Press, press and press again
The 433 High Press FM24 tactic has been a very popular tactic over the years. After Klopp made it popular in the EPL everyone was interested in how they could use.
Introduction
So here we are with a tried and trusted favourite FM24 tactic, the 433 High Press!
The basic goal of this tactic is to press high in the opposition’s half and disrupt their build up play. In turn we will force mistakes and turnovers to regain possession through the fast wide players and forward.
When I was building this FM24 tactic, I had Klopp in mind with the old Firmino, Mane and Salah forward line. Let’s see how this 433 High Press work for you!
433 High Press Tactic Overview
Let’s have a look at the break down for the 433 High Press FM24 tactic. It’s structure is the same as any 433 with the wide players and DM, this is the most effective formation on the game.
This formation forced itself naturally with high press tactics as it is a narrow attack. This means that our wide players need to be able to cut inside which then means we need our wing backs to push forward to stretch the defence. To do this effectively we need to have DM that will sit back when wing backs bomb forward.
As a result, you can see why this formation picked itself.
The main strengths with this tactic are the rapid ball recovery, ball recovery and the overwhelming numbers in attack leading to high goal scoring potential. Mid to lower teams are going to really struggle to keep you out of their net.
The real weakness to this tactic is the speed of the opposition attack, which may exploit your back line if you do not have quick defenders. The other thing is the fitness that is required of your players to continue playing the 433 high press.
433 High Press Tactic Setup in FM24
So the formation and roles of the 433 high press are the next talking point. The team is broken down into three processes, the defence trio, the supporting cast and the pressing forwards.
The team works around getting the ball back as quickly as possible through the high press of the forwards. Now the press needs to work centrally to be more effective for two reasons. One is that it is the most dangerous area to win the ball back and secondly because it is quicker to do so.
The midfield trio is pretty much a classic line up for me, we have an advanced playmaker to thread through to our fast forwards, a box to box mid to help both defend and attack and the deep lying playmaker. The deep lying playmaker could be played more static in a defence duty which would give more balance.
The last team are the defensive unit. With the DM to help screen our defence we can afford to use wing backs. The wing backs job is to get forward to offer the option, stretch the opposition and help overload the opposition.
Why Use this Tactic
You should use this tactic if you have a young squad that has good physical attributes as it leans on great physical with the closing down, the counter press and the constant attacking.
If you play this with any of the top teams in Europe like PSG, Man City, Liverpool, Barcelona and Dortmund you are going to have fantastic results. They are high technical teams so keep possession well and have young squads playing counter press.
Do not play this tactic with teams that struggle for fitness or skill or have older players. It will be a recipe for disaster and they will need to heavily invest in players to shoe horn this tactic on FM24.
In-Game 433 High Press Results
I tested this 433 High Press FM24 tactic with a number of mid table teams and the results were good, but with AZ Alkmaar and won the league, but the highlight was scoring over 100 goals in 34 games.
Pavlidis scored as many goals as he played games in the league, and scored more goals than games overall in the season.
These aren’t isolated examples, we had great success with our usual testing teams of Fiorentina, Lille, Sunderland, Gladbach and Sevilla. All had a high goals to games rate, but defence suffers slightly, but anyone who knows I follow the Cruyff philosophy.
As you can see here, I took Sunderland into the playoffs and scored 119 goals in the Championship with a 60% win rate. This is an impressive feat for a young team that are expected to come 7th in the league.
Tips and Tweaks
So how can we make the 433 High Press even more effective?
Firstly, some of the roles can be changed to suit your players. If you do not have a complete forward then changing to a high finishing role like poacher or advanced forward is going to benefit you.
If you want to add some defensive stability then you can add the wingbacks as a support role instead of an attack role. You can also change the deep lying playmaker to defend duty to help firm up the middle.
I’m not big on training, but if you focus on shadow play and attacking movement, it will help towards your attacks with the 6 attackers you have.
Conclusion
If you like scoring goals and can see the benefit, then this tactic is for you. Your forward will be the key to your goals as the often become the main source of goals.
Keep an eye on your team stats, you want to be over 50% possession and getting 10 shots a game minimum. Other areas to be concerned with is the duelling, so make sure you are tackling well and that you are winning the ball in the air.
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