FM 2013 Tactic Review: Igor’s 4-3-3

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.