I’m not sure what it is about a 4-4-2 diamond formation, but
for some reason I struggle to deal with it. Whether it’s a wide diamond (DMC,
ML, MR, AMC), a narrow one (DMC, MCL, MCR, AMC), or even a non-diamond narrow
formation (2x DMC, 2x MC) it seems that my sides struggle to carve out chances
against them compared to the more familiar flat 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 type of shapes. Defensively
we don’t necessarily find it any tougher than any other match, but up front
it’s another story and we’ve been frustrated on a number of occasions.
I’m not sure why that sort of shape change should impact our
attacking, the most likely thing being that the addition of that pesky DMC
makes all the difference, but I can’t say that I’ve noticed the same issues
against a pair of DMCs in 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 variants - perhaps as those shapes then tend to leave a lot of space in the middle of the park?
Whatever the reason, with my Karlsruher SC side sitting in a very
nice spot as the season closes out, and the visit of Union Berlin and their
wide diamond, I decided that it’s probably time for me to have a go at
seriously analysing their approach and working out what to do about it.
A BIT OF BACKGROUND
Here’s how things are standing right now...
In terms of Union Berlin, here’s what my Scout has to say...
I’ve previously mentioned that FM2014 *appears* to continue a bias towards the
left flanks, and nothing seems to have changed here; in previous versions (I
specifically recall FM2005) left-sided players used to regularly out-rate their
right-sided counterparts, and I see a definite weighting in FM2014’s scout
reports towards vulnerability from the attacking side’s left. There may well be
a scientific and perfectly plausible reason for this, if so I don’t know what
it is but I’m factoring it into my thinking.
- NOTE 1: Defend our right flank solidly, and attack more down our left.
I’m not entirely convinced by the timing of goals, despite
the stats. That said, coming out of the blocks fast is something that I like to
do, so I’ll likely start of with an attacking mindset for 10-15 minutes and
then ease off.
When I click into the team report it’s interesting to note
that Berlin’s weakest team attribute is Height, where they’re ranked 15th
in the league. This should play to our strengths.
- NOTE 2: Play two tall strikers, float crosses.
Tactically speaking Berlin’s Diamond is by far their
preferred shape, having been their starting formation for 18 of their last 20
matches...
...and looking at their relative Squad Depth report it seems
likely that we’ll be up against it, despite the bookies making us (narrow)
even-money favourites...
Finally, before digging deeper into their likely tactical approach, there are two little bits of information that are weighing on my mind.
First up Union have not conceded a goal against a 4-4-2
formation in their last 20 matches, albeit that they’ve only faced that shape
for a little over 2 matches (215 minutes). In that same time they’ve scored
nine. Where they have been vulnerable is against a 4-2-3-1, which we have as a
familiar but rarely-used (almost never!) backup.
Secondly, having gone three games without a win, our
opponents are coming to us having just spanked 1860 Munchen by a 5-0 margin. I
expect that they’re going to be in a good mood, and full of renewed confidence.
We’re unbeaten since Christmas ourselves, but haven’t won a competitive match
by more than a one goal margin in that time.
PRE-MATCH RESEARCH AND TWEAKING
Firstly I went into the tactics page and set my own side to
the default 4-4-2 Diamond, to see if I can glean any information from it at
all. Clearly the AI manager is unlikely to be playing the ‘out of the box’
version, and will tweak some Roles and Duties, but any little insight can only
help.
The strike partnership looks in line with what I’d expect, as does the back line. The one interesting point being that the wide men are set to wide midfield as opposed to wingers. I don’t understand the various Roles in huge detail, but what this does suggest to me – from the way my own side plays (one Winger, one Wide Mid) – is that these guys may well be moving in towards the channels and overloading our central areas. With that in mind, and with the AM on support duty, I’m considering putting my defensive midfielder (MCR) on double-up duty to their WM-L – based on the info gleaned from the scout report, he may well be their real lynchpin.
