I always wanted to create a working 343 formation in FM. Year after year they were not working properly and wide center back did not fixed that much.
My last 343 failed the testing challenge so i cleaned the blackboard and started from scratch.
The idea now is for the 3cb and 2 dm work as a support while the wb, am and st working on attack. Despite saying rigid the tactic is quite fluid. Meaning - your wide centre backs will support WB along with you dm. The front 3 will work together, creating some best combination football I've seen in FM. In defense the front 3 press while rest of the team create a zone marking.
In total, I do not see clear weaknesses, most goals conceded are from set pieces or from defenders mistakes. In front, the goals comes mostly from the front 3, either a header or by exploiting channels.
In the chelsea test, the team finished 3rd, which I consider a success as Liv and City are OP AF in fm23.
This is my attempt to replicate the idea of Gasperini's Atalanta while adding Torino's mentality of defensive play. Last season Torino was the tightest team at the with exception of the top 4. This allowed them to upgrade from being a bottom table team in 18/19, 19/20 to a mid-table team. They also managed to win with Milan just recently, scoring 1:0 in the stoppage time, while having only 10 players on the pitch for the last 50 minutes. Out of 33(!) Milans attempts only 8 were on target.
You will not see a lot of goals but this the tight defense allows engaging bigger teams. Especially the box should be air tight. This can be seen on the fixture screenshot. The 2nd part of the Atalanta test season shows them winning with all of the Italy's major clubs. My hope is to this begin the best defensive tactic on this site and conceding the least amount of goals while not being overall trash.
Here is the tactic:
This is the classic 343 idea of play. The back 5 provides safety at the back. The 2 pivots - ball distribution while also engaging at the front. The 2 wide full backs aim at finding the strikers with the crosses, while the 2 AMs - begin the more creative players are looking for space between the defenders. Overall its a good alternative to more offensive 343 on this site, useful for smaller teams or if you are matched against a team of similar size, ex. in CL. I would change the mentality to offensive if you are playing with much smaller teams.
This is my update on my last patch tactic - evolution. It has been changed and re-shaped into what it is now. In short, I found crosses and long balls behind the defenders to be quite OP in this patch. If you watch the WC in Quatar, this seems to be working in real life as well. Japan managed to beat Germany and Spain playing is a similar way. Anyway, tactic is plug and play but will work best with:
CB - Your classic modern CB with the ability to move with the ball and decent passing. WB - Those are very attacking oriented players with some ability to defend. Physical attributes being more important than technical ones. You can see on the screenshot below, they move into AML, AMR when in possession. If you can get a fast guy that can jump that is going to help you a lot when defending crosses. DM - This is your modern HB. A pivot that drops between CBs in build-up phase. In offence he is mostly covering for counter-attacks but also makes himself available for a back pass to retain possession. Can be a re-trained natural modern CB if you have a spare or can't find a good DM. CM - Your playmakers. Technical players, don't have to be fast, but good dribbling/passing is important. Why mezzallas? I find them working well on support and garbage on attack mentality. On support they - surprise - support wide areas, help in defense and play just outside the box, while still going inside on counters or arriving late on crosses. AML, AMR, ST - All 3 should be physical strikers. Fast and strong. A complete forward will work in all 3 positions. Actual technical attributes like finishing are less important than pace, acceleration, strength and jumping. Alternatively a fast dribbler might work as well. Still dribbling skis and pace would be more important than finishing. In defense they should cover FBs. In possession they should look for space in between opposition FB and CB.
In my test Udine finished 3rd, which is outstanding and should match the results I got using Corsair tactic although you will score less but concede less as well.
Wow. That has to be the lowest result in the history... You sure you uploaded the correct version? Seems by your screeshot that it should work much better.
My last 4411 got 46 points which I aim to beat with this tactic. This is my last attempt in this patch.
The goal of the tactic is to do what works best in this patch - overloading sides and having multiple strikers attacking the box. The midfield is on support role as all those attacking wings need a counterbalance. However they still provide some support for the wings.
Regista helps with the build-up, dropping as a third CB when moving out of the box. On offence he is protecting from the counter while making himself available for a pass as well. Occasionally he will make a long ball forward.
FB are supper attacking oriented, sometimes even cutting in the box. Something like Theo Hernandez or Roberto Carlos back in the day.
The 3 strikers work together to create chances for one another. Fast, physical guys are the best.
Goals will come from all 3 strikers as shown below
In my test Torino finished 1st and Atalanta close behind on 3rd.
This is my attempt to create a realistic, modern tactic for FM. Modern as the whole team is engaged in defense (except ST) and whole team is engaged in building up plays / attacking (even CB)
The results are solid. In my test Stuttgart got 2nd. My focus was on defense and getting good looking, realistic football. I feel that 6-3, 7-2 results all the time are not very immersive.
This tactic will work for smaller teams just fine but the better the team the more will be extracted from your players.
