Strong as an Ox - traditionally English.

[JordThePoet]

Hi guys,

I'm not sure whether or not this should have been in tactics or not, so if needs to be moved the so be it.

Anyway, in FM13 I had my trailed tested and slightly famed Winning Formula tactic (Here), In FM14 I want to take my team down a different route,you see I'm quite fond of the unpopular brand, not necessarily the hoof up field style of play more so the Hull City, Stoke City, West Ham, Capello sides, Mourinho teams expertise in being strong at the back.

Scraping the 1-0 as a newly promoted English side, building from the back so to speak.

I've tried a lot so far but I just can't seem to get things right, lets assume I'm starting bottom half EPL and somewhere like Stoke or West Ham, so that gives me around ?10M to spend if I'm lucky.

How do I set my team out? My tactics, training, specific buys, etc.

I'm really struggling to build a consistent team this time around.

 

[rookee]

i WOULD suggest stoke, they always over-perform.

some good buys:
titus bramble
alex buttner
joe cole
william gallas
chris solly

assuming youre starting with stoke you need to think out your tactic. stoke have a lot of very tall and strong players (crouch, arnautovic, huth) as well as pace (assaidi and arnautovic again)

my recommendation is having crouch up front with assaidi on the left as an attacking winger and arnautovic on the right as a supportive one. in your instruction you may want to select "hit early crosses" as a lot of your players are really good in the air.

in cm you can put preferably ireland as an advanced playmaker and maybe use charlie adam there as well. you need a good bwm and i dont think stoke have a good one. cant think off the top of my head any good bwm for cheap but you should find one. you have nzonzi as a defensive mid and play him as a dm defense or a regista but PREFERABLY a half back.

you have a standard back 4 with the key players being huth and shawcross. not sure about full backs so you can sign chris solly from charlton and buttner from man utd.

and in goals obviously begovic

in your instructions you should consider hit early crosses (already mentioned), shorter passing, get stuck in, exploit the flanks, play wider and whatever else suits you.

i always leave training to my assistant but if you sign a lot of players you may need to switch to team cohesion.

hope it helped.

 

[HMB2000]

You'll probably want a formation like the classic 4-4-2, or a 4-4-1-1 if you want to be a bit more skillful, or even a 4-1-4-1 if you're not that strong defensively.

You'll want wingers, no-nonsense types with pace, crossing, and a bit of tackling about them. I'd even play them as Defensive Wingers, but with personal instructions to get forward with the ball.

Your fullbacks don't need to be wingback types, just a solid defender with Cross From Deep and maybe one of them in an attacking role.

Definitely a Target Man who can hold up play, serve as a target for the crosses, and who can knock down the ball for a pacy Poacher or Advanced Forward to finish off.

I think that's a classic English team, actually. For mentality go with Very Rigid and Counter (or perhaps Attacking). Team shouts should include Be More Disciplined, More Direct Passing, Float Crosses (target man or back post), Play Narrower, and Drop Deeper.