To defend against a superior team with better attackers than your defenders, it is a must to go +1 to close down space. ie. 4 defenders vs 3 of a mixture of STs + AML(R)s, and then man-Mark with the same number of DMCs vs opponent’s AMCs. Then at least match midfields or go +1 if needed.

If it ends up as 4-1-4-1, then easy. If you can still put 2 attackers after matching the above, then that 2 attackers should be your best attackers who will exploit the space of opponent’s backline.

Playing 3 attackers vs a far superior quality opponent is like gifting the match away in most cases.