In an effort to make the most aggressive counter-pressing tactic I possibly could within the FM17 match engine, I ended up taking my inspiration from a BBC documentary on wolves and more specifically the way they work together within a wolf pack. It is during a hunt where co-operation between wolves within a pack is most apparent. A wolf pack may trail a herd of elk, caribou or other large prey for days before making its move. During this time, they are already hunting, assessing the herd, looking for an animal that displays any sign of weakness.

Such an approach is not dissimilar to how a well-executed counter-pressing tactic should function. As counter-pressing is intended to win the ball back as quickly as possible when possession is lost, you can easily see how this setup would benefit from players working together to bring down an opponent.

The outset

The team I used to develop this tactic is Athletic Bilbao of the Basque country. When I started the development process, Athletic had just won its second successive Champions League trophy. The team is one of the stronger sides in Spain, though not superior to Barcelona and Real Madrid. In Europe, the team is quite obviously competitive, but again, there are quite a few teams on the same level or even slightly better than us in terms of squad strength.

My style is a high-paced and physical brand of football. We aggressively close down opponents in their own half, either winning the ball or forcing them to play long balls we can fight for. This places quite a bit of emphasis on our back-line. Our back three consists of physically imposing players, whose main task is to win headers and prevent any balls from getting through. They should be comfortable with large spaces in their back. Most of their touches on the ball consist of heading the ball towards the Withdrawn Targetman or any of the other midfielders.

When we have the ball, we use a more patient passing style. This sounds counter-intuitive to counter-pressing, at least at first glance. Losing the ball in dangerous positions, however, can be quite catastrophic with the high defensive line I want to employ, so a more direct passing style is more or less akin to tactical hara-kiri and I am no Luis Enrique.

Luis Enrique cooking up his tactical plans

Luis Enrique cooking up his tactical plans

Offensively, you can expect a typical strikerless formation, where the opposing defensive line is manipulated either in giving away space in behind or is forced into a narrow shape, which is then exploited. The midfielders are mostly there to link up defence and midfield, effectively balancing the tactic. The wingbacks provide the extra wide layer, which can help to peel away defenders towards a wide position, in turn freeing up space for the central players. Whilst our primary means of attacking is down the middle, it is useful having that option when things get a little congested. It also helps to stretch the play when we need a bit more room to work in.

Playing style

To achieve this relentless pressing and interaction between the players, I employ a Very Fluid team shape along with the Overload mentality. At first, that may sound counter-intuitive and perhaps even pants-shittingly batshit insane. However, as always, there is a method to the madness. I would like to refer you to a spreadsheet I nicked off the FM-Slack chat. It details the old slider system values for a specific role when using a combination of specific Mentality and Team Shape.

When you scrutinise the schedule, you can draw the conclusion that the gaps between the lines are the smallest when you’re using a Very Fluid team shape in combination with an Overload mentality. When the goal is to create a tight and cohesive unit of players hunting down opponents, this combination suddenly makes a lot of sense. The players are grouped closely together, which makes it easier for them to interact and help each other out.

The Team Shape instructions look like this:

  • Tempo: Normal. The Overload mentality naturally comes with an already murderous tempo. I saw no benefits to increasing this tempo further. I did entertain the idea to lower the tempo in the hopes of increasing the accuracy of the passes, but in the games, I tried this lower tempo, I often saw the matches end with us suffering from Pep-syndrome. We had a lot of possession, but our attacking patterns had become sluggish and predictable. In the end, I felt a Normal tempo yielded the best results.
  • Width: Fairly Narrow. When I opt for a wide setup with a three-man defensive line, the spread between the defenders becomes quite large. In fact, you could have sailed the Titanic through the gaps between the three defenders if you opt for a wider spread and much like the Titanic, your defensive line will go down in a disastrous fashion when you turn a blind eye to these gaps.

The Defence instructions look like this:

  • Defensive Line: Slightly Higher. I am insane. You all know that. You shouldn’t be surprised that even Overload I have opted to push the defensive line even further forward. Is that even possible? Meh, maybe, maybe not…
  • Use Offside Trap. With such a high defensive line, it makes sense to use the offside trap as well. It makes defending a bit of a risky affair, but I like to live dangerously.
  • Closing Down: More. Duh… Counter-pressing… I want them to press hard so this makes sense.
  • Prevent Short GK Distribution. I feel it’s a vital part of the counter-pressing setup. I want my players to pressure heavily in the opposing half.
  • Use Tighter Marking. We have limited defensive options out wide, so this should hopefully help our defenders deal with strikers when the crosses come in. I also believe that the tighter marking might help with the counter-pressing setup as it forces our players to close the gap towards their opponents more rapidly.

