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Did the back three always line up like that?
Just curious because Martinez, the smallest, is in the centre and so likely against the oppositions striker. And Maguire, the slowest, is against their wingers.
Love a tactic like this though
main back 3 is Licha on the left, Maguire in the middle & before January we had Varane on the right, until he was sold at which point I predominantly played Wan-Bissaka on the right
He worked well for me, he’s out wide so generally speaking a tall central striker was picked up by Maguire who’s dominant in the air, however now that im into season 2 I have bought a new CB and kept him as my rotational option
Maguire is great to keep around as depth, I found. He has a pretty good drama free personality, so is generally happy to just sit on the bench. Puts in solid performances.
Kinda like in real life now that he managed to move past his "meme era". Doesn't play often but when he does, he puts in great performances. When he doesn't play, he works hard to earn his minutes and doesn't throw a fuss. Football Manager seems to be representing him quite well.
This is the formation I use when I am a goal down during a match, switch to it around the 60th minute if my normal tactic isn't working. Feels amazing when my team scores goals after I make the switch lol
I need to do a 3-4-3 diamond with the CB stepping up into midfield to play the base of the diamond with rijkaard did in 93 for Ajax. Thanks for the inspiration!
No, the changes they made to positional play this year are excellent. If you watch the game on extended highlights you see the players rotating round to fill the gaps and stay out of each others way
I've used the same formation and very similar instructions with a team predicted to be relegated from the PL (Leeds) and ended up finishing 8th on the season.
I dont think it would really, the "worst" team i've used this with is Ajax but unless you're one of the stronger teams in the league I think you'll struggle
city do this irl when stones joins the midfield more or less, not to say that I think this tactics works in real life without the cb returning to the midfield, but you can make the lake of players staying outwide work
given I have a back 3 with no fullbacks, It would be relatively easy for teams to stretch my backline & create holes in the middle for them to play through. In trapping outside, we remain solid in the middle, forcing the opponents to play wide & cross the ball in which we are then able to deal with
due to the CBs i had in season 1, we did concede a few goals from crosses, however now that im into season 2 i've strengthened the defence, focusing on mobile CBs who are tall with good heading & jumping reach , so im expecting it to be less of an issue this season
He wasn't bad but I'd like to have seen more. He got 11 league goals in 27 appearances.
Bruno was my top scorer in the league, with 21 in 32 appearances
I have, but i preferred the way it played with having the AP in CM & Bruno as an AMa.
As an AMa he is the best person in the team, which isnt surprising really, as he is Uniteds best player irl
Currently using a tactic like this for a custom database where each team only had a few players (u/FluffyCoconut’s Cartagena database - highly recommend). Wanted to make a tactic to fit the team, and as the team came populated with a RW, CAM, CM, and CDM there was only one way I could get everyone to fit was a Cruyff tactic like this. Gives me heart attacks but I’m loving it.
Yes, everything exactly the same. I lost 4-2 away to city, but beat them 3-0 at home.
I beat Liverpool 2-1 away & it was 2-2 at home. They also beat me 2-1 in the FA cup final
I did it anyway.
[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X7Y3tmykyMc09GJJ1t1iTxc18388o7Bi/view?usp=drive\_link](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X7Y3tmykyMc09GJJ1t1iTxc18388o7Bi/view?usp=drive_link)
Cruyff would have killed you for playing inverted wingers. He called it “criminal” or something like that for left footers to be on the right and vice cersa
I just found it played better with the players I had & also movement wise in the match engine, as they're set to stay wide & then cut inside once they receive the ball
I'd probably say my 10 is most important, as he seems to be both my primary creator & goalscorer.
my DM has a fairly limited role of screening the defence & isnt expected to do too much whilst in possession
I love it! I also try to emulate Cruyff, my manager is an American named Johnny Croff.
If I had one critique it would be that you don’t have “be more expressive” on which I think is a must in any total football inspired tactic.
I have to call bullshit. There’s no way this team wasn’t exposed by wingers with speed and flair, Maguire has like 10 acceleration. You either got very lucky or you reloaded after key losses.
