ZaZ - Blue 4.0

For people in consoles, below are the screenshots of team and player instructions.

Set piece takers should be the best available. For throw-ins, give preference to IWBs of respective side, and for corners, give preference to DWs of respective side.

My training schedules focus on the following sessions:
- Recovery: injury risk.
- Quickness: most important attributes (pace and acceleration).
- Match practice and team bonding: cohesion and happiness.
- Teamwork, defensive shape and attacking movement: upcoming match bonuses and tactical familiarity.
- Match preview and rest: match day defaults (rest would become travel in away matches).

For additional focus, goalkeepers train reactions while all other players train quickness.

Below are training schedules for one match per week, two matches per week, and pre-season. I assume one match per week during pre-season, for revenue.


Keep in mind that some players will be unhappy with training schedule, complaining of lack of technical training, excess of quickness or something like that. Just ignore them!

Below is the study of ykykyk05251, from a basketball manager development team, about the most important attributes for each position in Blue 3.0 RM (aka Blue DM). Keep in mind that not everything might translate to other tactics, but it's only natural that a good part of it actually does. Great thanks to ahstzl1989 for translating the entire text from Chinese. If anyone wants to see the original post, visit this thread from a Chinese FM forum.

Basic description.
1, we are a basketball manager game development team, the development process reference study a lot of FM settings, including the game engine.
We have learned a lot about the game from the bursting shed, and the purpose of this post is to give back to the community

2, in order to analyze the mechanism of FM's game engine, as well as the degree of science, we designed a system for measuring the degree of influence of each player's attributes on the final victory or defeat in FM.

3. TFF's 75 Siblings.com gives a preliminary test of the relationship between player attributes and wins and losses in FM2021 and FM2022, which is of some reference value and inspiration for our work
However, as it is only the non-professional work of amateurs, from the point of view of rigour, there are the following problems
1) It only gives the results of which attributes have a greater and lesser impact on winning and losing for all players, but in reality, the key attributes are obviously different for different positions, and the results of the test clearly show that only those attributes that are important for all positions will be more important, while those attributes that are important only for certain positions will be less important in the test. For example, its test results show that shooting has almost no effect on winning, while explosive power has a big effect on winning and losing.
2) Its test sample is insufficient, its test for each attribute was only carried out for about 900 matches simulated, but for a normally randomly distributed sequence, in general it needs to be randomized at 10,000 times before it converges relatively well to the mean.
(3) The effect of attributes on wins and losses is non-linear, and the test only deducts 4 points from the attribute to investigate whether it has an effect on wins and losses, but sometimes, just because 4 points have no effect does not mean that 8 points also have no effect, and it is also possible that 2 points have an effect that is close to 4 points.
4) There is a correlation between the impact of attributes on wins and losses, and its test of only changing one attribute at a time to test the impact on wins and losses can be interfered with by the correlation. For example, a breakthrough can lie on the ball to change direction and accelerate past a player, relying on physicality but not on discography, or it can rely on discography. If a player is good at both physicality and discography, then reducing his discography will not significantly affect his breakthrough effectiveness, as he can accelerate past people with a lie-back change of direction instead of discography.
5) Different tactics require different attributes for each position of the player, and it is not rigorous to talk about which attributes have an impact on winning or losing away from specific tactics.

4, we use artificial intelligence to conduct attribute importance research, artificial intelligence technology used a deep neural network similar to Go Alpahgo.
We fixed the tactic as the strongest tactic on TFF's 75 Siblings.com, ZaZ-Blue DM, for this experiment in order to analyse which attributes of players in each position have a greater impact on wins and losses under this tactic.
We built an artificial intelligence system and trained the AI to design the best attribute assignment for each position's performance with the same CA for each player in the whole team.
The approximate process was as follows: first, each attribute at each position was assigned the same value, then the neural network would try to change the value of certain attributes at certain positions (keeping CA constant) to see if the change had a positive or negative impact on wins and losses, and thus iterate over the multi-layer network to know what the AI thought was the best combination of 11 players.
We obtained the convergence results by training roughly 140 machines for 3 weeks and simulating 40 million games.