The Build-Up instructions look like this:

  • Passing: Play Out Of Defence. With the low tempo encouraging possession football and the controlled build up I want to employ, it makes sense to ask the defence to play their way out from the back. Our fluid shape allows for options to do this.
  • Passing Directness: Retain Possession. Turning over possession needlessly is quite the lethal affair with the high defensive line we wish to employ so this instruction will stamp out the more risqué passing manoeuvres.
  • Creative Freedom: Be More Expressive. It seems weird to tick this instruction when you’re on Overload yet at the same time asking your players to retain possession, but I want to ensure the maximum amount of creative freedom possible, whereas the retain possession instruction will hopefully help to kerb some of the enthusiasm in risky positions.

The Attack instructions look like this:

  • Final Third: Look For Overlap, Work Ball Into Box. Since turning over possession is generally a bad idea, these instructions in the final third make sense. A methodical build-up which maintains the integrity of the formation and maximises the chances of a speedy recovery of the ball should possession be lost.
  • Dribbling: Dribble Less. I don’t want the team looking to retain possession of the ball in the final third by dribbling their way out of trouble. Rather I would prefer them to look to the extra man to make a pass to, or to fire a through ball over the defence to create a better opportunity. It is going to get pretty congested in the middle of the pitch and we don’t have a Messi. So this instruction should make the players look for better options.
  • Freedom of Movement: Roam from Positions. This is what makes a strikerless tactic work, players roaming from their positions, finding pockets of space in front of or behind the defensive line.

The Opposition Instructions look like this:

The idea is to press as a high block in the opposing half, mostly on the central players. In our own half, the pressing is less aggressive to prevent players from being drawn out of position. With a high defensive line and just three defenders, we can’t have that.

The formation, the player roles and their duties

This is the starting formation we start each game with.

The defence: Our back line is fairly standard. The limited defenders are tasked with dealing with the opposing forwards, whereas the ball-playing defender plays deeper and provides the build-up from the back somewhat.

The wide players: On either side of our central defenders are the Wing-Backs on a support duty to offer some width when the central areas become too congested. As the sole wide outlets, they are offered a fair amount of space. They will try to stretch the opposing defence offensively while dealing with opposing wingers when my team is defending.

The central midfield: A plain and simple pairing of two regular old midfielders, one on a defensive duty and the other on a support duty. They form the spine of the team and should just maintain the balance to prevent the team from being overrun in midfield.

The attacking midfield: Our forward line consists of a Withdrawn Targetman and two Shadow Strikers. The former is supposed to hold it up and flick it on towards the latter two.

The results

Our results so far have been brilliant. We’re topping the table this season and haven’t dropped any points, barring an unlucky draw in an away game against Real Madrid. Both our offence and defence have been on point so far and it looks like we can comfortably claim another title win this season.

Possession-wise, we are also dominant. The Spanish Priméra Division is a fairly competitive league where even the weaker sides can still muster a decent starting line-up. Being this dominant is a decent achievement.

We’re also excelling in the passing department. Accurate passes and lots of them as well. We make more passes than anyone else in the league with a terrifyingly high accuracy as well.

Our shooting has been prolific as well, though the finishing leaves something to be desired. It’s not poor, but it could be better. However, since we take more shots than anyone else, it’s still a decent finishing percentage we have managed to pull off.

To give you an example of the chances we create, we can look at the charts for both goals and assists. Most of our goals come from inside the penalty area, there are not many long shots among the goals we scored so far.

The assist charts show a versatile build-up, where the right flank seems to be lagging behind somewhat in terms of its contribution. This could be due to player personnel, on the right flank we have a 33 year old holding down the fort and he is just not as fast and tireless as he used to be.

A few most stats from the current season. Most of our goals are placed shots created by through-balls.

Defensively, we seem to be doing alright. The highly risky strategy appears to be paying off. Not only have we conceded a mere four goals so far, we win most of our tackles as well. We do commit a lot of fouls and concede a fair few cards, which makes sense considering the risks we are taking.

Analysis of our attacking play

As I mentioned earlier, counter-pressing is an important element which defines our style of play. It is more than a way to defend, as it is often the starting point of one of our own attacks. We tend to score a fair few goals like this one.

Granted, we recycle possession after a poor corner, but with the overlapping wing-backs and patient build-up, we often get into similar positions anyway. As the opposition looks to break away, there are no real passing options available to the AI. The passing lanes are blocked and every player near him can immediately be pressured by two or more Athletic players.

