Time For a Rethink?
By: Daryl | December 27th, 2008
Managing: Newcastle
Date: 18th October, 2009
Progress: 15th in Prem after 8 games. Starting to sweat.
So my tactics of attack, attack, attack were the bees-knees last season, but not so much for 2009/10. We’re struggling to score goals and my defence isn’t as solid as it used to be. Doesn’t take a genius to realize that isn’t going to work.
So rather then being stubborn, it might be time to rethink how my men line up.
Here’s my last three games:
Europa League vs Red Star (away) W 4-0
Started with my traditional attacking 4-4-2, and scored early. Then an injury to Guthrie left me without any proper right mids, so I swicthed to a Mourinho Chelsea style 4-3-3 with attacking wingers.
I’ve recently been keeping Oba Martins behind after training to teach how to play right wing, and it paid off here with an 8.1 performance. Good stuff from Dzagoev, Chantome and N’Zogbia in a three man central midfield too. Even Javier Saviola got a goal, his first in 10 hours of football apparently. Happy days.
vs Wigan (home) W 1-0
But I still decided to give the old fashioned 4-4-2 a chance. We played some good stuff against Wigan, but again the goal didn’t exactly flow. So I’m starting to think that this all out attack is a bad idea.
vs ‘Boro (away) L 2-1
This pretty much seals it. Losing to ‘Boro is unacceptable, and the fans let the board know about it afterwards. Not sure how, and noy sure I want to know. But we conceded the winning (losing) goal in the 93rd minute and now Charles N’Zogbia and Habib Beye have both “lost confidence in my ability”.
They didn’t say exactly what ability of mine they’d lost confidence in, so I’m going to assume it’s my ability to whistle with my fingers in my mouth. Which is fair enough, because I could never do it anyway.
New formation should look something like this:
I’m hoping it’s going to make me more flexible. Pulling wide men back to mid for 4-5-1, pushing someone forward for 4-2-4 etc. Just generally letting me react to the situation rather than going all out attack and keep getting beaten.
Next game is away to Romanian no-marks FC Vaslui, so might unleash the new look on them and see what happens.
Anyone have any experience playing this type of formation? Any hints or tips?
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Comments
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I have noticed that when I play with my typical 4-3-3 with Lyon, I can seem to score a single goal, even with the deadly Benzema upfront. My assitant, Gerrard Boneau told me there was to much space between the midfield and attack.
So I pulled the wingers back into a 4-3-2-1 type thingy and still no luck. Now my assistant tells me that my lone striker cant hack it all by himself up there and he needs support, because the 4 attacking midfield I play with are not sufficient I guess.
I dont fancy the 4-4-2 much, but it seems thats the only way to score in this game which is just pathetic. I have to say I am a little disappointed with the game, to me it is a step backward from last year’s effort. Tactically its a big mess, anything I adjust, whether it be formation, attacking and creativity levels or the amount of pressing the team does/ the height of the defensive line has little affect on the team. The defense is slow to react to everything, the strikers miss every chance they get and the midfield knock the ball hap-hazardly to one another. I am by no means a novice at this game, but I feel like I have just lost the plot and dont know what I am doing anymore. Any suggestions Daryl?
Posted from
United States
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Daryl have you tried a 4-4-1-1?
Posted from
United States -
I played that formation way back on Cm2, and won France 98. With England (take that, Glenn Hoddle). But when I tried to play on Cm3, it didn’t work, so I started playing a 3-5-2. At the moment I favour a 4-2-4 basically, with your current formation, but one in the centre and two up front. Works a treat with Man City, because I’ve built the team to make it work!
Posted from
United States -
the game figures out your formations and your tactics and adapts to it just how you get scouting reports from other teams formations and tactics they get yours..move some players around and formations during the game and they throws them off
Posted from
United States -
yep, i play 442 diamond normally but in tough games i revert to the 433 like you have set up, focus passing down the flanks and have essientially 3 strong defensive players in the mid. This usually allows some counter attack based goals against the big 4.
Posted from
United States -
Hey Corey, i play with Lyon as well, must be a fan thing
.but regarding formations, i play a 4-3-3. two DMF’s playing as CMF that drop back, Juninho as amf, and wingers that will cut in ( curving arrow ) towards the lone striker. Didnt start to good, but eventually it started raining goals.
I agree with ish that counter attacking football works, because the big teams will generally go after you like its no tomorrow.
Posted from
United States -
In FM 08,I used to play a 4:1:2:1:2. I played with Milan and reached the Cl final that year.
Posted from
United States -
Marlon, I have tried a 4-4-1-1 now and again, but the problem is that my wide men are more comfortable as proper attacking mid right/left, as opposed to mid right/left. So I’m hoping that my attacking wingers (like John Fleck and Jonas) will flourish in the 4-3-3 and my central mid will be stronger.
Posted from
United States -
Corey,
Yeah, I feel the same way. I felt a lot more confident in the earlier games when messing with tactics. But I also like that this is harder as it feels more realistic.
In gerenal, I wouldn’t listen to much to your ass man’s complaining. Seems that whenever you play one up front he’ll say the lone striker is outnumbered etc. Good to know, but doesn’t mean you have to act on it.
More on this here:
http://fm.theoffside.com/fm09/the-space-between-our-defence-and-midfield-is-far-too-big.htmlPosted from
United States -
How do you get your wingers to cut in? Mine dont have any arrows and they attack to the max.
Daryl- While it may be more challenging and that does make it fun, if your managing a team like Lyon, you should not have as difficult a time against the bottom feeder teams like Le Havre, when your at home. I just beat Marsielle at the Velodrome 2-1, the first goals my team has score in 3 games. Also the first goal I conceded, off a penalty no less. Changing the tactics from game to game is fine with me, but I feel that it does very little to change the play of the team up much, as its pretty much a crap shoot if your team plays well every game now. There is no such thing as form in this game is what bothers me.
Posted from
United States -
It’s worth pointing out that the arrows on FM09 famously work differently than on previous versions.
The arrows don’t indicate exactly where a player will go, they’re just graphical representations of whether the player is instructed to make forward runs or not.
Posted from
United States
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