Tactics My dabble into Asymmetrical.

[Aaron Thornton]

Having been recently inspired by the genius that is @BatiGoal, thanks to his article on the Art of Assymetrical formations, I decided to attempt to make one of my own, the article is below:

If you haven't already, I highly recommend giving this a read as it is a great in-depth article. 

 

 

The Formation:

The formation would make a lesser mortal throw up in his honey infested Cheerios, nonetheless this will baffle the 'farmers league' and yes your right, testing with PSG is a bit of a cop out, but having no experience in the asymmetrical side of FMM, it meant I wasn't very confident that I could succeed and so, with our tail between our legs, we jetted to Paris for this adventure. 

The Shape:

We at the 'cop out academy' like to play keep-ball, so we look to control possession with narrow width, a normal tempo and we want our stars to express themselves in possession (however d**k pics would be frowned upon) express only on the pitch with the football...oh, that's 'expose' sorry but I can't delete what I've already typed. 

The Defense:

A deep defensive line, don't ask me why, I just thought we should play with a deep back line. Pressing All Over the pitch, your not in the 21st century if you don't press all over (it's the modern way). Normal tackling, we don't want the farmers being unable to harvest their spuds or tend to their cows just because Neymar fancied a two-footer cruncher on one of his moody days. No Offside Trap because the back line sit deep and no Time Wasting because we don't want to waste the fans money watching people being c*nts in the corner or staying down injured after the opposition dared to breath in our players direction. 

The Attack:

Perhaps the Achilles heel of any tactic as getting the attack wrong can lead to disastrous results for even the best FMM managers, but getting the attack right can bring glory even to Newcastle United (I'm sorry, its the Whyte and Mackay talking) Anyway... we will look for the overlap to keep the width wherever possible and work into box as we don't want any old Tom, Dick and Harry having a pop from anywhere they want, Short passing all over the field as we don't possess strong aerial attackers, but in Mbappe, Son and Neymar we have tricky, quick and clever forwards. 

 

Who we bought and sold:

Sergej is the stalwart of any successful team on FMM, Heung Min-Son arrived in January once Verratti decided he didn't like me as a person or a manager (f*ck you midget). Coman made the RW spot his own, while Maitland-Niles' excellent versatility from the midfield to defence was very appealing. Krepin Diatta was also great cover for the wingback, Winger or Inside Forward role and lastly Jonathan David could play, AP, T or IF roles in the team, who doesn't love versatility?! 

The results:

Now making a tactic is all well and good, but if the tactic can't score a prossie in a brothel then frankly what are you doing with your life?! 

The farmers league has been conquered, a water tight defense, allowing Mbappe and Co. to run rampant. 

Spoiler

A domestic clean sweep, including a complete stomping of Stade Brestois. 

Europe:

Now winning everything in France with the favourites isn't that special, PSG are often measured on how they perform in Europe, so here's how we done:

Easy group stage, our only loss being against Atalanta at the Parc Des Princes rather surprisingly. 

Our first major test:

A very impressive result, going up against Simeone's men:

And crashing back to earth like a lead balloon, we couldn't convert enough of our plethora of chances, Atleti were ruthless in front of goal. On any other day we win that game comfortably, chalk that up to being FMM'd. 

 

Players Performance:

As expected, the majority of the goals come from the IF, T, BBM and AP. 

Assists all over the pitch with Di Maria as a BBM topping the charts. 

As stated above Son was signed in January and quite frankly he was fantastic 14 goals and 5 assists in just 22 games, picking up 7 PoM awards, had he been with us from day one, we may have seen him being right up there with Neymar and Mbappe in the goals scored department. 

 

 

What have I learned:

The Tactic was fairly successful with the capitulation vs Atleti being a major blip that left me pondering what could've been. Anyway Asymmetrical formations are very intriguing to watch develop on the match engine, one thing I did spot was the BBM (Di Maria) would drift out to the left, with the IWB (Bernat) and the IF (Son) drifting in-field, thus Di Maria would become a Winger of sorts and look to get crosses in or provide another angle for passes leading to another little triangle, keeping the width on the left side with Coman at RW keeping the width on the right. The main attacking threat would come with the T (Mbappe) the AP (Neymar) and the IF (Son) exchanging positions, making a muddle of the opposition defenders with their movement and quick interchanges, not knowing who to mark was a massive factor for this system leading to plenty of clear cut chances and thus leading to goals. 

 

 

In conclusion, going Asymmetrical makes watching the EME quite fun, to see an unconventional shape go to work on the CPU is fun and makes you think very differently about player roles combinations. I lack the mental capability to think of an original name for the tactic, so if you fancy dropping some name suggestions that would be greatly appreciated and maybe having read this thread and Bati's take on asymmetry in FMM, you might feel inspired to try one of your own, thanks for reading and if you want to test this tactic in the lead up to FMM 2021, then work away and feel free to post results.