Tactics The Stolen 4-2-4

[Resurgam]

Not my tactic, maybe someone on here can own up to it 😂 Came to this forum when struggling for form on FM20 (i think) and found this 4-2-4 on here that I’ve used ever since. Always loved a simple 4-4-2 or a slight variation of it. It can be slightly more or less effective depending on the latest patches I’ve found. For example pre winter update I switched the IF to IW and AP in the middle to RP and it was more effective but other than that I’ve made no tweaks to it since FM2020. Since the update though IF seems to work better for me so I’ve gone back to the original tactic.

Using this tactic I’ve always ended up winning everything after a few years with any team. Pre update I used it with Southampton for example and won the Premier League first season, my only signing being Beto as a target man. I have found though that since the Winter update it’s slightly less effective, and quite often I get FM’ed. I’m not sure if this is also down to the corner exploit being less effective although I have found a Centre Back with Aerial of at least 16 can still get around 7-10 goals a season.
 

I’m currently doing a Dortmund save and have won 9 trophies in 3 seasons which isn’t bad going. I’ve also found that in each season (again since the latest update) I start the season poorly/inconsistently but steamroller through everyone after January, very strange. Never experienced this on any FM before.
 

Looking for any advice on what tweaks could possible be made to improve it further? Definitely worth giving a go, some games you can easily blow the opposition away and win 5/6-0 👍 

 

edit to add: in terms of instructions or advice on players and attributes for each position, I really don’t have any! Ive always kept it simple, and used it solely as a plug and play tactic.

 

some results:

Edited March 27 by Resurgam

[StuartM]

I think I used a variant of this on FMM20 too, nice to know it still works... I think it might have been @Cockers2505?

[Resurgam]

10 minutes ago, StuartM said:

I think I used a variant of this on FMM20 too, nice to know it still works... I think it might have been @Cockers2505?

Yeah possibly. It worked great on 2020 but FM 2021 it was crazy OP

[TheShane]

I also used 2-2-2-2-2. But this year I'm using less wingers

[Cockers2505]

I’ve been using that for my Oldham team, I did have player marking for the 2 midfielders, but that was in the National league, the other thing I did was change to both flanks passing until half time, if it is not going well I’d switch to Centre. I find in this version after the winter update, training or getting players with high positioning makes a massive difference, otherwise, if it works why change it?

[Resurgam]

2 hours ago, Cockers2505 said:

I’ve been using that for my Oldham team, I did have player marking for the 2 midfielders, but that was in the National league, the other thing I did was change to both flanks passing until half time, if it is not going well I’d switch to Centre. I find in this version after the winter update, training or getting players with high positioning makes a massive difference, otherwise, if it works why change it?

It works just not quite at the level pre update. Looking for tweaks to bring it back to that level but I find the trial and error so frustrating 😂

Also my strikers are struggling badly with inconsistency, Isak will score a hattrick 1 game as TF then go the next 4 games without scoring with all 4/5 ratings. Same with Adeyemi/Moukoko as poacher. 

Was this your tactic originally? If it was thankyou it’s won me probably hundreds of trophies over the years 👍

Edited March 27 by Resurgam

[DutchTony]

2 hours ago, Resurgam said:

Not my tactic, maybe someone on here can own up to it 😂

I started playing FMM20 after playing the full PC game since 2008, and with working full time and having kids Mobile is the only FM I can sink any (rare) spare time into. Came to this forum when struggling for form and found this 4-2-4 on here that I’ve used ever since. Always loved a simple 4-4-2 or a slight variation of it. It can be slightly more or less effective depending on the latest patches I’ve found. For example pre winter update I switched the IF to IW and AP in the middle to RP and it worked better but other than that I’ve made no tweaks since FM2020. Since the update though IF seems to work better for me so I’ve gone back to the original.

Using this tactic I’ve always ended up winning everything after a few years with any team. Pre update I used it with Southampton for example and won the Premier League first season, my only signing being Beto as a target man. I have found though that since the Winter update it’s slightly less effective, and quite often I get FM’ed. I’m not sure if this is also down to the corner exploit being less effective although I have found a Centre Back with Aerial of at least 16 can still get around 7-10 goals a season. I’m currently doing a Dortmund save and have won 9 trophies in 3 seasons which isn’t bad going. I’ve also found that in each season (again since the latest update) I start the season poorly/inconsistently but steamroller through everyone after January, very strange. Never experienced this on any FM before.
 

Looking for any advice on what tweaks could be made to improve it further? Definitely worth giving a go, some games you can easily blow the opposition away and win 5/6-0 👍 

edit to add: in terms of instructions or advice on players and attributes for each position, I really don’t have any! Ive always kept it simple, and used it solely as a plug and play tactic.

 

some results:

Wow some really impressive results!

Edit: Do you leak many goals outside of the above results?

Edited March 27 by DutchTony

[DutchTony]

27 minutes ago, DutchTony said:

Wow some really impressive results!

Edit: Do you leak many goals outside of the above results?

Edit 2: Do you struggle away from home?

 

[Resurgam]

1 hour ago, DutchTony said:

Wow some really impressive results!

Edit: Do you leak many goals outside of the above results?

