Feedback after a full season using this tactic with PSG
(feel free to go to straight to the next page if you don't want to read it as I'm going to share my feelings with it. I don't intend to be offending saying this, but I know it could be bothering fo some people, just warning |))
Once upon a time... hahaha.
I've to admit something: we often see people showing amazing results on forums (which is normal because they'd never upload their tactic if it was **** and couldn't stop losing with it
). I, myself, got some very good results creating my own ones as well, but I'm more of a reacting manager according to what I see on the pitch (tactic creator) and have fun preparing the next match (assistant reports: their formation, against which tactic shape do they conceed or score the most, when in the match do they conceed (and be more attacking), when do they score (and be more cautious), from where on the field do they score...). I know this is a long job but everybody's free to enjoy the game as he wants.
Sometimes, I try other people's tactic, read their threads, their answers to feedbacks and try to understand how/why do they set the slides this way and if there's conflict between them... (that's how you learn
). I had very good results with some of them too (raikan's ones, knap, fuss, mr hough, marcelo...).
The thing is when I see people's having 20, 30 winnings streak, or 50 games no losses, I can't stop having a "tiny inchy" thought (not much, don't worry) that they may have (just once, or even "accidentaly" |)) had a match reset, or maybe they had a crash dump "the only time" they were losing... what a shame !!! that's so unfortunate, If you know what I mean...
This time, this is different. I AM the one experiencing this and nobody telling me having these results. I couldn't believe it and was waiting for our 1st loss. I watched the games and I can tell we've NEVER BEEN in a situation we could lose.
I AM NOT THE TACTIC'S AUTHOR and DON'T even KNOW HIM, so I've nothing to earn by telling this. I just wanted to share this experience.
So, I decided to try this Hazza's ALL EXPLOIT tactic after I had followed the W4NKER's thread who listed them, and red every posts of this thread (to understand what was the initial tactic? what were the feedback? what was the change?...)
Again, this is the 1st season right from the start of the save (2011/2012), local reputation manager (lowest), no transfer budget allowed (just used the editor to transfer to PSG: Thiago Silva, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Marco Verratti as in real life).
Fixtures and Results:
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The following statitiscs are in all competitons (Ligue 1 - Europa League - French Cup - League Cup)
4 Competitons - 4 Victories and Awards of Champions
* Games Played: 65 - Won: 62 - Drawn 3 - NO LOSSES - Win ratio: 95%
* Goals Scored: 236 - Goals Conceeded: 32
---> Average: 3.63 goals scored/game - 0.49 goals conceeded/game
Type of goals : 19 goals from corner (1st post) in the last 50 games (so can't really tell for the full season, but not much for sure)
* Clean sheet: 35 games (No goal conceeded)
* Games when goals conceeded 1 goal: 28 games
* Games when conceeded 2 goals: 2 games
There's never been a game where I conceeded more than 2 goals, and as you can see ONLY 2 games/65 were when I conceeded 2 goals.
As you can see, I've never seen these results anywhere, I mean you can score 6 goals a game, but you'll average 2, 3, or 4 goals conceeded. Or be more cautious and target the clean sheet and win 1 or 2-0 sometimes. I'm only speaking about my experience, so the new "DIABLO" could be out on the web but I've never seen it yet.
Some notable games:
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Players' performance:
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* STC: IBRAHIMOVIC aka Mister 2 goals/game
53 games played - 106 goals scored - 19 assists - 35 times Man of the Match - 8.64 average rating
* DC: THIAGO SILVA aka Mister Clean
42 games played - ONLY 2 yellow cards (no red) - 27 fouls made (0.64/game) - 7.61 average rating
He wasn't in the corner exploit, he only scored 2 goals and got 3 assists, which means it's a good rating for a DC in an attacking team philosophy.
PASTORE (
MC/Playmaker) 26 assists (his job) 7 goals in 39 games played
The wide ST were more well rounded, and did score as much as they assisted the STC:
*LAVEZZI (49P, 22G, 26A) - GAMEIRO (42P, 25G, 20A) - MENEZ (41P, 18G, 18A)
These statistics are unbelievable !!!
