4-4-2 tactic with Benitez flavour

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Zebedee, using it tactics for psv, going well, but I feel it tactic are very unreliable.

Because, I used attacking tactic against 10th in league, win 3-1. Then do excavtly the same against bottom of the league, and get dominated and lose 3-0!!!!!

This is happening constantly, I'll win a game, (just). Then the next game I'll be a shambles, can't keep possecion and not create chances!!!


Any ideas??
 
I used thsi tactic towards the end of my first season with Newcastle and it really helped and got me up to fifth instead of the mid table mediocrity we were heading for! Now in the 2nd season however it's distinctly average. My players are fantastic i've Cardozo (who seems really useless with this tactic), asenjo, sakho, santon, cristaldo, benitez, diarra, saivet, a bunch of top players (and a cm/atm from chile whose name escapes me at the minute). Sometimes were score lots other times we struggle for possession and lose against small teams. I normally have Cardozo set as target man set to head (which isnt working) or martins set to feet. How much should i adjust my team instructions or player instructions to start getting the best out of this tactic because what i'm doing now isn't working at all! :@ Thanks!
 
Help...

Hello!!

I need urgent help, because i am about to start a new season, which i hope to be a sucsessful one :D!!

I haven´t won a champions league since FM 2005...but i'm really hopping to win it this time :P!!

So...i have a series of doubts, to which i hope someone can help me...

1- I know this forum isn't about trainning, but the Tug's Trainning is mentioned in this forum. I had it throughout the last season, with 7 star coaches in each category...but the players haven´t evolved, and the older even gotten worst...:'(...is this normal? Any suggestions??

2- I will start my 7th season...and i´m in Chealsea and i´ve got an excellent squad...!! So...you said that your tactics are designed for poor teams...and you recomend some changes for a great team ( i want to win the champions league...and i really think i've got the players for it)...so...can you tell me exactly what should i do (pretend i'm a five year old (A)) ?

3- As i said, i have good players...but i have Attacking Midfielders (Freddy Adu and Pjanic)...can they play as MC in your tactic...or i have to sell them and buy someone like Fabregas??

4- Same thing for the Left and Right Attacking Midfielders (Wingers)...i have good players like Bosko Jankovic...but can they play as Left Midfielders (LM) and Right Midfielders (RM)...or do i have to sell them!!

5- Last...i've allready made 2 pre-season matches...and they went terribly...lost 3-2 to Fulham and won 2-0 to Udinese with luck...in both games i tried standard...attacking and control variants! I ask this because with all my previous tactics i wasn´t very good during the season...but allways kicked *** during pre-season!! Should i be worried and expect even worst than normal during regular season...or is this normal??

I thank in advance your kind help...and hope you can help me soon...because i'm really eager to play this season...but i want to solve this doubts before i play any other game!!

Thanks
 
Hey, i want to try out this set of tactics. I've two questions.

1- Does this tactic works in 9.3.0?

2- What the key attributes for each position?

Thanks
 
Zebedee, using it tactics for psv, going well, but I feel it tactic are very unreliable.

Because, I used attacking tactic against 10th in league, win 3-1. Then do excavtly the same against bottom of the league, and get dominated and lose 3-0!!!!!

This is happening constantly, I'll win a game, (just). Then the next game I'll be a shambles, can't keep possecion and not create chances!!!


Any ideas??

Hi 123. sorry my internet has been down for a couple of weeks so playing catch-up now.

From what you say, it seems that you aren't taking into account how the other team will play against you. Attacking leaves you vulnerable at the back to teams which have set-up to defend against you rather than take their chances to try and beat you. That's when you should use 'control' tactics - it's a little more defensive but it pulls the opposition defence out.

The game is paper-scissors-stone in many respects. Attack too much against a counterattacking team, and if you don't score early, then you risk conceding on the break.

