Everyone remembers Mourinho’s first season at Chelsea for the wrong reasons. All of Romans money, the fall outs with the media and the mind games with managers up and down the country. You think of Chelsea and you think boring football, sitting back on 1-0 leads, rushing referees etc.

Many forget the brilliant football he had Chelsea playing during this time. The 4-5-1 was a bit of a revelation in England, with two out and out wingers supporting a lone striker, as well as two of the three midfielders bombing on, leaving Makelele to sit with the two center backs which in turn allowed the two full backs to push forward if needed.

The free flowing, free scoring Chelsea also had a mean defensive side to their game, they conceded just 15 league goals all season! 4-0 and 4-1 wins were a regular occurrence for boring Chelsea that season, no fewer than 7 times did Chelsea score 4 or more goals in the Premier League only.

For the first time on FM09, I think i’ve finally cracked it, and done a Mourinho! This 4-5-1 formation is as close to the Chelsea 2004/05 tactic as you’ll ever get on FM!

The Formation:

As you can see, it’s a pretty regular 4-5-1 formation with just a few tweaks. Both full backs are encouraged to bomb forward, with the two center backs and holding midfielder staying back. Many will remember pundits creaming over the “Makelele position”, known to every other football fan since about 1800 as the defensive midfield position. This position is integral to the success of this tactic as not only does he sit, he also picks up loose balls and spreads the play.

Back to the formation, the two center midfielders will get involved with play as much as possible, one more so than the other, with both wingers going hell for leather at the opposing full backs. The final piece to this tactical jigsaw is the striker, he is the spear head of all attacks so like the defensive midfielder, he is also integral to this tactic working to its full capability.

Team Instructions:

The mentality is obviously pretty attacking to mimic the Chelsea tactic of a few seasons back. Team mentality doesn’t matter as much as people may think though, you need to get the balance between it and individual player mentality to really achieve the best results. Now in all of my tactics I try and match the creative freedom with the mentality because of an article I read on SI forums. As much as i wanted to disagree with it, it actually worked which was a solid base to build this formation on.

Passing style is a key aspect of this tactic but I tend to keep the range quite mixed as I feel it hinders the team if you try to go either to direct or to short. Chelsea were known to have a plan B of lumping it forward to the big man up top (usually Drogba) but tried to play the game properly, so again I have mimicked the special one here!

A quick tempo is needed in my opinion as it doesn’t give your opponents to settle and set up two banks of 4 for you to break down. A quick tempo and a mixed range of passing should enable you to dominate teams and not let them have a moments rest, when you go a few goals up you can notch down the tempo a bit as it saves your players from tiring out, but professional footballers now have the required fitness to last two 90 minute matches every week with relative ease.

Now the most important part of this tactic is the width. Damien Duff and Arjen Robben were phenomenal in that season I keep relating back to, all because they had so much of the play and out wide they had so much of the ball. I’d also set the focus passing to “down both flanks” if you wanted to use them to their full effects, although personally i prefer to keep it as mixed as i think the two central midfielders can have just as much impact on the game as the wide men.

Nowadays most professional teams should be able to close down all over the pitch, but this isn’t always necessary and I think allowing the oppositions back 4 to have the ball is quite a clever move as the further away from your goal the better. Setting closing down to “Own half” means that they do not get near your box without a challenge going in, but getting the right balance is key. Many people will think, Ok, if we close down all over the pitch what harm will it do? The answer to that is it will tire your players and also pull them out of position which could have a detrimental effect on the team.

Now time wasting is really up to you. I tend to start with it as rarely and then adjust later in the game depending on if i’m hanging onto the lead or chasing it. Obviously if you’re chasing the lead you put it down as low as it can go and vice versa.

Defensive line is dependent on your back 4, and more importantly their pace and acceleration. A fast defence (pace and acceleration totalling 30+ each on average) could easily hold a high line, an average back 4 (combining between 20+) could get away with a “normal” backline, but anything less than that (20 or under) should be played deep so you don’t get caught up the pitch. Playing the offside trap should also be dependent on the pace and positioning of your defenders. If pace and positioning combines to around 30 then you could get away with playing the offside trap, if not then it’s up to your judgement and if you wanted to risk it or not.

The force of your tackling is also up to you – personally i keep it on normal and notch it up on certain individuals that you feel can be kicked out of the game. Players such as Ronaldo and Messi are prime examples, if you go in hard on them you may give away free kicks but their performances will drop 9 times out of 10. The reason I wouldn’t set tackling to hard all the time is so you avoid so many red cards and free kicks.