- NOTE 3: Check Assists for AMC vs ML, consider man-marking one of them from my MCR-D
If I do take that approach, then I probably need to consider
tweaking my MCL from DLP-S to AP-S to push someone in the middle of the park a
little further forward in support of our attack.
In terms of our own attacking movement, to date I’ve used a
Winger on the left and Wide Mid out on the right. Given Berlin’s susceptibility
to passes on their right flank, I’ll switch the Wide Mid to our left, and make
my MR the Winger (probably a Defensive Winger to begin, with instructions to
‘Cross from Deep’ to further strengthen our right flank). Unfortunately none of
my wide men are at all strong in the defensive attributes, but hopefully just
sitting a body that little bit deeper may assist.
My left fullback will be encouraged forward more than my
right, who again may be set to target a specific player once I see who we’re up
against.
Whilst I don’t think that positioning on the tactics board
makes a huge difference here, I’ll also check their two DCs and ensure that my
taller Target Man lines up against their weaker aerial cover.
Finally, as I’m looking for some stability and hand-picking
my Roles/players, I’ll switch of wide-men switching on the team shouts – at
least whilst I assess our initial performance.
With that all in mind here’s my setup before getting a
chance to see Union’s starting XI...
..and once I hit the Submit Team button, here’s what I see from my opposite
number...
A quick click through reveals the following info:
Their Keeper is good in the air, and their defensive pairing
of Stuff (6’6”) and Eggimann (6’3”) are no slouches either. Clearly their 15th
spot in the Height charts is down to a bunch of midgets elsewhere in the squad!
Interestingly their left midfielder has only played two
games in the league, albeit that he’s contributed and assist in that time. It’s
the man on their right, Christopher Quiring, who looks the greater danger with
3 goals and 6 assists. Whilst he can switch over to the left, it seems unlikely
that Jopek will transition quite as well. Before kick-off, therefore, I’ll switch Mast and Alibaz
around, along with the Roles/duties of our wide defenders and midfielders; Jopek
will be closed down often, to try and strip the ball from a player who lacks
regular game time. I’ll need to track Quiring to see if he does swap flanks
during the game.
Obviously that ‘breaks’ my plan to attack down our left, but
given the circumstances I’m not too worried about that – I’ll be monitoring it
though.
Dausch has a decent record of goals and assists too, so I’m
now thinking that my defensively minded MC will need to sit on him rather than
doubling up a wide man.
Finally I get a real surprise, between them Berlin’s strike
partnership have amassed two starts and four sub appearances, and a total of
zero goals. Both are loanees, and have only arrived during the winter break;
prior to Christmas they have 10 goals between them, but down below the third
tier of the German game. Their top scorer, and Key Player, is out injured and their
number two striker is also out receiving treatment.
I’m not about to dismiss their strikers entirely, but this
does give me confidence that my central defensive partnership ought to be able
to handle them.
With the last-minute changes made to my own lineup, the
‘Float Crosses’ idea dropped due to their aerial ability, and the Team Talk
given (“Keep our good run going guys”) let’s get into the action and see if I
can start to understand why we find it so hard to break down these diamond
formations.
IN PLAY
(Playing on ‘Comprehensive Highlights’)
There’s not a lot in the early stages of the game, and our
Attacking outlook hasn’t produced any breakthroughs, so I tweak back to
Control. It’s also worth noting, as Union push forward, that their wide men
have indeed switched over...
That being the case, I swap my own guys back across to again focus our attacking
efforts down the left through Alibaz, who is our Assist-machine with 15 for the
season (and 7 goals).
I also check the player stats at this point, to see
what’s been going on in terms of the aerial battles. At the back, for them,
Stuff hasn’t attempted a single header but Eggimann has won 3 of 4. Our strike
partnership have each won one, whilst ‘Conan’ has lost out on a couple of
occasions; again monitoring is required, it might be that the aerial game isn’t
going to work for us today.
It’s a full 20 minutes before I see a real example of what’s going on in this particular match. As Klingmann makes an overlapping run up our right, Union have a lot of bodies back to cover any ball into the box...
