This is a very slight variation of the 4-4-2. Although England at Euro 96 seems to be remembered for playing ‘The Christmas Tree' 4-3-2-1 formation, they began the majority of their games using this 4-4-1-1. One of the strikers leads the line, and the other forward plays 'in the hole' (CF). Teddy Sheringham played this role brilliantly, he didn't have a massive amount of pace, but he made up for that with his vision, touch, creativity and attacking positioning/ability to arrive late in the box. Bear this in mind when setting your team up like
this on FIFA 20.
Terry Venables first brought in this system throughout England's Euro 96 campaign, and they used it to devastating effect in their 4-1 destruction of Holland. The back four stays relatively rigid, and with the combination of a defensive CM and an attacking CM coupled with the wide midfielders, this formation had England causing their opposition to all kinds of problems.
This England team were an exciting team to watch, and despite only winning 2 of their 5 games at the tournament, Euro 96, they were the first England team in 30 years that looked like they had the ability to win a major championship if you are looking to play like this side, you want to set your team up in the 4-4-1-1 formation.
Build Up Play: Speed – 45; Passing – 52; Positioning – Organised.
This team was relatively rigid in their set-up, as many English sides have been over the years. They had a very mixed style of passing, and sometimes they'd be direct, but they could also slow the play down when they needed to. With the home crowd behind them, they would often play at a higher tempo, and this is why they had success so despite these settings to get the players positioned where they need to be, try to play a quick style and move the ball fairly quickly. Organized positioning helps to keep your team shape structured. The movement will be easier to track and be more predictable than free form, but that's not a bad thing if you want to play like this team.
Chance Creation: Passing – 50; Crossing – 62; Shooting – 52; Positioning – Organised.
Passing should be set in the middle of the slider settings. This will mean that you have plenty of short options as we talked about above. The crossing should be reasonably high because of the natural width that the 4-4-1-1 gives. They had two very capable and robust ST's, so they used the wingers to cross reasonably often. For shooting, we recommend that you set this at the 52 marks; this will mean they will look to create the edge of the box opportunities, and the midfielders will join in with attacks. Once again positioning should be set to organize.
Defending: Pressure – 20; Aggression – 70; Team width – 80; Offside Trap.
The back four wasn't blessed with pace, so it's vital that you set these settings as follows to play like this England side. It means you can set your team up with staunch defenders who might not be blessed with a great deal of pace also, which is a novelty for FIFA. Pressure needs to below to try and keep the space between the back four and the defender as small as possible. Aggression should be at a similar level so you can press the ball only in your half. We would only suggest that you play the cover style of defending, playing the offside trap would contradict the other levels that you have set.