What I changed from meta-tactics was what I needed to change to make it look like the football I want to watch:
- shorter passing instead of the More Direct - the striker as a deep lying forward, dropping into midfield rather than pinning the last line - the midfield set up to press rather than sit & roam from positions - individual instructions reworked to dribble more & more pressing
I'd like to put a tactic forward for testing. Quick warning up front: it's not another strikerless low block counter. It's pretty much the opposite, and that's kind of the whole point.
1- What I was chasing
I've been obsessed with what Luis Enrique has been doing at PSG the last couple of seasons. Not the highlight reel stuff, the structure. The way the shape turns into a 3-2-5 the second they have the ball, how the wing backs go and hold the touchline so the wide forwards can drift into the pockets instead of being stranded out there one on one, the way there are always two bodies sitting in front of the back three so the counter press starts the instant the ball goes. It's positional play, but it's aggressive. It doesn't pass sideways waiting for a gap to appear, it passes fast and moves faster.
So that was the target. But I also didn't want to be naive about the patch. 26.3 rewards certain things, and pretending otherwise just means losing 3-1 every week with 65% of the ball. So the build is honestly a compromise. The shape and the ideas come from watching modern football, the dials come from paying attention to what actually works in this match engine. Narrow attacking width, much higher tempo, counter attack transition, work the ball into the box, discourage long shots. Those are meta calls and I'm not pretending they aren't. But they're bolted onto a possession structure with a real number nine instead of a deep block with nobody up front, and that combination is what I'd love to see tested properly.
The one thing I still can't fully explain is the defensive setup. High press line of engagement sitting on top of a much lower defensive line, with step up more on top of that. It reads like nonsense on paper. It gave me 16 clean sheets and 0.7 conceded a game. I'd genuinely like to know whether that's the tactic or whether I got lucky for 34 games.
2- The save, fully transparent
OGC Nice, first season, fresh save on 26.3. No signings, nobody sold, nobody loaned out. Squad exactly as the game handed it to me. Training, individual training and opposition instructions all delegated to the assistant, so none of that is me micromanaging in the background. Set pieces are short corners and free kicks kept on the ground, two man routines, which produced 13 league goals. Normal career save, no custom test league. The only things I touched were the tactic and the starting eleven.
The bit I'd point at: only PSG finished above us (91 points), and everyone else was 13 points behind. Second best attack in the league (79, with the third best on 60) and second best defence (25, with the third best on 36). So it wasn't a lucky second place scraped on goal difference, the gap to the rest was pretty comfortable.
Other numbers: 16 clean sheets, 0.7 conceded and 1.0 xGA per game, 2.3 goals per game, 2.1 npxG/90, 18.6 shots per game at 45.7% accuracy, 89.2% pass completion, 53% average possession (only 5th in the league, which honestly surprised me). Most shots in the league at 633 and most tackles won at 515, which tells you the press was doing its job. We also went out in the Champions League round of 16 to Dortmund on aggregate.
3- The shape
In possession: ball playing keeper, two ball playing centre backs, two advanced wing backs pushing on either side of a DM who drops in, two channel midfielders in the half spaces, two inside forwards either side of a deep lying forward. Becomes a 3-2-5 with every lane occupied.
Out of possession: back four, two DMs, wingers tracking back, one man left higher. Everything folds in and gets compact.
I want to watch:
- shorter passing instead of the More Direct
- the striker as a deep lying forward, dropping into midfield rather than
pinning the last line
- the midfield set up to press rather than sit & roam from positions
- individual instructions reworked to dribble more & more pressing
I'd like to put a tactic forward for testing. Quick warning up front: it's not another strikerless low block counter. It's pretty much the opposite, and that's kind of the whole point.
1- What I was chasing
I've been obsessed with what Luis Enrique has been doing at PSG the last couple of seasons. Not the highlight reel stuff, the structure. The way the shape turns into a 3-2-5 the second they have the ball, how the wing backs go and hold the touchline so the wide forwards can drift into the pockets instead of being stranded out there one on one, the way there are always two bodies sitting in front of the back three so the counter press starts the instant the ball goes. It's positional play, but it's aggressive. It doesn't pass sideways waiting for a gap to appear, it passes fast and moves faster.
So that was the target. But I also didn't want to be naive about the patch. 26.3 rewards certain things, and pretending otherwise just means losing 3-1 every week with 65% of the ball. So the build is honestly a compromise. The shape and the ideas come from watching modern football, the dials come from paying attention to what actually works in this match engine. Narrow attacking width, much higher tempo, counter attack transition, work the ball into the box, discourage long shots. Those are meta calls and I'm not pretending they aren't. But they're bolted onto a possession structure with a real number nine instead of a deep block with nobody up front, and that combination is what I'd love to see tested properly.
The one thing I still can't fully explain is the defensive setup. High press line of engagement sitting on top of a much lower defensive line, with step up more on top of that. It reads like nonsense on paper. It gave me 16 clean sheets and 0.7 conceded a game. I'd genuinely like to know whether that's the tactic or whether I got lucky for 34 games.
2- The save, fully transparent
OGC Nice, first season, fresh save on 26.3. No signings, nobody sold, nobody loaned out. Squad exactly as the game handed it to me. Training, individual training and opposition instructions all delegated to the assistant, so none of that is me micromanaging in the background. Set pieces are short corners and free kicks kept on the ground, two man routines, which produced 13 league goals. Normal career save, no custom test league. The only things I touched were the tactic and the starting eleven.
How it went (Ligue 1 2025/26)
2nd place, 78 points, 24 wins 6 draws 4 losses. 79 scored, 25 conceded, +54.
The bit I'd point at: only PSG finished above us (91 points), and everyone else was 13 points behind. Second best attack in the league (79, with the third best on 60) and second best defence (25, with the third best on 36). So it wasn't a lucky second place scraped on goal difference, the gap to the rest was pretty comfortable.
Other numbers: 16 clean sheets, 0.7 conceded and 1.0 xGA per game, 2.3 goals per game, 2.1 npxG/90, 18.6 shots per game at 45.7% accuracy, 89.2% pass completion, 53% average possession (only 5th in the league, which honestly surprised me). Most shots in the league at 633 and most tackles won at 515, which tells you the press was doing its job. We also went out in the Champions League round of 16 to Dortmund on aggregate.
3- The shape
In possession: ball playing keeper, two ball playing centre backs, two advanced wing backs pushing on either side of a DM who drops in, two channel midfielders in the half spaces, two inside forwards either side of a deep lying forward. Becomes a 3-2-5 with every lane occupied.
Out of possession: back four, two DMs, wingers tracking back, one man left higher. Everything folds in and gets compact.
Thanks for reading