4132 Guide

[TimYoung]

I only play 4132 so am writing a guide for people and also a place to note down what works and what not.

My typical order is this:
Defensive/Normal, Mixed, Own Half, Normal, Mixed, Zonal, No Force Counterattack/Force counter attack, no offside trap with no arrows on the players.

Usually the only two order I change is whether to play defensive or normal and whether to play force counter attack or not. Usually I play counter attack whilst playing away and no counter whilst playing at home.

Player's training - I tend to train fullbacks with even ratings across the board as they would need to be both defensive and attack minded, DC to train on def and mental, short strikers to be attacking and mental and tall strikers to be even ratings. Also, I have defensive and attacking MC where my attack minded MC I would train my attack about twice as much as mental and barely train my def at all. Usually I have short arse mc as my attacking midfielders and tall mc as my mc. Not sure whether heights makes a difference really but just seems wrong to have a short arse player who can jump really well. My DMC I tend to build more defensive as their main job is to break up play.

Special abilities - GK - one on one, DC - aerial, wall, dl/dr - nothing, dmc/def minded mc - nothing, attack minded mc and short strikers - corners and freekicks (try to get either foot players), strikers - one on one. I also want to try playermaker dmc but haven't had a chance to buy one yet and also dribbler dl/dr. Penalty taker is trash as I had one where he missed every pen.. well I only let him take one before I took him off pen duty whereas my non pen players have not yet missed one so far.

442

I have never had problems playing against 442 even tho it seems to be the formation over the last few seasons. The only thing is to put two defensive minded mc against their mcs and my attack minded mc free to wreak havoc in the middle.

He tends to score a lot of goals from there and along with my dmc, I would control the centre of the pitch.

I think in general it works is because I tend to build from the back and my defence is strong across the back so they rarely get many chance against me whilst my attack minded mc tend to be the difference. In my first season, I had wank strikers who couldn't hit the barn door and basically my attacking mc and my def carried my team.

Also, sometimes I play through the middle instead of mix when I play without counter attack. I tend not to like it much as I seem seem get less chances than when I play mix yet if they have a weak middle it is worth doing since the goal scoring chances tend to be higher. With forced counter attack, always play mix irrespective of how strong they are on the wings or mid since they will be outta shape when you attack them.

Any formation with AMC and One striker


I find that against this formation, it is best to put a blue arrow on my dmc. Without it the amc and the striker tend to get a lot of chances even tho I have two at the back compared to if he just played with two strikers. With a blue arrow on the dmc. It tend to reduce their goal scoring chances quite a bit. Also, I find playing force counter attack great against this formation since he only has one striker upfront and it is worth letting them have the ball to get them out of shape.

4132

Against a 4132, the only thing I would change is to put two red arrows on my DL/DR. In fact against any team with no wingers but just their full backs, it is always good to put red arrows on your full back. If you have DL/DML or DR/DMR I would deffo play them in the def mid position. If you have both, can play 32W3N2 instead of a dmc.

Other things to note is to put your best defensive mc against his best attack mc and your best attack mc against his weakest def mc. If you have to decide between the two, always put your best MC against his weakest MC first and avoid best mc against his best mc.

451V
Normal counter attack.

One mc
Against team that plays with one mc whether it is (dmc, mc) or (mc, amc) or 3W, I would put my one defensive minded mc in the middle and two attacking minded mc on the sides.

Against 3 strikers
Again as I build from the back and my defenders are top notch it is worth playing the offside trap especially if they have no wingers so your full backs are on red arrows. If your defenders are worse then their strikers, don't bother.

Other formations:
Since my team is made up of no wingers and no amc, the only other alternate formations are 532 and 433. 532 tend to suck arse but I have played it with some success against certain formations. At the moment I want to get full backs that can also play as defensive midfield full backs then I can have more options in changing my formation. Will put down if I get them.

Also, I have tried to play with one striker upfront. That does not work with no wingers and I get near to zero chance at goal. Maybe it would work better if I have players that can play dml/dmr position.

Okay, I think that is it for now. Will update if I think of anything.

[SoMBrA]

Great guide, thanks for sharing!

[TimYoung]

Forced Counter attack

Against teams that park the bus and have lots of defenders or say just one striker.

So best is to use against a defensive team set up as you cannot break through his def the normal way and they do not have enough offensive players to be too much of a problem in giving them a goal scoring chance when you give them possession.

