4-3-3 "Total Football"

I was just wondering, how does this formation work compared to the conventional formations?

I usually adapt to my opponents formation, but whenever I feel that I am out of ideas I use this formation.

For some reason I do not play 442 classic very well, so I fall back on counter formations. But there is no other formation that handed me so much success over a 442 classic.

I have an extremely challenging league, with 8 active managers that are batteling each other, fortunately I can say that I am leading the league because of this formation.

Whenever I did use this formation, I went ALWAYS unbeaten when I was playing against 442 c. I will use it again tonight in the cup semi finals against a 352 and see what happens.

I will post results:) Thank you Adel for this super valuable hint:)Attachment 20350

Some of the results. Match against #3 ranked Aung Mynmar ended 1:0 for me. Match against against #2 Cengiz FC ended 2:1 for me. (I faked a 541 flat and changed it right before kick off). Third match with the 433 Total Football formation. I won 2:0 against a 352:) Off to the cup finalsAttachment 20358Attachment 20352Attachment 20353

well, whats ur order for that formations

looks interesting. do you use arrow like in the pic? :)

I am usually not a big fan of arrows, but yes, the set up is just like in the picture. It seems high risk but during the matches I have a lot of scoring chances.

Here are the original orders posted by Adel:
Mentality: Attacking
Tackle: Normal
Focus Passing: Down both flanks
Passing style: Short
Marking: Zonal
Pressing: Own half
Force counter: Yes
Offside trap: No

I think one of the key points are that your defence is on the attack as well as the rest of your team. It seems like the defense oriented players in this formation would be your one DC and one MC.

With all these arrows on your defense you are still pressing in your own half but much further up, which would be the opponents midfielders, so basically your counter attack starts at the center of the pitch.

I also noticed, that if you start to receive bookings, you should change to hard tackle. Or if your opponent starts to have scoring chances you should switch to hard attacking.

If I play against 3 DC's I leave the red arrow off of my AMC, if I play against 4 defenders I add the red arrow to my AMC. If my opponent has a DMC I move my AMR up by one square.

This formation offers a lot of triangles which makes short passing the perfect passing style, it also adds to your possesion. Either way, whenever I did use it, I walked away with a win.

I will experiment a little more to see how it does against other formations. I usually set up 541 to give a defensive impression and would change it right before kick off, this throws everyone off and then many do not know how to react:) try it for yourself in some friendlies and see how your team like it.

Look funny, i really need to try :D

This time I have played against #5 ranked Burakito FC. As before, I started with a 541 and just before kick off, I switched it around.Attachment 20371

And another example how "Total Football works" Just won the cup against a two level up and 3 skill points better 352 flat:)) YEAH baby. This was the cup and the league so far:) Championsleague tomorrow:)) and as usuall I started with 541 flat and changed it right before kick off!!!Attachment 20449

Nice... I tried a Total Football-like formation with one of my experimental teams

DC--DC--DC--DC
------MC----ML
AMR-AMC------
-----ST-ST-----

Won the league losing just once. But that was in the lower levels, I havent tried that in the higher levels.

Can u tell performance/form of your player? I heard so many arrow not good :)

If you look at the picture, it shows that one if the MC's arrow is pointing down. So I played one game with just an MC who slide into a DMC with the arrow down. His rating dropped. Then I tried to do the same thing with a player that is besides a MC also a DMC. His rating stayed the same or went up.

So I think that if you put an arrow on, the player moves one up or down. I think it is important, that your player should have the positions that you want him to play in order to keep the rating up. I tried the same thing with a DC and a DC/DMC. In the end the player with the additional position turned out to have the better ratings. These are just my findings. But overall, I have not lost a game using this formation. Don't get me wrong, I am sure that there is somewhere a counter formation for this on. Maybe some center based like the 41212 ND etc. It is just to experiment:)

Playing total football is a nice idea. I test the formation you mentioned on the first page with Troll FC, since the last season match is pointless. Here is the first result from a friendly an Asian manager from my friends list played and total football worked (though the quality difference between both team was used since he fielded his bench warmers).

Attachment 20508
Attachment 20509
Attachment 20510

Cudos and respect for the nice system. :cool:

Thank you for share this..I used it and worked very fine for me.

Respect for having the guts to try it:cool:

I have a question about the DMC and MC.

My mc is more attacking than my dmc. Should I swap the position between them?

As I'm writing this, my team just won 1-0 at home with 4-3-3 total football. My opponent played with a weird formation;

------ST-------
-----AMC---AMR
ML-MC---MC-MR
----------------
---DC-DC-DC---
-------GK-------

My team over-quality him but managed to score only one goal. Hmm maybe his formation can counter this formation..but with higher quality players. Anyway, I think I will stick with 4-3-3 total football for few more games to see if it can bring more victory to me :D

To be honest with you, I think that there is a counter for every formation. But if I look at a more attacking formation, like the one you showed, I would let my DMC play, and possibly take the arrow off. Just depends how the game going, because you also have a attacking DC, so that really leaves only one true defender in your half, which could be risky facing attacking formations while forcing counter attacks. Hope you are able to gather some more wins and share your experience here;)

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Originally Posted by Marco Brown

To be honest with you, I think that there is a counter for every formation. But if I look at a more attacking formation, like the one you showed, I would let my DMC play, and possibly take the arrow off. Just depends how the game going, because you also have a attacking DC, so that really leaves only one true defender in your half, which could be risky facing attacking formations while forcing counter attacks. Hope you are able to gather some more wins and share your experience here;)

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Wow okay. I didn't know that. You really thought about that huh? Haha i'm playing against a 4-4-2 classic in my next match and hope this formation can thrash them down like you did haha thanks for sharing

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Originally Posted by DamonAlbarn

Wow okay. I didn't know that. You really thought about that huh? Haha i'm playing against a 4-4-2 classic in my next match and hope this formation can thrash them down like you did haha thanks for sharing

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I do consider those things, when I look at other formations. But sometimes it does not matter how well you calculate, the game engine will do whatever it wants to do. I do believe that there could be a chance that the game engine predicts the outcome with a 70%-80% accuracy. Many things can happen during a match, especially facing a live manager on the other end. But so far I can knock on wood and be happy with the results that my team is achieving.

