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The best formation is to line up your players in a 3-3-1-3 formation. 3 Central Defenders, 3 Centre Mids, a Support and Three Centre forwards. This formation will work well in any version of CM1.

I usually have the outside players pushing forward, although I don't think this makes too much difference.

I tend to play with Direct Ball as style, but overall I don't think it makes that much difference what you use.