On occasion I play a 4-3-2-1 (aka Christmas Tree) formation so that I can play the two AMCs, and it's actually pretty effective. My playing style is fluid, short passing, attacking football as well, so it sounds like this formation should work for you too.
When attacking, the width comes from two attacking wing backs, so to make it a bit more solid I have the central one of the three CMs in a defensive role with defensive instructions, which also allows the CMs on either side to get forward and support a bit more. In effect it's a 2-1-4-2-1 when in possession (if that makes any sense to anyone without them having to think about it I'll be impressed!), so it's got a lot of width and a lot of attacking potency. It's actually pretty good defensively too, because it's so solid when they team in the 4-3-2-1 positions while defending.
In terms of passing, I change the philosophy quite a bit depending on the situation. Against inferior teams I play slow tempo with short passes, but against similar teams I often play a more mixed strategy with high tempo and direct passing set in the team instructions but with very short passing set in the player instructions. This makes the team play fast, attacking moves with the ball pinging around everywhere, and it's really effective.
As I'm writing this, my Man Utd team is 6-0 up at half time in the Super Cup against Ajax, having just beaten Arsenal 11-2 at home in the league!
The
article here explains my tactics system in more detail, the strategies I'm talking about (that I use the most at the moment) are Control - High and Attack - Pressure.
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