An [Amateur] Tactician's Chalkboard for FM11

[iNickStuff]

Yeah I agree, lonely striker nodding the ball forward isn't very effective, it requires quicker player next to him.

Did yoy try using higher closing down and normal tackling? Players with high bravery and aggression seem to win challenges often, and target men usually have also good strenght. My poacher with high bravery and aggression, but poor strenght, scored couple goals last season where he tackled opposition CB, won the ball and was one-on-one with the keeper. Not sure would it work, but worth testing I think, if not by you the by someone else.

edit. oh and did you set him as target man, and if yes with what distribution? And your wingers and fullbacks had cross aim to target man?

It's happened several times with Hoarau, and he is a good worker when it comes to retaining possession. Yes, distribution was to his head from crosses. No, the full backs had their crossing set to Deep, mixed crossing aim. The wingers crossed from a mixture of positions and set to Target Man and Far Post respectively.

 

[adore7]

iNickStuff could you upload the tacticle templates ??

 

[mccollio09]

rather surprised you didn't mention Zamora in the target men in the premiership, he's having a stormer of a game today by the sounds of it, winning headers, hassling defenders and generally doing everything you said, Kevin Davies likewise. Great article as always mate, wish I could manage to interpret players for personalisation as well as you do.

I still maintain that tactics (whatever you, I or anyone else creates) just don't seem to work as well on 11.3 as on previous versions.

 

[iNickStuff]

iNickStuff could you upload the tacticle templates ??

I already told you through the private message you sent me that I would.

rather surprised you didn't mention Zamora in the target men in the premiership, he's having a stormer of a game today by the sounds of it, winning headers, hassling defenders and generally doing everything you said, Kevin Davies likewise. Great article as always mate, wish I could manage to interpret players for personalisation as well as you do.

I still maintain that tactics (whatever you, I or anyone else creates) just don't seem to work as well on 11.3 as on previous versions.

Yes, I did realise that after the article and look at his attributes to which they did match a target man just like everyone else's. He is having a decent season despite having the ability to do much better in terms of scoring goals. However that, I can see your point. He is a target man and does pretty well in terms of brushing up against defenders to open up space.

And for the rest of the post, it's just taking things you see in the newspapers or in football blogs that have been deployed by sides and then looking back at FM, changing things around and experimenting. Taking what the game has and doing things that, generally, people wouldn't do is what helps create these things.

It's also a learning game. It depends, the AI has been able to pick up more things than usual and made it more and more thinking game, rather than a sit-back-and-watch-your-team-win game. You can't now just sit around with one tactic through the whole game, substitute injured/booked/fatigued players and then have an easy game, or sit there and watch your team struggle and just tweak your shouts. It's has more depth than that. I'm going to look into this a little more when I have the time to.

---------- Post added at 09:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:24 AM ----------

'modern Tactics: Borussia Dortmund

• To look at the newly-crowned Bundesliga champions' tactics over the last nine months and Jürgen Klopp's methods.
• To look into BvB's 4-2-3-1 this season and how it has fared.
• To emulate Dortmund's three-man attacking trio in Großkreutz, Götze and Błaszczykowski.

Article #10: The 'modern Series
Sunday, 1st May 2011


Well, it's done. I (well, we) have reached article number ten. In five months or so, we've reached the tenth article on the thread and the eighteenth on the thread. It's a good start, a late one in fact, but a good one nevertheless because it will carry on more speed into the next installment of Football Manager that becomes available to us in the latter stages of the year. Yesterday, I wrote Creating the 'modern Target Man, taking the sliders from the game to depict the movement of a target man that plays nowadays. Today, I will be looking to bump up the thread with another team article; this time at Bundesliga's newest champions in Borussia Dortmund. Congratulations to them. They have finally clinched the title with two games to go, despite their 1-0 away defeat to relegation-dwellers Borussia Mönchengladbach that was then followed by a 2-0 home win over Nurnberg and cross the finish line before Leverkusen and Bayern Munich were able to catch up. So here we go.


Klopp gifts die Schwarzgelben faithful with long-awaited seventh league title

The man behind Borussia Dortmund's domestic success this season will soon be in the limelight, as former Mainz striker/defender Jürgen Klopp led former Champions League winners Borussia Dortmund to the holy grail that is all of German football. A minnow reputation for Klopp, continentally-speaking, has risen up through the ranks of the managerial game to become a tactical mastermind, as his methods of the 4-2-3-1 came into fluition upon his fourth year in management of die Borussen in which led to the Bundesliga crown. It took a disastrous 13th place finish upon his first season at Signal Iduna Park that led to Dortmund getting better as the time went on, qualifying for the UEFA Europa League via finishing 5th two seasons later and then coming to the end of a comfortable 2-0 win over F.C. Nurnberg on the 30th April this year that he would taste a trophy.

But a main attraction to the Yellows' performance this season was their trust and faith in the 4-2-3-1 system, something that was tried-and-tested somewhat nine months ago in South Africa that awarded success to the German national team. Through this, they were able to field young players and attractive football, which also equated a fifteen-match unbeaten run domestically and reaching the first knockout round of the UEFA Europa League, only to be seen off by Spanish outfit Sevilla in a 2-2 draw that would eventually fall in the favour of Sevillistas. Going into more detail, the trio attack of Kevin Großkreutz, Shinji Kagawa and/or Mario Götze, averaging an age of 20 has been the main attraction, and lit up the team's performance and numerous wins.

Kagawa's arrival from Cerezo Osaka in the summer helped strengthen the Klopp's options, and give chances to both Großkreutz and Götze. It would then be all topped off by Argentina-born Paraguayan frontman in Lucas Barrios, who had a great season beforehand, to spearhead the attack and create the ever-present danger of the four when the team was on the attack. In combination, the foursome have netted 35 goals in 107 appearances and contributed around 70% of the team's scoring record this season, with Dortmund having scored 64 goals.

Nevertheless, with Dortmund's fiery attack has come defensive solidity, namely from the defensive pairing of Mats Hummels and Neven Subotic. The two have established over the season a strong partnership at the back alongside the favourable full backs in Marcel Schmelzer and Lukasz Piszczek, to which has led to the conceding of just 19 goals this season. That is in comparison to the second-best Bundesliga defence this season in Bayern Munich, who have conceded 38. Bayern have conceded 19 goals more than Dortmund, which also leads to questions being raised around die Bayern's own centre back pairings in Belgian centre half Daniel van Buyten and German youngster Holger Badstuber.

But nevermind that, this has been BvB's season for a reason, and their achievements can only be lauded with praise, rather than criticism. 22 wins, 6 draws and 4 losses. They have conceded just as many and less goals than Barcelona and Real Madrid have in La Liga. It's a great year for fans alike and it can only be capitalised through a back-to-back win and a strong European campaign.

[video=youtube;nmXaeLtazOk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmXaeLtazOk[/video]


Tactical shape

As mentioned in the starting paragraphs, Dortmund have preferred the 4-2-3-1 over the possible 4-4-2 and 4-5-1 formations respectively. With that said, they have often executed it well and against Germany's biggest teams, including a famous 2-0 and 3-1 win over Bayern Munich both at home and away. In Football Manager, it's no different. The full backs overlap, the defenders stay central, the midfielders manouvere, the trio midfield interchange and directly attack, and the forward is the main threat. However, in a little more analysis, it can look like this.

Assymetrically, Dortmund's shape differs, as it become a lot more advanced. The full backs are no different, but the midfield and attack changes. Sahin and Bender or Kehl have much more advanced roles; Sahin, being the playmaker of the team, ventures forward to bring more depth to the attack and helps support the front three, thus changing it into a front four and therefore leaves Bender or Kehl to sit infront of the defence as a holding midfielder, passing the ball on within short proximity to avoid losing possession.

The wingers have changed duties, as one of them runs from deep and the other starts higher up the pitch. Großkreutz sits deeper to be overlapped by Schmelzer, picking up possession possibly from either Sahin, Bender or Kehl, and switched possession over to the right-hand side of the pitch, in the space of which Piszczek and Błaszczykowski from which they are operating from. Piszczek would not be expected to overlap, seeing how Błaszczykowski is a pacey winger anyway, but it has it's beneficiaries as the Polish forward is more than likely to cut inside, like Großkreutz and cause problems for the opposing full backs.

The attacking midfield role, unlike the others, has it's own dimensions, and rather feeds of moving into the flanks and filling the space than pulling the strings of the midfield like most attacking midfielders of the modern day would (i.e. Cesc Fabregas, Steven Gerrard, Luka Modric, etc.) Playing off the frontman, both Kagawa and Götze receive the ball high up the pitch, yet weave through the defences to either put in a through pass or take it on themselves, usually resulting in a goal or an assist. Barrios, the lone striker, stays central to the pitch and receives the ball, rather than going to look for it. Hence him finding the net in almost half the times he has played this season.

You can see, from this diagram taken from ZonalMarking, the shape that Dortmund took in their 3-1 away win at Bayer Leverkusen. This is probably the best way to re-create BvB's 4-2-3-1 this season.


Hummels and Subotic

The two have kept the team from conceding a lot more goals than expected, and with this has come the emergence of thoughts that they are the classic modern pairing in terms of defensive partnerships. Hummels, although having not reached the term, is close enough in being a ball-playing defender, and Subotic is able to cover that with his no-nonsense brute style of defending that is warranted when playing the formation that Dortmund do. So, with it, I found playing a Limited Defender - Ball-Playing Defender pairing between the two the better option than the tried-and-complacent Stopper-Cover system.

In real life, Hummels and Subotic do not play such a system together, but rather hold a strong defensive line and with their excellent reading of the game are able to play in their roles very comfortably. Attributed to it is the holding play of either Sven Bender or Sebastian Kehl and the hard-working full backs in Marcel Schmelzer and Lukasz Piszczek after bombing forward down the right and left flanks respectively. Despite Hummels having some relations to an attacking game, it's not his cup of tea, and with that he has been able to use the attacking styles to his game to provide a further edge to his defensive game. Such as passing. Subotic, being the opposite, plays a 'takes no prisoners' game and would rather kill than keep - metaphorically speaking of course. I had to give them the roles and duties that suited both them and the formation - not hard then.

As mentioned before, I chose the BPD-LD combination. This was, in hope that, when the team was not in possession of the ball that when the opposition reached the final thirds of our own half that only three players would really snuff out the attack; 1. The holding midfielder 2. The full backs 3. Neven Subotic. Given with Subotic's tough-as-nails style that I gave him instead of a default role and duty, the retention of possession would go to Hummels, to which he would survey the field and pick out a pass, whether it be short or directly up the field to the attackers.

So with the advanced settings of the role, I swapped things around. The Mentality, Creative Freedom and Passing sliders are all in the more attacking, free and direct areas of the such because it gives Hummels the ability to pick out the pass without having his instructions stopping him with following through with what may of been a start of a counter-attack. Creative Freedom, despite not having an accomplished background in being a creative defender, would have it's advantages more than it's disadvantages, more or less because he has more options than most in which to pass to, including the holding midfielder. So it's better.

And it would be the opposite for Subotic. His Limited Defender role seemingly needed him to be focused on defending and not much, if not, anything else. A very short passing range, coupled with little creativity and a sure defensive menality would allow him to offload the ball without pumping it 100 yards or so into the other end of the pitch when a shorter option was available. However, just like Hummels, the Closing Down slider was at the same level to which his defensive partner was. Why? Because having one a lot deeper than the other, as logical as that sounds, was going to act as a Stopper-Cover system at some point. Something that would hamper my defence.

And it has been largely successful, with this coming against our 0-0 draw at home to Bayer Leverkusen, where Hummels was able to achieve 28 passes out of 37, giving a passing percentage of 75.7%. Not bad, and it's at least above 75%. This has been his best so far and has had a great passing game since the start of the season. A good choice.

This was Subotic's game in the disappointing 2-2 home draw to F.C. Nürnberg. In that game, Subotic recorded 17 out of 19 passes successful, garnering a percentage of 89.5. The third highest that game, behind Großkreutz and Antonio da Silva. It may not look like it but the passes were good enough to show how important short passes for Limited Defenders are in getting danger away or retaining possession when needed.


Hummels and Subotic vs. Werder Bremen

This match was a win for us at home to Werder Bremen. 3-2. A good all-round game despite conceding two goals led to a win eventually and for us to record another under our belts. This is a very small, but significant look at the examples of the work that both Hummels and Subotic put in respectively, defensively. Following a header by Marko Arnautovic (#8) to clear his and Bremen's lines, the ball falls to Nuri Sahin. However, with this, also comes, the partnership of Hummels and Subotic in fluition. Despite Hummels (circled in light blue) being the furthest forward, Subotic stays back to cover for the German and mark the threat of Claudio Pizarro,.

The ball is then headed on as Sahin loses out on the aerial battle, unsurprisingly. You can see that Pizarro (circled in yellow) is wanting to create a Bremen counter-attack, and in doing so, races towards the ball as it is still airbourne to win the header. As Subotic is loosely marking him, he realises this threat and is quick to follow. Seeing as how Pasanen is the furthest man, apart from Pizarro, forward, Hummels has no threat apart from Subotic losing out in the battle for possession with Pizarro, so therefore is a bystander.

Eventually, it results in a foul by Pizarro and the danger is quelled. I know that this is a routine for defenders, but you can get the point had this not happened and Bremen countered as expected without Hummels and Subotic being back for the corner. Usually it would be them forward and full backs staying back, but it was the opposite this time.


Midfield freedom

The best part about Borussia this season is the freedom of the midfield. All five of the midfielders have a role that they fulfill and it works in the benefit of attacking and defending. Helping out the striker and the defenders. Their work in the centre of the park is what helps stop, prevent, create and make attacks. More importantly, it works cohesively and as a unit. Starting with the central partnership of Sahin and Bender.

These are Sahin's passing, tackling and heading stats over the last 15 games. They are established in the order as I just said. As the playmaker, obviously, Sahin must contribute to his role with a high passing percentage, and does that with almost 500 passes from 581 attempted, averaging 85% of his passes being successful.

His midfield partner, usually Sven Bender, has put in more than Sahin. Solely because his role is to destroy attacks and then offload the ball as safely and best as possible. The 107 passes completed out of 122, averaging 87% of his passes being completed is an epitome of that, and having won every tackle he's made over the last 15 games. Impressive because it's 100. And even with him not being the tallest, at 6 ft 1, it's still good for him to of won 60% of the aerial battles he has been in. So Sahin and Bender contribute one another with their attacking and defending. Thus being given freedom.

Sahin's role consists of playing from deep, rather than venturing forward all the time and leaving either Bender or Kehl to holding the midfield line by themselves. Sahin, again despite not being given the freedom to roam, uses the large amount of creativity he is given to pick out those important and crucial passes that often find their man.

Bender's consists of being the fireman for attacks, putting out the fire before it spreads into dangerous areas and keeping things safe. The little creativity personifies this and his short passing range. Relates to the style of play that Hummels and Subotic have defensively. Almost every role on the pitch is partnered or contradicted with another, and it is here as well. Hard, aggressive tackling is what has also helped young Bender to get stuck in to challenges without fear and be brave enough to go to ground and win possession back at dire times.


Sahin and Bender vs. Schalke

This is an example of the defensive partnership that Sahin and Bender have. Following a counter-attack by Schalke, Dortmund are back tracking in which includes Sahin and Bender. Intricate passing in the park between Raul and Huntelaar leads to an opportunity for a through pass, yet Hummels and Subotic are trying to get close to them but not open up space for them to then sift through. Sahin is circled in light blue and Bender in light pink.

Farfan receives the ball from a pass from Raúl. Subotic's missed interception leads to a lonesome Hummels, to which Bender must track back and fill the void left by the Serbian.

The ball is eventually cleared by Schmelzer and allows Sahin to move on to the attack. Unfortunately, it's a poor one, as the game ended 0-0.

Both contribute with high passage completions. One with more than double.


Mario Götze, Kevin Großkreutz and Jakub Błaszczykowski
Trio vs. Stuttgart

As Subotic, Hummels, Sahin and Bender all have partnerships with each other in most aspects of the team's game, there is also the attacking force of Mario Götze, Kevin Großkreutz and Jakub Błaszczykowski. The three create and the majority of the time finish off BvB's attacks in great fashions. This goal against Suttgart at home is a great example of this and the directness of the wingers, as well as Götze playing almost reminiscent to a central winger role. Here is where a typical run down the flank from Schmelzer leads to the opening up of four, maybe five options from which he can choose from. Most, if not all of them are passing options, seeing as he couldn't possibly net one from more than 50 yards out. Götze is circled in light blue, Großkretuz in light pink and Błaszczykowski in purple. The white lines and arrows show the possible movements all three of them can make during the attacking move.

Schmelzer puts the ball into the path of Götze and has five options himself, despite the marking of Zdravko Kuzmanovic. Again, the white lines and arrows represent his possible movements. Channel moving is an option, but around 80% of the movements that he will make will result in a pass. 15% of his shot, should he make one, would go over or miss and the 5% to either hit the bar or go in for a goal.

Großkreutz is the eventual receiver of the ball, hosting three options; pass, run or shoot. Polish winger in Błaszczykowski is playing in between the central defender and the full back, leading to a crossing option from Großkreutz. The latter seems to be Barrios, who is standing up against Boulahrouz, therefore presenting acres of space from which Großkreutz can move into.

The move finishes off with Großkreutz cutting inside and slotting it into the bottom left corner of the net. A neat, tidy finish from the winger and a typical showing of the directness in which the wingers play, as well as the importance in the movement of the attacking midfielder. In this case, was Mario Götze.

There are reasons as to why Götze is playing as a supporting Inside Forward:

• It contributes, largely, to him being a lot more freelance in the midfield and having the ability to play directly off Barrios, and not have to be relied upon to pull the strings of the midfield via passing, which is done by Sahin.
• It helps him become a central winger and move out to the flanks (as shown against Stuttgart) to which are then left by the respective wingers.
• There is a lot more freedom, which means that he doesn't hamper anyone's game, for which he has space to create in.

I could be wrong in setting him to 'Run From Deep', but I assumed that this would help him pick up passes from either Sahin and Bender. The rest, however, see him put in short passes, move around more and attack the box when he wants to, not that he has to all the time, unlike Kevin and Jakub.

Both Kevin and Jakub have similar roles, in being attacking wingers. The player instructions typify this. Short passing, staying higher up the pitch, but also providing Barrios with good passes in and crosses from the edge of the penalty area for which has contributed to the seven goals he has scored so far.


BvB: Domestically and continentally

The first fifteen games have been rocky, with us being 7th in the league and having scored 10 and conceded 7. A shock penalty loss against Union Berlin meant we were out of a cup competition already and the Europa League isn't doing any favours either, with Getafe, CSKA Moscow and PAOK all being formidable opponents. Wins have been shaky, but we've drawn a lot more than we should have and won less. Losing is less, but it will rise if we don't finish our chances. I would have put more screenshots up, but I can't find them, will edit this soon and put them in. For now, it's a hassle.


Oh my, look at the time ...

It strangely took nine hours to do this. Geez. That's a new record. Except, for some part I was glued to the television watching Arsenal vs. Manchester United. Unlucky that we lost but I'm not going in to that. For now, I leave you with this article and the tactic I used. Maybe a training schedule for Mats Hummels (so that he gains better attributes in being a ball-playing defender) and more screenshots.

And I say maybe. I never promised. This is for those who mis-interpret.

But for now, thanks for reading.

View attachment 171403

 

[donkarlito]

Another high quality article from iNickStuff I will be taking the tactic and some of the roles and incorporating them into my united save and my other tactics ready for next season. I have to admit Borussia Dortmund are a big surprise this season and be interesting how they are next season in the Bundesliga & Champions League

 

[iNickStuff]

Another high quality article from iNickStuff I will be taking the tactic and some of the roles and incorporating them into my united save and my other tactics ready for next season. I have to admit Borussia Dortmund are a big surprise this season and be interesting how they are next season in the Bundesliga & Champions League

I think their main priority now is keeping hold of their star players, especially Subotic, Hummels and Kagawa. They have been attracting large interest and, although I would not be surprised to see them all go, it would knock Dortmund back quite a bit.

 

[kitrinos]

Hi,iNick,firstly i would like to congratulate you for your very successul articles and the great effort u have made,helping many relatively new players(like me).Now,getting to the point,I was wondering if a modern target man could make an effective partnership with a modern second striker,and if yes,which team would you suggest as an example that has both of them?Thanks for your time in advance and i hope i am not getting tiring.

 

[donkarlito]

I think their main priority now is keeping hold of their star players, especially Subotic, Hummels and Kagawa. They have been attracting large interest and, although I would not be surprised to see them all go, it would knock Dortmund back quite a bit.

Be interesting test the boards ambition, try and keep hold of their best players and push for another title or cash in while interest is high.

 

[iNickStuff]

Hi,iNick,firstly i would like to congratulate you for your very successul articles and the great effort u have made,helping many relatively new players(like me).Now,getting to the point,I was wondering if a modern target man could make an effective partnership with a modern second striker,and if yes,which team would you suggest as an example that has both of them?Thanks for your time in advance and i hope i am not getting tiring.

Haha, not at all. It's fine. Questions like this is why this thread is here.

But to answer your question, definitely. They compliment each other movement-wise and passing across to one-another to create attacking chances. Off the top of my head, I would think that these teams would benefit:

• Bolton Wanderers
• Birmingham City
• Arsenal
• Fulham
• Everton
• Newcastle United
• West Ham United
• Nottingham Forest
• Liverpool
• Barcelona
• Real Madrid
• Paris Saint Germain
• A.C. Milan
• Juventus
• A.S. Roma
• Udinese
• Napoli

Be interesting test the boards ambition, try and keep hold of their best players and push for another title or cash in while interest is high.

I agree. Hopefully they will fund his targets and expectations with a budget that would be able to cover for their almost-inevitable losses. But they would have to be careful with their ventures in investing large amounts of money, to which Klopp fails to find players that can perform at the standards that their possibly-former players did.

 

[donkarlito]

I agree. Hopefully they will fund his targets and expectations with a budget that would be able to cover for their almost-inevitable losses. But they would have to be careful with their ventures in investing large amounts of money, to which Klopp fails to find players that can perform at the standards that their possibly-former players did.

Dont know much about Bundesliga but I often find that any good players seem to get snapped up by Bayern Munich, hopefully not and they can keep hold of their star players and bring in some players and shake up the Bundesliga.

off-topic question whats your take on Rooney's new role?

 

[Fracpen]

INick Can u post the tactic for download?

 

[Janeka]

iNickStuff can you post your threads about tactics in a pdf file please? It will be more organised. Sorry for my engllish.

EDIT: I found out that is everything in the first post. I'm stupid XD.

 

[iNickStuff]

Dont know much about Bundesliga but I often find that any good players seem to get snapped up by Bayern Munich, hopefully not and they can keep hold of their star players and bring in some players and shake up the Bundesliga.

off-topic question whats your take on Rooney's new role?

Bayern do seem to buy a lot of domestic talent, but I guess it's all in good favour, seeing as how it's not often foreign talent that is finding it's way through into the Bundesliga, unlike other leagues. The Bundesliga prides itself on domestic talent rather than continuously venturing out to find talent elsewhere, and the majority of the time you will find German players based at German clubs more than anywhere else in terms of top-flight leagues.

In terms of Rooney's role; I guess for the last few games, Sir Alex has chosen to bring Rooney into a much deeper role that can only really be described as an AMC, rather than a second striker. Rooney, like against Arsenal, was generally directly behind Hernandez, rather than usually squaring up with him in attacks. At times, he acted as a playmaker, and this was evident during the last few minutes of the game, where he put the ball in for a chipped through pass for Michael Owen, only for him to be fouled. It's a mixed bag, but for now I would class it as a 4-4-1-1, something SAF is clearly happy with.

INick Can u post the tactic for download?

Will do soon.

 

[fuelledbypassion]

Interesting article Nick, having played as BVB a number of times over the last 2 versions of fm, I can back up most of your views on the tactics. Subotic and Hummels compliment one another very well, and Weidenfeller is a very capable 'keeper. The one area that I have struggled most in replicating is the success of Kagawa in the amc role. I naturally made him an attacking midfielder, hoping that he would break into the box and be difficult to pick up for the opposition defence. Unfortunately, I have never been able to replicate his obvious goal scoring ability.

As a Dortmund fan, I'd be disappointed to see a mass exodus at the club. With finances as they are currently, I can't see the club being able to refuse any big money offers. It is expected that Nuri Sahin will leave, and I would personally love to see Man Utd go for him, I think he is exactlythe typeof player we need.

 

[iNickStuff]

Interesting article Nick, having played as BVB a number of times over the last 2 versions of fm, I can back up most of your views on the tactics. Subotic and Hummels compliment one another very well, and Weidenfeller is a very capable 'keeper. The one area that I have struggled most in replicating is the success of Kagawa in the amc role. I naturally made him an attacking midfielder, hoping that he would break into the box and be difficult to pick up for the opposition defence. Unfortunately, I have never been able to replicate his obvious goal scoring ability.

As a Dortmund fan, I'd be disappointed to see a mass exodus at the club. With finances as they are currently, I can't see the club being able to refuse any big money offers. It is expected that Nuri Sahin will leave, and I would personally love to see Man Utd go for him, I think he is exactlythe typeof player we need.

Yes, I find re-creating Kagawa's role arguably the most difficult thing of all in making Dortmund's season tactics. I guess freedom of movement is what can really describe his role and that he moves from flank-to-flank, in and around the box and just making him that much of a dangerous threat.

In terms of the exodus, Hummels would be a good Manchester United target too, in replacing Rio Ferdinand. I find him a good all-round defender and at the age of 21, a tender age to start getting better at, would be a good way for him to come to us and starting being under the tutelage of Ferdinand, as well as getting in games and really developing. Sahin the same, however, I think a bigger target would be Luka Modric - we've been tracking him for years now and he would be a much bigger asset. Sahin, I assume, would be exiled at times a lot more than Modric, as well as underrated.

 

[donkarlito]

In terms of Rooney's role; I guess for the last few games, Sir Alex has chosen to bring Rooney into a much deeper role that can only really be described as an AMC, rather than a second striker. Rooney, like against Arsenal, was generally directly behind Hernandez, rather than usually squaring up with him in attacks. At times, he acted as a playmaker, and this was evident during the last few minutes of the game, where he put the ball in for a chipped through pass for Michael Owen, only for him to be fouled. It's a mixed bag, but for now I would class it as a 4-4-1-1, something SAF is clearly happy with.

I'm guessing in FM terms it would be the modern playmaker which I dont think you have done yet, I had used him as a tweak TQ but I think need to get his high work rate into play I notice against arsenal he was doing nani's defensive duty.

 

[gunnerjames]

Bayern do seem to buy a lot of domestic talent, but I guess it's all in good favour, seeing as how it's not often foreign talent that is finding it's way through into the Bundesliga, unlike other leagues. The Bundesliga prides itself on domestic talent rather than continuously venturing out to find talent elsewhere, and the majority of the time you will find German players based at German clubs more than anywhere else in terms of top-flight leagues.

In terms of Rooney's role; I guess for the last few games, Sir Alex has chosen to bring Rooney into a much deeper role that can only really be described as an AMC, rather than a second striker. Rooney, like against Arsenal, was generally directly behind Hernandez, rather than usually squaring up with him in attacks. At times, he acted as a playmaker, and this was evident during the last few minutes of the game, where he put the ball in for a chipped through pass for Michael Owen, only for him to be fouled. It's a mixed bag, but for now I would class it as a 4-4-1-1, something SAF is clearly happy with.



Will do soon.

Good post Nick. I was thinking of using this formation with Arsenal because I believe that the players than Arsenal has can fill the roles. My only concern is how to use fabregas because I do not believe that he can play the inside forward role but maybe you can offer me some advice in this area.

 

[iNickStuff]

Good post Nick. I was thinking of using this formation with Arsenal because I believe that the players than Arsenal has can fill the roles. My only concern is how to use fabregas because I do not believe that he can play the inside forward role but maybe you can offer me some advice in this area.

If you refer back to the Arsenal article I did not so long ago, you will find that his role is being an Advanced Playmaker, rather than an Inside Forward. The reason behind is is purely because, in spite of being central to Arsenal's attack and creation of chances and opportunities, he performs far below the standard that it is expected of him as an Inside Forward.

Inside Forwards play off the frontman and attack the box, not as a playmaker, but as an auxiliary attacker. Fabregas, on the contrary, performs in the way that he links up from the midfield, rather than receive passes from the midfield. He then passes them on either out wide or through to the striker (who is supposedly Robin van Persie).

I would suggest playing him as an Advanced Playmaker, whether that be on Support or Attack duty is really not a problem, so long as the Player Instructions are tended to in which make him put in more through passes, has a direct passing game and a high attacking mentality. Thus, it should help create more assists, passes and possibly Clear Cut Chances for the main striker to get. Again, reference to the Arsenal article is recommended, as it talks in detail about Fabregas' role.

Instead of going back to OP, here it is.

 

[supermatt1978]

hi i have been having trouble uploading my tactics on here so i have started my own web page come have a look
Football managers - Home

 

[gunnerjames]

Fluid. Balanced would have made the play too bland and predictable, whereas fluid just keeps the game at a good tempo.

In fact, I'll upload some of the matches to show you.

Thanks for directing me to this thread Nick. Looking at your instructions for Song and Wilshere as Central Midfielders they both have run from deep set to often. I am thinking that this would cause a problem in central midfield because they might both go forward at the same time. I was thinking of playing Song as the ball winning midfielder defend and Wilshere as the advance playmaker support.

With Sagna allowed roaming from position would this not cause gaps at the back