Perfect team: CB - Best modern CB you can get. Meaning, fast, strong with ability to pass and dribble. Perfect example is Virgil Van Dijk. FB - Complete full-backs with attacking mindset. Will play on wing but can also cut inside. Think Theo Hernandez from Milan. DM - Your work-horses. Guys will be the lungs of the team. Solid defensive players with passing ability. Ex. Casemiro, Tonali etc. IW - Your 3rd and 4th striker. Will pass, cross, shoot. More of a IF than a winger. Think Leao or Vinicius ST and AMC - Your 2 stikers. The second striker should be more technical, don't have to be strong - passing is important. Think Kaka, Raul. Your ST should be a complete forward - strong, tall and fast. Think Lukaku.
This tactic was created specifically to keep Nottm Forest in Prem. Forest apparently took their ideology from Joseph S - quantity over quality - and bought 23 players. Only after someone told them they can field only 11...
Well after some tweaking - a salvation was born.
The mentality is: if you don't have good defenders - you need more defenders. So 5 at the back it is. The back 3 play wide with DM helping to build up plays. The WBs are key in offence and defense - creating chances from crosses or covering wide areas. The main threat to the goal comes from 2 strikers and 2 midfielders.
In my last 2 holiday tests Forest finished 5th and 9th with 67 and 59 points which on avr. gives a chance to play in Europe which is more than excellent for this team.
The top goal scorers - strikers than mezzalas.
Please note - none of tactics use any near post corner exploits. I just find it unrealistic. So inserting a good corner tactic should improve your results even more.
I've been doing some testing of what works for FM 23. Seems much more difficult to get a over-performing tactic this year. Anyways my first success came with a 4-3-3 formation that would resemble Steven Gerrard's 4-3-3 he used in Rangers and Aston Villa. It's a classic 4-3-3 with 2 inside forwards and wide full-backs.
The threat to the goal comes from 5 players, so there is a lot of versatility here. Meanwhile FBs and CM/DM provides assists.
The tactic is set to standard mentality, aimed to work for mid-level clubs and underdogs that have to utilize superior numbers in offense and defense. For top teams I would suggest picking something more attacking oriented, exploiting individual skill of star-players - especially when playing in the CL.
In the holiday test below Villa finished 3rd but in multiple tests they would avr. 75 points which depending on the season would result in around 4-5th place.
Second test is with Not (rly a) Forest which I found being really difficult to keep in the premier league. Having them finish mid-table is a great success.
I always wanted to create a working 343 formation in FM. Year after year they were not working properly and wide center back did not fixed that much.
My last 343 failed the testing challenge so i cleaned the blackboard and started from scratch.
The idea now is for the 3cb and 2 dm work as a support while the wb, am and st working on attack. Despite saying rigid the tactic is quite fluid. Meaning - your wide centre backs will support WB along with you dm. The front 3 will work together, creating some best combination football I've seen in FM. In defense the front 3 press while rest of the team create a zone marking.
In total, I do not see clear weaknesses, most goals conceded are from set pieces or from defenders mistakes. In front, the goals comes mostly from the front 3, either a header or by exploiting channels.
In the chelsea test, the team finished 3rd, which I consider a success as Liv and City are OP AF in fm23.
This is my attempt to replicate the idea of Gasperini's Atalanta while adding Torino's mentality of defensive play. Last season Torino was the tightest team at the with exception of the top 4. This allowed them to upgrade from being a bottom table team in 18/19, 19/20 to a mid-table team. They also managed to win with Milan just recently, scoring 1:0 in the stoppage time, while having only 10 players on the pitch for the last 50 minutes. Out of 33(!) Milans attempts only 8 were on target.
You will not see a lot of goals but this the tight defense allows engaging bigger teams. Especially the box should be air tight. This can be seen on the fixture screenshot. The 2nd part of the Atalanta test season shows them winning with all of the Italy's major clubs. My hope is to this begin the best defensive tactic on this site and conceding the least amount of goals while not being overall trash.
Here is the tactic:
This is the classic 343 idea of play. The back 5 provides safety at the back. The 2 pivots - ball distribution while also engaging at the front. The 2 wide full backs aim at finding the strikers with the crosses, while the 2 AMs - begin the more creative players are looking for space between the defenders. Overall its a good alternative to more offensive 343 on this site, useful for smaller teams or if you are matched against a team of similar size, ex. in CL. I would change the mentality to offensive if you are playing with much smaller teams.
Test table:
Fixtures:
Individual performances:
Hope you'll enjoy.
This is my update on my last patch tactic - evolution. It has been changed and re-shaped into what it is now. In short, I found crosses and long balls behind the defenders to be quite OP in this patch. If you watch the WC in Quatar, this seems to be working in real life as well. Japan managed to beat Germany and Spain playing is a similar way. Anyway, tactic is plug and play but will work best with:
CB - Your classic modern CB with the ability to move with the ball and decent passing.
WB - Those are very attacking oriented players with some ability to defend. Physical attributes being more important than technical ones. You can see on the screenshot below, they move into AML, AMR when in possession. If you can get a fast guy that can jump that is going to help you a lot when defending crosses.
DM - This is your modern HB. A pivot that drops between CBs in build-up phase. In offence he is mostly covering for counter-attacks but also makes himself available for a back pass to retain possession. Can be a re-trained natural modern CB if you have a spare or can't find a good DM.
CM - Your playmakers. Technical players, don't have to be fast, but good dribbling/passing is important. Why mezzallas? I find them working well on support and garbage on attack mentality. On support they - surprise - support wide areas, help in defense and play just outside the box, while still going inside on counters or arriving late on crosses.
AML, AMR, ST - All 3 should be physical strikers. Fast and strong. A complete forward will work in all 3 positions. Actual technical attributes like finishing are less important than pace, acceleration, strength and jumping. Alternatively a fast dribbler might work as well. Still dribbling skis and pace would be more important than finishing. In defense they should cover FBs. In possession they should look for space in between opposition FB and CB.
In my test Udine finished 3rd, which is outstanding and should match the results I got using Corsair tactic although you will score less but concede less as well.
My last 4411 got 46 points which I aim to beat with this tactic. This is my last attempt in this patch.
The goal of the tactic is to do what works best in this patch - overloading sides and having multiple strikers attacking the box. The midfield is on support role as all those attacking wings need a counterbalance. However they still provide some support for the wings.
Regista helps with the build-up, dropping as a third CB when moving out of the box. On offence he is protecting from the counter while making himself available for a pass as well. Occasionally he will make a long ball forward.
FB are supper attacking oriented, sometimes even cutting in the box. Something like Theo Hernandez or Roberto Carlos back in the day.
The 3 strikers work together to create chances for one another. Fast, physical guys are the best.
Goals will come from all 3 strikers as shown below
In my test Torino finished 1st and Atalanta close behind on 3rd.
This is my attempt to create a realistic, modern tactic for FM. Modern as the whole team is engaged in defense (except ST) and whole team is engaged in building up plays / attacking (even CB)
The results are solid. In my test Stuttgart got 2nd. My focus was on defense and getting good looking, realistic football. I feel that 6-3, 7-2 results all the time are not very immersive.
This tactic will work for smaller teams just fine but the better the team the more will be extracted from your players.
Perfect team:
CB - Best modern CB you can get. Meaning, fast, strong with ability to pass and dribble. Perfect example is Virgil Van Dijk.
FB - Complete full-backs with attacking mindset. Will play on wing but can also cut inside. Think Theo Hernandez from Milan.
DM - Your work-horses. Guys will be the lungs of the team. Solid defensive players with passing ability. Ex. Casemiro, Tonali etc.
IW - Your 3rd and 4th striker. Will pass, cross, shoot. More of a IF than a winger. Think Leao or Vinicius
ST and AMC - Your 2 stikers. The second striker should be more technical, don't have to be strong - passing is important. Think Kaka, Raul. Your ST should be a complete forward - strong, tall and fast. Think Lukaku.
This tactic was created specifically to keep Nottm Forest in Prem. Forest apparently took their ideology from Joseph S - quantity over quality - and bought 23 players. Only after someone told them they can field only 11...
Well after some tweaking - a salvation was born.
The mentality is: if you don't have good defenders - you need more defenders. So 5 at the back it is. The back 3 play wide with DM helping to build up plays. The WBs are key in offence and defense - creating chances from crosses or covering wide areas. The main threat to the goal comes from 2 strikers and 2 midfielders.
In my last 2 holiday tests Forest finished 5th and 9th with 67 and 59 points which on avr. gives a chance to play in Europe which is more than excellent for this team.
The top goal scorers - strikers than mezzalas.
Please note - none of tactics use any near post corner exploits. I just find it unrealistic. So inserting a good corner tactic should improve your results even more.
I've been doing some testing of what works for FM 23. Seems much more difficult to get a over-performing tactic this year. Anyways my first success came with a 4-3-3 formation that would resemble Steven Gerrard's 4-3-3 he used in Rangers and Aston Villa. It's a classic 4-3-3 with 2 inside forwards and wide full-backs.
The threat to the goal comes from 5 players, so there is a lot of versatility here. Meanwhile FBs and CM/DM provides assists.
The tactic is set to standard mentality, aimed to work for mid-level clubs and underdogs that have to utilize superior numbers in offense and defense. For top teams I would suggest picking something more attacking oriented, exploiting individual skill of star-players - especially when playing in the CL.
In the holiday test below Villa finished 3rd but in multiple tests they would avr. 75 points which depending on the season would result in around 4-5th place.
Second test is with Not (rly a) Forest which I found being really difficult to keep in the premier league. Having them finish mid-table is a great success.