Control the match with xPer

[xPer]

I would like to share with you my experience in controlling the game. Football Manager now it's complex and extensive football simulator and good tactics it's just not enough. Of course all advices I give you here it's not a simple solution as FM it's not a simple scripted game. Sometimes it's works sometimes don't but usually help.
The rest it's just Football Manager magic ...

We are starting our match. We play away match against strong opponent the most dangerous and hated rival. We are Manchester United. We go away to play derby match against Man City.

I'm using Pitch / Full view with necessary panels to have a full preview on all.
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It's 20' of the game and nothing really happen. Both sides are trying to take the initiative. We have to Encourage our players:
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I noticed that Danilo is Looking Nervous so I have to react and make Team touchline talk with him:
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After some short time I notice that it didn't help so I have to try again:
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In the end it brought results, he's composed now.
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Goal! It's 36' and we scored:
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First half coming to an end and and I know that last 5 minutes of first half are very dangerous. I have to prepare my players for that so Im makine Team touchline talk with my team on 37':
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It's a half time and I'm going to talk with my players.
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Most of my players responded appropriately but one lazy ******* ignored me. I have to give him some Sir Alex Ferguson famous hair dryer:
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now it's better:
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We have started 2 half...
On 50' I have again Encourage my players. The game is tightened and my players are getting yellow cards. I have to be careful. Im checking Players stats:
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Luke Shaw has 2 fouls I have to remove Tackle Harder instruction on him:
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Then Im checking again and Danilo has 4 fouls, that's enough I have to substitute him. I always substitute booked player with 4 and above fouls.
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It's 60' now and they park the bus! I have to do something about it:
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Boom! It's 2:0 we have scored again!
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I know that 2:0 its dangerous score and I want more:
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Hey it did not look like this, they are taking back initiative! They start threatening to attack and create dangerous situations, I have to react:
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It's 75' and now we have to keep the score. We have to survive their madness.
Im changing my team mentality to Contain:
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but it's not enough, I have to add Play Even Safer to my team instruction:
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Now I have to ask my team to concentrate again:
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It's 85'! We have to focus now only on tactic and protect our goal:
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Finally! It's all over we won! I have to price my players after that match, they deserve it.

... 6 hours later ... I sleep and have this nightmare...
It's 75' and we are loosing 0:1! I have to do something about that!
Im changing my team mentality to Overload and make Team touchline talk with my team:
View attachment 113944
BOOM! we scored at 93' and we saved a point!

... then I woke up ... ehhh this dream was so bad ... I thought this scenario from my dream is so unrealistic because I'm using xPer Advanced Warfare '17 pack.

 

[cez]

hey man great topic, something I was looking for as to be honest hardly used touch line shouts before...

anyway have a bit of a thing for you,

do you ever adjust your players position, mentality etc depending on the next rival? or just use the shouts?
How do you counter the team that's countering you?

Lets say im Inter and playing against Juventus and Roma away, using a possession based wide 433 with full backs overlapping,
Juve often plays 4312 when they need goals they switch to 433 narrow or 4312 offensive, and thats whey they often pushed me back and score goals

so I'm guessing the key to beat them would be exploiting the wide areas having IFs draging their fullbacks to the middle while our fullbacks overlap them? and I never know if the enemy plays narrow, should I set my team to play norrow and exploit the wings or play wide and also if they have a dangerous front 2+1AM or 3 STs should I sit deep or have a higher line with offsides...

Roma on the other hand plays a possesion based wide 433 kind of like a tiki taka style with fast and creative wings and when they need to score they switch to offensive 4240 which is also when its really hard to counter them, because when I sit back they would just overrun me and eventually score, if i go offensive they would play long ball to front 4 and outplay me....


/e just played against lazio away, my default tactic is offensive mentality, so changed that to control, and was the better team around 20min i encourage players and they score only to see lazio change their mentality to attacking and score within 5/10mins and i was unable to tell them to focus or show more passion, second half again I score after a team talk, and again 5 mins later they go all offensiev and bang 2-2....

 

[BrunoF8]

This topic is fantastic, I thank you for that.

Taking advantage, could you give me some tips about pre-match, half-time and post-match teamtalks according with some scenarios?

Thanks, myth.

 

[xPer]

hey man great topic, something I was looking for as to be honest hardly used touch line shouts before...

anyway have a bit of a thing for you,

do you ever adjust your players position, mentality etc depending on the next rival? or just use the shouts?
How do you counter the team that's countering you?

...

