AVD MOD – Mr. Hough’s Unbeaten Final Version
Before I get to the actual tweaks, I want to state that these are not some magical tweaks that will suddenly turn your squad into world beaters. They are simply slight adjustments based on personal observations from my own career game, experience, and common sense. Keep in mind, to get the absolute most out of your players, takes more than just tactics, but I’m not going to go into any more detail about that. There are already plenty of threads around these forums covering other aspects (such as team talks) of football management.
Now, with that out of the way, here are the tweaks:
Passing tweaks:
- FB right only: increased by 2 notches
- DMC: set to middle of slider
- MCs: set to middle of slider
- STs: increased by 4 notches
***Explanation*** The passing tweaks are to promote more team-play. To get more players involved in overall build up of attacks, to take advantage of opportunities of through passes, and to encourage players to perform more intelligent actions. For example, making a quick through pass to a teammate in a better position, rather than taking a pointless long shot, or trying to attempt a difficult dribble.
A lesser secondary benefit of this tweak is to help with passing on muddy pitches.
Creative Freedom tweaks:
- FBs: increased by 1 notch
- CBs: increased by 1 notch
- MCs: increased by 1 notch
***Explanation*** The creative freedom tweaks are to compliment the passing tweaks, to promote more team-play. They are also to give slightly more freedom to players, to take advantage of their mental stats. This particular tweak will obviously suit better players a bit more than average players, due to the fact that better players have better mental stats on the average. This tweak also helps the back line to move the ball around. At times they can seem indecisive with the ball, which can lead to bad passes or holding onto the ball too long, only to get it taken away by an opponent.
Tackling tweaks:
- MCs: set to mixed
***Explanation*** I simply noticed that my MCs were getting booked too often, even though they are top class players with good tackling and anticipation stats. Due to them being good players, I decided to let them choose what type of tackle to perform, hence the tweak.
Through Balls tweaks:
- FB left only: set to rarely
***Explanation*** This is an optional tweak. I made it simply because my left FB is not a good or even decent passer, so I’ve decided to limit him in this area. Just as in any other tactic, I try to limit my team’s weaknesses as much as possible, hence this tweak. However, if your left FB is a good passer, then ignore this tweak.
Defensive Corners tweaks:
- FB right: mark small player
- FB left: mark far post
- CBs: mark tall players
- DMC: man mark
- MC right: mark near post
- MC left: mark small player
- ST right: close down corner
- ST center: forward
- ST left: forward
***Explanation*** The reworking of the defensive corner routine has more to do with the FM engine than anything else. The previous routine had too many players set on simply “stay back” instructions, which is actually flawed in how it works. The players end up doing almost next to nothing in terms of actual defense. It’s much better to give players more specific instructions, such as “man mark” or “mark tall/small player”.
The way I set up the corner routine also reflects my players’ abilities. I would recommend keeping the same type of instructions, but simply switching them between players, depending on their abilities. For example, if a player is good at marking, concentration, anticipation, positioning, then he should be assigned one of the man marking roles. Usually the center backs are assigned to mark tall players because they’re good at jumping and are usually strong. The strikers can remain they way they are already, no change is necessary there.
Attacking Corners tweaks:
- CBs: swap instructions
***Explanation*** I swapped the instructions because I usually tend to play a more aggressive and braver CB in the right CB position, and he usually does better on attacking corners due to this,