Decide right formation before the match, take most important part in achieving victory. Right formation is not only the one that best suit with your player ability, but also the one that can eleminate all enemy advantages. As Sun-tzu said, know yourself and your enemies, then victory will come for sure.
In this article we will talk about 4-3-3 formation. Stength and weakness of this formation will be examined. Base on our examination, we can decide the best defending and attacking psitions to minimize the disadvantages and maximize our advantages. At the end of this article several variation will be showed in order to overcome different tactical posibilities of the enemies.
In this article, i will use some terminology that already explained in previous article entitled "Stone Wall"(http://www.quazen.com/Games/Computer-Games/Stone-Wall.48).
Strength Vs weakness
Before we start talk about strength and weakness of 4-3-3 formation, an overview of this formation will be showed below.
----ST--ST--ST----
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----CM--CM--CM----
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--LB--CD--CD--RB--
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--------GK--------
Strength: 4-3-3 formation has balance capability in attack and defense. Your four defenders will move between red and yellow area (see stone wall). Standart 4-4-2, 3-5-2,or 4-5-1 formation (with all tactics set to default) will be very difficult to score against 4-3-3 formation. This formation has good attacking ability as well. With 4-3-3 formation you have at least 3 men in enemy red area and at least 3 men in enemy yellow area as second line.
Weakness: 4-3-3 formation rather vunerable in midfield battle and has no wing. Your three midfield players should cover the whole midfield area. Midfield area is very important to build an offensive movement and counter attack. Midfield area is also important to prevent enemy counter attack, and if you use pressing style (closing all over).
Some manager try to eleminate this disadvantage by set their LB and RB to free role, and act as winger. But this means that they should run from end to end, and waste a lot of energy. Sometimes your LB and RB will be late to back to your red area.
Defending and attacking position
Defending position:
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----ST-------ST---
--------ST--------
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--------CM--------
---CM--------CM---
------CD--CD------
--LB----------RB--
--------GK--------
4-3-3 formation has good defending and attacking capabilities. But when the enemy attack, your player will be concentrate mostly in your red area (at least 5 men in my experience). In this condition you will be very difficult to launch a counter attack except your players has perfect long passing ability.
You will have 2-3 players in your yellow area. This will cause troble when the enemy get death ball oportunity such as corner ar free kick. The reason is, you have not enough player to recieve rebound (mostly when the opponet use 3-5-2, 4-5-1 or 3-6-1).
Above defending position is designed to eleminate those condition and keep your attacking capability high. Your right and left CM act like ANC (cover your right and left eing) and your ceter CM act like DM (stay infront of your penalty box). When your opponets get death ball oportunity they will cover your yellow area from rebound while your 4 defenders guard your penalty box.
Your center ST will act like AM. He is the one who responsible to supply the ball to the other ST. If your center ST has good touch and passing skill, you can cast a counter attack quickly without waiting your CM back to thei positions.
Attacking position:
--ST----ST----ST--
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----CM------CM----
--------CM--------
--LB----------RB--
------CD----------
----------CD------
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--------GK--------
4-3-3 formation has no wing. A winger is very important to draw enemy defenders and tocross the ball. To give you the advantage of having a winger without sacrificing a lot of energy above attacking position designed. Your LB and RB will act as a winger for half of the field. Your left and right ST will act as a wing for a nother half of the field. When your right ST bring the ball, your center and left ST will be wait in the penalty box and vise versa, so you will have at least 2 ST inside enemy red area. Your right and left CM will act as AM. They will not only waiting for rebound but sometime also move into enemy penalty box.
Because both of your LB and RB now move to midfield area, you should be aware of enemy counter attack, especially if the enemy has a fast player. To prevent this posiblity, place one of your CD slightly behind the other CD.
Formation Variation
4-1-2-2-1 : This formation also give you advantage of having winger. The ST will draw enemy defender while both of your LW and RW attack freely. Both of your CM will act as second line and your DM will wait for rebound. This formation also better in defense, because all of your defender will stay in your yellow area. But unfortunately, you will only have one man inside the penalty box.
--------ST--------
--LW----------RW--
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----CM------CM----
--------DM--------
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--LB--CD--CD--RB--
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--------GK--------
For more offensive style you can replace your CM with AM:
--------ST--------
--LW----------RW--
----AM-----AM-----
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--------DM--------
------------------
--LB--CD--CD--RB--
------------------
--------GK--------
When you has quite strong LWB and RWB you may try this formation:
--ST----ST----ST--
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----AM-----AM-----
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--------DM--------
--LWB---------RWB-
------CD--CD------
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--------GK--------
Have alot of fancy players are good, but know how to use them are better. Sometimes you dont need alot of good players but you still can beat your opponent tactically. By apllying right formation at the right time you can be very succesfull manager in FIFA Manager 2006.For more information about FIFA Manager 2006 visit http://www.freewebtown.com/pcgamesdirectory/fifa06rev.htm
