Currently stuck as a punching bag at the bottom of Division 3, I’ve recently been playing against way more META tactics with the new matchmaking system. And I’m sick of it. So I designed this tactic with two objectives:

• To nullify meta tactic, without being meta myself
• Remaining effective against non-meta tactic

In this post I will detail the process of how I designed it. If you don’t care, you can skip right to the end of the post where there is a nice recap.

What is META ?

Just to be all on the same page, here what I consider META : 3 central strikers, with often an AMF joining them. The defense consists of 3 CBs with a Defensive Fullback (with Defensive Instruction) and a DMF.

I hate it. So much. It’s just ping-pong football and cheesy exploits. And don't tell me the motto “Don’t hate the players, hate the game”, I can assure you that I hate the game for that.

1. Defense

So we are facing 3 central forwards and 1 AMF. For this reason, I will follow Bielsa’s rule and get 5 players at the back. I could go full defensive with 3 CBs and a Defensive Fullbacks with the Defensive Instruction, but this leads to two issues: I don’t want to copy the meta, and having so many players at the back really hold you back on your attacks. Here what I came up with:

A bit rock n’roll eh? It works so much.

The two lateral are Defensive Fullbacks.

The two DMFs are both Anchor Man. One has the Man-Marking skill and must mark the opposition’s AMF. The second have the Deep Line instruction and join the defensive line in defense phases.

This gives me a 4 + 1 in Defense and a 3 + 2 in attack. A second DMF in the midfield will be valuable as we’ll see later.

This allows me two fix my two problems: not play the meta and having two out my five “defenders” joining the midfield.

2. Wings

As Meta formations have almost no players on the sides, I decided to get two wingers to exploit it and avoid the congestion in the middle.

In order to not spend instructions on Anchoring for both of them, I opted for the Out Wide playstyle. Also, because this playstyle overwrites the player’s playstyle, I’m then no longer limited by it and have more choice of players.

The reason I want LMF/RMF and not LWF/RWF is because I want them to defend against long balls coming from the side, from the opposition’s LB/RB.

I personally like them to be able to switch the play from one wing to another, so I picked players with the Pinpoint Crossing skill.

3. Attack

As I've already chosen 7 players, I have to organize my attack with 3 players. The wings being already secured, they’ll be centrals. And of course, I won’t go with 3 strikers.

I originally started with 2 Creative Playmakers, but they roam horizontally so much that my midfield is sometimes completely empty. To resolve that, I use two Box-to-Box. They also make runs into the box, but they move way more centrally than the Creative Playmakers. After my CF, they are the main scorers.

• As the Box-to-Box playstyle activates as CMF, they even make more runs as if they were AMF.
• When my two CMF make runs at the same time, the second DMF is very valuable as I have 2 players in the midfield rather than leaving one Anchor Man being the only player.
• There are also helping a lot in defense, that’s why I chose two versatile players rather than the ‘’classic’’ offensive.

For the striker, I need a “complete” player because 1) he will be the sole CF and 2) he will be isolated when I start counters. I need a player with fast enough runs, who can create goals by himself; and not a specialist that can only score headers, not hold the ball or pass it. FYI I used to go with Mbappé but as I was lacking a good Free Kick taker in the team, I eventually went with Del Piero.

Shapes

Build-up phase. It’s also my shape when losing the ball

Higher on the pitch, the two Box-to-Box make forward runs

Defensive shape. My DMF man-marking the opposite AMF

Cons

• Weak in counter attacks: As my striker is the only player high on the pitch when I get the ball back, he’ll have to hold the ball before solutions arrive. That’s why I like to have a striker able to dribble a bit, waiting for support. Setting the wingers as LWF/RWF could help, but the trade-off is less players in your midfield's line of defense.
• Be careful in the build-up: As you only have one CB in attack, the most dangerous time to lose the ball is when playing from defense. It’s easier to build from the back as you have 5 players and nice triangles (as seen in the build-up screenshot), but it’s deadly if you make a mistake there.

Last comments

• A classic move is the striker receiving the ball and one of the CMF making a run behind him. Passing skills for the striker are then a good bonus.
• The wingers and striker are the profiles you can play with. In my case I took some versatile wingers (fast dribblers, good weak foot), but you can easily tweak that without denaturing the tactic.
• The Defensive Fullbacks sometimes go slightly up to provide an easy solution for the winger. One of the DMF usually compensate and join defense but the switch makes the back line temporarily weak.
• Against ping-pong players, I want fast defenders. I prefer them to have 80 in Acc/speed rather than 90+ in def stats (especially the LB/RB).

Recap

Playstyle: Outwide