Football Manager 2013 best tactic, 4-5-1 with fluid attacking football

Hello and welcome to my Football Manager 2013 best tactic. Johnny brought you a defensive tactic and a balanced system also, so I thought it was time for something a little more attacking and fluid.

This FM 2013 best tactic was tested over two seasons with Newcastle United, the first of which was played during BETA release and saw a lot of formation changes and tweaks. As many know the match engine had some problems at that time, so I will share my results from the second season, which was carried out during the games full release, but we’ll come back to that in a minute. First lets take a look at the shape of my FM 2013 best tactic.

Football Manager 2013 Tactic Formation

This tactic is very similar to my Arsenal 4-5-1 from last year. Very simple really, the full backs are on automatic duty so they will bomb forward to support the attacking wingers. The central midfielders are setup to do a job, holding a line which is very tough to break down, only the advanced playmaker will advance ahead of the pack when the time is right.

This tactic comes alive in the final third. You have a poacher upfront, he tends to be the focal point sitting on the shoulder of the opposition defence. The AMR and AML are inside forwards and either offer width or cut inside to form a front three, this makes life tough for the opposition as the inside forward has to be dual marked by a full back or centre back depending on his movement. But for all these three roles to work, you need blistering pace and acceleration with flair and creativity on the wings. Generally a technically talented side with good physical attributes should suit this nicely.

Football Manager 2013 Tactic team instructions

As mentioned in my Tactics Guide, simpler is always better. And you can’t get much simpler than these instructions. The philosophy is fluid, this is to offer my side the freedom to move outside of the tactic when required. I find the inside forwards can be more creative and unpredictable using this. The strategy is attacking for home games and matches we fully expect to win, but it changes to counter for tough games at home and away days. This doesn’t result in a defensive style of play, it just tightens the sides shape up as they go a little deeper and narrower to make the whole system more compact and tough to break down.

Passing is set to short, this is to aid possession and give my players more time to find the right pass. I also like my players to hunt the ball, so closing down is set to ‘press more’. Everything else is left to default, as mentioned, Football Manager 2013 best tactics can be simple. :)

Focus passing, playmaker and target man

OK this part is very important and should be adjusted depending on your sides ability. For the first time I am using the focus passing feature. Due to my sides strength down the right with Ben Arfa and Nathaniel Clyne who are deadly going forward, I attack down the right flank. This is very risky if you don’t possess brilliant players on the right, so please change this appropriately. You can either not use focus passing at all or change to the left flank depending on your side. But if you don’t have amazing talent down one side, don’t use this feature, you will need to adjust it after downloading the tactic.

Due to my focus passing, it makes sense to install Ben Arfa as my playmaker from AMR. He is a genius on the ball and an oppositions nightmare. If you have changed focus passing to the left then make your AML the playmaker, if you don’t use focus passing pick your advanced playmaker or no one at all.

You don’t have to use a target man but I use the poacher with supply set to feet. Again, this entire section should be adjusted to suit your side, to be honest you could untick it all and not really damage the tactic, its your choice.

Football Manager 2013 Tactic, how it works

This tactic works in so many ways I couldn’t possibly explain everything, but I’ll try and get through the most important aspects. First of all, the full backs, They need great pace and acceleration for two reasons. Obviously to keep up with the opposition but also because they provide great width and fill the space left by my inside forward. As shown below, my two inside forwards have formed a front three, dragging the opposition full back out of position, so my full back exploits the space and provides an easy option.

Now to the engine of this tactic and my middle three. Throughout each phase of play they hold a flat line, unless closing the ball down or dribbling into pockets of space. The MC’s are all circled with a dotted blue line below. They move forward in a pack, using each other for support before eventually finding that killer pass. A real perk is how they hold a line outside the box to collect any loose clearances as the poacher and two inside forwards sit on the defensive shoulder.