Forced counter attack is when you give him the ball and when you win the ball back, his team is outta position during the transition and that is when you attack.

This means that you should only use defensive or normal mentality as you are risking giving him the ball and to steal it back off him to start your attack. There is no point playing attack formation since you do not need the extra attack to go through his outta position defence but the main point is to win the ball back.

I have won plenty of games 8-0, 9-0 playing counter attack with defensive mentality.

The prerequisite tho is that you do need a good defence to play it and why I build my squad from the back or if your defence is not good enough, you are just giving the other team the ball for them to score more goals against you.

The last thing is that when playing counter attack, always use mix passing rather than through the mid or any other type. This is because their team is outta position when you win the ball back and you do not need to go through specific channels to score.

[TimYoung]

Whole Pitch Pressing

Can use when your offensive players outnumber their defensive players.

You should only use own half pressing most of the time. Whole pitch pressing is useful tho when they are light at the back. For example, when playing against 3w defence (DL DC DR) and you have two strikers on their single DC, it is worth your strikers pressing him for a chance to nick the ball off him for a goal scoring chance.

But do remember that you need to have offensive players that have okay marking and tackling ratings to pull it off.

Also, I tend to find that players tend to tire easily with whole pitch pressing and I tend only to use it until I score the first goal then switch it back to own half.

[TimYoung]

451

Won our first leg against a higher Q team at home using normal forced counter attack. As said because they had a packed defence force counter attack is the way to go. Also, I had blue arrow on my DL because he was 27 rated whilst their MR was 33. This did mean I had no width on the left hand side.

In their set up, their best player was the middle mc with def rating of around 25 but attack rating of 40 whilst the two other mcs were even 30s. Instead of putting my best defensive mc marking him, I use the opportunity to place my best offensive MC against him instead because he has the lowest def rating and I have a DMC behind. If he had played his most offensive player to the sides, I might have played my best def MC against him instead without the safety of my dmc.

In any case, it worked out well and my offensive MC played a 9.

In the return leg, I think Ill play def counter as I am playing away. The game should be close since the home game for some reason in the second half it was all him and my amazing def somehow held out from all his shots. Not sure Ill be this lucky in the away leg and think I might need to change things up a bit. Maybe play hard tackling and long ball since he beats me all over the pitch apart from my strikers against his DCs.

-------------------

Draw the return leg 1-1. I forgot to change my orders to long ball,and the game was pretty boring as there were not many chances. It seemed he was also playing def counter attack as well since he was countering a lot but my numerical advantage at the back held out.

However, his 40 rating offence midfielder somehow got past my DMC and did an unstoppable long shot and went 1-0 up. I replied with my offensive MC with a long shot as well. The game was going his way until his striker got his second yellow card and after that he had few chances with the possession stats swinging my way. I guess I could have gone for the kill and switch up to normal but since he needed to win by two goals I thought I'll just leave it there to close out the game.

I had intended to switch to hard tackling second half but seeing the red card, I felt I didn't need to do anything until the last 10 minutes when I switched to hard tackling and he had zero opportunities after.

[mironalin]

Nice guide and very useful. Have you play'd against a 41212 narrow diamond?

[TimYoung]

Yes. It is just 4132 except the mid mc is played as AMC. Which plays right into my hands as the other team is playing their AMC right where I play a DMC whilst my mid MC is not marked and helps out the other two mid to win the midfield battle.

I think AMC is the most useless position in the game. There is almost nothing a mid MC cannot do better then a AMC.

[TimYoung]

43N2W1

The suppose counter of 4132 in the table of formation. I cant see how it is a counter when I win the battle in defence and midfield. The only thing I am losing on is the wings but I win the middle of the park. Just played a game against that formation and won 4-0 ezpz, admittedly against a lower Q team. Also,they might also not have played with the right orders.

If I ever have trouble with this formation, Ill post an update but in the meantime, just play standard should beat them.

I used counter attack in my last game, since my defenders were better then their attackers so took the ball off them like taking toys from a child.

[stavridis]

I have no words for this great post such a awe-some information i got gathered. Thanks to Author.

[Bibster]

To me it looks like you are using "force counter-attack" all the time? Is this true?

Have there been times where you dont use "force counter-attack"? If yes, can you please provide examples and situations?

Thank you