Best FM 2014 Tactics: Deadly 4-2-4

Hello FMers! I want to start my first post here by introducing myself, and telling you a little about my footballing philosophy. If you’re not interested in this blatant display of narcissism (and why would you be?) then scroll down to jump straight into learning about one of my best FM 2014 tactics!

So, I’m Ollie, one of the new members of the team here at Football Manager Story. I’m a 21 year old Manchester United fan from Manchester, a rarity indeed, and I have a real love for footballing tactics. The quick, intricate, entertaining wing play I saw the great Sir Alex Ferguson utilise whilst I was growing up has had a profound effect on the way I view the game. With regards to the site I’ll be making mainly tactical posts, searching for the best FM 2014 tactics.

I prefer football played quickly and on the floor. Possession is all well and good, but if you’re not creating anything it’s pointless. Conversely, if you can’t keep hold of the ball then you’re not going to create anything. I believe it’s important to have a balance between possession and risk, and it’s with this belief that I create all my Football Manager tactics.

Pressing the opposition when not in possession is also at the focal point of my approach. If you don’t give your opponent any time on the ball then they’re going to struggle to do anything with it. This pressing would ideally take place from the front. The higher up the pitch you press, the less dangerous the opposition are. If they keep knocking it about with no time on the ball then they’ll make a mistake worth taking advantage of.

So, without further ado, let me introduce you to one of the best FM 2014 tactics I’ve created, the Deadly 4-2-4!

Formation and Team Instructions

I originally developed this tactic to get the most out of my Ballon D’or-winning regen left winger in an HSV save I played. However, an error encountered by my computer (or water being poured all over it…) means that I have to review this tactic in a brand new save. I’ve decided to go with Real Madrid to see if it can get the best out of Cristiano Ronaldo in the same way it did with my regen.

One of the first things you’ll notice is inclusion of the seldom used wide striker position. This pushes the winger as high up the pitch as possible and allows him to use his pace to really pressure the opposition’s back line. The other thing you’ll notice is the untraditional shape but, when looked at more closely, there’s very little difference between this and the much heralded 4-2-3-1 formation. Pull the winger back and put the AM and ST back into the centre and it becomes a much more traditional shape.

The team instructions follow my general philosophy very closely. Quick, attacking football, pressing and creative freedom. As well as this the individual players are all instructed the play the ball short. The only addition here to my usual style is the use of exploiting the left flank. This is fairly self explanatory, to get the best out of my best player I wanted him to see the ball as much as possible!

Player Roles

Goalkeeper (GK D) — Not much to add here. Just find a good goalkeeper!

Left back (WB S) — The left back needs to be very solid defensively, he’s not going to get much help from his winger for obvious reasons. He also has to be comfortable with the ball at his feet, so good passing stats are a must as too. Key stats: Tackling, marking, positioning, pace, passing.

Left centre back (CD D) — Again there’s not much to say here, a good defender with a decent passing stat is needed. Key stats: Tackling, marking, positioning, passing.

Right centre back (BPD D) — The same as the other CB but with the addition of a good creativity stat, he’s going to play the ball out of defence and hopefully kick start some counter attacks. Key stats: Tackling, marking, positioning, passing, creativity.

Right back (CWB A) — As well as all the defensive stats you’d want from a right back, he needs to have speed and a good cross. On the rare occasions the ball goes down the right channel he’s going to be hugging that line to put a cross in. Key stats: Tackling, marking, positioning, pace, passing, crossing.

CDM (Regista S) — Defending and passing. He’s going to break up the play with a good tackle or interception and quickly play a ball for the attackers to run onto. Key stats: Tackling, positioning, passing, creativity, strength.

CM (BBM S) — Pretty much the same as the regista except he’s going to carry the ball forward when the opportunity arises. Key stats: Tackling, positioning, dribbling, passing, creativity, strength, work rate, stamina.

AM (Trequarista A) — He’s going to be the foil for our winger, moving in to channels and creating space. When the pass isn’t on he may also look to have a shot himself, and will often find himself making late runs into the box to get on the end of a cross. Key stats: First touch, dribbling, technique, off the ball, long shots, finishing, passing, creativity, pace.

RW (AP A) — Similar to the AM, the right winger’s main job is to drag defenders away from our left winger as well as providing through balls from the other side of the pitch. Key stats: Dribbling, passing, creativity, off the ball, long shots, pace.

STC (Poacher A) — Another one who moves into channels and creates space. As well as the attacking stats you expect from a striker, he also needs passing and creativity to put in some defence-splitting passes. Key stats: Finishing, off the ball, passing, creativity, pace.

