This was another 352 and I was specifically after this kind of layout with no mids. Saw this layout here in Josh Daly's Napoli rebuild and am not sure Allegri runs it (or anybody) but also saw the idea in a Tom FM video and thought, I quite like that, let's have a go.
Used typical Meta instructions with it and had quite a nice season with Palace. Think there's probably more to this and it seemed particularly solid at the back (and at the same time just lacking something going forward).
Think it probably isn't wonderful to play with as I'd be concerned at connection issues between the DMs and the forwards.
Have been dabbling around with 3 backs, this wasn't the line up that I wanted, but the first test I had didn't go anywhere near what I wanted so we tried to a tweak by pushing one up to midfield. Inspired by this Josh Daly tactic from FM24 - I'm not sure what to make of this at all, as I actually went shorter for a passing length (as my first test I did was so not it I needed to try something else) and it seemed to do alright for half a season. I also get a treble with Palace (Carabao, Conference and Community Shield). Think there might be more there but am not completely sure to be honest. Feels like there is a limit if you don't do more direct.
and I do personally feel things just sit better, when you have someone at every level of the field so there is a passing outlet and nobody is left isolated and frankly I don't completely like how a DLF works. Tried a few things at number 10, and the best outcomes seemed to be with an AP which makes the most sense.
Changes over the 442 was the introduction of the AP and the OOP roles for the front 2 got changed to the more Meta layout.
My gut reaction is this works better than the flat 442, and I wanted a change up from that and there is also didn't seem to be any real 4411's on here either.
Was after the Sacchi style late 80's Milan vibes as well by bringing a No.10 in - just feel it's right.
In terms of the results seemed to do good numbers.
We used Villa again on the test. Unbelievably we blow the League on the last day of the season going from 1st to 3rd as 4th place City with nothing to play for beat us. Europa League is also won.
What I liked is a couple of people got an absolute tearing, including a 10-0 decimation of United (who only just avoid relegation). Some other random's in the Europa league also took a shelling. Very happy with this and curious to see if it does better numbers than the 442.
Reasons behind it - I'm just about to head into the Championship with my current save, who doesn't love a 442 and I feel it is the right fit for my team right now particularly a flat one. I also didn't see a lot of Flat 442s in the current ME and it felt like it was needed.
Changes were minimal - basically I switched the right back for an FB (as I felt it was a better fit) and made a couple of other small tweaks on PI's.
It was also similar to a Josh Daly one I ran in FM24 and had good vibes with.
Broadly happy with the result and had good numbers with it with my Villa test. Premier League won, cleanly, Europa League, won. Carabao almost won - as I fall over Palace in the final. Feels like this will do numbers for you.
After doing my 3511 the other day https://fm-arena.com/thread/19897-3511-main-rev-c/ I decided to try and make a 4 back version as I thought it would be easier to recruit players to in a save and deal with injuries.
Used this as a base to work up from https://fm-arena.com/thread/17786-541-5back-fwxm-v1/ - as I originally wanted to go from a flat back 5 but the numbers weren't great so we dropped to a back 4 and decided it would work better.
Not sure if it's a 442, 4411 or 41311 but it did alright for me (I actually feel hard done by on the simulated season with a 6th from 77 points - I mean seriously). 2 of the games accounted for 8 goals (5 by City, Haaland doing Haaland things, and weirdly Leeds). Otherwise it's less than a goal a game conceded. Think there might be a lot left on the table with this one. Any thoughts appreciated.
In short - have played quite a lot of 352s this year one way or another, and what always irritates me is the dugout message about the lack of connection between the forwards and the midfield every couple of games (and even though you are getting good results you end up thinking am I missing something). So I decided to solve that (hopefully) by sticking a No.10 in and make a 3511 (30 years after Bilardo, Maradona and Argentina used one in some of their games on the way to winning the 86 World Cup).
and also after a couple of goes, and realising I was solid at the back and could perhaps move the 6 up to an 8 and get more going forward was inspired by this from Knap https://www.fmscout.com/q-33952-Knap-FM-26-Tactics.html?d=12#309956 - and as I wasn't sure what I was doing OOP, went for the seemingly Meta 523 OOP.
Think there is way more on the table with this. Not sure the SS is the best choice (did several other tests - why this is RevC - with an FR, AM and AP and a conventional 352 layout with a 6 - and the SS scored best which is why I went forward with it). Think there may be better roles in midfield, and I'm not sure the OCB is needed - as I seem to have enough going forward. Like the fact I was seemingly getting double digit goals from a lot of players. End of the season was solid as well - short of dropping the conference league final.
Can see FM DNA has Palace as one of his test teams currently & upper 70s seems to be a good score?
Out of interest did you try any other versions of this out? I reckon that a version with Double AMs instead of FRs would work well. I also wonder how a version with regular WBs would go or perhaps FBs but I'd guess that AWBs are probably the right choice here.
I genuinely reckon this really might work. I'd go with a DLP and then 2 x AMs in the middle (like you did with Rocket 3.2) and an AM or AP in the No.10 slot (to solve the occasional connection problems you get with a 352). I think you could then play it OOP like you do Rocket 3.2 and play it as a 532. Maybe switch the outside centre backs up as well to OCBs. Think this would be proper naughty.
My gut reaction and I could be totally wrong but I reckon with 2 CFDs uptop perhaps or at least one and split both out as wingers out of possession here, you'd get slightly better numbers?
Hypothetically would a much more direct version of this work switching out the PF for a TF, and the IF for a WT? I know the numbers wouldn't be as good but I feel the idea would work (maybe with some tweaks to the PIs).
