Hey guys, and welcome to another FM 2013 tactic review. Today’s tactic was provided by Igor, but before we delve into his system lets re-cap the testing process.
The testing procedure is quite simple: I will install the tactic and use it through pre-season plus six league matches with Spurs. Then I’ll watch each match closely, see what happens and come up with the best review I am capable of. I will also keep track of various statistics in order to be able to compare the essential numbers between this and other tactics that have been or will be analysed. It will be more or less like a benchmarking tool for FM 2013 tactics.
Today’s FM 2013 tactic review is on Igor’s 4-3-3, lets see what its all about.
Formation
The formation is a 4-3-3, but some may class this as a 4-5-1 or even a 4-1-2-2-1, either way the shape is commonly used.
The roles however aren’t. We have a standard back four with central defenders and full backs, nothing fancy there. The DMC is an anchor man, hit job is to shield the back line, acting as a more advanced defender I guess. We have two central midfielders, one with support duty and the other attack. The two wide AM’s are interesting, one is an advanced playmaker who looks for pockets of space whole the other is set to defensive winger. Even more interesting is that these two are set to switch positions. Our ST is a poacher, however too many individual instructions make this role redundant and misleading…I’ll explain more in a minute.
Team Instructions
Igor obviously has a style in mind here, looking through the specific instructions the team is setup to play wide, quick football but the defensive line is set quite deep and Igor looks to play on the counter.
It gets a little confusing in the playing style though. We have expressive freedom and fluid philosophy, yet almost every player has been restricted in their specific instructions. Only the two AM’s are set to the default creative freedom, while the MC’s have a decent allowance the rest of the team aren’t too creative at all…almost as though we wanted to play creative football, didn’t trust certain individuals with the freedom and then took it away.
I like the fact everyone is asked to sit deep then close their man down in certain zones and hit hard while they’re doing so, that works well.
Average Positions
Due to the roles assigned to our AMR and AML, alongside the fact they switch positions, we have little width throughout the game despite the setting to play wide. Its in those two roles and individual player settings that this tactic contradicts itself a little. You’ll see via the average positions above just what I mean. We have some good width and cover in defence, then midfield, but the three upfront crowd the same area and often get confused with what their role is and where they should play. The idea is right, to drag an opponent out of position and lose your marker, but in reality having the wide players switch position doesn’t work.
Defending
What this tactic does well starts from the back. A deep line mixed with the settings and roles of the DMC and two MC’s draws everyone just ahead of the 16 yard box while defending. Opponents need to create something special to get through such an army, the image above illustrates what I mean. Then just in front of defensive block, we have the three forwards hunting down possession and harassing the opposition back line.
Attacking
Now this is where the tactic seems to fall short. After forming such a wall in the defensive phase those deep lying players don’t get forward quick enough to support an attack. I have shaded out the area of players that struggled to help in an attacking sense from the scenario above.
Add to this the two AM’s switching position constantly and it all seems to break down. Not to mention the poacher is set to never run from deep and never run with the ball. So essentially we are asking the poacher to lay off to two wide midfielders and them to do the work on their own.
In addition the AML is assigned the role of advanced playmaker but then doctored individual instructions ask him to do every single move often. So he’s asked to play through balls often, shoot from distance, run from deep and run with the ball, its not possible for a player to do all of these things, so he ends up wasting possession due to a lack of support and shoots from too far out, because seems to be the easiest and most feasible move out of all he his allowed to do.
In fact, I think the striker shouldn’t be a poacher at all, he seems like more of a target man or deep lying forward. Most of his team mates are asked to search him out while passing and crossing.
Results
While the results started well, their were some lucky matches IMO, both the West Ham and Swansea game saw goals in abundance from opposition errors and set pieces. I think the last four games demonstrate what this tactic can do. It forms an impeccable wall that can’t be penetrated but lacks in attacking prowess.
Statistics
Goals scored: 8 (1.33 per game)
Goals conceded: 3 (0.5 per game)
Shots on target for: 8.83 per game
Shots on target against: 2.5 per game
Clear cut chances for: 1.5 per game
Clear cut chances against: 0.5 per game
Half chances for: 2.5 per game
Half chances against: 0.17 per game
Ball possession average: 54.5%
The average match stats again prove my theory, only 0.5 goals a game conceded, just 0.5 clear cut chances created by the opposition and 0.17 half chances created by out opponents per game. Amazing defensive record, but those attacking stats are uninspired. You can compare these stats to other tactics in the FM13 Tactics Index table, this is used to compare the stats from all our reviews. Now lets analyse the main pro’s and con’s of Igor’s 4-3-3.
+
Solid defence, well covered by anchor man.
Hard hitting primed to strike on counter
Amazing defensive stats during testing phase
—
Not enough bodies flocking forward and general attacking shape.
