Well, this sim turns out to be a hobby for me. Since fm 2013, I haven't managed to play a career, but instead kept making new saves with new clubs, and kept fiddling with tactics. I ranged from disasterous to invincible. There were times when I wanted to choke the SI games boss with my bare hands, I admit, and there were many times when I rage quited and went doing something else in my life, but something always made me come back and give it another shot. I still remember playing CM italia 93, and losing 6-0 and ended up wining 7-6, which is why this game was so frustrating now. Let's make it clear: the ME is NOT broken. Sure, there are slight minor bugs, but the base is correct and real. What you need to do, isn't downloading a tactic, but instead learning football.
I have no football background whatsoever, I was a sunday league treq in footsall, and an excellent one at that, but when my friends went to college, I quit. I also never watch football games on tv, nor do I support any team. AFC telford has a special place in my heart because in FM 2008 or something I brought it from LLM to Premier and won champions league with them, but that is game based, I am no fan of theirs in real life. I always avoided going out when derby was in town, because I didn't really want to fight with other "supporters". Always thought of them as brainless thugs, so I never really enjoyed football as most men do. That is, until this sim showed up.
I needed to write this down, so that you can understand my perspective on things. If I could manage to create a decent working tactic, without any previous football knowledge, anyone can. Since I am quite dumb, it will prolly take you a lot less than me to understand how things work. It took me 2 years of learning with some pauses.
So, anyway, to keep you learning as short time as possible, I thought it would be a good idea to jot this down, and perhaps inspire someone, or help someone stuck.
With that said, let's get down to business.
When you take control of a club, the first thing you need to do is make a tactic that will suit the players at your disposal. You may have an idea of how football should be played, and you can achieve that after a couple of years in the club, buying and selling players that you do or don't need for your prefered style. But if you try to impose your tactic on the players at the very start, you will fail, and you will prolly get sacked soon. That is why all of these tactics here are useless, unless they have been tailored specifically for your players. That is why you need to learn tactics and how they work, or you wont have success in this sim.
So, what you need to do, is click on every single player in your first team, and look at their report. The first thing you need to observe are the positions player can play. Anything with green colour is good. For example, you will prolly have a striker that can play on left wing, or a central midfielder that can play on defensive midfield position.
Next you need to observe current players ability in every role and every position. For example, your striker may have more ability as a poacher than as a target man, or he may be good in all roles. On some other position, he may also be good. Less than 2 and a half ability stars isn't good enough, so avoid using that player in that position or role, if that is true. More ability, the better.
Next you need to determine a duty for your players, and you will need to check his attributes for that. For example, Barcelonas Xavi has equall amount of ability in box to box and deep lying playmaker roles, and assistant suggest dlps role for him, but when you check his attributes, you will notice he is not trained in tackling, which is a must for a dlps. The magic number of attributes is 11. 10 is no good, 11 or better is good. So he should be a box to box. Of course, you can use him as a dlps, and he will be good at it because of his ability, but when he is supposed to tackle someone, he will conceede a prolly costly foul or a card.
When you finally have knowledge of all possible roles and duties and positions, you can create a formation that will suit all of your players. I recommend choosing one of default formations in game, even if it means having slightly lower ability in one player. You can easily train a player in another position, for example an amr to mr or vice versa.
So now that you have a formation, you need to observe it's strengths and weaknesses. I recommend googling your formation to see what it is all about. For example a 4-5-1 creates many triangles and is so good for a short passing game, etc...
Next you need to decide on fluidity. I personally always use very fluid, no matter the team at my disposal. With very fluid, you attack and defend with 10 men, as a team, so no matter what formation I use, players always help each other. You may go for balanced or even rigid style, but that will make you better in a single aspect, either defend or attack, depending on your formation.
Next is strategy. If you are using wingers of any type with attack duty, your fullbacks should be on support or prefarably automatic duty, which means either control, standard, or counter strategy. If you are not using wingers or using any type of winger with a support or defend duty, your fullbacks should be on attack or prefarably automatic duty and your strategy should be attack or overload. Preferably attack, as overload is an extreme really. You really shouldn't mix attack and support duties for your wingers and fullbacks, as it messes things up.
That said, If you are using fullbacks, they should be on automatic duty. There really isn't a need for wingbacks or complete wingbacks or limited fullbacks in game, fullback automatic is all you need. Unless of course, their ability is poor with fullback duty, which is rarely the case.
About team settings, I suggest visiting the guidetofootballmanger.com and going to their FM2013 guide (older edition), and looking at what shouts really do there. For example exploit the middle means your wingers will cut inside, and the only role in game that cuts inside is a inside forward support. Inside forward attack or adv play attack simply runs toward goal, doesn't cut inside, check the description.
