Eternity RPC Board
05-16-2017, 08:19 AM
4-2-3-1
A game against The Blac is never the same. Recently we did a match Milan - AS Monaco. My Milan, lined up in a classic 4-4-2, initially conceded through an own goal by Romagnoli. A penalty earned by one of my strikers was missed by Bacca. It seemed like one of those matches where just nothing goes the way it should. But then, a few minutes before half-time, Bacca netted the equalizer. The match then proceeded to degenerate into boring-nothing-is-happening until, suddenly, in the 80th minute, Monaco's defenders struggled to work a ball away out of their box and Milan exploited the error to score the winning goal. The match left both of us seething with anger, wanting to hit our players for failing to adhere to some basic instructions.
More recently, we've had a couple of games in which I wanted to try something new: using Blac's favorite formation. Blac opts for his hallmark 4-2-3-1 most of the time, and I only do it when its absolutely necessary, and I do so while closing my nose with my fingers. But I force myself to learn to work with every kind of formation, and 4-2-3-1 is not one that you can easily ignore since it's the most used.
With Dortmund, my 4-2-3-1 was completely powerless. It failed to generate any offense at all against the most Silly Blac, while he punched me in the face twice with two goals. Later that day I was River Plate, the Blac's his usual Schalke. First game he won 3-0, with again, my version of 4-2-3-1 being powerless. By that time it was getting very annoying since it isn't the most difficult formation to work with, and it should be good at attacking - lining up no less than 4 attackers! The second game with River Plate went much better. Before 15 minutes into the game, I was leading with 2-0. Normally I do not give away leads, and certainly no two-goal leads. But then the Blac and his silly, tall, East-European defenders began to score from corner kicks against my Argentines, whose average height was probably about 150 centimeters.
2-1 is still a lead though. But then the Blac got a penalty kick because my defender thought it was wise to break someone's ankles on the edge of the penalty box. 2-2. I tried not to panick and instead try not to give away any other scoring chances, and hope for a late winner. The late winners came for Blac, as again a tall Yugoslav scored from a corner kick. At this point I could throw my computer out of the window.
I went back to the drawing room. We did a final game for that day: CSKA Moscow vs Zenith St. Petersburg. Again we both lined up in 4-2-3-1 formations, and within a few minutes my CSKA Moscow took the lead. Ezequiel Garay, a Petersburg defender, thought he could safely pass the ball to the full-back. It was intercepted by Zoran Tosic, a quick winger of mine, who quickly passed to my striker who then fired it into the top right corner. A similar goal also happened with River Plate. I think, one of the things the Blac will have to be careful of when I line up with 4 attackers is that, although I seldomly press, I tend to leave my attackers a bit higher up the pitch to wander around a bit. They're seemingly passive and not doing much, but they're preying on these kind of things. Usually I only leave 2 attackers up the pitch, so its easier for Blac to play around. With a 4-2-3-1, things get more tricky.
A short while later, my CSKA broke out down the left flank. The counter-attack ended in a throw in on Blac's half. This provided my team a rare opportunity to actually have an attack with most players on Blac's half. Before that, they barely got out of their own half. The throw in was taken, my winger tried to cross from the left side of the penalty box, but he lost the ball. The attack seemed over - Blac's defenders were already abbandoning their stations. But the ball ended before the feet of Schennikov, my left full-back, who curled it directly to the far post where Zoran Tosic was still... wandering around a bit, while his marker had already left him. 2-0.
The River Plate scenario was now looming over me again: an early 2-0 lead, how to hold on to it? Blac's team continued to dominate the game, in my half, and my team was willing to give up on attacking altogether. That match my team generated a pass completion rate of 65%, so basically every third pass ends up in a turnover. With such a low pass completion, its impossible to generate any offense - unless you manage to get the ball to the opponent's goal in 2 passes. After Zenith lost the ball after a corner kick early in the 2nd half, there was again a wonderful opportunity for CSKA to break out again. The ball went to the left flank, to the runners in the middle, then back to the left flank. It was lightning speed. Musa, my left winger, then hit a long cross into the penalty box, where that little fox - Zoran Tosic - was standing ready to score. 3-0.
I was a bit surprised myself. This was literally my third shot on goal in the entire game (and would remain so). I must admit, with those wingers, attacking midfielder, and striker, the 4-2-3-1 can be brutal on the counter-attack. I now understand why Mourinho loves it. Kokorin, Zenith's striker, immediately answered with a goal to make the score 3-1. After that I further tightened up defensively, and killed off the game until it was finished. Finally, I've gotten the 4-2-3-1 to work for me.
The match statistics were even more of a surprise. They showed a completely one-sided game: only 39% ball possession for CSKA, and 3 shots in total. Blac's team had 61% ball possession, 18 shots fired (6 on goal), 12 corners (I had 1), and an 80% pass completion. I have never seen in FM before that a game that one-sided, can still produce a 3-1 victory. Marvelous!
