Playing a 3-3-4 formation (yes, that's 3-3-4 not 4-3-3!)

[jeffmcgow]

This refers to a blog by The Strategist posted last May.

http://www.oulala.com/en/community/blog ... -episode-8

In a nutshell you need:

--- in your starting XI:3 strikers and a cheap defender who plays late in the week (defender A)
--- on your bench: a premium striker and a cheap defender (defender B)

After 88 minutes you change from 4-3-3 to 5-3-2 taking off a striker and bringing on defender B (who will play the other 2 minutes)

Then straight away switch back to 4-3-3 and take off defender A (who has played 0 minutes) and bring on your premium striker who plays the other 90 minutes.

The net effect is that you have taken off a defender (with 90 minutes left to play) and brought on a striker (with 90 minutes left to play).

I get the principle but wonder what people's views are on it. Do you consider it a valid tactic or is it outside the spirit of the game?

I think I'm comfortable(ish) with it for two reasons:

-- you have the disadvantage of having to burn two transfers to get in one player

-- it is something that is available to a manager in real life - they will sometimes sacrifice a defender and play another man up front when chasing a game.

Anyway, I'll be giving it a shot this weekend with this lot (so don't think badly of me ):



(So I'll be changing from 3-5-2 4-5-1 3-5-2)

[Viva]

Hi jeff,

I've read the article and understand the principle. But starting with your 352 doesn't allow 4 strikers In essence you're in fact playing a 253 right?

I think it's a fair tactic to use, as you say it's what a real life manager can do in a real game and the is what Oulala is about, football management reality, it's the only game i know of that has the live in play subs feature, yes?
I did read the strategist say that the tactic did not actually work though, albeit in the one week he tested it, interesting nonetheless and in fact you can manipulate to 6 defenders, 6 midfielders and/or of course 4 strikers.

I will return to the strategist articles as there are a few of them and the couple that I have read are good reads, he hasn't appeared this season, was he killed off?

[bloggie]

Logically the defender only has 2 minutes so the replacement only has 2 minutes.

[Viva]

Logically the defender only has 2 minutes so the replacement only has 2 minutes.

That's why it's not a simple straight swap bloggie, it's a double swap.
In the first swap the striker coming off at 88 minutes (would have had only 2 minutes left) so the defender coming in has only 2 minutes
that sub is made to open up the formation to allow 4 strikers
then a defender who hasn't player (has 90 minutes left) is taken out and replace by a striker (who also would have 90 mins to play)
result - 3 strikers that play 90 minutes and 1 striker that plays 88 minutes.

[Shaq]

i dont get it

[bloggie]

Logically the defender only has 2 minutes so the replacement only has 2 minutes.

That's why it's not a simple straight swap bloggie, it's a double swap.
In the first swap the striker coming off at 88 minutes (would have had only 2 minutes left) so the defender coming in has only 2 minutes
that sub is made to open up the formation to allow 4 strikers
then a defender who hasn't player (has 90 minutes left) is taken out and replace by a striker (who also would have 90 mins to play)
result - 3 strikers that play 90 minutes and 1 striker that plays 88 minutes.

Was just thinking that.Can't try it this week as my mind was on the midweek so forgot to make a team this weekend.

[jeffmcgow]

Hi jeff,

I've read the article and understand the principle. But starting with your 352 doesn't allow 4 strikers In essence you're in fact playing a 253 right?

I think it's a fair tactic to use, as you say it's what a real life manager can do in a real game and the is what Oulala is about, football management reality, it's the only game i know of that has the live in play subs feature, yes?
I did read the strategist say that the tactic did not actually work though, albeit in the one week he tested it, interesting nonetheless and in fact you can manipulate to 6 defenders, 6 midfielders and/or of course 4 strikers.

I will return to the strategist articles as there are a few of them and the couple that I have read are good reads, he hasn't appeared this season, was he killed off?

That's it Viva. I'm giving the 2-5-3 a go.

I usually play a 3-4-3 because I think I'm missing out on goals by not having 3 strikers (*). However, this GW my stats suggested playing a 5-man midfield so I was in a quandary. Then I recalled the Strategist's article so I get to have my preferred three up front and the stats-driven 5-man midfield.

(*) although as I'm starting to learn there are many other ways to gather points in Oulala Cf Jedinak

[jeffmcgow]

i dont get it

Give The Strategist's article another read through - the penny does drop eventually. It actually took me 4(!) read-throughs before I understood the principle.

[jeffmcgow]

Of course, this strategy requires you to choose the correct extra striker. Carlos Vela .... 5 points

[Oulala]

It's interesting to see you experimenting with The Strategist's musings from last season jeff.

To keep you up to date with the Strategist, he still frequents the office regularly and is still confident that he will break the Oulala secret very soon.

His positions this season thus far... (from an average of 2,000+ players per week)

Week 1. 164th
Week 2. 45th
Week 3. 19th
Week 4. 22nd
Week 5. 21st
Week 6. 225th
Week 7. 226th
Week 8. 34th

5 out of 8 top 50 finishes and a best of 19th, not bad from our resident expert I must say.


Thanks

The Oulala Team

[Shaq]

after a few reads i finally understood (i think)

will you be trying it again this week jeff? i'm stealing the best 11 so far this season

Gonna now read up on the other strategist articles after looking at his finishing positions for this season so far, impressive! you never know, i might learn something!

[jeffmcgow]

Yes, Shaq, I'll be giving it another go. I'm starting with a 3-4-3 with Costa, Messi and Ben Yedder (away to St Etienne so might not be a good move) and plan to bring Ronaldo off the bench.

[jeffmcgow]

I've been running with this strategy for around 4 weeks now.

There are one or two drawbacks to it:

(1) It burns two transfers so you only have 1 spare one to play with. This makes researching the availability of players extremely important. You can't gamble on someone starting since you do not have the luxury of swapping them when you see the starting lineups.

(2) You have got to be ready to make the transfer after 88 minutes. If you get sidetracked because you are watching your FPL team clocking up an 80+ gameweek (I wish ) then you may be stuck with a 0.1 M defender in your lineup and Ronaldo on the bench.

(3) The 4 strikers can take up a fair chunk of your budget so you need to be smart enough to spot the bargains for your other 7 scoring players. If these 7 players do not score decent points you really need your strikers to be scoring big.

I'll give it another couple of gameweeks and see if my results improve at all.

PS I've switched to using betinf.com for injury news ( e.g. Italian League info here http://www.betinf.com/italy_injured.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - the site also has info for the other European leagues.)
The site I was using before still had Lacazette showing as injured even though he'd played a few days earlier in a European match! Still, he only scored 39 for me this GW so maybe I didn't do myself any favours putting him in