Help Midfielder role advice

[Elliott]

I am playing a career where I've decided to focus on playing a 4-3-1-2 formation, that is, with no wide midfielders or attackers. I settled on it as the club I started career at had better central midfielders than wingers and a few seasons in I am committed to this as I have sold/moved on all my wingers!

Tactics:

Team Mentality: attacking

Width: narrow

Tempo: fast

Creative freedom: expressive

Defensive line: balanced

Closing down: all over

Tackling: normal

No offside trap or time wasting

Final third: work into box

Passing: short and central

Gk distribution: mixed

 

My question is what roles to ask my midfielders to do. My attacking midfielder is set to advanced playmaker, but what about the central 3? Any suggestions?

I've not had an unsuccessful career so far. I am managing UCD in Ireland by the way and just ran away with the league in first season in top flight.  But I feel my midfield is the one area that doesn't work as well. Any suggestions appreciated, thank you.

Edited February 17, 2019 by Elliott

[Nucleus]

Have you considered changing your AP into an AM? That easy you could slot an AP into the midfield three alongside a B2B and one of the defensive roles?

[Elliott]

6 minutes ago, Nucleus said:

Have you considered changing your AP into an AM? That easy you could slot an AP into the midfield three alongside a B2B and one of the defensive roles?

Thanks for the suggestion. Would that be better than playing an AP in the central 3 as well?

[Nucleus]

Just now, Elliott said:

Thanks for the suggestion. Would that be better than playing an AP in the central 3 as well?

I’m not saying it would be better. It could be, it may not be. Try and experiment with a few different combinations. My rule of thumb for midfield is always have one defensive, one neutral and one attacking role. I hardly ever use more than one AP in the middle of the park as I find they get in each other’s way. Ideal flat midfield is probably AP, DLP/BWM, BBM. Then you could experiment with the attacking midfielders role. Try a Shadow striker there maybe?

[Elliott]

14 minutes ago, Nucleus said:

I’m not saying it would be better. It could be, it may not be. Try and experiment with a few different combinations. My rule of thumb for midfield is always have one defensive, one neutral and one attacking role. I hardly ever use more than one AP in the middle of the park as I find they get in each other’s way. Ideal flat midfield is probably AP, DLP/BWM, BBM. Then you could experiment with the attacking midfielders role. Try a Shadow striker there maybe?

Thanks. I'll give that a try. I've signed a number of new midfielders so will have a greater ability to experiment. One friendly so far I played ap - bwm - cm and dominated the game but didn't get good particularly ratings and the chances didn't come from the middle.

[Elliott]

Just to feed back on this. Experimented with different combinations and found varied success. Think its as much down to the players I had as anything. I pretty much settled on two bbms and a bwm, with ap in front as that suited the players with the best attributes, but also had success playing one of the bbms as a dlp at times.

Its been a successful season. After a shaky start which saw us (UCD) dumped out of the leinster cup in the 1st round and too many drawn league games, we rallied and form improved. Summer transfer window rolled along and i was able to make a huge number of significant signings to improve the quality of the squad, particularly in midfield, although did lose my goal a game striker to Blackburn. 

Just in time for the gruelling champions league qualifying rounds in which i saw off the champions of Romania (cfr cluj), Bosnia (zrinjski), Croatia (Dinamo Zagreb) and finally Czech Republic (slavia Prague) to qualify for the group stage. Included a 5-1 win in Prague. Also went on a long winning streak in the league.

First game in champs league was a trip to Camp Nou in which we lost 4-2, then grabbed our first ever group stage win at home to Napoli. We managed to secure home draws to PSV and Barcelona, but being unbeaten at home wasn't enough to avoid finishing bottom of the group as we lost all of our away games.

All in all, a european campaign far exceeding expectations and a domestic treble means that whatever I did in midfield worked well enough!

Now to decide whether I persist in Ireland having won everything there is to win domestically, or to move on to a new challenge. Setting my eyes on taking another small team from obscurity to domination, perhaps north of the border. But seeing if I could improve on this season's European adventure and seeing if I can improve on Ireland's coefficient enough to eventually get an extra berth also sounds interesting.

Anyone want to help me decide?

Thanks Nucleus for your help. I also find your beginner's guide very helpful!