TEAM THREAD: Playing Liverpool - A Tactical Discussion Thread

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TheBetterHalf

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The aim with this first team thread is basically so that users can both give and ask for for hints as how to coach Liverpool and most important, their squad in 11.3. Before posting, please have a look through the thread as the question might already have been raised and the solution or at least a suggestion might lie under your very nose.

As we all know, the game is not only about tactics, setting up a strategy that suits the clubs stature and matching the players abilities, but also about man handling. If you have a question or a tip on how to handle a certain player, this is just as important. This is often a part that is forgotten

what about signings them, is this not something that we should discuss to ?. Well yes, any recommendations about players are most welcome. Perhaps the reason that user struggle with Liverpool is that they lack a certain player type but in the end , this thread will still be a support thread to those playing with the 11.3 squad so hints and tips as how to play Liverpool in 2013/14 after having signed 8 new players might not be of any use to anyone

To make this thread as in depth as possible, please try to follow these simple guidelines and hints


  • When asking a question, the answer will only be as in depth as your question
- The more information you provide, the better the chance you will get a good answer with lots of reasoning

  • When posting your strategy, please put in the effort to explain your reasoning behind it
- Why are you setting up Suarez as a Defensive FC on support instead of a Poacher. Why are you using Gerrard as a more limited Box2box, giving him the first notch of little in creative freedom. Why are you using a very wide but short pitch. Just stating that it seems to work for me is rarely of any use to any user


  • When using Screenshots, make sure that the language is in English
- Even if you like me are from Sweden, please make sure that when uploading screenshots, the language is in English. I have seen screens using polish and Russian and I did not get any of it, ont knowing if it was a creen for the attacker or the winger :D


When posting your strategy, please put in the effort to explain your reasoning behind it

Let the discussion begin

Oh, and please dont forget to have a look in the stickie on how to make suggestions about threads for more teams as I will always be the one who opens them :D
 
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In my experience this works quite well:

4-2-3-1 with floated crosses, control approach, rigid.

GK Reina (Sweeper Keeper Defend)
LB Johnson/Coentrao (Full Back Attack)
CB Carragher (Limited Defender, Stopper)
CB Agger (Ball Playing Defender, Cover)
RB Kelly/Johnson (Full Back Attack)
CM Lucas (Ball Winning Midfielder, Support/Defend)
CM Meireles (Box to Box Midfielder, Support)
AML Suarez (Inside Forward, Attack)
AMC Gerrard (Advanced Playmaker, Support)
AMR Kuyt (Winger, Attack)
CF Carroll (Target Man, Attack)

Suarez & Kuyt

These 2 will be crucial to your successes. Give them max. creative freedom, and a high attacking mentality and they should provide goals and assists for Carroll. Make sure they're crossing is set to 'Often' and aimed at 'Target Man' and get them to roam from their position. As another little touch you could get them swapping positions to confuse defenders and increase their roaming.


Team Instructions

Basically your team will be built around Carroll, if you want to get the best out of the £35million man.
Play a direct passing game.
Lots of crossing, all aimed at Target Man, from different positions. (Mixed, Byline, Deep etc.)
Float your crosses.
Target man supply - to head.
Get players to support him, i.e. get Meirles running from deep along with Gerrard Suarez and Kuyt.
More rigid approach, with control.

Miscellaneous

- Use the FA Cup, Wilson and Sterling are just 2 in the youth that turn out World Class given the right mentorship.
- Europa League - try your best to win it, don't take any game with a pinch of salt. It's a good one for the fans and brings in a fair amount of cash.
- Don't be dissapointed with a 3rd or 4th spot finish. You're still learning the squad and you're also back in the Champions League.

Possible Transfers?

Fabio Coentrao, £11m
Moussa Sissoko, £13.5m
Connor Wickham, £3.6m

Maxi Rodriguez, £5m
Milan Jovanovic, Loan
Sotiris Kyriagkos, £3m


EDIT: WORKING ON A LIVERPOOL 4-2-3-1, ANYBODY WANT'S TO TEST IT PM ME.
 
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You can also sell Lucas for £10m, and Skrtel for £7.5m, as well as N'Gog for the same price. For that money you can then sign Phil Jones for around £14m, who'll be a world class cb for at least 10 years. I'm using Laffles 4-4-2 at the moment and it's working very well.
 
Lucas is always my best player, never has a bad match, so I would definitely not sell him, especially not for 10m. And btw why buy Jones when you have Danny Wilson. He's true class.
 
I know Lucas is class, but I wanted a couple of good wingers and couldn't afford him without selling. I've kept Wilson, he's top notch, perfect ball playing defender. So I'll have Wilson, Agger & Jones. Also bought Hyypia & sold Soto. He's got godly mental stats, and will be perfect tutor and back up.
 
