Winning 4-4-2 Diamond Tactic

You saw that my Ultimate FM 2009 challenge with Andria Bat is going extremely well, as I have won promotion. As promised, I have now the tactic that helped me get that promotion: a simple, yet effective 442 tactic.

In my 4-4-2 Diamon Tactic I do alter things very little. Below I have posted the on-pitch positions and the team instructions for this great tactic for Football Manager 2009 (click image to enlarge it, hit back button on browser to return here):

Every player on the pitch will get a specific "Closing down" (CD) setting, done as follows: Strikers have the biggest CD and it decreases until the central defenders, who have a low setting for it. The goalkeeper has none.

Next, your full backs will have a normal mentality and they should cross often. Central defenders should man mark and have a very defensive mentality.

The defensive midfielder is very important in this tactic, as it double teams players. Make sure to keep him on a defensive mentality and let him close down a lot.

Wingers and the central attacking midfielder have normal creativity levels and also make sure you will set one striker a bit less offensive than the other and don't let him forward run or run with the ball. This way, he will sometimes go back for the ball and provide it to the other striker. He usually drags the central defender with him, so if your other striker likes to "move into channels" you will have lots of goals.

Here you go! This is the great FM 2009 tactic that brought me promotion! As I said, keeping it simple seems to pay off. Try it and let me know the results of trying my tactics!