Zapbulon Strikerless Magic (3SS)

This is a tactic tested numerous times and achieving great success with many different teams (including West Ham & Napoli) but originally created for Manchester United. The tactic repeatedly wins the league in the first season for Man United and gets them deep in the Champions league (2 finals & 3 titles in 3 simulations).

It is very transition-oriented and defensively solid. The two Segundo Volantes move the ball with urgency while the 3 shadow strikers do runs behind the back of the defenders who are constantly overloaded. Scores many on the counter and provides joy to watch the type of football your team plays

Physically imposing players in the midfield 3 work best. Wingers can be played in the left/right SS position and any forward can play as the middle SS. It is absolute magic when it comes to squad building because you basically need players for 2 positions on the pitch (excl. Gk+D). All wingers and strikers can be used as AMC. When you need to rotate you can use the Volantes as SS and vice versa. A very small squad can go all the way in a season.

If you go the route of teaching your faster DMs to play as WBs as well you can really, really trim down the size of the squad. E.g. Valverde and Camavinga can play great as RB/LB and VOL/RGA. You don't really need fancy playmakers with this one, even Maxence Lacroix had great performances as a Volante with this one (I know, weird)

You can hear more about it and see it in action here:


Man Utd Lineup:


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