Nom de Guerre

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A short summary. One of my pet projects is this: Project Arrowhead; Total Defending In FM16 (With A Libero) | Strikerless
That's Project Arrowhead. Most of that is probably too hipster and too much for my own endeavours of breaking the Match Engine down to understandable chunks. One of the tactics that spawned from the Project isn't though and I wanted share it with you.

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It's just good ****. The whole concept is based on fluidity of positions, rotations and covering your teammates runs. In this way, players use the movements of their colleagues for reference rather than zones on the pitch. In addition the concept is also about balancing the heart, which wants to attack, and the mind, which tends to focus more on defence. You can’t be on the offence all the time, but neither can you defend for 90 minutes and come out on top (hello José, that means you too!).

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Yes, many people tend to forget that these same ideas and principles so often associated with attacking can and should also be applied to the defending phase of football. Fluidity of positions, rotations and covering your teammates, maintaining a tight and cohesive wall of players between your own goal and the opposing team. In an ideal situation there ought to be no more than 25 to 35 metres between the forward line and the defenders. The reason for this is to constrict the space in a vertical sense, hence reducing the distances between players thus making it difficult for the offensive team to pass or dribble through the middle of this compacted space.

This basically means that this tactic can never defend against all attacks everywhere on the pitch, instead shuffling over to a specific side to combat a threat there. With the defensive line pushing high up the pitch, there are elements of the counter-pressing there, but when the need for defence arises, the team rallies around the back three and drops back en masse. It’s a hybrid of the high up the pitch counter-pressing and deep defensive block, soaking-up-pressure defending. We attack as a team, we defend as a team.

The formation pretty much illustrates this point. I’ve tried to craft a tight and cohesive formation, with three distinctive banks of players, yet plenty of interaction between the various lines, with players crossing over and overlapping. This should help generate a knock-on effect of movements. An attacking midfielder dropping dropping back into midfield creates space for another midfielder to run into, which in turn creates space out wide for an attacking wide player to overlap. This train of thought complements the idea that movement both on and off the ball is absolutely crucial to the success of the strikerless formation and the style of play. This particular formation and therefore the style of play heavily rely on the exploitation of space. When your players remain static, no space can and will open up for others to exploit.

Whilst we want to generate plenty of movement, we also want to be weary about exposing our defence too much by having being dragged out of position. We need to get the balance right, which is a lot harder than one might think. I often struggle to find and maintain a balance between offence and defence measured by goals for as compared to goals against. Numbers up on attack, high in the front third of the pitch but numbers down in the middle third of the pitch when defending on transition, that is the ideal I strive for.

Offensive balance means that a team has not over committed players high up field going forward on attack during the run of play to expose it to quick transition if it loses the ball. Defensive balance means that a team has held shape and has committed enough players or the right players behind the ball as the team is attacking to slow transition in the event the ball is lost. Defensive balance promotes the freedom of movement of the attacking players during an attack but offensive balance does not likewise influence defensive balance.

Now the concept sounds quite nifty, but how to translate this concept onto the pitch? How do you generate balance? For me, this means I need to assess who the hybrid players are in my formation. A hybrid player is a player who is in a specific position defensively, but moves into an entirely different position when the team is on the offence. During the transition phase from offence to defence and vice versa, these are the key players who need to position themselves well in order to facilitate the necessary shifting between phases. As everyone has the same responsibility, to attack and defend, the players who facilitate the shifting between these phases are absolutely crucial. Players should be capable of fitting into different positions and carrying out that specific job. The basis for each player is the same, to be part of the team at all times and to fit into any position which is required of them.

The hybrid players in my formation are both wide players. The wide players are supposed to provide wide balance, protecting the flanks and stopping those dreaded crosses from flying in. Their primary role is one of balance, since they are in essence the only wide players I have. They have to protect our flanks, allowing our central midfielders to roam more freely. Our central midfielders and shadow strikers are rather focussed on attacking, bursting into open space and penetrating defensive lines with mazy runs, which means the wide players can’t be too committed to attacking, they need to balance the side.

