If you were a professional manager: tell me about your tactics (in a nutshell)

A variation of Cruyff's/Pep's ideals.

I'd love to dominate the ball. Press after possession is lost, but after 5-7 seconds, retreat to more conventional defending.

I'd want my team to almost always move in unison though during each pass.

Favoured formation:

3-3-3-1

Keeper: ball playing

Defence: 3 tough markers, comfortable on the ball, 2 comfortable in wide areas. Only center defender allowed to hit long. Or switch ball to alternate flank.

First line of 3 midfielders:
A deep lying playmaker and 2 fullbacks/wide midfielders: hunt for ball as a pack. Close passing lanes. Loads of short passing . only dlp allowed to switch ball across flanks and hit long passes.

Defensive line and first midfield line use box defence: (opponent on the ball always faces two players, dribbler never followed. He beats his man, beaten man looks for player making off the ball run as others cover)

Second line of midfielders: 2 wide men and a 10. Interchange of position. Short passing. Engage high press. Close passing lanes tactically all the time.

Lone striker: a player capable of bringing others Into play. Always high up pitch.


Possession based. Quick in transitions. Crossing merchants. Both high , low and cut backs. Overlapping from wide dms....

Set piece routine mastery

Alternative formation

4-2-3-1: with a Carrick type and a keane type as the double pivot. Rotating front 4. High press.

4-4-2, find the next petit and vieira for midfield, a dignified suarez and a focused Duncan Ferguson up top, andy robertson x 2 on both fullback positions, barnes on one wing, Djalminha on the other, Sami Hyypia and Van Dijk in the centre, Alisson in goal.

Physical, aggressive, fast and skilful, with a bit of character. Bit of everything about them, good balance between defence and attack. More direct than patient. In possession, focus on getting the ball into the final third to make something as quickly as possible.

We'd win a few titles, but not in a totally dominant fashion, and be remembered for the ages for our swagger and grit.

edit - on the bench: Eidur Gudjohnson, Nicky Summerbee, Paul Merson with a sounder head on his shoulders, James Milner, Ronny Johnsen, Nathan Clyne and Jens Lehmann.

Old school 4-4-2 ala 1999 with 2 pure wingers, 2 strikers who have great understanding of each other

A 4-4-2 akin to Diego Simeone at Atletico would be my dream - rock solid defence, grafters in midfield, and lightning fast counter attacks.

But I'd still love to have a team like ours in 1999 - where we still counter attacked more often than not.

It always depends on the players you have at your disposal.

A) Have a philosophy
B) Always say the word

LVG except with world class players in every position. We would dominate even City.

Simple hoofball. Then sit back and listen to pundits debate all day trying to make sense of the philosophy, transitions of play, quadrilateral-gesta etc.

This is why Big Sam is so well loved.

Score more than them.

Jacob said:

A) Have a philoshophy
B) Always say the word

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Added a letter for authenticity

1. Have better players
2.
3.
4.
5. Profit

Attack the space, make runs, switch wings, make goals.

Something something something.

433

I'd play an irresponsibly high line with 2 unconventional centre backs in the mold Traore and Zaha (track runners).

Play a semi press, where all available passes are unavailable due to tight marking but give the player on the ball enough time to think he can make a successful long ball.

Basically just bait long balls.

In possession, interchangeable positions by everyone but the centre backs.

Pass and move, keep it short and move the ball as quickly as possible. Whole team follow the ball to shrink the pitch, other than the fullbacks staying wide ready for a switch.

Tactics would be to play like Milan when they beat Barca 4-0. Pure and simple.

Pay the other team's cooks to poison their meal before the game

giorno said:

Pay the other team's cooks to poison their meal before the game

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How European. Respect!

