GUARDIOLA'S MANCHESTER CITY

[Kyanite]

GUARDIOLA'S MANCHESTER CITY

[video=youtube;EjBSmrauguo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjBSmrauguo[/video]

Some may remember my tactical recreations from FM17 and I'm happy to say, I'm back with yet another... just in time before the Manchester derby

It is very important to note that this is not a one touch, heavy possession based tactic that only plays short tiki-taka passing football like some people seem to think all Guardiola sides do and have done so over the years.

This is a tactic that recreates how Guardiola's Manchester City have played and aimed to score goals this season, while also retaining plenty of ball possession and maintaining a high passing completion percentage within the constraints of the FM18 match engine, without sacrificing on goal scoring ability.

Do NOT expect to consistently have 65%+ possession. In some matches you will achieve 70%+. But against the stronger sides, you will probably walk away with around 55%. It is possible to achieve this with tweaks, however you would significantly sacrifice the number of clear cut chances created. The FM18 match engine is a lot more mature in comparison to previous match engines.

THE FORMATION

Just as Pep Guardiola tweaks and modifies his teams width, depending on opposition, you too will benefit from doing the same. You should also tweak the roles of your full backs to exploit opposition too. For example, up against Chelsea, feel free to use Delph as an Inverted Wingback for example to free up De Bruyne in midfield just as Guardiola instructed his side to do in real life too.

Tweaks such as increasing the Sweeper Keeper's mentality or decreasing Silva's mentality (which is part of what the away tactic does), are more than welcome and won't hinder performances.

I recommend keeping Kevin De Bruyne as a Box to Box midfielder, as this seems to get him as close to real life as possible. Ensuring he comes deep in his own half to pick up the ball and also contribute in the final third with plenty of long shot goals.

THE TRAINING REGIME

The tactic will do fine with most strong teams with the right style of players in the right positions. What you focus on in training is up to you, this year it seems to make sense that once you've achieved 90%+ tactical familiarity, switching your match preparation to whatever area you feel you are lacking makes sense. My assistant manager kept choosing Attacking Movement.

THE OPPOSITION INSTRUCTIONS

I used no Opposition Instructions, however if you think you could benefit from a higher level of closing down/pressing than what is already there, you can feel free to add that or if you are trying to exploit a specific opposition weakness, go for it.

THE TEAM RESULTS

We still had the most possession and passing completion percentage in the league, even though it isn't as dominant as City in real life. There are several reasons for this, but mainly down to the fact that I don't believe it's possible to achieve this in "plug & play" fashion. I do however think I could've achieved 5%-10% higher possession statistics on average if I had actually adapted during games where we had the lead. For example, going for a control mentality, slowing down our tempo, reducing player mentalities and so on. Instead, I just plug & played the tactic & had games on full speed. So if you take more care, there is no reason why you can't get closer to Guardiola's Manchester City in real life.

Results vs. Top 5 Teams:
2-1 W - vs. ARSENAL (AWAY)
4-1 W - vs. LIVERPOOL (AWAY)
1-0 W - vs. MAN UTD (AWAY)
1-0 W - vs. SPURS (AWAY)
1-0 W - vs. CHELSEA (HOME)
1-0 W - vs. MAN UTD (AWAY - FA Cup)
1-0 W - vs. MAN UTD (AWAY - EFL Cup)

THE PLAYER RESULTS

I'd have liked more assists from both De Bruyne & Silva as a whole, but I think De Bruyne certainly made up for it with goals. But I don't see this as a significant issue because their average ratings say it all and most of the time, it's them who finds the wide man who goes on to assist the striker.

