Ezerhu's Trequartista 4-3-1-2

A little advice before reading on, this is not a god level tactic, so I cannot guarantee instant results /success.

This tactic is based on the key player role, the trequartista, that some Italian / other teams use. I will go into much further detail covering the tactic.

The Trequartista

The trequartista role is an interesting role, my favorite league to watch is the Serie A, as I'm quite young I never got watch great trequartista like Roberto Baggio (through YouTube) however seeing Del Piero and Francesco Totti play was a joy to watch.

Here is an brief explanation of what an trequartista is:

The not-so-deep-lying playmaker. The trequartista (“playmaker” in Italian) does largely the same job as the regista, only further up the pitch. They’ll sit just behind the striker/s, and their focus will be on short passing rather than the deep-lying playmaker’s long range contributions.

The perfect trequartista will be able to find space in between the opponent’s midfield and defensive lines, and exploit this space to pick killer passes forward. They aren’t as burdened with goalscoring responsibility as the second striker or attacking midfielder (although their accuracy and technique usually results in some great goals), and typically don’t have to have the same speed or workrate. Their passing and skill with the ball usually does all the talking.

Hopefully you guys can see the benefits of the role and how I used it.

I don't have to tell you the process of making a tactic in Football Manager 2015 or in general, tactis cannot be made over night, this tactic was made with a few games to go in my first Inter save, it took the whole preseason and first few games of the second season to get things flowing, there has been minor changes here and there, for now it's at good working state.

Feedback is always appreciated so feel free to let me know your thoughts.

4-3-1-2 - Analysis

First thought when looking at this tactic is the positioning of only on winger/inside forward and positioning of the Trequartista. The team philosophy is to be aggressive when pressing, trying to win the ball to quickly find three key players in the team the inside forward, advance play maker and of course the Trequartista.

Trequartista
His position is to be as close to the main striker as possible, whilst him being position like this is to confuse the centre back and fullback close to him, whilst trying to stretch the opposition as much as possible.



Inside forward
Main role is to make runs close to the centre, drawing out defenders, and offers another attacking outlet on the counter attack.

Examples: Reus, Gabbiadini, Insigne

Advance playmaker
Position at the right side of the midfield three, the reason for this is for him to be much closer to advancing runs of wingback, and to pick out the Trequartista.

Examples: Kovavic, Thiago, Oscar

Player Roles

Goalkeeper: Sweeper Keeper / Support
Distribute to flanks
Left fullback Defender: fullback/ support
stay wider, cross more often
left Central Defender: Ball Playing Defender / Defend
Pass it shorter
right Central Defender: Defend
Pass it shorter
right wingback: Wing back / Support

left Central Midfielder: Ball Winning Midfielder / defend

Central Central Midfielder: Central midfielder / Support
pass it shorter, Fewer riskier passes
right central midfielder: Attacking playmaker / Support

left Winger: inside Forward / Attack
Roam from position, sit narrower, More Direct passes
Central Striker: Complete Forward / Attack

Right Central Striker: Trequartista / Attack

Instructions

Team Mentality: Control
Team Shape: Structured
Team Instructions:

• Retain possession
• Shorter passing
• work ball into box
• Look for Overlap
• clear ball to flank
• whipped crosses
• sit narrower
• close down much more
• stay on feet
• higher tempo
• prevent gk distribution

Opponent Instructions:
leave to assistant

Role Breakdown : The Trequartista

This role will be the main creative outlet of your team, his movement and vision is key to creating chances and movement, the main aim is for Trequartista to find space between holes in the opponents defence and midfield. He doesn’t have to be lighting fast but should have good amount of agility to turn from defenders.

Current examples: Berardi, Jovetic, Rossi, Tevez

General notes and conclusion

You will need have good players who can player the required roles to get the best out of this tactic.

For Home and Away use your judgement as a manager to assess the situation, the AI is smart and may make specific plans against the tactic. I am very cautious so I use both control mentality home or away.

If I am winning before halftime I tend to to switch the cm(support) to cm(defend) to have more caution.

Other tips is to change the tempo to lower, switch to contain mentality, and waste time, if desperately trying to hold on to a win.

But like I said above watch the game, most FM players know this by now that not all games are the same and simple changes during a match can avoid defeats or turn draws to a win.

If anyone can give some ideas for set pieces that would be great as I don't have a stronghold on the setup yet.

This tactic is no where near finish and it's only been used early in my second season and I am still going through and testing it, if you have any ideas please give feedback.