When we take over possession, the team quickly transitions into a more attacking shape. A mere three seconds after winning the ball, there are three Athletic players in the penalty area, waiting for a cross or through ball.

The ball is eventually whipped in near the first post, where an onrushing forward taps it past the helpless goalkeeper.

When the ball isn’t immediately turned over by our opponents, they are often forced into hoofing the ball forward. When this happens, we start our own attacks. This often looks a bit like this.

This attack is a lot more patient and less dependent on a sort of counter-attack, yet again it starts with counter-pressing. From a throw-in, the opposing players are isolated in their own half. The opposing defender has no other option than hoofing the ball forward, effectively gifting us possession and allowing us the chance to start our own attack.

In the remainder of the attack, we can see the smooth interactions between the lines, the silky passing-movement, the intelligent runs both on and off the ball that strikerless tactics are renowned for. Just for good measure, I’d like to share another video.

Analysis of our defensive play

The high defensive line is a high-risk style of play that sees’s a team push up in order to shut down the amount of time an opposition has to play, however, it requires high levels of skill and cohesion as the team stepping up leaves spaces to run into. This means that most defensive play revolves around my three defenders clearing the ball forward again or battling for long balls.

This requires fast and strong defenders with an excellent sense of positioning, but they are backed up by the relentless pressing upfront.

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Guido is the founding father of Strikerless and main nutjob running the show.


Guido

Guido is the founding father of Strikerless and main nutjob running the show.

54 Comments

Jarrett R Morley · April 15, 2017 at 2:30 am

1. Guido, you’re a madman 🙂

2. You said that you started implementing this tactic after consecutive CL titles, so at least a few years into your save, correct? What kind of mentality were you using previously? Had you spent like 3 years playing control or counter, with more direct passing or a different defensive line?

Can any of your very impressive success be chalked up to the opposition simply assuming you’re going to be doing something completely different? To the fact that your team has completely changed it’s method? This is a balls-out tactic. I can see it simply bushwhacking the unsuspecting. I wonder about this because I’ve had a handful of big, lopsided wins over top top clubs where I rolled out my Plan C tactic that I hardly ever actually use, and it seems like I’m catching them unawares. Are you sure you’re not just doing that, writ large? I would love to see your results at the end of this season, and in the next.

3. The shape’s great, but a question: have you moved on from the IWBs? especially here where you’re not going direct, your overall team width is already fairly wide and you don’t have a ton of dudes in the dmc/mc areas, it would seem a good place to use them.

    StrikerlessGuido · April 15, 2017 at 5:56 am

    I spent the previous years on a counter mentality, but I felt that wasn’t doing justice to the counterpressing idea. I figured I’d just go all out and see what happened. It worked out well enough and from what I heard in the Slack group, it does well with smaller clubs as well.

    Regarding the IWB’s, I needed a bit of width here and I do believe SI have fixed the issue of the IWB’s running rampage.

Alan Butterworth · April 17, 2017 at 6:14 am

Hi Guido, Left WB has PI to close down more but Right WB does not. Was this deliberate because of the palyers you have or just a left-over from a previous testing of your tactic? I will give this new tactic a go. At the very least it will be fun.

    StrikerlessGuido · April 17, 2017 at 6:53 am

    This was not deliberate, probably a mistake on my end.

      Morley · April 17, 2017 at 4:54 pm

      this tactic, and a lot of other ones I’ve seen, have PIs selected that could not possibly have been selected given the current TIs and position/role. players with aggressive advanced roles in “close down much more” tactics with the “close down more/much more” PI ticked is probably the most common. If the TIs already give a player a maximum-length close down bar, how do you even select the PI? And even if you do, is it actually going to make him close down even more than maximum?

      Isn’t this just the SI version of that insipid cliche about “giving 110%”?

      StrikerlessGuido · May 4, 2017 at 2:35 pm

      Sorry for the slow response, Morley. I was away on holidays. In a way, you are right. These instructions were carried over from the framework of older tactics and I figured I might as well leave them in there, even if they realistically couldn’t possibly add anything to the tactic.

ger cumiskey · April 20, 2017 at 5:16 pm

amazing tactic i find it works better against ther bigger teams, i am playing as liverpool in my second season only had 1 or 2 major transfers so pretty much the same team you start with and i have had 3 outstanding results against big teams since using this. 4-0 vs chelsea, 3-0 vs spurs and 4-0 vs everton while i was playing with 10 men, against smaller teams i am scraping 1-0 and 2-0 wins afew draws think thats because they are parking the bus with 10 men behind the ball, but against ny team that thinks they can play ball… they get destroyed!! Amazing work guido

    StrikerlessGuido · April 21, 2017 at 8:39 pm

    Yeah, it works when you get a bit of space 🙂 Nice to hear those positive words, mate!