THE CONCLUSION

Generally speaking, I'm pretty pleased with the style that has been created that provides a nice variation of different types of goals that are very similar to Guardiola's Manchester City this season. You can watch their first 30 goals of the season here:
https://www.mancity.com/citytv/features/2017/october/man city goals video highlights sergio aguero

However, please bare in mind that my results are achieved by plug & playing, as well as holidaying between matches. With a little care, you should be able to achieve better possession stats & slightly better results by keeping players happy and adapting to different opposition!
​
THE DOWNLOAD
MIRROR #1 (.RAR WITH BOTH TACTICS
MIRROR #2 (HOME TACTIC)
MIRROR #2 (AWAY TACTIC)​

 

[qwerty111]

58% possesion and youre calling it Guardiola's city. Just name it something else because thats misleading has nothing to do with Pep. EVERY Guardiola side has prioritized short passing and none of his teams ever finish a season with under 62% average possesion. Regardless of the opposition he comes out with around 65% or higher when he has his team playing as he wants (not counting City last season)

 

[kpsia518]

i'm ManUtd fan,seaching for a tactic suitable for ManUtd.

can you update this two tactic to FM18 or season 17/18 version ?

Sir Alex Ferguson's 2007/08 Manchester United Tactic

Mourinho's Red Devils

or any chance a Sir Alex 2012/2013 tactic ?

 

[Piaz]

58% possesion and youre calling it Guardiola's city. Just name it something else because thats misleading has nothing to do with Pep. EVERY Guardiola side has prioritized short passing and none of his teams ever finish a season with under 62% average possesion. Regardless of the opposition he comes out with around 65% or higher when he has his team playing as he wants (not counting City last season)

Possesion in fm is not equal to possesion in real life football.
https://community.sigames.com/topic/362872-the-art-of-possession-football/

 

[0widowmaker0]

58% possesion and youre calling it Guardiola's city. Just name it something else because thats misleading has nothing to do with Pep. EVERY Guardiola side has prioritized short passing and none of his teams ever finish a season with under 62% average possesion. Regardless of the opposition he comes out with around 65% or higher when he has his team playing as he wants (not counting City last season)

Just give it a rest. It's a name of a tactic bud. You don't like it, move on.

This is the kind of feedback that stops creators sharing their work.

 

[wkdsoul]

Just give it a rest. It's a name of a tactic bud. You don't like it, move on.

This is the kind of feedback that stops creators sharing their work.

Its not even right, peps first season at city 60.9% possession in real life

58 average with this engine in that league is great.

 

[jemo]

interesting tactic. will be following this closely. have you tried the tactic with any other teams?

 

[nutter22]

Any chance of a normal download pls

 

[Kyanite]

58% possesion and youre calling it Guardiola's city. Just name it something else because thats misleading has nothing to do with Pep. EVERY Guardiola side has prioritized short passing and none of his teams ever finish a season with under 62% average possesion. Regardless of the opposition he comes out with around 65% or higher when he has his team playing as he wants (not counting City last season)

Hmm. 70% possession in a single game not high enough for you? :S
Not even all these 85%+ passes completed? :'(

I respect your opinion, but am happy to shed some light where you seem to have doubts:

1. 58.7% average over the half of the season that was plug & played. Possession in FM as someone mentioned above is calculated differently to most media outlets/TV. Regardless of this, the fact that only half a season was played means a large percentage of it was played without ideal tactical familiarity which affects possession percentage too. I have no doubt that the average would have hit at least 60+% over the course of the full season, if not more.
2. As I said in my video & my write up above, I plug & played the tactic through on maximum speed. My blue print tactic can be easily modified to a control tactic with a lower tempo variation to increase possession percentage for once you have scored a goal or two. I just couldn't be bothered because I have a job and a life. So when I tend to recreate tactics and produce videos on them and post them on here, the testing is rushed. But the results and most importantly the play style are there and all you have to do is tweak the blue print I provide and improve upon it.
3. You say every Guardiola team has used short passing. Where did I claim otherwise? However, a lot of people have a misconception that due to this, his teams therefore never counter-attack or play direct balls or crosses. Which is false... as we saw literally an hour ago in the Manchester derby with many direct balls forward from KDB and Silva. So I'm not sure what point you're trying to assert here.
4. Please read the actual post before commenting next time. I understand your frustrations, but you need to also be open minded that the Football Manager match engine is not a 1:1 copy of reality as well as take in to account the comments I made about it being possible to achieve higher possession percentages with this tactic when played properly. I also mention more details in my video about why the average is slightly lower because it isn't possible in the game to play with such a high line away from home without conceding constantly. Hence why there are two variations of the tactic, both home & away. So playing with a deeper line, does affect possession stats going forward.

