Alright, what's up, guys? I'm back with some fresh custom tactics for you to dominate, especially in the Weekend League. We're going a bit off-script today because everyone's on that 4-2-1-3 train, but I'm bringing you a formation that's popular, yet still flies under the radar: the good ol' 4-4-2 flat.
This formation is a classic, the most traditional in FIFA history, and I think it's viable every year. I've got some custom tactics and gameplay examples to show you how good this formation still is. Hopefully, after this video, you'll give these tactics a shot. So, let's get straight into it!
Build-Up and Defensive Approach
First up, we've got the build-up play set to Balanced. The defensive approach is set to High. Why high? Because in this formation, your central midfielders (CMs) don't really track back as much. If you leave it on balanced, the gap between your defenders and midfield becomes too big, and you'll get exposed. Setting it to high helps reduce that gap and keeps the space a bit tighter.
For the goalkeeper, I'm using Sweeper Keeper. I don't think the goalkeeper setting is super relevant, but I always like sweeper keeper the most, especially now with Alisson and his PlayStyle Plus.
Player Instructions
- Fullbacks: Both fullbacks are on Fullback Balanced. You could go with "Stay Back While Attacking" if you're struggling to defend counterattacks, as it will help you defend transitions. However, I prefer Fullback Balanced because it also helps a bit more in your offensive play.
- Center Backs: Always on Default and Defend. That's the most solid option we have at the moment.
- Central Midfielders: Both CMs are on Holding and Defend. I've been testing with "Deep Lying Playmaker" as well, but for the 4-4-2, holding is fine because they're pushed up anyway. This puts them in the best position for defense.
- Right and Left Midfielders: Both are set to Inside Forward + + and Balanced. I personally love playing with inside forwards. Sometimes it might get a bit too narrow, but that's also the strength of this formation. You have a lot of players in the middle. If you notice it's too narrow, you can switch one of them to "Winger" to create more width and make it easier to build up.
- Strikers: Both on Advanced Forward and Attack. This keeps them up top, making the best runs possible.
As I mentioned before, this is a very good counter-attacking formation, so that's where the emphasis is going to be for this video. When you look at the lineup I put out, you see that the four attackers are pretty small and quick. That way, we can utilize the counter the best.
Gameplay Examples: Counter-Attacking Prowess
As I said, it's a counter-attacking formation, so here's how it works.
- Quick Transitions: Whenever I recover the ball, we go forward quickly. You'll see Lauren James making the run. We use a decoy, hold up the play a bit, and at the same time, he's pulling out defenders. Then, we find Lauren James. You see that his defenders are a bit gone, and we have four guys inside the box.
- Exploiting Defensive Gaps: When I turn back with James, you can see them all lined up, ready to receive the ball. In this case, it's best to play it to Dennis Man. I Evo'd him; he's my right-wing Evo because he's got Finesse Plus. He's the guy who, if you pass the ball to him, has to make the final steps. He's already touch goal, as we do here. With the other guys, we probably have to do a bit more to get ourselves into a shooting position.
- Utilizing Wingers: Here, we recover the ball and find the wing. This is from a corner, actually. I've gone in-depth on corners, so you might want to check that video out to score all your corners in FC25. We play a lock, and then he's aggressive again with his defenders. This formation allows you to perfectly punish that. In about five passes, we score.
- L1/LB Passing: What's important in this formation is that you constantly keep passing with L1/LB or trigger them manually, your wingers. That's the advantage. As you attack through the middle, you'll most likely get the ball with your strikers. You want your left or right mid to make some runs to be an option. That way, you're able to counter-attack quickly because, as I said, they're both on inside forward. All your counter-attacking has to go through the middle at some point, and that's why you need them running.
- Creating Overloads: This is more of a buildup, but as you can see, we take out one of his midfielders, and then I think he defended really badly. But still, there's a lot of work to be done. Here, you see James coming to the inside. Theo basically plays no role anymore, and it's kind of a 3v2 or 1 in the middle because of Dennis Man and Lauren James coming to the inside. It's very hard for him to stop, and it's just quick, simple passes, which allows us to get through and score.
- Wingers on the Run: Counter-attack, left mid running, we get Dennis Man, we find him, and Vini is free at the back post, and we can score.
- Rewatch and Analyze: Let's rewatch it again. We can see that the moment we received all the grinders, we trigger Dennis Man. We keep that in mind, and at this point, he makes a defensive mistake, which we can capitalize on. Dennis Man, who's free now on the left, on the run. When you find someone, and your timing is good enough, most likely what happens is that the cross becomes available. Also, because he committed with one of his defenders, that makes it a one-v-one in the middle with Vini and the center-back, and Vini is in the perfect position to receive that cross. Dennis Man also has Whipped Cross, so that cross basically gets better and better using that play style.
Defensive Weaknesses and Solutions
Now, let's look at some defensive examples. I've put together the weaknesses of this formation so you're prepared for what might happen defensively. At the same time, I'll come up with solutions you can use to counter that.
- Vulnerability to Quick Transitions: We play this from the moment we lose the ball. Here, we take a throw-in, and with Vini, we lose the ball. One pass to the camp. If you pause it here, we're very vulnerable because in one pass, before we can even do anything, he found his number 10, and he's running with three attackers in front of him towards our defense. Our midfielders are not tracking back unless we select them to do so.
- Manual Tracking Back: In this case, we track back with Lampard to apply some pressure from behind. But at one point, we got to let loose of L1/LB because we got to select one of our center-backs; otherwise, he's just going to shoot. So, he plays to Mbappe, and now you can see we switch to our defenders, but our center mids don't track back. If we pause it from the moment he takes the ball with Mbappe, you see that our center mids are just staying there; they're not tracking back. This gives us a very difficult situation because, as you can see, it's a 5v4 in the box.
- Defensive Aggression: This is where you need to show courage a bit and be aggressive with one of your defenders, ideally with ones who got Anticipate Plus on your team. Because they, of course, perform the best standing tackles, and you got to be aggressive. Get at it, press the tackle button at the right moment, for example, whenever you feel he's got no options, or you can cover maybe multiple options at the same time, or he's got a bad touch, whatever. Then is the moment to be aggressive and take the ball off.
- Early Selection and Compactness: We go again, counter-attack. He finds his left mid immediately, or left forward, I should say, and without us doing anything wrong, he's in a dangerous position. As you can see, we track back with Lampard, but not enough. For example, is standing still, and that's bad defending, to be honest. But you can see how vulnerable we are there. The rebound is also for him, and what happens most of the times is that your opponent plays with his attackers on inside forward, just as we do. The right and left back nowadays, they don't defend that much from AI perspective. So, what you actually have to try to do is either be early, select your left or right back, and run them to the inside a bit to make it a bit more compact. In this case, for the rebound with Weirs, you wouldn't have been able to shoot there, or you have to be very comfortable with your center-backs and be at beards immediately.
- Anticipating the Pass: Again, he finds the number 10 so easily, and this is sometimes what you have to do: just select the center-back. At the same time, look where the danger is. So, in this case, the danger is the striker. Try to mark the passing lane to the striker at the same time while running up to him so that if he gives that pass, your defender will intercept it. But you have to sometimes take the risk. In this case, with Kate, we go at him. Also, as I said, lots of risk, so you need a bit of luck as well. Press Circle and win the ball back.
So, guys, it's not always easy to defend in this formation. You got to take risks, you got to be brave, and you got to be able to switch and defend manually as well.
So, guys, this was the video with the 4-4-2. If you got any questions, let me know in the comments.