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[Nentsia]

Reflections on playing against Blacaria

After having played a lot of games against Blac, and I will not deny it, losing about 80%, drawing about 15%, and winning only occasionally, I do start to see some patterns.

First of all, I noticed Blac does not like it when I play with Argentine teams. As Boca Juniors I won my first games against Blac, and I also beat him with River Plate. I, on the other hand, don't like it when Blac takes Man City because there is just no way of stopping them.

But what frustrates me is this pattern: when I confront Blac in a 3-5-2 formation I cannot seem to stop his attacking waves coming at my goal. With AC Milan, on a rare occasion, I beat Blac's 4-2-3-1 with 3-2, but only because two of my defenders miraculously scored. With Lazio Roma I once succeeded in keeping the score at 0-0, having spent the entire game inside my own penalty box. With both teams, I got hammered the next round.

Against Inter Milan I saw the definite proof of where my 3-5-2 gets defeated by Blac's teams: on the wing. Antonelli was rushing on the left wing with the ball, but lost it in Blac's final third to his full-back. Palacio was sent deep along the open flank, hit the early cross, and Icardi - a natural goalscorer - got to the ball and worked it into my goal. I can have 3 central defenders, I could have as many as 6, none of them would be able to prevent such a goal if my flank is that exposed.

My 3-5-2 works always for me, because I use it in Italy, where almost nobody plays 4-2-3-1. In Italy they've never heard of ''wingers''. My 3 central defenders are set up to deal with 2-striker systems, while my wing-backs are calculated to deal with only 1 direct opponent, and my defensive midfielder provides extra cover against the opponent's Trequartista. In RL, my 3-5-2 would not necessarily get into trouble against a team playing a lone striker and wingers. The 3 central defenders would simply position wider, so that the two outer central defenders would mark the wingers. The middle defender would mark the striker, and the defensive midfielder would mark Blac's attacking midfielder.

In the game however, they do not behave this way. The 3 central defenders stick to their positions. As a result, the lone striker becomes a constant source of confusion among them. If he moves to the left, my right Stopper would mark him. But if he stays in the middle, and only starts moving when the ball is played into space, confusion arises. My 2 stoppers don't know who should be marking him, and my middle defender is usually on cover - therefore not allowed to tight mark. A sort of no-man's land exists in the middle of my 3-man defence, which provides Blac's strikers with the liberty they need to get to the cross or the through ball before my defenders can. Meanwhile, the wings are overrun because the wing-backs don't get their support from the central defenders. Sometimes I tried to remedy this by keeping my wing-backs very deep, essentially transforming my formation into a very rigid 5-3-2, which is basically a return to old-fashioned Catenaccio that reigned in Italy during the 1960's. But the weakness of that formation, and my remedy, is that the team keeps all its players behind the ball and is unable to create any real scoring opportunities. I get locked in my own area, and it won't hold out against Blac's pressure. His teams attack with 4 players, and 4 more players provide attacking support. That's 8 in total, against 8 of mine defending. No matter how good my players are, if they have to defend like that for 90 minutes they will make defensive mistakes. Not to mention the constant source of confusion caused by the lone striker.

The mobility of my wing-backs is the key to my formula: they enable a defensive formation to rapidly transform itself into an attacking formation that attacks down the wings (where there is space) and that attacks in great numbers. If I keep my wing-backs deep, I will force myself to break out through the middle. With 3 central midfielders and 2 strikers, that could be a possibility. But Blac's 4-2-3-1 is, positionally, balanced enough to smother any attacks down the center. He has 2 central defenders, each marking my strikers, plus 2 central midfielders screening the defence. This central box can relatively easily cut off the supply lines from my central midfield to my strikers, reducing my ball posession and counter-attacks. I end up seeing less and less of the ball, and being under more and more pressure. It is just waiting until the structure caves in.

I realized the wing problem quite early, which is why I began experimenting with a 4-4-2 against Blac. Carlo Ancelotti, the famous AC Milan manager, once already declared that the 4-4-2 is defensively the most solid football formation. And he can know it, for he was part of the legendary AC Milan team under Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello that dominated Italy and Europe with a 4-4-2 system, boasting the best defence in the world. The 4-4-2, as a defensive formation, was later also embraced by other Italian masters such as Giovanni Trapattoni, Claudio Ranieri, Marcello Lippi (who won the 2006 world cup with it), Sven Goran Eriksson won Italian prizes with it with both Sampdoria and Lazio Roma. The 4-4-2 as a solid defensive shape returned to the world stage with Diego Simeone's Atletico, Claudio Ranieri's Leicester, Iceland, and Portugal at Euro 2016. The obvious advantage this gave me was the double coverage on the wings. But I was not very used to it, so I needed to find out for myself how to properly implement it against Blac's teams. Most of my wins (and draws) against Blac occurred when I deployed a 4-4-2 against him. For example, my Argentine teams (Boca and River) were all set up in a 4-4-2. Yesterday, when my AC Milan got hammered with 4-0 when I deployed it in a 5-3-2, I managed to win the final game with 1-0 when I set them up in a 4-4-2.

The difference is not just the coverage on the wings. In a 4-4-2 shape, my style of defending changes entirely. My 3-5-2 is a very structured way of defending: I invite the opponent forward and rely on my superior numbers in defence to absorb the pressure and hit on the counter attack. But against Blac, I believe this plays exactly into his hands. Because when his team gets invited forward, it does so with 8 players. The pressure on my 8 defending players becomes immense. Sooner or later, the house of cards collapses. In a 4-4-2 shape, its more about compact defending. It is basically similar to what teams like Leicester and Atletico Madrid do. The team sits in its own half, but makes the spaces in that area very small. Blac's players have much less time on the ball, they get sloppy, and they find no space through the defence. Playing down the wings is not as effective anymore either. The downside is that this compactness also limits the available space for my own players when they intercept the ball, thus reducing my own attacking abilities.

