Tactics 4-2-3-1/4-2-1-3 - Stealin' Goals, Stealin' Tactics

[akbrim]

Hey folks, better late than never, I decided to share for your perusal my mish-mash of other people's successful tactics to create my own bastardized plans to lead the Reds to grab some silverware.

First off, credit where it is due:

@PriZe Here's his PD21 tactic for your own viewing: 

 

 

@Albegra Here's the Forest Green Lawnmower: 

 

 

After reading several @BatiGoal posts, I decided to look into different setups for home/away matches, especially the tackling setting. Anecdotally I find that using the Commited Tackling setting is a god-send at home, but away or on neutral fields it catches so much yellow I feel like I went through a mustard carwash.

 

HOME TACTICS

I decided on a modification to the @PriZe PD21 tactic for my home setup, but pushing the wingers up to create a trio of doom for my opponents up front, and going with a CM instead of BWM just because I like to have one guy in the middle of the pitch who's always going to be where he's supposed to be.

Here's the formation:

 

To quote @PriZe  "I noticed that even when barca came to visit me, the went on defensive mentality and spread play via the wings. And almost every other club, so much for originality on the EME ;-) "

This is so true, I found with both home and away tactics, going center focus (as well as direct, because who cares about possession when you're up 3 goals?) was far superior to mixed focus/short passing. Your mileage may vary, but try it before you discount it.

Here's the tactics:

Again, since this is our home tactic, we're going full press/trap, committed tackling, and always balanced to start the match.

Once I'm up 2 or 3 goals, I'll usually turn off the press/trap, go defensive/counter, and drop into a CM/DLP/DM as BWM triangle to really give the opposing manager fits. I also usually flip my WBs to FB and my SK to G at the same time, but maybe I'm just a turtle at heart.

 

AWAY TACTICS

This is where @Albegra's Lawnmower really shines for me, with the formation unchanged:

Here we are more traditional 4-2-3-1, with FB instead of WB, and no Sweeper Keeper since we're running press, but no trap.

Tactics:

 

As noted above, press but no trap, we're going short GK Dist because I like my defense, but you can change it if you're shaky with distribution from the back.

The big change from the @Albegra formation comes with incorporating @PriZe's thoughts on opposition tactics. They're gonna run flanks almost every time again both of this formation, so we're going up the middle, and we're going direct because Fortune Favors the Bold.

I never thought I'd be making a tactics post, so I don't have a ton of results to share, but please check out each of the fine original posts to see what they can accomplish. I've won every piece of silver that Klopp could every hope to bring home to Anfield, and it's all thanks to you fine folks who came up with smart tactics.

My only complaint is that most of my goals come from the IF's, so this wouldn't work very well for a 1k, but if you're just trying to pick up points, I think it's pretty tough to beat with the right personnel.

TL;DR - I'm a filthy tactic thief, and I'm not ashamed of it. @BatiGoal, @PriZe and @Albegra are all very smart players, and I wanted to share how I took what I learned from them and made adjustments to fit my squad/mentality. I hope the original authors take this complement without offense, as all credit goes to them.

 

[FuddledFox]

Is it stealing or is it inspiration? Very good write mate.

[akbrim]

4 minutes ago, FuddledFox said:

Is it stealing or is it inspiration? Very good write mate.

Let's call it a little of both

[PriZe]

Awesome mate! Really like the write up! Thanks for mentioning me, i am honoured! And what you have done is my goal with sharing my tactics and writing about them, get people playing and experimenting

So defo no steal but inspiration

For 1kc the inf's indeed won't help, switching to wingers or wide apm with an advanced forward will help you. 

[Rams1884]

Great post mate. Spot on about the home/ away match settings ( best to keep the AI guessing). Interestingly enough I've noticed that different formations suit different squads/ players and even the most unfashionable ones can work provided you have the players. For example I'm currently using the flat 4-4-2 with the only change being one of my CM's as a BWM ( home/ away settings in place) and my Blackburn side are tearing apart the championship (despite being awful in reality). Also I've found if used correctly and not over-used for the same player, the praise last performance option can really work wonders.

[BatiGoal]

Aren't we all thieves in that case  nah one inspires the next etc. Well done!

Now let's see if these still work in FMM18