How To Be A Tactical Genius?

[SongFabPersie]

Ok, I've reached the point where downloading other's tactics, implemeting it, and watching you rocket up the table isn't satisfying amymore. I want to create my own strategy but I'm poor at this. For my current United team - I employ a 4-4-2 which is flopping majorly. One game I concede 3+ goals so I lower the defensive line and tighten up but then I still concede and goals never come.

So - I'm hoping for tactical geniuses out there to answer my following noob questions.


1) One of my problems is that I don't know the correlation or link between the mentality slider and the creativity slider. What will a low mentality/high creativity combination result in or a attacking mentality/low creativity and vice versa

2) Movement. For example, I play Hernandez up front but he's so static. I want emulate what he does in real life. Also, Rooney drops in really deep irl how can I emulate that?

3) Centrebacks/Fullbacks. I want to create a solid back four. My Fullbacks are repeatedly skinned on the wings and are very slow to come back. My Centrebacks are always pulled out of position when opponents attack. The amount of times I've seen Vidic near the corner flag trying to prevent a cross coming in is unreal. Added to that, why the **** do attackers manage to thread through balls between my CBs and why the **** do they seem content to let fwds strolls past them and have a pop at goal?

Will a CB with a low defensive mentality neccessarily mean he'll be solid defensively?

And the stopper/cover combo. How does it work?

4) Midfield. Seriously there are so many options. Deep-lying Playmaker, advanced playmaker, Central midfielder, box to box midfielder etc. Its baffling. In a 4-4-2 whats combo would your two CMs be? Box2Box/A.Playmaker? Or CentralMid/Box2Box...and what the **** is Box to Box anyway??

Also what would you consider when trying to nullify an opponent? The scouting reports from staff aren't accurate enough tbh.

Sorry for the overload of questions - makes me sound like a ****** but honestly any help will be really appreciated. Thank you

 

[mrjack41]

It would help me if these we're answered two, especially question 1

 

[Joel`]

Hernandez: High attacking mentality, normal creativity, RFD - often, RWB - often, through balls - sometimes. Moves into channels and roaming. He's scored 49 in 43 for me like this, also assisting 23. And the seasons's still just in April.
Rooney: I haven't managed to perfectly emulate this yet with Rooney, but I'm close with Rossi. iNickstuff wrote an article about emulating the Rooney role in his amateur tactician's thread and is well worth a read.
Defence: The stopper/cover is relatively simple, just set one as a stopper and the other as a covering defender. As United I'd set Vidic as a CB - Stopper and Ferdinand as Ball playing - Cover. I always try and get my CB's like this. Have you changed any settings for your full backs? Post some screenshots of them to help diagnose the problem, perhaps?

Midfield: The midfield is a major part of the team, obviously. Who are you playing there at the moment? You want Fletcher/Hargreaves to be playing a defensive wall, running around the pitch and winning the ball back. I achieve this by setting one midfielder to ball winning/CM - Defend. Defensive mentality as far left as possible, creativity a few notches to the left, no RFD, no RWB, Closing down - whole pitch, through balls - sometimes, short passing. It's not an exact emulation of the Fletcher role IRL, but it's very successful for me so I don't tinker too much. Try CM - Defend with roaming to get somewhere near how Fletcher plays, if you like.
With United, most of my attacking play comes from the front 4. In my current season, Hazard has assisted 32 in 45 alone and is my playmaker, for instance. All of my regular strikers usually end with 20+ as well, and so does the right winger. So, it's clear I want my midfield to get the ball to them. I use Fletcher in the aforementioned role, and then use Defour as a DLP, who's purpose is to sit in the middle of the park and spray the ball up to the forwards, and he does this excellently. But then, you also have to consider how you want YOUR midfield to work, as well as your other players. You may want your playmaker to be a Pastore/Fabregas/Ganso etc. type in the middle of the park, so then an advanced playmaker would be a more apt role. But as you're United, I'd suggest setting it up with a CM-defend and a DLP like I have with Fletcher - Carrick/Scholes.

Some screenshots of your squad and tactics for problem areas would really help too, since it's hard to give specific advice without player info!

Hope I helped!

---------- Post added at 01:21 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:13 AM ----------

Also, be aware of the weakness of the 4-4-2 as well. Most of the extremely good 4-5-1's will pass your midfield off the park (Barca, Arsenal etc.) So you'll generally want to adapt to this for away games at such teams.

 

[GodCubed]

Alreet.

1) The mentality slider determines how high up the field (within that position) that player has his default position. A player with two clicks higher mentality will have an average position slightly further forward than one with two less, all other things being equal.

The creative freedom slider basically allows you to tell the player how much he can break from the rules. For example, an attacking midfielder with little creative freedom will do the things you tell him to do and nothing else. An attacking midfielder with high creative freedom will roam around, try fancier passes and so on and so forth. The advantage of lots of creative freedom is that they can be much more free and creative and make more chances. The downside is that they might ignore some tactical instructions like taking less long shots.


2) What Joel' said. Basically, to get him moving more, you could have him 'Move into channels' when off the ball, move his creative freedom slightly higher, and allow him to roam freely. Likewise if you play Rooney as a Deep-lying Forward or Complete Forward - Support, then he naturally drops deep. Either way, if his mentality is lower than his strike partner's, his creative freedom high and he is allowed to roam, he will emulate what he does in real life to an extent.


3) Not necessarily, it just means they'll defend deeper. The stopper/cover combo works by taking a tall, strong defender (the stopper) and an athletic, intelligent defender (the coverer) and assigning them those duties. Think Vidic and Ferdinand as stopper and cover respectively.


4) It all depends. Let me refer you to some guides: My Guide to Formations and Tactics, my Guide to Tactical Synergy and if you're playing as United (and I assume you are) some of the United Guides in the General Discussion 'Team Guides' stickied thread may help, as well as Mike.s United 4-4-2 guide found here.

Hope that helps.

 

[SongFabPersie]

Thank You Joel and GodCubed..Thats more or less answered my questions. Thanks for taking the time

 

[Joel`]

Thank You Joel and GodCubed..Thats more or less answered my questions. Thanks for taking the time

No problemo. GC's synergy guide is really excellent too, the synergy between your players is one of, if not the most important part of your tactic, yet often the most forgotten.

 

[GodCubed]

No problemo. GC's synergy guide is really excellent too, the synergy between your players is one of, if not the most important part of your tactic, yet often the most forgotten.

Mm, there's a decent enough bit on staggered midfields which would nicely answer 4 in there too.

 

[Montanaro]

Alreet.

1) The mentality slider determines how high up the field (within that position) that player has his default position. A player with two clicks higher mentality will have an average position slightly further forward than one with two less, all other things being equal.

That is true, however I have also noticed it literally affects their "mentality". The more offensive the slider, the more the player will be focused on attacking the net and scoring. I've actually turned both of my strikers mentality to balanced and I've noticed a significant increase in cut back passes and generally more teamwork in the final 3rd.

Before with full mentality, my striker would get the ball and run run run and SHOOT! Often ignoring his wide open strike partner (same thing happened with the other strike in possession) Also noticed it with my AMC with high mentality.

I drew all 3 of them back, and like I mentioned they don't always shoot and will find the open man much much much more often since, in affect, I've told them not to think only of scoring goals. (however my AMC still has high attacking mentality in order for him to be explosive from deep as a 3rd goal threat)