Other tips:
Playing narrower is suitable for short passing and any type of wingers with support duties. Playing higher tempo is suitable for attack strategy and no retaining posession. Playing more direct is suitable to playing wider and any type of attacking wingers. Run at defence is almost always good, Overlap if using attack strategy. Adv. play attack is the only role and duty that should roam. Only roam if not using counter strategy.
I'm tired now, so this is all from me for now.
I have no football background whatsoever, I was a sunday league treq in footsall, and an excellent one at that, but when my friends went to college, I quit. I also never watch football games on tv, nor do I support any team. AFC telford has a special place in my heart because in FM 2008 or something I brought it from LLM to Premier and won champions league with them, but that is game based, I am no fan of theirs in real life. I always avoided going out when derby was in town, because I didn't really want to fight with other "supporters". Always thought of them as brainless thugs, so I never really enjoyed football as most men do. That is, until this sim showed up.
I needed to write this down, so that you can understand my perspective on things. If I could manage to create a decent working tactic, without any previous football knowledge, anyone can. Since I am quite dumb, it will prolly take you a lot less than me to understand how things work. It took me 2 years of learning with some pauses.
So, anyway, to keep you learning as short time as possible, I thought it would be a good idea to jot this down, and perhaps inspire someone, or help someone stuck.
With that said, let's get down to business.
When you take control of a club, the first thing you need to do is make a tactic that will suit the players at your disposal. You may have an idea of how football should be played, and you can achieve that after a couple of years in the club, buying and selling players that you do or don't need for your prefered style. But if you try to impose your tactic on the players at the very start, you will fail, and you will prolly get sacked soon. That is why all of these tactics here are useless, unless they have been tailored specifically for your players. That is why you need to learn tactics and how they work, or you wont have success in this sim.
So, what you need to do, is click on every single player in your first team, and look at their report. The first thing you need to observe are the positions player can play. Anything with green colour is good. For example, you will prolly have a striker that can play on left wing, or a central midfielder that can play on defensive midfield position.
Next you need to observe current players ability in every role and every position. For example, your striker may have more ability as a poacher than as a target man, or he may be good in all roles. On some other position, he may also be good. Less than 2 and a half ability stars isn't good enough, so avoid using that player in that position or role, if that is true. More ability, the better.
Next you need to determine a duty for your players, and you will need to check his attributes for that. For example, Barcelonas Xavi has equall amount of ability in box to box and deep lying playmaker roles, and assistant suggest dlps role for him, but when you check his attributes, you will notice he is not trained in tackling, which is a must for a dlps. The magic number of attributes is 11. 10 is no good, 11 or better is good. So he should be a box to box. Of course, you can use him as a dlps, and he will be good at it because of his ability, but when he is supposed to tackle someone, he will conceede a prolly costly foul or a card.
When you finally have knowledge of all possible roles and duties and positions, you can create a formation that will suit all of your players. I recommend choosing one of default formations in game, even if it means having slightly lower ability in one player. You can easily train a player in another position, for example an amr to mr or vice versa.
So now that you have a formation, you need to observe it's strengths and weaknesses. I recommend googling your formation to see what it is all about. For example a 4-5-1 creates many triangles and is so good for a short passing game, etc...
Next you need to decide on fluidity. I personally always use very fluid, no matter the team at my disposal. With very fluid, you attack and defend with 10 men, as a team, so no matter what formation I use, players always help each other. You may go for balanced or even rigid style, but that will make you better in a single aspect, either defend or attack, depending on your formation.
Next is strategy. If you are using wingers of any type with attack duty, your fullbacks should be on support or prefarably automatic duty, which means either control, standard, or counter strategy. If you are not using wingers or using any type of winger with a support or defend duty, your fullbacks should be on attack or prefarably automatic duty and your strategy should be attack or overload. Preferably attack, as overload is an extreme really. You really shouldn't mix attack and support duties for your wingers and fullbacks, as it messes things up.
That said, If you are using fullbacks, they should be on automatic duty. There really isn't a need for wingbacks or complete wingbacks or limited fullbacks in game, fullback automatic is all you need. Unless of course, their ability is poor with fullback duty, which is rarely the case.
About team settings, I suggest visiting the guidetofootballmanger.com and going to their FM2013 guide (older edition), and looking at what shouts really do there. For example exploit the middle means your wingers will cut inside, and the only role in game that cuts inside is a inside forward support. Inside forward attack or adv play attack simply runs toward goal, doesn't cut inside, check the description.
Other tips:
Playing narrower is suitable for short passing and any type of wingers with support duties. Playing higher tempo is suitable for attack strategy and no retaining posession. Playing more direct is suitable to playing wider and any type of attacking wingers. Run at defence is almost always good, Overlap if using attack strategy. Adv. play attack is the only role and duty that should roam. Only roam if not using counter strategy.
I'm tired now, so this is all from me for now.
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