Amazing what a fresh focus and different approach can make, off the back of a very poor finish to last season, season 6 sees the Trees sat 3rd in the league after 6 games, with the leagues best scoring record.
Pre-season I decided if we was to make progress I needed to ditch my tried and tested usual footy gaming formation of 4-4-2, and try something new, I wanted more of an attacking threat without having to rely on two CF’s, but also to tighten up the midfield and put more bodies in there, so opted for the real-world popular 4-2-3-1 or could even call it an attacking 4-5-1.
My current starting eleven and formation is shown below
As you can see, two holding midfielders give us some protection in front of the back four, but a forward three of a LWF, RWF and AMF behind the main CF give us plenty of attacking options.
I took a fair bit of time going through the detailed team tactics options and setting up instructions for this main formation, with the CMF’s set to hold centre, Doukoré to stay back when attacking giving Grujic license to get forward, and AMF Phil Foiden has a free roaming role behind the forward.
My LB & RB overlap with their runs and support the wingers, who drop back and fill in when needed, so far its working a treat, I have so many more attacking options, whilst also maintaining good shape when defending.
I have a more defensive minded version of this formation set to my ‘Defensive’ quick tactic, which keeps the same shape but restricts forward runs and is more compact, and a more attacking one which pushes players forward and gets numbers in the box set to ‘Attacking’, whilst ‘Ultra Defensive’ employs a tight 5-4-1, and ‘Ultra Attacking’ goes gun-ho with a 3-4-3 setup, all switchable on the fly mid-game.
Pre-season also saw me sign 2 new players, a backup CB in the form of Bruno Martins Indi, rated 77 at 31 years old, and 86 rated Emmanuel Dennis, who I prized away from West Ham with a lucrative contract offer.
Dennis was my number one transfer priority after he ripped us to pieces last season for the Hammers, I eventually signed him for £46 million, and his pace and power is a great outlet to have, as demonstrated in the clip below where I play a chipped ball from midfield over the top for him to run on to.
Phil Foden, signed from Man City in January last season has cemented his place in the starting 11 this season, and is revelling in the AMF role.
He’s becoming a master at picking the ball up on the edge of the area and hitting snapshots, his average performance rating this season so far is 9.3
His performances have been so good that Man Utd have been sniffing around, I politely declined of course, but could have made a £17mil profit inside 6 months.
Club Captain Dekouré, who plays that traditional DMF role, has been training for positional awareness and long shots and its paying off superbly, in any footy game it’s almost a given that a good DMF worth his salt should possess a good long shot, it’s a staple of the game, so I’m pleased that Decouré is filling that role for me here in FIFA,
A couple of goals showing Decouré pulling it out of the bag.
I ended my last session, last night, with a Carabao Cup match against my bogey team Spurs, who always batter me, I went 1-0 up on the stroke of half time after a Spurs defensive error let Dennis in to nod in a cross at the near post, Abe (?!) then equalised for them midway through second half, before Kane bagged his traditional goal to give them a 2-1 lead.
Foden then levelled it before Doukoré let rip from 25 yards to win the game 3-2 (his first goal in the clip above), to finally beat Spurs, and send us through to the next round.
All in all a great start to season 6, I’m just wary of the mid-season form ebb/flow that the game likes to suddenly enforce.
FIFAFX.com 
Paul – It is a good formation for its flexibility and is one of my often used one’s. I tend mainly to go with either 4231, 442 or 4141 depending on the opponents as I pretty much remember how each team plays now.
Well with half of the season gone I am 6 points clear at the top, thanks to winning 6 games on the trot and more importantly a 2-1 win against 2nd place Chelsea away from home. I also play Chelsea at home at the end of January. Getting closer.
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Good stuff Darryl.
I’ve played a couple more games since this post, including one quick match last night, away to Chelsea at the bridge, went 1-0 down due to a flukey goal early on, then came back to trounce them 3-1, they were booed off at the final whistle.