I don't adjust my players position or mentality depending next rival. I have 3 different tactics that my players has practice by the pre-season and I care about tactics familarity. My players has to adjust to my tactics and their roles.
I have 3 tactics and 2 different formations. I'm carefully check my next opponent fixtures to see which formation they'r usually playing and against which formation they are winning and loosing. I'm carefully check scout info about next opponent to know their playing style. Then I decide which tactic I will use.

During the match I'm using Team touchline talks. However you have to be careful. Sometimes after touchline talks some players might be nervous and they can begin to make mistakes. When I see that we have full control and we are dominating I'm not using Team touchline talks at all. On hard matchas against top teams I'm also very careful with Team touchline talks, I'm using them eventually and usualy only to Encourage and Concentrate my team.

Im checking my players stats constantly. If some player has poor match rating and he's making mistakes in defence or missing chances in attack Im making substitution. I need to replace weak link. When it's 65' and we have 14 shots on goal, we didn't score and my striker has 6.2 ratio match I need to substitute him. When 3 of my defenders has good 7.2+ match ratio and fourth has low 6.4 ratio Im trying to Encourage him. If he still making mistakes in defence I have to consider changing him.

On last stage of match usualy after 75' Im changing my team mentality if match is tough. If we are winning Im changing team mentality to Contain and I add Play Even Safer to my team instruction. If we are loosing Im changing my team mentality to Overload and make Team touchline talk with my team and ask them to Push Forward.
If we are controling match since the beginning to the end and we are winning Im not doing much. I just ask my team to Concentrate at 76'. Sometimes when we just easy dominate and winning by 3 goals Im just reading my paper on the bench and doing nothing...

On the end its Football Manager and there is no simple answer for all. Sometimes we need also a little bit of luck

 

[xPer]

This topic is fantastic, I thank you for that.

Taking advantage, could you give me some tips about pre-match, half-time and post-match teamtalks according with some scenarios?

Thanks, myth.

I always work with best available Assistant and let him do the pre-match teamtalks.

I'm trying to not to price my players on half-time. Im doing it only on easy matches when we are winning strong to boost my team morale.
If we draw or lose I say Assertively : I am not happy with your performance out there. Then Im making individual talks with players who didn't respond properly (green). When his match ratio on first half was -6.8 Im telling Assertively that I am not happy with your performance today. If his match ratio is 6.9+ Im telling Assertively that I believe in him.
If we are winning by 1 or 2 goals I say to my team that's not the end and they should be focused.

After the match when we have won nice by 2 or more goals I price my team. If we win by 1 goal Im saying that Im not happy and we win by luck. Sometimes I don't do post-match teamtalks at all.

Check these interesting articles:
Team Talks | Football Manager 2017 Guide
How To Use FM 2015 Touchline Team Talks

 

[cez]

I don't adjust my players position or mentality depending next rival. I have 3 different tactics that my players has practice by the pre-season and I care about tactics familarity. My players has to adjust to my tactics and their roles.
I have 3 tactics and 2 different formations. I'm carefully check my next opponent fixtures to see which formation they'r usually playing and against which formation they are winning and loosing. I'm carefully check scout info about next opponent to know their playing style. Then I decide which tactic I will use.

During the match I'm using Team touchline talks. However you have to be careful. Sometimes after touchline talks some players might be nervous and they can begin to make mistakes. When I see that we have full control and we are dominating I'm not using Team touchline talks at all. On hard matchas against top teams I'm also very careful with Team touchline talks, I'm using them eventually and usualy only to Encourage and Concentrate my team.

Im checking my players stats constantly. If some player has poor match rating and he's making mistakes in defence or missing chances in attack Im making substitution. I need to replace weak link. When it's 65' and we have 14 shots on goal, we didn't score and my striker has 6.2 ratio match I need to substitute him. When 3 of my defenders has good 7.2+ match ratio and fourth has low 6.4 ratio Im trying to Encourage him. If he still making mistakes in defence I have to consider changing him.

On last stage of match usualy after 75' Im changing my team mentality if match is tough. If we are winning Im changing team mentality to Contain and I add Play Even Safer to my team instruction. If we are loosing Im changing my team mentality to Overload and make Team touchline talk with my team and ask them to Push Forward.
If we are controling match since the beginning to the end and we are winning Im not doing much. I just ask my team to Concentrate at 76'. Sometimes when we just easy dominate and winning by 3 goals Im just reading my paper on the bench and doing nothing...

