Tactics 4-2-3-1 Unbeaten Season in League One

[Albionic]

Welcome to a nice little tactic I used in my Redknapping challenge, which you can find here:

This tactic got me lots of goals with a solid defence, ideal for those looking to push up from the lower leagues. I haven't tested this exact version with any, but I did use a similar version as Roma in TTR

So, here it is

The AF works very well for this formation, as it enables others to be brought into play and score, whilst also scoring a few themselves. The IF's provide both goals and assists, while the AP and RP interchange regularly and provide the creative spark, playing through balls for the front 3. The BWM helps in defence and also links defence and attack very well, while the WB surge forward to provide width and crossing. The BPD and CD is my favourite defensive combo this year, the CD often getting 10+ interceptions a game. I would use a SK at a higher level, as well as all over pressing, but the players in the lower leagues are slower and less fit, and I found I conceded more goals that way. I tried to keep things as basic as possible, mainly to encourage diverse methods of scoring in attack and make sure players weren't dragged out of position in defence.

In terms of attributes, the AF needs to be decently quick, have high shooting and movement, and aerial is an added bonus. other than that, just the basic attributes highlighted in the roles.

Hope this tactic works for you and thanks for reading!

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Albionic

[suman]

What is the instruction for striker and AMC in that corner setup ?

Edited March 25, 2021 by suman

[hhooo]

I've found that with a CD/BPD combo, the CD is often the one who plays more long passes and gets more key passes/assists as well, while the bdpd generally plays safer, shorter balls. Have you noticed the same? Like the roles are almost reversed when paired together. 

[DLC]

Great write up @Albionic mate!

[Albionic]

15 hours ago, suman said:

What is the instruction for striker and AMC in that corner setup ?

AMC is on mark keeper, ST is on Lurk outside area

13 hours ago, hhooo said:

I've found that with a CD/BPD combo, the CD is often the one who plays more long passes and gets more key passes/assists as well, while the bdpd generally plays safer, shorter balls. Have you noticed the same? Like the roles are almost reversed when paired together. 

I have always used that combination, purely for defensive reasons as 2 BPD always goes wrong for me, and now I am looking at it, you are right, the CD does seem to be playing more key passes and assists, and trying more risky passes. 

7 hours ago, DLC said:

Great write up @Albionic mate!

Thanks mate 😁

[Schwantz34]

I run a 4-2-3-1 that's so far going well, and the player roles are exactly the same as yours. Instructions are very different though.

It's interesting how some of us have stuff that's similar in some ways then very different in others. Fascinates me to see the different approaches people have to the game,

[Albionic]

22 hours ago, Schwantz34 said:

I run a 4-2-3-1 that's so far going well, and the player roles are exactly the same as yours. Instructions are very different though.

It's interesting how some of us have stuff that's similar in some ways then very different in others. Fascinates me to see the different approaches people have to the game,

Yeah, it always interests me the different ways people get success. I usually end up with similar instructions, but I usually adapt to the players I have at my disposal. 4-2-3-1 is very good this year, although not actually my favourite at the moment!

[Albionic]

2 hours ago, LiamTaylor said:

Do you think it will work if u get promoted to sky bet championship as well or not @Albionic 

Yes mate, currently using it for another career with a team in the spanish top division, and its working very well there as well. As long as you have good players for the roles, I imagine it will work well at most levels!

[Guest]

Love the tactic however my roaming playmaker seems to get pretty poor ratings even though he's one of my best players.

[Albionic]

47 minutes ago, eekim28 said:

Love the tactic however my roaming playmaker seems to get pretty poor ratings even though he's one of my best players.

Try using him as a DLP instead, that seems to help, although I guess it just depends on the player.

[Schwantz34]

1 hour ago, eekim28 said:

Love the tactic however my roaming playmaker seems to get pretty poor ratings even though he's one of my best players.

Buy Marko Rog he's a very good RP.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Schwantz34 said:

Buy Marko Rog he's a very good RP.

I'm in 2035 and using this fella

[Schwantz34]

1 hour ago, eekim28 said:

I'm in 2035 and using this fella

Positioning isn't great and could be why he's not performing as well as you'd like.

High stats elsewhere are great but if he's frequently out of position or not quick enough to get there it could be an issue. Also has low stamina so won't be at his most effective for long, as he tires quick.

Edited April 6, 2021 by Schwantz34

[Albionic]

11 minutes ago, Schwantz34 said:

Positioning isn't great and could be why he's not performing as well as you'd like.

High stats elsewhere are great but if he's frequently out of position or not quick enough to get there it could be an issue. Also has low stamina so won't be at his most effective for long, as he tires quick.

