 Gerrard's 4 1 3 2
Gerrard's 4 1 3 2
This formation sets up the Liverpool team around Gerrard and Alonso at its heart. It is attacking orientated, creative, built around a paced, technical passing game which goes through the middle to be laid onto attacking midfielders to set up forwards.
The defense is very solid and will lockout many teams. The attacking setup allows room for some modification and experimentation.
This formation is designed for the current Liverpool squad, I have no idea how it will fare with other teams
History
With the first version of this formation I won the CL and PL with Liverpool in the first season, although I did sell Gerrard for 39m (to chelsea) plus a handful of other reds at christmas and buy a batch of wonderkids - the average age of the squad at the end of the season was 22.
For the leage cup i played my B team and lost in the final to Wigan (who had also qualified for europe)
In a a new game with Liverpool, which I am still playing, I bought no wonderkids and played with the regular team plus just Micah Richards and won both again, although it was tighter.
As a note, i have found the games where i dont buy players that i know will be legends etc is much more interesting, real, and much more of a challenge.
Using this tactic
If you decide to use this tactic, good luck. After you have imported it, play at least 7 games before your team are fully adapted to it, and if you experiences are anything like mine, you should be able to challenge for honours with the current squad.
Customisation
I suggest being very careful with changing certain elements of this fotmation, but encourage experimenting with others.
Team Instructions
I suggest adjusting these with extreme caution - as the whole attack and midfield uses these global sliders. Pay particular attention to passing and tempo - these are linked and should only be moved in unison.
However, the mentality (attk/def) slider can be used effectively in relation to who you are playing next - ie against chelsea you might want to lower it, against watford - say no more
The defensive line arent affected by adjusting the first 5 (tickable) sliders, as they all have fixed settings.
I suggest playing around with width - I have tried a wider style with mixed results.
Player Instructions
Adjust the defensive players at your own risk.
I encourage playing around with the ML MR FC FC in terms of creativite freedom, free roles, mentality, shorter MR ML arrow, individual passing style
Playmakers
The playmaker can sit in the DM position (very effective) or the CM position (effective). So in my examples, the primary playmaker is Alonso in the DM position. Gerrard as the playmaker in the CM position is good, but my personal preference is Alonso playing Gerrard through as it adds another player to the attack (and of course theres noone else you would want at the heart of it). Alonso will regularily hit 60 - 80 passes a game, sometimes more.
With Gerrard as the playmaker, the passes are evenly distributed between the two players, experiment with allowing Gerrard to make more forward runs but bear in mind this will limit you defensive capability.
So replace Sissoko for either Gerrard or Alonso in the event of injury, and let the order of playmakers dictate who gets the nod.Sissoko is a natural in the CM position so it works well if you put Gerrard behind him as the playmaker.
This formation is also very effective without playmakers set up at all, the wingers tend to make more runs inside with the ball.
Remember, if you make changes, give the team a couple pof matches to adapt.
I hope you enjoy this tactic, and thanks for bothering to read this right to the end - :)
socks | 
