Help Does Catenaccio work in game?

[Fish18ish]

I've recently taken an interest in the traditional Italian way of playing, prioritising a clean sheet and utilising a sweeper. I've rarely got defensive tactics to work in FMM, and certainly not with a sweeper, so I wondered if anyone has had any success with such a style?

[AndersJ]

I dont know if it works, but i saw it last season, so i deffinately think it could, whats your idea? Is it like back in the days sweeper like Mathaeus and Sammer?

[Patas]

I played sweeper formation few times,but i wouldn't recommend it if you are not experienced player. First of all sweeper role is not utilized the way it should be in this game (in my opinion) and second,it's hard to find player for this role and not just in matter of attributes. When you play sweeper most important thing is balance of player roles,especially those 5 defensive. Even slightest absence of balance leads to poor results. I would say it's possible to play catenaccio successfully if you put lot of effort and carefully choose players for it. Did you tried SW keeper and 4 classic defenders instead?

[Ashez]

Sweepers work okay from my experience, biggest issue with them is there are next to none of them on the game. Never used defensive mentality though, personally don't see it working too well due to how many shots we typically need to have to score compared to the AI, very rarely can we contain the AI from scoring etc. 

[Fish18ish]

3 hours ago, AndersJ said:

I dont know if it works, but i saw it last season, so i deffinately think it could, whats your idea? Is it like back in the days sweeper like Mathaeus and Sammer?

Seeing as there is no Libero role in the game, I'm just looking to utilise a fairly simple, yet intelligent, sweeper to clean up through balls and organise the defense.

3 hours ago, Patas said:

I played sweeper formation few times,but i wouldn't recommend it if you are not experienced player. First of all sweeper role is not utilized the way it should be in this game (in my opinion) and second,it's hard to find player for this role and not just in matter of attributes. When you play sweeper most important thing is balance of player roles,especially those 5 defensive. Even slightest absence of balance leads to poor results. I would say it's possible to play catenaccio successfully if you put lot of effort and carefully choose players for it. Did you tried SW keeper and 4 classic defenders instead?

I would probably look to have atleast one of the fullbacks as a more attack minded wingback, as you've got to have an outlet somewhere. The centre backs would probably both be standard central defenders in my mind, because there is no need for a BPD if I have someone in a Pirlo role just sitting in front. I wouldn't ideally like to use LDs though because they just hoof it, when the aim should be to work play through whoever sits in front of the defense. Would you call that balanced?

[Fish18ish]

6 minutes ago, Ashez said:

Sweepers work okay from my experience, biggest issue with them is there are next to none of them on the game. Never used defensive mentality though, personally don't see it working too well due to how many shots we typically need to have to score compared to the AI, very rarely can we contain the AI from scoring etc. 

I have earmarked Rodrigo Caio as a possibility, as he is one of the few youngers on the game who suits the role. Unfortunately he is very injury prone. Alternatively I could retrain a regen to play there, as I find that they are often willing to take up a new position.

Regarding shots, I find that in my few experiments with more defensive setups, I often still dominate games to a certain extent, and sometimes even get more possession that when I use an attacking tactic or one that I have attempted (ordinarily in vain) to gear up towards keeping possession. Don't forget that by using a defensive tactically I'm accepting the fact that when I win it's only going to be 1 or 2 goals to nil, so I shouldn't need too many shots. The important thing is reducing the opposition to shots from range, and when the team does go forward, attacks have to be incisive and efficient.

 

[Thepremiermanager]

Would love to read about how you get on with this sort of tactic. Being a sweeper in a previous life I've tried coming up with my own tactics but, as the others have said, lack of decent sweepers in game make it difficult to set up.

Having said that, the last time I tried was before the patch that seemed to sort out the retraining issue so maybe there are more players willing to retrain there now.

[Patas]

2 hours ago, Fish18ish said:

 

I would probably look to have atleast one of the fullbacks as a more attack minded wingback, as you've got to have an outlet somewhere. The centre backs would probably both be standard central defenders in my mind, because there is no need for a BPD if I have someone in a Pirlo role just sitting in front. I wouldn't ideally like to use LDs though because they just hoof it, when the aim should be to work play through whoever sits in front of the defense. Would you call that balanced?

Well, you said it all :). You should try out and see how things works,it's always fun to try something new in tactic approach. Are you planing to play with Italian team,by the way? I like Italian way of play they are tactic masterminds,I miss 90's Serie A football that I used to watch every weekend as a kid.

[Fish18ish]

44 minutes ago, Patas said:

Well, you said it all :). You should try out and see how things works,it's always fun to try something new in tactic approach. Are you planing to play with Italian team,by the way? I like Italian way of play they are tactic masterminds,I miss 90's Serie A football that I used to watch every weekend as a kid.

I might try and get the Italy job in a save. Enjoying a current save at the moment though, in which I've branded myself as a more attacking manager, so I probably won't be able to try an Italian system just yet. Will try and give it a go at some point soon though hopefully.

Any suggestions for what to do further up the pitch? Obviously we still need some goals and I don't know what sort of attack would work best.

[Patas]

It all depends what formation you're playing. If you're playing with 2 strikers you could use Trequartista and Poacher or DLF and Poacher. One of them will move around and drop deeper to receive the ball to feed the Poacher. If you are playing with one striker than it depends what players and how many you have in midfield. In one of my saves i  had a fantastic regen striker but because of wrong roles combo in midfield i was using, he didn't performed as expected. You should check BatiGoal's "Guide for player roles combo" if you haven't already. Good luck.

[Fish18ish]

On 29/04/2017 at 22:00, Patas said:

It all depends what formation you're playing. If you're playing with 2 strikers you could use Trequartista and Poacher or DLF and Poacher. One of them will move around and drop deeper to receive the ball to feed the Poacher. If you are playing with one striker than it depends what players and how many you have in midfield. In one of my saves i  had a fantastic regen striker but because of wrong roles combo in midfield i was using, he didn't performed as expected. You should check BatiGoal's "Guide for player roles combo" if you haven't already. Good luck.

Thanks for your suggestions. I thought two strikers with one sitting deeper mighty work and I'm glad to hear that you would recommend something similar. I'll definitely try and give this a go when I get a chance and maybe report back here.