Am second, or joint top, with City, on points but they have a marginally better GD.
I’m only 8 games in so still a way to go, but really want european football next season,and a decent cup run.
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Paul – Just catching up with a couple of posts. Some great goals, especially the volley from the Monday. My long rangers have dried up a bit but I’ve just signed a young DMF who’ll be receiving the long shot training. It appears you’ve turned the corner in the league but there’s definitely an ebb and flow coded in to Career Mode so who knows.
It’s a relief to see you keeping your job with a 50 approval rating I have to say. Also, good advice on tactics. I may give this one a go, my 442 wide counter attack was good for poor quality players but now I’m able to afford some players with >70 pass stats I could probably dictate the game more.
Darryl – From a couple of posts ago you asked about difficulty. I’m currently on World Class with semi assist passing. I’m terrible at passing so this gives plenty of turnover opportunities with the sliders as they are. Most of my games are low scoring affairs which is exactly how I like it. Currently 2nd in League One after 31 matches but form is poor so I predict it’ll be Play-offs this season. My aim before next season is to sign a strong CF to replace the loanee from Stoke. I’m a bit gutted I didn’t sign him rather than loan because his value has gone from £950k to £1.5m since the beginning of the season. Good luck with the run-in, how’s the Champions League going?
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Cook – sounds like you’re having a good experience so far.
Tactics play such a huge part in FIFA, I was always under the ‘meh’ opinion that it didn’t really matter about formation, if you played well enough you could just play round any formation, but that isn’t true.
Teams do adapt to your play style and you need to play a system which benefits the players you have and their styles.
I also play with semi assisted passing, and crossing, and have my own modified version of the OIS sliders in use which also bumps up the pass error a tad for both player and COM, as well as first touch control, this leads to more turnovers and more midfield battles and really enhances the game, with players individual strength, agility, and passing stats coming into play more.
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I have to say I love the look of FIFA19’s distance shooting. The flight of the ball with backlift – BOOM.
You’re definitely in the phase now where you should think about challenging for silverware, not simply hanging on and consolidating. In fact, a league title challenge in season 7 should be on the cards. That 15 season countdown is ticking.
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Absolutely NG, I’ve had a nice little storyline-centric start with the 1st season promotion, then relegation, then bouncing back with the Championship title, to cement my place in the premier league.
This will be my 3rd season in the prem, so am definitely looking to win something this year, even the Carabao cup will do, but a league title, FA Cup, and European qualification treble would be nice 😉
And yes, as an aficionado if long range shots, you’d enjoy FIFA’s shooting.
EA did need the regularity of them in a patch a while ago, and it was probably needed, but they are still very much possible, as you can see from the clips.
You just have to be in the right situation with the right player. There is a definite Klopp style ‘BOOM!’ Feeling when you hit one.
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Paul – First touch error is very good on FIFA., seeing a driven pass just bounce off a shin is wonderful. I conceded yesterday from a cross field lofted pass from my FB to the CB and it bounced off his chest straight to the CF who went through 1-on-1 and scored. it was my own fault for taking a risky pass of course and I couldn’t be happier about it. Conversely my quick CF managed to completely take 2 CBs out by mis-controlling it over their heads and running through to score. These little moments are what make FIFA worth playing this year.
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I agree Cook. EA added extra animations in one of the recent patches too so seeing new little things all the time keeps it fresh.
The core EA gameplay with every value at its default setting still plays very well, but the extra few little tweaks such as defensive line height and width, marking, fullback positioning, pass error and first touch really do open the game up to another level.
I was playing Spurs the other night who always batter me, as detailed in the post we ended up winning 3-2 with a late goal, but something I didn’t mention was that in the 93rd minute, Eriksen swang an early cross in from the wing, which must have taken my Cb by surprise as he lifted a leg up to clear it, and it scuffed off the top of his knee and looped over his head to Abe (some CF Spurs have signed) who was waiting on the penalty spot, unmarked, 12 yards out.
