Blitz 4-4-2 Underdog

1.Introduction

!!! AS OF RIGHT NOW, THE UNDERDOG VERSION OF THE TACTIC IS THE BEST PERFORMING, SO PLEASE DOWNLOAD THAT UNLESS YOU PLAN ON USING WINGERS !!!

One of the most dominant teams of Sir Alex, if not the most, were the '99 treble winners. I don't like Man U all that much, but this year's focus of the ME on counters and quick play immediately led me to Fergie.

His '99 formation lined up with a classic back 4. I have adapted this a little bit to today's game by using Ball Playing Defenders(BPD) and Inverted Wing Backs(IWB). Fergie experimented a lot with the notion of IWB and his full-backs helped with the build up in midfield.

The middle 4 are lined up with 2 x Inverted Winger(IW), a Deep Lying Playmaker(DLP) and a Box To Box Midfielder(BBM). Giggs and Beckham, the width options in Fergie's formation had pretty complex roles personally suited to their style of play. The bottom line is, they both used to cut inside sometimes, sometimes play on the wing, sometimes cross early, etc. This is best represented through the role of IW. The DLP and BBM are a classic in this formation, represented perfectly by Scholes and Keane and I will not bother to expand.

Your front 2 are just, well, attackers.

2.Formation & Roles



1) Sweeper Keeper (Support)
Not much to say about this role. I put him on support so he plays longer counter-attacking balls sometimes. If your guy isn't good at kicking, just put him on Defend.

2) 2 x Ball-Playing Center Back (Defend)
Bread and butter of your defence. They need to be alright passers, although I would recommend having one who is an excellent passer, even if he's just average at defending, since long balls work well with this tactic.
Key Attributes: Pace, Tackling, Heading, Passing, Marking

4) 2 x Full Back (Attack)
Consider these guys Wide BBM's. They need pretty much everything a BBM does, just on the wing, with instructions to stay narrow and cut inside. Rounded players are key, doesn't have to be opposite footed, just be competent with his weak foot.
Key Attributes: Stamina, Work Rate, Pace, Crossing, Tackling, Dribbling

5) Deep Lying Playmaker (Support)
A more static midfielder than his BBM partner, he stays deeper and picks passes to his advancing teammates. This guy's job is to pass it well first, everything else second. Creative reliable playmakers are needed here.
Key Attributes: Passing, Vision, Teamwork, First Touch

7) Box To Box Midfielder (Support)
His main role is to be the engine of your midfield: pressing, carrying the ball forward, trying to play his teammates in, this guy has to do it all.
Key Attributes: Stamina, Work Rate, Pace, Overall

8) 2 x Inverted Winger (Attack)
Inverted Winger's main job is to operate in the space between the lines, cutting inside and participating in build up play. Sometimes they go wide instead and cross.
Key Attributes: Pace, Dribbling, Acceleration, Technique, Passing, Crossing (only for Winger)

9) 2 x Advanced Forward (Attack)
His only job is to get behind the defence and score. Pretty much a pacy poacher. Useful to have a good pass in him as well as to not miss and lose the ball, but more often than not he won't need to do anything else than to put the ball in the back of the net. He's instructed to also mark tighter and tackle his opponent more when off the ball.
Key Attributes: Pace, Anticipation, Composure, First Touch, Dribbling

3.Tactical Breakdown

There's a great breakdown of the tactic done on youtube, and this guy has been the source of inspiration for multiple of my tactics, so check him out!



4.Results
!!! ALL RESULTS ARE DONE WITHOUT ANY TRANSFERS + GO ON VACATION UNTIL END OF SEASON !!!

V1 RESULTS - OUTDATED 1. Manchester United - Media Pred. 4th - Treble Winners





2. Arsenal - Media Pred. 7th - 3rd + League Cup Runners-up





UNDERDOG TACTIC RESULTS

I tested this tactic with 3 teams predicted to finish last in their league. These were the results, 2 Europe qualifications and 9th place in the Prem.

Fantastic write up

CBP87 said: Fantastic write up Expand

Thanks, really appreciate it! I try to give a little soul to my tactics, even though they may not be the most min-maxed

@cptdoggo, Sir Alex never used Inverted Wingbacks...