![[Image: 8aPI4QC.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/8aPI4QC.jpg)
A game against The Blac is never the same. Recently we did a match Milan - AS Monaco. My Milan, lined up in a classic 4-4-2, initially conceded through an own goal by Romagnoli. A penalty earned by one of my strikers was missed by Bacca. It seemed like one of those matches where just nothing goes the way it should. But then, a few minutes before half-time, Bacca netted the equalizer. The match then proceeded to degenerate into boring-nothing-is-happening until, suddenly, in the 80th minute, Monaco's defenders struggled to work a ball away out of their box and Milan exploited the error to score the winning goal. The match left both of us seething with anger, wanting to hit our players for failing to adhere to some basic instructions.
More recently, we've had a couple of games in which I wanted to try something new: using Blac's favorite formation. Blac opts for his hallmark 4-2-3-1 most of the time, and I only do it when its absolutely necessary, and I do so while closing my nose with my fingers. But I force myself to learn to work with every kind of formation, and 4-2-3-1 is not one that you can easily ignore since it's the most used.
With Dortmund, my 4-2-3-1 was completely powerless. It failed to generate any offense at all against the most Silly Blac, while he punched me in the face twice with two goals. Later that day I was River Plate, the Blac's his usual Schalke. First game he won 3-0, with again, my version of 4-2-3-1 being powerless. By that time it was getting very annoying since it isn't the most difficult formation to work with, and it should be good at attacking - lining up no less than 4 attackers! The second game with River Plate went much better. Before 15 minutes into the game, I was leading with 2-0. Normally I do not give away leads, and certainly no two-goal leads. But then the Blac and his silly, tall, East-European defenders began to score from corner kicks against my Argentines, whose average height was probably about 150 centimeters.
2-1 is still a lead though. But then the Blac got a penalty kick because my defender thought it was wise to break someone's ankles on the edge of the penalty box. 2-2. I tried not to panick and instead try not to give away any other scoring chances, and hope for a late winner. The late winners came for Blac, as again a tall Yugoslav scored from a corner kick. At this point I could throw my computer out of the window.
I went back to the drawing room. We did a final game for that day: CSKA Moscow vs Zenith St. Petersburg. Again we both lined up in 4-2-3-1 formations, and within a few minutes my CSKA Moscow took the lead. Ezequiel Garay, a Petersburg defender, thought he could safely pass the ball to the full-back. It was intercepted by Zoran Tosic, a quick winger of mine, who quickly passed to my striker who then fired it into the top right corner. A similar goal also happened with River Plate. I think, one of the things the Blac will have to be careful of when I line up with 4 attackers is that, although I seldomly press, I tend to leave my attackers a bit higher up the pitch to wander around a bit. They're seemingly passive and not doing much, but they're preying on these kind of things. Usually I only leave 2 attackers up the pitch, so its easier for Blac to play around. With a 4-2-3-1, things get more tricky.
A short while later, my CSKA broke out down the left flank. The counter-attack ended in a throw in on Blac's half. This provided my team a rare opportunity to actually have an attack with most players on Blac's half. Before that, they barely got out of their own half. The throw in was taken, my winger tried to cross from the left side of the penalty box, but he lost the ball. The attack seemed over - Blac's defenders were already abbandoning their stations. But the ball ended before the feet of Schennikov, my left full-back, who curled it directly to the far post where Zoran Tosic was still... wandering around a bit, while his marker had already left him. 2-0.
The River Plate scenario was now looming over me again: an early 2-0 lead, how to hold on to it? Blac's team continued to dominate the game, in my half, and my team was willing to give up on attacking altogether. That match my team generated a pass completion rate of 65%, so basically every third pass ends up in a turnover. With such a low pass completion, its impossible to generate any offense - unless you manage to get the ball to the opponent's goal in 2 passes. After Zenith lost the ball after a corner kick early in the 2nd half, there was again a wonderful opportunity for CSKA to break out again. The ball went to the left flank, to the runners in the middle, then back to the left flank. It was lightning speed. Musa, my left winger, then hit a long cross into the penalty box, where that little fox - Zoran Tosic - was standing ready to score. 3-0.
I was a bit surprised myself. This was literally my third shot on goal in the entire game (and would remain so). I must admit, with those wingers, attacking midfielder, and striker, the 4-2-3-1 can be brutal on the counter-attack. I now understand why Mourinho loves it. Kokorin, Zenith's striker, immediately answered with a goal to make the score 3-1. After that I further tightened up defensively, and killed off the game until it was finished. Finally, I've gotten the 4-2-3-1 to work for me.
The match statistics were even more of a surprise. They showed a completely one-sided game: only 39% ball possession for CSKA, and 3 shots in total. Blac's team had 61% ball possession, 18 shots fired (6 on goal), 12 corners (I had 1), and an 80% pass completion. I have never seen in FM before that a game that one-sided, can still produce a 3-1 victory. Marvelous!
Average player positions:
![[Image: BduoCS8.png]](http://i.imgur.com/BduoCS8.png)
![[Image: 5bIZIRH.png]](http://i.imgur.com/5bIZIRH.png)
Action zones:
![[Image: bUTks9o.png]](http://i.imgur.com/bUTks9o.png)
shot locations:
![[Image: tJsEkPq.png]](http://i.imgur.com/tJsEkPq.png)
Match statistics:
![[Image: JZgBfCa.png]](http://i.imgur.com/JZgBfCa.png)