How do you play the Game - Tactical Discussion

[TheBetterHalf]

In this thread, you can post your approach when it comes to Tactics. Do you use the Wizard without making any individual tweaks or are you making your own roles. Are you using the Classing Mode and dislike the shouts or do you perhaps use another approach ( just like I am .)

Hopefully, this will make us open up our eyes to new ways of playing the game and therefor, don't hesitate to ask users to develop and explain more in depth the reasoning behind their approach

Tell us about the way that bring most the most joy to your game experience



Let the discussion begin by me telling you about how I play the game

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[TheBetterHalf]

My Approach




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Basically, I use the TC in a slightly different way, a way that I intent to for the coming time and this is how..



In my opinion, the more defensive and Attacking approaches brought by the TC comes with a flaw and its that the Strategy change has a double impact and I want to avoid this.


Example – Defensive

When we use this strategy, we sit deeper, the players look for t-balls and fwruns forward much more seldom and as the players mentality is also lower, it means that they will play even more cautious and are less likely to look for these t-balls. Movement into channels etc.

Example: Attacking Strategy

Same thing here, only now we are playing too attacking. We look for more t-balls and forward runs but as the mentality setting are much higher, they are doing this at every coast and in combination with the low time wasting that make the players make rasher decisions, the attacks are too often made in haste.

Therefor, I tweak the menatlity so that this variable is fixed and dont change with the strategy changes


I
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Step one

- Use the formation that suits the current squad

Step Two

- .Use the roles that suits the players and the player Duties. Use a Philosophy and Strategy that suit the current ability and status of the club but stay away from the more attacking and defensive versions. I consider Counter, Balanced and Control to be the only 3 that works in this approach that I am to explain

Step Three

- Save the tactic

Step Four

- Make the mentality of all the players “fixed” so that they don’t change when changing strategy. i.e, tick their mentality and set it just as it was before ticking it

Step Five

- Do the same with the Closing Down only this time, set it on a slightly higher notch than in the middle

Step Six

- Save the Tactic as “ Normal Tactic”

Step Seven

- Change the strategy to a more defensive one and save it as “Defensive Tactic”

Step Eight

- Once again change the Strategy to a more attacking one and save it as “Attacking tactic”

Step Nine

- Use these 3 Tactics in the Match Preparation

Before each game, I now choose what strategy I want to use, either by loading up the correct version or by just tweaking the Strategy of the Normal Tactic ( I prefer this option).



As I explained, I use either Counter, Balanced or Control in this Framework and therefore, we never get too Defensive or Attacking when switching to these Strategies in-game or when making Shouts but instead only get the good benefit of these sideline instructions

Time for the Match

Now, I can either start the match with a different strategy, a strategy change that does not effect the mentality of the players, The effect that is has is the settings of the players, their tendency to make fwruns, hit t-balls or hold on to the ball and make safer passers etc, without having this double effect that the normal strategy change brings.

I play as Birmingham, 2ND season and whilst having a pretty strong team that should finish top 8, we are no way near teams like City, Chelsea, Utd, Arsenal, Pool and Spurs. I have chosen the Standard/Control as my Framework but against these teams, I have played mostly with Defensive sideline instructions ( Defensive or Counter Strategy and more cautious shouts). Against lesser teams at home, I ten to start with the Tactic as it is and make shouts depending on what I See in the game. Perhaps play Wider, Exploit the flanks or try Overlaps to bring out the bombing fullbacks.

This approach has brought me much more joy to the game

 

[Mike.]

I play with the TC, but i do tweak. It does not matter who I manage, whether it is my big game legacy save (Play as United, aiming for 10-15+), my giant making side (playing as a middling foreign side and turn them into heavyweights), or my start from the bottom unemployed saves, i always play with the footballing philosophy in mind, and largely with the same two frameworks, mobile 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1, the only thing that will differ is the amount of creative freedom in the side

I always look to play good, fairly attacking team football. I have no time for scrappy stuff, and i wont take jobs at sides that cant get there without major major re-working of the side and my ideas.

I always look for the same type of players, those who are intelligent and mentally strong, they dont have to be stand out in other areas, though that is a bonus, but my main focus is on mental attributes.

