I’m going to describe and transcript in-game one of Guardiola’s principles.

To start, let’s assume that we are facing a four-man defense (we’ll see other formation later). The principle is that we need to have a player in each space of this defense, meaning to commit 5 players in attack.

The goal is to stretch the defense, giving them multiple dilemmas. For instance: If the opp. Fullback press our player on the touchline, someone can run into the space between this fullback and the CB (known as half-space).

Following Guardiola’s career, let’s have a look at different ways to implement it:

In this example, both wingers are inside forwards and will attack the half-space (space between a central defender and his fullback). The width will be created by the fullbacks. This is similar to Pep’s Barcelona where Jordi Alba and Dani Alves were committing forward on the pitch.

Later in this career, until present day, Guardiola presented this version:

Now the width is created by the winger, the half-spaces are attacked by the (offensive) midfielders, and the fullbacks join the midfields.

The big difference between these two systems is transitions. In the first tactic, you need to wait the fullbacks to arrive high on the pitch before putting your strategy in place, and wait them to get back into defense. In the second tactic, players have less runs to make to achieve the attacking shape, or getting back in defensive shape. This is the same in eFootball, if you want to create width with your fullback, you must either:

• Have an Offensive Fullback (without Individual instructions), but you must wait he makes run to this winger position, i.e recycling possession just to get your attacking phase.
• Have an Offensive Fullback (with Individual instructions - Offensive), but you are now exposed to counterattack. His stamina will also be low at the end of the game, and you’ll need to use a substitution.

The objective of this post is to see how to implement this second tactic in eFootball. We ‘ll first see the 5 Defense/Support players, then the 5 attacking players.

This clip has been captured against an easy AI, just to show you the shape of the team.

I. Defense/Support players: The Rest Defense

The players have two roles:

• help possession by offering simple pass options.
• anticipate the counterattacks.

You have many choices on how to organize those 5 players, but let’s take the most common one: 2 defenders and 3 midfielders. So a 2-3-5. Please keep in mind that this positioning is only for the attacking phase. In this guide I will assume we want to have a 4-man defensive line without the ball.

Here we’ll only cover this set-up (to avoid a too long read), but this is dependent on you. You can choose to adapt to your opponent: you can target a 3-2-5 if he has more strikers, or even a 2-1-7 if he plays with a low defense and only one forward. You have to find your balance between the two goals of these players: support the attack and in the same time being able to stop counterattacks. FYI, this principle to think about the counterattack during the attacking shape is called the rest defense.

You can find an extended article here (long read) where the above picture is issued: https://spielverlagerung.com/2021/07/05/tactical-theory-the-various-forms-of-rest-defence/

My goal is to have Marquinhos - Saliba as defenders, and Lizarazu-Busquets-Kimmich in midfield. In the defensive shape, my defense line will be Lizarazu-Marquinhos-Saliba-Kimmich. Busquets will in the midfield line with other players, depending on how I build my front 5.

The best way to achieve this 2-3 is by using the following set-up:

• One CB with the Instruction Offensive (will push forward) : Lizarazu
• One DMF with the Instructions Defensive (won’t push forward) and Deep Line (will join the defensive line in defense): Kimmich

How does it look in the menu?

Quite ugly I agree

Lizarazu is closed to the Marquinhos as I want him in a more central area than just high on the pitch. Marquinhos and Saliba are close as I want Kimmich to drop on the side when joining the defensive line.

II. Attacking players

This is the fun part where you can combine many playstyles for different results. Reminder, I want to have a player in every hole of the opp. defensive line to give defense dilemmna. Let's assume we are facing a 4 man defense to not extend this post , but I could adapt it against a 3-men or 5-men defense.

We’ll use Out Wide as we want to stretch the play. You can use Possession, but I really don’t like that this playstyle which almost forbid to make runs. Other playstyle could be used, but none will you offer you constant solutions on the wings as Out Wide.

But first, let’s talk about the impact of the Out Wide playstyle on wide players.

This playstyle will overwrite any playstyle of wide players. First, let’s recap the side positions: up high you can have SS or LWF, and in the middle you can have LMF or CMF. Out Wide playstyle will erase every player playstyle (Romaing Flanks, Prolific Wingers, Creative Playmaker, etc...) and they will all act in a similar way.