I'm so glad someone has made a thread about this. If there is a thread then I musn't be the only one finding Liverpool bleedin' rock hard to manage on 11.3 - and yet they were so easy to win with on previous versions. My main problem with the team is morale - win lose or draw, individual praise or not they don't seem to get to excellent.

Where I do seem to be doing things right is with the developing of players and tutoring. Individual training schedules will take a while to go through for each player but feel free to ask below if you want a screen of how it should look for a given player. Here are some ideal tutors for players (IF you can get them to agree, this seems to be random from one version to the next)

Gulsaci - Reina
J. Robinson - Konchesky + individual training on quickness
Ayala - Carragher
Wilson - Agger
Coady - Gerrard/ Meireles
Pacheco - Gerrard/ Maxi
Shelvey - Gerrard (I know, shame there is only one Gerrard) + Individual training on quickness
Suso - Maxi/Gerrard/ J.Cole
Kelly - Johnson + Individual training on quickness

I believe Banton could also be a talent and maybe bruna, but I've yet to find ideal tutors for them.

N.B - I found out that Carroll is still young enough to be tutored if you buy a key player target man - Cardozo would fit the bill - he also needs training on quickness and finishing to a degree.
 
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Im currently playing as Liverpool on the 11.3 patch.

I sold Agger to Man City for £18.5 Million and brought in Mexes and Lucio for £8 Million and £12 Million. They are both pretty solid at the back, and I have only conceded 16 goals at the end of March. The only problem is Lucio is 32 and wont last as long as Agger would, but his stats are incredible. 18 acceleration and 17 pace for a 32 year old defender is crazy. I also brought Elia and Alou Diarra.

I play a 4-5-1 formation, and im top of the league right now

....................Reina
....Johnson Mexes Lucio Aurelio
....................Diarra
.............Gerrard Meireles
Elia ............................. Suarez
.................... Carroll
 
Out of curiosity, has anyone actually managed to get Suarez and Carroll working together in their conventional positions up front? I've seen a lot of people moaning about it not work and at the time, I tried to give advice which usually works for any targetman/Poacher combo, but having now experienced the situation first hand, I've also resigned to playing Suarez on the wing - seems a waste of his talent.
 
mccollio09 said:
Out of curiosity, has anyone actually managed to get Suarez and Carroll working together in their conventional positions up front? I've seen a lot of people moaning about it not work and at the time, I tried to give advice which usually works for any targetman/Poacher combo, but having now experienced the situation first hand, I've also resigned to playing Suarez on the wing - seems a waste of his talent.
Click to expand...

Indeedy, I wrote an article about it ;)

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...69721-dirk-kuyt-andy-carroll-luis-suarez.html

My 4-4-2 should in theory be good fo Lpool, using Suarez and Carroll up front :)
 
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laffles said:
Indeedy, I wrote an article about it ;)
Click to expand...

and here it is :D

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...69721-dirk-kuyt-andy-carroll-luis-suarez.html


Dirk Kuyt, Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez.

I understand people are having difficulties with these 3 players. So I thought I'd offer an insight.

Luis Suarez seems obvious as an Attacking Poacher. This works too, He scores goals by the bucketload. But never gets any combination with Andy Carroll. On Paper, Carrolls Aerial Prowess and Strength should be the perfect Combo with Suarez and his Technical abilities.
In Fm however, this rarely comes off well.

Carrolls stats only really allow him to be played as a Target Man and have balls kicked at his face by wingers, this is indeed a successful way of playing him. He certainly gets goals, however Suarez fails in this system as he is just not big enough to be an aerial threat.

I have had success with a similar system. Mixing the Crossing to Carroll with the ball to feet approach favoured by Suarez.

Giving Suarez a free role helps, as he pops wherever he is needed to recieve the pass or score the goal. It is when I used this that I found something else out. By setting his crossing to 'Often' He'd drive out wide and cross, useful for one Andrew Carroll. With Suarez drifting like this. Dirk Kuyt had to come into play. As an Inside Forward Kuyt will fill the hole left by Suarez as a Striker. Inside Forwards tend to be Dribblers, unfortunately Kuyt isn't. Taking his Dribbling down and training him to use one-two passes will quickly sort this problem out however.

So theoretically You'll have.

Andy Carroll playing alone upfront, alot of crosses flying about for him to head home, and also providing the occaisional knockdown for Suarez/Kuyt

Luis Suarez roaming the defensive line, looking for space to exploit, proving through balls/crosses to Carroll and banging in the Goals.

Dirk Kuyt driving your team forwards, pulling defenders out of position, scoring goals and crossing for the assists.


Hope this helps all you Reds managers :)​
Click to expand...
 