Thus my approach in the TC is ball control, i attack and defend with the ball. therefore my favoured shouts are ones that a possession orientated: retain possession, take a breather, pass into feet/space, get the ball forwards. I try to defend against and opponent by making chase the ball off me, rather than just getting 9 men behind the ball

Therefore i Play fluid, attacking control or standard depending on who i am, shorter passing, and with movement, we attack and defend as a unit so i have little time for too many passengers on my side, give me an average all round hard worker then a selfish balotelli diva, and the former will always outperform the latter in my saves

We work the ball round the pitch so i will often use the player wide shouts when playing more defensively, to tire the opposition out by pinging the ball from flank to flank

When it works, my teams are defensively mean and lethal going forwards, often with mentality changes to punish teams with a flurry of chances/goals, before settling back to holding the ball.

 

[daz88uk]

I use the TC but change it depending on my team.

I play flat 4-4-2 and with the wingers pushed up one spot and set as inside forwards. I tell them to run with the ball and hug the touchline crossing from deep.

I play with 2 central midfields set as support.

My two forwards are set as complete forward and Poacher. Complete forward set to shoot from anywhere (currently Rooney) and my poacher (rotation between Hernandez and Macheda) "Try to beat ofside trap"

I'm in 2015-16 season after being with Burnley for 4 seasons second with Man U. Last season won everything. Fa, League, LC, Champs, Super and Shield.

 

[radijze]

Hello TheBetterHalf ; U just told me to check your post for my AA Gent problem.
But how can my specific problem 'bout being unable to find the right tactic for AA Gent be solved with your post 'bout the tactic wizard?

Kind Regards,

Sander

 

[TheBetterHalf]

Hello TheBetterHalf ; U just told me to check your post for my AA Gent problem.
But how can my specific problem 'bout being unable to find the right tactic for AA Gent be solved with your post 'bout the tactic wizard?

Kind Regards,

Sander

Did you read the post ?

Seriously, what I refered to was for you to construct a tactic that suit your players and the statue of you club. Not a formation and settings suitable for user X playing with Tottenham. Find out the strength of your players and use a formation and overall strategy that suits you

 

[radijze]

Did you read the post ?

Seriously, what I refered to was for you to construct a tactic that suit your players and the statue of you club. Not a formation and settings suitable for user X playing with Tottenham. Find out the strength of your players and use a formation and overall strategy that suits you

Yes I did read it.
I'm just not very experienced with this game and don't have a clue what's the strenght & weakness of my team, that what I meant.

 

[Boentaro]

I'm playing AA Gent myself so here goes:

AA Gent strength's: Fast and decent wingers for the level of league you are in (ghanassy, soumahoro, conte and I use de smet on the wings aswel). Strong Targetman (Coulibaly). I played a 424 first season with ljubijankic as a poacher and he got 20 goals in the season. Azofeifa = pretty good defensive playmaker.

What I did: played with a pretty deep D-line so I could use the speed of my wingers, cross from deep and drill crosses towards the first post, resulted in a lot of tap-ins for Ljubijankic. Used Azofeifa as a defensive playmaker (Thijs could be used for this aswel) and Lepoint as a ballwining midfielder or box-to-box sometimes. Also set Soumahoro and El Ghanassy to move into channels instead of hug touchline which got them a few goals aswel.


On topic: I mostly use the TC and when it's finished make some tweaks to long shots and through balls, can never seem to get closing down right though =(

 

[AmunRa]

Hey Better Half,

I am using Arsenal atm and play a 4-5-1 formation with a attacking mentality. I was trying to replicate the wide movements of Pires and Ljungberg in the 03/04 season. I am in my second season after totally dominating both domestically and in europe, but I have always had a base tactic from which I create my own personal ones using TC and taking into account the players I have at my disposal.
This approach has yielded 12 league titles, 6 UCL's and 1 EL with 6 teams (Inter Milan, Arsenal, Tottenham, Everton, Athletico Madrid, and West Ham).
I do like creating tactics from scratch but they tend to be a tad lopsided, so I look at how the teams I choose play IRL, find a tactic that matches and then expand to how I want the team to play.
I have Gibbs and Sanga as full backs with both on attacking. I signed Hummels and paired him with Mertesacker in a stopper/cover pairing. I ended up using Song in the middle of Wilshere and Arteta with Gotze, Benayoun and Ramsey as back up and a rotating pairing of Arshavin, Walcott, Gervinho and Chu Young-Park out wide with RVP as the goal scorer switching with Walcott or Park. I have had success beating Man city 4-0 and 3-0 in the fa cup and UCL finals and won the league with 3 games to go without loosing a game.

