TheBetterHalf

Patient Moderator
Joined
Mar 6, 2009
Messages
8,209
Reaction score
1
Points
0
In here, you can share your thoughts and help others as how to setup a tactic approach for Liverpool
 
Anyone noticed that Liverpool seem unable to score? Dominating possession, having loads of shots and yet cannot score. I suppose it's realistic, given our shocking form of late, but it's very frustrating! I got Callejon on loan from Real and bought a guy called Kweuke from Sparta Prague who has a minimum release fee of 3.2M.

I did my usual thing of firing all the staff who aren't any good (most of them) including Pascoe, some of the coaches, scouts and most of the fitness team. Got Johan Cruyff (or cruijj, as he's known on the game) as my replacement assistant manager, and got in a new coach for just about every coaching discipline. Anyway, I think that I've shaken stuff up too much which may explain my poor performances.
 
I don't have FM 13 so you guys can tweak my ideas a little bit but I'd go for a 4-5-1/4-3-3 whatever.

Please note that in this tactic, I am instructing how to play LIKE Liverpool, not win with liverpool
Although there are some points at the end on how to convert this into a winning tactic with Liverpool


Defence

2 CB's

Here we'll be needing a Ball Playing Defender - Stopper and Central Defender - Cover

Ball Playing Defender - Stopper


Position : DCL
Role : Ball Playing Defender
Duty : Stopper
Preferred Players (*in order by preference*) : Daniel Agger, Sebastian Coates
PPM's : Plays Short Simple Passes
*Instructions*
(*Everything else default*)

Passing Style : Short
Run From Deep : Sometimes
Run With Ball : Sometimes
Long Shots : Between Sometimes and Rarely
Through Balls : Between Sometimes and Rarely
Cross Ball : Rarely
Mentality : Normal
Creative Freedom : Between Little And Normal
Closing Down : Whole Pitch (just a little more than own half)

Central Defender - Cover

Position : DCR
Role : Central Defender
Duty : Cover
Preferred Players : Martin Skrtel, Andre Wisdom
PPM's :
Marks Opponents Tightly
Instructions

Passing Style : Shortest
Run From Deep : Rarely
Run With Ball : Rarely
Mentality : Most Defensive
Creative Freedom : None
Closing Down : Own Half (Write in the middle)

2 Full-Backs
Both to have same everything

Position : DR & DL
Role : Full Back
Duty : Support
Preferred Players : Glen Johnson, Martin Kelly, Andre Wisdom (for DR)& Jose Enrique, Glen Johnson, Stewart Downing (for DL)
PPM's : Hug Touchline
Instructions

Passing Style : Short
Run From Deep : Often
Run With Ball : Sometimes
Long Shots : Rarely
Through Balls : Sometimes
Cross Ball : Between Sometimes and Often
Cross Ball From : Byline
Cross Ball To : Near Post
Wide Play : Hug Touchline
Mentality : Between Normal and Attacking
Creative Freedom : Between Little and Normal
Closing Down : Between Own Half and Whole Pitch
Midfield

1 DM

Position : DMC
Role : Deep Lying Playmaker
Duty : Defend
Preferred Players : Lucas Leiva, Joe Allen, Steven Gerrard, Nuri Sahin
PPM's : Dictates Tempo, Plays Short Simple Passes. Not Look for killer ball everytime (if he does)
Instructions

Passing Style : Shortest
Run From Deep : Between Very Rarely and Sometimes
Run With Ball : Rarely
Long Shots : Rarely
Through Balls : Sometimes
Cross Ball : Rarely
Mentality : Defensive
Creative Freedom : Normal
Closing Down : Whole Pitch
Tackling : Hard

2 CM's

Here we'll need a Deep Lying Playmaker - Support and an Advanced Playmaker - Support

Deep Lying Playmaker - Support

Position : MCR
Role : Deep Lying Playmaker
Duty : Support
Preferred Players : Steven Gerrard, Joe Allen, Lucas Leiva, Jonjo Shelvey, Nuri Sahin
PPM's : Dictate Tempo, Attempt Killer Ball, Move Into Channels

Instructions :

