At the moment, I'm in 10th in the Championship with Middlesbrough. I've recently joined, but my tactics are already familiar with them. I'm using the tactic I got Oldham promoted with and a variant on that at the moment, so it's proven to work, but the players just don't seem to want to defend, or score goals at Middlesbrough.
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My first tactic goes like this. My goalkeeper, David Stockdale, is in because I also have Scott Carson who is arguably the worst goalkeeper I've ever used on FM. He drops everything and has dropped way too many clangers. How he has a 6.78 average rating I don't know.
Then there's the defenders, set to be, well, defenders, stay back, and the fullbacks should contribute to the play dependent on how my mentality changes throughout the match.
I have a ball winning midfielder to stay back and win the ball to start counter attacks where needed, with a box to box midfielder to be my enigma and ensure the team always has an easy pass to make.
Then there's the four attacking players. I don't expect Musonda to constantly attack, I want him to make the chances to start attacks and the wingers should be pushing up. Ashley Barnes is awful, only has 5 goals which is unacceptable for a striker that cost £3.1m (not my signing) and has played (I think) every game so far.
Instructions are as follows:
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They're pretty basic really. Keep it calm, but at a high tempo to pass around the opposition, don't do anything stupid and get the ball into the box to shoot. However, we never really see goals, I'm not sure if my strikers are just that bad or there's something else I need to do to get the goal count up.
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Then there's this tactic. It's not a 4-3-3 as such, it's almost identical (and based off) the Christmas Tree O'Doom. Now it works for Second Yellow Card, but not for me. This may be due to a few changes I've made to make it a bit more attacking.
First, goalkeeper being goalkeeper. That's fine, I wish he'd stop stupid goals from being scored but this is FM, where every goal you concede is an absolute howler.
Defenders the same as last time.
Then there's a ball winning midfielder again, he does the same job as before. Get attacks going, get the ball to someone else who can actually attack.
Two wingers set to support. Now I know for a fact that these two are technically brilliant, and should be taking on the fullbacks to get crosses in. One problem is that I've got my tactic set to be narrower, and maybe that should be taken off to let Ibe, Sims, and Rollins off their leashes and cause mayhem.
The attacking midfielders, who maybe should be swapped around, are there to get the ball to the forward or use the shadow striker to get goals, but either way as long as the ball's in the back of the net I'm not really bothered. This is a promotion push, and we need to score goals to win.
And then there's Barnes again. He's hopeless, and really needs to get scoring before I bin him off. He's had warnings, yet he's still an embarrassment and I have no idea why the Boro board have let their previous manager make him the only forward at the club. (This will be fixed in due course)
View attachment 240651
The instructions are similar to earlier, so I trust I don't have to go into them that much. Maybe I shouldn't play narrower? Or maybe it's just my players aren't suited to the style? I'm not sure, so if somebody can help me I'd really appreciate it. I have to get to the playoffs!
View attachment 240664
My first tactic goes like this. My goalkeeper, David Stockdale, is in because I also have Scott Carson who is arguably the worst goalkeeper I've ever used on FM. He drops everything and has dropped way too many clangers. How he has a 6.78 average rating I don't know.
Then there's the defenders, set to be, well, defenders, stay back, and the fullbacks should contribute to the play dependent on how my mentality changes throughout the match.
I have a ball winning midfielder to stay back and win the ball to start counter attacks where needed, with a box to box midfielder to be my enigma and ensure the team always has an easy pass to make.
Then there's the four attacking players. I don't expect Musonda to constantly attack, I want him to make the chances to start attacks and the wingers should be pushing up. Ashley Barnes is awful, only has 5 goals which is unacceptable for a striker that cost £3.1m (not my signing) and has played (I think) every game so far.
Instructions are as follows:
View attachment 240662
They're pretty basic really. Keep it calm, but at a high tempo to pass around the opposition, don't do anything stupid and get the ball into the box to shoot. However, we never really see goals, I'm not sure if my strikers are just that bad or there's something else I need to do to get the goal count up.
View attachment 240657
Then there's this tactic. It's not a 4-3-3 as such, it's almost identical (and based off) the Christmas Tree O'Doom. Now it works for Second Yellow Card, but not for me. This may be due to a few changes I've made to make it a bit more attacking.
First, goalkeeper being goalkeeper. That's fine, I wish he'd stop stupid goals from being scored but this is FM, where every goal you concede is an absolute howler.
Defenders the same as last time.
Then there's a ball winning midfielder again, he does the same job as before. Get attacks going, get the ball to someone else who can actually attack.
Two wingers set to support. Now I know for a fact that these two are technically brilliant, and should be taking on the fullbacks to get crosses in. One problem is that I've got my tactic set to be narrower, and maybe that should be taken off to let Ibe, Sims, and Rollins off their leashes and cause mayhem.
The attacking midfielders, who maybe should be swapped around, are there to get the ball to the forward or use the shadow striker to get goals, but either way as long as the ball's in the back of the net I'm not really bothered. This is a promotion push, and we need to score goals to win.
And then there's Barnes again. He's hopeless, and really needs to get scoring before I bin him off. He's had warnings, yet he's still an embarrassment and I have no idea why the Boro board have let their previous manager make him the only forward at the club. (This will be fixed in due course)
View attachment 240651
The instructions are similar to earlier, so I trust I don't have to go into them that much. Maybe I shouldn't play narrower? Or maybe it's just my players aren't suited to the style? I'm not sure, so if somebody can help me I'd really appreciate it. I have to get to the playoffs!