The one thing I am happy about was the wide men and their contribution. Chu Young-Park got 5 goals from 27 games with 3 assists and 7.13 avg, Gervinho got 13 goals from 37 games with 7 assists and 7.21 avg, Walcott managed 21 goals and 14 assists from 47 games with a 7.46 avg (and he missed 6 weeks through injury), but it was Arshavin who profited most from this formation he scored 13 goals and made 28 more in 47 games with 7.36 avg.

In the second season I have added a counter attacking and a controlling strategy to my match prep whilst also adding some more players to my side. I avoided Barcelona in the UCL but did struggle away to Inter and Real so the counter and control should help with that (I struggled away in general, drawing 9 games in all comps away and loosing to Real).
Hopefully these changes will yield positive results.

 

[W4FC B3N]

By TC do you mean the walkthrough Tactic Creation? If so, I just go by personal experience and go through each persons advanced set-up after I've set the formation that suits the squad. Then go on and buy where I think needs strengthening/back-up. Normally use Attacking/Counter, depending on the size of the club I'm playing. I've never had ANY success whilst using Control because I can never seem to keep the ball anyway xD. As for the player mentality, can that change throughout a game if you do actually tick the box and set it yourself? This could be where I may have been going wrong so many times, just leaving that box unticked...

 

[fran1412]

I use the TC but stick to just two major formations- 4-5-1 or the 4-2-3-1. And I never use them together in a single season. If I start with one, I end with the same one. Just superstition-a Birmingham save of mine collapsed completely because I changed tactics in mid-season.

I mainly aim for having quick, fast-paced football no matter what team I am playing. This helps me create very good chances without depending on possession. I create tactics on my own but kind of base on the principles of some successful tactics. For example, I have created now a total football tactic (still tweaking it but most part of it resembles total football) and it is working really well because I used the principles of the original tactic-attacking fullbacks, interchange of positions and so on. Also, I suited it to my team. So it became a 4-5-1 instead of 4-3-3.

This tactic has been tested with two teams. I tested it with United with whom I won the Prem and the UEFA CL beating Barcelona 2-1 in the finals. I also tested it with Swansea and finished 12th in my 1st season in the Prem. I don't use control and prefer using attacking/overload as starting strategy for United versus most teams, including strong ones like Barcelona. For Swansea, I used counter/defensive/contain or attacking/overload depending on whom I played and whether I played home/away.

I was really happy with the fullbacks in my tactic as they seem to offer the inside forwards a lot of options. They also gave me a lot of width. The attacking fullback-attacking inside forward works really well and if you have strong players there (at United it was Evra-Bale and Srna-Nani and at Swansea it was Liam Ridgewell-James McFadden and Francois Clerc-Simon Davies). My inside forwards were also devastating. They run inside with fast pace and often cause havoc in the opposition defence.

My lone forward is a complete forward in the defensive tactic and is an advanced forward in the attacking version of the tactic. The two CMs rotate between themselves on the field. In the defensive version, both are ball winning midfielders with defend duties while in the attacking version, one is an advanced playmaker and the other is a box to box midfielder. The CMs need to be highly creative and must be able to fashion out chances fairly well. For Swansea, it was Tom Cairney/James McCarthy/Emmanuel Frimpong/Ferrie Bodde and at United it was Modric/Giggs/Montolivo/Toulalan/Anderson/Renato Augusto.

I'm still tweaking it and hoping I get good results.

 

[mdcoz78]

Hey Tbh,
You say you fix the mentality, but do you set it at the level of 'control' mentality or higher and then keep it the same for the other tactical settings.
Or is it set in the middle for mentality and the closing down?
Need to clairfy the default level so i can try it.

 

[TheBetterHalf]

Hey Tbh,
You say you fix the mentality, but do you set it at the level of 'control' mentality or higher and then keep it the same for the other tactical settings.
Or is it set in the middle for mentality and the closing down?
Need to clairfy the default level so i can try it.

