Sheffield United is currently sitting at the 7th position in English Premier League with 43 points, only 5 points behind the top 4 in real life. The Blades is having a wonderful time in the league as a newly promoted team. Look at the other promoted teams – Aston Villa at 19th position and Norwich City is at the bottom of the table. All thanks to the genius behind them – Chris Wilder. On the other hand, Granada FC, another newly promoted team in La Liga, is currently sitting at 9th position, 3 points behind the European competition qualification spot. Granada FC was at the top of the league after defeating Barcelona 2-0 on September 2019. What if we combine this two teams, putting Chris Wilder’s 3-5-2 into Granada FC? Let’s find out in this brand-new series of FM20 Tactics Recreation!

Rules and Objective(s)

Tactics will be created on our own

All game will be stimulated

Assistant Manager will be picking the starting 11

No transfer will be made

Finish above 19th position and not get relegated

Sheffield United’s 3-5-2

Let’s have a brief introduction on the Sheffield United’s 3-5-2.

Sheffield United’s 3-5-2

Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United is known as playing this formation, with a wide and overlapping setup. The most significant one being the overlapping centre back system created by Wilder. The players usually work the ball to the wide area during the build-up play, with wingbacks bringing the ball to the wide area, then the centre backs make another overlapping run to the byline.

Sheffield United’s build up play.

The formation changes to something like a 3-3-2-2 during the build-up play. Wingbacks will often find themselves at the flanks of the opposition half, while the 2 wide centre backs will be filling the wingbacks’ spots at the wide area. Two centre midfielders will be dropping deep, holding the defensive shape with the lone central defender. Another midfielder will be either supporting the attack or play as the connector between the both flanks. Two main strikers will be staying forward and wait for the opportunity.

Sheffield United overlapping attack.

Wilder’s Sheffield United usually force the opponent to defend narrow in their half. The two wide centre backs will be making the overlapping run to the byline and make low crosses into the box. Another option is the wingbacks will be passing the ball back to the two wide centre midfielders for early crosses. Two strikers and another attacking midfielder will be lurking inside the penalty box and looking for the chance to score. However, interestingly, not only the opponent will find strikers in the penalty box, but also centre backs or wingbacks attacking at the far post area.

Why Granada?

The reasons are clear and simple:

Granada FC is a newly promoted team just like Sheffield United. FM20 predicted both teams to finish at the 19th position in the league. Both teams are having a successful season in real life.

Roles

These are the roles for the players. We have 1 goalkeeper, 3 centre backs, 2 wingbacks, 3 centre midfielders and 2 strikers.

GK – Sweeper Keeper on Support

DCR – Ball Playing Defender on Defend

DC – Central Defender on Defend

DCL – Ball Playing Defender on Defend

WBR – Inverted Wingback on Support

WBL – Inverted Wingback on Support

MCR – Carrilero on Support

MC – Roaming Playmaker on Support

MCL – Carrilero on Support

STR – Pressing Forward on Attack

STL – Deep Lying Forward on Attack

Sweeper Keeper – Dean Henderson in Sheffield United plays as a sweeper keeper all the time. Unlike traditional goalkeeper, Henderson will often look for spaces and create play from the back rather than hoofing the ball away from goal.

Central Defender – In Sheffield United 3-5-2 setup, the middle defender often holds the position at the back and play simple passes to the midfielders or the wide centre backs. A Central Defender on Defend duty will do the job.

Ball Playing Defender – The two ball playing defenders are going to make the overlap runs. With that being said, there are two player instructions added to the roles – Dribble More & Stay Wider.

Inverted Wingback – The wingbacks are the most versatile players in Sheffield United’s 3-5-2 setup. Besides making overlapping runs, they will often find themselves cutting into the narrow area and stay at the edge of the box.

Carrilero – The two wide centre midfielders have to be more defensive-minded as they will often drop back for defend. In attacking transition, they will move to the wider area for overlaps or looking for chance to hit early crosses. Run Wide With Ball is added in the player instruction.

Carrilero’s instructions.

Roaming Playmaker – The heartbeat of the team who plays as the connector between both flanks or often find himself joining the attack. A roaming playmaker in FM20 is similar to a free role who will make his decisions depends on the situation on the pitch.

Pressing Forward & Deep Lying Forward – The two strikers normally invocle with the high press defending rather than sitting at the front and wait for the ball. A deep lying forward will drop deep and link up with the wide men, while pressing forward will be pressing high at the opponent half and moves into channels whenever possible.

Team Instructions & Mentality

Unlike other mid table teams, Sheffield United doesn’t always hoofs the ball away from the back. They will work their way out with short passing, focusing their attack at the both flanks. Defending wise, the players stick to their positions well, moving as a team and press the opponent. In addition, The Blades is considered as a fairly attacking team, even playing against some big teams in the league.

In Possession Shorter Passing Play Out of Defence Be More Disciplined Focus Play Down the Left Focus Play Down the Right Overlap Left Overlap Right Higher Tempo Wide

In Transition Counter Regroup

Out of Possession Defend Narrower Higher Defensive Line More Urgent Use Tighter Marking Use Offside Trap

Mentality Positive (you could change to Balance if you prefer that)



So, we have now complete setting up our tactics for the rest of the season. It’s time to stimulate the game and see how Chris Wilder’s 3-5-2 works in Granada FC!

Half Season

We are now on January 2020 and we have completed 18 games in the league. Let’s have a look at the league table and see where we are at.

So, we are currently sitting at the 13th place in the league with 20 points after 18 games. We are 5 points away from the relegation zone, but we are 10 points away from the top 6. I personally think we are doing alright. The other newly promoted teams are Atletico Pamplona and Mallorca. Atletico Pamplona is currently 2 points ahead of us at the 9th position. Mallorca has 17 points at the 16th position. Looks like the promoted teams are having a decent season so far.