Taufiq Nur Rachman · April 20, 2017 at 10:46 pm

interesting tactic, i used strikerless tactic too in my current game, honestly, i’m curious with your tactic, unfortunately, i can’t used wingerless tactic at the moment, because some of my player is AMR/AML and many of them isn’t versatile player.. so, if i tweaked shadow striker role to be inside forward, in your opinion, this tactic will worked well ? thanks ?

    StrikerlessGuido · April 21, 2017 at 8:40 pm

    I reckon it would work as well, yes. IF(S) would be my recommendation. Let me know how and if it works, mate!

BusttheNet - Rashidi · April 22, 2017 at 4:15 am

Finally another person who sees the merits of playing on higher mentalities 🙂

    StrikerlessGuido · April 22, 2017 at 7:45 am

    It reinforces the pressing tremendously. It took a while to step over my initial scepsis, I admit that haha

      BusttheNet - Rashidi · April 23, 2017 at 12:23 pm

      Yes I plan to do an in depth video on counter attacking that will blow current myths out of the water. And it’s good to see others who play effectively too.

      StrikerlessGuido · May 4, 2017 at 2:36 pm

      I’ve been out of the loop lately due to holidays. Has the video appeared yet?

asaheed · May 6, 2017 at 1:34 pm

I used this tactic to simulate a full season without recruting staff, setting individual training etc. with Hoffenheim in the bundesliga. The result: 2nd place, 2 points behind bayern and 6 points clear to 3rd. I think with playing myself and keeping the morale high (it has been damn low because a lot of players had no gametime, others wanted new contracts or even wanted to leave for mancity or the likes) I could have won the league. So another really great tactic Guido. Thanks!

    StrikerlessGuido · May 7, 2017 at 8:20 am

    Thanks man. That’s a bloody great run for Hoffenheim!

imatoffee · May 27, 2017 at 10:52 am

Looks a good tactic Guido. Will be giving this a go. What about team training etc?

    StrikerlessGuido · May 27, 2017 at 10:55 am

    I usually let the assistant deal with it.

Rodrigo · June 27, 2017 at 7:08 am

I have some doubts about your tactics i would love you to answer guido, if it doesnt matter you, thanks!!

    Guido · June 27, 2017 at 7:38 am

    Fire away 🙂

      Rodrigo · June 27, 2017 at 7:43 am

      I am Liverpool, i just started a save, and i’ve been struggling a little using this great tactic of yours, for example i lost against Arsenal, Bournemouth, Leicester, Man City (all away games), like, i have more shoots than them but i lose anyway, and my top players such as coutinho and firmino are not doing very well. I only bought laporte and gimenez . I was wondering if you could give me a hand so i can improve with this tactic and start to do better. Thanks, love your work!

      Guido · June 27, 2017 at 7:44 am

      To be fair, I have worked on improving the tactic since this setup. I have a new set of Opposition Instructions as well as a slightly altered midfield. When I get home from work, I will share those with you.

      Rodrigo · June 27, 2017 at 7:54 am

      Okay mate, thank you very much!! Hope those changes help me

      Rodrigo · June 27, 2017 at 6:08 pm

      I am from Argentina, so i have the game in spanish but will try to guess those things, thank you very much Guido! Hope i didnt waste your time, sorry if i did. Keep up the good work

      Guido · June 27, 2017 at 8:35 pm

      Ah sorry mate, I don’t know the Spanish phrases.

      Rodrigo · June 27, 2017 at 6:42 pm

      I have one more question, sorry to bother you, if i think the other team is better than mine, teams like man city for example, shall i play a counter mentality or leave it in overload??

      Guido · June 27, 2017 at 8:36 pm

      Yeah, I drop to counter if I think I will get outclassed 🙂

      Rodrigo · June 27, 2017 at 9:31 pm

      Thanks Guido, already did those little changes and started to do a little better. I have one last question, strikers like aguero or ibrahimovic wont fit this tactic am i right?? i should buy AM players such as Lacazette or ozil if im not wrong. Btw love your vid with bustthenet 🙂

      Guido · June 28, 2017 at 5:33 am

      Aguero would be fine as a shadow striker. You could try Zlatan in the AM/A role.

