Raikan007's FM13 Tactical Guide for beginners

Raikan007

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Raikan007's FM13 Tactical Guide for beginners


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Step one:

The best thing to do is start off very, very basic, set the formation depending on your squad strengths and depth and the players you have at your disposal, study their stats and their PPM's (player preferred moves) and what player roles they perform best in as these all impact what the player does on the pitch.

You can't have your winger, for example Valencia, who is an old fashioned winger having the PPM's:



  • [*=center]shoots from range

    [*=center]cuts inside (you want him to hug the touchline)
You do not want the PPM's counter acting what instructions the role has given him to perform or what you have instructed him to do manually...

I suggest using the TC when you start, it's much easier and will only take a few minutes of your time...


View attachment 290465

Step two:

Once you have decided on a formation that best suits your team and your players the next part of the process is setting up your

Playing Style
:

View attachment 290468

this dictates what system you want to adopt, a rigid approach is best suited to smaller teams while fluid is best suited for teams with good players as the more fluid the system the more the players push out of their zones which can be detrimental at times..

So if you are playing with a lower league team I suggest a rigid/balanced approach

If you are a top team or good team, a balanced/fluid approach is best


Once you have decided which approach to use, the next stage is deciding on your actual Team Instructions, the type of football you want your team to play, do you want to replicate Ferguson or Guardiola?

Before deciding on your approach (keeping in mind the type of players you have at your disposal) I suggest checking out this very, very useful screen to help you decide!


This can be found under Report - Team Comparison

View attachment 290469

This is a useful indication of how your team fare against the rest of the league and where you could look at improving as well.. its a great tool to keep an eye on!

If you want to adopt a Possession style Guardiola/Swansea approach, I suggest reading my Possession hints and tips guide below:

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...-discussion-thread-raikan007.html#post1611414

This would be a good base for a possession based tactic:

View attachment 290470

This would be a good base for a quick attacking based tactic:

View attachment 290472

and so on and so forth...

Next part of the process of creating the tactic is the

Player Roles:

View attachment 290474

this is one of the most important parts of the setup, this can either make your tactic work or get you beaten 6:0 by some lower league club you have never heard of...

I suggest, as in step one, studying your players stats and checking their reports to find out what role suits them the best! This can be found on their reports page on their profile..

View attachment 290473


Next in the process is deciding on their duties,

Player duties:


View attachment 290475

Decide from the above what you want each player, in each position in the formation in each role to do, attack, defend, support.. Roles such as Advanced forward, Trequirista and Poacher only have attack duties.

This part of the process is extremely important and I highly suggest taking the time and thinking about what you want each player to do on the pitch..

Do you want your Target man to support your poacher upfront or are you playing with a single striker TM, then setting him to attack as your leading front man..

Are you playing two defensive type mids behind your attacking mid, set him to attack to push forward etc etc etc.. you get the idea



The next part of the process is selecting your

Strategy
:

View attachment 290478

I suggest clicking on each strategy and reading the explanation of each one to decide on what best suits your players and your team..

If you are a smaller team in the league, counter or defend would be the best approach as you want to try and soak up the pressure then hit them on the counter and hopefully grab a 1:0 win or sit back and defend...

This needs to be married with your formation and playing style, literally all the other steps so far in the process to really get the best out of your tactic and players!

You are not going to be playing a 4123 and adopt a defensive strategy as a third of your squad are strikers.. be logical about it...


Step three:

Set Pieces regime, there are so many different settings to be used, depending on what approach you have (if you are wanting to counter, leave your two quickest players forward with your best passer of the ball on the edge of area so if and when the ball gets cleared, he will pass the ball quickly up to your players to try and start the counter)

As I said, there are numerous settings to be used, the basic ones are as follows:


Attacking:

(Corner aim: Near post)


  • [*=center]Tallest, biggest defender: Challenge keeper

    [*=center]Second biggest defender: Stand far post

    [*=center]Striker: Attack near post

    [*=center]Other players: Near post flick on, attack from deep, attack far post


There are many settings to use, mess around with them until you find the best formula and try and take advantage of your set pieces as they can potentially win you 3 points at the end of the day!