Thank you. That gives me a load to work with. When the only things I haven't tweaked to much since starting the game is tactics which I've been grabbing from various places (e.g. here, dome of the ones on FM Scout, Josh Daly etc.). The ones on here are great but they are 110% the whole time and you just burn your team out unless you have a deep squad and can rotate. Just wanted go find other ways of turning them down apart from dropping the Tempo and time wasting.
I got everything except for Sus? Shut up Shop I'm assuming with minimal chances up front? (So that would be your defensive, bottom of the table vs top of the table tactic?, with the away being more like your mid table ability adjustments?).
Out of interest is there a preferred way of making a more defensive or default version of a tactic like this (e.g. if you were running it with say like a Fulham, Palace or a Brighton for example)? I 100% can see how this would consistently damage with a top 6 side, but for mid table or lower I feel it would need to be a bit tamer?
Thank you. The legendary 415 makes an appearance. If I had a CF (weirdly I have the forwards just nobody who could play that role at the minute) or a half decent squad I'd 100% give that a go. With tweaking an OP team like Madrid that looks like a 200+ a season potental tactic?
Thank you. Super interesting. Would have thought it would have resulted in more goals which it did but oddly I'd have thought they would have come from Bellingham but he had notably less. Will definitely have a look at this. Not sure I have the players to run it at the minute (this one with the AM and DM I do and it works nicely when I've used it) but this looks a touch more aggressive.
Could you realistically do this with a Shadow Striker instead of an AM in the middle? I'm thinking it would leave too much of a gap behind the front 5 (but would be better from an attacking point of view?)
Looks good but a double volante is an ask (or it is for me anyway lol) in terms of an available skill set. Will have to have a look at this one though.
Out of interest - did this one go anywhere? There doesn't seem to be a lot of successful 3 back tactics on here (mostly it seems 2 FB, 2 BPD) & I just wondered if there was a further version of this (that possibly didn't need an elite team to run)?
Used typical Meta instructions with it and had quite a nice season with Palace. Think there's probably more to this and it seemed particularly solid at the back (and at the same time just lacking something going forward).
Think it probably isn't wonderful to play with as I'd be concerned at connection issues between the DMs and the forwards.
https://fm-arena.com/thread/20054-442-delta-force-attack-reva/
and I do personally feel things just sit better, when you have someone at every level of the field so there is a passing outlet and nobody is left isolated and frankly I don't completely like how a DLF works. Tried a few things at number 10, and the best outcomes seemed to be with an AP which makes the most sense.
Changes over the 442 was the introduction of the AP and the OOP roles for the front 2 got changed to the more Meta layout.
My gut reaction is this works better than the flat 442, and I wanted a change up from that and there is also didn't seem to be any real 4411's on here either.
Was after the Sacchi style late 80's Milan vibes as well by bringing a No.10 in - just feel it's right.
In terms of the results seemed to do good numbers.
We used Villa again on the test. Unbelievably we blow the League on the last day of the season going from 1st to 3rd as 4th place City with nothing to play for beat us. Europa League is also won.
What I liked is a couple of people got an absolute tearing, including a 10-0 decimation of United (who only just avoid relegation). Some other random's in the Europa league also took a shelling. Very happy with this and curious to see if it does better numbers than the 442.
Inspiration is here: https://fm-arena.com/thread/16831-442-delta-force-2/
Changes were minimal - basically I switched the right back for an FB (as I felt it was a better fit) and made a couple of other small tweaks on PI's.
It was also similar to a Josh Daly one I ran in FM24 and had good vibes with.
Broadly happy with the result and had good numbers with it with my Villa test. Premier League won, cleanly, Europa League, won. Carabao almost won - as I fall over Palace in the final. Feels like this will do numbers for you.
Used this as a base to work up from https://fm-arena.com/thread/17786-541-5back-fwxm-v1/ - as I originally wanted to go from a flat back 5 but the numbers weren't great so we dropped to a back 4 and decided it would work better.
Not sure if it's a 442, 4411 or 41311 but it did alright for me (I actually feel hard done by on the simulated season with a 6th from 77 points - I mean seriously). 2 of the games accounted for 8 goals (5 by City, Haaland doing Haaland things, and weirdly Leeds). Otherwise it's less than a goal a game conceded. Think there might be a lot left on the table with this one. Any thoughts appreciated.
As a starting point I used 2 AC as a base: https://fm-arena.com/thread/19408-2ac/
and also after a couple of goes, and realising I was solid at the back and could perhaps move the 6 up to an 8 and get more going forward was inspired by this from Knap https://www.fmscout.com/q-33952-Knap-FM-26-Tactics.html?d=12#309956 - and as I wasn't sure what I was doing OOP, went for the seemingly Meta 523 OOP.
Think there is way more on the table with this. Not sure the SS is the best choice (did several other tests - why this is RevC - with an FR, AM and AP and a conventional 352 layout with a 6 - and the SS scored best which is why I went forward with it). Think there may be better roles in midfield, and I'm not sure the OCB is needed - as I seem to have enough going forward. Like the fact I was seemingly getting double digit goals from a lot of players. End of the season was solid as well - short of dropping the conference league final.
Can see FM DNA has Palace as one of his test teams currently & upper 70s seems to be a good score?
Sorry for the rambling on - first tactic.
Am open to any suggestions.
I got everything except for Sus? Shut up Shop I'm assuming with minimal chances up front? (So that would be your defensive, bottom of the table vs top of the table tactic?, with the away being more like your mid table ability adjustments?).