I instantly thought it was a goal and swore out loud, but the early cross and then the deflected touch off my CB must have surprised the CF too, as he kind of half-lunged-half hesitated his first time shot and ended up doing nothing of conviction and the ball just bounced past him for a goal kick.
On default settings, he would have first time slammed that into the net and got a draw.
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Paul- Been busy with work and only just caught up with this post and PES Chronicles, but I just wanted to say I look forward to your posts, even if I’m not as frequent a commenter as soon. I assumed you had other demands on your time over the last month as the Easter eggs have dried up (or I’ve got bad at spotting them), and they’re the extra effort on top of that required to get the posts out in the first place.
Anyway, hope you do decide to carry on as I enjoy what you do.
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I’ve been detached from real life football (if it exists) this year due to newcastle’s descent into long term misery but was stunned when I heard your equivalent had been sacked today. I had this idea that forest were doing well, not far behind Leeds et al. Clearly someone read the blog and thought they should be doing better…Do any of you find you develop a soft spot for any team irl after being them in-game? In football manager it absolutely happened for me.
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I’ve always looked out for Fleetwood Town’s results since having an epic time with them a few years ago. Cod Army!!
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Thanks Chris99. Appreciate that mate. It’s not about needing the attention it anything, I just don’t want to be putting out stuff if it’s not what people like to read and comment on.
I will start including more of the Easter eggs and other bits, as you say over the Xmas period time was just sparse.
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Turf – I saw forest had let Krankor go yesterday. I think Forest still have this opinion that they are a big club and just having a bad spell, whereas they haven’t been a force in English football for decades.
I do find myself looking out for their results though and comparing it to my FIFA Journey.
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Well it’s mine to lose now. With 15 games left I am now 9 points clear but things are getting tough now with a fixture backlog. Last thing I need next is a fourth round replay in the FA Cup.
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Back on the horse (by which I mean FIFA not cocaine)
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Sadly I see Newcastle going the way of forest, sheff wed et al. People might say ‘but forest don’t get 50,000’ but I remember a time when Newcastle struggled to get 20,000. It could easily happen again.
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Doesn’t matter how many fans you attract Turf. There’s fuck all else to do in Newcastle other than get pissed or go to the football so that’s why they get a large crowd.
Fans or not, if you don’t win, you don’t stay up. Newcastle could easily go down.
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I finished off my 2nd season yesterday. I was 2nd for most of the season but some poor form near the end led to a 4th place finish and the play-offs. The semi final was won easily, 4-1 on aggregate against Ipswich. In the final against Bolton i went ahead with a glorious diving header own goal with my first attack, picture Des Walker in the FA Cup final for Forest against Spurs. I held on for 80 mins before they managed an equaliser in the 85th minute. Extra time and penalties looked likely but a great swivel volley from the edge of the box in the 115th minute for the win and promotion. Celebratory scenes at the end when an unexpectedly massive trophy was presented to the winning team.
Onto the Championship. After back to back promotions my team doesn’t feel good enough so some work to do in the transfer market, the board have given me £6m to spend and I just sold a youth team player for £4m so there’s an opportunity to strengthen.
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Cook – sounds like a lively finish!! Bum twitching moments in that extra time I bet.
Who are you playing as again? I forget?
£m for a youth player in the lower divisions in a nice little return, should help you strengthen.
Congrats on the B2B promotions.
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Paul – Thanks. I adopted your 4231 tactic for the final third of the season and it worked much better than my 442 so you had a part to play in the promotion. Ditching the old fashioned 442 meant my youth team CF was surplus to requirements. His good overall rating didn’t lead to goals so not a difficult decision in the end.
I played a couple of the pre-season tournament matches and it was noticeably more difficult to I anticipate a tough season ahead.
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That’s good Cook – I always favoured the 4-4-2 diamond shape, but as most teams play a variation of the 4-2-3-1 I was being outnumbered in midfield, the 2 holding Midfielders that the 4-2-3-1 gives you is much more stable.
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