Log in to FM-Britain
Register Now!
For me the German 5-3-2 is based around three principles:
-The Libero
The key figure in the formation. This player not only acts as the net in the cantenaccio style of play, but in the German 5-3-2 he is the instigator of play, looking to allow the midfield to push further up the field, aided by active wing backs, to play sensible passes that ask questions but do not compromise the side's shape.
-Defensive solidarity
Attacking flair is only a product of strong build up play. A methodical process of development, based upon a strict dictation of the tempo of the game. There are three triangles at the back of the pitch DL/DLC, DLC/DRC, DRC/DR, all supported, depending on pressure of attack, by the sweeper to create the triumverate.
-The use of Wingbacks effectively
The formations lack of width exposes itself quite readily. Effective use of fullbacks does not mean simply defending and attacking in the right thirds, it is a composite, pushing wingbacks further up the field when off the ball to pressurise the opposition in their own half.
As it stands, I have begun the process of trying to create an effective 5-3-2, for me this has to begin with learning how the libero works, without him playing effectively you're simply putting players behind the ball and not utilising your formation to its advantage.
To start with the libero is required to be a good defender. They have to be otherwise placing them as the last line of defence is suicide, they're the Cryuff's of the eighteen yard box, whilst they have other uses they need to be excellent defensively. On top of this, however, they need to be good passeers, dribblers, readers of game, extremely fit and possess leadership qualities. Other aspects that wouldn't go unnoticed are flair and influence.
For my attempts I've be using the France National Team and the Algerian National team, mainly because France possess the most natural sweeper in the game, Phillipe Mexes and Algeria are a much weaker team, but who also have a suitable sweeper.
For my first game with France, against the Faroe Islands I merely set him as the default libero player role with a support duty. France won the game comfortably 4-0, however Mexes scored a disappointing 6.9. Here's some screenshot of his performance, passing wise.
It's pretty clear to me, from my initial assessment, that the role of libero as assigned by the game is not doing two things:
1. It isn't involving the libero as further up the pitch as he should be, he is still essentially tasked as part of the defensive line, only not the first port of call so almost left floating, waiting for play to come to him.
2. He isn't being read as an important passer of the ball, his passes, even though team mentality passing is set to short, are of a fairly long distance, rarely speculative and never interchanging. In short he's looking to offload the ball as soon as he gets it.
Following these basic assessments I made some changes to the role, which requires reverting to classic mode, so goodbye touchline shouts.
Firstly, in order to free up the player, I increased his runs from deep further, however keeping his runs with the ball to sometimes. It's important to maintain that balance between defender cum midfielder and not turn him into a winger with a lack of skill who happens to sit at the back of the pitch.
Secondly I placed him as a the playmaker in the team, with a free role, essentially imposing on all players the importance of his role to the team, that because this is a 5-3-2 with a relatively slow tempo, the build up is going to be longer and therefore going to involve more players and work towards the goal As a look, here's how his settings are now:
Our second match was against Romania, which we won 3-0.Mexes performed much better this time, scoring 7.3. But more important was how much more involved with all facets of the game he was:
That's a marked improvement before. Now he's operating in the areas of the pitch one would expect from a libero. If you look at the picture you can see clearly that the majority of his passing is now coming from the defensive midfield role, but not only that the passing is varied and particularly successful. He is moving the ball in the correct manner.Subsequent analysis of his team mates passing doesn't show a negative effect of assigning him a playmaker role, passing from midfielders and fullbacks in the defensive midfield line is going sideways to Mexes, allowing them to move forward when in possession and progress from defence to attack in a very organic manner that allows for a more structured build up play.
Mexes' finest hour so far, although there have been a few pivotal performances, came in a group stage match against Australia:
84 completed passes and some real involvement in the opposition half is a great improvement from where he was playing originally. I'm also pleased that as the game plays the ball is being pushed to him in the centre and he is then pushing it out wide to the fullbacks, creating the desired attacking width.
In the subsequent matches I've moved on to allow the use of the wingbacks to be more natural to how the formation should play. I have to be honest, when one utilises Bakary Sagna and Patrice Evra as wingbacks, I feel it might not accurately represent the tactic, merely because I'd say their ability would allow them to shine regardless of the tactic. But I was pleasantly surprised when editing their instructions to also see improvements in their game.
As I outlined at the start, trying to maintain width up the pitch in order to not allow the opposition midfield dominance was important in my vision. It's pleasant to see wingbacks tackling much further up the field, often pressing players in their own half, although I'm still unsure whether this may be too far up, but the Sweeper in a free role set as the only zonal marking player is proving effective for covering for the other defensive players.
With Algeria I've seen similarly good findings with Hemdani in the sweeper role, he's proven to be fairly competent at playing as a sweeper, whilst not as good a defender he is still performing the tasks required of him within the tactic.
Those are against Egypt and South Africa respectively, games we won 1-0 and 2-1 (we received a red card in the thirtieth minute).
With Algeria I'm seeing a recurring trend, whereby evenly matched or worse teams we play against do well against us when we play 5-3-2. Zambia, Benin and Iceland all draw with us, whilst we only beat Rwanda 1-0. However against better teams, the two from the screenshot above, we perform better. Now this could be a morale or confidence issue, or it could be that the tactic is not effective against teams we should be imposing ourselves on in a much more aggressive manner. I will have to do more exploration with this and it remains to be seen how we will fare at the African Cup of Nations and the World Cup.
This is just my findings from two outings, so far, but the improvements upon the originally specified libero role that comes out of the box and what I have done so far suggests that, with time, a very formidable and realistic 5-3-2 can be made. I've still got work to do on processing the support players, but as it stands there is already good scope to make an excellent tactic.
What I'm asking for, really, is what people think should be made to change it, where I'm going wrong and how to make it more accurate.
