is there any way to logically beat 4-4-2 ?

[Andrew Nifield]

I dont think that it's too hard to beat, 3 central attackers vs 2 central defenders.

Theoretically you could even do a formation with 2 DCMs on the wings, or just play 3 at the back and AMC and 2 strikers to overpower their defence.

Personally what I do is change my tactics, and study their players and make a plan of attack that way, I generally keep the same formation.

[Craig Gareppo]

I also struggle eveytime i play against 4-4-2.

I lost in the league today 4-1. My team is 100% is team was 94% and i played 3-4-1-2.

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

[Medo zalata]

I think defensive counter long passes 451v would be very good as 442 doesn't have DMC s
If things weren't good during the first half( losing) , then try to switch it just normal tactics.

[babarkhurshid]

4-4-2 sometimes make it difficult to beat. Whenever I face 4-4-2 I switch my formation to 4-3MC-1AMC-2 ST with red arrows on DL and DR, Attacking, through the middle, mixed passing, counter on, defending low, marking zonal, tackling normal and offside trap Off. This formation always give me better result.

[cookizzz]

You may try 3n-2(DMR/DML)-2-2(AMR/AML)-1 if you have suitable players. My teams played extremely well against teams with 4-4-2 in last 2 seasons.

[Abhinavsharma]

3W-2dmc-3W-amc-st is best against 4-4-2.
Attacking,low press backward arrow in dl and dr.

[pcmacdaniel]

The difficult aspect of playing against a 4-4-2 is, its the most difficult tactic to figure out the opponents arrows and orders. With some formations it's obvious where the attack is coming from. For example, a 4-1-2-1-2 Narrow Diamond is passing through the middle, but a 4-1-2-1-2 WD is going down the flanks. With the 4-4-2, the opponent can choose to attack the flanks or the middle, and can change it in match w/o any substitutions.

Now, there are some ways to guess your opponents arrows. For example, check the goal production for his wingers and central midfielders. If the MC's are outproducing his wingers, most likely he has red arrows on the MC"s and is passing through the middle.

Generally speaking, the 4-4-2 is weak in the middle, so a 4-1-2-1-2 ND or 4-3n-1-2 is a viable strategy for countering a 4-4-2. Please note, that its easier to hard counter the 4-4-2 with the narrow formations, if your opponent is attacking the middle, instead of using the MC's as holding mids (blue arrows) and passing down the flanks. But even if your opposition is doing that, you have numerical superiority in the middle and an uncovered AMC.

If he's defending the middle, a 4-3w-3/4-3w-1-2/4-3w-2n-1 are also viable strategies, since you have more firepower on offense than him; basically turning the match into a battle of whose wingers, attacking mids and strikers can score more, and with these formations you have one extra body actively involved in the offense.

3n-4-1-2 is another formation that works well against the 4-4-2.

If you're unsure of a particular strategy you can either mirror the 4-4-2 or use a 4-2-2-2 hexagon. I've been using the hexagon, which is more offense than the 4-4-2, with AML/AMR instead of ML/MR. But my team is strong for my level as well, so player quality advantages are helping me as well.

4-5-1V/4-3n-2w-1 if you have REALLY GOOD AML and AMR is another option. Currently, alot of players have VERY GOOD AML and AMR since the position is OP relative to ST"s currently, so I would definitely recommend considering formations with those players.

[Zoran Vitas]

i won two times against a much weaker team and without ease. doesn't matter, game is peace of **** anyway, without any connection to football.

The difficult aspect of playing against a 4-4-2 is, its the most difficult tactic to figure out the opponents arrows and orders. With some formations it's obvious where the attack is coming from. For example, a 4-1-2-1-2 Narrow Diamond is passing through the middle, but a 4-1-2-1-2 WD is going down the flanks. With the 4-4-2, the opponent can choose to attack the flanks or the middle, and can change it in match w/o any substitutions.

Now, there are some ways to guess your opponents arrows. For example, check the goal production for his wingers and central midfielders. If the MC's are outproducing his wingers, most likely he has red arrows on the MC"s and is passing through the middle.

Generally speaking, the 4-4-2 is weak in the middle, so a 4-1-2-1-2 ND or 4-3n-1-2 is a viable strategy for countering a 4-4-2. Please note, that its easier to hard counter the 4-4-2 with the narrow formations, if your opponent is attacking the middle, instead of using the MC's as holding mids (blue arrows) and passing down the flanks. But even if your opposition is doing that, you have numerical superiority in the middle and an uncovered AMC.

If he's defending the middle, a 4-3w-3/4-3w-1-2/4-3w-2n-1 are also viable strategies, since you have more firepower on offense than him; basically turning the match into a battle of whose wingers, attacking mids and strikers can score more, and with these formations you have one extra body actively involved in the offense.

3n-4-1-2 is another formation that works well against the 4-4-2.

If you're unsure of a particular strategy you can either mirror the 4-4-2 or use a 4-2-2-2 hexagon. I've been using the hexagon, which is more offense than the 4-4-2, with AML/AMR instead of ML/MR. But my team is strong for my level as well, so player quality advantages are helping me as well.

4-5-1V/4-3n-2w-1 if you have REALLY GOOD AML and AMR is another option. Currently, alot of players have VERY GOOD AML and AMR since the position is OP relative to ST"s currently, so I would definitely recommend considering formations with those players.

[Zoran Vitas]

ok, it seems this works against 4-4-2, perhaps we solved our problem. there are others too, let''s do some different threads!

[Tactician]

I no longer help people significantly to play this '****' game. I gave you a decent template. You cannot use this template exactly as it is for every match; some tweaks are likely to be required, for example, changing one or more orders to make the the set of tactics more appropriate with respect to the opponent to be faced.

I gave a very good advice on this forum here: never do things blindly, that is, do not just 'copy and paste' things without knowing what they do, how they work and so on. This advice applies to real life situations too, and in fact, it is very important there.