The threads that helped me develop.

[Death Ball]

Here I will be compiling the few threads on tactics that I read and saved when I began learning to play the game in FM05 and reread in sucesive retakings of FM and reread or found after playing in FM09. Posts and info that have helped me step beyond the "damned cheating goalies!!!111!!" phase into "omg how could I get to start whining about cheating goalies? How did I understimated the game design so much as to not see it? All I had to do was to think, and just a little".

When I announced this intent I said they were posts form here that are no more available; now that I've found the files I was wrong in the first part: the threads were posted at the sigame forums, and any link from there (some leading to the addresses of other files that are included here, lead to dead links, so it's true they're unavailable at this date. Since they were posted to be read by the members I don't think the authors would have any problem with me recovering them here. They will be credited, of course, in the title of every post you'll see the topic covered and the author who originally wrote the article. You shall note as well that unless I find the code of the file is easy to copy paste, I will not be keeping the nice formatting with bolds and bullets from the original.

Another important note is that you shall not expect to improve from a single reading of the posts, or that you'll get all of any post in a single read. They're some source of knowledge you will have to absorb slowly and piece by piece. Read them fully, don't try to memorize anything, then read again and pick only one small part of the doctrine given by the post, and apply it, seeing how it works. Once you've got that, come back to read it and get a new piece. For example, on the matter of player choice for each position: don't try to get every important attribute, start just concentrating on one or two of the most important, once you're comfortable looking for them, then you can return to see another couple of stats for each position and so on, and be aware that at first you'll still find that players that were brilliant with those couple of stats you'll later find suck at other stats that are important but you ignored (for example, at first I got to look for good tackling and heading defenders, good stamina and passing midfielders and good finishing or composure for strikers, filling my teams with crappy players that could do all that but had decisions below 6 and hence wouldn't be able to effectively use their abilities). So after the first reads don't expect much more than a small improvement of your teams, but still getting poor results and many "goalkeeper cheats" scenes. Getting out of that and starting to be able to have a good transfer policy and good tactical making will take time and several steps of improvement.

My own steps were:

- Absolute suckage. Preseason good, start good (for some reason every game I've started I've got victories up to tfirst season match), first lump of form the team gets, unable to recover and team goes down to the depths of quali, or half (at those times I use to get Burgos, a 2B team from Spain who was favourite to win his group and go up to 2A, one of the strongest teams of the division. In tactics I just had no idea and wnet on picking what I felt like approppriate for each position, without consideration to space between lines or so, some things were done right, using by chance the right reasoning or by dumb luck, but most ruined the points where things were right, I chose players by looking too many stats being good, and not understanding correctly the effects of some of them, specially the mental.

- Suckage: Got to better know the top two stats for each position and concentrated on players being good at them, plus a few ideas about the link of passing style and tempo and defensive line, plus a little more here and there. First season was okay, lumps were hard but took a bit longer to come and they were ended sooner or later, though more late than soon. However the second season the team's performanced dived like a rock, as most of my signings were retards with good legs (or necks). Even if the bad signings were few, that was enough to break the team.

- Mildly acceptable: Yet a bit better understanding, a few more stats considered, but still mental ignored. The team managed to perform at a mostly constant level, there were still lumps of form as it's natural, but they didn't drag forever and didn't need to get a bottom team to beat. The team was able to resist a few bad signings and keep performing well, it was only after extensive team renovation that it went down (and it was when I started to take into account mental attributes). During this phase the cheating goalie theory was set on doubt, and to the end shattered.

- Acceptable: Getting some more understanding I began to take into account forward runs, distance between lines, differences in pitch size (though not too well). Signings made sense and didn't break the team, the team could cope with lumps of form, I got to make much better training schedules (not that they worked well, at least they're not bad, but they were ellaborated much better, but I left FM05 before getting to really have a look good enough to tell what needed improvement). the team performed consistently between seasons, more often than not overachieving, being constantly able to fight against rivals of a division above...

- Satisfying: The current. I can still have lots of room to improve, but I have a much better understanding of the tactics, am very able to set up my own tactic, know better what players to sign, starting to try to learn to react to the events during a match viewing full matches, have been a couple of times able to turn around the status of a game, from being dominated to be dominating, but I still need to develop a bit more to do that part better. Now the cheating goalie is evidently for me a pure witch tale, and have even gone so far as to return that feeling to the AI XD, just a moment ago ended my first Crewe league match with a victory against Huddersfeld, a team with a lot more of chances than mine and with a few great stops by my goalie.

And some more steps in between them, all happened in a long time as I played a bit before getting frustrated, returned, reread, played a bt more until other games took my free time, retaking of game rereading of these, getting too busy and keeping the game in the shelf to later return and reread...

Update: The html file from where I copied each thread is now in a post toward the end instead of attached to each post, and into a zip, a true zip archive, so they take small size.

As I've said already, these helped me improve my game when I started playing FM05, and even refresh some when I've changed to FM09, there is no guarantee you'll find them useful too.

Also, the authors of the threads intended to help a better understanding, there's no intent in them of being funny or entertaining on themselves, the entertainment they sought was the one from a better playing of the game.

It's not light read and you are better not trying to read all in a go, rather pick some part each time, and better if it's not too big. I thought this was implied clearly enough, but seems it wasn't.

Also common sense applies: nobody asks you to read all and nobody will beat you if you stop reading.

If you feel the need to leave feedback, you're welcome, as long it's respetuous and not insulting by direct insults or more or less veiled insinuations about me being a jerk, a moron or whatnot, primarily because since I didn't write them, it would be other people who would you actually better calling that (and the next I'll answer with the best movie quote I could apply to them , though it may be a groaner because it's been abused). I do appreciate bigcol1986, even if you may say his wording is unpolite or harsh, but it's his honest opinion about the contents of the thread.
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[Danny]

And how long did it take you to write all that ???