Hope that helps,

Zeb

---------- Post added at 05:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:34 PM ----------

I used thsi tactic towards the end of my first season with Newcastle and it really helped and got me up to fifth instead of the mid table mediocrity we were heading for! Now in the 2nd season however it's distinctly average. My players are fantastic i've Cardozo (who seems really useless with this tactic), asenjo, sakho, santon, cristaldo, benitez, diarra, saivet, a bunch of top players (and a cm/atm from chile whose name escapes me at the minute). Sometimes were score lots other times we struggle for possession and lose against small teams. I normally have Cardozo set as target man set to head (which isnt working) or martins set to feet. How much should i adjust my team instructions or player instructions to start getting the best out of this tactic because what i'm doing now isn't working at all! :@ Thanks!

The tactics will need tweaking more because now teams will judge you as a top 5 type of team and play accordingly (usually meaning more defensive).

If you're struggling for possession, what's the reason? Are your passes inaccurate? Are you trying to play counterattacking football against teams which aren't attacking so your direct balls are just going straight back to the opposition? Are you struggling to win the ball back, meaning that you need to tackle a little harder or press a little more?

I don't really know the strengths of your two players or their weaknesses, but have you tried playing without the target man option turned on? Does your team play better? Target men are good when they are a lot better in one aspect (or more) of the game than their marker/s. If they aren't, then they'll struggle, meaning your entire team will struggle to hold onto possession let alone create chances. Have you tried swapping your strikers round? The two positions are very different - maybe Cardoza would appreciate the right hand slot more if he's a creative type of forward, or is he a pacey finisher who'd appreciate the other position more?

Have a look at what your assistant is saying about your players during the match. He'll tell you if someone is having difficulty finding a team-mate - try shortening that player's passing a couple of clicks. Try increasing the creative freedom of players who have forward runs set to often by a couple of clicks or more. Your assistant will give you a lot of information which may not be visible to you (or anyone else who plays the game!) and which will let you finetune the tactic. Sometimes this finetuning needs to be done in match and only for that day because of a combination of things like weather and pitch size meaning you having to change the player's instructions just a little.

The tactics are set for a League Two Bury team. For a Premier League team, every player should have his passing shortened by four clicks at the very minimum. Creative freedom could possibly go up by another four clicks for players with forward runs set to often as a minimum. Pressing could also be increased by a couple of clicks for every player as PL players are much fitter as a rule.

For me, the key is in finding out why sometimes you are scoring loads and other times not as many. Are you using the right tactics for every match - it's obvious you are getting it right sometimes, but are you getting it right all the time? How does your scout say the opposition play and does the variant of the tactic you choose seem the right one to either neutralise them or take advantage of their weaknesses?

Hope that's of use,

Zeb
 
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Yo zebeddee, will these work in the Italian league.

I've got a decent Palermo team who are favourites for teams like Fiorentina, Udinese etc but not up to the standard (or geld together enough yet) to compete with Juventus A.C Roma and Inter.

Managing to get them to 2nd place at the moment and i've got a good Attacking formation which if lucky will win games 4-2, 3-2 etc but can result in losing 4-0 against the top teams. Do you think your defensive and counter attacking tactics will help maintaining my leads. Also, a bit of advice i need

Say it's 60 minutes in and i'm 2-1 up with my attacking tactic against a team like Udinese (so similar standard), what sort of tactic would you switch to? I get confused because if:

I switch to a counter attacking tactic, it means yeh i can grab one on the break every now and again but if i'm 1 goal up sometimes because i've gone into defensive mode they grab one before me.
 
Hey, i want to try out this set of tactics. I've two questions.

1- Does this tactic works in 9.3.0?

2- What the key attributes for each position?

Thanks

1. Yes. Although 9.3.0 rewards short passing a little more than it should (ideally, in my imperfect view anyways) so it might be worth shortening players' passing just a little bit more than you'd think worthwhile. The control tactic is pretty much 'universal' and seems very robust (set the defensive midfielder ie the one on the right centre to forward runs rarely to make it a little more defensively solid). Others need more tinkering depending on your players although they will still function, it will be a little more hit and miss if you don't take into account your players and the level of football you are playing at.

2. No idea. The tactics as they are here are designed to be the starting point - they were done just to give people a solid platform from which to start tinkering. I'd suggest that ideally you'd just want good, solid players for the level to get above average results with this set - or at least more than meet board expectations without doing much of anything other than basic tailoring to your level of football. It's a classic 4-4-2 so you'll want two solid centre-halves who can mark and head a ball, two fullbacks who are defensively solid but able to get forward when you want to attack, two wingers who can cross a ball or do something useful with it otherwise, a midfielder who is defensively minded to partner one who is more attacking and your strikers can be anything as long as at least one of them can score and one of them has a bit of skill about him.