3x5x1x1

Very oriented based possession system, build-up from the back

GK: Sweper-keeper, good on passing
DCR: Left footed center back, to be more comfortable on approaching cut inside movements. Must be relatively quick and able to carry the ball if needed.
DCC: Hard mofo. Tall, strong and powerful who will be more conservative on his pressing.
DCL: similar to CBR but with right foot.
MCDef: More positional defender midfielder. Should aid the back three when needed when facing front three systems that rely on mobile forwards, and be more a defensive midfielder when facing different systems.
MCR and MCL: multi-tasking all round midfielders. Will provide defensive cover both at center and wings, runs from behind and offensive width support whenever is necessary.
MR and ML: Hybrid players between wingback and winger. These players will give width when attack and provide cover to the flank when defending. We will need players with tons of stamina, good to decent dribling and good crossing delivery. They won't be inverted wingers because I would need them to give us width.
AMC: The guy with a free role to do what he wants. Will work like a mix of a false 9 and playmaker.
Striker: A good all round striker that will also have a free roaming role, but being concerned to provide depth to the team for counters.


----------------------GK--------------------
---------------------DCC-------------------
---------DCR------------------DCL---------
---------------------MCDef-----------------
---------MCR------------------MCL---------
MR---------------------------------------ML
---------------------MAC-------------------
---------------------Stk--------------------

Positioning in this strategy is the main key, because it's very easy to spread the back three or the midfield and become exposed. The whole idea of using a 1x4x1 midfield is that we can apply a very good pressure and have a lot of bodies to block to cut a lot of passing lines.
The three at the back would provide us cover for through balls, that's why it's important for the "side" center backs to have some speed, so they won't get caught often out of position trying to cover a pass from deep.

If we needed to push more, one of the center backs could incorporate the attacking movements and the pressure block would be higher. Our MCR and MCL would had to do more runs from behind to create space and move opposition players out of position, while the MCDf and the CB will provide a safe heaven to recycle possession on the midfield.

If we are truly desperate, put in an extra striker and become a 3x3x4ish kind of strategy. This time we had to be more direct until the ball reach the last third of the pitch, because we have more people upfront, the ball needs to get there more quickly to avoid being overrun at the back when holding possession.

If we were one goal upfront, the all the CM's would be more conservative by keeping their positioning more disciplined even when attacking. The MR / ML would offer width only if the ball is on their side, but they would rather do overlap movements than carrying the ball.

0-0-11

I think in modern day era, you need 3/4 different tactics if you want to win titles.

4-2-3-1 for me.

Would need a RW who stays wide and has skill with alot of pace, and tracks. Does not have to be top quality

Top draw LW e.g. Hazard who can run with ball, cut in, go wide.

CAM and ST who have a link up will press tactically

Have my CM's to sit back and dictate play, one CM to stay central and one to cover the LW who won't track as much. Alot of 1-2 touch passing even if its passing to the nearest player, opens up space to ping to the RW to exploit space.

In Fifa, I usually sell everyone over like 26 or so and fill the team with young high potential players and play a fast counter attacking 4-3-3 with two attacking mids and a defensive mid. Attacking full backs and two tall centre backs, the idea is to get up the field as fast as possible.

So basically the same tactics everyone uses in Fifa. Wouldn't work in real life though

FM is a possession based game with defensive full backs and two ball playing CB's, a deep lying playmaker (or regista, but there's not really any great regista's at the moment) to spread the play, b2b mid and an attacking centre midfielder that can break forward. One inside forward and one classic winger, with a striker that floats wide. Wingers usually switch sides. Against top teams or teams better than the one I'm using I switch to a diamond midfield with an attacking midfielder, switching him back to centre midfield if we take the lead. Attacking midfielder usually has a license to shoot on sight, but mostly the tactic is the work it into the box using the full width of the pitch.

3-3-3-1 basically what Bielsa used to hold. Imo it's the most tweakable formation as of current 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 basically grew out of it.

- Sweeper keeper that can break lines with ball distribution
- Overlapping ball playing centre backs to create overloads on the pitch.
- Centre back to momentaraily stay in the box to carry an aerial presence once the opportunity presents itself


It's a 3-5-2 formation on paper. The player in the middle of the back three is a Bonucci type. Right sided overlapping ball playing CB is in the mould of Jerome Boateng, and the left sided one is in the mould of Sergio Ramos. Ramos would be the one that momentaraily stays around the box in open play once the opportunity presents itself.

