A Guide to Formations and Tactics in FM

one of the top threads created. i will be using this at some point. thanks man!. Hey i noticed someone go on about adding how to get players to do one-two's, how is this becuase ive just started training one of my players to learn this. what is the secret to it - anything percific? can anyone help me. thanks again
 
Thanks I found this really helpful as this is my 1st FM game making me the ultimate n00b. I'm using Villa too and I'm now using the set-up you have. I've signed Jo and Park Ji-Sung. In preseason I dominated winning all but 1 game including a 7-0 hammering over a strong(ish) QPR. Now I'm a couple of games in it seems the system has collapsed. I was hammered all over by Chelsea losing 3-0, barely managed a draw against Genk in the EURO Cup, edged Wolves 1-0 and Birmingham 2-1. Have I missed something or has having Park on the right unbalanced the system? Jo barely gets on the bench at the minute.
 
PLZ PLZ Can some1 tell me what for Tactics should i play for palermo...??? i have Eden hazard and pastore :D want the best from them.....
 
PLZ PLZ Can some1 tell me what for Tactics should i play for palermo...??? i have Eden hazard and pastore :D want the best from them.....

A narrow pressing 4-2-3-1, with Hazard and Pastore as attacking midfielders? One Advanced Playmaker and the other Inside Forward, Support and Attack.
 
i'm trying to recreate Martin O'neill's tactics, and i've got a little question:
i want a winger to cut inside, but there's no inside foward rol in ML/R position, so i moved him to AMR, but when i go to the advanced player settings the "wide play" option has a "cut inside option", will this have the effect i want to my tactic?

Yep, that's the one you want. You might also want to change crossing to "sometimes".

what's mean about creator/destroyer/passer, and what's role to suit them ?

Read this article, it's very helpful and gets the point across in much more detail than I can do.

Generally if I'm trying to do a destroyer/passer/creator, I use one defensive mid on DM - Defend, one midfielder on CM - Support and one midfielder on Advanced Playmaker - Support/Attack.

Any idea how a three man midfield in a 4-3-3 (with inside forwards) would work? Like in de post of shadow? Used those tactics with a Ball winning midfielder - deep lying playmaker defense - advanced playmaker attack. Worked well for about 4-5 months, but hasnt since. Maybe it's too easy to counter or its highly depended on one or two specific players (stat wise).

Sounds like you're a bit defensively shoddy. Having a BWM alongside two playmakers means that the BWM will be overrun trying to hold together everything by himself. Try using the DL playmaker as a normal DM.
 
i'm with havant and waterlooville and have been sacked and needed to start a new game twice now, what formation etc do you think i should employ? i've signed ade akinbiyi
 
I found this very helpful. I'm currently at Reading using a bog standard 4-4-2, with a stopper/cover centre back and a deep lying/advanced forward combination. First season I got to the playoff final and lost, then quit, joined Leicester and rejoined Reading in the January transfer window, went from 19th to finishing 12th and got automatic promotion the following season despite no transfer budget and a very small wage budget. Every season we've been the highest scorers and during the promotion season we scored 98 goals in 46 games with a 20 match run of scoring in each game.
 
Cheers for this mate,
great guide for noobs like me and good to see it from a fellow villan.
 
Gj, OP! However, I got a small question - do you always play counterattacking when using "4-2-3-1 deep"? What instructions do you change if you are going to lose a game and need a goal? Doesn't "4-2-3-1 deep" have very low offensive potential?
 
@OsmosisJones..
For 4-2-3-1 deep can be very defensive & offensive,..in defend it can turns like 4-4-1-1 and in attack it can turns 2-4-4 formation isn't?...depends on how your playing style,..
 
spain

my spain tactic and results so far, as you can see i havent conceeded many goals and only lost one game this season, its going well. although i am thinking of tinkering with the style abit - putting more expressive on instead of disciplined and stick to positions instead of more roaming.
 
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4.8) Advanced Forward/Deep-lying Forward

A standard combo in the game, the deep-lying forward creates the goal, the advanced forward scores them. You know how to do this.

4.9) Winger/Target Man

Cross ball + 6’3 striker = goal. Again, you should know how to implement this one.

Very good thread .. I really liked and it really expanded my horizons .. but if you may forgive my stupidity will you please elaborate more on the above mentioned points :)
 
Great guild! learnt alot.. And made alot of sense
 
hi a so called Newbie. ive played FM for ages at the moment im with bath city ( i know stop laughing).
ive just got them into the 2nd divison. brought a few youth players but finding my normal tactics are not working.
So i decided to have a loot at this site and all the tactic help i read is all based on top teams, if someone have got tactics on lower leagues teams love to link.
BUT i have found the best help is always a good A manager he give me so much detail.
When i have worked out how i upload stuff i put some stuff up. you should see my team v funny .
 
Most Helpful Guide Ive read on here, Gives a proper insight on how to set up formations.
As Nick said, never knew that Inside forwards and attacking fullbacks would be so effective.

Very well done. Top Notch
 
Whoops, forgot about this thread. I might update it soon, got some stuff in the pipeline.

Very good thread .. I really liked and it really expanded my horizons .. but if you may forgive my stupidity will you please elaborate more on the above mentioned points :)

If you want to know more about the DLF/Adv. Forward combo, see my Guide to Tactical Synergy, where the last bit explains it in more detail.

Winger/Target man is simple. Find yourself a big, tall, strong striker and stick him up front. On the wing, you put a speedy, agile, good dribbler. Set the striker to Target Man (Attack role if you want him to lead the line and score, Support if you want him to enable others to score) and the winger to, well, Winger (I'd play Attack role in this case). The winger will recieve the ball, dribble past the fullback and do him for pace, before crossing in towards the target man. As the target man is big and strong and good aerially, he can win the ball in the air against defenders and possibly head it in.

An example of this in real life is Aaron Lennon and Peter Crouch, Lennon being the tricky winger and Crouch the towering target man.

Most Helpful Guide Ive read on here, Gives a proper insight on how to set up formations.
As Nick said, never knew that Inside forwards and attacking fullbacks would be so effective.

Very well done. Top Notch

Thank you indeed. Inside Forward/Attacking Fullback is absolutely my favourite combination and works extremely well for me. With biggish/medium teams you can pick up the likes of Taye Taiwo for about 6 mil, and he's perfect for the role of attacking fullback. Then you just need to find a good "wrong" (or both) footed winger, get him to play as an inside forward (in my Napoli save, Lavezzi) and bob's your uncle.
 
I'm playing a 3-6-1 with Liverpool FC in my 2nd season. The midfield is packed but the defence is light even with a dmc (meireles). The tactic seems to work with mid table lower and champions league teams but im conceding a lot. Can anyone recommend a tactic or team role to assist???? Torres sc/rossi amc/babel wgl/gerrard rmc/cole lmc/ sanchez wgr/ mereiles dmc/ agger, skrtel, shawcross dc
 
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