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Total Football Journeyman: Creating My 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 Hybrid

Total Football Journeyman: Creating My 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 Hybrid

The following tactical experiment drew inspiration from many sources. It would not be Total Football without its tactical holy grail of course. Ajax’ original 4-3-3 with Johan Cruyff centering the attack and controlling the whole formation from his iconic False 9 position. Then came the next natural evolution of this formula with Pep Guardiola’s Barca and the talismanic rise of its young Argentinian star. Finally, recently we witnessed an emergence of a renewed Total Football system at Ajax under it’s…

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Ernst Happel’s 433 and The Invention of Total Football

Ernst Happel’s 433 and The Invention of Total Football

From time to time my readers will ask me one particular question. Or a variation of it. Basically it goes like this. What is the absolute essence of Total Football? If I want my team to play Total Football, where do I start? How do I build it into a Total Football powerhouse? What foundation stones, in tactics, training and personnel, do I implement? The following article will hopefully answer some of these questions. To do so we might as…

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Football Manager – Tactical Style – Gegenpress

Football Manager – Tactical Style – Gegenpress

Football Manager comes with a set of pre-set tactical styles. These styles were first introduced in FM19 and they support both the tactical novice as well as the tactical veterans out there. In this article, we’ll go through the creation of Gegenpress tactical style, its roots and its use in the modern game.

Football Manager Primer: Playing on The Edge with Wide Centreback

Football Manager Primer: Playing on The Edge with Wide Centreback

Part 2. Using Cruyff’s 3-4-3 Diamond to Highlight New Wide-CB Role Now that we established that Football Manager is a simple game, let me show you an example of how simple it is to recreate a seemingly complicated historic tactic. We will do it step by step. So it might take a few articles to lay out the tactic completely. In this first step we’ll only take a general look at the newest FM role that inspired my FM22. Specifically…

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Total Football Journeyman: Swiss Army Knife Method to FM Tactics

Total Football Journeyman: Swiss Army Knife Method to FM Tactics

Recently, I changed my approach to both tactic creation and playing matches in FM21. I would like to share this approach with you, because it has given me a lot of joy. It’s what I call the Swiss Army Knife Method to Football Management. At its core, my approach uses a very basic 4-5-1 shape. But unlike my previous articles, which often chronicled historic tactics and teams, this guide is not about any one particular formation. It’s really about building a whole…

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Recreating Guardiola’s Tactics in FM21

Recreating Guardiola’s Tactics in FM21

From Barcelona to Bayern Munich to Manchester City, Pep Guardiola’s tactic have evolved football over the past decade. His key principles are rooted in ‘The Barcelona Way” possession, fluidity, and numerical advantages. His teams let the ball do the hard work and this has provided much success over the years, winning numerous Champions Leagues, League Titles and Domestic Cups. Today we will make an attempt at recreating Guardiola’s tactics in FM21.

The Beauty of Focus Play: Creating Overloads in FM21

The Beauty of Focus Play: Creating Overloads in FM21

The following article is Part 1 in a multi-part series of guides on developing Possession-focused tactic in FM21. It is inspired by Pep Guardiola’s style but is not meant to be an accurate recreation of Pep’s tactics. Instead the tactic in this guide is largely inspired by Total Football and continues my quest to bring this style in all of its beauty to Football Manager games. Read on if you love Total Football and would love to see how it…

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Total Football Journeyman: Jogo Bonito Benfica

Total Football Journeyman: Jogo Bonito Benfica

The advantage of using world-class team in FM20, is in the variety of tactics you can try on season-to-season basis. I started out my Benfica save attempting a more patient possession approach, reminiscent of Guardiola’s Barcelona. Yet as my campaign continues, I find myself experimenting with more adventurous tactics. So in 3rd year with the Portuguese giant, I attempt to show that Total Football does not necessarily equal boring possession-focused football. It can also be an exciting attacking style. In…

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Total Football Journeyman: Sir Alex’s Strikerless Masterclass

Total Football Journeyman: Sir Alex’s Strikerless Masterclass

In a series about Total Football, you might wonder why I am writing about Sir Ferguson’s Manchester United? While Ferguson’s Man United achieved amazing success between 2006-2009, they were not known for playing Possession-style, associated with Total Football. Or for that matter one cannot really pin point a specific style of play or formation to that legendary team. However, one constant that contributed to Ferguson’s success was his masterful management of his players. Sir Alex Ferguson was a people manager…

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Total Football Journeyman: How To Break Stubborn Defences

Total Football Journeyman: How To Break Stubborn Defences

I pick up where I left off last time. Searching for the central striker role to complete my 3-4-3 Diamond formation. For this I will take a step back and look at the original inspiration for Louis van Gaal’s 3-4-3 formation. That is, Johan Cruyff and the Barcelona team of late 1980s and early 1990s. Also I will take a somewhat unorthodox approach to constructing my 3-4-3 Diamond Tactic. We will deconstruct the attacking formation by looking at defensive positioning….

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