THE EVOLUTION OF THE SIDEWINDER TACTIC

Many of you may have read my threads on the Bielsa Chile formation and my attempts to recreate that. This tactic is slightly influenced by the philosphy of having width in the team higher up the pitch.

I feel that the system is too "off the wall" to be consistantly successful in the match engine so ive had to compromise in some areas making a tactic that is more "back to basics".

Whenever i try to create a tactic i always try a unique setup rather than just create your identikit 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 formations. The Sidewinder tactic is of the same mould.

The Bielsa system i spoke of earlier utilizes a system whereby you have wide midfielders and wide forwards giving you that width higher up the pitch. I found this to be too attacking and no matter how hard i tried i would be ripped to shreds defensively.

I always think that regular full backs are pointless especially if you like attacking full backs like i do, id rather they were higher up the pitch but i dont want to sacrifice them for wide midfielders as i tried that and failed, so i decided to go for wingbacks which i found a good compromise.

The main complaint against using wingbacks is that they are expected to cover the whole flank and as a result can be exposed defensively, not to mention having to be "super fit".

Going back to my Bielsa system i tried to recreate previously, where you had wide midfielders and wide forwards, i attempted to recreate this in my Sidewinder system albeit more conservatively, so i then decided on the use of Wingers along with the wingbacks.

So to re-iterate thats Wingbacks and Wingers - a totally unique concept that combats the main complaint of wingbacks needing to cover all the flank but still giving me the width higher up the pitch (the main philospy of the Bielsa system). Now with this you would expect a back three (three CB's), but not so here, I've gone for a back two so my defence resembles a back four but with full backs pushed up to Wingbacks. Again another unique element.

What this does is provide cover down the flanks and provide a fantastic attacking threat out wide, providing loads of crosses for your striker, which leads me on nicely to........

Your striker should be a strong tall target man type with excellent first touch, adequate pace who is adept at playing as a Complete Striker. I recommend Dzeko, he is an absolute beast in this system, scoring 19 goals in 16 games for me - awesome.

I use a DMC infront of the defence to provide needed defensive cover.

What ive noticed in FM10 is that with the new pre-defined player roles you really dont have to play a symmetrical formation in the true sense. Infact in real life this is quite common. So in a MC position in the left MC slot i use a deep lying playmaker. Get a creative passer here (Xabi Alonso type) and watch him hit long defence splitting balls out to your wingers consistantly.

Next up i had to decide what to do with my attack, now as i was using Real Madrid i wanted to use the two wingers and also fit Kaka in to the team. I tried Kaka upfront but was always conscious of the fact that was not his best position. Also i'm not a huge fan of just one upfront IRL so i had a tough decision to make. In the end i went with the one up front with Kaka just behind as a Trequartista with attack instruction. What i found with the way i set them up is that Kaka gets into forward positions meaning i pretty much have the benefit of two strikers still. An excellent solution.

THE SIDEWINDER IS BORN

A really cool feature i noticed whilst watching the match engine is because the wingbacks are high up the pitch i would often see the wingers come inside off the ball creating a huge goalscoring threat (this is exactly how i want to see Ronaldo play).

Now i realise thats a whole heap of reading and your no doubt intrigued to see how this looks so here is a screenshot:

SIDEWINDER TACTIC UPDATE VERSION 5.3

Another new day and another new tactic update folks, this again improves the tactic defensively yet also improving the attack over the 5.2 version.

MATCH REPORTS / STATS

Check out the following post match report to see how effective this tactic can be:

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