Passing Style : Between Short and Normal
Run From Deep : Often
Run With Ball : Sometimes
Long Shots : Sometimes
Through Balls : Often
Cross Ball : Between Very Rarely and Sometimes
Cross Ball From : Deep
Cross Ball To : Centre
Wide Play : Move Into Channels
Mentality : Normal (towards the defensive side)
Creative Freedom : Full (Most Possible)
Closing Down : Whole Pitch

Advanced Playmaker - Support

Position : MCL
Role : Advanced Playmaker
Duty : Support
Preferred Players : Nuri Sahin, Jonjo Shelvey, Steven Gerrard
PPM's : Killer Ball, Shoots With Power, Move Into channels

Instructions

Passing Style : Short (just short of Normal)
Run From Deep : Often
Run With Ball : Sometimes
Long Shots : Sometimes
Through Balls : Often
Cross Ball : Rarely
Wide Play : Move Into Channels
Roam From Position : Yes
Mentality : Attacking
Creative Freedom : Much
Closing Down : Whole Pitch

2 Wingers
(both with same everything)

Position : AMR & AML
Role : Inside Forward
Duty : Attack
Preferred Players : Suso, Stewart Downing, Raheem Sterling (for AMR) and Raheem Sterling, Oussama Assaidi, Luis Suarez, Fabio Borini (for AML)
PPM's : Cut Inside, Move Into Channels, Avoid Long shots, Place Shots (if they do shoot from range)

Instructions

Passing Style : Short
Run From Deep : Often
Run With Ball : Sometimes
Long Shots : Between Very Rarely and Sometimes
Through Balls : Sometimes
Cross Ball : Between Rarely and Sometimes
Cross From : Byline
Cross To : Near Post
Wide Play : Cut Inside
Roam From Position : Yes
Mentality : Attacking
Creative Freedom : Normal
Closing Down : Whole Pitch

Striker

Position : STC
Role : Trequartista
Duty : Attack
Preferred Players : Luis Suarez, Fabio Borini, Samed Yesil, Adam Morgan, Steven Gerrard, Raheem Sterling
PPM's : Comes Deep To Get Ball, Move Into Channels, Attempt Killer Ball

Instructions

Passing Style : Short
Run From Deep : Often
Run With Ball : Often
Long Shots : Sometimes
Through Balls : Often
Cross Ball : Rarely
Wide Play : Move Into Channels
Roam From Position : Yes
Closing Down : Whole Pitch
Mentality : Attacking
Creative Freedom : Full (Most Possible)

Team/General Instructions

Defensive Line : Push Up (Just a little more than normal)
Playing Style : EVERYTHING DEFAULT, DONT EDIT ANYTHING, SINCE WE HAVE SET PLAYER INSTRUCTIONS
Philosophy : Fluid
Strategy : Control
Width : Wide
Time Wasting : Rarely (Few clicks short of sometimes)
Counter Attack : Yes
Play Offside : No

Don't make any playmaker or target man, and if there is a playmaker by default, then dont edit him, leave him be.

The idea while attacking is to pass amongst the midfielders using help from the trequartista who drops deeper, getting full backs forward and when the attack is on full throttle (everybody who is supposed to be forward is forward) the 2 CM's or our beloved trequartisa play the killer ball.

On full throttle, the formation should be 2-5-2-1 meaning full backs playing is RM and LM, DM playing as a CM - Ball Winning player and 2 CMs playing as they should be, while wingers offering passes and the trequartista dropping deeper, making at least 2 players available for a short pass everytime a person receieves the ball.

And above, please note that the instructions I have given should be implemented, and the rest should be left and preferred players are in order by preference.

And if the players don't have the specified PPM's, then train them to.

Hope this helps, with a little bit of tweaking of this (tweaking to my style instead of playing solely like Liverpools, the tactic is very successful in fm12 and should dominate every game with at least 60% possession even against slightly better sides. and if you're playing as liverpool, it will be very successful.

Shouts
Play Out of Defence
Push Higher Up
Pass to Feet
Play Through Defence
Work Ball Into Box
Retain Possession
Hassle Opponentsfew extra tips are that use gerrard to the fullest and try and retain nuri sahin's services, focus on buying players under the age of 25, and of course buy players according to the roles given to them, AMR should preferably be left footed and vice versa for AML. Buy cover for our defence and look for trequartistas..

Tips to tweak into winning formation :

Make DCL a Central Defender Stopper instead of ball playing and make run from deep rarely and run with ball rarely and through balls rarely and you get my point..
Reduce advanced playmaker long shots and same with DLP, and make crossing ball to rarely for everyone. We only want to play on the ground, no lofted balls into the big man (sell andy carroll) make run with ball to rarely for everyone except our Trequartista, Deep Lying Playmaker and Advanced Playmaker.
Hope this helps :)
 
Last edited:
Anyone noticed that Liverpool seem unable to score? Dominating possession, having loads of shots and yet cannot score. I suppose it's realistic, given our shocking form of late, but it's very frustrating! I got Callejon on loan from Real and bought a guy called Kweuke from Sparta Prague who has a minimum release fee of 3.2M.

I did my usual thing of firing all the staff who aren't any good (most of them) including Pascoe, some of the coaches, scouts and most of the fitness team. Got Johan Cruyff (or cruijj, as he's known on the game) as my replacement assistant manager, and got in a new coach for just about every coaching discipline. Anyway, I think that I've shaken stuff up too much which may explain my poor performances.

Make Suarez focus on training his finishing, you may notice his finishing is very low on fm13 due to his poor record in front of goal last season or just simply play borini.

Or a strike combo of Borini + Suarez

Suarez Trequartista, who creates goals instead of scoring himself and Borini Poacher.

Or Suarez Deep Lying Forward - Support and Borini Advanced Forward - Attack

Or train Suarez to play in AMC, AMR or AML depending on formation and players in those positions
 
Last edited:
More squad advice as opposed to tactics as I set my team up pretty much exactly how Fabio Borini mentioned above with a few little tweaks. (I prefer wing backs)

Defense wise the team is very strong, only player worth bringing in is Salvatore Bocchetti. Just offer a contract in late December, you'll need to offer slightly higher than he wants for him to avoid him going somewhere else (35-45k)
Full backs will tire a lot so rotate them as much as you can within reason.

Midfield is much the same in the middle, Gerrard, Allen, Sahin, Lucas and Shelvey fill the three roles well but one or two injuries and your lack of solid depth can cause issues.
Dzagoev is well worth signing for free at the start of the season, plays brilliantly in the advanced playmaker role. Gerrard is aging and Sahin is only in on loan he's a near ideal player to sign, all the right stats and costs you half the wages of Henderson.

Wingers and strikers are the only real issue.
Suarez and Assaidi both play amazingly well on the left, Downing and Sterling are your main two options on the right but Downing isn't amazing and Sterling is still very young.
Depending on how you see the 'Over 48 months' signing thing I'd recommend you bring in an inside forward to play on the right, Gaitan can be signed for around 14-16mil(6-7mil of which you can get upfront). Callejon from Madrid as mentioned can be brought in on loan and provides good cover to all three positions.

Borini would be your lone striker, tends to go through a cycle of scoring well in 6-7 games then not scoring at all in 6-7 games. Yesil and Morgan both still young so like Sterling and Suso rotate them in when you can but they'll need time.
Another obvious free signing to get is Llorente, pretty much always joins if you offer close to what he wants.
 
What are you guys thoughts on my team and how i should play it?


GK - Reina/Ter Stegen

DR - Kelly, Johnson.
DC - Agger, Skrtel, Coates, Carra, Martins Indi
DL - Enrique, Martins Indi
DM - Lucas, Capoue, Allen
CM - Lucas, Gerrard, Allen, Isco, Henderson, Shelvey
AMC - Gerrard/Isco, Wellington Nem, Shelvey, Pacheco
AML - Sterling, Assaidi, Nem, Borini, Tello
AMR - Sterling, Assaidi, Adrian, Nem, Borini, Tello
ST - Suarez, Borini, Adrian, Destro, Carroll, Pacheco

The two formations i've been running are a 4-1-2-2-1 with a dm, 2 cm, 2 wingers, 1 central striker. and a 4-3-1-2 with 3 cm, 1 am, 2 central strikers. I've found pretty good success with both of them running a control type of game but wondering what all your thoughts were. I'm starting to lean towards the two striker format as borini and suarez have been just devastating up front together with Isco right behind.
 
