Alright, what's up, guys? Zalone here, and welcome back to another video on the channel! This is my first full tactics video of the game, and I'm hyped for this one. I've been grinding Rivals and Squad Battles, playing close to 40 games so far. I've been testing, tweaking, and trying out a ton of different stuff, including player roles. I've really put the gameplay through its paces, and I'm super happy with this starting tactic.
Now, let's get one thing straight: if anyone's telling you this is the best meta tactic, that it's breaking the game, or that it's OP, take it with a grain of salt. The game's only been out for a couple of days, so it's way too early to say for sure. However, you can get a good idea of what works if you know the game. It seems to play somewhat similar to last year, but the new player roles and the in-game IQ stuff have changed the game quite a bit. You can't just have a one-size-fits-all tactic anymore, in my opinion. These new player roles make a real difference. I've noticed players with plus-plus really do transition and move better, so you want to build a team and a tactic around your players. You can build a tactic you like and then fit players into it, but with the game being where a lot of you have untradeable players, you need a balance between the tactic you want and what suits your team.
Here's my team at the moment: I've got Van Dijk and Kane on the EA Play 5-day loan. I've also got Evo Gomez, who can swap in for Van Dijk soon as Van Dijk's loan runs out, and I'm saving for Lautaro Martinez. He suits my team. I've just bought Rodri, so I haven't used him yet, but he looks really good. And then there's my favorite player, Lamina Yamel – packed him in an untradeable pack. He's got really good stats for me.
Formation: The New 4-3-3 Holding
I've built a formation here that, in-game, plays quite like the 4-3-2-1 from last year. That's why I've called the video the "New 4-3-2-1." However, I don't think you can really play a formation that plays exactly like it, with the new system. So, when people say they've got replicas of old tactics, I just don't agree with that. However, I've built a formation that has similarities to it and other strengths that the 4-3-2-1 might not have had.
Like always, I have different versions of tactics that I play. This one here is a more attacking version of my formation. One thing I do quite like on this system now is that you can just press right in-game and then make it more attacking. So, it would just literally make my this more attacking by putting my defensive approach to aggressive and a buildup style to counter. I quite like that, but you keep a lot of the same systems.
So, this is what the formation's going to be: 4-3-3 (Holding). You can change this, and it will obviously change how it plays. If you want to go to, like, the 4-3-3 (4) with a CAM instead of a CDM, you can do that. You'll sacrifice some defensive stability, but you will, in turn, get more attacking options. I think with the player roles and the movements stuff like this, you should be a lot more flexible and fluid with your formations. Be willing to try and test stuff out.
One thing that used to be a thing about the tactics on FIFA and EA FC games was that you built a tactic, and work rates didn't really matter that much, in my opinion, because the instructions overrode them. There's no instructions now. The instructions for players now are basically the player roles, and if you play a role, they only have one role that's Plus or they've got one that's plus plus. You ideally want to be playing them in that. Would that mean if I had three Center mids who all Playmakers I'd play three Playmakers in Midfield? No, you need some balance. You can see in this formation here that it's quite a balanced formation. I'll go through it, but it's not one size fits on anymore.
When I put tactics out this year, my approach is going to be to introduce the philosophy of the tactic, the type of players you want in there, but then, as I go for each position, talk about some of the different options you could put in those positions.
In-Game Formation and Player Roles
This is what the formation looks like with the ball in-game. It doesn't feel as much like that 4-3-2-1 in-game. Sometimes, Yamel ends up as the furthest forward, and obviously, he defends quite a bit. Why do I say it looks a bit like the 4-3-2-1 from last year? The inside forwards tuck in a lot more than that in-game. I don't know why it looks like that. You have a center mid who gets forward. You still have the midfield who drops back. I've got a fullback who's bombing forward a lot more, and then, without the ball, Pulisic actually does drop back and defend a bit more because I've got Rodri and Reinders in the middle. Yamel does tend to go out wide a little bit, so it does play like it, but it's not a perfect replica – that's just the honest truth of it.
Build Up Play
- Build Up Style: Balanced. I haven't really tried Short too much. I did a bit, and against good players, if you don't get the ball forward quick enough, it is hard to break them down because the game feels quite slow, in my opinion. So, I'm quite liking Balanced right now.
- Defensive Style: Applying the situational pressure and auto offside traps are really good on this game. You can still track runs in behind, but putting pressure on is really hard to play out against right now, in my opinion. So, I'm quite liking a High Line.
Player Roles Breakdown
- Goalkeeper: Sweeper Keeper. I would probably for this just pick whichever one your keeper's better at. I'm going to do a video dedicated to them, going through all of them, and talk about which ones I think are the best and the importance of plus and plus plus. I don't I think for any position keeper is probably the least important because the roles are supposed to basically apply to how quickly they transition their movement off the ball on the ball. Emmy Martinez is a keeper, it's not going to make a huge difference. I just think with sweep a keeper you can see here the activity map if we do an actual keeper he just won't come off his line as much and Martinez has the gold play style rush out so you want him as a sweeper keeper but I don't think if you have someone who's got keeper plus plus it's going to be a big issue so again look at your players for this.
- Center Backs: Ball Playing Defender. My experience so far of the three player roles, Stopper is awful. It's a ball-winning center back who will step forward from the defensive line to make tackles, intercept passes, and lead the press. I would say in a Freeman Center back partnership you could have a stopper. I think it could be good then, but when you've got two center backs, I would never be using Stopper because they just launch themselves forward and leave huge gaps. With three center backs, you can get away with it, and maybe it'll be really good then, but I don't like it in general. I think Defender is probably the more all-round one, but if you've got good players with plus plus instead of normal, I'd be using Ball Playing Defender. I wouldn't be using Build Up. If you look at Build Up, they can push into the midfield, like he's even pushing up to Reinders. Then I don't want him to do that personally. Again, if you had three or five back, you could maybe do that a bit more, but I like Ball Play and Defend. But if Van Dijk or Bastoni had Defender as the Plus+, I'd be using that.
- Full Back: False Back. I really like this False Back. What I'm finding it does is tucks into the midfield as a defensive mid almost, and when you've got someone like Trent who's got insane passing, it overloads the midfield, and when you've got three forwards that he can ping the ball to, it's really, really nice for spreading the play about. And with a box-to-box next to him, it synergizes really well. It kind of covers each other quite well, and he will go and cover the wing quickly. Generally, like any formation, if you get caught out in possession, it is going to hurt you, but just be careful with that, but it really does work well. I find I get lots of width, and the box-to-box helps support the lack of width here because you've got an attacking inside forward.
- Defensive Midfielder: Deep Line Playmaker. Rodri was on Holding because it was Dean Rice before who had plus plus. The holding one was working really well, and I had Rice on Plus plus with it. I'm going to now put a Deep Line Playmaker on because I've got Rodri who's got plus plus. I want to see what it's like. I'm not going to go Roaming because if you look at Roaming with the heat map, you can go all the way up to the striker nearly. I don't want that. The way that I'm playing this formation, the way I played 4-3-2-1 last year, was I had three midfielders, and the middle one always was kind of the anchor man of the team. Deep Line Playmaker can do this. If you look at the Holding role, it's fairly similar. The Deep Line Playmaker just goes a bit more lateral, so I really like that. I've tried both. I'm going to see what Rodri's like with it.
- Central Midfielder: Box to Box. The box-to-box is really good. Helps link up the midfield and attack quite well in this formation.
- Attacking Midfielder: Playmaker. A playmaker is pretty nice. He floats around here, links up a lot with the attackers.
- Left Inside Forward: Balanced. I've got this inside forward unbalanced because he's got an attacking wing back. That's how we did last year's 4-3-2-1, where we had a wing back who would push up. I'm not putting him on Attack because if you look, he won't defend as much. There literally says, "and perform fewer defensive duties." I don't want my wing back to not really defend at all. But it works quite well of a balanced left inside forward. I find that he tucks in, and then he's constantly got an outlet to the wing back, and then you've got the false back here tucking in. You just overload in lots of situations, create some really nice patterns.