But yeah, if you still have problems, let me know. More than happy to explain them/help.

i'm ManUtd fan,seaching for a tactic suitable for ManUtd.

can you update this two tactic to FM18 or season 17/18 version ?

Sir Alex Ferguson's 2007/08 Manchester United Tactic

Mourinho's Red Devils

or any chance a Sir Alex 2012/2013 tactic ?

Those are also my tactics from FM17!
The match engine hasn't change too drastically. Maybe try the Mourinho's Red Devils tactic in FM18? Might still get the job done for you.

interesting tactic. will be following this closely. have you tried the tactic with any other teams?

Nope. I think it will leak plenty of goals with lower teams. But let me know how you get on if you try something out.

Any chance of a normal download pls

Will provide another mirror for the downloads in the next half hour. Will edit them in to the main post.

 

[kpsia518]

Those are also my tactics from FM17!
The match engine hasn't change too drastically. Maybe try the Mourinho's Red Devils tactic in FM18? Might still get the job done for you.

I copy the setting for this two :

Sir Alex Ferguson's 2007/08 Manchester United Tactic

Mourinho's Red Devils

Mourinho's Red Devils defend more stable.
But i change the CF to TM,& look like TM is better in this case.
CF some time just too much "run with ball".
& if i saw the message : "our cross is great today..."
i will add cross early + Floating crosses,& look great & score goal after that.

& for Sir Alex 07/08,good counter attack,look OK.
but Defense needs to be strengthen.
& look like too much pressing,i don't think ManUtd have pressing that much under fergie

 

[Fulhamswede]

Looks great Kyanite, cant wait to try it. Dont bother trying to convince nitpickers.

 

[qwerty111]

I'm no nitpicker lol if you're referring to me, just constructive criticism. Pep might have averaged just 60.9% possession at city last season but that's without a doubt the worst team he has managed, look at the improvements this season. Any team playing like he wants them to will average at least 65% a season, that's all i'm saying. With that being said, started a quick game just to show you with some effort a real possession based tactic is possible. I picked PSG because they're considerably stronger than all the teams in that league but it's still a challenge to pull it off. so it's still early but i'll post some SS to show what i've been able to do so far.

View attachment 74735This is a friendly against a very weak team, but i still put i up to show how good the tactic can be at it's best
View attachment 74734Now this would be a regular CL opposition, away i might add. Look at the pass completion rate and the possession, which actually went down considerably in the last 10 mins so it could have been higher. I should also add there's no set piece added or anything, still raw so it could be even better but it is very inconsistent. The possesion is but not the goals so there's still work to be done on it. Something i might never be able to accomplish tho

 

[pipeto11]

Going to give it a try with Real Madrid and post results, im going to simulate matchs on Key, only swaping to away tactic to hold the lead. Vs Barcelona and Man Utd on preaseason, what do you suggest Away or Home tactic?

Also want to change the crosses as for Real Madrid is better float or whipped, what do you think? Everything else will be plug and play, only changed full backs rol, i prefer Marcelo on attacking duty

 

[kpsia518]

when you create Guardiola tactic,its away possession vs goal.
you have to choose one between goal & possession,you can choose both of them.

if you get 70% possession for all game,you get less goal.
if you score more goal,& your possession must be 51~60+% maximum

 

[AriCr7]

gonna try this with arsenal

 

[Kyanite]

I'm no nitpicker lol if you're referring to me, just constructive criticism. Pep might have averaged just 60.9% possession at city last season but that's without a doubt the worst team he has managed, look at the improvements this season. Any team playing like he wants them to will average at least 65% a season, that's all i'm saying. With that being said, started a quick game just to show you with some effort a real possession based tactic is possible. I picked PSG because they're considerably stronger than all the teams in that league but it's still a challenge to pull it off. so it's still early but i'll post some SS to show what i've been able to do so far.