 

[Death Ball]

The 'All Player Attributes Thread'. What each attribute really means. by Lino

((Just copypasting, the above now is what I actually wrote, while playing a game, full match mode. The rest, which I've deleted from above and re-copying here, is the original by Lino I've just copy-pasted. Also, need a dummy reply, just one, from someone so each part is in separated threads for comfort of reading and finding of each piece))

As some of you may know, I am making a program to aid in finding players for specific user defined position. In the course of programming it, I came to a conclusion that the software could only be successfull if I fully compreended the meaning of all existing player attributes.
So I started listing the attribues, categorizing them and trying to explain myself what they mean. And I decided to share it with you.
Please, if you disagree with some of theese attributes, do post your opinion, so I can reevaluate my opinions and then release a nice piece of software for you all.

Note that by no means this is a definite list. Let us discuss the meaning of theese attributes and see if we can get to a consensus. <!--graemlin:-->

• ATTRIBUTE: Acceleration
  What does it measure: How fast the player can go from any speed to his maximum speed.
  Who Needs it: Any player who need fast burst of speed: anyone who is gonna need to dribble opponents. Note that winger normally need to run fast (pace), but not necessarilly to accelerate fast ( only if you wish ).
• ATTRIBUTE: Adaptability
  What does it measure: How fast the player adapts to a big change, which could be changing clubs or country.
  Who Needs it: No special position for that. Just make sureto check it when you are buying a new player. He may not be as good in the begginning.
  Observation: Some people say it also measures how fast the player can train new positions or how good he will play if you put him in another position to play a match. I'm not quite sure about those. Any thoughts?
• ATTRIBUTE: Aerial Ability
  What does it measure: How good a Keeper is in the air. Its like his positioning and vision to go to the right place.
  Who Needs it: Only keepers, and it is a must!
  Observation: Some people say its useful to save long shots. Any thoughts?
• ATTRIBUTE: Aggression
  What does it measure: How incisive the player is in his tackles. An aggressive player will try more tackles and will mark more closely. A player with low aggression has more finnesse and will be more selective with his tackles, etc.
  Who Needs it: A stopper. Maybe a DMC ou a DC if you play him as a stopper. Note that you may wish not to have an aggressive player. This player could play further at the back as a last man or just try to surround the opposition.
  Observation: This is also a controversial attribute. We could discuss it.
• ATTRIBUTE: Agility
  What does it measure: The ability to turn his body fast and make quick movements.
  Who Needs it: Players who will dribble a lot, player who will mark them and keepers.
• ATTRIBUTE: Ambition
  What does it measure: A player with high ambition will want to be in the best clubs. He likes to win big titles, etc.
  Who Needs it: If you manage a small club, then no one <!--graemlin:-->
• ATTRIBUTE: Anticipation
  What does it measure: When the ball is approaching two players who are equally close to the ball, the player with high anticipation will get his foot to the ball first.
  Who Needs it: Players who will battle for the ball. Depending on your style, this could be anyone. A striker needs it when receiving passes inside the area. Defensive players need it when marking opposition. All the other players may need anticipation sometime during the match.
• ATTRIBUTE: Balance
  What does it measure: The ability to stant up while ohter player try to tackle or push them.
  Who Needs it: Atacking players, basically. Strikers need it to battle inside the area. Dribblers need to stand up while being tackled.
  Observation: Some people say keepers need it when one on ones.
• ATTRIBUTE: Bravery
  What does it measure: The courage to go for 50-50 tackles. The player is not afraid of aggressive oposition players.
  Who Needs it: An offensive player needs it when being marked by some good aggresive player. A defender needs it to commit himself to tackles.
• ATTRIBUTE: Command of area
  What does it measure: How well the keeper knows the area and how well he can move inside it. Good for set pieces.
  Who Needs it: Only goalkeepers.
• ATTRIBUTE: Communication
  What does it measure: How well the keeper organizes the defense.
  Who Needs it: Goalkeepers.
• ATTRIBUTE: Corners
  What does it measure: Well... The ability to take corner kicks!
  Who Needs it:
• ATTRIBUTE: Creativity
  What does it measure: The player knows what hes got to do in order to make the play hapen. He may not be able to do it, but he knows what needs to be done.
  Who Needs it: Middfild playmakers
• ATTRIBUTE: Crossing
  What does it measure: The ability to put the ball in the head of the strikers.
  Who Needs it: Wingers and whoever may cross balls.
• ATTRIBUTE: Decisions
  What does it measure: Quick thinking. If a player will constantelly have a variety of options from which to choose, he will choose the right one if he has high decisions. Note that even a player with good decisions can decide to do something he is not capable of, due to the lack of some attributes.
  Who Needs it: Players that run with the ball, playmakers and strikers.
• ATTRIBUTE: Determination
  What does it measure: The player will not give up. Its related to the current score, supporters instance and time left to play. A player with high determination will ignore those three factors and keep playing to the end of the game. A player with low determination will give up easily.
  Who Needs it: Practically everyone.
• ATTRIBUTE: Dribbling
  What does it measure: The ability to fool the oposition in one on ones. Notice that dribbling alone doesnt make a good dribbler. He would need balance, agility, etc.
  Who Needs it: Players who are likely to get in one on one fights.
• ATTRIBUTE: Finishing
  What does it measure: Finishing is to the striker as dribbling is for the dribbler. Its the ability to shoot the ball behind the net. A good striker need other things besides finishing, like composure, etc.
  Who Needs it: Strikers
• ATTRIBUTE: First Touch
  What does it measure: I think about it as how well the player will receive a pass. A player with low First Touch may have the ball boucing off his feet while receiving a pass. On the other hand, a player with hight first touch will have the ball practically glued to his feet when receiving the pass.
  Who Needs it: Midfielders, strikers and all the players who will echange passes rapidelly.
• ATTRIBUTE: Flair
  What does it measure: A player with high Flair will try the improbable more often, but - and thats a big but - this does not mean he will succeed. He needs to have high decisions in order to make it work and also some good ability in what he is trying to make. For example: A striker with high Flair needs to have high decisions AND high finishing attributes. I my opinion, a high flair in a player with low decisions is a bad thing.
  Who Needs it: No one actually needs it, but you've got to keep an eye on this attribute, to know which players can do wonders and which ones can just make dumb things.
• ATTRIBUTE: Handling
  What does it measure: With high handling, the goalkeepr holds on to the ball more often. With low handling, he can be a mess and drop a ball at the opponents feet.
  Who Needs it: Goalkeepers
• ATTRIBUTE: Heading
  What does it measure: The ability to direct the ball using the head. This doesn't mean that the player will win headers more frequently. For this to happen he would need strength, positioning or off the ball, bravery, etc.
  Who Needs it: Strikers and, in a lower degree, defenders.
• ATTRIBUTE: Influence
  What does it measure: Its THE attribute for the captain. Good players with high influence will make things work and the players will play better. Notice that a dirty, aggresive player with high influence is a bad bad thing...
