Steve's pretty much got it right.
I believe, if your going to play as a mid table team like Fulham and all that and taking on a huge club like united, or arsenal, chelsea etc.. do the following. its just help..
I started my first EPL career on FM11 using Everton. My fourth league game was at home agains't Chelsea. They had one 3 in a row, and i was coming off 2 draws and a win. For this game, i used a 4-4-2 formation, standard, with a Rigid Philosophy. I knew that i was facing Chelsea, so there was no way i was going to try and control the game, though, this varies of course. I play in 'full match' so i can tell when to change philosophy etc.. This game, i started off on standard starting strategy, only because i was playing at home. I didn't want Chelsea to get an early start and think that they could dominate. The game went on and i felt that we had a little bit more of the ball, and we maintained possession though not penetrating. So, i altered my game from direct football to short passing game. My players began creating more in the final third, and moving around quickly, making the Chelsea players think twice. Eventually i had numerous chances, but knowing the fact that, just like in real life, the game can change straight away. So, whenever your facing a united or chelsea, perhaps arsenal, always keep in mind that you must take advantage of dominance in these fixtures. So, in my situation, i understood that i was playing Chelsea, so i didn't want to go overboard. So i altered my left centre mid to box to box, so he could cover if needed to, and made m right centre mid, a advanced playmaker, with the attacking role, and gave my right sided winger, the freedom off attack. I did this because i knew he had a good relationship with the right centre mid, and they work well together. So they could link up well on the right side. I also changed my strategy to control, but dont forget, i play on full match, so if at any point i felt that chelsea were doing what they do best, and start to dominate and frustrate.. i could alter back to how i was before. This ended up working. I had to alter just before half time, because they were getting some more ball, and i didn't want to stop our momentum, so i went back to the standard strategy, just to maintain the half. Second half, we came out strong again, and i made a change, putting on a much more pacey box to box midfielder, so i had better coverage when in need of stopping a counter. We grew into the dominance game again, and we nearly cracked them. So i made a change to controlling again, putting my two right sided guys in their positions. This worked, as we finally broke them, in the midway point of the second half. But, i wasn't to let the team drop. So i just went back to the standard strategy, and held the advantage well.
this works well when taking on bigger clubs at home. Perhaps working on the counter away is the best bet. also, if you go 1 up, dont go and try to shut up shop. i do increase the time wasting bar once injury time hits, but that's all i do. Also, if your going to play away on the counter, set your midfielders bars to often for long shots. Every chance is well worth taking.
Hope this helped.
---------- Post added at 11:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:05 PM ----------
P.S if you need anything else. give me your email. ill be happy to answer questions for you. or pm me or something. ive been at this game for 4 years now, and play non stop realistically.