Just like I wrote, I use the mentality of Counter, Standard or Control( depending on what team I am) and fixade all the players mentalities. After that, I chose à moderate press. After this, I switch strategy and use the shouts.

 

[mdcoz78]

Just like I wrote, I use the mentality of Counter, Standard or Control( depending on what team I am) and fixade all the players mentalities. After that, I chose à moderate press. After this, I switch strategy and use the shouts.

Do you fix all the players including CD to a middle closing down position?

 

[TheBetterHalf]

Do you fix all the players including CD to a middle closing down position?

Thats what I wrote

 

[mdcoz78]

just checking mate as want to get it right for trying it. Will post some results later

 

[Germaniac]

Hey Better Half,

I am using Arsenal atm and play a 4-5-1 formation with a attacking mentality. I was trying to replicate the wide movements of Pires and Ljungberg in the 03/04 season. I am in my second season after totally dominating both domestically and in europe, but I have always had a base tactic from which I create my own personal ones using TC and taking into account the players I have at my disposal.
This approach has yielded 12 league titles, 6 UCL's and 1 EL with 6 teams (Inter Milan, Arsenal, Tottenham, Everton, Athletico Madrid, and West Ham).
I do like creating tactics from scratch but they tend to be a tad lopsided, so I look at how the teams I choose play IRL, find a tactic that matches and then expand to how I want the team to play.
I have Gibbs and Sanga as full backs with both on attacking. I signed Hummels and paired him with Mertesacker in a stopper/cover pairing. I ended up using Song in the middle of Wilshere and Arteta with Gotze, Benayoun and Ramsey as back up and a rotating pairing of Arshavin, Walcott, Gervinho and Chu Young-Park out wide with RVP as the goal scorer switching with Walcott or Park. I have had success beating Man city 4-0 and 3-0 in the fa cup and UCL finals and won the league with 3 games to go without loosing a game.

The one thing I am happy about was the wide men and their contribution. Chu Young-Park got 5 goals from 27 games with 3 assists and 7.13 avg, Gervinho got 13 goals from 37 games with 7 assists and 7.21 avg, Walcott managed 21 goals and 14 assists from 47 games with a 7.46 avg (and he missed 6 weeks through injury), but it was Arshavin who profited most from this formation he scored 13 goals and made 28 more in 47 games with 7.36 avg.

In the second season I have added a counter attacking and a controlling strategy to my match prep whilst also adding some more players to my side. I avoided Barcelona in the UCL but did struggle away to Inter and Real so the counter and control should help with that (I struggled away in general, drawing 9 games in all comps away and loosing to Real).
Hopefully these changes will yield positive results.

So you're emulating the 03/04 tactic? maybe this can help: http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...late-better-arsenal-tactic-5.html#post1315954

 

[mdcoz78]

For Germanic, Can you post a link for your base tactic to see how you set up?

For TBH, playing as marseille. 4th in the league and two points of top, Varied results in champs league. this i know is due to the fact i have used an unfarmilar formation. i felt i needed to as the proposed 4-5-1 by my staff wasnt warented with only one true winger. So i have used 4-1-2-1-2 mostly. I set up balanced, attacking combo with the def side set to counter. i had fixed all the closing down to either middle or slightly higher, mentality also to the default position. I have to say ive had good runs of results and at the end of Nov. We will see were i finish, any pointers to improve you may have used?

 

[Germaniac]

For Germanic, Can you post a link for your base tactic to see how you set up?

For TBH, playing as marseille. 4th in the league and two points of top, Varied results in champs league. this i know is due to the fact i have used an unfarmilar formation. i felt i needed to as the proposed 4-5-1 by my staff wasnt warented with only one true winger. So i have used 4-1-2-1-2 mostly. I set up balanced, attacking combo with the def side set to counter. i had fixed all the closing down to either middle or slightly higher, mentality also to the default position. I have to say ive had good runs of results and at the end of Nov. We will see were i finish, any pointers to improve you may have used?

Sorry, it's not mine

 

[mdcoz78]

So- Doesnt make any dif, just credit whos it is. Was just in your description above you said you use a base tactic?