All the best,

Zeb

---------- Post added at 06:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:55 PM ----------

Yo zebeddee, will these work in the Italian league.

I've got a decent Palermo team who are favourites for teams like Fiorentina, Udinese etc but not up to the standard (or geld together enough yet) to compete with Juventus A.C Roma and Inter.

Managing to get them to 2nd place at the moment and i've got a good Attacking formation which if lucky will win games 4-2, 3-2 etc but can result in losing 4-0 against the top teams. Do you think your defensive and counter attacking tactics will help maintaining my leads. Also, a bit of advice i need

Say it's 60 minutes in and i'm 2-1 up with my attacking tactic against a team like Udinese (so similar standard), what sort of tactic would you switch to? I get confused because if:

I switch to a counter attacking tactic, it means yeh i can grab one on the break every now and again but if i'm 1 goal up sometimes because i've gone into defensive mode they grab one before me.

I wouldn't have thought they'd work particularly well in any league outside the traditional 'northern' leagues (ie Scandinavia, Britain, France, Germany) without a lot of work. Primarily because the pressing will be too intense but related is the need to maintain possession which usually means having more in midfield than a 'traditional' 4-4-2 gives you. Hot climates produce technical football which keeps possession because it's far too hot to be running around trying to get the ball back. ;)

Against teams better than mine, I wouldn't usually start with attacking. I'd play a counterattacking defensive tactical variant or at best a 'standard' variant. Once the match is underway, if my players were doing fantastically well and dominating while not under any pressure, I'd consider ramping the pressure up a bit with an attacking variant for 10 - 15 minutes to see if I could nick a goal.

If you're 2-1 up, you have three basic options. Shut-up-Shop (ultra-defensive), Defensive (counterattacking when appropriate to see if you can get another) or a Defensive Control variant (trying to keep possession but still being more defensive than standard but more attacking than a defensive variant). Whichever I'd choose would depend on who I was playing and how my team was playing that day. If I was darned lucky to be ahead and the match had a fair way to go, I'd play defensive with counterattacking. If there were 5 minutes left and I was very lucky to be ahead, I'd shut up shop. If I was whipping them but didn't want to push my luck too much, I'd play a defensive control variant.

That sort of question and how you answer it is more about you as a manager. I personally wouldn't consider the fourth option unless I needed to win by more than one goal (for whatever reason) and that's to keep attacking and get another goal...

---------- Post added at 06:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:06 PM ----------

Hello!!

I need urgent help, because i am about to start a new season, which i hope to be a sucsessful one :D!!

I haven´t won a champions league since FM 2005...but i'm really hopping to win it this time :P!!

So...i have a series of doubts, to which i hope someone can help me...

1- I know this forum isn't about trainning, but the Tug's Trainning is mentioned in this forum. I had it throughout the last season, with 7 star coaches in each category...but the players haven´t evolved, and the older even gotten worst...:'(...is this normal? Any suggestions??

2- I will start my 7th season...and i´m in Chealsea and i´ve got an excellent squad...!! So...you said that your tactics are designed for poor teams...and you recomend some changes for a great team ( i want to win the champions league...and i really think i've got the players for it)...so...can you tell me exactly what should i do (pretend i'm a five year old (A)) ?

3- As i said, i have good players...but i have Attacking Midfielders (Freddy Adu and Pjanic)...can they play as MC in your tactic...or i have to sell them and buy someone like Fabregas??

4- Same thing for the Left and Right Attacking Midfielders (Wingers)...i have good players like Bosko Jankovic...but can they play as Left Midfielders (LM) and Right Midfielders (RM)...or do i have to sell them!!

5- Last...i've allready made 2 pre-season matches...and they went terribly...lost 3-2 to Fulham and won 2-0 to Udinese with luck...in both games i tried standard...attacking and control variants! I ask this because with all my previous tactics i wasn´t very good during the season...but allways kicked *** during pre-season!! Should i be worried and expect even worst than normal during regular season...or is this normal??

