Does More Direct or Route One Tactics Work? If so, what players/tactics to look for?

[MonagHusker]

I have a nasty habit of taking tactics here or on Steam and plugging them into my system. It seems like everything I see is possession based.

Does More Direct passing / go route one work with the right players? What attributes do you need to run this? Are there any good tactics already made that seem to work?

 

[Kasiopiya]

I can say that I've tried it but didn't managed to get any good of it

 

[gintonpar]

I've had decent results in lower leagues with a direct 442. Pretty self explanatory: Target Man and Poacher up top, supporting fullbacks, attacking wingers, box to box midfielder and a holding midfielder.

Relatively hard to break down and providing you get lots of balls into the box from wide you should score a few from headers and knockdowns.

However - I think tactics that retain possession are very much flavour of the month right now, both in real life and in the game.

Leicester last season, Watford, West Ham play direct football. Do many others? Most clubs, and all top clubs, play possession with a high press. This is reflected in the game engine. Sadly this means that it is harder to express yourself tactically with a more direct approach. FM, as it has to, follows footballing trends very closely, and struggles to simulate tactical variation over time.

For example, a few FMs ago possession based tiki-taka's were all the rage. In real life this would be dominant for a while, and then countered, but the FM engine finds it understandably difficult to model tactical evolution. This means that while possession/high press remains flavour of the month in real life, it will be the go to tactic in FM.

Closest you could get to a 'direct' feel for your tactic, I would suggest is to play a counter attacking tactic. Try and sit deep and have quick wingers and forwards. When you break, you should see some decent long passes to wingers and nice through balls.

 

[MonagHusker]

I've had decent results in lower leagues with a direct 442. Pretty self explanatory: Target Man and Poacher up top, supporting fullbacks, attacking wingers, box to box midfielder and a holding midfielder.

Relatively hard to break down and providing you get lots of balls into the box from wide you should score a few from headers and knockdowns.

However - I think tactics that retain possession are very much flavour of the month right now, both in real life and in the game.

Leicester last season, Watford, West Ham play direct football. Do many others? Most clubs, and all top clubs, play possession with a high press. This is reflected in the game engine. Sadly this means that it is harder to express yourself tactically with a more direct approach. FM, as it has to, follows footballing trends very closely, and struggles to simulate tactical variation over time.

For example, a few FMs ago possession based tiki-taka's were all the rage. In real life this would be dominant for a while, and then countered, but the FM engine finds it understandably difficult to model tactical evolution. This means that while possession/high press remains flavour of the month in real life, it will be the go to tactic in FM.

Closest you could get to a 'direct' feel for your tactic, I would suggest is to play a counter attacking tactic. Try and sit deep and have quick wingers and forwards. When you break, you should see some decent long passes to wingers and nice through balls.

Thanks forthe reply!

I appreciate the information. I was wondering if it might be something like you detailed, as it seems like I seldom see it discussed. I may tinker around a bit.

Thanks again!

 

[Edd1920]

I've had some success with Direct tactics, but it's not particularly aesthetically pleasing to watch.

My formation was a 4-1-2-2-1, but it was almost like having 2 teams of 5 - a back 4 with a DM and then a TM supported by 2AM and 2 wingers. I found the key is to get the ball quickly wide and then into the box quickly, with either the TM winning it in the box and knocking it down to one of the AMs, or the TM winning it outside the box and the AMs running through to the flick on...a Bolton like Kevin Davies/Kevin Nolan partnership.

 

[gintonpar]

Yea I don't think it's a tactic that will guarantee you dominance in a league. It is more a 'percentages' based tactic that will get you results if you build your side around it.

I found that the best way to emulate counter-attacking/direct football, was to play a deep 442 with shorter passing and high tempo. There you will still see wide players beating their man on the outside, and balls launched forward from deep as the counter develops.

 

[raizen]

not sure if it's considered direct, but i only get 40-45% possession every game while scoring 4-5 goals. i use mixed passing tho so it's not really long ball english style, more like quick forward passes