View attachment 1137687This is a friendly against a very weak team, but i still put i up to show how good the tactic can be at it's best
View attachment 1137688Now this would be a regular CL opposition, away i might add. Look at the pass completion rate and the possession, which actually went down considerably in the last 10 mins so it could have been higher. I should also add there's no set piece added or anything, still raw so it could be even better but it is very inconsistent. The possesion is but not the goals so there's still work to be done on it. Something i might never be able to accomplish tho

Before talking about constructive criticism, I think you should stop hijacking peoples threads and making a fool of yourself which you've done on numerous occasion now. I'll leave it up to you to figure out how and where.

You clearly didn't even have the decency to take a look at my reply to you nor comment on it which showcases the possession the tactic of the thread is truly capable of performing without being specifically tailored for possession football. Maybe it was because the reply featured even higher possession than your screenshots? I don't know. But you've lost me. So just to add insult to injury and because it's funny, here they are again

65% possession versus Basel with PSG... Clearly you've built a possession based tactic, which isn't necessarily difficult to do. Congratulations. What's the exact point you're trying to make here? Or are you going to ignore my reply again?

As I showed you, I achieved even higher against other Premier League opposition who some might argue are even stronger than Basel despite them being in the Champions League.

You say "Look at the pass completion rate and the possession" yet don't seem to be showcasing anything unique to the images I replied to you with what the thread tactic is capable of.

I'm glad you're building a tactic and you say you still have to work on it. So please do so and then release your own thread on it showcasing its brilliance. There is no need to hijack this thread nor be so arrogant. So please, just don't reply on this thread again as you're not adding anything productive nor proving anything.

Going to give it a try with Real Madrid and post results, im going to simulate matchs on Key, only swaping to away tactic to hold the lead. Vs Barcelona and Man Utd on preaseason, what do you suggest Away or Home tactic?

Also want to change the crosses as for Real Madrid is better float or whipped, what do you think? Everything else will be plug and play, only changed full backs rol, i prefer Marcelo on attacking duty

I'd honestly just use Home at home and Away, away. Don't care about opposition with this personally. The differences between both are minor anyways. Feel free to swap the full back duties around as well. With Real Madrid I agree it makes sense to make the DL the FB-A.

Good luck!

when you create Guardiola tactic,its away possession vs goal.
you have to choose one between goal & possession,you can choose both of them.

if you get 70% possession for all game,you get less goal.
if you score more goal,& your possession must be 51~60+% maximum

Agreed. I do believe it's possible to get 65%+ though if you switch to a control/heavier based possession approach once you score the first or second goal But I think it's lame for people to care so much about a possession number to want to score less goals in the process lol

But yeah you're absolutely correct.

gonna try this with arsenal

Plays some very nice football, most possession in the Premier League again. Shame about the loss vs Chelsea but we had 58% possession and 3 clear cut chances to their 1. Unfortunately Morata scored a BS goal and we lost on penalties

Was a bit unlucky not to get another big team in the PL schedule as well but I'm sure it'll do well with Arsenal as you can see. They have the right players for it, for sure. I would recommend telling the BBM not to shoot more though coz you don't have a De Bruyne for that role with 16-17 long shots

 

[europesfinest]

