Alright lads, the 95 depth has been absolutely rampant in FC25 these past few weeks, and I've had a guts full of it. So, we built a counter to it. Let's get into it!
Tactics Breakdown
Diving in with the tactics, remember at the end of the video we'll have the clips as well as some pros and cons of the tactic.
Build Up Play
We're using Short Passing for the build-up style. The main reason for this is because when you're under heavy pressure, especially from the 4213, you want your players to come short and show for the ball, not run away. You need those passing options available to break out of that 95 press.
Defensive Setup
We're using 70 Depth in this formation. None of that 95 depth here! 70 isn't shallow by any means, but I find with this depth you have a bit more control over your players on the pitch, and they don't overcommit as much.
Player Instructions
- Goalkeeper: Sweeper Keeper. Balanced. Fairly standard. Use whatever your goalkeeper's got. If he's got Goalkeeper Plus or Plus+, use that.
- Center Backs: Stay Back While Attacking. Don't touch them, leave them alone! We'll go into the different player profiles you need in each position during the gameplay section.
- Fullbacks: Stay Back While Attacking. As you can see from the activity map, they kind of tuck in. We want them there mainly because we don't want to be caught on the counterattack. Fullback Balance is good, don't get me wrong, I really like Fullback Balance, but as you can see, they step up a little bit further. And because we've got it on short passing, we don't really need the left back and right back to step up to be able to make passes to the wingers. They're more than comfortable sitting in these deep areas and able to find Triori and Yamal out wide just because those two players are coming short for you.
- CDMs: Both on Deep Line Playmaker in Build Up. They do defend mainly, which is good. They still make their way up the pitch, which is important because our CAM is on Shadow Striker.
- CAM: Shadow Striker. He's going to make his way up the pitch and be pretty much next to Suarez the entire game. At times, he'll be deeper than your striker, which you'd expect from the CAM, because his starting position is deeper. I recommend you still have good passing on this position. You don't want someone that's just an out-and-out striker. Someone like a Neymar, like a Bomb Matty, like this Ansu Fati that I've done, or like a CO, you know, the sorts of players, Ronaldinho, players that can do a bit of everything are brilliant in front of goal because you need them to be brilliant in front of goal, but someone that can actually pass as well. I recommend having as many passing play styles as you can, Tiki Tacker and Incisive being the most important.
- Left Mid & Right Mid: These are on different instructions.
- Left Mid: Inside Forward. Yamal comes on inside forwards, and as you can see, he will be pretty much next to our CAM striker when we're in the attacking third, which is great. You've got that extra body there and again, another passing option.
- Right Mid: Winger. If you have this guy on inside forward, which you would see a lot of people run both left mid and right mid on inside forward, which is still very good, but the 4213 in particular is very strong through the middle, so you can find that the inside forward sometimes runs into a bit of trouble with the CDMs because he's constantly cutting inside, whereas on winger, you're going to be one-on-one with their fullback every single time because the CDM can't get out to you, and if they drag their CDM out, you're going to have these, uh, you're going to have these CDM, our CDMs attack in that area as well, so they're going to create space for you. So the reason why you don't wing it is essentially the spread play for us, and you get a lot of one-on-ones, you'll get to the byline a lot with this, you'll have easy cutback opportunities. I definitely recommend you dabble in the winger, and as you've probably seen, well, in a few minutes from the clips, Adama always scores plenty of goals, so don't think he won't get goals with this player if they're on winger, they do get involved nice and there, as you can see again from the activity map, they are better defensively, they are a bit deeper than if you were to use inside forward, they're le, they come a slightly bit deeper, so when you've got those wingers overlapping, it does help with the support.
- Striker: Target Forward and Attack. You can use whoever you want. I like the Target Forward because the Shadow Striker is kind of occupying the space in behind the striker. If you have both on advanced forwards, you can see they got the same, on advanced forward, they've got the same heat map pretty well, they have got an identical heat map, which they can get in each other's way. So you either want to use Target Forward, and that means they're going to put their body into the bank defender, show for passes, and look to lay off, which is a really nice combo, or if you've got Poacher Plus+, then use Poacher, and then you can use, I wouldn't recommend using Support because again, like the advanced forward, they'll just get in each other's way, just have it on attack, but for me, I prefer Target Forward just because the striker will do a bit more in terms of the buildup for us, is with, especially with short passing, that's exactly what we're looking to do.
Gameplay Analysis
Diving in with the clips, we played a whole Rivals run to Elite with this. Testing these formations can be a challenge at times, especially when you're trying things you've not really tried before in the highest divisions, you can get caught out sometimes.
Formation Strengths
The 4231 is outrageously strong. Super, super strong. Defensively, you're sound. You've got all the benefits of a 4213, like what you want to see, two CDMs, which is another big bonus for you, I think having the CDMs this year, at least one is so, so vital. The 4411, you can just about get away with, but I still find if you put bypass the midfield on someone that's not using CDMs, the center mids do nothing, so you're literally just on their backline, so it's so easy to pick them apart, but with a CDM, everything's a bit more tight, bit harder. I would say this formation for me personally is better than the 4213, mainly because I like to play proper football, and you've got all the benefits of that formation in terms of the meta with the two CDMs and that almost like that block of six when you're defending, but then you've got the left mid and right mid, which in my opinion are better than wingers because the wingers in the 4213 do not defend at all, which helps us in the sense that when we turn over the ball from someone using a 4213, the left mid and the right mid will be open every single time. It is absolutely ridiculous. And a lot of people just copy and paste tactics, so a lot of times, you know, their CDMs will be along like something like holding or deep line playmaker, they're not really going to get out wide, especially with this, the way we've got our CDM step up, our CDM step up and force their CDMs to engage us, uh, which means your left min right will be free pretty much every single time if they're using that sweaty 4213. I do like the fact that the shadow striker almost offers us as like a two striker set, so in a way, the formation kind of can play, you can compare it to like a four triple two, um, I just prefer the roles you get on left mid, right mid versus the CAM, but we have been looking at the 4 triple 2 while building this at the same time, so that video is going to follow shortly after, but what I will say, Target Forward, lads, give it a go, it is really, really quite impressive how it works. If you enjoy buildup, which if you're watching this video, you're probably looking to build up, um, then I think it's quite underrated, especially when you've got someone that can pass like a Suarez. If you've got a striker that has a like a whole host of, um, passing play styles, you're really, really going to benefit from Target Forward. Again, I think the misconception with Target Forward is that it always has to be some sort of, you know, like DJ Drogba, where they can, you know, win the header or like hold it up really strong, whereas Suarez can hold it up, he's very strong, but he's not like a gifted as such, so I think that's why people stay away with it because they think Target, they think they're going to have to just play the aerial game, but it's not like that, you can't play the aerial game with this, and you can use it to do those aerial knockdowns, which you're seeing at the pro level at the minute, but for the most part, is a great, it is a great, great role, lads.
Player Profiles
- Center Backs: Make sure they're lengthy because the catcher speed is important, especially when you're playing these fast counterattacking formations. Again, the whole back line, I think you need to have every single defensive play style. I've got every single defensive play style minus, uh, slight tackle on both Inigo Martinez and Jordi Alba, which is, to be honest, is fine. If you're going to lose one defensive play style, then slight tackle is the one you want.
- CDMs: You want one that is a bit more of an enforcer, like a Yaya, like a Hullet. Some of you probably got that Hullet, congrats, that's an incredible card, perfect for this role. Yeah, you want one of that is a bit more heavy, as in not heavy, but like bit more of an enforcer, can move people off the ball, and then you got someone a bit more creative, like a Pedri, but you need both of them to be able to stick a tackle in, and having them being able to shoot is quite important as well because they are going to get opportunities to, uh,
- Left Mid & Right Mid: Again, you want bags and bags and bags of pace. Again, in every position, passing play styles are super important, and I think I have three passing play styles on every single one of my CDMs as well as the left mid, right mid, CAM, and striker. Well, the striker doesn't have any passing play styles, but he's just there to bang the ball away essentially, but everyone behind him pretty much has passing play styles. Pace is super important, also being able to stick away the ball is again super important just because you are going to get opportunities to score with your left mid and right mid, they're not just there to create, they are going to be there to score.
- CAM: You want to be able to almost play like a striker, so having pace in this position. Normally, I would say the center CAM in these positions when you're using like a playmaker isn't too important because you can kind of just kind of work your way up the pitch, but with this, they are playing like a second striker, so you need them to have that good get in behind play, pace again, cuz they go up and come back a touch. Having relentless in this position is really nice.
- Striker: If you've done the Strike Force Evo, you probably got someone like a Suarez, maybe an R9 if you're loaded. You want to have those good shooting play styles, low driven, busted good, uh, finesse shot plus, lads, obviously, you know, is absolutely ridiculous. Um, having any version of those or both is going to help you out loads.
That is the custom tactic, lads. Leave it in the comments if you use it. I'll catch you in another one!