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laffles said:
Indeedy, I wrote an article about it ;)

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...69721-dirk-kuyt-andy-carroll-luis-suarez.html

My 4-4-2 should in theory be good fo Lpool, using Suarez and Carroll up front :)
Click to expand...

Will try again, are these players in a 442? sorry I meant a DEFAULT 442, I've taken into account your modifications, but I'm finding it hard to see how you have an inside forward unless it's really a 424 you're using?

AH one more thing, second time I've edited this post, do you use Carroll on the left or on the right?
 
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Id go with a 4-4-2 flat but with Kuyt moved to a winger position. Carroll is best on the right. Kuyt crossing to NEAR POST and Sometimes, Your LM's Crossing to TARGET MAN and Often :)
 
Heres that article translated into easy to swallow tactic form ;)
 
laffles said:
Heres that article translated into easy to swallow tactic form ;)
Click to expand...

OK finally got round to trying this, I'll give feedback in a few hours, there are a few things I'd like to change

(Carroll long shots set to sto rarely - though irl he has a pretty mean long shot, meireles long shots set to sometimes, that is, assuming you played Gerrard as the advanced playmaker and not Meireles?)

but I see there has been a lot of work put into it so I'll see how it goes with your settings.

Anyone managed to get stats of Suarez and Carroll both getting decent goals yet then? When I mean decent, I mean a partnership total of 35+ in the league?
 
Yeah, I just stuck that together from what I'd written.
Gerra in Adv Playmaker yeah :)
 
3rd Season As Reds Gaffer!

Just been reading all the information that everyone has put into this Liverpool thread & I completely agree it is difficult to get Carroll & Suarez playing together.

Into my 3rd season now, both have scored goals but have not been as prolific as I would have liked. For me N'gog has been my best forward scoring over 20 goals each season in all competitions, thus this leading him to be rewarded with Player of the Season twice in a row.

I managed to win the league my 1st season, unfortunately got pipped by Man City in the 2nd. The 3rd season I have started well & i'm currently top but Carroll & Suarez havent been scoring that many again. From what I have reed I will be changing in few things within my tactics to see if that will change.

I normally play 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 as both have been successful, sometimes i play a narrow 4-2-3-1 due to the players I have brought into the club. Over the 3 seasons I have brought in the likes of Asenjo, R Shawcross, A Johnson, A Young, Pjanic, Babacar, V Kadlec, Traore, all have done well in patches.

I definately agree with Wilson & Kelly becoming a top players as they has just really started to play more in the 1st team now in this 3rd season. Robinson & Shelvey are both improving with every game they play so the youth is good within the team.

The position i'm short of is an outstanding left-bk, I have Insua who has good stats, Robinson who is young but always improving & Wilson who can play there but I would rather have him competing with Agger, Skrtel, & Shawcross for a spot in the Centre. Unfortunately the legend J Carragher is 35yrs old now so very rarely make an appearance now, i'm hoping to add him to the coaching staff when his contract is up at the end of the season.

Can anyone suggest a quality left-bk for LIVERPOOL FC?

I would be very grateful, money isn't a problem as the board have been very generous & have given me money to spend freely.

Also if anyone can offer me some more advise to make my Liverpool save even more enjoyable I would welcome it.
 
I managed to get Carroll & Suarez working well in a 4-4-2 system with them both as strikers. Andy Carroll was a modified Target Man and I had Suarez as a Complete Forward - Support/Attack with two inside forwards.
But now I've changed tactics because I started a new save and got in players like Aguero & Hazard.

I always sell Skrtel (7.5m to Hoffenheim), David N'Gog (7m to Newcastle), Daniel Agger (18.75m to Man City) and few younger players with no potential to challenge for a first team spot in the future. I bought players on monthly payments so I went over the budget, but it's working so far. I haven't lost a game and it's October. I either have 4-3-3 with Suarez - Carroll - Aguero upfront or a 4-5-1 with Carroll as a lone striker and Suarez and Aguero as inside forwards. I could put in both tactics if wanted, Carroll have over 8 in average rating.

My team usually looks like this:

Reina
Johnson (Modern FB) - P. Jones (Ball Playing Defender - Stopper) - M. Sakho (Central Defender - Cover) - Cissokho (Modern FB)

Lucas ( Ball Winning Midfielder - Defend) - S. Gerrard (Adv. Playmaker - Attack)

Aguero (Inside Forward - Attack) - Hazard (Trequartista) - Suarez (Inside Forward - Attack)

Andy Carroll (Modern Target ST)

The modern FB's and the Modern Target ST are modified positions by 'iNickStuff'

And my 4-3-3 is the same except I put Aguero (Advanced Forward) and Suarez (Always changing his role) up there with Carroll.
I've won my first 10 games.
 
Lucas Digne for left-back?
 
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