Let's analyse the tactic's performance:
When I started playing, I realised that when we lost the ball, the opposite FB got too easily to our midfield and outnumbered us from there. The tactic has a narrow approach and left our flanks too weak when we weren't in possession of the ball. On the other hand, the mix between an attacking philosophy, a little creative freedom, a normal (closer to slow) tempo, and almost no time wasting... lead to the team BUILDING the attack, but get quickly to the penalty box too. It's a bit confusing because we can take our time, possession based football, build the game until it breaches in the defense, or a quicker football game, counter attacking aiming to go fast upfront to take advantage of players out of position. Possession is irrelevant in the 2nd option.
Unexpectedly, this tactic offers a mix of both and we're almost EVEN in ball possessionl. To have less players in defending duties when we've 75, 80% possession of the ball is fine, but not in this situation I believe.
The point in the grid system was to make the wide ST marking the opposite Full backs to involve them (our STR and STL) in defense. So, I highlighted this missing point in the POST
617. HAZZA believed that it was actually already set in the V1 tactic uploaded in the OP; I just told him it wasn't set in the original tactic in the OP and then explained how to set it technically. Unfortunately, this led to a big confusion in this thread... That the reason why I wanted to come back to it.
From now, let's analyse the tactic (with the wide ST marking their opposite FB of course):
The tactic is really well balanced:
- In defense the tactic can take these shapes
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This is made possible just by marking SPECIFICALY the FB.
- While in Attack the tactic can take these shapes
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You have to look at these screens as a process. Shape in the 1st screen leads to the shape in the 2nd screen which leads to the 3rd one...
It looks like almost impossible to replicate it in the tactic but that's really what I experienced watching it in game. I was really impressed by how my MC went into the channel between the wide STs and the STC. As if we were always attacking with 5 players, but extremely solid at the back too.
Let's analyse one example:
*APOEL NICOSIE
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In this situation, we're the top team and playing home. I'm not going to details everything as you can see the stats by yourself. We can see that the possession is almost even (54 - 46), but the position average shows us how far in their side of the field. we close them down
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The action were 7% of the total game in our side (1/3) while we did spend 36% of the time in theirs (the rest in the midfield).
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With the same possession of the ball, we shot 27 times without any creative freedom excess and abusive long shots, while they only did it 3 times (with 2 from outside the box). We definitely have a better use of the ball than they do.
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On the other hand, we can clearly see that we're looking for our TM (the STC) who actually did shot half of the total team shots (13 times on 27).
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Don't forget it's an exploitive tactic, the fact is he's often unmarked, or in a situation of 2 ST (ours) against 1 DC (as one of our wide ST tries to drag the DC who marks him out of position). Result: 13 shots - 9 on target - 5 goals... Classy !!!
(this point is explained in the POST
653 if you want to understand it)
Now, let's go deeper in the analyse of making our 2 wide ST marking their respective FB. For this, you've to look at the passes map. PSG ones means we're in possession of the ball, it's actually fluid and well balanced between the players (even if we're in a narrow formation approach with a TM an PM set), and it's mainly spent in THEIR half.
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When you look at APOEL's one, it means they have the ball and see what happens.
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If you're against a ball playing team which like possession, the GK would be set to give the ball at the back (short pass/defender collect/no creative freedom). Because our 2 wide ST SPECIFICALY mark their FB and our STC is in the DCs zone, the GK would tend to long kick the ball to the midfield. Just with this simple tweak, we've got 50% chance to get the ball back (it's 50/50) (the ball will definitely stay 100% in their possession if he gives it to his FB).
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How this percentage of getting the ball back (quicker) can be increased?
The fact is that APOEL plays in a 442 tactic shape and we do have 3 midfielders (2 MC, 1DM), so we already have more people involved in this area of the field than them to collect the ball and keep us busy in our attacking duties
. The % chance to getting the ball back is higher.
But what about if they do have themselves 3 midfielders, do the % chances go back to 50/50?
