General Tactics Questions

[filip989]

I'm not an expert in FM, I have played it for a few years now, but I still struggle in some aspects of the game, so this will be some general questions, and I hope that this thread is in the right section for type of questions I have. So...

I downloaded the demo a few days ago, and I'm really struggling. In FM 2012 I used Liverpool mostly, and mostly won every competition I played in. Bought some great players, built a nice squad and it worked well.

Now in the demo, I tried playing with few stronger teams - Real Madrid (never played them before, but I chose them because of Modrić), PSG and Man Utd. So, pretty much some of the strongest teams.

Real Madrid - played their 4-2-3-1 tactics, used Ronaldo as an inside forward, Di Maria winger, Higuain or Benzenma poacher, Ozil advanced playmaker, I rotated Alonso, Khedira, Modrić and Essien (in order: deep lying playmaker, box to box, dlp, ball winning midfielder), and defense I think only Ramos was ball playing defender. Casillas as a goalkeeper, not sweeper. So, 3 games in Japan - 3 wins - 2-1, 1-0, 1-0, then Tottenham, lost 5-2. In league managed to beat Valencia 3-0, lost to Getafe 7-2 (?!), Super cup - Barca 0-2 and 0-0, never managed to even come into a decent scoring opportunity... Lost to Granada I think 4-1. Really bad results. Ronaldo is frustrated during most of the games, just wastes the balls, I set the team tactics to direct passing (and yet, Karanka always says we should play more direct in in-match analysis. Thicked counter attack to yes, balanced game and attacking. Other parts I didn't alter.

In PSG I lost even to my younger squad 4-3, in Manchester I lost every pre-season game. I played the most with Real, so I explained their tactics in detail, I'm not so sure about what I did with PSG and ManUtd.

What am I doing wrong? Former years, I managed to do really well right from the start, but now I struggle so much. And I don't even know how to respond to some of my assistant coach's analysis. I'd really like some guidance on all of that before I get the game, and if there is a thread which deals with all this, I would be grateful if someone could delete this thread and PM me with some links to what threads I should read.

Thanks!

 

[lee rosse manuel]

play with alonso and lassana in the centre of the park where both work on defensive aspect more lassana than alonso....tell alonso to play the ball wide use him as playmaker not ozil not modric..u will see.. use ramos as center back not carvalho..

 

[lee rosse manuel]

play with alonso and lassana in the centre of the park where both work on defensive aspect more lassana than alonso....tell alonso to play the ball wide use him as playmaker not ozil not modric..u will see.. use ramos as center back not carvalho.,,,

 

[craig curtis]

have a look at my man utd tactic on the man utd tactic discussion thread

 

[filip989]

I saw your tactics later yesterday, it seemed really nice, and I'll be sure to try it. Although, I have a question - from what I have read in some places (and I really wasn't aware of that before), some shouts don't work when certain tactics are used. How can I know which will work and which won't? (I never used those groups of shouts, I always chose them in-match).

@lee rosse manuel I never used Carvalho, I played Marcelo-Pepe-Ramos-Arbeloa or Marcelo-Pepe-Albiol-Ramos when Arbeloa got injured. Coentrao got injured also in training so I didn't play him even once. And are you sure Lassana is in Real Madrid? I'm not sure he's not there, I might have just not pay attention because he's not there IRL, but I really don't remember seeing him in the squad.

 

[filip989]

Craig - thanks man!
It's working perfectly with some minor tweaks (counter attack, direct passing in some games, and even switching to attacking game sometimes). Won the Spanish Super Cup (1-1 and 2-0), Valencia 4-1, Getafe 1-0, Granada 2-1, Sevilla 2-2, Rayo 6-0, Deportivo 4-0, topping the table with 1 point more than Barca so far (also, conceded the same amount of goals, scored one more, the second leg of SSC was a rhapsody, both watching highlights and game statistics). Had a ****** pre-season, but once we got familiar with tactics, we just can't stop scoring.
Having some troubles with injuries (Casillas was out for 4 weeks, Modrić 6, Khedira 4, Coentrao again 3 weeks, now Essien and Ozil got injured in first 8 minutes of Deportivo match, but that's just for a few days, had Kaka out for 6 weeks and Di Maria is also out for another week or so). Callejon proved to be a massive input when he backed up injured Di Maria, scored two amazing goals, Higuain plays really well, Benzema not so much, so now I'm using him to get Ronaldo some rest here and there, he's really a workhorse (if anyone knows how to make him score more, that would be great. Should I designate him as a targetman?).