how to beat 4-4-2 Classic.. VS slightly better quality team?

[Mexanik]

My two cents: I played twice against very similar quality player, this season and these comments will be based on them.

The first game: Match was in his grounds and both of us were in the game. I sticked to 4-1-3N-2 and won confidently, basically thrashed him statistics-wise.
The second game: Match was in my grounds and both of us were watching the game. I started out as 4-1-2-1-2 ND, playing attacking mentality through the middle, with no arrows. He was doing better than me, but didn't have anything more than a single 1-on-1 in the first half and a number of unsuccessful corners. I switched to 4-5-1 V-Style late into the second half, attacking mentality, down both flanks, red arrows on AMs, counter-attack. Stats changed to my favor and I had a number of corners, run through flanks, shoots from distance in last 20 mins since I did the change, while he had complete "nothing". Neither of us was able to score and it ended draw. Man of the match was his goalkeeper! I guess I would have won, if I changed to 4-5-1 V-Style a little sooner, but all those rumors regarding inefficiency of this formation added a lot of hesitation.

P.S. Both of us are very good defense-wise and have a quality goalkeeper.
P.P.S. If I would play against a strong 4-4-2 again, I would still start with Narrow Diamond (conservative) and change to V-Style (risky but efficient), but a lot sooner.

[Taifur A'zeez Khan]

4-1-2-1-2 narrow diamond with proper command can win always... try it once... u will feel it easy to counter 442...really easy.. believe me..

[André Costa]

4-1-2-1-2 narrow diamond with proper command can win always... try it once... u will feel it easy to counter 442...really easy.. believe me..

And what is the right command?

[Mexanik]

One thing I've noted after playing 4-1-2-1-2 Narrow Diamond against 4-4-2 Classic, is that I get very low rating (in 4-6 range) for my DMC, who is a very decent defensive-minded player. 2 DCs versus his 2 STs and he has no players in the AM line, so seemingly DMC doesn't see much of the ball and is pretty much useless here?! Probably 4-3N-1-2 would be more logical against 4-4-2 Classic? Any ideas?

[jamiemgr]

This is how I usually beat 4-4-2

DR---- DC------DC----DC-
------DMC-----DMC-------
-------MC------MC--------
---------------------------
--------ST------ST--------

Attacking
&
Focus passes down the middle.

Always win by quite a margin. Since I started using this formation, I havent lost against anyone using 4-4-2

[Nihal Manzoor]

i had success with 4-1-3w-1-1 using short passes and also by 4-1-3n-2 the main thing is to use the middle line through 4-4-2 as it leaves a full gap through the middle

[Mr. Marco]

I usually beat a 4-4-2 formation with this formation:

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[terryhenry99]

orders?

[janjang]

your order sir?