Need help analyzing this bizarre 4-3-3 formation

[Stephen Lam]

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)


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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!

[nikolgiorgos]

yes, but you don't write what was your orders.
If you had attack mentality, that's explain the score.

[Stephen Lam]

yes, but you don't write what was your orders.
If you had attack mentality, that's explain the score.

All my orders were default except for hard tackling. I did not change to attacking mentality until after I was 2-0 down.

[El Pistolero]

I understand why you went with 4-1-4-1 but why didn't you go butterfly?

I can only guess it was down to position movement. If AML in possession, DR and DMC is occupied, leaving 3 against 4. DC+DC+LB vs ST+ST+ST+AMR.

It's bizzare but maybe that's why he just tipped it?

[Ioannis Boulakas]

1)Butterfly
2)5-3N-2 through middle
3)5-1-2-1-1 through middle

[Stephen Lam]

So I'm hearing butterfly...what is the reason?

I chose flat 4 in the middle because i wanted my wingers to help defend against RED's attacking wingers (clearly that didn't work as well as I'd hoped)

[Ioannis Boulakas]

3DC against 3 ST. DML,DMR against AML,AMR, 2MC against one MC and finally your striker and the wings against his defence.

But i prefer 5-3N-2

[El Pistolero]

So I'm hearing butterfly...what is the reason?



I chose flat 4 in the middle because i wanted my wingers to help defend against RED's attacking wingers (clearly that didn't work as well as I'd hoped)

Yeah, a pass to the winger and your winger is already out of the zone, can't defend if they already past you. With your AML, AMR and ST. They can't double up on you because you're stretching the defence. With 4-1-4-1 there's more distance between mid and attack which makes it harder to attack.

[pcmacdaniel]

He's giving away the middle of the field so take it, so i'd just focus all the passing and attack through that point.

4-1-2-1-2 ND, 4-3n-3, 4-1-2n-3 or 4-3n-1-2

[FVS0777]

He's giving away the middle of the field so take it, so i'd just focus all the passing and attack through that point.

4-1-2-1-2 ND, 4-3n-3, 4-1-2n-3 or 4-3n-1-2

As pcmacdaniel already said his middle is very weak, but he can feed the strikers well with the amr, aml, so exploit his middle and put two strikers to make some pressure on his defence.

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