3-5-2. Attacking and posession play

If you find this guide helpful, feel free to give me a follow on Twitter (@Moff91) or send a friend request on steam. Having tried out a couple of guides on here for an effective "Three at the back" formation, I've decided to throw in some tactical tweaks and wish to share my success. With this formation, I have made Wigan Athletic the most dominant team on the planet. Did not plan to upload as a tactic but have done so after a few requests. Workshop link: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=229676653

Formation

This guide will hopefully give you some insight into setting up your own 3-5-2 formation. I do not recommend copying this tactic down to a tee, as I spent many seasons building a squad of players which would complement my playing style. So although I encourage you to use this as inspiration for your own tactics, I would recommend some nuances. If you wish to get stuck in with a new save and try the tactic out right away, I recommend playing as Juventus, as they are probably the best equipped team to play in this style.

In the tactics window, the game considers this to be a 5-3-2. The reality is far from this however, as the wing backs are in more advanced positions than the central midfielders for the vast majority of the game. This provides some much needed width when on the ball to maintain a fluid, passing system, as well as offering support to the strikers. This does mean however that you can be left open to a counter-attack, but I will address this later.

As important as getting the wing backs right is, the most crucial element to the tactic is getting the right balance in midfield. I strongly recommend that you stick with the system of three central midfielders and also strongly recommend having a playmaker and box-to-box midfielder either side of a ball-winning midfielder. Your central midfield is the difference between this tactic being a success and failure, so make sure you get it right. I won't baby step you through picking the correct players, just use the "highlight key attributes" feature on player attributes if you are unsure on the best players for each role.


The Forward roles are less important I would say but as common sense would tell you, when you play with 2 up-front, make sure you have one supporting role and one attacking role. This helps to bridge the gap between Midfield and Attack more effectively and will result in a better passing game. In the attached picture, you can see my main attacking combination of a Supporting Complete Forward and an Attacking Advanced Forward. I've found this to be the most effective combination (given the players at my disposal) but I do like to bring out the traditional "little and large" combination of Target Man and Poacher, since I have a young, 6 foot 6 Forward coming through the ranks. I've found Deep Lying Forwards to be useful too but I prefer the Complete Forward, as he tends to get more involved in creating chances, rather than pottering around midfield.

Squad

As mentioned in the previous section, I have spent many seasons building the perfect squad for this tactic to work. It has involved extensive scouting and it is by no means an easy road to success. One simple point I feel the need to bring up which nobody else seems to is the teamwork attribute. If you want to play a controlled, passing game then a minimum teamwork attribute of 15 should be mandatory. You could have the most gifted players in the world at your disposal, but if they don't buy into your philosophy, they will struggle to perform.

So let me show you what I mean by selecting the correct players. Allow me to introduce you to my Right Wing Back:
(Before I go on, yes he was born in 2006, I shall save you the maths, i'm in the 2025/26 season)

Don't get me wrong, he is a fantastic player and at only 19 years of age, he will only get better but this is what I am trying to elaborate on. There are plenty of Wing Backs out there right now on my save with better crossing, passing, pace, dribbling etc but they are selfish players or have a low teamwork attribute. I cannot stress how important it is to have a squad that wants to work for each other in a system like this.

As for squad personality, I have opted to go for determined players over professionals. I'm still not entirely sure how much of an impact this has on the pitch so I will leave the science behind this to someone more in the know about it. All I will say is it works for me so I am sticking with it!

So that wraps up the squad section. No major breakthroughs or groundbreaking strategy, just a common sense approach on how to shape your squad if you want to dominate the ball.

Advanced Tactics

Warning, this section involves some very crudely drawn arrows on paint. I will also be diving deeper into the kind of players you should be looking for and getting down to the nitty gritty stuff. Not for the faint of heart but if you've come this far...

First, we'll get the straightforward stuff out the way. If you want to control the game in a positive way, apply common sense and set out with the "Control" mentality and issue a team instruction to retain posession. These two combined lead to an attacking passing game. My driving force in attack however, comes in the form of my Wing Backs.

The first thing I did upon their arrival at the club was get them to "Go forward whenever possible" and this does exactly what it says on the tin and they charge forward when the opportunity presents itself. However, this alone is not enough and I try to encourage my midfield to utilise these options by enabling the "Look for Overlap" instruction but if you really want to hammer the point of getting the ball outwide home, then instruct your team to "Play Wider" also, which can be very useful with an effective Target Man. (Note, your players will need high Stamina and Natural Fitness to play like this for 90 minutes.) Now it's time for those arrows I warned you about.
(Red Arrows represent movement and Black Arrows represent passes)

I shall explain to help make sense of this. Generally, this is the core of 80% of chances created with my tactic. Much more passing takes place to draw players out of positions but this is a simplified diagram, illustrating how the tactic works. Either the "BBM" or "BWM" drops back into a Defensive Midfield role when playing out from the back. This in turn, creates more space for the playmaker to work his magic.

This is when the supporting forward becomes the lynch pin in the attack and creates what's known as a passing triangle. A quick give and go from the wing back to the playmaker gets the move going and the pass between the playmaker and outlet buys time for the wing back to make his move in behind the opposition full back and into a dangerous crossing position.

When it comes down to individual player assignments, you don't really want to be going overboard. Try to only use player assignments if you have a player struggling with an aspect of his game. For instance, I like to give an assignment to me Complete Forward to "Roam more" (Free Role) which leads to him playing off the shoulder of multiple players and linking up play, regardless of where the ball is. This is just an example, feel free to add as many roles as you wish but I do recommend exercising caution.

