Alright, let's dive into this amazing formation, the 4-2-2-2! If you can get the custom tactics right, you're in for a treat. I'm going to show you the exact custom tactics you need to dominate with this formation. I'll be showing you a bunch of gameplay clips first, so you can see it in action.
Gameplay Analysis: The 4-2-2-2 in Action
I was streaming and thought, "You know what? I want to try a formation that could be meta, but you don't see many people using." The 4-2-2-2 has two CDMs, which is similar to the 4-2-1-3, but we also get two strikers up top. Honestly, as you'll see from the goals, this formation blew me away! I was shocked at how much I loved it. It had absolutely everything.
The two CDMs meant we could defend perfectly, and having two strikers meant I scored an absolute lorry load of goals. It was just an absolute joy to use. You can see me overlapping my fullback a little bit, not with player roles, but manually, playing the ball into my other CAM, who then does a nice little cutback to my other striker. The amount of nice goals I scored, that sexy type of football, it blew me away.
This isn't one of them, but it's a speed boost, get in there with Marcus Rashford, lovely little ball across to Ronaldo, who then finishes it off nicely. I think it's a formation that I may well use from here on out because honestly, I just it blew me away how much I enjoyed it. The amount of options that we had going forward constantly really, really, really shocked me. It's definitely meta usable and a viable option. If you're looking for a formation that's still meta but also fun to use, I would recommend the 4-2-2-2 without any shadow of a doubt. You will have an absolute blast and a whale of a time. It's such a good formation to use. It blew me away. I had an absolute whale of a time with it, and it's definitely a formation that, because of the two CDMs, will help you get more wins in the weekend league.
Custom Tactics Breakdown: The Secret Sauce
Now, let's get into the custom tactics. The tactical preset is, of course, going to be custom. I don't know why you would want to use anything else other than custom, in my opinion.
- Build Up Play: We're using Counter. Yes, you are not seeing things! I am using counter. If you cast your minds back to the start of FC25, I was actually using counter on all of my custom tactics, and then I changed back to balanced, but now over the last few days I've been using counter on a lot of my new custom tactics that will be coming out, and I do think it is just better now. I think we've finally got into a spot now where counter is probably the best thing to use on the buildup style.
- Defensive Approach: We're using the 95 line height, which is aggressive. Remember, this means our team will automatically press and automatically offset trap for us, and it doesn't drain our stamina at all. It's very, very, very overpowered and very broken. It's definitely something which I feel most of you should be using. But if you are someone that is struggling defensively and maybe you're a little bit scared of that 95 line height, that is absolutely fine. I would recommend going down to like a 70 or a 50, so either balanced or high. Let me know in the comment section down below which one you do prefer.
Player Roles: Fine-Tuning Your Squad
Now, let's get into the player roles. This is where we really start to customize the formation.
- Left Striker: Advanced Forward and Support. This means the left-sided striker will drop a little bit deeper, kind of like a hybrid false 9/winger. It's very, very, very nice. You will see a lot in my custom tactics when I'm using a two-striker formation, one of my strikers will be on advanced forward and support. This time I've gone with the left-sided striker. It makes no difference which side you want it on. I always just seem to prefer to have my left-sided striker on advanced forward and support. That's kind of just the way I like it. There's no reason for it; it's just what I like.
- Right Striker: Advanced Forward and Attack.
- Right CAM: Shadow Striker. My right-sided CAM scores a lot of goals for me.
- Left CAM: Playmaker and Balance. Playmaker and buildup is also good if you want to try that as well.
- Both CDMs: Deep Line Playmaker and Defend. Buildup is good though if you want to try that out, like if you want to try one of them on build up on both of them on buildup holding as well is also something that is very, very, very good. I just think deepline playmaker though is better than holding in my humble opinion. And it doesn't matter if you don't have the pluses or the plus+es there, that does not really matter.
- Left Back and Right Back: Full Back and Defend. Because of the 4-2-1-3 meta, we can't play with an overlapping wing back or an attacking wing back on this game because we will just get absolutely torn to shreds on the counterattack.
- Both Center Backs: Defender and Defend.
- Goalkeeper: Sweeper Keeper and Balance.
You'll see in-game that it plays very, very, very attack-minded. When you get the ball in counterattacking situations, you'll be shocked at how many goals you will score.