I thank in advance your kind help...and hope you can help me soon...because i'm really eager to play this season...but i want to solve this doubts before i play any other game!!

Thanks

To be honest, I don't think this formation would give great results for Chelsea or a 'top class' team - certainly not the results I would want anyways. As for your pre-season results - have you tuned the tactics for your team? That will make a massive difference. Basics for Chelsea (and this applies to every player's individual instructions in every variant) are to reduce passing for every player by four clicks to the left. Increase creative freedom of all players with forward runs set to often by four clicks to the right. Increase pressing for all players by two clicks to the right. Then save as a basic tactic from which to tinker with - some players will need shorter passing or longer passing, your assistant will tell you. Sometimes this will be because of very specific reasons (eg it's raining today) other times it will be because of the player - if you keep getting the same message for three or four games, make the change permanent.

Play the control variant for pre-season (assuming you are predicted to beat your opponents handily) and see how it goes over the course of it. Use pre-season to tune the tactic with the advice given by your assistant. You can make the control variant more defensive by setting the right central midfielder to forward runs rarely (you could do more than that but it's a start until you read the TT&F and create your own control variants as they are infinite in number ;) ).

re. Training. Other than Tug's Training, I'm not sure there are any I'd recommend. Training is on my list of things to learn how to do better :D
 
1. Yes. Although 9.3.0 rewards short passing a little more than it should (ideally, in my imperfect view anyways) so it might be worth shortening players' passing just a little bit more than you'd think worthwhile. The control tactic is pretty much 'universal' and seems very robust (set the defensive midfielder ie the one on the right centre to forward runs rarely to make it a little more defensively solid). Others need more tinkering depending on your players although they will still function, it will be a little more hit and miss if you don't take into account your players and the level of football you are playing at.

2. No idea. The tactics as they are here are designed to be the starting point - they were done just to give people a solid platform from which to start tinkering. I'd suggest that ideally you'd just want good, solid players for the level to get above average results with this set - or at least more than meet board expectations without doing much of anything other than basic tailoring to your level of football. It's a classic 4-4-2 so you'll want two solid centre-halves who can mark and head a ball, two fullbacks who are defensively solid but able to get forward when you want to attack, two wingers who can cross a ball or do something useful with it otherwise, a midfielder who is defensively minded to partner one who is more attacking and your strikers can be anything as long as at least one of them can score and one of them has a bit of skill about him.

All the best,

Zeb

---------- Post added at 06:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:55 PM ----------



I wouldn't have thought they'd work particularly well in any league outside the traditional 'northern' leagues (ie Scandinavia, Britain, France, Germany) without a lot of work. Primarily because the pressing will be too intense but related is the need to maintain possession which usually means having more in midfield than a 'traditional' 4-4-2 gives you. Hot climates produce technical football which keeps possession because it's far too hot to be running around trying to get the ball back. ;)

Against teams better than mine, I wouldn't usually start with attacking. I'd play a counterattacking defensive tactical variant or at best a 'standard' variant. Once the match is underway, if my players were doing fantastically well and dominating while not under any pressure, I'd consider ramping the pressure up a bit with an attacking variant for 10 - 15 minutes to see if I could nick a goal.

If you're 2-1 up, you have three basic options. Shut-up-Shop (ultra-defensive), Defensive (counterattacking when appropriate to see if you can get another) or a Defensive Control variant (trying to keep possession but still being more defensive than standard but more attacking than a defensive variant). Whichever I'd choose would depend on who I was playing and how my team was playing that day. If I was darned lucky to be ahead and the match had a fair way to go, I'd play defensive with counterattacking. If there were 5 minutes left and I was very lucky to be ahead, I'd shut up shop. If I was whipping them but didn't want to push my luck too much, I'd play a defensive control variant.

That sort of question and how you answer it is more about you as a manager. I personally wouldn't consider the fourth option unless I needed to win by more than one goal (for whatever reason) and that's to keep attacking and get another goal...

Right you seem to know what you're on about so i'm going to pick your brain.

I'm going to keep Attacking teams the same standard or less in the first half but switch to a possession based tactic in the second half. The same possesion tactic i'm going to try against better teams.

