Alright, what's up everyone, it's Omex here! Welcome back to the channel. After putting in a solid 100 hours into FC25, I've found the perfect tactics, and let me tell you, this formation has been absolutely chef's kiss. It took me from Division 5 all the way to Division 3 in the first three days of the game, and I haven't lost a single online match with it yet. So, without further ado, let's get down to business.
The 4-4-1-1 Formation: The Best of Both Worlds
The formation I'm talking about is, of course, the 4-4-1-1. If the 4-4-2 and the 4-2-3-1 had a baby, this would be it! For the Build Up Play, I've got it set to Balanced. Feel free to experiment with Counter and Short Passing, but at the start of every FIFA or FC, I like to stick to the basics until I get a real feel for the game.
Defensive Approach: High Line, High Pressure
For the Defensive Approach, I've got the Line Height at 59 or 60. Remember, I want to play a high line, but I don't want the indicator to say "High" because that's when your defenders will stop marking the runs your opponents make. So far, 60 is as high as I'm willing to go online. Trust me, even if your line height isn't crazy high, you still get amazing pressure play from this formation. You'll have four players on top of your opponent's defense, and the two center mids are always cutting the passing lanes. If you move your players correctly and switch to the right options, it's a pretty tough formation to play against.
Player Instructions: Roles and Responsibilities
Now, let's move on to the instructions.
-
Striker: On Target Forward with Balanced Focus. A lot of people are fans of False 9, which doesn't really make sense in a one-striker formation. Most people play Advanced Forward, which, as good as it is, your striker is always either drifting wide or running past the offside line way too often. When I have just one striker, I don't want him to drift wide or be out of the play. I want them to play dead in the center and sometimes come back just a little bit to receive a pass. In my opinion, even if your player doesn't have the Target Forward role plus, Target Forward with Balanced Focus gives you the perfect movement. Just look at these clips here. You can see my striker drops back just a little bit before making a darting run forward, which opens up a diagonal gap in the defense. And when there is a diagonal gap, there is always an opening. On another clip, instead of making a brainless run forward where I can't even pass the ball, my striker gives me a short passing option. It just opens up a whole different attacking scenario. So I suggest you give it a try, and if you're not a fan of it, go back to Advanced Forward.
-
CAM (Center Attacking Midfielder): Playmaker with Roaming Focus. If I have the focus on Balanced, it takes away four squares of possible movement for this player, which would lead him to less involvement in the buildup and in the attack. Naturally, I wouldn't score these types of goals if my CAM just played in the center and didn't move at all. The fact that he moves into a slightly wider space in the wing that I'm favoring in the attack helps me a lot during the gameplay.
-
Wingers: Both playing the Inside Forward role with Attack Inside. Inside Forward is probably the most meta option this year, and I don't see it changing anytime soon. Having the focus on Attack just gives you extra involvement in the box, and when you're attacking from one wing, your other winger is going to favor playing as a secondary striker. I love this option.
-
Center Mids: Box to Box. I really prefer to use center mids instead of CDMs this year. In the midfield, everything is about having movement, and out of all the options, Box to Box gives you the most transitions, both defensively and offensively. You might be worried about reliability in defense, but FC25 is already such a defensive game, and the 4-4-1-1 has five midfielders, so don't worry about that. You'll be just fine, especially in a game this slow. You can't just count on three or four plays going forward and scoring goals; you need to have the numbers up top, and that's how you do it.
-
Left Back: Attacking Wing Back with Balanced Focus. To be honest, I'm only playing Attacking Wing Back because Robertson has got the Plus+ version. Before that, I was using Wing Back and Balanced, and it played just beautifully fine. I tried Robertson on both of these, and I just didn't feel any difference, so go with either one you're comfortable with, but don't have this player on Stay Back. Again, slow game, fewer options up top, just problems scoring goals.
-
Right Back: Fullback with Balanced Focus. I used to play the focus on Defend, which would form kind of a three-back when I was attacking, and it was fine, but I prefer him to be in that wide area to provide me with safe passing options every time I'm deadlocked in a press. Again, either one you want to go with. As you can see, this formation, when we are attacking, plays very similarly to the 4-3-2-1 last year. It just got that tucked-in forwards, has the striker, has that one attacking midfielder. It's just perfect, perfect. So, very similar to the FC24 meta and just overloads the opponent's defense. Such a hard formation to play against.
-
Center Backs: Defender and Defend. I don't care about the role Plus or role Plus Plus of these players. I have them both always on Defender and Defend because if you put anything else, they're going to take a step forward either way, and that's going to create that diagonal run that I mentioned before, and you don't want that to happen in your team. Just trust me on this one; you don't want that gap in your team.
-
Goalkeeper: Goalkeeper with Balanced Focus. It's very important if you want your goalkeeper to claim the crosses; you got to have the focus on Balanced so they have the freedom to come out and collect the ball.
Gameplay Breakdown: The 4-4-1-1 in Action
I called this formation the baby of the 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2 because you have the 4-2-3-1 shape, but you have the two center mids instead of the two CDMs, which is fantastic because in some scenarios, they just make such beautiful runs that just opens up so much space and opportunity for you in the attack, and I just love having two strikers up top. But having that CAM to help you with the buildup, I think it's just more of a factor because when you get the ball back, the gap between your midfield and attack is sometimes huge, and having a CAM there to always collect the ball is just such a pro in a formation.
You see my team, I had Griezmann, I had De Bruyne, I had Kyle Walker, I had some nice players in the team, I'm not going to lie, but I've been playing this formation since day one. I've experimented with other formations, but this one has stayed my main formation throughout these four or five days of playing, and by far, for me, it performed better than any other variations. And in day one, I didn't have Griezmann, in day two, I didn't have De Bruyne and Walker. So if you're worried your players aren't as strong as mine, so your team wouldn't perform well in this formation, I used to play Pique out of position as a CAM in the 4-4-1-1. I had Lookman as my striker for two days, which is like 1K, and he scored so many goals for me.
The best thing about the 4-4-1-1 is that it provides you with a five-man midfield, which is amazing to work with in defense, and again, it provides you with fantastic passing options when you're trying to build up. You know what I don't like about this game is how you can make every player in every position more attacking. There is always a tactic option to make a player more attacking, but there is not a single position in this game that you can make more defensive. Like, I don't know how to make it make sense. Like, if you have so many players in a defense, like imagine if you're playing a 5-4-1, you can ask a lot of players to run forward, but if you're playing a 4-2-4, you can't ask your wingers to come back on defense. So anything you do, you're going to be left out with two midfielders or four defenders when you're defending. The wingers are not going to come back, and it's sad because a lot of the attacking formations are just not never going to be meta this year. So any 4-3-3 type formation, like I don't mean the actual 4-3-3, I mean the four defenders, three midfielders, and three attackers, any of these type of formations are just never going to be meta this year because as fantastic as the attack is, you're going to be left out with the three-man midfield, and it keeps you vulnerable, and it's a change I really want EA to compliment in this game because if they don't, the five-back formations probably this year are going to rule them all.
Anyway, if you want to get a feel of how this formation works, watch the rest of the clips and try it for yourself.