I like to have a left footer taking from the right and vice versa, that is my own personal preference...

I suggest reading through this as well, its really nicely explained (as I say, do not try and reinvent the wheel)


FM 2013 Set Pieces Guide: How to handle corners, free kicks and throw-ins in FM 13

Other threads to take a look at:

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...most-important-stats-per-position-thread.html
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...-mr-houghs-shout-combo-its-future-thread.html
http://www.footballmanager.com/manual/fm2013/?locale=en_GB&id=272
Sports Interactive Community

FM13 Guide by SI:

This is a very useful guide to use, I am even using as I go along from now on!

Football Manager 2013 Manual


anyway, I though that I would take the time to try and offer a decent enough guide on how to go about setting up your own tactic for Fm13 as this years version seems to be getting the better of quite a few people.. I firmly believe that this is the best version yet and the tactical freedom we have is quite fantastic.. If you make a mistake on the day, you will get punished, but if you get it right, it can be extremely rewarding.

I hope you find this useful and will assist you in making your Fm13 experience that much better.

All the best and have a great Festive season, regards,

Neil

 
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Good thread mate. Will help out all the raging members we keep coming across.
 
Very nice read. Hopefully it will help people out. I think if others have more helpful tips, feel free to add to the thread. The more information given out the better.
 
Great thread as always just a quick question do you adjust the defensive line, tempo, width and time wasting sliders so that they are no longer on default? You often see people have when looking in the tactics section at others tactics. If u do how do u know what will best suit your team? As there are 20 settings in total how do u know which will best suit? This is the main area of the tactics that i don't feel fully confident adjusting.
 
Great thread as always just a quick question do you adjust the defensive line, tempo, width and time wasting sliders so that they are no longer on default? You often see people have when looking in the tactics section at others tactics. If u do how do u know what will best suit your team? As there are 20 settings in total how do u know which will best suit? This is the main area of the tactics that i don't feel fully confident adjusting.

I think it’s best to avoid the sliders unless you are 100% comfortable with using them. I used to play about with them but I think I just made things worse or ruined any kind of balance I had. The shouts are a much safer alternative. It all depends on the style you want the team to play.
 
Been playing for Fm for 20 years, but now more than ever does changing your tactic to an 'unknown' or non-fluid tactic cause a drastic drop in form?

I get frustrated with a lack of consistency from my team. Despite tweaks, shouts etc that I perform. I've been sacked about 4 or 5 times in games managing Everton despite having a good team.
 
:(

I've had limited success with tactics. I tried using that AMC bidness and got whooped my first year as leeds in the championship. Managed to SCRAPE promotion second season and am now about to be relegated. I've resorted to tactic wizard playing a 442 diamond and matching roles with mixed results.

I also dont buy that whole "the AI works out ur tacs" malarch as I deliberately set up 3 tactics based off AMC but altered slightly for diff scenarios and i saw no improvement.

Can anyone tell me why my keeper (set to collect distribution) keeps hoofing the ball up to my midget midfielders? Id say 80% of my goals aer caused by him doing this!
 
Been playing for Fm for 20 years, but now more than ever does changing your tactic to an 'unknown' or non-fluid tactic cause a drastic drop in form?

I get frustrated with a lack of consistency from my team. Despite tweaks, shouts etc that I perform. I've been sacked about 4 or 5 times in games managing Everton despite having a good team.

not a drop in form, however, a drop in form can be a result of you losing as when you change formations, team instructions etc your fluidity of the tactic and its various area's drops which can impact your players performance..

think about it, your coach makes you always play a 442 diamond and places you as the DM, the next game he decides you are going to play a flat 442 and asks you to be the more attacking CM..

you are not going to be that comfortable with the new system immediately
 
I must say curently 95% of playes suck in F.M so i hope this will help them to improve.
 