I have two questions before I'll try this tactic. If you know about my favourite team Besiktas, I love the way we play for two years and especially for this years UCL matches. So, my favourite tactic shape is exactly the way that you created this tactic. I love possession-attacking based tactic but I have two questions as I said. Firstly, every tactic maker is trying to pick the high quality teams like City, United, Chelsea, etc. to show their tactic is good. But when it comes to other users, like to me, I want to use my favourite team, or the teams like Leicester, Sevilla, Lazio etc. Is this tactic can also fit for the teams I told? And my second question is about the role of raumdeuter. This is very special role for the player on FM series, but approximately %60-80 of players can't fit enough for this role. As we know, the academy players of any teams come to the game as winger role for every time. Is it possible to fit them also the role of raumdeuter also? Please give me any info about my questions. I have been looking for the tactic same as yours and 4-2-3-1 since the game was released but none of them is good. Thanks for answering and sharing your opinions. @Kyanite

 

[Kyanite]

I have two questions before I'll try this tactic. If you know about my favourite team Besiktas, I love the way we play for two years and especially for this years UCL matches. So, my favourite tactic shape is exactly the way that you created this tactic. I love possession-attacking based tactic but I have two questions as I said. Firstly, every tactic maker is trying to pick the high quality teams like City, United, Chelsea, etc. to show their tactic is good. But when it comes to other users, like to me, I want to use my favourite team, or the teams like Leicester, Sevilla, Lazio etc. Is this tactic can also fit for the teams I told? And my second question is about the role of raumdeuter. This is very special role for the player on FM series, but approximately %60-80 of players can't fit enough for this role. As we know, the academy players of any teams come to the game as winger role for every time. Is it possible to fit them also the role of raumdeuter also? Please give me any info about my questions. I have been looking for the tactic same as yours and 4-2-3-1 since the game was released but none of them is good. Thanks for answering and sharing your opinions. @Kyanite

Most non-top teams don't play possession or attacking football, because they don't have the players to do so.
Just how that applies in real life, the same also applies in FM.

In this case, this tactic is based around Guardiola's philosophy (City, Barca, Bayern, etc) but mainly his City variation who have world class players... why would the same tactical approach work with teams like Leicester, Lazio, Burnley etc with significantly poorer technical players and slower defenders who can't hold a high line? That is also why I have tested with City, because it's a recreation of their tactic to suit their players.

As for the Ramdeuter, again you're right it is a very unique role that mainly only top players can master because it is a role with a lot of variation. It's almost a hybrid between a winger and inside forward and needs intelligent players to be as effective as possible.

So... obviously you will struggle to fit players in to the tactic and role due to the demands.

Overall, the tactic will still grind out results with a poorer team if you start to buy the right players for it. But you're probably better off tweaking it if you're adamant on using this one. But the potential is there and I might make an underdog friendly version.

Just a quick test of this tactic with Burnley... did ok, was 9th in the PL about 8 games in. Has potential if you tweak the home version to deal with their slower defensive line for example. (we made more passes than Guardiola lol )

My advice would be if you want to play possession football with a weaker side, that's fine and it's possible. But trying to play like Guardiola & Man City isn't the solution so I can't see this being the tactic for you if you want INSTANT results!
But if you're willing to use it for a few seasons and build up and bring in the right players, then yeah you'll do fine but patience will be your biggest ally.

 

[Conn]

@Kyanite

Those wins may occour regadless, but is in no way a pinpoint of how well the tactic fairs for you.

as a subject my west ham abmyssal tactic i played with fulham net me a 3-1 homw win with west ham vs valencia despitre i had 7 shoots 4 on target vs their 19/9, and has netted nme 3-7-2 as fulham in SKYBET.

 

[europesfinest]

Firstly, thanks for explaining mate. As you said, I am aware of the fact that lower teams can't play like Pep's City. But, again as you said, with buying right players, mostly the best wonderkids, I think it will be possible to play like it. And you made a test with Burnley, to me, it was good against City, propably without any transfer. As I said, and it is also my last question, with the right and best players with fitting the tactic, it will be possible to play like Pep's City, I think. And I'll make a test and I'll share my results on Sunday. Thanks