Wingers swapping positions gets messy
Poacher’s individual instructions restrict him and often lead to a pass instead of dribble at the wrong time. (see image below)
Suggested Tweaks
First off, don’t touch the defence and DMC, they are perfect. I’d maybe get rid of those individual instructions for the attacking players though, they contradict the players roles. Stop the AMR and AML swapping position and set the AML’s individual instructions to the default. Release the poachers restrictions, so just untick all those ticked boxes in his instructions to let him run freely.
I’d also be tempted to play around with the MC roles, maybe keep the supporting MC and change his partner to advanced playmaker so he gets involved going forward more. Also set the wingers to shoot from distance rarely, that should stop attacks breaking down so easily.
FM 2013 Tactic Download
Download the 4-3-3 FM 2013 tactic by clicking on the image below:
After downloading the tactic follow these simple steps to install it in FM 2013:
1. Put the downloaded file into this folder: Documents>Sports Interactive>Football Manager 2013>tactics
2. Start your game and go to your team’s tactics screen.
3. Click on the little arrow located to the right of your starting tactic name, move your mouse cursor over “archived tactics” and select this tactic from the menu.
All in all a great defensive tactic, that could be very effective for those big games against tough opposition, but to be more lethal against smaller sides it could use seems tweaks, but thats what we do these reviews for, so I hope you enjoyed the post.
Anyway, until next time I’m looking forward to your comments, so please feel free to ask any questions below. Please note that due to an excessive amount of tactics posted for review we will not be taking further entries for the time being, at least until we have dwindled down the backlog.
Igor
4 мая, 2013 at 17:07
Thx a lot!!!
Darren Smith
4 мая, 2013 at 19:22
No problem.
nikozolo
4 мая, 2013 at 20:45
Interesting tactic indeed. I would be interested to hear from Igor as to what circumstances helped develop this formation. What specific team and players?
Darren Smith
4 мая, 2013 at 21:18
I agree, would be nice to hear Igor explain in what situations this tactic worked and with what team.
Gaurav Chaddah
4 мая, 2013 at 22:21
Good review as usual Darren, well done.
I think here we have a tactic witch has it’s base but has been messed up a little due to a little too much tinkering in the instructions, I think in defence it is perfect and as mentioned if those tweaks were done for the front 3 and in the centre of midfield this could be a pretty good tactic.
I have a question Darren, a few months back on a podcast you said you were managing Liverpool and downloaded a tactic of the internet for it… Could you tell me where you got it from, any link?
Darren Smith
4 мая, 2013 at 22:31
Thanks Gaurav,
That tactic you mentioned was a flop in the end, I really wouldn’t recommend it. It seemed to work but in reality was good for FM12 but didn’t work for FM13 due to the requirements on the wings.
Thomas
4 мая, 2013 at 23:05
Is it save to say to play this tactic in games where you’re expected to be the underdog and play with a different tactic against equal or lower reputation teams?
Darren Smith
5 мая, 2013 at 09:32
I would say so yes.
Dan Ellis
6 мая, 2013 at 01:07
I think the tactic would work better if you have a striker like quintero playing. He doesnt like following player instructions and runs around everybody. I might have to use the tactic a bit myself as im leaking goals on blackburn save
Darren Smith
6 мая, 2013 at 08:52
Yeah maybe, I did suggest tweaks towards the end, I still maintain that this is solid defensively but offers too little going forward, but it wouldn’t take much to correct those problems if you wanted to try it out.
KW13
6 мая, 2013 at 05:12
Great review as per usual.
I respectfully disagree with what you wrote in reference to the width (constructive criticism).
The reason that the tactic looks narrow in the average position chart is due to the fact that the left wing/right wing continually swap – therefore if a player spends 5 minutes on the left wing and 5 minutes on the right wing his average position will actually be in the centre of the pitch – this obviously does not mean that there was no width in the tactic (the average position chart can be misleading in this sense).
I do agree that the constant swapping in this particular case is not ideal however I do not share the same reasoning. Bale and Lennon are not the best candidates for this (as a general rule both players need be at the very least accomplished in the position that they are going to swap to) which is not the case with the above mentioned players. For instance Sterling (pre update was natural at both wing positions) and is ideal for the above mentioned tactic – these players are very rare however.
Why is it effective?
— Opposition Instructions
For instance if I have a left winger with a strong left foot and weak right foot – generally speaking the opposition manager will instruct show onto weaker foot.
Let’s assume in this particular example that the opposition manager does not want this particular player to put in crosses due to a strikers aerial threat. Once the player swaps positions the opposition player will try and send him to the opposite foot which opens up crossing opportunities (which was initially what the opposition manager wanted to stop)
— Individual Matchups
For this example you are facing a winger that has 18 acceleration and 19 pace for instance.