Finally on the team instructions is the use of a target man. Target man supply really depends on the type of striker who leads the line. I’ll take Chelsea’s current team as an example; a Drogba type player could be supplied either “to head” or “mixed”. To head is pretty self explanatory, but leaving it as mixed gives that bit of element of surprise. A speed demon such as Anelka should be supplied to “run onto ball”. His blistering pace would get in behind defences, especially when they hold a high line.

Player Instructions:

Goalkeeper:

From the screenshot it is quite apparent what is going on here. The default goalkeeper filter that SI have provided is ideal and really doesn’t need to be tampered with in anyway. The only thing I would change is his distribution. I tend to use “quick throw” as it goes best with the quick tempo you’ve already selected. If your keeper has brilliant kicking then you could select “long kick”, or alternatively if both his kicking and throwing stats are poor then you should use “defender collect”.

Full back:

The two full backs are the two you could have the most freedom with in terms of allowing them to bomb forward or stay back at all times. As you can see from the screenshots, I allow mine to get forward with the ball as much as possible. Getting up in support of the wingers and getting in position to cross the ball into danger areas is vital in the success of this tactic – I encourage them to cross often but also to attempt through balls when possible. As i’ve said before, telling your player to do one or the other limits their influence on the game in my opinion, if your full back gets tempted inside then it’s much harder to cross it so a through ball may be more appropriate.

Center back:

As you can see from the image, I don’t allow the center halves to get forward with or without the ball at all. I also try to limit the amount of through balls, long shots and attempted crosses as I don’t feel it is beneficial to the team. I take the approach that a defenders job is to keep the ball out of your goal and nothing else so i tend to be quite “mean” in this department.

Defensive midfielder:

Much like the center backs, I try limit and forward runs with or without the ball for my holding midfielder. Depending on who you choose to play the role will affect how you change the through balls and long shots. If you have a player playing defensive midfield such as Bodmer or Gerrard then you’d encourage then to shoot and play though balls all the time, but if you have a proper ball winner type midfielder such as, dare I say it, Makelele, then you would limit these.

Cental midfielders:

Both central midfielders have the same individual apart from one is encouraged to make more forward runs (hence the arrow on the tactics screen) so i’ll keep this general: Both midfielders will get plenty of the ball and will be expected to chip in with a fair few goals each. Both should play through balls often as well as take long shots whenever they can. The amount of long shots getting peppered in on goal should allow your striker and wingers to get a fair few tap ins each as the keepers on FM09 tend to punch and parry shots from distance rather than catch them. Don’t be to disheartened if you don’t score 30 yarders every game but check out how many goals come as the result of a long shot!

Wingers:

Again both wingers are on the same instructions so i’ll keep this general again. Both wide men should run with or without the ball whenever possible. With the ball they will cause havoc against opposing fullbacks but without the ball they could get in behind the back 4 and get on the end of the through balls that your center midfielders play. Long shots and though balls are both down a notch to “mixed” as I think crossing or running with the ball is more beneficial to the wingers. The odd long shot and through ball wouldn’t go amiss though, so leaving it as mixed will bring the best out of them.

Striker:

As i’ve said before, these instructions really depend on the type of target man you employ. I am jumping the gun a bit here and assuming you are going to play a strong powerful target man who will hold up the ball, in the role as Didier Drogba if you like.

I’d look to limit both forward runs and running with the ball because he should be playing with his back to goal most of the time, acting as a link for the two wingers and two midfielders to get into the game. Long shots are not something I like my target man doing, unless he specialises in this department. I find it more beneficial for him to play through balls to link the play or get into a better goal scoring position himself.

Conclusion:

Overall I have had success with this tactic, albeit tinkered, in 4 or 5 games now. It tends to work better with some teams than others but i’ve noticed the two key positions are DMC and ST. I’ve found the back 4 and 4 “attacking” midfielders can be chopped and changed, but a world class DMC really helps to keep a good defensive record, and a class ST will get you the goals but also link up the play.

Recommended key players:

DMC: Javier Mascherano, Lassana Diarra and Owen Hargreaves – These 3 brilliant players who will break up the play with ease, and are also handy with the ball at their feet.
ST: Nikola Zigic, David Trezeguet and Adriano (Inter) – These target men will be played “to head” and hold up the ball better than the following players.
or…
ST: Bojan, Jermaine Defoe, Salvador Cabanas – These 3 will be played to “run onto ball” to utilise their pace, acceleration, finishing and composure. They will get many one on ones so those 4 stats are vital.

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Dave Does A Mourinho, 4-5-1 Style!3.5102

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