Roy Hodgson 4-4-2 Tactic in Football Manager 2021 with Crystal Palace

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Roy Hodgson has been making history with the club since he took over in 2017. In my own opinion, I say he made Crystal Palace better in their history. The club was smart enough to retain him by extending his contract, which expires at the end of 2020/2021. But still, Crystal Palace are doing pretty well in the Premier League considering the kind of players at their disposal. And they are unlikely to go on relegation this season.

In this post, I will talk about how I implemented the current Roy Hodgson 4-4-2 tactic in football manager 2021. Moreover, all the results and statistics will be displayed, plus the challenges I encountered using this tactic with the Eagles in FM21. This tactic was created and tested in FM21 version 21.2.

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FM21 Tactics: Hodgson’s 4-4-2 Formation

Build Up

Hodgson is old school in terms of how his team builds their play. They rarely play out from the back as found rampant in this current era of football. Rather, they prefer to send the ball to the opposition’s half. Fortunately, this has worked for the English manager considering the fact that they have strong-physical players, who are also good in the air.

In some cases, they use Christian Benteke, being the target man, to win aerial duals and then lay off the ball to the path of an attacking teammate. Alternatively, they may direct the ball to the more creative Zaha who drops frequently to receive the ball and carry it forward while the wingers make runs.

Attacking

Crystal Palace main attacking strategy is direct counter-attack. And they are precise with their passing directness and can be quick with the ball movement. This is why I set the passing directness Slightly More Direct with a Higher tempo. Moreover, The Eagles sometimes direct the ball into an open space (that’s why Pass Into Space is enabled) for their pacey wingers to take advantage of, especially behind the opposition defence.

In the final third, Hodgson’s team tends to cross early oftentimes, especially from deep positions – this is where Christian Benteke comes in handy. The Belgian striker is good in the air and can attack aerial balls effectively. In my FM21 save, Benteke was just effective overall as a target man.

Also in the final third, Hodgson encourages his men to shoot on sight if possible, rather than working the ball into the box. However, Crystal Palace under the English manager play in a more disciplined fashion, which influences them to care more about the overall tactical shape.

Defensive Structure

The Eagles defend in a robust and compact 4-4-2 shape (that’s why narrow defensive width was set). In this shape features a double pivot with two destructive roles. However, Hodgson tends to use a somewhat standard line of engagement and defensive line. This means they sometimes press high and sometimes sit on a low block – though they use a low block most times especially when they are leading. But in FM21, standard line works better.

Moreover, Palace tend to regroup more often when they lose the ball but their pressing intensity is more urgent – thanks to the squad’s physical awareness. Although Get Stuck In should be enabled, I found it bad with this tactic in FM21 version 21.2.

Roy Hodgson’s Player Roles

Keeper

Vicente Guaita usually plays as sweeper keeper with the main job of coming out to sweep up through balls if very necessary – even though the team sometimes sit in low block.

Defenders

Crystal Palace defenders are more disciplined than creative. Hodgson just doesn’t use ball-playing defenders – he prefers the old fashioned kind of defenders. Cahil and Sakho are more like no-nonsense defenders paired with a neutral defender like Cheikhou Kouyaté; Scott Dann plays more like a central defender, just like Kouyaté.

Fullbacks

Because Hodgson instructs his wingers to move inwards most of the time, the fullbacks operate as wing-backs. They always push forward most of the time, especially to put in crosses from deep positions or from bylines. Both Jeffrey Schlupp and Nathaniel Clyne work the same way. However, I used the support duty because they are cautious with their defensive obligations.

Double-Six

Luka Milivojevic and James McArthur feature most of the time for the Eagles. Milivojevic is more like the destroyer in the midfield. He’s always eager to win the ball aggressively, which is why he’s more like the ball-winning midfielder. McArthur, on the other hand, is neutral – like a traditional defensive midfielder who’s aggressive but can still offer some creativity.

Their main job under Hodgson is to protect the backline while being very mindful when they move up. James McCarthy also plays like a ball winner.

Wingers

So far this season, Eze has mostly featured on the left side of the pitch. He tends to drift inside with the ball. With his good dribbling skill and having his strong foot opposite to his position, this is very advantageous especially in overloading a retreating defender. And this gives the left-back the space to exploit.

However, Palace don’t wait for fullbacks to overlap, rather they direct the ball to a runner making runs inside and beyond them. This is what Eze does most of the time, trying to find a striker making that run. Sometimes he shoots on sight. The same operation is carried out by Andros Townsend or Jeffrey Schlupp (when played as a right-winger). Only that Eze is much more effective and unpredictable.

Strikers

Zaha is the prime creator of the team. His movements, flair, and dribbling can be a threat to the opposition. He plays more like a false nine, dropping into the midfield frequently to receive the ball and carry it. Moreover, he connects the midfielders with the forwards by acting as an attacking midfielder. In such a case, the formation shifts to a 4-4-1-1 shape.

Benteke takes the role of an attacking target man who can disrupt the opposition defence with his strength. And can take advantage of aerial balls. However, under the English boss, Michy Batshuayi and Ayew play as complete forwards (attack). But for me in FM21, Batshuayi performed much better as a TM(attack) – seems weird, right?

Mentality

With this team and tactic in FM21, I used a balanced mentality at home. For Away games, I was using balanced too but it was just not good – even both defensive and cautious mentality was a disaster. Like we mentioned in our previous article, version 21.2 just has issues in overall defensive nature. Anyway, I tried this setting shown in the screenshot below, which involves switching to cautious. Sometimes when am leading in the second half, I switch to this setting.

Well it worked in the circled Away fixtures though.

Please note: You might struggle well with this tactic (I struggled too). This is because FM21 generally don’t really appreciate defensive tactics. Plus, Crystal Palace don’t have high-class players. But there’s nothing much I can do about it because my aim is to create how Roy Hodgson’s team plays in the game.

Playing Against 3-Defender Formations

I noticed something when playing against formations with 3 defenders, which features the presence of wingbacks. In such formations, the wingbacks tend to cause more trouble for me. In fact, most cases, they are the main attacking strength of the opposition.

So to neutralize them, I adopted a specific marking technique. With this tactic, I would use my wingers to specifically mark them out. The screenshot below shows an example. Far back in FM19, I used this method before and they worked really well. I never saw the need in using it in FM20. But FM21 has showed signs of me bringing it back.