Recreating Louis van Gaal’s 3-5-2 formation in Football Manager 2014

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agieluma

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So this is part where the writer tells the story of how he tinkered and finally got the right tactic he was searching for.
I tried different variations of the 3-5-2/5-3-2 formations and came up with different results. But thanks to Tacticnewspaper and squawka i finally got the found combo. This tactic is based on quick tempo, short passes to unlock the opposition while remaining tight at the back.

Analysis: Manchester United vs. LA Galaxy

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Analysis: Manchester United vs. AS Roma

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Final Analysis
The ‘standard’ mentality ties in with United’s withdrawn defensive line when building from deep, although this is repositioned further up field with the ‘Push Higher Up’ instruction to create a high line along with the offside trap. Short passing and ‘Play Out Of Defence’ ensures patient build-up at the back (no long balls), and ‘Higher Tempo’ encourages the team to go about their business in an incisive manner, capitalising on any disorganisation.

A counter attack mentality was used during matches against tougher opponents. ‘Get Stuck In’ was used in derby matches, versus teams with an abundance of small, technical players such as Arsenal, and against inferior teams who, for brief spells, were dominating possession. Finally, ‘Play Narrower’ was activated when needing to minimise the damage caused against tricky attackers and inside forwards, while ‘Exploit The Middle’ allowed Van Persie, Rooney and Mata time on the ball to cause large amounts of damage to mediocre defences.
Individual instructions were delegated too, as witnessed in the two friendly matches.
Goalkeeper: Distribute To Defenders
Wing-backs: Close Down More, Fewer Risky Passes
Deep-lying Playmaker: Close Down More, Mark Tighter
Advanced Playmaker: Close Down More, Move Into Channels, Roam From Position
Strikers: Move Into Channels

Here's the updated file
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Feel free to give your opinions on this

FM screenshots to be uploaded shortly

So here are some of them:
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I just tweaked the tactic a lil bit more and got even better results. I'm currently unbeaten in all competitions in my save

I ended the season unbeaten in all competitions and i won everything. I also made the most out of setpieces (the corner-kick should be an in-swinger so the ball doesn't leave the box)
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General Training: Tactics (until fluid enough); after which you'll change to Balanced - High
MatchTraining - Teamwork (All season)
 
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Interesting. Will give this a try with NUFC. Always liked the 3-5-2 concept
 
Hi Agieluma! So do you recommend the updated version over the orignal? Whats the difference between them? :)
Is it plug and play or do i have to use the small tweaks you wrote in your post? :)
 
Trying this with Blackburn Rovers... Although not got the quality players like some teams.. I think this style suits them and hopefully count on the goals from Rhodes
 
Correct me if i'm wrong, because i only watched the LA Galaxy game, but to me it looked like Luke Shaw was not making as many forward runs as Valencia, he was staying deeper to keep the ball circulating.
 
FernandoGago said:
Hi Agieluma! So do you recommend the updated version over the orignal? Whats the difference between them? :)
Is it plug and play or do i have to use the small tweaks you wrote in your post? :)
Click to expand...
I changed the mentality "Control" and added "Get stuck in" and "Retain possession" in all the matches and it worked wonders. I only changed the mentality to "Counter" in the big games (Madrid, Bayern, Juventus, Chelsea, Man City, and of course in the Champions League Final against Barcelona)
 
SmoothJitsu said:
Correct me if i'm wrong, because i only watched the LA Galaxy game, but to me it looked like Luke Shaw was not making as many forward runs as Valencia, he was staying deeper to keep the ball circulating.
Click to expand...
Luke Shaw wasn't getting forward because his morale was low and he was timid. But in the second half, Reece James bombarded that wing and scored 2 goals. (Evra scored lots of goals for me in my save)
 
lufcberg22 said:
Trying this with Blackburn Rovers... Although not got the quality players like some teams.. I think this style suits them and hopefully count on the goals from Rhodes
Click to expand...
I'd suggest playing Rhodes in the CF(A) role. He's an absolute beast

Or you can play him as the AF in this other tactic which i also created
View attachment 349001
 
agieluma said:
I changed the mentality "Control" and added "Get stuck in" and "Retain possession" in all the matches and it worked wonders. I only changed the mentality to "Counter" in the big games (Madrid, Bayern, Juventus, Chelsea, Man City, and of course in the Champions League Final against Barcelona)
Click to expand...

