People always ask how successful a tactic is in Football Manager 2014, well why not see for yourself? I'm actually using this tactic in a YouTube playthrough series.
This video should explain the tactic in detail
We will be using a flat back 4 with 2 full backs, a ball playing centre back and a limited defender. In midfield we've got 2 wingers, a deep-lying playmaker and a ball winning mifielder. Finally upfront we've gone with a deep-lying forward and an advanced forward. That forms the basis of a pretty standard 4-4-2 formation with a few tweaks here and there. I'm sure the central midfield roles will cause some debate based on players such as Paul Scholes and Roy Keane but I've found the BWM and DLP pairing to be particularly successful.
Of course the wingers are hugely important in this formation but also the two central midfielders. You'll come up against a lot of 3 man midfields so this tactic simply won't work unless you've got sufficient quality in the middle of the field.
The way modern football has changed means that you won't find a huge number of players who are natural at ML or MR. You've got a couple of options. Either retrain AML's and AMR's or look for wingbacks and attacking full backs that can fill that role. It all depends what you've got available to you but it's one of the challenges to get the best out of the tactic.
The tactic is heavily based on pairs, the CB's the CM's and the ST's. All are set up to compliment each other perfectly. This mean you need to make sure you've got players who can perform well in the preset roles for this tactic.
In the video linked above I go into more detail but the tactical philosophy for this tactic is attacking and the download provided has full team and player instructions. If you've got any questions then please let me know.
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Discussion: The Alex Ferguson 4-4-2 Tactic
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