You should make a thread on how to decide what formation, orders, and arrows to use (if there is none).. I think newbies like me really need that kind of information heee

Well, I am not sure if I am that experienced enough to make a thread regarding orders and arrows. There are forum members that have been playing this game for 25+ seasons but I one thing I think that is happening with arrows is for example when you put a red arrow on a MR and his natural position is just MR, I have noticed a bigger decrease in moral and ratings. He will still contribute to the task that you assign him but I think the player is programmed to feel uncomfortable in this unnatural position.

Now, If you put a red arrow on a MR that is also an AMR, I have noticed that there is a lower to none loss on moral, it also depends on who he is facing as a direct opposing player. Let's say he has no direct player in front of him, he will do very well and maintain a good rating. These are just some of the things that I am finding.

When I asked the Nordeus support team about the arrows, the response was, that basically the formation has to make sense but to be careful about moving your player out of his natural position.

I wonder what the veterans think about this. I have not noticed a difference putting a red arrow on a ST or a blue arrow on a DC, DL or DR.

So, what if I put red arrows on my AML/AMR -- will their morale and performance drop, because they will be playing out of position? Also, there is no bracket directly above them.

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Originally Posted by dec2k

So, what if I put red arrows on my AML/AMR -- will their morale and performance drop, because they will be playing out of position? Also, there is no bracket directly above them.

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I know what you mean, also in this case the Nordeus support team told me that if you would do that, your AMR and AML would assume Striker like tasks, I think that arrows do different things on different positions. I did not notice any significant drops in moral or ratings when there was not an opposing defender. I personally do not put red arrows on AML or AMR unless I am playing against a 3N in the defense.

I've been using this formation to counter weird formations and 4-4-2. Very dominant formation..but i notice that my players are very tired everytime i'm using it. Is it because of the arrows? Thanks :)

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Originally Posted by Leandra Marina

Can u tell performance/form of your player? I heard so many arrow not good :)

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I play with 10 arrows and I won the last 5 Champions league editions that I played LOL

Total football works for me couple of seasons ago but now a strange 4-2(dmc)-2(mc)-2 works for me..maybe i send ss later..

That is good, "total football" still works for my team. But I am trending now towards 3142, 41212 nd and the 3313. It seems as long iris attacking my team seems to be doing ok.

Works very well.

3 victories since i change to Total.

Attachment 21710

Ty for formation

Sure, I am glad;) Good luck buddy. I still use it sometimes:))

I Agree with Marco apsolutely, but I need explanation from him what is the exact time when he makes change tactics. 5 min before kick off, 6 min before kick off or when the game begins immidiately ? Becouse the engine does not give to change tactic something about 4-5 min before kick off.

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Originally Posted by Doom Rides

I Agree with Marco apsolutely, but I need explanation from him what is the exact time when he makes change tactics. 5 min before kick off, 6 min before kick off or when the game begins immidiately ? Becouse the engine does not give to change tactic something about 4-5 min before kick off.

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I usually change as soon as the game starts, I would make sure that the orders are already in place and that the players are set, so the only thing I have to do after kick off is to move the players in their positions.

The opponent is creating a lot of dangerous goal scoring chances. Im not sure if switching to Very offensive mentality and Hard tackling really helps..

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Originally Posted by bulle

The opponent is creating a lot of dangerous goal scoring chances. Im not sure if switching to Very offensive mentality and Hard tackling really helps..

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I had the same problem, opponent becomes dangerous in the game with their goal scoring chances so I tried with the counter off and it helped me a lot. I still got a lot of chances but the opponent doesn't get dangerous in front of my goal. Try it hope it helps!

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Originally Posted by Marco Brown

Whenever I did use this formation, I went ALWAYS unbeaten when I was playing against 442 c. I will use it again tonight in the cup semi finals against a 352 and see what happens.

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Lost against 4-4-2 classic at home with 2-1. Ball possession was 51-49. Played with very offensive mentality and hard tackle + without counterattacks through whole game.

This game is really weird sometimes. Lost 6-0 at home against 4-2(DMC)-3(AML-AMC-AMR)-2
My team rate 52.3 vs 47.2

FML

It really works! I have never won a similar gap against a 4-4-2 classic! look at the result ...
It must be said that the opponent was not as strong as me (his Q is 62.1 while mine is equal to 66.1), however due to the performance with 4 goals scrap (without having conceded) I qualified for the next stage of Champions in the first place of my group!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marco Brown

I also noticed, that if you start to receive bookings, you should change to hard tackle. Or if your opponent starts to have scoring chances you should switch to hard attacking.

If I play against 3 DC's I leave the red arrow off of my AMC, if I play against 4 defenders I add the red arrow to my AMC. If my opponent has a DMC I move my AMR up by one square.

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Sorry, Marco Brown, you mean that if you're going to get yellow cards, you can turn in hard takle? Is it no longer more dangerous? In this way there is no danger about getting red cards?