Alright, let's dive into some killer tactics for FC25! I've put together five custom tactic codes for what I believe are the best formations in the game right now. I'll break down each one, highlighting their strengths, weaknesses, and of course, sharing the codes with you. Let's get it!
4-2-1-3: The Easy Mode Formation
First up, we've got the 4-2-1-3. Personally, I think this is the most straightforward formation to play in the game. It's not overly complicated: soak in the pressure, win the ball back, and then immediately launch that through ball up to your strikers who are ready to pounce.
Here's the lowdown on the tactics:
- Build Up Play: Balanced
- Defensive Style: 70 Width, High for the offside trap (it's just OP after the patch)
- Instructions:
- Sweeper Keeper
- Fullbacks: Defend
- CDM: Deep Line Playmaker
- CAM: Playmaker
- Wingers: Inside Forward
- Striker: Advanced Forward
The code is on the screen now, so feel free to copy it.
Let me give you a quick example. Watch this clip. Our opponent has the ball, and if we pause it, you'll see their fullbacks are pushed up. Our attackers aren't defending. This means two things:
- Positive: When we win the ball back, we can immediately find our attackers and go forward.
- Weakness: We're defending with fewer players – just the four defenders and the two CDMs.
This is where the strength is the weakness. We're banking on being good enough to defend with six, which we are in this clip. We win the ball, one pass forward, and we're in! That's why I call it the "easy mode" formation. You don't have to do a lot. I've got tons of clips where this happens. We get the ball, and we can immediately look for the three forwards, or maybe a connecting pass to the CAM and then into the forwards. The CAM and wingers with high in-game stats help a lot as well.
The main strength and weakness are clear: you defend with six, but when you defend well and survive their attack, you get an immediate chance. It also forces your opponent to play with their fullbacks on defend, which can even out the numbers.
The deep line playmaker buildup gets the CDMs involved, and the inside forwards come inside, so you have your whole team, except for the defenders, around the box. It's a perfect formation to break down your opponent because you have a CAM to pass through, forwards coming inside, and the striker. So many passing options!
4-2-3-1 Wide: The Defensive Fortress
Next up, we have the 4-2-3-1 wide. Now, you might be asking, "Why is this a good formation?" Well, in this game, there's a ton of variation. If you look at the FC Pro Open, where the top pros play, everyone was using different formations. I'd say there were five or six different formations being used. It's all about finding what works for you.
The 4-2-3-1 is the opposite of the 4-2-1-3. Defensively, it's rock solid. Offensively, it could be better.
The tactics I've gone for are actually the same as the 4-2-1-3 because I think these are the best roles. If your opponent isn't playing a 4-2-1-3, you can put your fullbacks on balanced. You really have to find what works for you. The deep line playmaker buildup helps a lot in a 2-CDM formation.
- Build Up Play: Balanced
- Defensive Style: Balanced
- Instructions:
- Sweeper Keeper
- Fullbacks: Defend
- CDM: Deep Line Playmaker
- CAM: Playmaker
- Wingers: Inside Forward
- Striker: Advanced Forward
The strength of this formation is its toughness to break down. I have a clip that's a minute long of me just holding off the opponent, closing all the passing lanes. There's almost no forward passing option for my opponent. That's what makes this formation so strong.
If you're a good attacker, you'll score anyway, no matter the formation. But if you need help defensively, this is the perfect formation. The CDMs will sit in, your right mid will defend, and even your CAM can drop back. The striker stays up front.
I've gone for a balanced defensive approach because I think high leaves us a bit too exposed in counterattacks, especially against players who play first-time passes. Since we sit in with this formation anyway and don't press a lot, balanced is better.
4-4-1-1: Midfield Dominance
The next formation is the 4-4-1-1. This is a bit more attacking because we use CMs instead of CDMs. That's the biggest difference from the 4-2-3-1. The CMs will be a bit better in attack.
These tactics are almost the same as the 4-2-3-1. I've just gone for "Holding" instead of "Deep Line Playmaker" on the center mids because they're naturally more involved in the attack and chance creation. I put them on "Holding" to be a bit better defensively and compensate for that.
- Build Up Play: Balanced
- Defensive Style: Balanced
- Instructions:
- Sweeper Keeper
- Fullbacks: Defend
- CMs: Holding
- CAM: Playmaker
- Wingers: Inside Forward
- Striker: Advanced Forward
This formation is really good at playing around the midfield because the CMs and the CAM are really close to each other. You can work it from the wing towards the striker, opening up gaps. The CAM is so important in this formation because everything goes to them. You have to utilize them a lot.
The weakness is defensively. Playing with CMs, no CDMs, means that if they cross the midfield, they don't run back. The CMs give up. You can see in the example, we tried to run back with our right mid, but the CM AI is just almost walking, and it becomes a 4v4 with our defenders. We want to avoid that ideally. But this formation is so good in attack that you take it and try to score on your opponent.
4-4-2: The Attacking Machine
Now, the 4-4-2. I made an in-depth video on this one, so you might want to check that out as well.
For the 4-4-2, I've gone for balanced and high again. I like to put "Holding" on my CMs, just as I did with the 4-4-1-1, and "Inside Forward" on the wingers. It's not that special. The only thing is I take a bit more risk in this formation. I put fullbacks on balanced. You can put them on defend as well. It just depends on how much you suffer from the 4-2-1-3. If it wasn't for the 4-2-1-3, fullbacks would always be on balanced. But the 4-2-1-3 forces you to go with defend.
- Build Up Play: Balanced
- Defensive Style: High
- Instructions:
- Sweeper Keeper
- Fullbacks: Balanced
- CMs: Holding
- Wingers: Inside Forward
- Strikers: Advanced Forward
It's an aggressive formation where we have to press early to get the most out of it. The four attackers are amazing. If you've got good passers up front, that's even better. It's really good on the counter because you've got four guys running, and they don't defend that much. The right mid and left mid are higher up the pitch when you win the ball.
The most important thing in this formation is to keep triggering those wingers for those overlapping runs. Whenever your striker hits the ball, there's always that danger of a winger taking over.
It's the same problem as the 4-4-1-1: the CMs don't track back as much as CDMs do. But other than that, it's a perfect formation, very good to attack with.
4-5-1: The Controlled Approach
The last formation is the 4-5-1. This is a formation that pros like Abu Makaka use. It's a very controlled formation. You've got three CMs, which makes the middle quite difficult to break down, even though we don't have a CDM. These three CMs kind of act as a wall in front of the defense. It's hard for our opponent to get past us in the buildup. In attack, we can surround the box because we have an extra guy in midfield. This means we have one less guy in attack, which is the obvious weakness. The obvious strength is that the midfield is more packed, so it's harder to pass through the middle.
- Build Up Play: Balanced
- Defensive Style: High
- Instructions:
- Sweeper Keeper
- Fullback: Defend (on one side)
- Fullback: Balanced (on the other side)
- CM: Deep Line Playmaker
- CMs: Box to Box
- Wingers: Man Mark and Inside Forward (on opposite sides)
- Striker: Advanced Forward
I've gone for one fullback on defend and one on balanced. You want to attack through the side you have imbalanced. I've gone for deep line playmaker buildup in the middle and box-to-box on both left and right center mids. I've gone for "Man Mark" on one winger and "Inside Forward" on the other. On the inside forward side, the winger is overlapping, so I want to create a bit of space for him. I want the wing to be occupied by the man mark winger. I don't want them to be in the same position as the other winger. I've gone for a bit of balance there. High defensive line, and that's it!
So guys, that's it for the top five formations. Copy the codes and try them out!