craiigman

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Hi all,

This bothered me last year a little as well, I personally can't grasp the idea of the way the formation/tactic is "learnt". So last year I do believe it took around 12 games for your team to become familiar with your tactics. I presume it's around the same again this year? But my biggest issue with it is, it seems any change you make has a big effect on how familiar the players are.

I could understand going from very high pressing to no pressing or the other way around. Of course that's a big change. But when you make some minor changes or add/remove player instructions (can someone confirm if player instructions effects this?) and it has an effect, it does kind of bother me.

The way tactics are done now is done to encourage you to tweak things more. But it then punishes you for tweaking by making your players less familiar with what you are doing. So it means that if my tactic during pre-season wasn't working, then I am basically screwed going into the season. It was a bigger issue last year since it was completely new. But even still, there is no perfect tactic anymore, so why is the familiarity thing such a big deal?

It seems that any tactic you put is awkward. There is not starting guidelines to get a familiar tactic right away. I don't understand this. You should be given what the previous manager was doing or what the players are already comfortable with and then make changes from there. Having to start from scratch to emulate the teams actual playing style just makes no sense to me.

Also with all the new player roles they've been adding, changing those has an effect as well. There are so many player specific roles now that the players on your bench are unlikely to match the ones on the pitch. I don't understand how this is such a big issue as well. My left wingers are Cazorla and Podolski (I'm Arsenal). Cazorla is an IF and Podolski would be a winger/raumdeuter. But making that change for some reason cause a negative effect on the familiarity. Which is not right.

The best managers in the world change their tactics based on who they are playing (obviously Wenger doesn't, but that's another issue in itself). So why does the game seem to punish you for making these tactical changes?

Should I be setting up 3 tactics from the very beginning? But won't that mean they take longer to learn and how do I have time to see if all 3 tactics are even working? Don't get me wrong, I love all the options for making a tactic. I just find the familiarity thing a major issue in the system. There needs to be like a middle starting ground, not just rock bottom. I could understand if I took over at United and I tried to do Van Gaal and change the system completely. That takes time. But playing as Arsenal and using the same system as Wenger (more or less). How is that awkward familiarity?

I think I've rambled enough. What is the best way to go? Should I have more than 1 tactic? Should I have 2 or 3? Should they be similar but different roles, 1 counter, 1 control, and then 1 completely different? I can't seem to grasp what to do. I want to be able to adjust as per the opposition, but I feel like the game punishes you for this.

I mean, what is the point of training a formation for 12 friendlies to play the first game of the season to find out it's actually awful?
 
I agree, I am Man U at Present and went through all the tactics. Doesn't matter what I pick they are at Awkward.
 
I' always have 3, look at how City can play the same 11 but drop from a 442 into a 4231 quite easy, but when Mancini tried to shoehorn an option of 3 at the back in a couple of games, the team was awful, no idea where they were supposed to pick up runners and set pieces etc.

The idea of not giving you a starting block if you play the same was as Wenger is probably due to you being the new guy, sometimes a new approach is not just formation but personality and communication on the training pitch which you wont see in the game. I agree its a bit harsh at the min to start at 0, sometimes it just doesnt work for a number of reasons, there wasnt much change in the way Spurs have played under on paper, but on the pitch, nope no dice. same with Swansea not much change in players or style from Rodgers to Monk, but didnt work for Laudrup.

They should at least be familar with the prefered 'club' formation from the team report page from the off.
 
Unfortunately I think starting you off with a basic familiarity of a formation would lead to most people just playing that formation and not experimenting so much with other formations/features/roles. :(
 
Formation shouldnt be such an issue most players would be comfortable in 442, 433 or 4231 its rarely used formations which should be awkward... Common formations should start as competent at least...

Its probably too difficult to implement but in real life some players are going to be naturally comfortable playing in a high pressing, short passing 433... Thats more my frustration, I dont know if the players stats will subtly mean they adapt to high pressing better for instance... In theory a guy will high aggression, work rate etc. will learn to adapt to high pressing quicker but I think it probably just means he is more suited but wont adapt quicker...

the system isnt horrible but there are some small things that would be great if taken into account... Iv made a massive mistake with my Derby team I have forced players into my system more so than really looked at their strengths... Very difficult to tell whether that was a good idea or not because I continue to perform well above expectations but not performing to my expectations...
I have had such a high turnover in transfer this window my system is a disaster and I dont think 12 friendlies is going to solve it in time for the opening game...
 
No I think you are right that the players should have an average understanding at least of common formations. But if you look at the advice offered by the often laughable Assman, he does point out when players are more comfortable playing more/less direct or closing down more/less. Though I don't think that is ever represented by the information outside of the match analysis?
 
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