Ok

So i've got the Team settings as Normal mentality.
Slow paced, Short Passes. Should i mix the emphasis on passing? usually i play direct and bang it down the wings, but would spreading the ball wide work with slow tempo and short passes?
Also got high creativity because of how technically gifted midfielders in the league are.
Got closing down depending on who the player is e.g. defenders rarely and strikers often.
Also change my d-line depending on the other team...if they play wide i'll play deep and if they focus through the middle i'll push up on their AM

Do you think that would work?

Also with a tactic like that should i click Counter-Attack or is it too slow to counter?
I'm currently using Moutinho as a play maker with a massive striker as a target man.
 
Right you seem to know what you're on about so i'm going to pick your brain.

I'm going to keep Attacking teams the same standard or less in the first half but switch to a possession based tactic in the second half. The same possesion tactic i'm going to try against better teams.

Ok

So i've got the Team settings as Normal mentality.
Slow paced, Short Passes. Should i mix the emphasis on passing? usually i play direct and bang it down the wings, but would spreading the ball wide work with slow tempo and short passes?
Also got high creativity because of how technically gifted midfielders in the league are.
Got closing down depending on who the player is e.g. defenders rarely and strikers often.
Also change my d-line depending on the other team...if they play wide i'll play deep and if they focus through the middle i'll push up on their AM

Do you think that would work?

Also with a tactic like that should i click Counter-Attack or is it too slow to counter?
I'm currently using Moutinho as a play maker with a massive striker as a target man.

The tempo of attack for counter-attacking football is something which I'd be concerned about. As you say, it might be too slow. I suggested earlier in the thread that when I eventually get round to managing in Spain/Italy/Brazil I'd be tempted to focus on 10 - 15 minute pressure periods when I'd employ higher tempo etc, and then switch back down to avoid killing the players (emulating Sacchi's Milan's way of 'resting' to conserve energy).

With passing, I'd follow the TT&F and have it graduated. Just how graduated is an issue with eg Italian football. Let's take your example - with normal mentality in a 4-4-2, your fullback is going to have the following options:

1) Play to keeper - mixed passing needed
2) Play to CB - short passing needed
3) Play to central mid - mixed passing needed
4) Play down the line to winger or ST - direct passing needed

So at the minimum, even if you want to play a short passing game, your FBs in a 4-4-2 are going to need passing set to something close to mixed passing or they are just going to hoof the ball away for lack of passing options. Working out other positions will give you an idea on what you need, although obviously the skill of your players will make a big difference too in how often they make the right choice of pass as well as whether or not the pass gets to its target...

Taking that example, you'll see why 4-4-2 isn't the 'standard' Italian formation - at least not in the style of a British 4-4-2. If you're playing 4-4-2 in Italy, I'd suggest taking a leaf out of Capello's book (Sacchi's really) and having a central defender able to bring the ball out of defence and join in the attack (TT&F give the mentality settings for a basic framework to start from). So effectively you are playing a 3-2-3-2 formation and not 4-4-2 after all.

Playing short passing to the wings works if the players on the wings are able to come inside. This usually means giving them a fair amount of creative freedom and free roles. The downside is that you can then get done down the wings on the break. What you aren't likely to see is much traditional English wing play of them beating their man and crossing from the byline - hence the importance of having two fantastic fullbacks to motor up and down the line to provide additional width. (In real life, you'll see that all good Italian teams who've played 4-4-2 have all had exceptional fullbacks - Sacchi's Milan is the obvious example, although Juve under Trapattoni (IIRC) also had them). So you'll need to give your fullbacks license to get forward if you want width (which is in honesty the best way to open up a defence).

Ensure that at least one of your central midfielders is defensively minded. Especially so if you are giving the other one in a 4-4-2 a lot of freedom. Otherwise you'll risk being over-run on the break by every side with a bit of pace and a bit of skill.

Closing down as an instruction is dangerous if you don't use it selectively. If you are man-marking a player, it's usually fine because the man-marker will be the one who is most likely to close down the opposing player. However, if you set it to 'often' for eg a true AMC playing in the hole, you'll see your central defence charging out to get to him and the ball will long have gone by the time they get there and it will usually have gone into the space they have vacated. Use closing down selectively to put pressure on key players. Telling your players 'never' to close down an opposition fullback might not be a good idea if the fullback is actually getting forward, and a true DMC always needs to be closed down because that is the player who teams use to channel their possession through.