- Inverted full backs. Instead of the full backs making overlaps, they make runs infield vacating not just the half spaces but also runs in behind the defence that you'd typically expect from an inside forward. An example of a full back consistently making infield runs would be how Bellerin was used at the 2017 U21 Euros who frequently got into goal scoring positions. Roberto Carlos type coached to get into more goal scoring positions. The inverted full backs would be expected to get a minimum of 10 league goals.

- Defensive midfielder has exceptional dribbling ability, and one of, if not, the best dribbler in the team

- In the half spaces you have midfielders inherently capable of playing as wingers

Left sided midfielder think Di Maria. As a central midfielder for Benfica he would drift into wide areas. He did the same under Ancelotti in the 2013/14 season with this being one of the more notable examples The right sided midfielder would be in the mould of Bernardo Silva.

I would play a formation that included seven forwards, two half-backs and one full-back.

Chipper said:

Work hard. Have players with experience, with pace, who are comfortable on the ball. Subs might come on and win the game so they have to concentrate and watch the game. Give the fans summat to shout about.

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Is that real? It Sounds like a design pitch i did whilst still a trainee at work, and we had two people sick last minute. I remember standing there not having a clue and just standing at the front waffling, generalising and not really making any points.

Sunday league equivalent tactics;

Ideally a keeper over 5'10" at a minimum who can reach the half way line with a boot.
Ideally at least one midfield/forward/full back over about 6'1" or with a good leap to aim all goalkeeper kicks at.
If better than opposition play 3-4-1-2, their wingers will spend so much time defending they'll be too tired to attack down the sides.
Have a number 10 who can find space and get turned, encourage runs from deep.
If worse than opposition narrow 4-1-4-1. Show them inside where 8/10 pitches will be shite. Usually these kind of teams will have a striker who played at a higher level who is 38 but amazing at holding up the ball or dropping into space, leaving your centre backs extremely confused. Instruct DM to cut off balls into him. DM should also be your best passer.

Generally have at least one player with pace in attack, lob balls over the top for him to run after. Develop corner/throw in strategies.
Try and implement a culture of fitness, but also pints. Balance is key.

High press. Kick and rush if it was a PL or German team. I'd try copy Pep if I had his budget.

Southern Europe. Barcelona style and a fitness program to catch up with the kick and rush PL.

Chipper said:

Work hard. Have players with experience, with pace, who are comfortable on the ball. Subs might come on and win the game so they have to concentrate and watch the game. Give the fans summat to shout about.

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Inspirational.

A strong central spine is vital to any winning team. I would therefore play 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1. The one would sweep with the one in front attacking the ball, the one in front of that covering across to one flank as necessary, the one in front covering across to the other. The one in front of that would be the playmaker, feeding the one in front whose job it would be to feed the ball into the one in front. He could then find one of the three ones in front, who would have free roles. I would make sure to say "philosophy" a lot during press conferences and in training.

Proper shithouse side who no one likes and winds every team they play against up.

4-3-2-1 when we defend - compact, but engaging high. When we attack, full backs to fly forward and CDM to drop in to make a back 3. Inside forwards ideally, because full backs will provide the width.

Good Jesus that Giggs video. Talk about super motivating.

Sir alex 06-09 tactics. Fast, counter attacking football. Even Jose's 2011-12 madrid were very good to watch, especially their transition from defence to attack.

Defensive low block with the fastest counter attacking known to man.

Without the ball it's a 5-4-1, compact shape of two banks.

For every goal conceded the players are docked a weeks wages.

UnofficialDevil said:

Mourinho has set a new trend hasn't he. Were going to be talking about high block low block compact block for good.

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I mean it’s been around long before Jose broke on to the scene and Klopp mentions it all the time. High block, mid block, low block.

Guardiola + Sacchi + Ajax 1994

My style

A Mixture of Samba football , football oranje ( 70s , 80s 90s ) 90s italian Defence, and De Gea .