I am enjoying the tactical innovations in this version a lot more. Transfers are a lot better too. I signed Olise in the first season for 35m, and he’s been really good; but I just got offered 131m for him from Madrid and accepted. I signed Osihmen for 86m in the first season, and just sold him to Madrid too for 147m. Sold Onana for 50m and replaced him with Costa. Much better GK.
There are a few positions which have become essential for me. First is to have two wingers who hug the touchline, but are set to cut inside with the ball. When coupled with the “run at defence” general team instruction, this results in wingers who go outside or inside (unpredictably), and if they have pace, are just devastating.
The other amazing position is the segundo volante. Both my DMs are set as segundo volantes, one on support and one on attack. I used my entire transfer budget to sign Bellingham from Madrid for 225m, and I played him in defensive midfield as a Segundo Volante on Attack. The fecker would basically appear in the box unmarked almost constantly. In his first season he scored 32 goals and provided 23 assists from DM
. More than my main striker.
The final two positions I love are (a) the inverted fullback on defend, a position that always seems to play amazingly well, and enable the other fullback to be incredibly attack minded, and (b) a Libero on support. The libero really helps create an extra body in midfield and enable my segundo volantes to run riot.
I’ve played a super high line and found that as long as you have decent pace in the back line, the AI isn’t smart enough to really exploit any space behind.