The centre cannot hold
Mid-table mediocrity. The most dismal phrase in the footballing lexicon.
I win one, I lose one. I go up a few places, I fall a few places. I lose one, I win one. I fall a few places, I go up a few places….
It’s as if I am under some kind of magic spell. I can neither rise nor fall. My team is in some kind of PES stasis field. As idle as a painted oil tanker upon a painted ocean.
I’ve been looking long and hard at my 4-3-3 formation. And I’ve been thinking the unthinkable.
I’m going with the above 4-4-2 formation as my new starting formation for all games. This is a big deal for me.
Duffy is a DMF. Shimizu is a CMF. Chairman Mao and De Ridder are SMFs. I’ve positioned Schwarz slightly deeper than Frutos because the latter is the bigger and better striker right now. Schwarz still gets most of his goals by receiving the ball and running with it, playing one-twos, etc. Frutos is a strong giant of a striker who belongs just in front of Schwarz.
I’ve played 4-3-3 for as long as I can remember. I don’t think I’ve ever seriously tried out any other formation in Master League. Even when struggling in PES5, and for over two seasons now in PES2008, switching the formation to something else has been unthinkable.
Until now. Defending is the key to success in PES2008. Currently, my goals scored tally is an average of almost 1 goal per game. Nothing spectacular, but within operating parameters for a football team.
You would expect to pick up results simply by keeping clean sheets, something I found relatively easy to do in years gone by. In PES5 and PES6, after the tough first campaign or two, I conceded an average of 8 goals per season.
My current goals against tally is an average of almost 2 per game. Defending against the CPU is my problem right now. I’m tired of losing games after having 60% of possession and 15 or 20 shots on goal, only to see the CPU score with all of its 3 shots on goal.
My problem has been stopping the CPU from creating openings in midfield and in front of my defence. Having a lone DMF is all well and good – but he’s got to be good, and he’s got to have good support from the AMFs and, when up against it, from the CFs. Duffy and co. currently are not up to scratch.
I could have tinkered with the positioning and defensive settings in my existing 4-3-3. But I’m thinking right now that a few imaginary lines on a virtual chalkboard are no substitute for having solid bodies placed squarely in the way of the rampaging CPU midfielders and attackers.
I tested the 4-4-2 formation in a couple of Exhibition matches (England vs Germany; England vs Brazil), and I’m quite liking it.
Yes, I feel a bit lost and bewildered when I get the ball up front and there’s only two central strikers to look for. But the two wide midfielders in a 4-4-2 are much better at wing penetration than the more centrally-placed AMFs in my 4-3-3 ever were.
I won the Exhibition games 3-1 and 2-0 on Top Player. Granted, with good players the 4-4-2 might have worked out well, but how will it work with my middling players in Master League? Only one way to find out.
Switching to 4-4-2 at this stage could all go very wrong. But I have a good feeling about it, for some reason.
Yeats is the man.
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
^ Sounds like the default donkeys to me!
Switching to a 4-4-2 is a good idea — from the description of the goals you’re giving up, it seems you need the bite in midfield at the moment. I’m getting that relying on CBs to make stops in PES 2008 is asking for your net to be bulged.
I’m playing a similar variant formation with two CMF and two SMF in PES 6.
I’ve also come up with a defensive approach that I’m testing with one eye on PES 2008. In it, I’m not fielding any true SBs, but instead playing CBs with reasonable outfielder stats in the SB position. Players like Carragher, Thuram, Heitinga, etc.
I’ve got my back 4 arrayed in a line, with attacking arrows on the side-backs pointing toward the near corner spot (back and to the sideline), to help them remember to stay wide and stay close to home.
What this gives me are two side-backs with high defense and body balance ratings who are less likely to prowl so far forward (and then watch helplessly as the enemy winger races unopposed down the flank, pulling my center-halves out of shape) . They still move up to support the attack, but do so far less aggressively, and when it’s time to get stuck in on defense, I don’t feel like I have any weak links in my back 4.
Here’s the formation:
http://www.cklarock.com/pes/formations/lpark.png
That looks like a solid formation. Was that diagram made specifically for PES or do you play one of those online footie management games? If so, and if it/they is/are any good, let me know. I tried Hattrick once but didn’t like it.
Having no SBs of any kind in PES2008 might be the way to go. Your SBs will usually wander over to the CB position for no apparent reason anyway, even on full defence and with arrows pointing to the corner flag. (this may well be a consequence of careless overuse of the X+Square pressing method, though. If you X+Square while the CPU is in front of your CBs, one or both of your CBs will charge the ball, and one or both of your SBs might well come over to cover – leaving the wings wide open. I’m still trying to stop doing X+Square so much, but it’s hard to break the habit of several years. So the SB jury’s still out.)
I’ve got more than half an eye on some kind of 3-5-2 setup.
Weirdly, on the rare occasions when I’ve played PES online, I never change the default formations and just start with what I’m given – 4-5-1, 4-4-2, 3-5-2 – and I always seem to do quite well. I’m a monster with Liverpool online.
p.s. I played the 360 version of the game again today at a friend’s place and it still looks and plays superbly. It’s enough to break a PS3-owner’s heart, I tell you. If it wasn’t for the jet-engine rattle and whine of the 360’s fans – and the accompanying RROD risk – I’d say forget spending $342,564 on a PS3.
The formation graphic was one I mocked up in Photoshop for my old ML story.
Re: 360 — I’m actually very tempted to go that route. It’s far less expensive, and outside of PES, probably the better gaming platform (due to its close hardware/firmware ties with the PC platform).
I heard that they developed PES 2008 for the PC then ported it to other formats. I don’t know if it’s true or not. If it is, and if they’re going to continue this going forward, the X-Box will be almost by default the cleanest port.
There is one flaw with the 360 in that the data files are tied in to specific user identities via X-Box Live, so swapping option files for the 360 will be a giant snafu. Probably there will be a couple of people willing to essentialy pass around their X-Box Live IDs, but I’m betting that there won’t be a plethora of OFs for the XBox.
give me formation and strategy to win in pes 2008 and team mate required for tournament game
where do you get shimizu from?
im playin as spurs and need to have a clear out, and get some young, good players in
any help appreciated thanks
martyn
oh and a good footy manager sitegame is : http://www.soccermanager.com
martyn – thanks very much for the link! I tried hattrick for a while and drifted away from it, so I hope I can get back into another browser-based management game. I’ll post about it if I stick with it.
As for Shimizu – he should pop up in the Youth list (Rookie list) during the first transfer window. If he’s not there, do an advanced search for him by name. He might have been snatched up by a club before you could get to him.