5. To verify whether the best 11-player attribute allocation given by the AI is really the best, we conducted another result validation test
Three groups of teams were designed, one with evenly distributed player attributes, another with the best 11-player attribute assignment given manually by experienced players based on their gaming experience, and the last group given by the AI. Put into a test league for 100,000 games, the AI's solution was significantly better than the human players' solution and far superior to the even distribution.

Conclusion.
For the ZaZ-Blue DM tactic, for each position we obtained the following levels of importance for the attributes (the values were normalized by 5 for ease of viewing, which should be sufficient accuracy for the game).



Significance of use.
1, players can get the key attributes of each position according to the above table, 100 is the most critical attribute, while 1 is the least critical attribute, so as to guide the selection of materials.
2. The values in the above table can also be used as attribute weights to calculate the weighted average value of the attributes and then calculate the "Tactical True CA"
Tactical True CA = Weighted average value of attributes * 20 - 121
If the Tactical True CA is higher than the Player CA it means that the player is a good fit for the ZaZ-Blue DM tactics, the higher the Tactical True CA the better the fit.
This is used for player selection
For the convenience of future players playing in this way, the table we have given above is arranged according to the order in which the attributes are displayed in the player's interface, even if you don't write the program, you can also get the "Tactical True CA" in excel after quickly and manually entering the values of the attributes in three rows
3. For guidance on training, the attributes take up CA, so in order to train the players with the highest tactical true CA, we can train the attributes with the highest cost effectiveness
The cost effectiveness of each attribute for each position can be measured by the attribute Tactical True CA Weight / Attribute CA Weight, the higher the value, the higher the attribute will make the player's attribute Tactical True CA higher if it increases the same CA.

Main limitations.
The current experiments are costly and non-replicable, engine versions are changed, tactics are changed, and the AI needs to be retrained without migration learning, so our next phase will focus on migration learning, where the results obtained from iterative training in the case of a certain version of a certain tactic are used as the basis for a new engine and a new tactic, and rapid iterations are made to obtain results in a new environment.

A FM Genie Scout rating based on the findings of the study can be downloaded here.

Difference is minimal even for wing backs or wingers.

Ignore role ability, or the stars showing how good a player is in his role. It's just cosmetic, showing the opinion of your assistant manager based on current ability and the role attributes. It's always gonna be low for IWB using the same foot as side, or DW with low defending attributes, despite making no difference in performance. In the end, what really matters is position rating, which should be at least accomplished (dark green).

Remember, the important attributes are not the ones highlighted in a player's role, but those that actually affect performance.

Use player traits that promote player instructions. For example, if a role has "Move Into Channels", consider getting the trait with the same name. Avoid getting contradicting traits, like "Stays Back At All Times" or "Comes Deep To Get Ball" for players with the instruction "Get Further Forward". Traits without corresponding instructions, like "Plays One-Twos", are optional and should use common sense based on player attributes.

Empty. Change if you know what you are doing, but don't listen to your assistant manager.

To be successful in football manager, you need to manage your team's playing time, which affects happiness, match sharpness, fatigue (can only see with sports scientist) and condition. Manage happiness and sharpness by making sure each player is getting enough minutes, and fatigue and condition by avoiding giving more minutes per week than they should play. Note that you can use friendlies and reserve matches to keep players sharp, but those matches have no effect on happiness.

My suggestion to manage the squad properly is to add two columns to selection info: "fitness and injuries > fatigue" and "stats (general) > general > games missed in a row". You can do that by right clicking any column name in squad screen, e.g., name, position, and selecting insert column. Make sure you don't use players with high fatigue and don't let any player reach too many games missed in a row (between 3 to 5 depending on your squad size).

After matches in tight weeks, you can rest the most tired players from training so they can recover condition to the next match. To do so, select any players you want to rest, then right click, training > rest > 1 or 2 days. That should be enough to have your most important players in shape for big matches. When you have 8+ days between matches, it's often a good idea to send players on holiday to prevent fatigue. You can do that in training screen > rest > click on training intensity > send on holiday > 1 week.

