Understanding and interpreting the match engine....

mcbgun

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One of the biggest difficulties for me when playing the game is understanding how to adapt tactics for a particular opposition...

Let me expand on this....

When I play FM I always use commentary with the match stats screen in front of me. Why? Because I just don't understand how to interpret things I see in 2D/3D view.

For instance, can you actually visually see the opposition playing a higher line, play narrower for instance or use the offside trap? I find the analysis tool to be complex and the opposition scouting reports to be vague at best!

Aside from watching the whole match in real time, I just don't get how to adapt tactics for the opposition your up against which may sound ridiculous considering how long I've played the game for but I get confused about how to interpret what I'm seeing.

The only things that I can see that I understand are when the *** Man tells you your passing isn't connecting very well or tackling isn't great....that's good, I can understand that clearly and can react as such. What I don't get is how I can for instance beat rangers 5 - 0 AWAY from home and then shortly thereafter lose 1-0 at home.

Maybe its a case of having 3 tactics set up for small, medium and large teams....I dunno.....what I do know is that analyzing what's happening in a match is extremely difficult.

I've learned that you can increase possession by using hassle opponents....again as a direct result of seeing the possession bar decrease....but how do you know when to play narrow, when not to? Gone are the days where scout reports would (realistically I might add) provide details of how the opposition played and what pitch size they used. Now you get sweet F.A. Trying to find a weakness in the opposition to exploit is, for me, nigh on impossible!

The star ratings in the scout report always are never less than three and half stars for the opposition and there is never one player with less stars than the rest of his team mates.

I hope I'm making some sense......I want to improve my side to this game for when FM13 comes out as currently I feel like a passenger. This despite nearly always doing well with the game but I know for a fact that my win % would increase drastically if I went on a match by match basis and in more depth than say just choosing a home and away tactic.

I really hope someone can help me here or point me towards an easy to understand resource so I can learn more. With the number of people who play this game, I'm surprised there isn't a load of videos about how to tackle this area of the game.

Thoughts?
 
it is hard having to edit each of your tactics per game depending on opposition as you lose fluidity each time you make a little change here and there..

some formations work well against others while some do not work at all.. you just need to keep notes on who you played, what worked last time at home/away etc and try and use that approach tactic again...

I do not do this though ;) I have a few tactics I use, but I never look at opp reports, weather, pitch condition etc etc which all play a big part on the day!

if its snowing or raining heavily then playing a possession game is not going to get you the correct result as it would ceteris paribus on another day...

if you really put in the time and effort and do what you say and what I say then you most probably will get a better win ratio, however, it is very time consuming...

I was thinking about it earlier actually, I think I might do this until the end of my season and see how much better the results are and performances starting now :)
 
playing Southampton in Europa League at home: weather is 8 degrees with drizzle on my 100m by 64m pitch which is in good condition! The wind is gusty (not sure what speed that results in)

I have beaten them 5 out of 5 times in all comps so far, not sure which tactic I used on them all but my 442 (Underdog) tactic should be the one!

They are lining up in a 41212 type diamond 442:

View attachment 274015

by the looks of things I would need to maybe play a DM to deal with the AMC as well as the two strikers
I would not employ an AMC either as they have a DM that would negate his effect!
I am thinking of a 433 DM tactic with wide wingers, crossing in balls for Llorente/Kleber to contest with, even though their CB's are 189cm and 196cm...

playing quick, direct tempo with a normal defensive line would be appropriate I think! playing out wide and flooding the midfield with two B2B mids as to overpower the DM and flood the box on attack..

any other thoughts before I play?
 
going to put the DM on tight man specific marking (on the AMC) when the game starts
have set my wingers to cut inside and cross often playing through balls sometimes into Llorente who is a CF - attack run with ball sometimes run from deep often and holding up the ball for the b2b mids to join attack as well as the wingers to cut inside and join the attack as well while the DM sits back at all times patrolling/covering with the cb's set to cover behind him!

fullbacks are on support everything sometimes except long shots, crossing from deep!
set all players passing to direct or mixed!

View attachment 274017
 
1:0 up first half, red card ****** everything up...
 
playing no striker as right back was sent off, playing on the counter now set my wingers to run with ball often, no crossing, no through balls, hoping we get the ball outwide then they run at the defence and cause a few problems....
 
Thanks for replying! Everyone plays the game differently, some choose to play a little more casually like myself and have a formation for three types of team namely small, medium and large clubs for home and away games. I suppose that is the nature of the game that your allowed three formations at any one time only.

I'd like to think that FM13 will have more feedback from scouts on the opposition. Its their job to tell you what the opposition team's strength's and weaknesses lie. I'd love to see a detailed breakdown of where a team could be exploited even if its not a particular player, rather something in the pitch size or even advice for the weather for that day.

As it stands, we haven't got that info and are left to use what's available to us. The tactical analysis page offers information on which formations the opp have played against and what have been successful or not.

Over the next few days I will look to learn how to best utilize the tools available rather than just blindly playing the game. Hopefully I'll find out some interesting things.

Does anyone else have helpful advice on this topic? I know there's people here who meticulously analyse every facet of this gameplay.
 
as I mentioned,

looking at the weather, pitch size/condition are essential as well as the opp formation and injuries!

you can even go as far as looking at the opp previous game or their heaviest loss and using a similar formation as the one that beat them like 5:0 or whatever..

I have taken opp instructions a lot more serious and in depth on comparison to just leaving it to my assistant manager and have won now 8 games out of 8 in all comps as West Ham..
 
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