For me, the D-Line is about pace rather than width. If the opposition has more pace than me, I'll play deeper than my standard (I usually peg my standard D-Line to the same level as the mentality of my defensive midfielder). In Italy, I think a low D-Line might be very dangerous though as it automatically reduces pressure on the opposition midfield and gives them time and space to circulate the ball. I'd be tempted to try to push up but focus pressing on the half-way line while 'resting' and for 'high-tempo' periods try to press them in their own half (Sacchi's Milan again). But this is speculation as I've not managed in Italy yet so haven't even tried it out to test whether it's workable. Pressing up for an AMC is useful if they haven't got a pacy striker or two. Personally, I press up against solo strikers and use my defensive midfielder to sit on AMCs. However, at the top level of football I really wouldn't use 4-4-2...

Sorry if that rambles a bit.

All the best,

Zeb
 
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Thanks for your advice.

Think i might change my tactic around a bit for the possession tactic that i'm trying to develop. Going to keep the English style attacking formation i've got because for period where i'm trying to push for a goal it seems to be quite good...just not sustainable for long periods of time.
 
Thanks for your advice.

Think i might change my tactic around a bit for the possession tactic that i'm trying to develop. Going to keep the English style attacking formation i've got because for period where i'm trying to push for a goal it seems to be quite good...just not sustainable for long periods of time.

Good luck :)

It might be worth having a look at the control tactical variants for some ideas on how to set up a 4-4-2 for possession football. The one in the Benitez set here is fairly sound if neutral/attacking rather than being solely concerned with sound defence and retaining possession. The TT&F guide will also help out for the basic framework, especially with regards to passing and player instructions.
 
Been messing about with things and made some changes to the 'standard' variant. It's working very, very well for Bognor (for a bit of testing I've just been playing it without making changes to tactics and it seems to be a very balanced form of what I want, think it needs some extra creative freedom up front).

Might be of interest to others as it may not need tweaking too much for higher level teams as the passing is very short...
 
Hello!!
You were right...this tactic isn't so good for strong sides...so, i decided to try and make my own set of tactics.
I followed your advice and read TTF 09, but there were some things that i couldn't quite understand!
Let´s start with the basic:
1- There are some settings like Mentality, Creative freedom and passing style, that you have to define in the "team instructions" menu, but you can also set individualy for each player on the "Individual Instrucions" Menu. So, my question is...if you set these instructions for each player individually, does it matter what you put on the "team instructions"??

Now, let´s go for the TTF'09 doubts:

1- For e.g. in the Bands of two mentality system, the author susgests numbers like GK=8; MCa=12 etc...so...what are these numbers? They refer to mentality? Creative Freedom? If it is mentality...this means that no matter if you play an attacking or defensive variant, the mentality is allways the same...and no player on the team has defensive mentality??:O
2- The author indicates that one can link the closing down to the mentality...! But that, in tearms of numbers, results in a GK closing down in his own half!!!Does this make any sence??

Thanks...

Thanks...
 
I'm am rather impressed with this set... well done, keep up the good work and it provided some good results that the team really grinded out...
 
I'm am rather impressed with this set... well done, keep up the good work and it provided some good results that the team really grinded out...

Lol it's always a pleasure for me to read 'an efficient performance saw X run out winners at Y' ;)

More seriously, if things are being 'ground out' it means that you either need better players or to let the players have a bit more creative freedom (balancing that with a sound defence is the hard part though). On the upside, it does provide a way to get results with low quality for their level teams using a pretty basic 4-4-2 formation.

---------- Post added at 01:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:16 AM ----------

Hello!!
You were right...this tactic isn't so good for strong sides...so, i decided to try and make my own set of tactics.
I followed your advice and read TTF 09, but there were some things that i couldn't quite understand!
Let´s start with the basic:
1- There are some settings like Mentality, Creative freedom and passing style, that you have to define in the "team instructions" menu, but you can also set individualy for each player on the "Individual Instrucions" Menu. So, my question is...if you set these instructions for each player individually, does it matter what you put on the "team instructions"??