I tend to switch the roles and positions of these wide players when facing different kinds of opposition. Teams lining up with no actual wide threat in the AM-strata are best combatted with a Defensive Winger, who will take on the opposing midfielder, whereas a Shadow Striker tracking back will often deal with the opposing wing-backs. Against strong sides with actual wingers, I often revert to fielding an actual wing-back, dropping the defensive wingers back a line. Their main duty remains the same, balancing our wide play and stopping those pesky crosses.

The wide players’ defensive tasks are quite clear, but that doesn’t make them a hybrid player. What makes them important parts of the team is the fact that they have a role to play in the attacking phase as well. They need to get far enough forward to actually stretch the opposing defensive line, their mere presence should force the opposition to send players out wide to cover their potential runs, thus stretching the defence thinner than they ideally wish to be.

You see, the strikerless concept needs movement, either to exploit the space or to create the space by dragging defenders out of position. The whole premisse of a strikerless formation entails that the various lines in the formation are closely packed together. This means that a single run by an attacking midfielder, can open up space for three or more others nearby, waiting to pounce on positional weaknesses by the opposing team. Because of their close proximity to one another, the lines are able to interchange quite fluidly. In normal people talk; because the lines are so close together, players don’t have to cover great distances to benefit from each others movement.

The second reason why the formation should be as tight and cohesive as mentioned in the previous paragraph is the knock-on effect of movements. An attacking midfielder dropping dropping back into midfield creates space for a winger to run into, which in turn creates space out wide for an attacking full-back or wing-back to overlap. In short, you can’t have runners exploiting space if there is no space. You need shadow runners as well, people moving around with the sole aim of creating space for others. When your players remain static, no space can and will open up for others to exploit.

As I mentioned before, I want my wide players to venture forward and lure players wide by their mere presence, thus stretching the defence. By stretching the defensive line, by drawing defenders out wide, you are creating gaps between the lines, causing unrest and undermining the cohesion and organisation of the defenders. When the organisation is gone or sub-par, the cohesion between the defenders will desintegrate, making it easier to score.

Traditionally, wingers, the speedy dribblers on the flank, used to stretch the defence like a rubber band, so natural poachers like Robbie Fowler could find space in the box to run into to receive the ball and do their thing. In FM, the same result can be achieved by either fielding actual wingers or by fielding inside forwards and overlapping wing-backs. I’m attempting to achieve this same stretching effect with just a single player on each flank and without sacrificing overall team balance.

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In picture-form, it would look something like this. Both wide men are highlighted out wide. The right-sided defensive winger is making a run into space, which is forcing the opposing team to push a player out wide to oppose my wide player. This leaves a gap between their lines for one of my players to run into. The defensive winger can opt to take on his marker and cross it in or just flick the ball on into space for our runner to chase after, but the concept remains the same, by stretching the defence, space opens up for our mobile players. In some cases, the gap between the players becomes so great that the wide player can cut inside and benefit as well. The next few video-clips will illustrate my point.

​[video=youtube;UTqSulYpClA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTqSulYpClA[/video]

In the first video we can see that the wide player shifts into action and whips a cross in towards the first post. Remember that gap between the lines and that runner moving in there? Guess who just finished that move with a sweet volley in the short corner? Right.

[video=youtube;y-O3Pt0aI2g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-O3Pt0aI2g[/video]

In the second video we can see how our wide player notices the gap between the wing-back and his central defenders. He cuts inside to make use of the space, which happens to end in a goal this time, but he could have opted for a pass as well. By stretching the defence, space opens up for others. My wide players are the ones responsible for this stretching and are thus part of my hybrid crew.

I have included some results.

