No because FM has evolved since the old days, much like football has
and for the better.
A lot of tactics relied on exploiting previous bugs in the ME now it has been worked on and improved these tactics no longer work (I am on about poacher up front, clogging the middle, through balls etc) so people struggle now, fail to adapt then blame the game (much like the poster above)
It's tough to transition from plugging in and playing to actually putting some effort into the game. But there are plenty of guides on the internet which can help you. The 12 Step Guide is a good rule of thumb to follow and makes creating your own tactics a little less daunting.
FM is a frustrating game but it is worth it. Making your own tactic and achieving success is better than "4-3-3 god tika-taka Pep Guardiola"
I'm not the guy who want a single tactic to beat them all, more than that, I approached every match with different tactic. I played Football Manager since 2009, but I never saw such a disaster in predictability. FM 2013 was the last game where I could make a team to play as I want. I want to give orders to my players and I want to see them carry out. It doesn't happen any more in FM2014. They tried to make it simpler for people, but finally they ruined it. There are many examples that I could gave you about tactics and movement that I could do it in FM 2011, FM 2012, FM 2013 and I can't do it in FM 2014. And I'm not talking about exploits, I'm talking about tactics.
One the major problem, when you playing against weaker teams, is that they agglomerate they box with 9 players and is very difficult to score. What should be the solution? In the past I used a deeper defense, a formation with less players on the middle to draw the enemy on my half and then to trigger a very quick counter-attack. Now, swift counter-attacks aren't possible anymore. I mean, ball from center back to get to the inside forward or to the striker. Now, almost all long balls get out or are intercepted by the goalkeeper. More, center backs very rare try to pass long balls and no matter how many points they have in "passing" and "creativity" they won't succeed.
Float crosses are almost useless if opposition has tall center backs and your strikers aren't tall. I have very good wingers with 16 dribbling, 14-16 crossing and they are useless. They never succeed to cross to a less tall striker. In previous FM's float crosses weren't necessary destined to the head, they could be balls with high altitude, but landing on the striker's foot.
Inside forward on the right side, for example, if he is right footed he will not succeed to slip between full back and center back, no matter if he possess special moves "cut inside" or "move into channels", no matter how high is his "off the ball".
When strikers managed to remain alone with the goalkeeper they deplorable fails, even they have good composure, good dribbling and "likes to lob keeper" or "likes to round keeper".
Logical partnership target man - poacher didn't work. Using two strikers is a bad tactic, now, at least ineffective.
The game favors short passing system. I can't make my full backs to pass long balls. Idea of long passes was lost. They can't pass long balls along the line to the winger on the same side. I mean a 40-50 meters long pass. It is very hard to set full backs to cross from deep even they are instructed to do so. In past FMs, many times, my right back (near to my box) crossed the ball to my left winger (near the enemy box). Did you see anything like this even once in a match?
Pressing doesn't function as well as should be. When you put pressure on the defense's enemy players they should miss passes.
Instruction "pass into space" is almost meaningless. In former FMs this instruction was very powerful because it was exposing the enemy's defense to very menacing passes and when you used it, the percentage of copmpleted passes drops highly and it was logical because your players tried hard and some of those passes were lost. Now, I play with this instruction all the time and my completed passes is 83% and I don't see those through balls anymore. I don't expect to see through balls when all the enemy's players are in their box, because there wouldn't be any empty space there, but I expect to see them in an early stage, when my team is moving toward the enemy's box.
And I could go on with many other flaws... I don't care if now the game resembles more with reality. It is a game, it should be fun, it should be predictable and above all it should be precise. I want to tell to my midfielder to go in the attack slight on the left side and to came back slight on the right side when my team is defending. I want to tell my defensive midfielder to not bother the enemies on the right hand and to deal only those on the left side. I want to tell my defensive midfielder to not pass over my half under no circumstances. I want...