Rince said: @cptdoggo, Sir Alex never used Inverted Wingbacks... Expand

I'd say its a blend between a recreation and what works on FM

Rince said: @cptdoggo, Sir Alex never used Inverted Wingbacks... Expand

He used right footed players as left backs and instructed them to cut inside in possession to act as a midfielder. Lots of coaches used to instruct fullbacks to sometimes cut inside or underlap, it's just that stuff changed in the modern game so it's hard to recreate some things in FM so we have to improvise

Tweaked the tactic quite a lot, as the initial result was way worse than expected.
- Pushed Wingers forward to AMR and AML, gave up on the Inverted Winger as he wasn't offering anything a classic Winger wasn't.
- Changed mentality to Attacking as it seems more stable.
- Activated overlaps for more attacking runs.
- Put shorter passes as an instruction, as too many aimless long balls were launched.
- Changed defence width to be narrower, as too many attacks came through the middle.

Arsenal overperformed by quite a lot, Leeds overperformed by a lot as well. Norwich kinda meh but escaped relegation, a little unlucky conceding more than expected and scoring less (xGA and xG).

Alright lads, so I'm a little excited for this one, V3 is out, as I have just tweaked a little more and I think I got a great tactic overall. I noticed the wingers had a lot of space once I moved them to AML and AMR that they were not using effectively, so I changed both of them to IW so they can exploit the newly found space and it worked great!

-Changed IWB's to FB's on Attacking mentality, with instructions to stay narrow and cut inside. This was done mostly to replicate Fergie's full backs better and mostly just to test stuff out and see what works. This seems to work and is according to the spirit of the tactic so it stays.
-Changed Wingers to IW, with instructions to stay wider, again, to replicate Fergie's tactics better. They still cross and go wide, but much like the wide men of the past, they sometimes also cut inside and help build up, instead of just running like madmen down the line and non-stop crossing.
-Tweaked some set pieces as they were all over the place from me changing formations.
-Tweaked some personal instructions, nothing major.

Now, Norwich absolutely overperformed, almost finishing 9th with 20th prediction.
Man U scored 4 goals per match!!!
Leeds overperformed and finished on europe spots.

Second test with V3, Arsenal underperformed, but this was mostly to see how underdogs do. Norwich qualified for Europe somehow while being predicted 20th and Watford overperformed as well, finishing 13th with 19th prediction.

I wouldn't suggest testing 3 teams in the same league as you're potentially taking 12 points away from the end result. Watford could've been sat in 10th on 56 points and Norwich potentially could've been 5th on 74 points and Arsenal could've potentially been 2nd on 86 points. It's just my opinion but I think you are potentially underselling the tactic by testing with 3 teams in the same league

CBP87 said: I wouldn't suggest testing 3 teams in the same league as you're potentially taking 12 points away from the end result. Watford could've been sat in 10th on 56 points and Norwich potentially could've been 5th on 74 points and Arsenal could've potentially been 2nd on 86 points. It's just my opinion but I think you are potentially underselling the tactic by testing with 3 teams in the same league Expand

Oh, yeah, that is def true, however I do this mostly because it takes sooo long to simulate a season. I might try doing 3 different leagues, 3 different teams, now that you mentioned this, as it has never occured to me how matches between them might influence the result.

Anyhow, I think V3 is a great underdog tactic, I'm on my 3rd underdog test and it looks very promising. Can't wait for the test

cptdoggo said: Oh, yeah, that is def true, however I do this mostly because it takes sooo long to simulate a season. I might try doing 3 different leagues, 3 different teams, now that you mentioned this, as it has never occured to me how matches between them might influence the result.

Anyhow, I think V3 is a great underdog tactic, I'm on my 3rd underdog test and it looks very promising. Can't wait for the test Expand

That'll take even longer to be honest because the game will be processing more leagues and cup competitions, how long is it taking you to run a 3 team test?

CBP87 said: That'll take even longer to be honest because the game will be processing more leagues and cup competitions, how long is it taking you to run a 3 team test? Expand

Depends how much time I spend Alt+Tabbed. If I go grab a coffee and play with my cat while game is on the screen, like 15-20 minutes with starting, adding managers etc., if I browse the webs and check regularly more like 30-40.

EDIT: Also, I can't be assed to run single team tests anymore, as they offer inconclusive results most of the time. By having 3 teams I can tell if the tactic is truly improved or it's just been a lucky/unlucky season by the positions of the other 2 teams. For example, if I had tested V3 with only Arsenal and Man U, the improvement over V2 would have been almost invisible, but with the overperforming of Leeds and Norwich, V3 is clearly better.

cptdoggo said: Depends how much time I spend Alt+Tabbed. If I go grab a coffee and play with my cat while game is on the screen, like 15-20 minutes with starting, adding managers etc., if I browse the webs and check regularly more like 30-40. Expand

It takes 15 - 20 minutes including adding managers to run a 3 team test from start to finish?

