ChristianEriksen
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Anticipate and react to be the winning manager!
Hi Folks. You all enjoying Football Manager 2016? I haven't received Football Manager yet, but I will receive it on Friday. As long as I play Football Manager I take much fun out of creating and testing tactics. I have got a philosophy of how I play Football Manager and I am going to tell you something about it. I hope you can learn something from it and understand why I try to explain some things.
This is a tactical question and discussion thread. Join the discussion about exploiting tactical situations.
One striker versus two strikers
There is no such thing as 'one tactic which rules the world and every match for you'. But, you could win every match if you take the right decisions (in-match). For example, I play with Ajax against Arsenal. Arsenal started with a 4231 tactic, which is with one striker. I have a 4 defenders, 1 defensive midfielder (support), two central midfielders (support), two inside forwards and one striker tactic.
No problems at all in defense..
But.. After a period of time Arsenal manager' anticipated with a 4-4-2 tactic and scored directly, 1-1. And that is exactly the moment you have to do something. You can lazy sit back and hope for a lucky strike, but instead you should anticipate and create more 'percentage' of winning the match. Like I did..
I just tweaked the defensive midfielder (deep lying playmaker) - which was on support first half - to a defensive midfielder on defend (deep lying playmaker). Now Arsenal couldn't think easily their two strikers because my defensive midfielder press against their striker, stands in their strikers zone and picks up through passes from their midfield and defense into their strikers.
So, what I want to say is that you don't just have to trust on a tactic. Yes, there are plenty of good tactics. But for some reasons a tactic can't handle a type of team, play style or formation. And that should be an eye-opener for you to anticipate and react. Think logic and dare to trust on your tactical knowledge.
Exploiting the half-spaces
Another example. The score was 2-1 in Ajax' advantage. But I felt we could score more so I focussed on some new attacking exploit. In many situations I saw my wingers just marking their backs and and a lot of defensive runs. I felt like we needed to score and a goal and Arsenal had to react on my new tactical formation. I started to play with three centre strikers at front in the 85th minute..
Instead of my wingers on the sideline I created much more space for my attacking backs. I also created a lot of 'questions in the Arsenal defense'. This new setup resulted in the 3-1 win over Arsenal, thanks to a good pass from my right centre striker and a good run into the box from my attacking back. A good example of how important a dynamic playing style is.
And so on there are much more situations when you have to react and/or anticipate to take the win. Red cards, long through balls, different playing style opposition, different formation opposition. Keep an eye on it and specially in important matches when you have to get the win!
I would like to use this thread as an sort of tactical questions thread. Everyone can join the discussions about in-game situations and let us know what you should do!
Let me know if you want some more tactical solutions about some situations..
One striker versus two strikers
There is no such thing as 'one tactic which rules the world and every match for you'. But, you could win every match if you take the right decisions (in-match). For example, I play with Ajax against Arsenal. Arsenal started with a 4231 tactic, which is with one striker. I have a 4 defenders, 1 defensive midfielder (support), two central midfielders (support), two inside forwards and one striker tactic.
No problems at all in defense..
But.. After a period of time Arsenal manager' anticipated with a 4-4-2 tactic and scored directly, 1-1. And that is exactly the moment you have to do something. You can lazy sit back and hope for a lucky strike, but instead you should anticipate and create more 'percentage' of winning the match. Like I did..
I just tweaked the defensive midfielder (deep lying playmaker) - which was on support first half - to a defensive midfielder on defend (deep lying playmaker). Now Arsenal couldn't think easily their two strikers because my defensive midfielder press against their striker, stands in their strikers zone and picks up through passes from their midfield and defense into their strikers.
So, what I want to say is that you don't just have to trust on a tactic. Yes, there are plenty of good tactics. But for some reasons a tactic can't handle a type of team, play style or formation. And that should be an eye-opener for you to anticipate and react. Think logic and dare to trust on your tactical knowledge.
Exploiting the half-spaces
Another example. The score was 2-1 in Ajax' advantage. But I felt we could score more so I focussed on some new attacking exploit. In many situations I saw my wingers just marking their backs and and a lot of defensive runs. I felt like we needed to score and a goal and Arsenal had to react on my new tactical formation. I started to play with three centre strikers at front in the 85th minute..
Instead of my wingers on the sideline I created much more space for my attacking backs. I also created a lot of 'questions in the Arsenal defense'. This new setup resulted in the 3-1 win over Arsenal, thanks to a good pass from my right centre striker and a good run into the box from my attacking back. A good example of how important a dynamic playing style is.
And so on there are much more situations when you have to react and/or anticipate to take the win. Red cards, long through balls, different playing style opposition, different formation opposition. Keep an eye on it and specially in important matches when you have to get the win!
I would like to use this thread as an sort of tactical questions thread. Everyone can join the discussions about in-game situations and let us know what you should do!
Let me know if you want some more tactical solutions about some situations..
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