  Who Needs it: The captain, mainly, but is a good thing to have among your squad.
• ATTRIBUTE: Jumping
  What does it measure: This is related with heading. In order to get to the ball in the air, the player will have to... well.. Jump!
  Who Needs it: Anyone who will battle in the air.
• ATTRIBUTE: Kicking
  What does it measure: Its an optional attribute for the goalkeeper. Useful when you want to counter atack. The keeper can launch the ball to anyone he wants.
  Who Needs it: Goalkeepers, if you want them to kick long balls.
• ATTRIBUTE: Long Shots
  What does it measure: This one is straight forward. Finishing = close and Long Shots = far. Thats all.
  Who Needs it: Keep an eye on players with high score on long balls. Check their composure, technique. You may have the killer player for those las minnutes.
• ATTRIBUTE: Long Throws
  What does it measure: I never gave much importance to this one, but its self explanatory, I guess. Put players with high Long Throws on throw ins.
  Who Needs it: No one, but it may be useful, depending on your tactic.
• ATTRIBUTE: Marking
  What does it measure: This one is a little hard to define for me. I think it is only for Man marking, since for zonal marking we would have positioning.
  Who Needs it: If i am right, only players who will man-mark.
• ATTRIBUTE: Natural Fitness
  What does it measure: A player with high natural fitness will recover faster from injuries, will rest faster after matches and wont get tired very easely when playing a match.
  Who Needs it: Its usefull to everyone.
  Observation: Some people say that getting tired withing a match is computed by stamina. Personally, I think that stamina is about getting tired when running.
• ATTRIBUTE: Off the ball
  What does it measure: How well the player positions himself when atacking. Note that one thing is positioning well (off the ball), another is receiving the pass (anticipation, first touch) and another is making the goal (finishing, composure).
  Who Needs it: All atacking players.
• ATTRIBUTE: One on Ones
  What does it measure: How well the player will do when confronted with the keeper alone. This is a hard one to define and even to compreend. I think it measures how well the player can decide what to do when on one on ones. This would mean that eh would need to have also good finishing, dribbling aaand... What about decisions? Does On on Ones ovewrites the decision attribute when the player is on that situation? Or am I getting Decisions wrong? ( Maybe decisions would be just how fast the player can decide what to do and, in this case, One on Ones would be how good the decision is. This needs to be discussed )
  Who Needs it: Strikers.
  Observation: As i stated above, this is a controversial attribute, and needs to be discussed in order to be compreended.
• ATTRIBUTE: Pace
  What does it measure: The maximum speed the player can get to.
  Who Needs it: Players who need speed: wingers, dribblers...
• ATTRIBUTE: Passing
  What does it measure: How well the player can pass the ball. Note that this is only about the technique. A playmaker would also need decisions, creativity, etc.
  Who Needs it: Everyone need to have a respectable Passing attribute, but mainly the playmakers.
• ATTRIBUTE: Penalties
  What does it measure: The ABILITY to take a penalsty Kick. If, however, a player lacks composure, for example, this ability could be worthless.
  Who Needs it: The team penalty takers.
• ATTRIBUTE: Positioning
  What does it measure: How well the player positions himself defensively. This is used when the player is zonal marking.
  Who Needs it: Defensive-minded players.
• ATTRIBUTE: Reflexes
  What does it measure: How good the keeper saves closed range shots. Other stats influence the goalkeeper success in this, like agility or handling.
  Who Needs it: Goalkeeper
• ATTRIBUTE: Rushing out
  What does it measure: I think it is the same as Acceleration + Pace, but only for goalkeepers. It would be how fast a goalkeeper gets close to a lone striker who got behind the defense.
  Who Needs it: Goalkeepers.
• ATTRIBUTE: Free Kicks
  What does it measure: Same as penalty taking, but for free kicks taking. Other attributes influence actual free kicks taking, though.
  Who Needs it: Look for players with high Free Kicks, good Technique and composure and you got yourself a great free kick taker.
• ATTRIBUTE: Stamina
  What does it measure: How long the player can keep running at top speed. Now, a player with low stamina and high Natural fitness will not be able to make very long runs, but he will recover after just a few minnutes standing still.
  Who Needs it: Everyone that needs to run non stop for a long period of time: wingers, for example.
• ATTRIBUTE: Strength
  What does it measure: The overall physical strength of the player. THis ability should not be overlooked, as it is usefull for challenging balls in the air, on 50-50 challenges, for a striker to stan up in a fight with the defense, etc.
  Who Needs it: Defensive players, and atacking players who can get constantely in man to man contact.
• ATTRIBUTE: Tackling
  What does it measure: The ability to take the ball of the feet of the oposition.
  Who Needs it: Defensive-minded players.
• ATTRIBUTE: Teamwork
  What does it measure: If the player will focus his plays on the tem, rather on himself. That means that he will look out for passes more often, cover for a fellow player, get close to support an atacking one, etc.
  Who Needs it: Good for the overall squad, but mainly to players who will need to pass the ball often: midfield playmakers.
• ATTRIBUTE: Technique
  What does it measure: The overall skill of the player with the ball. Its hard to define the borders of this skill. It may be how well the player is with the ball on his feet. And just that. And tend to believe that is what technique is. With that in mind, it would be usefull for players who run with the ball, but it wouldnt interfere with finishing or penalty taking. DO you agree?
  Who Needs it: The more atacking-minded players who need to run with the ball.
• ATTRIBUTE: Tendency to punch
  What does it measure: How often the goalkeeper will punch the ball, instead of trying to grab it.
  Who Needs it: If you have a goalkeeper with low handling, look for this attribute in him. Otherwise, if your goalkeeper has high handling, this attribute could be more danger than good. Specially if you have a weak defense to pick the ball.
• ATTRIBUTE: Throwing
  What does it measure: The ability for the goalkeeper to throw the ball.
  Who Needs it: Usefull if you need the goalkeeper to put the ball forward fast and eficiently, and you don't want to play long balls ( kicking ). Look for it if you play counter atacking football.
• ATTRIBUTE: Work Rate
  What does it measure: How hard working is the player, normally, during a match. Does he give 100%? Does he have willingness to go after the ball and win? Someone here os the board defined it as "Hustle". Do not mistake it with Determinations, which is how well the player will perform in an adverse situation ( basically, the team is losing and you need to score ). Will he still try to fight and change the score?
  Who Needs it: Its usefull for everybody, but could be essential for a battler defensive middfielder.
• ATTRIBUTE: Composure
  What does it measure: The player is in a tense situation. Can he keep his nerves?
  Who Needs it: Striker to keek cool while trying to score that all important goal, defenders while trying to take the ball of a skillful atacker. I don't think middfielders need it much, as they will not get in many tense situations.
• ATTRIBUTE: Concentration
  What does it measure: How focused the player is in the game. A player with low Concentration will wonder fo position, and make silly things, like giving the ball away, etc.
  Who Needs it: Every player. Bute keep an eye in defenders with low concentration as they can give the game away. Goalkeepers also.

