Go through your squad, identify who are the best players overall and every player's best position. The best formation to use to begin with is going to be whichever formation gets the most players playing in their preferred roles without leaving out any key players.
Use the Tactics section to set this one up as your first set of tactics, then set up two alternatives - perhaps a formation that uses two up front or one that packs the midfield. Do this as soon as possible so they can get to work on familiarising themselves with these tactics during training - your assistant will keep you posted with comments on their progress.
Create tactics that break the lines. This means you don't just have all defenders defending, all midfielders supporting and attackers attacking. Consider using one of your full backs in attack mode, so he can overlap. Someone from your midfield needs to be defensive minded while at least one other needs to attack. The temptation is always to tell your striker to attack but read the descriptions of each role in the Tactics section and consider how you want your front man to engage with the rest of the team during build-up play. Look at the individual instructions that you can set in regards to crossing the ball - you can get each of your wingers and full backs to do different things, if you want, so think about where those crosses will go and who will be there to get on the end of them.
Set instructions that go together. For example, if you want to play possession football then you'll obviously click the Retain Possession option but also consider Play Out of Defence and telling the goalkeeper to Roll The Ball Out to your full backs. You can give your central midfielders more licence to switch the play to the opposite flank to exploit space when it appears. Tell the more creative types to play more risky passes and the more workmanlike to keep it simple. You might want to make sure that Payet is trained to Try Killer Balls Often. Don't tell your team to Look For The Overlap if you don't have anyone instructed to overlap and don't pump the ball into the box if you've only got a small lad on his own up top.
Use the Opposition Instructions to have your players mark, close down and tackle their players, and to show them onto their weaker foot. Setting instructions for attackers and midfielders only will effectively have you press within your own half of the pitch. You may sometimes find that overlapping full backs have to be dealt with, too.
When you make changes to your team, including substitutions, consider the impact on your tactics and tweak if necessary. Try to keep as many players as possible playing in their preferred positions/roles.