On the end its Football Manager and there is no simple answer for all. Sometimes we need also a little bit of luck

I see so its best to have 2-3 tactics, normal, vs hard opponents and different formation in case they neutralize the first two formations

so what do you normally do when you take the lead against a top team and they go offensive and you cant make a team talk for another 5-10 mins as it happened to me here

"/e just played against lazio away, my default tactic is offensive mentality, so changed that to control, and was the better team around 20min i encourage players and they score only to see lazio change their mentality to attacking and score within 5/10mins and i was unable to tell them to focus or show more passion, second half again I score after a team talk, and again 5 mins later they go all offensiev and bang 2-2...."

 

[xPer]

I see so its best to have 2-3 tactics, normal, vs hard opponents and different formation in case they neutralize the first two formations

so what do you normally do when you take the lead against a top team and they go offensive and you cant make a team talk for another 5-10 mins as it happened to me here

"/e just played against lazio away, my default tactic is offensive mentality, so changed that to control, and was the better team around 20min i encourage players and they score only to see lazio change their mentality to attacking and score within 5/10mins and i was unable to tell them to focus or show more passion, second half again I score after a team talk, and again 5 mins later they go all offensiev and bang 2-2...."

First of all you shouldn't use Attacking mentality on away matches on my opinion. Strong opponent will punish you quickly for that and weak opponent will counter-attack you. When you change from Attacking to Control during the match your tactic familarity is dropping which is bad. You need to have different/second tactic for away matches. It seems to me that you have unbalanced tactic to much offensive for away games. Your team is playing nice offensive football but it's been counter and your team concede goals after opponent counter-attack. Im sorry I dont have simple answer to you but for sure you need to work more at away tactic. Try to strengthen the midfield and put more emphasis on the defensive aspect of away tactic.

 

[cez]

First of all you shouldn't use Attacking mentality on away matches on my opinion. Strong opponent will punish you quickly for that and weak opponent will counter-attack you. When you change from Attacking to Control during the match your tactic familarity is dropping which is bad. You need to have different/second tactic for away matches. It seems to me that you have unbalanced tactic to much offensive for away games. Your team is playing nice offensive football but it's been counter and your team concede goals after opponent counter-attack. Im sorry I dont have simple answer to you but for sure you need to work more at away tactic. Try to strengthen the midfield and put more emphasis on the defensive aspect of away tactic.

ok thanks for that, gave me an insight of what to do, cheers

 

[MEADOW]

thnx mate for your suggestions, what abvout complacent and uninterested players during the game.

 

[BrunoF8]

This is a very good question, waiting for the answer.

thnx mate for your suggestions, what abvout complacent and uninterested players during the game.

 

[fanarin]

I don't adjust my players position or mentality depending next rival. I have 3 different tactics that my players has practice by the pre-season and I care about tactics familarity. My players has to adjust to my tactics and their roles.I have 3 tactics and 2 different formations. I'm carefully check my next opponent fixtures to see which formation they'r usually playing and against which formation they are winning and loosing. I'm carefully check scout info about next opponent to know their playing style. Then I decide which tactic I will use.During the match I'm using Team touchline talks. However you have to be careful. Sometimes after touchline talks some players might be nervous and they can begin to make mistakes. When I see that we have full control and we are dominating I'm not using Team touchline talks at all. On hard matchas against top teams I'm also very careful with Team touchline talks, I'm using them eventually and usualy only to Encourage and Concentrate my team.Im checking my players stats constantly. If some player has poor match rating and he's making mistakes in defence or missing chances in attack Im making substitution. I need to replace weak link. When it's 65' and we have 14 shots on goal, we didn't score and my striker has 6.2 ratio match I need to substitute him. When 3 of my defenders has good 7.2+ match ratio and fourth has low 6.4 ratio Im trying to Encourage him. If he still making mistakes in defence I have to consider changing him.On last stage of match usualy after 75' Im changing my team mentality if match is tough. If we are winning Im changing team mentality to Contain and I add Play Even Safer to my team instruction. If we are loosing Im changing my team mentality to Overload and make Team touchline talk with my team and ask them to Push Forward.If we are controling match since the beginning to the end and we are winning Im not doing much. I just ask my team to Concentrate at 76'. Sometimes when we just easy dominate and winning by 3 goals Im just reading my paper on the bench and doing nothing...On the end its Football Manager and there is no simple answer for all. Sometimes we need also a little bit of luck

Would you give some tips about how to play when the next opponent plays as how ?thank you.

 

[xPer]

Would you give some tips about how to play when the next opponent plays as how ?thank you.

? sry I don't understand that

thnx mate for your suggestions, what abvout complacent and uninterested players during the game.

I encourage you to read this article.