I've had limited success with tactics. I tried using that AMC bidness and got whooped my first year as leeds in the championship. Managed to SCRAPE promotion second season and am now about to be relegated. I've resorted to tactic wizard playing a 442 diamond and matching roles with mixed results.

I also dont buy that whole "the AI works out ur tacs" malarch as I deliberately set up 3 tactics based off AMC but altered slightly for diff scenarios and i saw no improvement.

Can anyone tell me why my keeper (set to collect distribution) keeps hoofing the ball up to my midget midfielders? Id say 80% of my goals aer caused by him doing this!

hey mate, using an AMC for lower league teams is not a good idea.. you do not have the players to do so properly.. I suggest playing a deep, counter attacking, quick, wide 433 with DM and IF's

set the GK passing to as short as possible, slider all the way left.
 
updated OP with new links for more info regarding touchline shouts, an imperative part of FM, enjoy
 
Great thread as always just a quick question do you adjust the defensive line, tempo, width and time wasting sliders so that they are no longer on default? You often see people have when looking in the tactics section at others tactics. If u do how do u know what will best suit your team? As there are 20 settings in total how do u know which will best suit? This is the main area of the tactics that i don't feel fully confident adjusting.

hey bud, I do, but thats because I have know what mostly everything does and have quite a few years experience..

as Kris mentioned, it is not a good idea setting them manually as if you make changes to strategy and philosphy, team instructions, even shouts will change the sliders automatically..

I suggest doing it this way until you are familiar with the process :)
 
This a fantastic guide! I'm an experienced player but have not had much success this year and therefore struggling to get into a save. This back to basics guide may just help a lot. Cheers
 
I've had a bit more success after spending a LOT of time looking at my players individually and adjusting their roles etc

I have been using shouts, but I find using only a couple of shouts is more effective than using a lot. For example, If I go 1-0 up, I will switch to 'Counter', 'Retain Possession' and 'Get ball forward' - I have had a few breakaway goals like this.
 
I just tried your tactics and as always i conceded from drill cross by their winger...

This FM is really bad and almost every drill cross is ending with own goal or passing into the net...Goalie AI is so stupid,he is standing on the line and not reacting,and ball is passing few centimeters by him
 
hey mate, using an AMC for lower league teams is not a good idea.. you do not have the players to do so properly.. I suggest playing a deep, counter attacking, quick, wide 433 with DM and IF's

set the GK passing to as short as possible, slider all the way left.


Actually my 442 diamond hit a vein of form near the end of the season, i finished 14th :D brought in some strength up front as becchio cant cut in in the prem and iv beaten swansea 3-1 and demolished preston in the league cup 4-0.

The benefit of tac wizard is u can exploit the default changest (fluidity, mentality etc) a lot more. I see a big difference when I move to contain or control from my default counter.

My only advice is to play 2 up front unless u have a world class striker with unreal physical attibutes and other than that match roles. Ive tried a fair few tactics and 4-4-2 diamond seems the best!
 
Hm i started a Leeds game too, already decided on going 451 with ifs (the game calls it like that but its more of a 433). Trying to make my own tactic really painfully shows how many things i dont know lol.

i have some questions: since the ifs have 'move to centre' ticked would it be better to use play to foot instead of play into space? I just thought of that when i saw my lb pass diagonally to my winger, the pass was pretty terrible because it was in front of the winger which made it possible for the oppnonents rb to intercept it. (He was slow so the winger had an easy pass to the striker) fact is that ball wouldve been better when passed to his feet.

for a team like Leeds who are predicted 6th iirc would you still recommend counter? Is counter that OP? Especially since you say play deeper isnt it counterproductive cause most team have lower predictions and play more careful against you? On the other hand Leeds' team are pretty mediocre when looking at the report-comparison screen.

3: since we drop deep i assume we close down default or stand off?

Im willing to experiment and fail but often its really hard for me to see why the tactic isnt working. Guess im gonna look at some other 433/451 IF tactics and the way they are set up.
 
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