Thanx gonna give it a go! Do you reckon it works with smaller teams? And do you use ois? :) :)
 
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FernandoGago said:
Thanx gonna give it a go! Do you reckon it works with smaller teams? And do you use ois? :) :)
Click to expand...
I'm looking forward to trying it with a smaller team.
About OIS, I close down everybody to try and force mistakes and man-mark key players of the opposition
 
I've been monitoring this thread for some time now (in terms of feedback/results) and have been using this tactic on my Wigan save in the second season of us in the top flight (15/16) and are currently sat at 9th in the league (as of January) with a prediction of 19th. This is posted in response to the query of usage with a smaller team, as I feel this is relatively successful, to say we are predicted 19th. Of course, this is only January, yet I would be willing to show SS to the thread to show how it operates with a small team.
 
I created a 3-5-2 for Juventus modelled after van Gaal's Real Madrid victory, I can't get into a save so by January I got bored at Juventus, I may start a United Save on Marshall's update... I could rotate between this and my own.
 
zJordan said:
I created a 3-5-2 for Juventus modelled after van Gaal's Real Madrid victory, I can't get into a save so by January I got bored at Juventus, I may start a United Save on Marshall's update... I could rotate between this and my own.
Click to expand...

Good luck with that
 
agieluma said:
I'm looking forward to trying it with a smaller team.
About OIS, I close down everybody to try and force mistakes and man-mark key players of the opposition
Click to expand...

when you say man-mark do you mean you set certain players of yours to mark their players under player instructions?
 
Awesome, love the look of this formation and the way Van Gaal has United setup so far.

Surprised you went for rigid, it obviously worked but I'd say (from what I've seen so far) that the players venture from their roles quite often (Mata is a good example that you've noticed).

Can you list the player instructions??
 
The formation is rigid to avoid player leaving their positions. The only player that roam are the front 3 and the DLP on support
Player instructions
GK: SK(D) - Distribute to defenders
RCB: CD(X) - Mark tighter
CB: CD(D) - None
LCB: CD(X) - Mark tighter
RWB: WB(Att) - Close down more, Fewer risky passes
LWB: WB(Att) - Close down more, Fewer risky passes
MCR: CM(D) - None
MCL: DLP(S) - Close down more, Mark tighter
CAM: AP(Att) - Close down more, Move into channels, Roam from position
STCR: CF(S) - Move into channels
STCL: CF(Att) - Move into channels

I'm not at home now; when i get back i'll post the PPM's you might wanna train your players for.
 
agieluma said:
The formation is rigid to avoid player leaving their positions. The only player that roam are the front 3 and the DLP on support
Player instructions
GK: SK(D) - Distribute to defenders
RCB: CD(X) - Mark tighter
CB: CD(D) - None
LCB: CD(X) - Mark tighter
RWB: WB(Att) - Close down more, Fewer risky passes
LWB: WB(Att) - Close down more, Fewer risky passes
MCR: CM(D) - None
MCL: DLP(S) - Close down more, Mark tighter
CAM: AP(Att) - Close down more, Move into channels, Roam from position
STCR: CF(S) - Move into channels
STCL: CF(Att) - Move into channels

I'm not at home now; when i get back i'll post the PPM's you might wanna train your players for.
Click to expand...

Don't need PPM's (on Vita version), will give this a go, I've been using the same formation with some success which doesn't last, but am convinced that this formation shape has lots of potential!
 
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