The midfield three wouldn’t work without the flair, creativity and raw pace of my poacher and inside forwards. Below is a two part image, the first shows my advanced playmaker as we counter attack. Isco has two options, the poacher (Hernandez) through the middle or my left inside forward (Rodrigo) cutting inside.

He picks out Hernandez who then has the luxury of attacking the goal or picking out Rodrigo. My inside forward is very tough to mark so he picks up this sort of space often when using the counter strategy. Hernandez opts for Rodrigo who slots home.

But this tactic wouldn’t work if my inside forwards just cut infield all the time. Ben Arfa and Rodrigo start each phase of play very deep, then burst forward as soon as we get the ball. But in the screenshot below, my AMR Ben Arfa picked the ball up very deep, then dribbled down the touchline. There wasn’t enough room to cut inside so he carried on down the wing, crossed and it led to a goal. As you can see my MC’s, poacher and other inside forward all crowd into the area sniffing a chance.

Here is some video footage so you can see how well the system works from an attacking sense. I think this demonstrates how quickly we can attack and how hard the inside forwards are to mark, this goal was scored against Man Utd.

And here are some full match highlights, demonstrating just why I use Ben Arfa as my playmaker and concentrate my attacks down the right. Seriously watch this, Ben Arfa is a genius with the ball at his feet. Fair enough Huddersfield weren’t great at the back, but Hatem was still majestic.

Football Manager 2013 Tactic results

As mentioned all the below results and statistics are taken from season two (2013/14) playing with Newcastle United. The first season was spent experimenting and I didn’t fully settle on my tactic until after January time, we still finished fourth (rather luckily to be fair with a low points total) and we won the two domestic cups, but I felt season two would be a much fairer reflection on the tactic as the match engine issues had been ironed out to there current state.

The first half of the 2013/14 Premier League season was exceptional and left me dreaming of a title challenge. We beat some tough sides and won rather convincingly against the easier ones. Only Tottenham and Man City could beat us.

The second half of the EPL season wasn’t as good, I put this down to a horrendous injury plague in March and focus been drawn from the Champions League. Chelsea slaughtered my boys and we then struggled for morale, entering a rut of 4 consecutive draws.

That poor run cost me the title. If we’d have just beaten Norwich in the penultimate game of season. :( But one point off top and seven clear of third is a great finish. We were the second top goalscorers this season behind City and were one short of topping the goals conceded charts.

Silverware did come though in the form of the League Cup…

…and the FA Cup which to be fair saw an extremely easy run in, probably the easiest in the history of the competition. :)

Unfortunately I couldn’t make it a treble with the Champions League, but we came hellish close! Smashing FC Bayern and Real Madrid before Barcelona took it all away.

As for the my players, below are a few stats that should indicate which positions do well and are vital to the tactic.

Top goalscorers in all comps: Ademilson (European and cup game player) — 27 goals, Abel Hernandez — 24 goals, Ben Arfa (AMR) — 19 goals, Rodrigo (AML) — 12 goals

Most assists: Isco — 19, Ben Arfa — 16, Rodrigo — 11, Hernandez — 10, Fabio — 10

Highest average rating: Steven Taylor — 7.49 (highest in the EPL), Abel Hernandez — 7.28, Jan Kirchhoff — 7.25

I think the results speak for themselves and so do the top scorers. But what is interesting is that despite Rodrigo, Ben Arfa and Isco playing a key role, none were even in the top 6 for average ratings. This just proves my theory that you need to sacrifice some average rating stereotypes for the greater good.

All in all a solid tactic that gets incredible results, yes you need fast players, a solid defence and very creative and talented attacking players, but get those and you’ll be winning. This tactic will even work in the lower leagues.

You can download this Football Manager 2013 best tactic by clicking the image link below.

How to install the tactic 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 “Darrens_fluid_attacking_4-5-1″ from the menu.

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As always thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy my tactic, if there are any queries or questions, please place them in the comments box below. Thanks.