A Quicky on Team Shape

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maxchaplin55

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Hi all,

Am currently playing around with Newcastle, and I have never been 100% sure on how to make the most of the Team Shape options, so I mainly follow guides which say to base it on how many specialist roles you have.

Now I don't know how its taken me this long to encounter this problem is beyond me - so I also read that if you have a flat formation, then the more fluid your shape should be, and if you use every strata then you should go more rigid. But I am currently playing with a tactic that has only one specialist role, but a player in each strata.

Did try and upload a shot of my tactic/formation but for some reason is saying it failed, will try and recreate...

.............GKd..............
WBa..CDd...CDd..WBa
.......DMs..................
WMs.........BBMs..WMs
............APs..............
............AFa..............


My instinct says to stick with Very Fluid because I am asking the wing backs to push forward a lot and my wide men to track back a lot, but yeah if someone could knock some sense into me regarding which Team Shape and WHY i'd be hugely grateful!

Thanks.
 
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Newcastle are obviously head and shoulders above the rest of the championship in terms of squad quality and depth so i would use standard mentality with the option of using control if needing a goal plus go with fluid.IMO structured would hold back the quality of attack
 
djs1 said:
Newcastle are obviously head and shoulders above the rest of the championship in terms of squad quality and depth so i would use standard mentality with the option of using control if needing a goal plus go with fluid.IMO structured would hold back the quality of attack
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. But as I earlier said Mentality isn't my issue, just Team Shape. So you're saying Team Shape should be decided on how strong your team is? I didn't think this was correct.
 
I don't really think there is necessarily a right or wrong way. It just depends on the set up of your team. You're looking for your wing backs to push forward and your wide midfielders to track runners, so fluid/very fluid is fine because you're asking players to contribute in multiple phases of play. My personal opinion, based on how I set up, is that if you play with more lines, it's more suitable to play with a more fluid formation. I have a save with Burnley at the moment where I play a flat 4-4-2 on Counter with a structured shape. So in your instance, where you have players in DM, CM and AM positions, very fluid probably works, especially if you're playing on Standard or higher. But make sure to look at how at the shape of the team when they attack and how they react when they don't have the ball, then you can play around and make the necessary tweaks! Hope this helped a bit! :)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Well, if you really want to bomb forward with your 2 wba in fb position, your mentality your fluidity should be very fluid, and you shouldn't have anyone in DM position.
 
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Team Shape does 2 things. It alters creative freedom and it alters the spacing between strata.

Want the wingbacks especially to be involved high up earlier? Go more fluid which reduces the gaps between strata and so brings everyone closer. The more rigid you go, the bigger the gaps between strata and the longer it takes the wingbacks to reach the midfield.

The timing of the runs/decisions to make them are decided by Duties and Mentality, so it's not that it will change your setup drastically, but it will affect transitions. This is something I'd say that you need to watch and then tweak based on what you see.

You can always use the TI More Disciplined to somewhat counter the effects of increasing fluidity and vice versa.

I used wingbacks as an example, because it'll probably be easier to spot watching them than other players, but the same applies to everyone.
 
maxchaplin55 said:
Hi all,
My instinct says to stick with Very Fluid because I am asking the wing backs to push forward a lot and my wide men to track back a lot, but yeah if someone could knock some sense into me regarding which Team Shape and WHY i'd be hugely grateful!

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Specific player mentality by role, duty, team mentality and team shape (

View attachment 115146

Signification of the figures : 5 (highly defensive) ... 25 (defensive) ... 50 (average) ... 75 (offensive) ... 100(highly offensive)
 
Interesting chart, apalobod.

I've been using Very Fluid quite often since FM16 (thanks to Ozil-to-the-Arsenal) and now trying Defensive (thanks to Rashidii). Its much more effective than you might expect.
 
Thanks for all your replies, most of them very helpful!

I feel this is a fairly grey area which people (including myself) get confused with.

So now understanding that Team Shape only effects spacing between stratas, and creative freedom - I have decided to lower my Team Shape from VF to Fluid, because I want a slightly bigger spacing between my stratas, as I wish for my attacking players to get a little less involved with defending, and also want them to have less creative freedom - but I am also aware Fluid is key for my WBa's to bomb forward, therefore after testing may see fit to go back to Very Fluid but tick 'Be More Disciplined'.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and knowledge.
 
it wont work the way you want it to work. A flat 433 narrow very fluid defend is what i would play if i wanted my sidebacks to bomb forward. Read the fluid description. They will go forward mostly when is reasonably safe, so a support duty would be better in case of fluid. In which case you will need attacking wingers, as just having 2 support duties on the flanks isn't wise. 2 attack duties also isn't wise, as are not 2 defend duties. Supporting wingers are used when you are containing the opposition on the flanks, so if you use supporting wingers, your sidebacks should ideally be on defend duty, which is fit for highly structured asymmetric formation. Basically, if you want sidebacks to attack, it means you want your defence to do attacking supporting and defending, which, in turn, means your striker needs to attack support and defend. It's the whole system. Everyone does everything.
 
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Yeah, appreciate the time and effort Igneos, but that's all Mentality which I'm cool with.
 
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