Theoretically, if I want to entirely neutralize Blac's 4-2-3-1 I'd have to deploy a 4-1-4-1 formation. This would provide double coverage on the wings against Blac's wingers, 2 central defenders to focus on his lone striker, 1 defensive midfielder to harass his attacking midfielder, and 2 central midfielders to keep Blac's 2 central midfielders busy. But that would mean I can deploy only 1 attacker. For me this is not an option. My goal is not to end every game with 0-0. My goal is to end it with 1-0 for me. So either it must be 2 strikers, or a lone striker supported by wingers.

The formation that would best exploit the defensive weaknesses of Blac's formation, ironically enough, is a 4-2-3-1 as well. This was clearly observed last year when Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool met his former team, Borussia Dortmund. Both played 4-2-3-1, and the final score was 4-3. Blac's 4-2-3-1 is a very flexible and therefore balanced formation, but not impenetrable. His central ''box'' of 4 in the middle of the pitch (2 central defenders + 2 central midfielders) leaves room for an attacking midfielder to play between the lines. So if you want to exploit defensive vulnerabilities of a 4-2-3-1, I'd start by deploying an attacking midfielder in between the opponent's defense and midfield. The second weakness of the 4-2-3-1, ironically again, is on the wings. In a 4-2-3-1 the wingers and the full-backs are at a relatively large distance from each other. If Blac's wingers fail to perform their defensive duties, this would enable to outnumber his full-backs by deploying wingers of my own supported by attacking full-backs. So the formation that is best capable at exploiting the ~potential~ weaknesses of Blac's 4-2-3-1 would be a 4-2-3-1.

In theory, a 4-1-2-3 could also work well against Blac. It would be similar to a 4-1-4-1, and neutralize all his attacking players, but the wingers would play more advanced up the pitch so that the striker isn't isolated. But for some reason, every time I deployed a 4-1-2-3 against Blac it wasn't very effective. In fact, these were some of the most boring games with little scoring chances on both sides. Some of my favorite alternative formations, 3-4-1-2 and 4-3-1-2, I wouldn't even dare to use against Blac because they are also vulnerable on the wings are particularly suited to Italian football.

I do have some ideas on how to potentially transform my 3-5-2 into something that can work against Blac. I could opt to use Antonio Conte's model for example. Conte succesfully used a 3-5-2 at Euro 2016 against teams like Spain and Belgium (Belgium also playing 4-2-3-1). But Conte does not use it in a traditional fashion of deploying a deep defense, with a Libero providing coverage, and wing-backs being launched into wide space in the counter attack. Conte pushes his entire formation much higher up the pitch, with effectively 5 players clogging the midfield and pressuring the opponent. The 3 defenders at the back each individually mark their opponent and use the offside trap. Rather than sitting deep and inviting the opponent forward, Conte's Italy (and his Juventus as well) seek to force the opponent into errors by cutting the supply lines from midfield to the attackers. Blac's 4-2-3-1 largely depends on the 2 central midfielders for linking the defence with the attack because his wingers stand rather far away from the full-backs. With 3 central midfielders, 2 central strikers, and 2 wing-backs joining the midfield, a 3-5-2 can easily dominate the middle of the pitch and ''cut'' those 2 central midfielders off the rest of the team. Conte's system succeeded in cutting the supply lines. I'm not sure however, whether it works in FM like that as well. It would require my 3 defenders to each pick up the correct opponent: Left Central Defender marks the Right Winger, Central Defender marks the Striker, and the Right Central Defender marks the Left Winger. When necessary, the wing-backs will also drop back and support the defense to revert back to a 5-man defense. But it only works if the game engine doesn't keep the 3 central defenders in the central core of the pitch. One of the standard instructions (which cannot be removed) for these players is to stick to their positions, which in Conte's 3-5-2 they should certainly not do. I am therefore skeptical whether it would work.

Another option to make a 3-5-2 work against Blac is by doing the opposite of what Conte is doing: 5-3-2. The Dutch team reached the World Cup semi finals with it under Louis van Gaal, Wales succesfully used it to reach the Euro 2016 semi finals (also defeating Belgium's 4-2-3-1) and lets not forget that the Greeks managed to win Euro 2004 with it. It must be said though, in the Euro 2004 final Greece encountered Portugal - playing 4-2-3-1. Otto Rehagel, the Greek manager, switched to a 4-4-2 and won with 1-0. The 5-3-2 set up should differ however from what I'd do in the Italian Serie A, because Blac uses a lone striker rather than 2 and a lot of danger comes from the wings. The advantage still of having essentially 5 defenders is that you always have a spare man, and can therefore allow greater role specialisation - thus have a better organized defence. But my usual organization would play into Blac's hands. The 5-3-2 would feature an alternative central organization aimed at dealing with a single striker, while keeping one of the wing-backs in position to defend the wing, and giving the other wing-back slightly more freedom to rush forward. Like Wales, this would enable the team to switch to a 4-man defense when in ball posession, and effectively become a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-3 depending on how far the wing-back pushes forward. By keeping 4 man at the back at all times, both flanks can be covered because it enables one of the central defenders to move wide and defend the space that the absent wing-back has left behind. Another key feature of the Welsh 5-3-2 is the central midfielders who moved wide to support the wing-backs with defending the flanks against the Belgians. This is also something of which I'm not sure whether its possible to replicate that in FM.

Show ContentHow the 3-5-2 should intelligently adapt to a 4-2-3-1:

Show ContentHow my 3-5-2 actually positions against a 4-2-3-1:

Show ContentAntonio Conte 3-5-2: