Countering the 4-1-2-3

Much trauma on the official forums yesterday about the "overpowering"
effect of the narrow 4-1-2-3 formation, with teams playing through the
middle running rampant on some servers. There are the usual demands
that this is terrible and the ME needs to be corrected immediately etc
etc.

I think this is an over-reaction. Yes 4-1-2-3 is possibly slightly
favoured by the current ME, but there are two big buts:

Firstly, we are currently all playing in teams with not very good
technical and mental players. Physical stats (which these teams are
built around) are therefore dominating. As we get better teams with
smarter players coming through I think they'll adapt better and the
formation will lose it's impact.

Secondly, it is possible to counter this formation, and I suspect many
aren't getting it quite right. Like any tactic the counter is not
perfect, but I've had some success with it. And since I've benefitted
from community help in countering previously "overpowered" tactics I
thought it only fair to share my thoughts this time...

(I usually play a wide 4-2-3-1 (so with AMR/AMC/AML) but I'm fairly
sure this can work with any "wide" formation ie two players on the
left and two on the right.)

As always when trying to counter something you need to look at it's
strengths and it's weaknesses.

The main strength of this tactics are:
(a) Three central midfielders (1xDM, 2xMCs) means they can dominate
the centre of the park. You can play a wide 4-3-3 to counter this
whilst retaining your own width but I don't think it's strictly
necessary. What is important if you don't though is that you tone down
your midfielders' closing down (at the very least do not use the
Hassle Opponents shout) as a good trio will be able to just pass and
move round your two. The one exception to this might be if you see the
opposition has one player who is weaker on the ball (first touch in
particular) in which case you might want to use a specific OI to see
if you can nab it off them sometimes. Otherwise your aim here is not
to stop them but to hold them up and crucially cut off their passing
lanes. Remember they are going to be looking to pass through the
centre 90%+ of times so if your MCs sit back they can cut out these
passing lanes and leave your opponents stuck going nowhere in the
middle of the park.
(b) Three forwards can overrun your two DCs. Counter this using a
specific marking system. Set your RB to specifically mark their FCL
(tight yes), your LB to specifically mark their FCR (tight yes) and
one of your CBs to specifically mark their FCC (tight yes). Then set
your other DC - preferably the one with better pace and positioning -
to zonal marking, tight no. Although you don't play him in the
position or the role he effectively acts as a sweeper, mopping up when
one of the forwards breaks away from their man marker.

This should tie up the middle nicely but the chances are the
opposition will still look to find at least a little width. In my
experience this will probably come from their full-backs. If so,
counter this by giving your wingers specific marking instructions
against their full backs. However you should set tight marking to no,
when your side gets the ball you don't want your wingers right next to
their full-backs as this will stifle your own attack. Some on the
forums have said they've seen the width provided by the two MC's
breaking out. I've not come across this but logically the best
response would be to set your MC's to man marking so that they'll go
with them.

So that's their strengths hopefully contained for the most part. What
about their weaknesses? Well clearly their big weakness is in the wide
areas, but in my experience just using the 'play wider' shout doesn't
really cut it. Two other methods I've found work better.

One is using a counter strategy and the 'Exploit the flanks' shout.
Basically this works on the idea that if their full-backs join the
attack they have no defensive cover down the wings at all, so your
wingers can get in to these gaps. Using the 'run with ball' shout or
just setting your wingers to run with the ball more will help exploit
this fully.

However if you're not playing a counter strategy I've found 'exploit
the flanks' less useful. I think this is because your attack is longer
in the buildup their full-backs have had time to re-position
themselves before your wingers get on the ball. So if you're not
playing counter using the 'look for overlap' shout is a better bet
here, because by bringing your own full backs in to play you are
doubling up against their full backs, giving you maximum chance of
securing a good cross in. Of course you then need a good headerer to
get on the end of it so a tall FC with good jumping is a big boost here.

And so there you have it. As I say it's not perfect, and I have still
lost to a 4-1-2-3 narrow playing this way. But with this setup I think
you have no more to fear from the 4-1-2-3 than from any other formation.

Hope it proves useful. Let me know in the comments how you get on.