All Out Attack
The Tactic
In pretty much all of my games on FM09 I’ve had quite a cautious approach in terms of tactics, but this time it’s different, the last few seasons I’ve been blessed with a number of brilliant attacking players so I’ve created a tactic with the sole intention of outscoring the opposition. Now this tactic may not work with every team, you may wish to change to it when you’re chasing a goal, but over the last season I’ve used it from start to finish with a fair bit of success. Domestically I’ve scored 100, 81 and 96 goals in the past 3 Premier League seasons, with my total goal tally 1154 from 511 games.
Last season alone I had numerous high scoring games; 7-1, 5-0, 5-1, 5-0, 4-3, 7-5, 5-3, 4-3, 5-2, 4-0… The list goes on.
The Formation
Onto the formation now, and as you can see it’s a pretty attack minded 4-4-2 with 2 out and out wingers. When you have the ball it turns into a 2-4-4 formation with the (very) attacking full backs doubling up as wingers, and the wingers becoming wide forwards.
Team Instructions
My attacking mentality is clear for everyone to see in the team instructions; short, quick passing utilising the width of the pitch was pretty much the idea from the off and it was quite easy to accomplish. Sitting deep and setting target man “run onto ball” is another key combination which allows you to utilise the fast attackers and get in behind the defence. Passing through the middle with maximum width sounds pretty stupid, but I like to keep the wide players hugging the touch line which allows the central midfielders and strikers more space to strut their stuff. Obviously the full backs and wingers play a huge part in this tactic as well, in fact the wingers are the key players in this tactic.
Player Instructions
As this is an all out attack tactic I won’t bother analysing the goalkeeper and center backs. They are pretty much using the default player instructions and just sit back, obviously. An attacking tactic doesn’t mean all 11 players have to attack, that simply wouldn’t work. You may score 4 a game but would concede 9.
The full backs are pretty important in this tactic; they do have to be able to defend, although this isn’t their primary concern. From the screenshot below you can see they are expected to get forward at every opportunity and get the ball into the box. Linking up with, and overlapping the wingers is absolutely vital to the success of the team.
In center midfield you need to be quite cautious in your approach, you cannot afford to have both bombing on at every opportunity, in fact I have pretty much gone the opposite route with one defensive play maker (rcm), and one box to box midfielder (lcm).
The defensive play maker is in the mould of a Xabi Alonso or Andrea Pirlo; quite defensive but has a lot of creative freedom and likes to pick the passes. He should be capable of putting his foot in and hassling the oppositions’ attacking midfielders to limit the long shots. I’ll put money on this player averaging between 7.2 and 7.3 over a full season, Mr Consistent.
Next up is the box to box midfielder, he’s more attacking but I limit his freedom. Getting forward, driving the team on and playing short simples passes, mixed with the odd killer ball, is what he does best. When making comparisons to a real life player I’d get him to play like a more disciplined Steven Gerrard.
Now onto the main men of this tactic; the wingers. I have had great success with them in this tactic as they are pretty much second strikers. They tend to come in off the flanks and have tonnes of space to use. The fullbacks will overlap and take the opposing wingers and/or fullbacks with them, so the wingers end up being the free men.
Their player instructions are pretty simple, get forward, get the ball into the box and, if they’re strong in these fields, fire off as many long shots and through balls as possible. They are assist machines basically, but will also get 15-20 goals a season. The players who I have found to excel here aren’t out and out wingers, but more AMLC/FC type players such as John Fleck, Mario Balotelli and Alexis Sanchez.
Lastly we have the strikers. I always have at least one speed merchant to utilise the target man run onto ball setting, but I find you’re best off with 2 similar type strikers. Again this isn’t something many people do, a big man/little man combination playing off each other is usually recommended, but this is no normal tactic! My current first team has only one “big man” in the midfield/attack, and he’s on the right wing. Physique should not really come into it because, as I referred to early, the aim of the game is short quick passing, you don’t need to be a 6’6 machine to achieve this. The strikers aren’t expected to cross the ball at all, and only make the occasional through ball or long shot.
When to use it?
I wouldn’t suggest using this tactic week in, week out. I would only use it if you have an embarresment of riches and pretty much all of the best players in the world, or when you’re behind in a game and need a quick goal or 3. I have been shocking in Europe using this tactic, losing in consecutive Champions League Finals so this is definately not a European tactic.
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