Now, let´s go for the TTF'09 doubts:

1- For e.g. in the Bands of two mentality system, the author susgests numbers like GK=8; MCa=12 etc...so...what are these numbers? They refer to mentality? Creative Freedom? If it is mentality...this means that no matter if you play an attacking or defensive variant, the mentality is allways the same...and no player on the team has defensive mentality??:O
2- The author indicates that one can link the closing down to the mentality...! But that, in tearms of numbers, results in a GK closing down in his own half!!!Does this make any sence??

Thanks...

Thanks...

The tactics do need tweaking substantially in order to get anything like decent results for 'top' teams. That said, I tweaked the control version for a quick few games as Liverpool and had 2 clear cut chances against me in 10 competitive games (and only 1 goal scored against - which wasn't actually a clear cut chance as it was a 45 yard wonder goal :D). A basic, fairly flat 4-4-2 just isn't competitive against more tactically astute players and teams.

Ok to the questions:

1) Player instructions are followed over team instructions. So if you have 11 players set to individual passing instructions, none of them will use the team instruction for passing. So I do not believe team instruction has any use whatsoever providing no player is set to follow it in their player instructions. If that makes sense... ;)

2) It is mentality being referenced. However the mentality systems at the beginning of TT&F are for a 'standard' tactical variant. Look at the 'match theory' for some indication on how to alter the 'standard' set up for what you are trying to do differently in a match (eg play more defensively or play more attacking football etc). My rule of thumb is to reduce the standard by 4 for defensive and increase by 4 for attacking. So a mentality of 8 in standard, would be 4 in a defensive variant and 12 in an attacking variant. From there I fiddle to get exactly the relationship between players I want to achieve - currently my left FB has what would be an 'attacking' mentality in the standard variant because I want to make my standard a bit more attacking and provide a little more width down that side.

3) Ignore the words which are on the bars is my suggestion. Think of it more as being that if it's close to the left hand side then you are reducing with movement to the right increasing whatever the bar represents. Pressing and mentality can be linked in a 'system' - they don't have to be used in that way, but a solid structure to your team is what TT&F is about.

If you are increasing the mentality of your DCs and Gk (telling them to look for attacking options, go forward to create something) then you may need to also increase their pressing - otherwise the Gk may not sweep up balls over the top effectively because your instructions are too tight, and the DCs may not put pressure on the opposition's striker who now has space in front of them because your midfield has pushed up. If you don't do that, then it's best not to do it for a reason eg your keeper may be prone to absolute howlers when he comes off his line, you want a central defender to focus more on being in space and playing killer balls... etc etc etc

Where the pressing actually begins is based upon the defensive line for outfield players (I think...) and where they are relative to that (based upon their position on the pitch in relation to the last defender and their mentality). So it is not a 'static' instruction - it is based upon several factors which will vary based upon other input. If you graduate your pressing correctly, you can actually press in a specific area of the pitch and win the ball back by using 'wolf pack tactics'. (Try setting (with a 4-4-2 formation) defenders to high level pressing, midfielders to medium level and strikers to low level with a defensive line set to the middle and you should be pressing as a team just inside the opponents half - not recommended against teams which have pace up front, but it's useful to play around with settings to see what they do).
 
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This tactic is superb! I have waited for a few months to see how it turns out and with all my teams this has worked.
Cheers Zeb:D
 
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Hi, i used to play football manager a long time ago but just got back into it with FM09 and really addicted and want to bring Nottingham Forest back to the glory days =]
ive attached my screenshot of my team and tactics and would just like some help or some tips on to improve or maybe even a whole new approach to succeed with Forest.
Thanks, Arron.
 
Hi,

Are you thinking of converting your tactic to FM10? I've enjoyed this set tremendously and would very much appreciate you to convert your tactics.:D
 
Hi,

Are you thinking of converting your tactic to FM10? I've enjoyed this set tremendously and would very much appreciate you to convert your tactics.:D
Zebedee hasn't been on the site for months :( not sure if he's coming back.I hope so,he's a good bloke Zebedee.
 
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