STL (Winger A) — The main man, but there’s very little to say that hasn’t been said. Movement, pace, shooting. It’s a simple job, but one that requires a lot of skill. Key stats: Pace, finishing, off the ball, first touch, dribbling, composure.

In Play

So, how does this tactic look in action? Very much how you’d expect. An average position map reveals little, so I’ve omitted that from this report. However, I’ve got some screenshots to show you how the tactic manifests itself.

In the first frame our AM, in this case Isco, has picked up the ball in a very dangerous position. He’s ahead of the midfield which leaves him with just one ball to make, indicated with the red arrow. The two left sided defenders are occupied by the positioning of the striker and right winger, while the left winger, Ronaldo in this case, is wider than the opposition right back. This means the right centre back is forced to press the man on the ball rather than support the right back in dealing with the danger man out wide. Our left winger has the pace to make a run outside of his marker, shown with the yellow arrow, and that’s exactly what happens.

In the second frame we can see Ronaldo has out paced the defender and has a clear run to goal, ready to test the goalkeeper. This is the reason I chose his player role as winger, rather than inside forward as you might expect. His wide starting position allows him to drift wide around the defender, rather cutting inside and have both the right back and centre back to deal with.

The first frame here shows our regista picking up the ball just inside his own half. The deep positioning of the opposition number five has allowed our AM to push further forwards, leaving a ball over the top available.

Onto the second frame now, and the «exploit the left flank» instruction has meant the ball has gone wider than one might expect, but the fluidity of the the tactic allows the AM to drift out wide and flick a ball on for Ronaldo. The AM’s drifting wide has also dragged the right centre back out wide, creating acres of space for Ronaldo to run into.

The third frame shows Ronaldo with the clean run on goal we want to see. The right sided defenders were dragged across by the ball over the top and the movement of the AM, while the left sided defenders are occupied by our other two attackers. The pace at which the ball was played forward has meant the opposition midfield has not been able to get back to help with the defending.

Final example now and our striker, Benzema, has picked up the ball in a very dangerous position after pressing the opposition defence high up the pitch. The defence and midfield are all over the place here and all he has to do is play a simple ball through to the left winger to put Ronaldo clear through on goal, which is done to perfection. Marvellous!

Results

A few dodgy pre-season results aside, the results for the part of the season I played were remarkably good. Most of the games played you would expect Real to win, but the amount of goals scored was particularly pleasing. The only competitive game not won was the final game played vs Barcelona, an undeniably tough game where luck just wasn’t on my side. Despite this the results show an incredibly consistent tactic which, although may be slightly leaky at the back, almost guarantees you goals.

Darren’s Test

After reading Ollie’s post, I couldn’t contain my curiosity. Such an attacking and exciting tactic leaves a lot of question marks, so I wanted to see if it could work with teams outside of the top five in each country.

I started a fresh save with Newcastle, using a summer transfer database. After playing through the entire season I was very impressed. With the right players, and by that I don’t mean the best in the world, just suitable players for the required roles you can not only score a lot of goals but defend reasonably well too. This is a high pressure, fast tactic. Don’t use this if you hate CCC’s against, they are inevitable. But if you liken yourself to Kevin Keegan, with the slogan of scoring more than your opponents, then this is the tactic for you.

The AML, AMC and ST will make or break your experience and physicality seems improve your chances too. My results are below.

And below are a few goals from my York City save. We played Manchester United away from home, this is in the year 2019, we have a good team for sure but by no means the best in the league. These highlights show the sort of havoc this tactic can set on the opposition.

Conclusion

You can see now that this ultra attacking Football Manager 2014 tactic has what it takes to put the opposition defence under a lot of pressure. The quickness with which the ball gets forward really favours a team with a lot of pace up front, and if the defence don’t have the legs to keep up then we really start to reap the rewards.

Download

Simply click the button below to download the tactic.

To install the tactic, move the downloaded file to Documents >Sports Interactive>Football Manager 2014>Tactics, load the tactics screen in-game and click the add tactic button and navigate through Archived Tactics.

Remember that in order for a tactic to be completely effective you must train your team in this tactic. The more familiar your team is with a tactic, the better they will play. Although I’ve found this to be as close as you can be to a plug-and-play tactic in Football Manager 2014 your experience may differ. The only way to find out is to download and give it a try!

As always feedback is welcome in the comments, and you can contact me both there and on Twitter if you have any questions about the tactic or on any other FM issues.

Have Your Best FM 2014 Tactics Reviewed!

Finally, I’d like to ask you to send me any «alternative» Football Manager 14 tactics you’ve made so I can review them here on the site. These can be asymmetrical formations, tactics with sweepers, wide strikers, or even completely strikerless formations. The only rule is that it mustn’t be a traditional formation. You can send these to olliefms(at)gmail(dot)com.

Thanks, and enjoy!