Tactics 4-1-2-2-1 The Time of Underdogs

[Lewis11196]

So after taking a look at my original Bournemouth save I realised my mistakes... 

Probably the biggest I made was selling my star striker, and then trying to force wingers with poor shooting to play as IF's. So after some analysis I decided to start a new save and actually use my brain...

After a slow start which brought 3 draws and a loss from my first 4 league games ( 3 of the 4 were title challengers to be fair ) I set about moving up the league.

The Tactics/Formation

( Please ignore which players are in which positions as this is from my second season as I forget to photograph the formation at the start of season 1) As you can see below I had my heart set on a 4-3-3 as I see this as a perfect formation, very balanced in both attacking and defensive areas of the pitch. I chose to play with full backs instead of wing backs as I feel too exposed and, with a weaker defence, I thought the risk was far greater than the reward. Some may view playing a BPD in a lower team as a risk but the signing I made for that position had perfect stats to fulfill that role. A deep playmaker to dictate the flow of the game, central midfielder to assist in both attacking and defensive aspects and an advanced playmaker to provide that creative spark. Wingers who have pace and dribbling and have that direct style of play to take the game to the opposition and the striker which in my oppinion was the most vital part of the team, I ran poacher as they find themselves in the perfect positions as reflected in the stats which I will talk about later.

As for team instructions, they went as follows: 

I find that playing attacking without joining it with direct passing or committed tackling affects your teams outlook when they have the ball better, it makes the wingers look to get on the fullback and the poacher to hang in between those centre backs waiting for that through ball. The only thing I changed was switching from attacking to balanced when I wanted to see out the game and the opposition were starting to get a foothold.

The Results

As I said earlier, the start to the league season was mixed as we held our own against Chelsea and Arsenal but suffered against Liverpool.

Results started to pick up through September and October...

They continued in on the same vain with the odd 1-0 score line here and there...

Then came our best performance of the season at white hart lane, it may only have finished 1-0 but the restrict Tottenham to virtually nothing proved we could handle big teams.

As new year rolled in we hit a rough patch as we went 5 without a victory.

Then as they say good things come to those who wait, 9 straight wins and a draw put us right up the table.

We finished the season with mixed results.

However we went above and beyond our expectations and finished an astounding second and boasted the second best defensive record in the league!

Transfers/ Star Players

As I stated earlier my mistake was selling this guy in my other save, but he sure showed me what he could do!

Our defensive singing who made a massive impact...

And the last signing we made was one for the future who played very well when given his chance considering he was 18...

Overall I found this tactic perfect for a club where a mid table finish would be expected and one that had a few stand out players, it was balanced very well and with the right player could may we go above my personal achievements! 

Please note that I am in no way saying manage Bournemouth and you'll dominate Europe! But if your smart with your signings and adjust your tactics accordingly when you notice a shift in the game then I think this tactic could serve most average teams very well! 

Thankyou for reading

[AndersJ]

Thanks for sharing :)!

[Irwan Hadi]

Interesting results there, mate =) just a couple of questions and pointers though.

Which engine are you playing this on?

From my prior saves, I noticed that leaving Pressing on for the entire match will not only leave my players drained, but leaving gaps for opposition to exploit too. You might want to consider that to tighten up your defence? I'm no expert but maybe working on it could translate the draws into wins?

Also, Attacking mentality constantly on seems to contribute to stamina drainage too. Having Balanced on will somewhat "regulate" the times your team attack, so that they will learn to pick the correct moment(s) or passes and not just attack for the sake of it

You could try experimenting with either options or both and see if there are any improvements in the team play. Cheers!

[Lewis11196]

54 minutes ago, Irwan Hadi said:

Interesting results there, mate =) just a couple of questions and pointers though.

Which engine are you playing this on?

From my prior saves, I noticed that leaving Pressing on for the entire match will not only leave my players drained, but leaving gaps for opposition to exploit too. You might want to consider that to tighten up your defence? I'm no expert but maybe working on it could translate the draws into wins?

Also, Attacking mentality constantly on seems to contribute to stamina drainage too. Having Balanced on will somewhat "regulate" the times your team attack, so that they will learn to pick the correct moment(s) or passes and not just attack for the sake of it

You could try experimenting with either options or both and see if there are any improvements in the team play. Cheers!

100% agree there, had a few injury and fitness problems and couldn't figure out what it was but I can see clearly now haha! I've never taken pressing off because I have players with 17/18 stamina and the way I like to play is never let opposition have time on the ball. With the attacking I was finding players were trying to unlock the defence constantly which last season may have been a stumbling block as the players had 13/14 decisions. In my personal opinion I find desicions one of the most important stats for forward players and since the start of the new season with new players introduced its worked wonders as you can see... 

But I can agree with you in terms of fitness issues, fantastic input mate it's certainly saved a lot of head scratching trying to figure it out.

And it's on EME mate:)

 

[AndersJ]

@Lewis11196 that looks great there!

did you dominate Fulham and CP in stats?

and did you try making your pcr PA?

who scores your goals and who assist?