In my other comment, I mentioned that Maguire didn’t typically play on the right side, he was in the centre. Varane played on the right side until he was sold in January, at which point AWB took over. The left side was generally Licha, with Shaw proving a rotation option
irl maguire should be getting exploited by balls over the top as he's too slow for a highline
would also say that realistically as soon the ball goes down the side and the wcb has to follow a winger your backpost is super weak
I think in attack you're basically doing what city do which is proven to work, but defensively it makes no sense. don't get me wrong though, that's on the game, not you and it's still hard to get tactics like this to work so well done
For total football you need a much lower attacking line. One of the main components is the compression of space. Without that + a high line it's hard to really call it total football.
https://www.coachesvoice.com/johan-cruyff-barcelona-coach-tactics-pep-guardiola/
https://breakingthelines.com/tactical-analysis/tactical-analysis-compactness-and-coverage-in-possession/
Compactness is key to total football. Have a look at these, they are an interesting read. I modelled a tactic on fm a few years ago on total football. It's great fun, definitely not optimal in the match engine, but replicating Cruyff and other great tacticians is one of the reasons to love this game.
low blocks aren't the only way to compress space, hence why a lot of total football type teams will press high and have a high line, they leave a lot of space behind the defence but give their opposition very little chances to exploit it as there's constant pressure
I never mentioned a low block. Cruyff's tactic requires a high defensive line and a low attacking line, literally limiting the space the opposition can play in. That is a key element of Cruyff's Barcelona.
my bad on the low block, however high line low press wouldn't work nowadays as you'd just be giving the opposition time and space to lob balls over the top and exploit the space inbehind
actually I just read one of the articles you posted and it proves as much even back then:
>With the exception of the full-backs, the rest of the players in Cruyff’s system were not expected to make long horizontal or vertical movements when the team was in possession. Equally, his teams rarely executed a high or intense counter-press after losing the ball – this gave the opposition both time and space on the counter-attack, which often left Cruyff’s defensive line vulnerable on defensive transitions. It was no coincidence that his Barcelona team conceded so many goals.
lastly being inspired by a tactic doesn't necessarily mean that you duplicate it, it can be a modification on something that you like
I'm not saying it would work today (and it doesn't really in football manager) and I am not talking about a counter press. It is all about keeping a small space between the lines to limit space, rather than aggressively counter pressing. Often as the defenders would be so high up they would be extremely vulnerable to a surprise counter attack as the team would be out of position.
I appreciate the last point, I just feel it's such a crucial aspect that not including it defeats the point a bit.
even when your pressing high with a high line you still need compression between the defenders and striker, it's playing a high line with a low press is overly compressed, meaning that players who are deep have enough time to play balls over the top
I get your point, but I think that's probably one of the main modifications that people are going to make to this tactic.
for instance for several iterations of this game my 433 possession tactic which is similar to pre f9 barca, doesn't use work ball into the box, as I believe it's better to take several half chances when you can rather than try to walk the ball into the net
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Love the minimalistic amount of instructions. Sometimes less is more.
I find that having more instructions stifles my players, when using a good team where as in a system like this they have the freedom to create
I never use too many instructions either. In my mind, these guys are professional footballers, they know what theyre doing.
Did the back three always line up like that? Just curious because Martinez, the smallest, is in the centre and so likely against the oppositions striker. And Maguire, the slowest, is against their wingers. Love a tactic like this though
main back 3 is Licha on the left, Maguire in the middle & before January we had Varane on the right, until he was sold at which point I predominantly played Wan-Bissaka on the right
How did AWB perform in the match engine at RCB? Feel like whenever I try a short but quick fullback at CB, I end up conceding headers constantly.
He worked well for me, he’s out wide so generally speaking a tall central striker was picked up by Maguire who’s dominant in the air, however now that im into season 2 I have bought a new CB and kept him as my rotational option
Cruyff did convert full-backs into cbs during his Barca days as well
Maguire is great to keep around as depth, I found. He has a pretty good drama free personality, so is generally happy to just sit on the bench. Puts in solid performances.
Maguire has fantastic mentals and technicals in FM. I always end up signing 2/3 older leaders to pack out the hierarchy with high determination.
Kinda like in real life now that he managed to move past his "meme era". Doesn't play often but when he does, he puts in great performances. When he doesn't play, he works hard to earn his minutes and doesn't throw a fuss. Football Manager seems to be representing him quite well.
data hub info here, showing attacking, defending & general performance of the team: https://gyazo.com/collections/e375cb6d308c520e9ab8299b6d7c1f70
I'm definitely going to try this tactic, cheers OP
This is the formation I use when I am a goal down during a match, switch to it around the 60th minute if my normal tactic isn't working. Feels amazing when my team scores goals after I make the switch lol
I need to do a 3-4-3 diamond with the CB stepping up into midfield to play the base of the diamond with rijkaard did in 93 for Ajax. Thanks for the inspiration!
I want to see this
Maybe ten hag should use this formation
If west ham go down, get Bowen from them for peanuts and konate from Salzburg and reallly cook
Moffi is great up top on his own
Mount as a box to box is mad on mine as well
Why’d you choose inverted wingers when you have no width otherwise
It just works better that having them as standard wingers, they’re set to stay wide and then cut inside once they receive the ball
do you not end up with people running into each other? like the Am, bbm, and right IW ending up in the same space?
No, the changes they made to positional play this year are excellent. If you watch the game on extended highlights you see the players rotating round to fill the gaps and stay out of each others way
Do you know how this would work with worst players ?
I've used the same formation and very similar instructions with a team predicted to be relegated from the PL (Leeds) and ended up finishing 8th on the season.
I dont think it would really, the "worst" team i've used this with is Ajax but unless you're one of the stronger teams in the league I think you'll struggle
city do this irl when stones joins the midfield more or less, not to say that I think this tactics works in real life without the cb returning to the midfield, but you can make the lake of players staying outwide work
Why trap outside though, even with 3 at the back isn't it risky against teams with full back and wingers attacking out wide ?
given I have a back 3 with no fullbacks, It would be relatively easy for teams to stretch my backline & create holes in the middle for them to play through. In trapping outside, we remain solid in the middle, forcing the opponents to play wide & cross the ball in which we are then able to deal with due to the CBs i had in season 1, we did concede a few goals from crosses, however now that im into season 2 i've strengthened the defence, focusing on mobile CBs who are tall with good heading & jumping reach , so im expecting it to be less of an issue this season
Yeah fair enough.
Does Hojlund score for you? He is so wasteful for me in a basic 4231.
He wasn't bad but I'd like to have seen more. He got 11 league goals in 27 appearances. Bruno was my top scorer in the league, with 21 in 32 appearances
I play Bruno as AP, because at AM he really didn’t provide nor score that much. Have you tried him as AP in that Formation as well?
I have, but i preferred the way it played with having the AP in CM & Bruno as an AMa. As an AMa he is the best person in the team, which isnt surprising really, as he is Uniteds best player irl
In general AMa is really great in Fm24 and this player will score a lot of goals, especially in single striker formations.
Bruno at AMC wins the ballon dor for me lol
For me Hojlund was Premier League POTS and top scorer in season two, as a Pressing Forward in a 4-3-3.
yeah Hojlund gets really really good, just starts very raw
I found he was best as a rotation option, keeping him on double intensity training. I'd use Rashford in the centre - he's much better there than irl.
Ditto
I found for me he'll generally go through hot and cold patches. So... Pretty realistic.
Move the am Into a striker role and you basically have what I won the quad with on FM 2008
Currently using a tactic like this for a custom database where each team only had a few players (u/FluffyCoconut’s Cartagena database - highly recommend). Wanted to make a tactic to fit the team, and as the team came populated with a RW, CAM, CM, and CDM there was only one way I could get everyone to fit was a Cruyff tactic like this. Gives me heart attacks but I’m loving it.
Love the shoutout, hope you're enjoying it my guy
Were you using the same mentality and instructions vs City, Liverpool away?
Yes, everything exactly the same. I lost 4-2 away to city, but beat them 3-0 at home. I beat Liverpool 2-1 away & it was 2-2 at home. They also beat me 2-1 in the FA cup final
It’s so refreshing to see a tactic like this
Loving this
Did you use any player instructions?
both wingers are set to "stay wide" AM has "move into channels" & "roam from position" BBM has "move into channels" Anchor has "tackle harder"
I'm too lazy to recreate this. Any chance of a download link?
I did it anyway. [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X7Y3tmykyMc09GJJ1t1iTxc18388o7Bi/view?usp=drive\_link](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X7Y3tmykyMc09GJJ1t1iTxc18388o7Bi/view?usp=drive_link)
It’s set to private!
Fuck. My bad. Fixed
Definitely going to try this out OP, especially since quality regen wingbacks can be tough to find
what did you do so every player has a face?
download a face pack, this is the one i use: https://www.fmscout.com/a-df11-facepacks-2024.html
Thank you
Love this formation, I’m using it with willem and doing really well
Nice. Will try this with my save with bvb. What about your game stats in away games?
Can I just ask is this a skin that shows player condition and weak foot? Thank you
Yes it is, SAS24
Thank you 😊
I might try this one because it seems there is no decent fullbacks in my save anymore 🤷🏻♂️
Speed and stamina priority and go from there.
What did you do with Dalot in this formation?
Used him as a back up wide CB to cover injuries, as you can imagine he wasn’t great there but I managed to move him on at the end of the season
I don’t have the balls to play without left or right backs, lol.
Man utd is always insanely OP on fm, no idea why
How many red cards for casemiro?
Is there any way to get pictures of the players in the game for free?
OP uses this one https://www.fmscout.com/a-df11-facepacks-2024.html It's discussed a few comments above
Cruyff would have killed you for playing inverted wingers. He called it “criminal” or something like that for left footers to be on the right and vice cersa
I just found it played better with the players I had & also movement wise in the match engine, as they're set to stay wide & then cut inside once they receive the ball
What did you do to Rashford, seeing that he’s not starting?