I'm playing a similar style of possession football:
GK
LB - Wingback - Support
CD - BPD
CD - BPD
RB - Wingback - Support
DMCL - DLPM - Defend
DMCR - DLPM - Support
AMC - APM - Support
AML - IF - Attack
AMR - IF - Attack
ST - CF - Attack

control - fluid.
High creative fredoom, press more, aggressive, limited long shot on pretty much everyone.

I've had a massive clear out to be fair, henderson, downing etc etc all gone. Cleared out the reserves and will buy a collection of wonderkids to introduce into the team over the next couple of seasons.

I'm only 5 games in so will post some stats mid season
 
Been using Liverpool for the last few games. sold Downing for £10mill and Cole for £1.5mill. Signed Dzagoev for free, Felix Klaus for £7mill and Jordan Ayew on loan with view to sign permanently for £11.5mill. So far am in fifth and two points off the lead
 
Been using Liverpool for the last few games. sold Downing for £10mill and Cole for £1.5mill. Signed Dzagoev for free, Felix Klaus for £7mill and Jordan Ayew on loan with view to sign permanently for £11.5mill. So far am in fifth and two points off the lead

I'm sorry, but did you really mean £10 million for Downing or actually £1 million?
 
Gonna buy fm13 next month or whenever the new patch is released and can't wait since I'm hearing you get 10 mill for Downing. Miracle!
 
I am playing with Liverpool and I have it set so that there is no transfer budget at the beginning (I did sign Dani Guiza as a free agent though). This means everyone has the players they are meant to have at the beginning (for realism purposes).

I decided to make my own tactic and I am using the following:

4-3-3

GK - Defend
RB as WB - Attack
CB - Defend
CB - Defend
LB as WB - Attack
DM - Defend
DLP - Support
BBM - Support
AMR as Inside Forward - Attack
AML as Inside Forward - Attack
ST as Advanced Forward - Attack


Style: Fluid

Strategy: Standard (I change to Attack when weak opponent or average opponent at home and Counter or Defend when tough opponent)

Passing Style: Direct

Creative Freedom: More Expressive

Closing Down: Press More

Tackling: More Aggressive

Marking: Zonal Marking

Crossing: Default

Roaming: More Roaming


The only individual player sliders I've changed are that the wingbacks cross aim at the far post (hope fully more chance of my players heading it while the ball is getting there) and that my wingers and striker don't do long shots (to not waste possession).
--


-----------------Reina--------------------

Johnson-----Skrtel----Agger---Jose Enrique

---------------Lucas Leiva----------------

--------Gerrard-----------Shelvey---------

Sterling-----------------------------Suarez

-----------------Borini---------------------


I rotate Borini with Guiza and I sometimes put Suarez up front as well and Assaidi or Borini as the LW - Inside Forward. Sterling I sometimes replace with Downing. I rotate Gerrard with Shelvey or Henderson or Joe Allen sometimes as the deep lying playmaker. For the Box to Box midfielder I always use either Shelvey or Allen. As the Defensive Midfielder I used to use Allen because Lucas Leiva was injured but now I am using Leiva as the main one and Allen as backup if I don't use him in the starting 11. I use Robinson to replace Jose Enrique sometimes, Coates to replace either Agger or Skrtel. Kelly I use for when Glen Johnson isn't fit or playing badly.


What do people think? Does anyone see any flaws with this tactic? Should I tick my DLP as playmaker and my ST as the target man?

Sometimes I am having a hard time finishing the ball with weaker defensive opponents.
 
Last edited:
Style: Fluid



Sometimes I am having a hard time finishing the ball with weaker defensive opponents.


I would perhaps not play Fluid in a direct approach. If wanting the whole team to both defend and attack, why not play shorter
If wanting to play more direct, a rigid appraoch is better

As for Nr 2) It might be tactical, but it might also be that the agressiv closing down, high d-line simply does not work as intended yet. I am awaiting the patch and so far reading the bug reports and the " fix lists", it seems promising :D

( my spellcheck is out of order)
 
How come rigid approach is better when playing direct? Should I change the aggressive closing down? My defensive line isn't that high.
 
Tried excactly the tactic from Borini and I loose every game! Even lost home and away against a danish team in the ecup! Is it the game or the tactics that doesn't work???
 
ive noticed you can sell downing for 8-10 m an spurs come in for johnson i managed to get 19m for him which i though was very good as kelly is more than good enough so there is ways of getting a decent transfer budget
 
Top