Hi,
Short story below please bare with me haha;
Since the player roles/tactics wizard has been introduced I have always wanted to create a perfect 4-3-3/4-5-1 formation, no reason other than it's my favourite haha.
I admired Chelsea's formation under Mourinho in 2005 and Barcelona's formation under Guardiola in 2009 and have wanted to combine the two, IE defensive solidity and short incisive passing to create goalscoring chance after goalscoring chance.
Now (I'm a Manchester City fan btw) I read a recent interview with Txiki Begiristain, who is Manchester City's Director of Football.
He said the personnel and formation doesnt really matter only the footballing philosophy matters, now if we were to translate that to FM I would say it's more to do with Team Instructions being absolutely spot on to make your tactic work.
In previous FM's I have always created a tactic with set player roles and expected all the players in that position to perform that respective role, which is hindsight was daft having Micah Richards play a Complete Wing Back role when really he is only an athlete and cant actually play football.
So, with that in mind I spent hours trying to perfect my "preffered" formation, as I feel this years ME is the best we've had, so can perform the player roles and instructions more consistently than before.
What I came to realise through all this tinkering, is that whilst I was correct in setting up a formation in which to expect all of my players to play, I was wrong in giving that position a Player Role rather than putting the player in that position with their preffered player role, let me explain;
For example on the right hand side I have 4 options;
James Milner
Jesus Navas
Samir Nasri
David Silva
Now, in earlier FM's I would have set that role as Winger (Attack) with James Milner and Jesus Navas regularly rotated with Samir Nasri and David Silva filling in when needed, however I have since learned for myself that it is much better to have the players playing in these roles with their preffered or strongest player role in that position.
Which goes back to Txiki Begiristain's point of the formation doesnt matter only the philosophy.
So now I have set up my 4-3-3 as just that, a skeleton where by when I put my players into position they play there how they prefer not how I want them to play.
So now rather than creating 3 separate to accommodate all of players, I now have one tactic that allows my players to play as they prefer.
So my preferred starting line up would be;
GK - Joe Hart - Goalkeeper (Defend)
RB - Pablo Zabaleta - Complete Wing Back (Attack)
LB - Aleksandar Kolarov - Complete Wing Back (Attack)
CB - Vincent Kompany - Central Defender (Stopper)
CB - Eliaquim Mangala - Limited Defender (Defend)
DM - Fernandinho - Half Back (Defend)
CM - Yaya Toure - Deep Lying Playmaker (Defend)
CM - David Silva - Roaming Playmaker (Support)
RW - James Milner - Winger (Attack)
LW - Stevan Jovetic - Raumdeuter (Attack)
ST - Sergio Aguero - False 9 (Support)
Which all looks ok, however since I now have specific player roles given to each player, using the same formation I am able to rotate my team to look like this;
GK - ***** Caballero - Goalkeeper (Defend)
RB - Bacary Sagna - Full Back (Support)
LB - Gael Clichy - Limited Full Back (Defend)
CB - Martin Demichelis - Limited Defender (Cover)
CB - Matija Nastasic - Central Defender (Defend)
DM - Fernando - Ball Winning Midfielder (Defend)
MC - Frank Lampard - Box to Box Midfielder (Support)
MC - Samir Nasri - Roaming Playmaker (Support)
RW - Jesus Navas - Winger (Attack)
LW - Scott Sinclair - Inside Forward (Attack)
ST - Edin Dzeko - Complete Forward (Support)
So now I have 1 skeleton formations and 2 different set ups, but in reality I have loads of different set ups as individual players will be swapped in and out rather than just swapping starting 11's every week.
Since I have learned this and implemented it properly I have developed my original "perfect" tactic that I had always strived for.
Weirdly, I have never deviated from team instructions since the game allowed you to put them in;
Short Passing
Play out of Defence
Exploit the Flanks
Look for Overlap
Push Higher Up
Prevent Short GK Distribution
Close Down Much More
Higher Tempo
This allows me to play my skeleton formation with any combination of players, who all adhere to their personal instructions and the team instructions, whilst remaining balanced throughout the whole game.
As such, since bringing this into my game, I haven't lost or drawn a game as of yet in the League, Cup and Champions League, whilst being able to rest important players to keep their fitness levels up and still having a solid formation that's able to maintain defensive organisation, keep hold of the ball, create chances, and most importantly score goals.
I am at work at the moment so cannot post screen shots just yet, but if you have an requests of what you want to see post them and I will get back to you as soon as possible with them as I finish at 11PM UK time
Dan.