...and interestingly it’s their AMC who is sitting furthest forward. If we’re trying to play aerial balls into that area we’re going to lose out more often than not. A few moments later, this time attacking down the left, and it’s a similar story...
This time their strikers and wide men are a little more
advanced, but we’re still trying to pick out two men who are easily
outnumbered.
We either need to draw out some of those players, or add more of our own; with such a deep defensive line I feel like I can switch Peitz (circled) from a CM-D role to a Box-to-Box Midfielder – although he’ll retain instructions to man-mark their AMC. I’m also looking at my two strikers and feeling like there’s a change to be made there. Rather than the TM-S AF-A combination that we’re playing, maybe Micanski nees to drop a little deeper to attack the balls that the opposition defence head clear (?)
I’ll give us 10 minutes or so playing with a deeper line of
our own, maybe that will encourage the visitors to venture forward a little
more – pulling that DMC forward. In addition I’ll switch Micanski to a Deep
Lying Forward.
By half-time there’s nothing doing, and the Stats reflect my
general experience when facing Diamond formations. So far I remain at a loss as
to what impact the opposition shape is having here, beyond the DMC, but
anecdotally at least this is something I feel like I frequently see against
such tactics. The reason I remain to be convinced of the DMC’s impact is that
it’s possible, as I often do, to get an MC-D to sit deep in the hole – and yet
when opponents do this I don’t feel like I have the same issues. Does the fact that the player starts in the DMC position on the tactics board really make that much of a difference?
Rather than continue to toil away, and bearing in mind my
scout report suggesting a vulnerability to 4-2-3-1 formations, I decide to make
the change. It makes sense to me, from my FM2012 days; if I can get a couple of
inside forwards cutting into the channels, whilst one of my central midfielders
pushes up to threaten their DMC, then maybe there’s more chance of creating
something through the middle of their defence rather than trying to win the
aerial battles*.
*(I’m aware that we look better in the air, but the overall
stats can be deceiving. At the back we’re winning pretty much everything, but
our strikers’ success rates are not so good at 4/8 and 4/6 respectively –
furthermore we’re not putting those headers on goal, instead they’re usually
knock-downs to try and put the other man into space in a crowded area).
CHANGING SHAPE
Again Union’s deep defence is evident, although now we do
seem to have more bodies in the box to try and find...
There’s not really a lot to add from what I saw in the second half, several moves developed like that one above, but all for nought as the game ended in our first goalless encounter of the season so far.
Clearly we created more of a threat after the break,
although our advanced wide men continued to leave us somewhat exposed at the
back (compare first half and second half Clear Cut Chance and Half Chance
counts for Union), so bringing more attacking threats into the area where
their DMC operates obviously had an impact; thankfully our Keeper was on top
form, earning himself the Man of the Match award in the process.
CONCLUSIONS?
Beyond the simple fact that a DMC needs us to push more men
forward, which I’m still not sure on the best way to leverage, I’ve not really
taken a great deal out of this. I suspect that, in fact, it’s more about what
Role that DMC is fulfilling, but I lack the knowhow to better assess that at
this point – if anyone has any pointers on how best to assess and combat the
DMC player then please feel free to enlighten me.
What do you do when faced
with one of these annoying sods who just sit in the back line soaking up passes
and crosses?
Maybe the 4-4-2 can work, but just needs a change in some of
the roles?
Maybe a DMC formation is the perfect place to experiment
with a Strikerless approach?
What I'd really like to do here is get some input from you guys, the readers, and then look to apply it in a future match to generate a 'Part 2' to this post. With that in mind please feel free to share your thoughts and expertise, either in the Comments for this post, or collar me on Twitter at @flipsix3_FM
Once I've got some ideas to play with, and a suitable opponent in our next campaign (yes, I've already finished this season - more on that soon), then I'll draft a follow-up piece and see what sort of things I've learnt as a result.
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