Choosing your striker role:
You can have multiple types of strikers.
Creative and non creative, small and agile or big and tall or somewhere in between.
If you have a creative striker, you can have him as a treq (small), a deeplying forward (medium, main attribute balance), or as a complete forward(big). For all of these, their duty should be attack, if you are expecting them to create chances not only for others, but for themselves aswell, meaning you want them to score. If thinking of using one of these, make sure you have at least two players with run from deep on often, for them to distribute the ball to. Do not use a player whose creativity slider doesn't match his creativity attribute, or you will see that player take longshots, prolly miles away from goal. If you are giving someone creativity, he needs to have it, or you will see some lousy football.
If you don't have a creative striker, or don't wish him to use creativity, you can opt for a poacher (small), target man (big), or defensive forward (strong, but not tall). Again, if wanting him to score, he should be on attack duty.
If using two strikers, one should be creative, and if using only one non creative striker, you should have someone behind him with creativity to create chances for him.
Choosing your central defenders:
It is essential you stop both high and low balls. If you are using someone with jumping and heading as primary attributes in your DM position, you should have one stopper duty in your CD. If you are using two DM's with heading and jumping, you do not need a stopper duty in CD. If using no DM's with heading and jumping, you should have two stopper duties in your CD. One sweeper, or cover role is also required, so if using two stoppers with a back four, you should have a sweeper keeper. Ideally, all of these players should have some creativity to not be fooled by opposition, but not much. Somewhere in the "little" area of the slider. That also means zero creativity is not good, so check your settings, and if it is at zero when you have adjusted all else in your tactic, perhaps give them ballplaying defender duties, or change your tactic.
A few notes about possession football:
Check your pass completion. If it is above 80%, you can afford to increase tempo. If it is not above 80%, lower tempo. If you are not scoring goals, you should increase width to create more space to play through the opposition. It is important you stay compact, meaning your defending players need to push up and have higher mentality, while your attacking players should have lower mentality. That will compact the team, and also make your attacking players play the ball backwards instead of trying to shoot from an impossible situation. Creativity should also be lowish, and your players disciplined. More fluid philosophy may encourage your players to ignore your tactical instructions, and that is usually not a good thing.
About width:
Width is a setting that relates mostly to attacking. Playing wider will increase space, and prolly make it easier for your players to play through oppositions defence, so in that respect, playing wider is a good thing.
When defending, width isn't that important. Things like closing down and marking, however, is. Man marking is better for defending, but it will hurt your team shape and your players condition, and same goes for closing down, meaning more closing down will wear out your players and hurt team shape.
Barcelona does hassle opponents, meaning their closing down is at max, and their marking is at man, but, that is true only for 6 seconds. If they fail at regaining the ball in 6 seconds, they switch back. I see no way of implementing this into fm 2013.
You can have multiple types of strikers.
Creative and non creative, small and agile or big and tall or somewhere in between.
If you have a creative striker, you can have him as a treq (small), a deeplying forward (medium, main attribute balance), or as a complete forward(big). For all of these, their duty should be attack, if you are expecting them to create chances not only for others, but for themselves aswell, meaning you want them to score. If thinking of using one of these, make sure you have at least two players with run from deep on often, for them to distribute the ball to. Do not use a player whose creativity slider doesn't match his creativity attribute, or you will see that player take longshots, prolly miles away from goal. If you are giving someone creativity, he needs to have it, or you will see some lousy football.
If you don't have a creative striker, or don't wish him to use creativity, you can opt for a poacher (small), target man (big), or defensive forward (strong, but not tall). Again, if wanting him to score, he should be on attack duty.
If using two strikers, one should be creative, and if using only one non creative striker, you should have someone behind him with creativity to create chances for him.
Choosing your central defenders:
It is essential you stop both high and low balls. If you are using someone with jumping and heading as primary attributes in your DM position, you should have one stopper duty in your CD. If you are using two DM's with heading and jumping, you do not need a stopper duty in CD. If using no DM's with heading and jumping, you should have two stopper duties in your CD. One sweeper, or cover role is also required, so if using two stoppers with a back four, you should have a sweeper keeper. Ideally, all of these players should have some creativity to not be fooled by opposition, but not much. Somewhere in the "little" area of the slider. That also means zero creativity is not good, so check your settings, and if it is at zero when you have adjusted all else in your tactic, perhaps give them ballplaying defender duties, or change your tactic.
A few notes about possession football:
Check your pass completion. If it is above 80%, you can afford to increase tempo. If it is not above 80%, lower tempo. If you are not scoring goals, you should increase width to create more space to play through the opposition. It is important you stay compact, meaning your defending players need to push up and have higher mentality, while your attacking players should have lower mentality. That will compact the team, and also make your attacking players play the ball backwards instead of trying to shoot from an impossible situation. Creativity should also be lowish, and your players disciplined. More fluid philosophy may encourage your players to ignore your tactical instructions, and that is usually not a good thing.
About width:
Width is a setting that relates mostly to attacking. Playing wider will increase space, and prolly make it easier for your players to play through oppositions defence, so in that respect, playing wider is a good thing.
When defending, width isn't that important. Things like closing down and marking, however, is. Man marking is better for defending, but it will hurt your team shape and your players condition, and same goes for closing down, meaning more closing down will wear out your players and hurt team shape.
Barcelona does hassle opponents, meaning their closing down is at max, and their marking is at man, but, that is true only for 6 seconds. If they fail at regaining the ball in 6 seconds, they switch back. I see no way of implementing this into fm 2013.
Last edited: