An [Amateur] Tactician's Chalkboard for FM11

[iNickStuff]

Glad for this article. I'm a die-hard Arsenal fan, but after all this turmoil in the summer I have lost my appetite to play with them until, the new game will come out, with the present squad.
I have found instead a scintillating challenge with Valencia. I'm in my 4-th season, already won a League and CL double in my second year, and a Spanish Cup in the 3rd, but since then I'm in a dip with the squad. Which is strange as on paper, I had stronger players with every year. I resorted to abandon both my tactics (I interchanged them depending on their form and opposition), and downloaded some strange ones, but this one looks better for my group of players, as I still have strong wingers, and the current tactic don't uses them. Will it work with other players too? I managed to beat Barca for the first time in the league, and it was an away win too, but I'm still inferior to the two big-shots. The CL final was against Real, and I barely won it 3-2, and the Cup final was agains Barca, and needed a power header in the 116-th minut from Aduriz to scrape through with a 1-0. They seem vulnerable to strong strikers who can get on the end of the crosses, as my current victory also came from a cross-ball to Llorente.
Here is my current squad:
Képfeltöltés.hu - korlátlan ingyen tárhely képeidnek, regisztráció nélkül
Képfeltöltés.hu - korlátlan ingyen tárhely képeidnek, regisztráció nélkül

Thanks in advance.

I'm sorry, I am not understanding what you want me to do. Do you want me to assess your squad? I would assume that you do since you've uploaded two screenshots.

Could you lay out what you formally want?

What do you use when to emulate tactics from teams outside the premier league like Dortmund and Villarreal ?

Zonal Marking
Football-Lineups
This 11
Soccer Base
UEFA.com
FIFA.com
Holding Midfield
Twitter
YouTube

And several other sources that may pop up through Google's Search Engine.

 

[Lonk]

Will it work with my players? I have many for the central MF roles, but nobody like Fabregas for the AMF. I would prefer Rossi, because he is very productive, but he's basically a striker. Ekdal is more industrious, Mata is destructive enough on the flankm Michel is just a squad player to comply with UEFA's homegrown rules.
But I just received some injections to my transfer kitty, and the likes of Götze, van der Vaart and Rakitic are available for very reasonable prices. The Dutchman would be my first choice on any day, but he is already 30 and started to decline physically.

 

[iNickStuff]

Will it work with my players? I have many for the central MF roles, but nobody like Fabregas for the AMF. I would prefer Rossi, because he is very productive, but he's basically a striker. Ekdal is more industrious, Mata is destructive enough on the flankm Michel is just a squad player to comply with UEFA's homegrown rules.
But I just received some injections to my transfer kitty, and the likes of Götze, van der Vaart and Rakitic are available for very reasonable prices. The Dutchman would be my first choice on any day, but he is already 30 and started to decline physically.

I would perhaps suggest the following, assuming you want me to give you advice on your midfield;

CF

AML --- AMC --- AMR

LCM --- RCM

LB --- LCB --- RCB --- RCB


OR


CF

AML --------------------------- AMR

LCM --- RCM

DMC

LB --- LCB --- RCB --- RCB

​

For those:

4-2-3-1;

RB: Full Back - Support
RCB: Central Defender - Defend
LCB: Limited Defender - Defend
LB: Full Back - Support

RCM: Deep-Lying Playmaker - Support
LCM: Central Midfielder - Support/Attack
CAM: Advanced Playmaker - Support

AMR: Inside Forward - Attack
AML: Inside Forward - Attack
STC: Advanced Forward/Complete Forward - Attack



4-3-3;

RB: Full Back - Support
RCB: Central Defender - Defend
LCB: Central Defender - Defend
LB: Full Back - Support

DMC: Deep-Lying Playmaker - Defend
RCM: Central Midfielder - Support
LCM: Advanced Playmaker - Support/Attack

AMR: Inside Forward - Attack/Winger - Attack
AML: Inside Forward - Attack/Winger - Attack
STC: Advanced Forward/Complete Forward - Attack

 

[Lonk]

Thanks, but it seems the original thread is too far away. So I wanted to know if the tactic you described, that won you 8 out of 8 with arsenal, and which you uploaded here, will work with my crop of players? I tried all of these formations and even more, I've been playing with the series from 2004, so the instructions are tricky for me, not the formations, as they make the players behave differently in every new version.

So the if I download your 4-2-3-1 for Arsenal, do you see it work with my Valencia? Or do I have to buy an AMF?

 

[SS19]

Sorry, little offtopic.

Can I find similar stats that Guardian has for Premier League for Spanish, German and Italian top divisions? Not talking about "simple" stats like possession, but passes, who passed from where to where, how many passes player did, which one created chances etc. Haven't been able to find one for other leagues than Premier league, but maybe you have a place where you find these kind of information?

 

[iNickStuff]

Sorry, little offtopic.

Can I find similar stats that Guardian has for Premier League for Spanish, German and Italian top divisions? Not talking about "simple" stats like possession, but passes, who passed from where to where, how many passes player did, which one created chances etc. Haven't been able to find one for other leagues than Premier league, but maybe you have a place where you find these kind of information?

I'm in the same boat as you when it comes to this. It's very difficult to and I'd assume they would be in their native languages (i.e. La Liga advanced stats in Spanish, Serie A in Italian). So they could slip under the radar.

---------- Post added at 10:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:53 AM ----------

Thanks, but it seems the original thread is too far away. So I wanted to know if the tactic you described, that won you 8 out of 8 with arsenal, and which you uploaded here, will work with my crop of players? I tried all of these formations and even more, I've been playing with the series from 2004, so the instructions are tricky for me, not the formations, as they make the players behave differently in every new version.

So the if I download your 4-2-3-1 for Arsenal, do you see it work with my Valencia? Or do I have to buy an AMF?

I don't think you need to buy an AMC, you're pretty much fine.

 

[GeorgeMiles6]

I hope you continue doing your tactic stuff when the new FM comes out!
Will you? It's an awesome thread.

 

[jeffers1984]

iNickStuff,

i am currently playing my 1st season with Fulham and I tried to use your counter attack tactic (4-5-1), however i have some questions about it that i hope u can help me with. Regarding the 2 centre backs, in the case of hangeland and hughes. Hangeland should be the ball playing defender right? is it possible to put him as a ball playing defender / stopper and put hughes as a limited defender / cover or i would be contradicting myself ? The defensive line for the whole team should be deep or normal ? and what about the width and tempo and the standing off ?
You mentioned in ur tactic that you use Duff as a winger, but he's being really inconsistent this year, how were u using him? I've been using him a winger/attack with instructions to hug the line.
As for the attack, have u been using Dembele ? i think he's horrible and he can't score, im thinking of selling him at the end of the season. My main striker this year has been Zamora and im employing him as a deep lying striker by himself. He scored 10 goals with 7 games to go i guess. is that good ?

 

[iNickStuff]

I hope you continue doing your tactic stuff when the new FM comes out!
Will you? It's an awesome thread.

I intend to write one more article on FM11 before Friday next week and open up the FM12 edition of this thread.

iNickStuff,

i am currently playing my 1st season with Fulham and I tried to use your counter attack tactic (4-5-1), however i have some questions about it that i hope u can help me with. Regarding the 2 centre backs, in the case of hangeland and hughes. Hangeland should be the ball playing defender right? is it possible to put him as a ball playing defender / stopper and put hughes as a limited defender / cover or i would be contradicting myself ? The defensive line for the whole team should be deep or normal ? and what about the width and tempo and the standing off ?
You mentioned in ur tactic that you use Duff as a winger, but he's being really inconsistent this year, how were u using him? I've been using him a winger/attack with instructions to hug the line.
As for the attack, have u been using Dembele ? i think he's horrible and he can't score, im thinking of selling him at the end of the season. My main striker this year has been Zamora and im employing him as a deep lying striker by himself. He scored 10 goals with 7 games to go i guess. is that good ?

I doubt making Hangeland a Ball-Playing Defender would be as effective as him being a Central Defender on Defend, or a Limited Defender on Defend. Making one of them a Limited Defender and the other a normal Central Defender, I believe, would be far more effective, as Hangeland is not very creative - on or off the ball.

It would be advised to keep the defensive line moderately deep, but depending on who you play and what your coaches advise, you could push it up a little bit and making your full backs, if they are competent enough, to roam forward and overlap the wingers. Like Riise.

I cannot remember, but I probably played him as either a Winger on Attack or an Inside Forward on Attack. Perhaps even swapping wings regularly with Dempsey for them to be unplayable and become more effective. And it'd be better for him to Move Into Channels or Cut Inside than Hug Touchline, because he'd be more than likely to waste possession than make something of it unlike Dempsey.

I've rarely had great success with Dembele as an out-and-out striker, and rather just playing off the main striker - whether that be Grafite as it were in that save, or Bobby Zamora as a Target Man on Attack and the wingers/full backs just whipping crosses into the box. And for Zamora in your game; whatever works. If he is doing well, don't change the game. As the saying goes:

If it ain't broke, don't fix it

If he scores, it's good. Would recommend playing wider more, just to play to his strengths however.

 

[jeffers1984]

thanks for the precious info! one last question, is it possible to use the stopper/cover in ur tactic ?

 

[iNickStuff]

thanks for the precious info! one last question, is it possible to use the stopper/cover in ur tactic ?

Yes, you can still use it, but only with caution as it does not guarantee improved success.

 

[jeffers1984]

again thanks for your help. The tactic is working pretty well whenever i play 4-4-2 but when i switch to 4-5-1 im getting battered. i think the reason behind this is my slow wingers and i dont have a pretty good striker to use him by himself. who do you recommend as a winger ?

 

[iNickStuff]

again thanks for your help. The tactic is working pretty well whenever i play 4-4-2 but when i switch to 4-5-1 im getting battered. i think the reason behind this is my slow wingers and i dont have a pretty good striker to use him by himself. who do you recommend as a winger ?

Karim Ait-Fana, if you can afford him.

 

[D@ve]

Hi all this is my first post on this AMAZING Thread!!! I just want to say a big thankyou to iNickStuff for creating this thread its taken me 2 days to read through the 70 pages of excellent advice which i have made notes and it as really help me understand some thing's but as always there is still room for improvement/understanding on my part with Fm games!!!

I know i congratulated you in a PM Nick but id like to share my admiration for all the work you have put into to making this thread and im looking forward to the last article. Also looking forward to the Fm12 edition of this thread..

Thankyou again for all the hard work and thankyou to all the guys which made this thread an excellent read :wub:

 

[iNickStuff]

Unfortunately didn't have the time to write up my final article for FM11 in time before FM12 came out, and probably would be rendered useless due to the amount of people that would have the latest game anyway.

Closing this thread now, looking to create the FM12 version of it when I get the game (perhaps tomorrow or next week). But I would like to say a very big thank you to all that read my articles, adapted the theories and ideologies into their saves with success and helped make this thread successful overall

Hopefully this year's will be the same too.