Well, guys. Thats it! The kick off is taken. Now let us analyze the attributes and try to fully conprehend all of them. Once and for all.
As I said, I will try to post an updated list everytime there is a page chance in this thread. This way we can keep talking about the same thing and everyone ca catch on.

ALso I'd like to say that this is part of a bigger project. Later - when we have some consensus in what the attributes mean - we can try to categoryze the attributes in sets of related attributes, like Scoring goals, Beeing the teams Captain, etc. But let us addres the attributes first

See ya

 

[Danny]

Did you write all this or copy and paste from somewhere?????

 

[JP Woody]

Whats the point of all this? Its all on the TT&F guide isnt it.

 

[Danny]

Yeh i think it is actully

 

[Death Ball]

2 - DIY supergoalies - aka beating the AI at its own game. By sjm

((dc, these are posted by other people (title and author in the title of the post) in the si games forums, posts that I couldn't find and are apparently lost, else I'd post links. I don't expect the authors to mind since I'm giving them the credit, and they wrote it for others to read and learn, which they did for me and they have my thanks!. They're from FM06 days. There's no FM06 section there anymore, I visited and used the search trying to find these threads, but I got no results.

I will be posting one per day or so.

And yes, possibly some or most of what will be posted will be found in the ttf as well, in fact I'd imagine some were posts that inspired the making of tt&f, the authors of that document say so. But the form may not be the same and exposition may be a bit different and that may help as a preread before tt&f. The thing is I said I might post these threads, was told it would be great and now I'm fulfilling my word))

I've seen a lot of posts dealing with a couple of “issues” in the game – mythical supergoalies and unexpected defeats to unfancied sides. I just smile and shake my head a lot of the time.

Playing as Shrewsbury Town, fancied relegation candidates in League 2 at the start of the game, I get to see the game from the other side. My team are almost always unfancied going into a game. Yet we've won two leagues in three years and are in the play-off zone after 2/3 of our first season in the Championship. Memorable recent results include a 5-1 mauling of Southampton, as well an away win against Middlesborough – two teams tipped for promotion at the beginning of the season.

True, we've also lost a couple of games against some of the top teams. But we consistently punch above our weight.

Yet if you look at the match stats for these games, Shrewsbury appear at first glance to have been played off the pitch almost every time. We've been 2-0 up after 10 minutes with just one shot on target; we've sometimes scored more than half our shots at goal. And the higher we've won, the less we've seen of the ball! Coincidence? Not really. Here's a quick series of pointers for building your own “cheating AI team”.

Note that some of this also applies to retaining a slim lead - if you score the first goal, the AI will come at you more, so you might need to shore up your defence and attack on the break as well.

The defence:
Your defence needs to be a solid mass of bodies. If you're the underdog, the top teams will see you as easy pickings. They'll get their wingers and central midfielders forward. They'll send the full backs to run up the wing. The area in front of your goal will be a seething heaving bunch of players. Pack the area as best you can. Here's my starting formation against the elite teams in the league:

The back line is a five man defence, leaving a spare man in the centre to pick up any runs from midfield and the full backs to deal with the opposition wingers. The DM closes down the midfield just in front of the defence and is assisted by the MC. The MC is on much higher closing down, racing around putting pressure on either the opponent's defensive line or midfielders who have stayed back. The wingers will also drop back to help out on the wings – generally dealing with the full backs coming forward. Only the striker has absolutely no defensive duties.

Generally, the mass of bodies in front of goal and the quick pressure put on the AI's back line results in hasty crosses and long balls into the box where most are picked up by my defence. Even if they don't win the ball, the AI players are still under enormous pressure the moment they get the ball and often put the ball wide etc. as a result. Given the lack of immediate passing options, midfielders in the centre of the park are often forced into taking long shots. And they either go well wide or are picked up by my goalie. It's important to immediately exert pressure though, otherwise long shots have a horrible tendency of ending up in the top corner! The central defender has high closing down, higher mentality, and together with the DM will close down any player with the ball at his feet outside the area, as well as picking up long balls played quickly out of defence.

The result? Lots of poor chances that go wide. Your goalkeepers rating begins to rise, and he gains in confidence as the match goes on.

At the other end, we need to score goals. The defence wins the ball, whacks it up field (direct passing) and with only 2-3 defenders back, the AI is generally facing a 3v3 or 3v2 situation. This results in a number of extremely clear cut chances – if the ball does get picked up by my attack, chances are they'll put it on target. It's not uncommon for the team to score a very early goal this way – catching the AI unaware as it expects to steamroller over you.

At some point the AI realises that it's playing kamikaze football, and starts reducing the forward runs and mentality on its midfielders. At this point, pressure needs to be exerted higher up the pitch. This means moving the full backs up to the wing back position. With only 2 strikers to take care of, you can leave the three centre backs as the last line of defence. If the AI pull backs even further, the DM can also move forward, leaving two central midfielders and the wingbacks to cover the entire width of the pitch. Tight marking goes on, meaning players are picked up quickly and pressure exerted almost immediately – but without the risk of having defenders out of position, as there are now three defenders marking 2 strikers instead of 2 strikers and 3-4 midfielders. Sometimes turning off the counter attack and reducing tempo and switching to mixed or short passing is good too. Sometimes the AI reduces its closing down drastically to keep players in position. This is the cue to start running down the clock by passing the ball around at will.

At this point in the game, shots are normally few and far between for both teams – and rarely go in. But it's just a waiting game.

The AI will realise its getting nowhere – and with my full backs pushing up and no DM there's suddenly loads of space to exploit again! It'll change back to attacking again – but often even more so than at the start of the game, because it's now often 1-0 down. So I pack the defence again, switch to quick direct passing and turn off tight marking. Sometimes I'll move the wingers up even further so they play in the FR/FL positions. There will be no full back there any more – just get the ball out to the wingers as quickly as possible.

Far more goals are scored for my team when playing like this when we're the team under pressure – the bouts in between assaults are generally periods of relative calm, where you can just knock the ball about the pitch running down the clock. The whole idea is to get the other team to come at you and expose their non-existent defence; it's much easier to score against 2 or 3 defenders than against 6!


Some match stats from recent games:
Shrewsbury 3 – 0 Ipswich
Shots: 9 – 17
On target: 6 – 5
Possession: 45 – 55
GK rating: 8 - 6

Middlesborough 1 – 2 Shrewsbury
Shots: 15-7
On target: 7 – 1
Posession: 55 – 45
GK rating: 6 -7

Leicester 0 – 2 Shrewsbury
Shots: 14 – 8
On target: 6 – 5
Possession: 53 - 47
GK rating: 7 - 9

Shrewsbury 5 – 1 Southampton
Shots: 9 – 8
On target: 8 – 5
Possession 49 – 51
GK rating 8 – 5

My avg GK rating in those 4 games: 8.00 (AI 6.00)

Note that Southampton crumbled in the last 20 minutes of the game and we suddenly had all the time in the world on the ball – 3 goals in the last 10 minutes and lots of possession at the end.
HT: 2-0, with 2 shots on target for Shrewsbury

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Looking at the pure stats during the game would suggest that we were incredibly lucky to win those games, especially by a 5-1 margin against Southampton. But if it's happening consistently, it can't just be random chance. As I say, my tactic is set up to create as many clear cut chances as possible – apart from the Middlesborough game, my shots on target is a high proportion of the total shots. Not so for my opponents, who have been raining in shots from 30 yards out of frustration. This is what the AI does when it's the underdog too

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So instead of complaining next time you lose undeservedly, why not try the game from the other side, and be the “cheating biased” team that grabs the points after being "played off the pitch"

<!--graemlin:--> !

 

[Death Ball]

3 - *Official* Passing Discussion Thread. By Cleon

Passing is a very important part of football and on FM 2006 this is no different, but don't make the mistake that a lot of people do and match the players passing attribute to the passing slider. So for example if someone has 4 for passing this doesn't mean that you should give him (4) short passing on the game. You need to study your players really carefully before deciding what passing to choose. If you have a player who has 15+ for his passing attribute then he is probably good enough to play every single passing style depending at what level you are playing at.

The players passing in the midfield area is the most vital part of your formation in my eyes because you need to keep possession of the ball but also know when to release the ball to someone in a more advanced position. Time the passes right to your strikers and it could lead to a very good chance, but miss time the pass and you might give the possession of the ball away to the opposition. The passing to your strikers is important because get it wrong and you might get caught offside, but passing alone doesn't determine that it also depends on the strikers stats such as decision, anticipation and off the ball.

In Lower League Management situations you probably don’t have the players to play a very short passing game as they lack technique and creativity. So you need to find a passing style that suits the individual player. I would recommend trying to mix the passing styles up through out your team, don't have everyone set on the same settings. By doing this you give your team a variation of passing styles and make it UN predictable for the opposition to figure out what you will do with the ball.

Mixed: This means your players will attempt short passing, direct passing and long passing. This can be a good starting point when deciding what passing to have your players on. If you are unsure stick to mixed until you become more confident.

Short: Your players will just pass the ball to the closest player that isn’t marked. He will just play the basics. But if he is on (1)-(3) short passing this will mean he plays a more one touch football game. This style is only advisable for very good players who are comfortable with passing and moving.

Direct: Your players will attempt to get the ball up field as quick as possible. They will go through the positions until it has reached the front men. But don’t get this mistaken for long passing even though they sound same they are different.

Long: Your players will always hit long balls forward. They will play the ball over the top. This works well if players have poor passing stats, the weather conditions are bad or if you are playing against tough opposition. The downfall of playing like this is you could give a lot of possession away needlessly.

To be able to play any sort of passing game it also relies on other factors too not only the passing attribute. Decisions are important for knowing exactly who to choose to pass to as well as choosing when. Anticipation is another attribute that is quite important as if your player is passing to a player who is currently running he needs to anticipate where he is exactly running too. There are a few more factors too but they will get covered in a different article. It all comes down to combinations of attributes rather than just one overall attribute.

((The attached file is the saved page, rename the extension to mht and you then can open it in your browser, as long it supports mht format))

 

[bigcol1986]

omg what a load of rubbish got bored after the first line

 

[Max]

bigcol1986, don't be a douch, he's trying to help people out that need help.

 

[kpearson1]

What are you talking about? Not one line was of any use to this game. Very very boring and totally pointless

 

[Death Ball]

4 - When a draw is a tactical victory, tweaking tactics during a match. By supersaint

(I never said it would be funny posts. Even it's implied that better don't try to read all at once. I did say they're from Fm06 days so it's obvious not all is exactly the same. But still it's football and the sport is the same. Nobody forces you to read my thread(s ()(fully)). I mentioned the chance of reposting these, I was told it would be great and I am doign what I said I'd do, since the one has not said it's bad I'll go on. Don't keep reading if you get bored. And don't bump it, causing others who didn't to perhaps read this boring piece of thread. kjpearson, to you though, thanks for your opinion.
Now THIS on the other hand, is funny.
The next may be as boring as the previous)

This guide was written as a help for people to pinpoint problems with their tactics in FM05. Im bringing it up again because it still is valid for FM06, because its not so much about what settings I chose, but mostly about what to look for during the matches.



All right, for me not winning is in 90% of the time the same as loosing - so how can a draw be the same as if I had won?

• Playing as MK DONS, currently sitting 2nd in League One with a squad that really should be fighting against relegation, every match is a battle
• Relegated West Ham with this starting line up:
  Pigdeley, Ferdinand, Simpson, Fletcher, Mackay, Reo-Coker, Bunce, Cohen, Jones, Marsh, Zamara
• West Ham plays the one formation that I just hate to meet with my formation: 4-3-2-1, with 2 AMCs behind Zamora going wide
• Playing at Upton Park in front of 24 792 people
• My striker is on strike - just not getting goals lately

Shot stats in the end, West Ham 7(2 ot), MK DONS 16(9 ot) - result 1-1

And yes this was a great victory for me(due to the points made earlier). Why? I should have won according to the stats of the game(most possession too)?

Not really - if it hadnt been for in-game tweaking, I would probably have lost 3-0 or even more.


So, here is what I did.


The beginning
I started the game on extended highlights (usually I play on key, but since I knew this was a though one,
I changed it). First highlight was their goal by Reo-Coker, after a total mess-up in midfield where Reo-Cocker suddenly got the ball and fired a shot from the egde of the box after only 5 minutes. So, I already knew that something was wrong with my midfield(or was it really there the problem was)- and after 5 minutes I turned on Full Match, to see what was going on.

Ok, so what I could see was me loosing control due to panicly clearings, and West Ham start over again. My midfielders were
actually doing their job. They are two MCs with arrows down, told to tight zonal-marking. And they did, they followed their men
every time they were in their zone, and left them to my back four when out of their zone.


Problem one - attacker moving backwards, forward running midfielders
The problem was my two centrebacks. Zamora was probably told to "lay low" or something, because he was more of a third AMC than a striker and this totally made my centrebacks heads spinning.

Them beeing on zonal and tight marking and ultra-defensive mentality, every time Zamora moved deeper and the ball was played towards
him, the CB closest to him would track him down. This created total havoc in my defence and midfield - my midfielder tried to follow their man when he got the ball, whilst the other midfielder would let his man run forward without following him(because he thinks my CB will pick him up?) - so when the man with the ball centres to Zamora, my CB(usually the on furthest away for some reason!) close him down, whilst the other one kind of covers for him.

The problem is: There is still a midfielder on the opposite running forwards, who now has lots of space, because of my second CB not
picking him up(too far away from his zone?)

So I decided to take my CBs off tight-marking, in hope that they wouldnt track down Zamora that much. And it worked, in the next couple of attacks, my defenders didnt go after him that much, but let my midfielders to cope with him, so that they were free to cope with the running midfielders.
Solved


Problem two - centerbacks going too much after the ball when in air
Not much to say about this. My CBs (now not going for Zamora), was charging the ball way too much when its in air. When ball coming in by airmail, one would go forward to get it. But they miss - and suddenly my other CB now had to cope with Zamora and at least one forward running midfielder. Thats at least one too many!
So solving one problem, created another one.

This really got me thinking. How can I solve this, because I cant really put them back on tight marking...

Well solution was in the mentality-settings. In my opinion, ultra-defensive would mean die for the club, stop those attacks.. But in my head this meant that they should always keep their eyes on their man and dont care about anything else than defending the box.

BUT, after thinking a bit, I just realised that they were actually doing anything to clear the ball - just like Ive told them to do, just not the way I wanted.

So, I read in the manual(because I was unsure about the mentality), and it says something like this: Ultra Defensive=defend,defend,defend, Normal=Defend, but also attack, Attack=attack, attack, attack. What if this also means(especially for defenders) that if I put them on normal, they would be more cautious in their defending(not defend at any price, but also forget to defend, because they now are told to be a little more attacking)?

Then I put them on normal mentality. And it seems like I was right, because now when the ball was coming towards them by air - they actually waited for the ball to reach them before they headed the ball away.
Solved


Problem three - West Ham with too much posession
The first half is finally over, and West Ham had owned the match. Even though I had managed to clear the ball more safely, and therefore also get a couple of nice attacks, they were still outplaying me. My problem was of course that they created tons of moves (wingers, AMCs and MCs on forward runs?) and I was inviting them over and over again.

I like to have my defensive line deep, very deep - mostly because my defenders lacks any pace, so when pushing up they are always left behind. But in this cause, this was causing me more trouble than I liked.

So, thinking of something I had just witnessed in real life I decided to try to push up my back four abit.
What I had witnessed earlier today was a team that was under pressure because they defended too low - they pushed up, and the other
team had to recreate their attacking moves, they could no longer go on all those runs that created havoc, because they now had to
beware so they didnt run into offside.

In my game, first the AI continued the same way as before the break, but now they got caught offside 2 times in the first five minutes, and changed their instructions(must have done, because now they were trying to beat me by holding the ball outside my box) - and this got them into trouble, because I now had 4 players(2 DCs and 2 MCs) covering their SC and the 2 AMCs, giving them no time on the ball, which led to them loosing the ball more often because of either holding the ball too long, or trying to dribble through my players.
Solved


After 53 minutes, my winger had fouled their FB midways outside the box and their freekick was lifted towards the
box, but my other winger cleared the ball up to my pacey striker that was left up, who ran past his man and cooly placed a shot behind
West Hams keeper. 1-1.


Problem four - not enough creative moves up front
I had now basically managed to turn the match in my favour, but still it was lacking the moves up front, even though I had started
to create chances.

1. My striker shot too often from outside the box
2. My striker didnt get the ball to my wingers as much as usual

Well this was a quite easy one- long shots from mixed to rarely, from direct pass to very low mixed, and creative freedom from little
to normal, run with ball from rarely to mixed.
More creative freedom made him use his brain more - short passing made him play to the midfielders who then played the ball to the
forward running wingers - run with ball and less long shots made him move closer to the goal before shooting.
Solved


So at the end, I had more posession, more shots and better play against what I see as the toughest opponent in this years league and could
have won with just a little bit of luck - but then again without paying attention to the problems during the game, I would done what I
did in CM03-04, watch on key highlights, loose 3-0 or probably more, and curse SI for making such an unrealistic engine

Hope that you can get some ideas of what to look for, and how you can solve your own problems. I remind you, this is purely one example
of how things can be done - there are endless ways of doing things, but this might help you see things a little bit clearer



Here is another one. This was originally my notes for a pkm(match)-file. Unfortunately that pkm-file is lost, but I hope you can follow it.

Before Match
Notts County, bottom of the table, plays a 433 with two strikers moving wide. I know from before that this is also something I struggle with. Therefore, I decide to push my defensive line up, so that the chance of them getting caught offside is bigger.


2 mins
GOAL - Notts County
NC gets a free-kick halfway into my half. For some reason, my man-marking instructions is not working. My CB and one DMC both pick up #9 at the 6 yard box - whilst my #7 has to man-mark 2 players by himself.
When the ball is played forward, my DMC no longer wants to manmark #9 and moves away, and my #7 doesnt know if he should manmark #54,#31 or #51. My DC wins the duel, but cant clear the ball, and with their #31 running free, its a goal.

This is something that I just cant get right.


21 mins
My winger (#16, Smith has won the ball in midfield, running forward and gets us a corner. Ends in nothing but an offside call.
After being under pressure for the last 20 mins, only creating this chance I decide to alter things around.
I decide to bring one of the CMs(#20) with backward arrow down to the DMC position, hoping that he can help out my defenders with their trouble regarding the 3 strikers.
You can see this when Notts County is taking the freekick after the offside call.
This actually leads to me counter-attacking after their freekick, my DC(#24) wins the duel against the striker, whilst the DMC is kind of covering up for him.


24 mins
I win the ball in midfield, but Notts County is able to win the ball. With my DR in the center of the pitch(#2) - Notts County now got two men alone on my right hand side. This leads to my DC(#24) moving outwards, to cover up - but he then leaves a huge gap for Notts Countys striker to run into. Pure luck Im not down 2-0 by this time.
The goal kick almost lead to a goal for me, but still - it should not have happened.

So bringing my defensive working midfielder down as a DMC didnt work the way I wanted to, because he should have been covering up here.


26 mins

GOAL - MK DONS
After going to my tactics screen and check out things, I decide to bring on my DMC sub, that is also capable of playing as a DC, instead of the one Im using in the DMC slot. Then I set him as a third DC with DMC settings(meaning that he should be more involved in attacks than the other DCs) - told him to man-mark, whilst I took my two other DCs off tight marking.
This should make it easier to pickup the Notts County striker, and provide decent cover in case my man-marker miss.