Short story below please bare with me haha;
Since the player roles/tactics wizard has been introduced I have always wanted to create a perfect 4-3-3/4-5-1 formation, no reason other than it's my favourite haha.
I admired Chelsea's formation under Mourinho in 2005 and Barcelona's formation under Guardiola in 2009 and have wanted to combine the two, IE defensive solidity and short incisive passing to create goalscoring chance after goalscoring chance.
Now (I'm a Manchester City fan btw) I read a recent interview with Txiki Begiristain, who is Manchester City's Director of Football.
He said the personnel and formation doesnt really matter only the footballing philosophy matters, now if we were to translate that to FM I would say it's more to do with Team Instructions being absolutely spot on to make your tactic work.
In previous FM's I have always created a tactic with set player roles and expected all the players in that position to perform that respective role, which is hindsight was daft having Micah Richards play a Complete Wing Back role when really he is only an athlete and cant actually play football.
So, with that in mind I spent hours trying to perfect my "preffered" formation, as I feel this years ME is the best we've had, so can perform the player roles and instructions more consistently than before.
What I came to realise through all this tinkering, is that whilst I was correct in setting up a formation in which to expect all of my players to play, I was wrong in giving that position a Player Role rather than putting the player in that position with their preffered player role, let me explain;
For example on the right hand side I have 4 options;
James Milner
Jesus Navas
Samir Nasri
David Silva
Now, in earlier FM's I would have set that role as Winger (Attack) with James Milner and Jesus Navas regularly rotated with Samir Nasri and David Silva filling in when needed, however I have since learned for myself that it is much better to have the players playing in these roles with their preffered or strongest player role in that position.
Which goes back to Txiki Begiristain's point of the formation doesnt matter only the philosophy.
So now I have set up my 4-3-3 as just that, a skeleton where by when I put my players into position they play there how they prefer not how I want them to play.
So now rather than creating 3 separate to accommodate all of players, I now have one tactic that allows my players to play as they prefer.
So my preferred starting line up would be;
GK - Joe Hart - Goalkeeper (Defend)
RB - Pablo Zabaleta - Complete Wing Back (Attack)
LB - Aleksandar Kolarov - Complete Wing Back (Attack)
CB - Vincent Kompany - Central Defender (Stopper)
CB - Eliaquim Mangala - Limited Defender (Defend)
DM - Fernandinho - Half Back (Defend)
CM - Yaya Toure - Deep Lying Playmaker (Defend)
CM - David Silva - Roaming Playmaker (Support)
RW - James Milner - Winger (Attack)
LW - Stevan Jovetic - Raumdeuter (Attack)
ST - Sergio Aguero - False 9 (Support)
Which all looks ok, however since I now have specific player roles given to each player, using the same formation I am able to rotate my team to look like this;
GK - ***** Caballero - Goalkeeper (Defend)
RB - Bacary Sagna - Full Back (Support)
LB - Gael Clichy - Limited Full Back (Defend)
CB - Martin Demichelis - Limited Defender (Cover)
CB - Matija Nastasic - Central Defender (Defend)
DM - Fernando - Ball Winning Midfielder (Defend)
MC - Frank Lampard - Box to Box Midfielder (Support)
MC - Samir Nasri - Roaming Playmaker (Support)
RW - Jesus Navas - Winger (Attack)
LW - Scott Sinclair - Inside Forward (Attack)
ST - Edin Dzeko - Complete Forward (Support)
So now I have 1 skeleton formations and 2 different set ups, but in reality I have loads of different set ups as individual players will be swapped in and out rather than just swapping starting 11's every week.
Since I have learned this and implemented it properly I have developed my original "perfect" tactic that I had always strived for.
Weirdly, I have never deviated from team instructions since the game allowed you to put them in;
Short Passing
Play out of Defence
Exploit the Flanks
Look for Overlap
Push Higher Up
Prevent Short GK Distribution
Close Down Much More
Higher Tempo
This allows me to play my skeleton formation with any combination of players, who all adhere to their personal instructions and the team instructions, whilst remaining balanced throughout the whole game.
As such, since bringing this into my game, I haven't lost or drawn a game as of yet in the League, Cup and Champions League, whilst being able to rest important players to keep their fitness levels up and still having a solid formation that's able to maintain defensive organisation, keep hold of the ball, create chances, and most importantly score goals.
I am at work at the moment so cannot post screen shots just yet, but if you have an requests of what you want to see post them and I will get back to you as soon as possible with them as I finish at 11PM UK time
Dan.