To be more precise about their behavior:

• They will usually wait on their side, even if the ball is at the opposite side of the pitch and far away. This give opportunities for nice switchs of play
• If the ball in on their vertical half of the pitch, they could make vertical runs if they spot spaces to attack.
• More you reach the final third and the box, they will get closer to the goal. If the Left Winger is on the goal line, they will come in the box (as expecting a cross). If your left winger pass the ball back to your midfield/defense for recycling, they will go back to a wide position

This looks like a disadvantage but allows to keep the primary functions of this wide players: stretching the defense. The choice you will have is the profile of player and his role. Because the player will have space, you can choose to launch him with a through ball, or to just pass in his foot to attract the opposite fullbacks.

For instance:

• I want to use goal scoring winger? Inverted Winger style of player, think about about Barcelona’s Neymar or United’s Ronaldo? I choose a fast and skillfull winger and give him through ball. My job is to use his skills to join the box and score.
• I want a winger able to deliver crosses? Take a fast one, with the relevant foot, give him a through ball, run along the line before crossing. Or Beckham-style, slower but excellent crossing: give him the ball and Early Cross to your Target Man or Goal Poacher.
• I want the winger to stretch the play? Take a CMF with decent passing skills, pair him with a Hole Player as AMF. When he receives the ball, wait for the run into the half space and pass him a through ball. With this type of player, you can have a all-rounded CMF that will be effective in defense

Ingame examples

So I took clips from games to show how diverse you can be. The following examples are always symetrical for simplicity. This is the beauty of a tactic principle, it's just a frame and you can (and shoud) adapt to what you need and want.

Example 1: Crossers and Target Man

Quite self-explanatory. The two wingers are good crossers and I have an excellent Target Man to receive it.

The half-space guys are Classic n°10 as I don’t need them to push higher, just to attract the pressing and deliver the ball to the wingers.

Example 2: Goal-scoring wingers

I want my wingers to be goal-scorer, trickster, inside forwards, etc… If you wish to dribble (like me) and are good at it (unlike me), you’ll have a ton of fun. Choose players with the rights stats, the right dribbling abilities and even Gamesmanship (will provoke more fouls).

Creative Playmaker as AMF to link the play, exploit the halfspace, giving them ball. As I found out I become too predictable with this set-up, I use a fast Goal Poacher. This give an option to pass him a through ball, instead of only dribbling with Neymar. Again, this principle is about giving dilemma to the defense.

Creative midfielders as AMF will drop to link the play, but still make runs in the half-space. You can reduce this by setting them as CMF or increase as SS.

Some tips: the earlier you give your tricksters the ball, the more ground and opponents you’ll have to dribble. If you are bad at this skills like me, don’t expect to dribble all the opposition when you give them the ball at the half line. Use them as pass solution, then start dribbling only in the last third.

Example 3: Hole Players

My goal here is to make my half-space players the goals scorers. So J. Ikoné and F. Lampard as AMF – Hole Player. Del Piero is my Classic n°10. that will link the play and sometimes join the attack.

My winger will be here just pivots, attracting the pressure and giving the ball to the Hole Player that is attacking the space, that is the kind of movement I’m expecting. By knowing what I expect from this position, I can choose Jorginho that will be more solid in the defense phase. On the left wing, I’m obliged to have at least one forward player so I took a player confortable with both feet, decent passing and Track Back, but I could have (and should have, for the purpose of this post) used another usual midfielder.

Depending on the opposition, you can put your Hole Players as SS, or just the Classic 10., or all of them.

Conclusion

I hope you like this guide, I had a tons of fun doing it and experiment it. The beauty is that it's not a tactic, it's a tool and you have to handle it. I covered only one type of defense, but you can adapt to how your opponent play. You can experiment a lot with your attacks, and even changing your tactic mid-game by substituing different profiles.

Also depending on how you play, you can really play possession football with easy solution on the wing or very counter attacking with those same players. You can also adjust how many players can come defend in the MF Line with your front five.

Few words about the meta: "Can this beat the meta?" No, by definition the meta is most effective one. Also, this game is not a simple plug-to-win. "Yes but this tactic could also be with 3 CF/SS and so be a meta tactic?" Yes it can if that's what's you're aiming for.

I did all of that because it's fun to recreate real life football. If your objective is to get the most effective tactic tweaks, this might help a bit but it's really not the purpose.