[Lewis11196]

59 minutes ago, AndersJ said:

@Lewis11196 that looks great there!

did you dominate Fulham and CP in stats?

and did you try making your pcr PA?

who scores your goals and who assist?

I tend to have more shots and shots on target than the opposition but depends wether the game feels like allowing my forwards to finish! Here's an example of that against Chelsea in my second season, virtually playing the same team as I was putting out last season apart from arnautovic. 

As for goals my forward tends to hit between 20-30 goals per season, wingers chip in with 6-8 each and same with the AP, assists mostly come from the winger too who average 10-12 each and the AP gets near double figures too, I just think this tactic gives the perfect balance.

And I have tested it a few times in Europe as I was already qualified so the games were like free swings, it worked well but I thought why change a winning formula.

[Irwan Hadi]

11 hours ago, Lewis11196 said:

100% agree there, had a few injury and fitness problems and couldn't figure out what it was but I can see clearly now haha! I've never taken pressing off because I have players with 17/18 stamina and the way I like to play is never let opposition have time on the ball. With the attacking I was finding players were trying to unlock the defence constantly which last season may have been a stumbling block as the players had 13/14 decisions. In my personal opinion I find desicions one of the most important stats for forward players and since the start of the new season with new players introduced its worked wonders as you can see...But I can agree with you in terms of fitness issues, fantastic input mate it's certainly saved a lot of head scratching trying to figure it out.

Do you schedule your own Training for your squad or are you using the Intensive Training? I used IT before - no doubt they improve players' stats significantly over a short period of time but it comes at a price; Ultimately, my players succumb to various injuries during training - all this even with Gold badge coaches and physios.

So I borrowed @BatiGoal training implementation. It is a fairly basic one but the most efficient I suppose as I don't remember having any reports stating that my players were injured while training. During a match it has happened, but none in training =) 

Check out this link, page 3 and look for BatiGoal's proposed schedule.

On a side note, try and see if there's anyone in the current squad capable of playing as a box-to-box midfielder? As it stands, your team's route to goal would be either the wings and then cross in or the AP conjuring magic. How about giving the opposition more to think about eh?

[OneTouch]

Im a fan of those signing,  I have an irrational love for Arnautovic while Riedewald and Viera are shrewd for an upwardly mobile team.  Never tried Vida before,  but I may try him out next save. 

Solid tactics,  so good luck winning the Prem and more next season. 

[Lewis11196]

4 hours ago, Irwan Hadi said:

Do you schedule your own Training for your squad or are you using the Intensive Training? I used IT before - no doubt they improve players' stats significantly over a short period of time but it comes at a price; Ultimately, my players succumb to various injuries during training - all this even with Gold badge coaches and physios.

So I borrowed @BatiGoal training implementation. It is a fairly basic one but the most efficient I suppose as I don't remember having any reports stating that my players were injured while training. During a match it has happened, but none in training =) 

Check out this link, page 3 and look for BatiGoal's proposed schedule.

On a side note, try and see if there's anyone in the current squad capable of playing as a box-to-box midfielder? As it stands, your team's route to goal would be either the wings and then cross in or the AP conjuring magic. How about giving the opposition more to think about eh?

Great input, if I'm honest I haven't even touched the training side of things yet! I've been very lucky to avoid injuries and when they have happened they've only been small ones. Also I agree with the box-to-box idea but I've never really struggled to score goals, however it's something I'm considering trying.

4 hours ago, OneTouch said:

Im a fan of those signing,  I have an irrational love for Arnautovic while Riedewald and Viera are shrewd for an upwardly mobile team.  Never tried Vida before,  but I may try him out next save. 

Solid tactics,  so good luck winning the Prem and more next season. 

Just finished season 2 and if season 1 exceeded expectations then I have no words for this!

We won the league by 18 points losing just 2 games all season, with Wilson proving his worth yet again!

We almost made it a fairytale season but we lost 3-2 on aggregate to Bayern in the semi final after winning 2-1 at the Allianz arena in the first leg, we also lost 4-3 to arsenal in the FA cup final

[Sib82]

Best tactic I've used on fmh17 so far. Started as bolton won back to back promotion and finished 6th in my 1st season in the premier league only signing cheap players and bosmans. Only thing I change is either 1 of the wingers to IF and the CM to BMB. 

Great work and thanks for sharing 

[Lewis11196]

23 minutes ago, Sib82 said:

Best tactic I've used on fmh17 so far. Started as bolton won back to back promotion and finished 6th in my 1st season in the premier league only signing cheap players and bosmans. Only thing I change is either 1 of the wingers to IF and the CM to BMB. 

Great work and thanks for sharing 

Great achievement mate, especially getting so far in such a short period of time! I haven't played my bournemouth save the last few days as im working on a tactic for higher teams but i'll be sure to try and go up from lower leagues. And yeah ive played about with changing the roles and its yielded similar results. Great achievement and thank for commenting