mr. L's Discord influenced the introduction of the F9 as I knew I wanted to revamp the strike force anyway and that center striker dropping deep to pick up the ball was ideal. So since he was dropping deep and creating space I need some folks to attack the space inside and outside.. enter the AF-A.
View attachment 1141763

Served me pretty well and I went on a good run and moved up to qualify for a playoff spot in the Serie B playoffs.
View attachment 1141764

Started to have some injury, form, and tiredness set in towards the end of the season and the 3 draws at the end actually were fair/good results considering Verona won the league and both Verona and Avellino played a 442 against me. I felt like going into the playoffs I just need one more tweak to give me the edge. When I watched the games and started to analyze lost opportunities I realized that I had the platform to be able to get my fullbacks more involved in the attack and I felt like that would give me the width I needed in the attacking third. I wanted to do it in a responsible way though...
View attachment 1141765

WB-Au is a very nice balance because it adopts your team mentality and more importantly doesn't come with ANY hardcoded player instructions. See I wanted the wing back but without the Get Further Forward instruction because remember I wanted to stay defensively responsible and only wanted to engage my wing backs when I had control in the attacking half.
View attachment 1141766

Good enough to make the playoff run and win a spot in Serie A (GOD HELP ME!).
View attachment 1141768

So remember that boogie team Palermo..(H)
View attachment 1141771View attachment 1141772

Big shout out to Titi Meister and Sage on Mr. L's Discord for the awesome collaboration on this.. it's been a blast and I've learned so much about how this match engine works as a part of this exercise!

Good
View attachment 1141776

Not so Good? (A)
View attachment 1141777

View attachment 1141773
Click to expand...

There are some great results. Thank you so much for your contribution! Straight to top.

NEW TACTICS ON OP
 
Last edited:
Sicario 4123 DM Narrow is a perfect fit for many underdog team with low transfer and wage budget.

I started the tactic with Girona in Spanish league. Media prediction was 20th. Played with the existing squad, no incoming transfers were made. The only thing needed was overhaul the entire backroom staffs, specially the coaching staffs. Try to get the best coaching team you can. Below are some recommendations for your backroom coaching staffs:
- 2 Fitness Coach
- 1 Goal Keeping Coach
- 1 Tactical Coach
- 1 Ball Control Coach
- 1 Defending Coach
- 1 Attacking Coach

Once you have the coaching staffs, suggested pre season training is Fitness with Match Tactics and after that you can stick with Tactical & Team Work. You may wonder why Tactical & Team Work? It is because the foundation of Sicario 4123 DM Narrow relies the team to work as a collective group in both Counter and Defending.

Why 3 version of Sicario 4123 DM Narrow?
No tactic can be used for an entire season without a change and also each tactic has advantage and disadvantage when coming up against different formations. During my Girona save, the most difficult opponent formation countered was Barca 4123 & Atlético Madrid 442. These two formation was the most vulnerable for Sicario 4123 DM Narrow. So to accommodate the need and evolve with the AI had to use 3 version of Sicario 4123 DM Narrow.

- SICARIO 4123 DM Narrow
This is the default version which you can use against most of the other AI formations. In this tactic your STCL & STCR will man mark both opponents DL/DR or WBL/WBR. By doing this your team will provide the necessary width during counter which stretch the opponents in final third of the pitch. However, you don’t need to man mark any other player with this tactic. You can leave your FB as normal, no marking is required.

- SICARIO 4123 DM Narrow (against 442)
When you face 442 Flat, you need to man mark both LM & RM as these are the 2 players who will make the most impact in the game. The other thing to note is opponent having 4 players in the midfield will outnumber your midfield 3. To counter this tactic, we had to ask our CML to man mark opponent RM and our CMR to man mark RL. You may think your DM will be up against 2 CM. Don’t worry, the AI doesn’t know that, when an AI implements a 442 they concentrate the attack from both flanks, which means your DM is sufficient to provide the midfield cover for those 2 CM’s. If the opponent keep switching to different formation, you can switch back to the Sicario 4123 DM Narrow default.

- SICARIO 4123 DM Narrow 4123 DM Wide (Barcelona style)

When faced a against this formation, the most vulnerable is when the opponent inside forward or wingers try to cut inside. Since we are an underdog team our Fullbacks doesn’t have the quality to stop the wingers, when our Fullbacks fail to stop the wingers it creates more space at the back and more pressure for your CB’s. To counter this scenario we had to ask our CM’s to mark opponents CM’s as they are the most key players who provide those killer balls to wingers and final third. If we can stop them, you are good. How we do is, asking you CMR to man mark opponent CML and your CML to man mark opponents CMR.

Hope these information would be help to you guys in your carrier as an FM manager.

Good luck and have fun!
 
Hi SageLaiho,
just one question, I've never used manual marking recently.
Shall I set it every time before playing a match or I can crate 3 different versions of the tactic and just use the right one according to my opponent tactic?
 
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