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Just for the muppets among you who think I forgot to include stuff. I DON'T USE OI's. NEVER. kthxbye :)

Training-wise, cohesion until tactical familiarity is upto 80% or more, after that I use common sense and train on whatever seems to be lacking from the team.


 
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how dare you mention common sense on this forum...

looks a good read will give me something to do during lunch time from work today
 
Excellent presentation!
I have only one question: what OI do you use? :))))))))

Sent from my Lenovo P70-A using Tapatalk
 
lost of formation use this wide midfielder, I have a million AML/R's can I just play them there ?
 
Nom de Guerre.

Thanks for sharing looks very interesting. I am looking and needing (lack of fullbacks) to play 3 at the back so your post is great.

Quick question if I may. On the Web link you posted u show another formation using the Libero and then 3 versions of this. How do these compare to the one u posted in this thread and which of the 3 Libero tactics do u feel works best? I like the look of the 3-4-3 one. I have a number of good defensive mids that I think would make a good libero if re - trained.

Cheers.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
 
Nom de Guerre.

Thanks for sharing looks very interesting. I am looking and needing (lack of fullbacks) to play 3 at the back so your post is great.

Quick question if I may. On the Web link you posted u show another formation using the Libero and then 3 versions of this. How do these compare to the one u posted in this thread and which of the 3 Libero tactics do u feel works best? I like the look of the 3-4-3 one. I have a number of good defensive mids that I think would make a good libero if re - trained.

Cheers.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

The Libero acts as a defensive midfielder in possession, bolstering the defence when the ball is lost. That means one less attack-minded player, so that's the main difference.

A good DM can easily be re-trained. There are no real natural libero's, so you almost have to re-train someone.
 
i love the look of this tactic and its great to see how much thought has gone into it. i play something similar. more of a 2-1-4-1-2 formation but its very attacking and even on control and i do get exposed. i have used the libero to try combat this but with limited success against stronger teams. do you have any ideas?

in terms of your tactic i will give it a try would be interesting to have the wider of the attacking mids as inside forwards pushed right up
 
I tend to switch the roles and positions of these wide players when facing different kinds of opposition. Teams lining up with no actual wide threat in the AM-strata are best combatted with a Defensive Winger, who will take on the opposing midfielder, whereas a Shadow Striker tracking back will often deal with the opposing wing-backs. Against strong sides with actual wingers, I often revert to fielding an actual wing-back, dropping the defensive wingers back a line. Their main duty remains the same, balancing our wide play and stopping those pesky crosses.

When you change the MR/L to WBR/L, which role/duty do you use? Complete wing back/support?

Do you make any other changes to roles or positions on specific situations?
 
i love the look of this tactic and its great to see how much thought has gone into it. i play something similar. more of a 2-1-4-1-2 formation but its very attacking and even on control and i do get exposed. i have used the libero to try combat this but with limited success against stronger teams. do you have any ideas?

in terms of your tactic i will give it a try would be interesting to have the wider of the attacking mids as inside forwards pushed right up

Against weaker sides, I reckon you could go for normal wingers on Support.
 
When you change the MR/L to WBR/L, which role/duty do you use? Complete wing back/support?

Do you make any other changes to roles or positions on specific situations?

If I switch to a more defensive role, it's usually a Wing-back support.

If I switch to a more offensive role, it's usually a Winger support.

The rest of the roles stay the same.
 
I took this for a spin today. Can I just state this is now my favourite tactic to use. I use my own as back up but I just love the movement both on/off the ball and the play.

Well done mate.
 
I took this for a spin today. Can I just state this is now my favourite tactic to use. I use my own as back up but I just love the movement both on/off the ball and the play.

Well done mate.

Thanks mate :) Quite chuffed with this effort myself. I am going to look at reviving the Pulis-styled tactics though.
 
Thanks mate :) Quite chuffed with this effort myself. I am going to look at reviving the Pulis-styled tactics though.

Oh you can have a scumbag strikerless tactic alright. Just focus on the wings and have your target-enganche :)
 
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