The match to decide the season, my plan. Pics included, would welcome all suggestions

[Sxrenity]

Hi all, i'm in my second season now, and i've cruised along. Knocked out of the cup in the prelims (surprise surprise eh) after winning it in my first season, but still going strong in my first CL.

Now... in my league, there has been one guy, who has been a thorn in my side. These are the standings:


he slipped up with a draw a couple of days ago.

As you can see, the league is practically a two horse race, i'm a point behind this bloke at the moment, yet i'm smashing his GD.

i'm winning most games 5+ to 0

After looking through the teams at the start of the season, i knew this guy would be the only problem, here's the comparison:


the average quality of the other players in the league is around 15, so you can see where i'm coming from with the knowledge the league is basically between me and him.

Now, i lost the first game of the season against this guy, here are the stats.



Now here are our formations, they haven't changed since the first game, his is the narrow diamond.



My orders are:

I got really annoyed by the first loss, because it was my idea that i was using the superior formation by attacking down his non-existent flanks, and having the superior team, so i'm putting it down to pure luck.

Because of this, and the fact the second match is at my stadium, hence the added possession bonus (he watches EVERY game) i don't think i'll have a problem beating him this time, not changing my team. I have also invested in 2 more scout players since then too.

NB/ since he is Israeli, and i'm UK, they're 2 hours ahead of me so i changed the match time as late as i could at the chance he'd be in bed and won't watch it HEHEHE.

Any ideas, suggestions/thoughts?

Note: i was unsure wether this belonged in the tactics forum as it seems to me that my post is more of a match report, league discussion so apologies if i have put this in the wrong place.

Thanks all.

[El Pistolero]

LOL Connor! I changed my cup match time so he would be in bed by 1am with a bit of hope.

[El Pistolero]

This is just food for thought but he has no MR/AMR so if you were to play 3-5-2v he wouldn't be able to play down your wings, unless he played someone out of position.

Maybe if you still need a goal late in the game you could do this?

[Sxrenity]

3N-5 (AML-C-C-C-AMR)-2?

struggling to visualise it.

The way i see it my defence combined with my dmc counters his 2st and amc, but i am thinking about just going 3 at the centre and sticking an extra man in centre midfield where i'm outnumbered, seeing as though he doesn't play wide players my DL/DR are un needed yes?

tbh i hope he's looking at my team and bricking it as much as i am knowing this is in all purposes the league final haha.

[Narf]

You should be able to beat him as is, indeed - I'd only add the Force counter-attacks option, there's no reason why you shouldn't use it. However, here are 2 more formations that should be handy:

3N-1DMC-2MC-2W-2
3N-1DMC-3N-2W-1

Both should be used with Man-on-man marking, the only difference being is that the first one gives you more attacking power, while the second gives you a better chance against his attacks through the middle (and more possession). The basic idea is - since your opponent doesn't use the flanks at all, you don't need to defend them, so why not use an extra player forward.

[cracicot]

OK, I had the same problem at the start of my season. He went with narrow diamond and I went with 3-5-2V hoping I would score some goals but LOST 2-0 at his stadium. I had 55% possession and watched the match and he didnt. So very bad start to the season. So far, that is my only loss and I am on a 10 game win streak.

For some reason, I have probs vs Narrow Diamond. What the hell is the best formation to beat it?

On the point of watching matches...over-rated. You will hear from many people that managers who dont watch tend to win their games. I think the jury is still out on that though...

Let me know how you do vs the narrow diamond.

[Sxrenity]

Yeah the narrow diamond seems to be most difficult to beat now Cracicot, but i'll post a full match report against this guy so expect either a "F**K THIS GAME I QUIT AND REFUSE TO EVER PLAY FOOTBALL GAMES AGAIN"

or a "HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT PAL, LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSER"

actually quite worked up against this bloke :')

I like the idea of 3N-1DMC-3N-2-1, seems to be the best idea as it covers the centre so he will have no formation advantage, and my AMR/AML can wreak some havok on them wings

so yeah thanks Narf and Dave, i think i've made my mind up.

However i'm unsure about the man on man, i've heard people saying its outdated and a bad tactic, yet my players are better than his man for man.

playing 3N would support the idea of counter attacks yes? never fiddled with those tactics so i might give the match plan a test run against the poor test subject i play tomorrow

[El Pistolero]

3N-5 (AML-C-C-C-AMR)-2?

struggling to visualise it.

The way i see it my defence combined with my dmc counters his 2st and amc, but i am thinking about just going 3 at the centre and sticking an extra man in centre midfield where i'm outnumbered, seeing as though he doesn't play wide players my DL/DR are un needed yes?

tbh i hope he's looking at my team and bricking it as much as i am knowing this is in all purposes the league final haha.

I mean 3-1-2n-2w-2 when you need a goal or something.
Yeah, outnumbering his midfield should benefit you.
DL and DR wont have much to do against the diamond. I've seen a 3-1-2-1-3 diamond beat the 4-1-2-1-2 but I'd be worried of drawing against similar formations.

I always beat the diamond with 4-5-1v

[El Pistolero]

2 CB's long balling it to 3 strikers works for me so I can imagine 3CB's long balling to 1 or 2 strikers would probably work also.

I changed to a 4-3-3 for the lolz and conceded right before I made the change and my formation then changed and scored 2 quick goals.

[Sxrenity]

Right this is what i think i'll do.

How does that sound?