Our only objective is to avoid relegation and I think we are way better than that in the half season. Maybe we should aim for a mid-table finish. Let’s continue our stimulated to the end of the season

End of the Season

Oh. My. God. We have done it! Not only we successfully avoid the relegation, we actually finish at the top half of the table with 52 points!We are 17 points behind the European qualification spot and 18 points ahead of the relegation zone. We have 15 wins, 7 draws and 16 losses. If we look at the other promoted teams, all three of us are actually staying in the first division next season! Mallorca find themselves at the 17th position with 4 points away from the relegation zone. Atletico Pamplona only finish one position ahead of Mallorca which is very surprising because they are ahead of us during the half season at 9th position.

Now, let’s have a look at the 16 games that we lost. We lost both home and away games against Real Madrid, which doesn’t surprise me. We also lost both games against Valencia, Real Hispalis, and surprisingly, Mallorca. We lost 0-2 at home and 1-3 away against Mallorca. We might be the reason why they are not relegated! Another expected lost is against Barcelona 3-0 at Camp Nou.

We have 7 draws in this season and 2 of them come from Atletico Bilbao. We have a 1-1 draw at home against them, and a 3-3 at their home turf, which is absolutely incredible. Bilbao is not a bad team and I am really happy that we manage to get 2 draws against them. We see our promoted buddy Atletico Pamplona here, with a 0-0 draw at home. Looks like our record against Atletico Pamplona and Mallorca isn’t good.

Moving on to the 15 wins we have in this season and there are a couple of good results here. We beat Atletico Madrid twice! 4-0 away and 2-0 at home! It is just incredible not only we score 6 goals against them, we actually keep 2 clean sheets as well. Atletico Madrid is the only team that we have beaten twice in a season. Some of the other good wins are against Barcelona 1-0 at home, 2-0 win against Atletico Pamplona, 5-2 the highest scoring match for us this season against Alaves.

Tactics Analysis

After looking at the results, let’s move on to the analysis report regarding our tactics. In general, we have a -6 in chances for/against. According to the report, we used this tactic for 4422 minutes in total. We only create a chance every 98 minutes, and the chance against is every 86 minutes. I would say it doesn’t look too bad, considering our players are below average in the league.

Another report here shows the formation that we played against. 4-2-3-1 and 4-1-4-1 are the two formations that we hate to play against. We have a total of -19 of chances for/against when we face these 2 formations. However, the 3-5-2 setup loves playing against a 4-4-2. We have a +7 in chances for/against, creating a chance in every 75 minutes and only have a chance against in every 253 minutes. This explains why we beat Atletico Madrid twice in this season.

I expect the team to put in a lot of crosses as we are playing a wide and overlapping tactics. It doesn’t disappoint me after looking at the assist types in this season. Crossing is the highest assists type as we have 20 assists come from cross this season. Through ball is just behind with the amount of 19. Set pieces aren’t our strength as we only get 12 assists in total.

Player Stats

Let’s us have a look at the player stats now. In the league itself, we scored a total of 54 goals. Our two strikers, Carlos Fernandez and Roberto Soldado, are the top scorer in the team. Both of them have scored 10 goals in the league. Carlos Neva the left wingback scored 7 goals, Angel Montoro the midfielder scored 6 goals, Maxime Gonalons the midfielder and Victor Diaz the right wingback scored 5 goals. Surprisingly, our inverted wingbacks scored quite a number of goals this season, and Carlos Neva and Victor Diaz are even in the top 5 goal scorer in the team.

In terms of assists, most of the assists come from the wingbacks. Our first choice left wingback Carlos Neva made 14 assists, the highest in the team. Right wingback Victor Diaz and the backup left wingback Alex Martinez come second with 8 assists.

Conclusion

To be fair, I didn’t expect to see us finishing at the top half of the table. So, at the end of this chapter, I’m going to give my comment and rating on the tactics in three different section.

Tactics Accuracy: 4/10 –

Well, although we achieved quite a good result, sadly this tactics did not actually replicate the way that Sheffield United play. The main reason is the wide centre backs are not going to make overlapping run. I believe Sports Interactive (SI) does not apply this instruction into the game. Even though I have added instruction like Dribble More and Stay Wider, the defenders are only going to stand around the middle of the pitch while attacking instead of going up front helping out the attack. On the bright side, the wingbacks and Carrileros do perform the overlapping run that we are looking for. Another suggestion is maybe switching your middle defender into Libero on either Attack or Support, which would actually allow the player to go up front joining the attack. However, that is not the overlap we are looking for.

Tactics Funness: 8/10 –

Even though it doesn’t replicate the exact Chris Wilder’s 3-5-2, I have so much fun watching the match highlights. The overlapping run from the Inverted Wingbacks and Carrileros is very fun to watch. There are also a couple of unexpected beautiful goals and assists created with this tactics. If you are a big fan of crossing and wing play, do try out this tactics in your own save.

Tactics Recommendation: 7/10 –

According to the stimulation, this tactics does work well. We successfully lead a newly promoted team to finish at the top half of the table in one of the top 5 leagues. Again, if you are looking for a back 5 formation and you love wing play, I would definitely recommend this tactics to you.

Well, that’s all I have got for you today. If you enjoy reading it, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @abt_fm and join me on the discussion of football. Make sure to share this article with your friends and families. Leave your comment down below and let me know what you think about this tactics. What changes you will make? Also, do let me know which tactics you want me to recreate in the future. Take care!