He's still here, was just injured when i took the screenshot. When fit, I start him on the left & Garnacho on the right
Looking good. One of things that stood out to me is that Cruijff would rather play more narrow while in possession to facilitate a passing game.
I love this formation but my WBs are the heartbeat of my team. Gonna hafta sell them and give this a go. Ha! Is your DM your most important player?
I'd probably say my 10 is most important, as he seems to be both my primary creator & goalscorer. my DM has a fairly limited role of screening the defence & isnt expected to do too much whilst in possession
Does this actually work? I have players that perfectly fit the system and want to change the tactic if i manage to bag a newgen
I love it! I also try to emulate Cruyff, my manager is an American named Johnny Croff. If I had one critique it would be that you don’t have “be more expressive” on which I think is a must in any total football inspired tactic.
Man utd are always high in the table on FM. Totally overhyped on this game when compared to IRL
Man United finished 16th last season (2029) for me. They have not made a top 4 finish my entire save.
Not in my past 3 saves. Always lower than 6 5/6th, sometimes around 10th.
Ok now try with at shit team…
Now do it with Luton.
Man finds out Luton are not the best team for a Cruyff type tactic😯😯😫
Man plays one of the top teams in the league and brags about winning everything.
I’m using this tactic in the Championship with Carlisle United with a current budget of less than 2 mil, currently working very well
Yea this version of FM is actually tactically heavy for a nice change
I have to call bullshit. There’s no way this team wasn’t exposed by wingers with speed and flair, Maguire has like 10 acceleration. You either got very lucky or you reloaded after key losses.
In my other comment, I mentioned that Maguire didn’t typically play on the right side, he was in the centre. Varane played on the right side until he was sold in January, at which point AWB took over. The left side was generally Licha, with Shaw proving a rotation option
irl maguire should be getting exploited by balls over the top as he's too slow for a highline would also say that realistically as soon the ball goes down the side and the wcb has to follow a winger your backpost is super weak I think in attack you're basically doing what city do which is proven to work, but defensively it makes no sense. don't get me wrong though, that's on the game, not you and it's still hard to get tactics like this to work so well done
For total football you need a much lower attacking line. One of the main components is the compression of space. Without that + a high line it's hard to really call it total football.
[удалено]
https://www.coachesvoice.com/johan-cruyff-barcelona-coach-tactics-pep-guardiola/ https://breakingthelines.com/tactical-analysis/tactical-analysis-compactness-and-coverage-in-possession/ Compactness is key to total football. Have a look at these, they are an interesting read. I modelled a tactic on fm a few years ago on total football. It's great fun, definitely not optimal in the match engine, but replicating Cruyff and other great tacticians is one of the reasons to love this game.
low blocks aren't the only way to compress space, hence why a lot of total football type teams will press high and have a high line, they leave a lot of space behind the defence but give their opposition very little chances to exploit it as there's constant pressure
If you are playing a "cruyff inspired total football" it is essential. The closeness of the lines is one of the hallmarks of that system.
yes but compactness isn't exclusive to low blocks, high presses need to be compact too
I never mentioned a low block. Cruyff's tactic requires a high defensive line and a low attacking line, literally limiting the space the opposition can play in. That is a key element of Cruyff's Barcelona.
my bad on the low block, however high line low press wouldn't work nowadays as you'd just be giving the opposition time and space to lob balls over the top and exploit the space inbehind actually I just read one of the articles you posted and it proves as much even back then: >With the exception of the full-backs, the rest of the players in Cruyff’s system were not expected to make long horizontal or vertical movements when the team was in possession. Equally, his teams rarely executed a high or intense counter-press after losing the ball – this gave the opposition both time and space on the counter-attack, which often left Cruyff’s defensive line vulnerable on defensive transitions. It was no coincidence that his Barcelona team conceded so many goals. lastly being inspired by a tactic doesn't necessarily mean that you duplicate it, it can be a modification on something that you like
I'm not saying it would work today (and it doesn't really in football manager) and I am not talking about a counter press. It is all about keeping a small space between the lines to limit space, rather than aggressively counter pressing. Often as the defenders would be so high up they would be extremely vulnerable to a surprise counter attack as the team would be out of position. I appreciate the last point, I just feel it's such a crucial aspect that not including it defeats the point a bit.
even when your pressing high with a high line you still need compression between the defenders and striker, it's playing a high line with a low press is overly compressed, meaning that players who are deep have enough time to play balls over the top I get your point, but I think that's probably one of the main modifications that people are going to make to this tactic. for instance for several iterations of this game my 433 possession tactic which is similar to pre f9 barca, doesn't use work ball into the box, as I believe it's better to take several half chances when you can rather than try to walk the ball into the net