Remember that we have an extremely HIGH D-Line, which pushes our back 4 almost to the central area, with 2 DC who should have good attributes in Heading/Jumping/Strength. In addition, our Defensive midfielder should have good attributes in this area as well. If the other team plays with an AMC, I'm almost sure this AMC would NOT have better ratings in these attributes than our DM and 2DC.
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We mainly collect the ball there. As it said in real football, we definitely win the midfield's battle and can attack quickly but still in an organized way.
That's really what I experienced during this season.
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Sometimes, I did encounter some counter-attacks, but not that much to be a relevant threat to the tactic but it still remains important to have pacey Defenders. This Defensive Line is really High so your Defenders NEED to be quick.
I intended to show you the analyse of my 2 games against Arsenal (2 wins, 4-0, 7-0) to explain what happens against "ball playing" teams which are possession based (Barcelone, Lille...), but I figured it would be too much on this post.
Anyway, understand it's not a possession based tactic, but an "efficient used" of the ball when we have it. The other team NEVER had a great use of it, and had often struggle to go in my side of the field, as there's always 2 "defensive walls" in a High D-line (2wide ST and MC/DM, and a second one with FB/DC).
As it explained in my first half-season thread, this tactic is an addition of the different exploits listed in the W4NKER thread. To mix them doesn't guarantee any success, and I honestly thought that it wouldn't work. I didn't expect it to be so well-balanced, very attacking and solid at the back, very nice movement, the team moving as a block... and never felt like I could lose against any teams.
The other point is I didn't suffer any "re-ranked" or whatever this is, in January or February when the AI gets used and adapts to your tactic. IT HAS TOTALLY BEEN PLUG & PLAY.
On the other hand, I've to admit PSG is a top team, with good addition to the squad this year.
It is right to say as well I was in Europa League and had quite an easy campaign. I didn't face top teams like Barça, Real Madrid, City, Man U... but I still OUTCLASSED Arsenal (which is a better team than PSG "normally" :O),home and away !!! And what about Tottenham?
But still, these results are INCREDIBLE all along the season, home and Away, against teams like Lyon, Lille, Marseille, Bordeaux, Rennes, Saint-Etienne, Montpellier, Toulouse... and even the low-table teams where you always end up losing against one of them.
I'm not saying that everybody will get these results, and win everytime 4-0, but it's definitely worth a try.
I repeat again about the tweaks I've done. The most important one was the marking system WHICH IS NOW INCLUDED IN THE OPENING POST V2; the other ones that I described in my previous post are relevant TO FIT MY TEAM, and doesn't change AT ALL the original version, so please understand I wasn't going to start a thread (as I've been asked to in here and in private) or upload/send to everybody a tactic that I've NOT made.
- I just allowed the swap position between both MC (explained the reason in the last post too)
- I allowed it as well between the STL and STR according to the players who were playing (which means not every time)
- I gave few notches more creative freedom to my playmaker until the limit I found he had too much and his decisions weren't appropriate in certain situations. How many more notches? For this, you've to watch the game and see what you consider acceptable.
- and of course, a basic one who can make the difference, I changed the defending/attacking corner/free kick settings depending on the role of my players, and their attributes. This isn't an exact science but I set them according to my beliefs.
I deeply hope I'm not going to sound harsh or anything like that. It's just I felt embarrassed towards Hazza who I guess didn't expect so much confusion on his thread and people asking me to upload a tactic. Of course, I'll be keen to help you if I believe I'm able to.
Again, download the V2 on the OP and don't open the wide ST individual settings. This is a total plug and play tactic. Manage your team, good rotation, appropriate training, media and finance management... and it should be fine I think. I'll be following becasue I'm quite curious to know if people are going to have the same success as I got, or completely fail.
So, Thanks again Hazza to have been able to combine all these elements in one tactic, and listened to the different feedbacks to improve it.
Thanks to those who succeeded to read until this point
. As English isn't my first language, let me know if there's a part ununderstandable and we'll try to make it clearer.
Some of these results will definitely be added to the OP so everyone can trust the tactic. People don't always (like you) trust the authors at first so I like to use other people's results. You will be given a special mention in the OP too for your incredible help with the development of this tactic.
One of our most successful years in our football history!