Not really, here’s a couple from pre update:

and my current save post update:

 

What’s frustrates me though are games like these, where the opposition goalkeeper gets a 8/9 rating and opposition are overly clinical compared to my team

 

Edited March 27 by Resurgam

[Resurgam]

48 minutes ago, DutchTony said:

 

Home table:

Away table:

concede more away but wouldn’t say it’s an issue. Definitely noticed since the update more difficulty in away games though

[Cockers2505]

10 hours ago, Resurgam said:

It works just not quite at the level pre update. Looking for tweaks to bring it back to that level but I find the trial and error so frustrating 😂

Also my strikers are struggling badly with inconsistency, Isak will score a hattrick 1 game as TF then go the next 4 games without scoring with all 4/5 ratings. Same with Adeyemi/Moukoko as poacher. 

Was this your tactic originally? If it was thankyou it’s won me probably hundreds of trophies over the years 👍

Yes I did post one April 2020 what was the same but I am not taking the credit for that long ago, all I will say is well done, looks good with what you have achieved so far. I think everyone on here will agree that the game is random when it comes you scoring, I've had strikers score 3 hattricks in three games, then nothing for 5 games, is this realistic? Maybe, annoying, but I guess that's what makes it more of a challenge

Edited March 28 by Cockers2505

[Resurgam]

😅 

[Cockers2505]

5 minutes ago, Resurgam said:

😅 

How inconsistent is that, I know there are actual games that do go like this but please!! If that was anybody what but Man City you would have battered them like 5 or 6, or even more!!

[Cockers2505]

2 hours ago, Cockers2505 said:

How inconsistent is that, I know there are actual games that do go like this but please!! If that was anybody what but Man City you would have battered them like 5 or 6, or even more!!

I might just take back what I said 🤣did you see the Dutch game stats from last night

51 shots, only 12 on target and 3 goals scored and Gibraltar had a player sent off in the 51st minute, 3-0!!!!!

Edited March 28 by Cockers2505

[Resurgam]

2 hours ago, Cockers2505 said:

How inconsistent is that, I know there are actual games that do go like this but please!! If that was anybody what but Man City you would have battered them like 5 or 6, or even more!!

Agreed! Happens at least 5 times a season to me in random games 

[Uncleseekx]

How do you fair against teams that use 5-2-1-2 or 4-3-1-2? Chelsea and Nottingham Forest eat me up when I use a tactic without a DM

[Resurgam]

1 hour ago, Uncleseekx said:

How do you fair against teams that use 5-2-1-2 or 4-3-1-2? Chelsea and Nottingham Forest eat me up when I use a tactic without a DM

Never noticed to be honest other than a EPL save, Chelsea were always savage with an AMC and 2x ST, Lukaku and Havertz destroyed me constantly 

[Uncleseekx]

3 hours ago, Resurgam said:

Never noticed to be honest other than a EPL save, Chelsea were always savage with an AMC and 2x ST, Lukaku and Havertz destroyed me constantly 

A setup like that is barbecue chicken for them. Especially Havertz, can't wait for FMM24 where he gets nerfed. What I do to battle out the formation is use a wingback to play the DM position since they don't have anyone down there. It helps a bit but the flank gets exposed sometimes but its way better than leaving their attacking midfielder unmarked.

[Resurgam]

Start of 4th season:

 

 

[TehSpaceGiraffe]

The most "second half comeback" of all second half comebacks 

[Sloth77]

early thoughts but i think by tweaking a little with with midfield roles and setting offside trap on it could help defensively when i can ill test the tactic and i probably will try to switch the tf to something else 

[Resurgam]

It’s definitely not the perfect tactic. Did get my heaviest defeat ever against bottom of the league the other day. Ouch.

it’s not great with a poor relegation fighting team but I stuck with it and after improving the squad I finished 3rd in the 2nd season. Champions League here we come

 

 

[Sloth77]

On 03/04/2023 at 01:19, Sloth77 said:

early thoughts but i think by tweaking a little with with midfield roles and setting offside trap on it could help defensively when i can ill test the tactic and i probably will try to switch the tf to something else 

So I ended setting the cm to a b2b keeping the ap altho I wanna see if a rp would be better or something else 

Switched to wing backs with man marking

Switched  the tf to a pressing forward  I do want to test something other than the poacher but I'll do that later 

Also turning on offside trap was a huge difference 

 

Results but before that I wasn't using the tactic for the full season I used it almost in every match but I did play with the black hawk for a decent amount as I found it's more stable defensively 

[Resurgam]

4th season with Valladolid

Edited April 8 by Resurgam

[Bobi9010]

What is coner set up ? Can you share it 

[Resurgam]

1 hour ago, Bobi9010 said:

What is coner set up ? Can you share it 

The old one. Every stay back, highest aerial CB mark keeper, aim corner at penalty spot

[Resurgam]

Removing shoot on site and adding offside trap has improved results for me. Also using the corner tactics from the latest Wrexham 4-4-2 tactic now 👍

Edited April 27 by Resurgam

[Jon58]

Works for me at the top-tier clubs! Thanks!💪😁

[mihhasd]

do you use team talk or is it turned off

 

[Fmtrizzy]

Does this work on small teams in Canada a league? This tactic is the only tactic that worked for me so far only losing 5-3 to Porto in friendly so I switched to what sloth77 said by making one cm into B2b And 2 wb + man marking and TF into PF.