      Rodrigo · June 28, 2017 at 6:27 am

      Oh, so some strikers can fit in this tactics, i dont have any because i thought they didnt, i sold origi, sturridge, etc lol, ok, will try to buy some strikers then. Thank you for this great tactics and all the help, im really having fun with this tactics, some matches i lose but i cant win always. Thanks guido, good luck!

      Guido · June 28, 2017 at 8:48 am

      You can always retrain them.

Michael · July 1, 2017 at 6:46 am

Great post guido, should this tactic work perfect with every team?? Even smaller ones? Or does it only works in top teams?

    Guido · July 4, 2017 at 5:29 am

    I seem to do alright with this tactic even with smaller clubs.

Marcos · July 3, 2017 at 12:32 pm

Great post and tactic Guido, I only have a question: you try to move a MC to a DM position with Defensive Midfieler? I read you antother post (The Art of the Defensive Midfielder in a Strikerless Formation) and i dont know with role put in my DM.

    Guido · July 4, 2017 at 5:27 am

    I haven’t yet, but I don’t see why it couldn’t work.

      Marcos · July 13, 2017 at 1:05 pm

      I tried with 1 DM and 1 BtB with counter mentally, the tactics is amazing and I won the Conference South this season.

      Guido · July 20, 2017 at 9:39 am

      Sweet! Well done, brother!

imatoffee · July 4, 2017 at 11:05 pm

I really want this tactic to work but no success so far. played three won 1 lost 2. i dominate possesion but seem to give away easy chances. Any suggestions Guido? Tactic is Maximum Familiarity.

    Guido · July 5, 2017 at 5:34 am

    Are your defenders fast enough and smart enough in their positioning to maintain a higher defensive line? You could always set that to normal or even drop a bit deeper.

    QPRSte · July 12, 2017 at 8:53 am

    I have found out if you playing with smaller teams, or not the best defender stats. But the BPD from Cover Duty to Defend. Then he keeps the offside line better and the goals you get are most of the time overruled by the offside flag. With smaller teams, I always start with the overload version and switch either when my team is 2 goals up or the pressure from the opposite team is too big for the first 10 Min to a counter version of the tactic. Big thanks to Guido, I love counter pressing tactics! I got inspired by the video https://youtu.be/8fPi6WWs6yU to use a strikerless formation and never looked back since. Regards Ste

MartyMcFarty · July 12, 2017 at 5:45 pm

Teams have started defending super deep with 2 DMCs against me. Took a 4 game loosing streak for me to figure out it was them sussing me out. Having some success by playing wider and getting the full backs higher up. Any more advice? FYI, playing as Crewe. Season One. Was top scoring about 3 per game but now grinding out results until (hopefully) promotion when the cycle will begin again.

Football Fumb · July 24, 2017 at 10:21 am

QPRSte , I think you`re right with Counter [ I might try Overlaod again at home ?] , just trying this Tactic, btw are you playing as QPR?, what`s your team if you don`t mind? – I have Dack , Kuki / Clough, Havertz as SS`; plus about 6 St` who are not going to be happy if it works!.

JP · July 24, 2017 at 2:14 pm

Guido, I’ve switched the centre CB to a Libero to sweep up and bring the ball in to the DM position to link up the defence with supporting midfield. AP sat at central Attacking midfielder on supporting dropping in and springing IF’s on attack duty. What’s your thoughts?

    Guido · July 25, 2017 at 6:22 pm

    I’ve tried that and while it does work, the lack of sweepers in the database is a bit of a bummer.

      JP · July 26, 2017 at 2:55 pm

      Convert, convert, convert! Even though he massively lacks height at 5’6″, Lucas Torreira (sampdoria save) on att duty does a great job of getting back, sweeping up then bombing forward between 2 centre mids on def duty to link up the play, think any decent dlp does the job well.

      Guido · July 27, 2017 at 6:46 am

      Aye, probably the best option.

Football Fumb · July 25, 2017 at 2:03 pm

Are there specific player traits which would be good for this tactic to train ?, I am aware of `arrives late in box` for SS`s, thx

    Guido · July 25, 2017 at 6:23 pm

    Aye, you can find those here.

    https://strikerless.com/2017/07/20/the-academy-applying-what-weve-learned/

      Football Fumb · July 25, 2017 at 7:22 pm

      Strangely I read this article earlier [ you are well thought of in the SI Community ! ], & also stangely you don`t list Shadow striker, but I know these – Your Tactic is slowly working thanks

      Guido · July 25, 2017 at 7:24 pm

      I don’t see the need for movement PPM’s there but you can always do finishing training.

StrikersRevil · October 14, 2017 at 8:39 am

Hi guido thank you for your hard work. Pitch size speaking what would you advise?

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