Tactic Sets vs Tweaking 1 tactic

[Preston85]

I'm just trying to develop my own tactic (4-4-2 with 2-6-2 mentality) rather than using other peoples that i've tweaked and i've been thinking. Whilst developing the basic tactic from which I can develop the other versions i've noticed my players play more consistantly, especially as a team. All i've done for away games is tick the Counter Attack option.

My questions are:
1. How much effect does the "X player is not used to Y task" have? Is it worth huge changes in CD/Passing ect.
2. Are those message the only effect of changing a tactic? There's no hidden ones such as playing a player at a different position or moving the players position (MC->DMC, MR->AMR ect)?

I'm thinking of testing how small changes for the different versions works out. My expectation is having the "wrong" version will be less painful and having the "right" version won't be as effective but because players are playing in there comfort zone it should still be effective.

So the majority of my changes will just be mentality, fwd runs, rwb, tb, cb ect with only 1 or 2 clicks difference in passing, cd, tempo ect.

Thoughts?

 

[TheBetterHalf]

I think one thing you should/could try to implement is changing the mentality of one of the FCs to change with the d-line.Whilst having the other FC on team or a fixed mentality

- D-line of X equals FC mentality of Y
- D-l ine of X +-K equals FC mentality of Y +-K

Its also a powerful weapon to restrict t-balls to one MCa( often) and the other Mc and DCs( mixed). By giving the MCa a much higher/lower mentality, the play will be very different. This way do not have to fiddle around with the positioning of the players to much

Example of a standard tactic would then be.

Formation: Flat 442
Mentality: 8-14
FCa or d Mentality : A bit different
MCa Mentality: between 1 and 20, look at his mentality as the true team mentality !
D-Line: about 12 ?
Width: about the same
Midfield and FB closing down: Not too high
Counter: No. but tweaked according to situation

 

[Preston85]

Well i'm playing as usual with Boro which has a real lack of creative and passing talent and doesn't have that traditional quick player on shoulder player and deeper power/creative forward. They rely more on work rate and crossing hence thats how i've built the team and designed the tactic.

The forwards are on the same mentality because both are big, strong, traditional style targetmen but who also have decent technique and are very good scorers. My ML+MR and also LB+RB are where I expect my assists to come from, players like Downing crossing to two 15+ jumping+heading+finishing+composure+firsttouch has been working well, if not directly from the cross from a rebound or a second ball in.

Plus with two big forwards I get pretty good possession as they win half of the headers and the 6 supporting players with a low-normal tempo, normal width and low-mixed passing are happy to knock it about. With passing focused on flanks, my ML+MR+LB+RB on RWB often they will run into space before crossing it. My MCa plays short balls and with a free role plus high workrate+stamina moves around a lot to create space as he's closed down before playing a simple through ball for a wide player.

Last night I played the first two of about the hardest 3 game run you can have. Hence I made the more defensive version, -2 mentality (12 is my Supports standard level), -2 closing down, tick counter, -2 d-line, -2 width. I think that was everything, I think I might of made the MCd have a bArrow and at the end the FBs to. No change to passing style, no change to tempo and as you can see above only slight change from the norm, hence players should be used to playing like that so less mistakes.
The games:
Man Utd at Old Trafford, I won 3-2. They kept pushing forward leaving Ferdinand and Vidic against my two forwards so I was winning half the clearences or forcing them to put it out, plus with the work rate of Tuncay and the wingers bombing forward on the counter was creating pleanty of chances. Had like 60% possession to, if they don't have it they can't score.
3 days later Liverpool at Anfield, I drew 1-1. Should of won it, hit the post+crossbar multiple times.
Next game is Chelsea in 3 days time at Riverside. Even though i'm at home I think a Draw will be lucky since my players won't be much over 90% condition cos of the 3 games in 9 days.

 

[Zebedee]

re. OP.

1) I'm not sure. Mainly because the messages seem to be filtered through the assistant managers tactics ability (I think...). I tweak a little but obviously playing with the settings for a lower league team is a totally different thing when playing with the settings for a Premier League team. eg If my assistant manager is telling me that my fullback is having problems passing to team-mates then is the problem his passing settings or the fact that he just can't pass?! Or is my assistant manager just being a knucklehead and giving me useless advice which will result in my player not doing what I want him to try to do even if he doesn't do it well? What you will find if you follow your assistant manager's instructions and retain the settings (tweak by one or two clicks each time) is that gradually your team will start to retain possession better. However, this can be at the expense of attacking edge. As an example, I'm currently playing around with my tactics as my Bognor consistently get 60% possession but they don't have the skill to break down a defence from that position. So I'm actually considering setting those tactics aside for when I'm managing a better team and reverting to the long ball game to take advantage of the bit of pace my team has as standard.

2) What I've noticed is that players like to play in a position where they feel they are 'natural'. What alters this from how you've set them up on the formation screen is the mentality you set eg an AMR playing MR will play better if you set his mentality so that he pushes up more into that AMR position even if he's actually in the MR position in the formation. A DMC will benefit from a low mentality in the centre of the pitch as he'll be dropping deeper than a true MC even if his position in the formation is MC.

re. Tactical 'variants' vs minor tweaks. It depends really. You will see more consistency initially just from tweaking (assuming your variants aren't too crazily different to your standard). And tweaking for each match is definitely a great way to play the game - you have a style of play and you just want to make sufficient adjustments to cope with a particular opponent on a particular day. The problem with tweaking comes when your style of play is being totally nullified by the opposition (and that day will come eventually) or so much tweaking is required that your style of play falls apart. Essentially tactical variants are just Plan A, Plan B, Plan C etc pre-written and ready to use. They'll still need tweaking for the particular opponent for best results though. So I don't think the two philosophies are mutually exclusive.