Hi guys,

I'm a pretty new player and could use some tactical analysis from the more experienced players, if you don't mind.

Yesterday I ran up against a person who played a crazy 4-3-3 formation with only 1 central midfielder and 5 players in the attacking 3rd. I lost 0-2.

Below, RED is the opponent, and BLACK is me (4-1-4-1 formation)


Make your football formation with this11.com

One thing that is not shown on the picture is that I have the higher average stars, so in theory I have the more talented team. Also, it was a home game for me and both managers were present.

Now I chose to go with a 4-1-4-1 thinking about real life. This is what I thought would happen:

- RED has only 1 central midfielder, so with my 3 central midfielders I should have a massive possession advantage combined with home field, and I should be able to generate lots of strong attacks against RED's unprotected backline.
- I have all his attacking players at least covered by 2 defenders so I should be hard to break down.
- Because RED has only 1 midfielder not in the attack, he is leaving behind massive spaces in the middle. Therefore I should have very dangerous counterattacks with him having 5 players so high up the pitch.
- With my possession advantage and RED leaving so much space in front of the defense, I should have lots of shots and not concede too many shots myself.

What really happened:

- Despite his midfield being so open and it being a home game, I only got 59% possession.
- We both have roughly the same number of shots, about 15.
- I got no goals, and he got 2.
- My highest performing player was only 6.7 and that was in midfield where it was 3 vs 1. On the other hand RED had a 9.1 performance from his DR, of all players.


So clearly, my real life expectation didn't work out here and I lost out in tactics. Can someone who is more experienced explain to me why I lost out?

Thanks!