Morale is another characteristic that needs management. The easiest way to increase morale is by winning, but you can also praise last (official) match, recent form (last 5 games) and training level, as well as criticize the same things. I recommend praising anyone with a rating above 9 and criticize anyone with rating below 6. After defeats, I recommend complimenting any player with recent form or training with rating 8.1+.

Finally, you also need to manage complacency and anxiety. Do that through team talks and shouts. The effect is based on players' hidden status and match odds, but some talks and shouts are usually more positive than others. For example, praising a winning team with shouts usually gives a positive response, as well as encouraging your team when not winning (losing or tie).

For team talk, I usually prefer to relieve pressure by telling them to play their natural game, then tell them individually that I have faith in them. At half time, I praise them if winning by at least two goals, otherwise I tell them I'm not happy. After match, I praise them for victories, tell them I'm unhappy when we don't win and sometimes warn against complacency after big wins. Keep in mind that you should be a little lighter with your team when playing against stronger opponents.

If one of your players gets a yellow card during a match, it might be a good idea to change his player's instruction to Ease Off Tackles to avoid being sent off. To do so, click on the player card by the bottom of match view, then click player instructions. You can also do the same for exhausted players if you run out of subs, as well as reducing his individual pressing trigger, to avoid injuries.

It's very common for some people to have a series of poor results during a season and think the tactic stopped working. Below are ten reasons your team might stop winning for a while.

1. Complacency: When a team wins too much, players take victories for granted, not giving their best. To avoid that, you must motivate them with team talk, shouts and media handling.

2. Pressure: When playing against stronger teams, your players might feel pressured and perform worse. To avoid that, you need to relieve pressure on team talk, shouts and media handling.

3. Fatigue: When a player has high match and training loads, he builds fatigue. It's not the same of condition or match fitness and you need a sports scientist to see it in the medical centre. To avoid that, you need to rest from training and rotate your squad.

4. Morale: When you lose matches or certain events happen (like player getting unhappy), players lose morale. It is one thing that affects performance a lot, so it can create a bad spiral if not managed properly. To avoid that, praise and warn players based on last match score, form (last 5 matches) and training. You can also increase morale with team talk after matches, team meetings and other forms of interaction.

5. Poor form of players: Sometimes, strikers can get into a poor form that lasts a long time, like ten matches without scoring or more. I am not sure if there is an internal mechanic for that, but it certainly happens fairly often. If both your strikers get into poor form at once, it can get really hard to win matches. To avoid that, I believe you need to score to avoid the poor form, but it might also be just RNG.

6. Injuries: It is fairly common to have injuries by the mid of season, forcing you to use worse players or play in lower condition. To avoid that, you need good physios, lighter training during season, rest and rotate players.

7. Condition: By the middle of season, you usually have several championships being played at once, forcing you to play 2 or 3 matches a week for several weeks in a row. That can force you to rotate to players of lower quality or use players with lower condition. To avoid that, you need to rest players from training and build a balanced squad to rotate.

8. Match fitness: Injuries and lack of rotation can make your players lack match fitness, decreasing their performance. That can cause your team to suffer when you are forced to rotate because of injuries or tight schedule. To avoid that, either rotate your squad or use those players in reserve friendlies.

9. Hidden attributes: There are hidden attributes like consistency and important matches that make your players not have maximum performance during some matches. There are other attributes like injury proneness and dirtiness which can harm your chances of winning some matches. You cannot avoid that unless you hire players with better hidden attributes.

10. RNG (or randomness): Sometimes, your luck is just bad during certain matches. There is no way to avoid that, just keep playing and results should normalize eventually.

My testing league is set to include only english competitions and english teams. All players from English Premier League and Sky Bet Championship are set to have maximum consistency, important matches and natural fitness, while having minimum injury proneness. The editor data can be downloaded here.

There are eight teams being tested, with each run using two teams from Premier League and two from Sky Bet Championship, simultaneously. Preview odds picked teams, having the best and worst odds of each league, as well as best and worst from middle ten odds. The teams from Premier League are Manchester City, Arsenal, Southampton and Norwich, and the teams from Sky Bet Championship are Bournemouth, Blackburn, Barnsley and Derby.

I tested tactics in holiday mode, three times for each group of teams, with results ranked between all tactics tested.