Your first team full back has 13 acceleration and 15 pace and your less talented back up has 16 acceleration and 17 pace. You may pick the quicker full back in order to slow down the pacey winger as you first teamer will most likely be exposed for a lack of pace (even if man marking is set to newer). Basically you have selected a less talented player on the pitch that is supposed to be used to nullify the pacey winger, however due to the constant swapping of position the winger will not face the player constantly which hinders your tactical game plan.
Apologies for the long post – just my 2 cents on the topic.
Darren Smith
6 мая, 2013 at 08:35
tbh I have already covered your average positions point, I said the individual instructions were to blame for the width, I mention that at least twice in the average positions section. I also mention the role but mainly the individual instructions of the wingers which is the fact they switch positions, so the post already explains that is why the wingers av. position are so narrow, at least its the main reason.
So I agree with you on that, but I don’t agree that the average positions are deceiving. For me personally I think its impossible for that to lye, all it does is analyse how much time each individual spent in every area of the pitch, so while at times those wingers are wide, they spend too much time crossing over meaning that its too complex and they ultimately spend too much time ‘out of position.’ IMO there is just too much ground to cover for these two to switch positions, as they seem to do it every other move.
I completely agree that Bale and Lennon are terrible for switching though, you most certainly need flexible and versatile players for it to work and maybe having that would transform my opinion.
Again I agree with your logic for those pro’s to swapping positions, but having tested it in comprehensive highlights mode, it just created chaos. One winger was firmly in position but the other was no where to be seen (obviously still completing the transfer from one side to the other.) This happened far too often, and the worst part, at times play was travelling down the wing of the player out of position so the attack had to stop and be revived again after a short pause, it just looked incredibly messy and while it was good to surprise the opposition, I felt like it was my own team been surprised at times.
I personally know and understand the pro’s that could come but opp instructions and individual match ups are not enough of a pro to make up for all the negatives, it just didn’t work in terms of shape and organisation, regardless of whether you have more suitable players, there will always be massive negatives with switching roles from one wing to the other. I believe keeping a tactic simple with a hint of flair is vital, you won’t win games consistently unless you have organisation, FC Bayern are the perfect example.
Just my opinion expanded on, I do see where your coming from and its good you highlighted the positives I over looked, but I just think they are too minor really…I don’t see them overriding the instructions that created so many problems in this tactic, and those pro’s alone won’t win you matches over been organised. I guess I just think you will gain more for unticking that position swap, regardless of the players you have, in this tactic anyway.
KW13
7 мая, 2013 at 04:38
I see where you are coming from however I still disagree with you in respect to the player positions and this is why
Just a simple example of what I am trying to say — spend 5 min on the left side of the pitch and 5 min on the right side of the pitch and your average position is in the centre of the pitch – does that really explain where you spent your time ?? You did not spend a minute in the middle yet your average position indicates this. Hence the average position graph can be misleading in situations such as player swapping. Obviously keep in mind that normally there would be 2 players and one would be on each wing (providing width).
I think that we may have misunderstood each other because I have not commented directly on the tactic functions and how it generally works as I have no basis to comment on this.
In respect to the tactic I will say 2 things
1. You guys do a great job when analysing tactics and I pretty sure that this particular review was not an exception — agree with the adjustments suggested.
2. Personally I have no idea how the tactic works as I have not used it – I was just trying to make a general point on player swapping and that it can be used to good effect in certain situations.
Ultimately we may have to agree to disagree in respect to the average position, however I do agree with the rest of your comment – and I appreciate the fact you reply to every comment irrespective of whether it is negative or positive.
Just a general question – how do you guys pick the starting 11 for the tactic analysis (obviously there are certain starters)?
Darren Smith
7 мая, 2013 at 11:57
I understand now, and that is an interesting point. I guess it also depends on how they work the average positions. Whether they give each area of the pitch a square and then the average position is assigned to the square with the highest number, but it is probably more likely that what you are saying is correct and the av positions are in fact misleading.
As for the switching positions in general I do agree there are times this could work well, but I just don’t think two wingers switching would and after considering the opposition instructions it dawned on me that if the opponent sets player instructions as opposed to positional instructions then it doesn’t matter whether your winger switches sides, the entire opposition have been told how to handle that individual player anyway. That is irrelevant though really, my point is I don’t think it works too well for wingers but agree with you, it can be used to good effect with other positions.
As for the 11 question, they are just chosen on a tactic by tactic basis for which players we feel suit the system best.
maka
14 июня, 2013 at 07:27
10 games played with this tactic (tuned wingers a little only), 2 goals scored, 4 conceeded. «impressive» tactic :)
Darren Smith
14 июня, 2013 at 08:26
You can’t have the right players for the roles is what I’d assume, or you didn’t prepare the team properly during pre-season. Either way the mix of sarcasm and lack of detail for why it may not be working says a lot IMO.