Would echo this, Play as a DLP instead, requires a lot less stamina and will enable him to be more creative and use his best attributes (passing, creativity)

[Guest]

Cheers guys. Gonna switch him up to a dlp and hopefully get the best out of him

[Schwantz34]

As you know from an earlier post, I was using a 4-2-3-1 system with identical player positions but different instructions back in April. Just been promoted to the Championship on a separate save with Peterborough using one of my other tactics (wasn't 4-2-3-1 though), and so I'm going to give this a try @Albionicand see how it does for my teams first EFL Championship season.

[Albionic]

3 hours ago, Schwantz34 said:

As you know from an earlier post, I was using a 4-2-3-1 system with identical player positions but different instructions back in April. Just been promoted to the Championship on a separate save with Peterborough using one of my other tactics (wasn't 4-2-3-1 though), and so I'm going to give this a try @Albionicand see how it does for my teams first EFL Championship season.

Always good to have people testing out tactics thanks mate, let me know how you get on. Also a dlp cm combo works quite well as well.

[Schwantz34]

On 03/05/2021 at 20:06, Albionic said:

Always good to have people testing out tactics thanks mate, let me know how you get on. Also a dlp cm combo works quite well as well.

It's not working for me at all. Taking heavy defeats almost every game. Going to revert back to my 4-1-2-2-1 and try to steady things. May go back to yours later.

[Felix_is_king]

Is this tactic still very efficient even this late into the game or would I have to change stuff?

[Albionic]

On 05/05/2021 at 10:50, Schwantz34 said:

It's not working for me at all. Taking heavy defeats almost every game. Going to revert back to my 4-1-2-2-1 and try to steady things. May go back to yours later.

Wow, thats not the best! I wonder why that is? How good is your squad relative to the league? And did you try using a DLP and CM instead of RP and BWM?

1 hour ago, Felix_is_king said:

Is this tactic still very efficient even this late into the game or would I have to change stuff?

Yeah, it should be, but adding time-wasting and possibly going slow tempo may help.

[Schwantz34]

1 hour ago, Albionic said:

Wow, thats not the best! I wonder why that is? How good is your squad relative to the league? And did you try using a DLP and CM instead of RP and BWM?

Yeah, it should be, but adding time-wasting and possibly going slow tempo may help.

It's not a brilliant squad but it's more than good enough for the top half, and I was way off that until I scrapped the tactic. It's strange that it didn't work though. I tried the midfield change and whilst it reduced the goals conceded it didn't stop the losses unfortunately.

[Ikhsantet22]

On 05/04/2021 at 05:00, Schwantz34 said:

I run a 4-2-3-1 that's so far going well, and the player roles are exactly the same as yours. Instructions are very different though.

It's interesting how some of us have stuff that's similar in some ways then very different in others. Fascinates me to see the different approaches people have to the game,

could share the instructions broo?

[Schwantz34]

43 minutes ago, Ikhsantet22 said:

could share the instructions broo?

That was a couple of months ago now and I don't have it saved anymore. Got no space for it among other things I'm running.

Did have a look through my photos to see if I'd done screenshots as I sometimes do, but no luck. Apologies.

[Ikhsantet22]

6 hours ago, Schwantz34 said:

That was a couple of months ago now and I don't have it saved anymore. Got no space for it among other things I'm running.

Did have a look through my photos to see if I'd done screenshots as I sometimes do, but no luck. Apologies.

is there any instruction that u still remember bro? maybe the defence line, team shape, or work on the ball etc

[Schwantz34]

5 hours ago, Ikhsantet22 said:

is there any instruction that u still remember bro? maybe the defence line, team shape, or work on the ball etc

Honestly no, but I know it was very similar to what the poster had.

I just can't recall what I was running myself. I don't use 4-2-3-1 systems all that often.

[Ikhsantet22]

On 19/07/2021 at 06:37, Schwantz34 said:

Honestly no, but I know it was very similar to what the poster had.

I just can't recall what I was running myself. I don't use 4-2-3-1 systems all that often.

whoaa thankss broo

[SK15Kev]

I use a similar tactic to this in my current game, but when playing a really strong team such as Man City who play a De Bruyne or Foden in the AMC/AP role, I really struggle.

In tactics set up a played with moving the AM to DM and made sure that it doesn't massively affect the positions at set pieces.  In game if I am struggling to pick up the opposition AM in the gap between defence and midfield I can make the position switch.
If I don't do the above, I also use one of the full backs as an Inverted Wing Back to try and positionally cover the middle of the pitch.
I think I am in season 5 in February and only 1 defeat and 1 draw as Falkirk.  The one defeat was Man City after letting them get ahead in the 1st minute.

[Feri Sandria]

Do tactics always control ball possession in every game?