Hi folks. I've been into football manager games since CM Italia 93. And for the last few years, I've given it a lot of time and effort to learn about tactics. I have more then 2000 hours spent on FM13, and I haven't played a career yet, just been testing out tactics. I was always against all sort of fanatics, and now I turned out to be one 
Anyway, the game is all about rules. You don't play offside trap with a stopper-cover combo, you don't overlap if using a winger, you don't contain posessesion if playing high tempo, stuff like that. I've never been into cheating, and making exploits, I wanted to learn real football, and make an invincible tactic if possible.
So, one of the goodies in football is pressing. Wining the ball asap, and making the opponent shoot on your goal as less as possible. In order to have efficient pressing you must decide where you want to win the ball. The most obvious choice is high pressing and wining the ball as far away from your goal as possible, to miniminse risk of conceeding. So I needed to have good coverage. Two players to press the opponents fullbacks, one player to press the central defender, and one player to press the deep lying playmaker. That way, I can stop every kind of attack, even before it begins. Those players need to be strong, physicall, that tackle hard, stay close to their opponent and generally be agressive.
If the winning of the ball fails, we need to make sure we have enough defensive players that will limit opponents space in the centre defend area, as the goals aren't scored from wings. Well, except if they use inside forwards. So the best option would be a block of four players in front of the goal and two fullbacks. So, that gave me the wanted formation. 4-2-3-1 deep. In terms of pressing, pitch coverage, defense and offense, this is the best formation possible. If I didn't use the deep version, but instead go for a regular 4-2-3-1, I would need at least one stopper duty, meaning I would need to drop my defensive linde, or the covering defender wouldn't work well. Or I could have gone for two stopper duties and a sweeper keeper with a high defensive line, but in that case be exposed to quick attackers, as there is no offside trap. The two DM's actually allowed me to play the two defenders on defend duty, and use the offside trap with a high line, but the lack of stoppers meant I couldn't use attack duties for my fullbacks. I sorted that out by allowing one fullback be on attack, and the DM on his side stay deeper and have a defend duty to cover for him. As I needed a deep lying playmaker anyway, I gave him a defend duty, as that way he will stay in front of defence, and even bring the ball out of defence if I opt for playing from defence. The second DM needs to connect the defensive and attacking part of the team, but as there is no box to box role available on this position, I gave him a DMs role and duty. His primary attribute is work rate, which is important here. The other fullback is on support duty which will come in handy as means of insurance against those nasty quality wingers and inside forwards.
So that fits for defence. The attacking part must have a player that will stretch the defence, a player that will create chances, and a player that will score goals. Also, overcrowding the opponents half is a good thing, you make a surplus and score. One of my fullbacks is on attack duty, which means he will overlap and put crosses in. That means I should have a player capable of scoring from those crosses, and someone to cut inside on his side of the pitch. The game does not allow for just one of fullbacks to overlap, if you chose overlap option, both of them will overlap. So that means the other wing needs to cut inside too. And from the begining of this text, We need two players that will press the cd and dlp. So, I need to destabilize defences, have a tall striker, and someone creative, and I need to press the dlp and cd. So I opted for a defensive forward with defend duty, that will drop deep and pull the cd's after him, and he will also press the dlp, while a shadow striker behind him will also destabilze defence by going further up, and at the same time press the cd's. The striker should be tall with good heading ability to score those crosses, as should the ss. But they aren't the only threat. There is also an inside forward with support duty on the side where the more attacking fullback is, and as we need a creator that will cut inside, there is an adv. playmaker with attack duty on the other side. So one defend, one support and two attack duties. Combined with all duties on the pitch, we are one attack duty short, as we need equall number of defend and attack duties. So the sweeper keeeper is on attack.
That sorts it out. The other things are still undergoing testing, so I will complete this text some other time.
Anyway, the game is all about rules. You don't play offside trap with a stopper-cover combo, you don't overlap if using a winger, you don't contain posessesion if playing high tempo, stuff like that. I've never been into cheating, and making exploits, I wanted to learn real football, and make an invincible tactic if possible.
So, one of the goodies in football is pressing. Wining the ball asap, and making the opponent shoot on your goal as less as possible. In order to have efficient pressing you must decide where you want to win the ball. The most obvious choice is high pressing and wining the ball as far away from your goal as possible, to miniminse risk of conceeding. So I needed to have good coverage. Two players to press the opponents fullbacks, one player to press the central defender, and one player to press the deep lying playmaker. That way, I can stop every kind of attack, even before it begins. Those players need to be strong, physicall, that tackle hard, stay close to their opponent and generally be agressive.
If the winning of the ball fails, we need to make sure we have enough defensive players that will limit opponents space in the centre defend area, as the goals aren't scored from wings. Well, except if they use inside forwards. So the best option would be a block of four players in front of the goal and two fullbacks. So, that gave me the wanted formation. 4-2-3-1 deep. In terms of pressing, pitch coverage, defense and offense, this is the best formation possible. If I didn't use the deep version, but instead go for a regular 4-2-3-1, I would need at least one stopper duty, meaning I would need to drop my defensive linde, or the covering defender wouldn't work well. Or I could have gone for two stopper duties and a sweeper keeper with a high defensive line, but in that case be exposed to quick attackers, as there is no offside trap. The two DM's actually allowed me to play the two defenders on defend duty, and use the offside trap with a high line, but the lack of stoppers meant I couldn't use attack duties for my fullbacks. I sorted that out by allowing one fullback be on attack, and the DM on his side stay deeper and have a defend duty to cover for him. As I needed a deep lying playmaker anyway, I gave him a defend duty, as that way he will stay in front of defence, and even bring the ball out of defence if I opt for playing from defence. The second DM needs to connect the defensive and attacking part of the team, but as there is no box to box role available on this position, I gave him a DMs role and duty. His primary attribute is work rate, which is important here. The other fullback is on support duty which will come in handy as means of insurance against those nasty quality wingers and inside forwards.
So that fits for defence. The attacking part must have a player that will stretch the defence, a player that will create chances, and a player that will score goals. Also, overcrowding the opponents half is a good thing, you make a surplus and score. One of my fullbacks is on attack duty, which means he will overlap and put crosses in. That means I should have a player capable of scoring from those crosses, and someone to cut inside on his side of the pitch. The game does not allow for just one of fullbacks to overlap, if you chose overlap option, both of them will overlap. So that means the other wing needs to cut inside too. And from the begining of this text, We need two players that will press the cd and dlp. So, I need to destabilize defences, have a tall striker, and someone creative, and I need to press the dlp and cd. So I opted for a defensive forward with defend duty, that will drop deep and pull the cd's after him, and he will also press the dlp, while a shadow striker behind him will also destabilze defence by going further up, and at the same time press the cd's. The striker should be tall with good heading ability to score those crosses, as should the ss. But they aren't the only threat. There is also an inside forward with support duty on the side where the more attacking fullback is, and as we need a creator that will cut inside, there is an adv. playmaker with attack duty on the other side. So one defend, one support and two attack duties. Combined with all duties on the pitch, we are one attack duty short, as we need equall number of defend and attack duties. So the sweeper keeeper is on attack.
That sorts it out. The other things are still undergoing testing, so I will complete this text some other time.
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