- Right Inside Forward: Attack. The inside forward on this side's an attack. He kind of gets close to the striker, helps link up with that. The box-to-box links up, and then you've got the advanced forward here as a plus plus in Harry Kane. That works really well.
- Striker: Advanced Forward. I've heard Poacher is amazing. I've not used it myself. I've played against people using High Line, and it's a nightmare. I think this formation could work really, really well with a Poacher. I think if you wanted to have like a false nine there, it could work well. If you had maybe two, like, I'd maybe go two wing backs instead of a false back. I'd have the inside forwards on both attack, and then you could maybe have two box-to-box here, and they could kind of overlap a false nine attack striker who's dropping deep. I mean, there's a lot of ways you can use this new FC IQ system and player roles to really tweak how you play, tweak formations, try stuff out. And I think like the general philosophy of this formation, overloading people, still being solid in defense, having lots of passing options, that I think from my experience playing with it, works really well. I think there's lots of ways you can tweak it.
Gameplay Example
I quickly want to show you a clip of a goal I got with it. I recorded so many clips, so let me just find which clip it is. I think it's this one. So, got DeMarco there, the attacking wing back, Reinders there, that's my playmaking. See's kind of operating in the hole. Got my inside forwards. This is where I'm saying it's like the 4-3-2-1 with the two inside forwards. They get really close to the striker, so it's like three strikers now. What I want you to do now is look where Yamel is. He's the player in the white between the two red players, the top right of the screen. He's my box-to-box midfielder. I feel like on previous FIFAs, unless you put Get Forward on a center mid, he never make this run, and if he put Get Forward, he wouldn't defend. But here, he's got the plus box-to-box role. He's got good movement. I feel like he's made a really intelligent run. The inside forwards are acting like... look how close they... that's like three strikers. Like last FIFA, with the 4-3-2-1, they've occupied the defenders. My box-to-box makes a great run, and look at this, he runs in behind, and then it's a nice, easy finish. Let's watch this again. So, my attacking wing back's there, my inside forward starts to cut in, my wing back's giving me the width, three strikes in the middle, an overload, and then my box-to-box gets in. That is one of my favorite goals I've scored this FIFA because it is this tactic perfectly in motion. It works really well. I've been using with a holding, like I said, I'm going to test it out now with Rodri's Deep Line Playmaker. If it doesn't work as well and do seem as solid, I'm going to go back to the holding role. It's still going to be a plus there. But honestly, I love this formation. Plays really well.
That is the code for it. I've probably just changed some, so the code might be a bit different. Make sure you put, um, what you call it? I think it's case-sensitive in download the tactic. Let me know what your thoughts are. Go through it, please. I'd really like to see what you guys think. Of course, feel free to tweak, change a few of the roles. You can even play like as a CAM instead of the CDM, or you could play the 4-3-3 flat. There's lots of ways you can change it. I just try to keep the general system. Like, if you change the inside force to wingers, that will kind of kill it. If you want a more attacking version, is it going to give you the code? Let's have a look. No, it's not giving you the code. I don't know why it don't give you the card for reference. Let me see if it does it now. I want to make it active. Nope. I don't know why it's doing it. Seems to bug out with this code. So, I've always... it's just a thing to get the code. That's the tactic. Next video, I'll probably spend a little bit less time breaking it down as much in depth, but because it's my first tactic video and people so new to it, I want to make go really in depth to help people understand, and we'll start to get more gameplay. I want to show you one gameplay clip there just to show you an action, but as I play more Rivals, get more good gameplay clips, we'll show you more, and I'll do more videos actually breaking down the formations in in action. I appreciate you all tuning in. Hopefully, this video has helped you out. I'm having a lot of fun with the new player roles and this tactic. Hope you guys are too. Keep it spicy. Hope to see you guys in the next one. Peace.