CBP87 said: It takes 15 - 20 minutes including adding managers to run a 3 team test from start to finish? Expand

I mean, yeah, I just add the prem and small database. I have an i5-10400f with 16gb RAM.

CBP87 said: It takes 15 - 20 minutes including adding managers to run a 3 team test from start to finish? Expand

My PC sucks. =D

cptdoggo said: I mean, yeah, I just add the prem and small database. I have an i5-10400f with 16gb RAM. Expand

I need to upgrade It might be worth then just creating 3 separate test saves, Elite, Mid and then underdog. By the sounds of it you should be whizz through the season and you're then not potentially not taking points off each of your test teams

ZaZ said: My PC sucks. =D Expand

I recommend grabbing an i5-10400F/11400F if you're on a budget, whatever's cheapest, as it's hands down the best value for money right now. A Ryzen 5 5600X would be the best mid-range option.

Now, on the topic of the matter, 3rd test finished. Watford slightly meh, but they did drop points every single match against my other teams, losing 2 times to Norwich and drawing Leeds twice as well. Leeds make Europe with 12th Media Pred. again, Norwich overperforming again and finishing 11th while predicted dead last.

EDIT: Just noticed Watford got almost same amount of points, just a really weird table this season. Not bad overall


EDIT2: This is Watford's xG and xGA. Insanely unlucky season.

Okay, so I tested 3 leagues, all with the teams predicted to finish dead last. Results are impressive to say the least. No transfers made, vacation till end of season, same tactic for all 3.

Norwich finished a very respectable 9th place



Mallorca qualified for Europe, finishing 7th



Salernitana qualified for Europe as well, finishing 7th

Added an alternative to the underdog tactic with Wingers instead of IW and IWB's instead of FB's, since I'm very curious how that does. This will be the last Blitz 4-4-2 tactic, as I feel this cannot be improved upon anymore. I know I posted quite a lot of tactics and I appreciate the team testing them all. Thank you guys, hope you find the time to test this last one as well.

what happens if i remove offside trap ? i watching my team playing and my CB's always take ball on the backs.. sorry my bad english

luisanjao said: what happens if i remove offside trap ? i watching my team playing and my CB's always take ball on the backs.. sorry my bad english Expand

Didn't try without Offside Trap, you can try and see if it makes a difference. It's true that you leak some through balls while using it, but it saves you a lot of the time. You will leak through balls without it too, it's just how the game is this year. I recommend having high positioning on your CB's.

After extensive testing, I think I reached a point where this tactic might challenge for first. As to not waste the team's time testing, I tested it myself on 216 matches with my 4-2-4 and 216 matches with the current best tactic, Fanecas' 4-1-3-2, which is pretty amazing. I also attached the xG and xGA besides the results.



Tactic Changelog:
- Retreated DLP to DM position and converted BBM into VOL (Attack), as I feel the Segundo Volante does better as a BBM than the BBM's do. Also, DLP moved back to be able to use the Volante.

- Inverted Wingers switched to Support duty to better exploit the space left in the midfield that was created when the CM's were retreated to DM's.

- Changed corner routine (after tests were done, so it's not visible in the results), for which I have to credit @ZaZ for. He is the creator of that routine and I am just using it as it is the best, all credit goes to him though.

My results:

NETHERLANDS
Average Points : 132.6
Average GD : 57.6

BELGIUM
Average Points : 118.0
Average GD : 24.3











Top tactic results:

NETHERLANDS
Average Points : 120.3
Average GD : 47.6

BELGIUM
Average Points : 115.6
Average GD : 27.3

these my results so far with v3, using a rotation team in dfb pokal anda win 6-0 against hannover, i played all games, instant result only in friendlys


you can make a lower tempo for this tactic ? I thing I will need in first division...

Amazing tactic btw

Very good.

Leicester 1st season

Updated this tactic for 22.2 as I find it one of the most promising and it's a formation that a lot of people ask for.

Changelog:
Eliminated overlapping as it doesn't work as intended.
Eliminated "Run at Defence"
Eliminated "Force Opposition Outside"
Higher Defensive Line -> Normal
Take Short Kicks -> Roll it Out
Changed some Personal Instructions from original tactic

@cptdoggo, hi.

If you want anything from this thread was considered for the testing then please, format the thread like this - https://fm-arena.com/find-comment/9585/

Thank you.

Zippo said: @cptdoggo, hi.

If you want anything from this thread was considered for the testing then please, format the thread like this - https://fm-arena.com/find-comment/9585/

Thank you. Expand

Done