The first thing you can notice after this is that it doesnt seem to work - because the wrong DC is getting into a duel with the striker after a goal kick - but Im cool, because I know that some players need time to adapt to new instructions.

Then you can see my striker(#14) does a terrible mistake - he is one on one with a DC(#54), whilst my AMR(#7) is coming forward. So why doesnt he: Play a through ball to my winger? Even though his instructions tells him to do one of those, he plays the ball back to my MC. Probably because is on little creativity, short passing, rarely longshots - he plays safe instead of wasting a chance.

OK so he did it wrong this time - but when watching this I decided to let him have a go for just a little while, to see if he made better choices later on.

My chance ends in a Notts County freekick in midfield. They decide to play it wide to the right winger, probably because Im covering up their centre striker too well for them.

Well, what can I say? My fullback(#3) totally in control of the situation, wins the ball easily - plays it to my striker(#14), who just waits for the right moment before he plays a short and deadly ball to my running AMC.

Guess I was right in giving him a second chance, he totally made up for the first miss.



29 mins
GOAL - MK DONS
As I said, my third DC (#15) has instructions to join the attack. Thats why you can see him getting the ball high in the pitch, after my FB(#2) has cleared it. When the new attack is over, you can watch how he runs back to take care of the Notts County striker.

Because their striker is so heavily marked, Notts County is forced to play across the field, a pass that my fullback cuts out with a beautiful header to my striker, who then plays it quick out to my left-hand winger.

He is forced backwards, but still manage to play a ball forward to my striker, who instead of shooting or take a longshot, plays a short quick ball to my running AMC(#22) - just like Ive told him to.
He plays a short through ball back to my striker, who is now free of the charging DC.



There is numerous of chances after this, where I didnt have any reasons to change my instructions, simply because I now was in full control. If you watch these chances you'll see how the new instructions are working - and therefore also creates a couple of good chances for me.

Only thing I did was to bring on a substitue during break, because my left winger was playing ****.
You will notice one problem that can happen when you push up though - in the 57th min, my DL is pushing up too much, which gives their outer striker too much space.

My striker was substituted in the 65th minute, due to injury. Because my backup striker is nowhere near my first option, Notts County seems to get back into the match, due to my attacks getting cut to pieces.



70th minute and onwards
Notts County is pressing me heavily now, and with no options on the bench - I have to alter the formation. I bring my AML/AMR back to ML/MR with arrows down, so they can help my Fullbacks.
I also put my defensive working MC down to DMC position, to provide deeper cover infront of the three fullbacks.

This didnt help me offensively, but at least it took off the pressure and the match ended the way it was supposed to

 

[focus_mad]

omg what a load of rubbish got bored after the first line

I believe their is a phrase to describe people like this....C**TS

 

[JP Woody]

I believe their is a phrase to describe people like this....C**TS

Thats a bit harsh isnt it? the guys entitled to his opinion,it doesnt make him a c**t.

 

[focus_mad]

ok maybe a tiny tiny bit harsh but Dead Ball's after going to all that trouble of analysising the game in the way that he has and tghen this chap just decides to **** on it.
I dont think he had to diss the chaps hard work.

 

[Ross 95]

OK maybe a tiny tiny bit harsh but Dead Ball's after going to all that trouble of analyzing the game in the way that he has and then this chap just decides to **** on it.
I don't think he had to dis the chaps hard work.

I'm not picking fault but his name is 'Death Ball' not 'Dead Ball'.

---------- Post added at 02:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:51 PM ----------

Good info by the way.

 

[focus_mad]

my bad... half falling asleep in work here!!!

 

[kpearson1]

ok maybe a tiny tiny bit harsh but Dead Ball's after going to all that trouble of analysising the game in the way that he has and tghen this chap just decides to **** on it.
I dont think he had to diss the chaps hard work.

Are your for real? Death Ball clearly doesnt realise FM is a disk that plays a game. Analysis? 1000 word write up's on a match? This is the behaviour of an oddball

 

[Danny]

Them Guides On the bottom of the pages are empty well they are for me do i no a program to open them i click extract here and it says something lol

 

[Death Ball]

Are your for real? Death Ball clearly doesnt realise FM is a disk that plays a game. Analysis? 1000 word write up's on a match? This is the behaviour of an oddball

A) I said several times: I spoke of some threads that reading them (over, of course, nobody in his right mind will try to read all those in a go), that they were written by OTHER people (if you don't understand that concept then you'll need a five years old boy to explain it ), that since those threads in another site were not available I might COPY and PASTE them. I was asked to and so I kindly did, onyl to be greeted by your oh so sane gratefulness. Writing each post, save the first, took me less than one minute.

B) If writing on tactics of FM is being a oddball (in the worst possible way, that's what you meant) not understanding FM is a game, then you have said everyone else who has ever participated here, in this section, too.

C) Someone who does X may be an oddball. But 1000 times worse is the one who considers X oddballery and still wastes his time with it.

D) I know it's a game, but I just wanted to be kind to other members to try help them get a better idea of how the game is played so they enjoy the game instead of getting frustrated. I know they could well trash the game, but some would prefer to get to play and for those I try to help. I think it's more intelligent that going through threads of oddballery to call everyone else an oddball.

E) I'm happy with my life, as much as the people like you let me be. In fact I think that statement is universally true.

DC999, not every browser supports them. To be honest in most of them you won't find much goodies, mostly a lot of people giving their thanks because they found them very useful. I'll see if I convert them. Of course, when I got nothing else to do.