I find my team's movement overall to be quite pleasing, so I leave the fluidity on balanced, don't fix something that isn't broken, right? But if you are having problems with link up play or not creating enough chances, try increasing the fluidity.

This system does have its drawbacks however. As you would expect with a 3-man defence, you can be left wide open to counter-attacking football against fast teams. To help combat this, I like to utilise the BWM in a tight marking role but it is worth noting that this requires high physical attributes, otherwise he will be left for dead. It is down to you to identify whether or not the opposition will cause you problems and there are two easy fixes. Either you isntruct your wing backs to be more conservative, or you can keep "risky passes" out of the game plan and play a total posession game. I personally prefer the latter but that's just me.

Well this concludes my 3-5-2 attacking posession guide. I hope you have found it useful and if you have any further questions or queries, feel free to get in touch. I'm happy to put something back into the game that is slowly consuming my life!

[Moff]

I don't set it up that way Daniel. My 3-1-3-2-1 is:
3DC, 1DM, 3CM, AML/AMR, ST.
Click HERE [i.imgur.com] for photo of tactic
I've set individual player instructions for the wingers to "roam more", which results with them tracking back more than they normally would when not in posession. Still in the early stages with this formation but will release a full tactic & guide on steam for FM15

[76561198002711767]

any pics of this 3-1-3-2-1 formation? 3 DC's, 1 DM, ML MC MR, 2 AMC and CF?

[Spelunker]

P2: I normaly like at least one midfielder who defends but the way this formation works and due to the quality of my players, I don't need it, in fact the RGA is a big part of ensuring the opposition don't have time to organise an attack. My GK often doesn't have to make any saves. The main danger is from set pieces. In 10 competitive games this season I've scored 40 and conceeded two. My original idea was that it would be easy to change to an anchorman if I wanted to boslster the defense but so far have never needed to.

I'm not sure if this would work so well in the lower leagues or with lesser players though. I think you need the right player (and system) to make the RGA work. I suspect the HB would be the better option in many formations especially if your DM has more average passing skills.

[Spelunker]

P1: Tried the HB in my 31312 formation and he does a good job. Compared to the RGA he sits a bit deeper when we have the ball and plays simpler, safer passes much as you'd expect. However the RGA makes better use of the passing skills of the players I've got (think Carrick or a Pirlo who can also defend) and works better for this particular formation where I'm using a swarm attack. He sweeps up the ball and quickly launches fresh attacks so that the opposition rarely have the opportunity to attack me.

When I've tried more defensive roles in the DM position it actually gives the oppostion more time to break out an organise an attack. N.B. I usually use a normal or low tempo with this formation rather than trying to dominate possession.

[Moff]

Having tested the RGA, my opinion of the position has gone up for sure. With that said, I just don't think it operates to its full potential in my system. I rely heavily on the DM to cover the defensive line and as you'd expect when switching to RGA from Anchorman, that cover was significantly reduced.

I can see how he was trying to play and can 100% understand why you like what he does, but given my playmaking options in more advanced areas of the field, playing a RGA just seems a bit too attacking when trying to dictate the game. However, I am certainly going to try an incorporate a tactic which would complement the RGA on FM15!

[Moff]

Funny you should mention it, I started up a new save 2 weeks ago with Auxerre and I've been using a 3-1-3-2-1 and it seems to be working! The obvious problem being I seem to be vulnerable to opposition wingers but given a bit more tinkering, I think it could work out well. I currently utilise my DM as an Anchorman, as it pushes the RCB/LCB a bit wider when he slots into the defense, which is my current solution to stopping the wingers. Will see if I've got any players able to play RGA and give it a shot, have a French Cup game coming up in around a month

[Spelunker]

They're pretty physical too (as I said they're complete players except average finishing) so should be o.k. They're just back from the Euros and need a rest but will try them shortly.
N.B. Just to give you an idea of the 31312 with the RGA I just won 8-0 away (o.k only a friendly against a Jap side) but they didn't manage a single shot and half my players were backups or youth players. The RGA is very important as he helps stop the opposition breaking out of their half (actually they don't get too far from their penalty box that often). I've had similar results in competitive La Liga games (I play St Andreu). Possession tends to be only 50/50 but theirs is nearly all in their own box and mine is attacking.

[Moff]

[2/2] It's a very physical and demanding player role so as long as the player's mental and physical attirbutes are generally high, he should put in a good shift for you but from what you're describing it sounds like you prefer your central midfield to all be very technical players, whereas I opt for one technically gifted player surrounded by big physical players to offer him protection and do his running for him, so would be interesting to see it incorporated in a different system and to see if it works to similar effect!

[Moff]

[1/2] The HB is sort of like a David Luiz style of player. Primarily defensive but goes on marauding runs to support the attack and will also work hard to retain the ball for you, so as you say, a deeper BBM. With all the running around comes it's draw backs as mentioned before, so you'll need someone who will slot in deep when they charge forward. The best thing about this player is that he won't be picked up for marking and closing down assignments, due to his defensive responsibilities, making him a very good supporting option for a fluid passing system.

(Damn this character limit)

[Spelunker]

Thanks. The HB desription is an aggressive SW/DM but it sounds more like a deeper BBM from what your saying. The players I've got for this position are pretty complete (mostly 15+ in the important stats) incluging high passing, technique and creativity stats (as well as the usual DM ones) which is why they work well. Not sure if the HB would make the most of this. But I'm in preseason so a good chance to try. Cheers for the ideas.