retired_kellyk

I'll assume people have read the FAQ, which covers a lot of the basic stuff. This thread is meant to cover more than just the basics and is aimed to help people get to enjoy playing the game more:


FFM How to make any tactic

<LI> What is the goal of your tactic
Know what you want first. Where are your goals going to come from, where are your players going to be to link the whole thing together. Stuff like that, its basic, but many people including me go onto auto-pilot and forget

<LI>Making your own vs Default tactics
Default tactics are a template, something to work from, not the ultimate solution. If you look at the default tactics virtually every slider is in the middle. Middle means normal so the emphasis is for safety first, even for the attacking tactics. Small adjustments should be made, you can also use the presets and set up the defenders..and then you'll notice there is a difference between a preset- defender and one from the default instructions.

<LI> How do I play defensively?
Short - Normal passing
Slow - Normal Tempo
Low creative freedom
Few TTB instructions
Normal FWR instructions for most players
A normal defensive line
Normal mentalities for most players
Slow to normal tempo
Normal width
High timewasting
Closing down low at the back, normal in midfield and normal upfront


When it comes to passing I generally recommend mixed for most teams because of the weather effect on pitches. Waterlogged pitches are a huge problem for short passing, so sometimes you need to play mixed. A slow to normal tempo allows you to hold possession. Closing down is also interesting, for good sides I'd even consider higher closing down, but sometimes that wears out players too much, lower closing down keeps your players in shape.
If you have your link players on direct passing and one or two wingers on fwr, they could launch very quick counterattacks.

<LI>Slow probing possession based game
Higher closing down in midfield/attack
Passing short
Tempo slow to normal
Width - Wide
More FWR
More players with TTB instructions
Higher CF in front
Ideally some players will be on direct passing to set off quick thrusts
The more players have normal instructions the more players defend, so some players may need
either FWR or farrows to make them run behind the defensive lines



Its easy to go from a defensive set up to one of these, the key lies in the passing and closing down instructions. If you want to knock the ball about, set passing to the low end of short and mixed. Short passing will see players knock it around more. If you want to do probing kind of football your shape is very important. At least 3 centrally placed midfielders are needed. Tempo should be slow or normal. Leave closing down untouched in defense, but increase it in midfield. These kind of formations benefit from some players on direct passing, the thrusts will come from here.

<LI>Attacking tactics
FWR often for midfielders
FWR often for fullbacks
More use of TTB
Slider based formation with at least 6 players on attacking mentality
Wide

Attacking formations need pace, good passing, great anchor players who could HUB and lay off to others and more than one route to goal. Attacking mentalities are important for those who are attacking, which means you want to take risks. With such formations its important to keep your backline on INDIVIDUAL mentalities at all costs so they don't get dragged away. Formations that can use this to great effect are 433 formations, possession shouldn't be your main worry, make sure you get more than one route to goal. .This can come from attacking fullbacks, "kaka" like midfielders and strong AMC who drive attacks through the middle.

Using arrows for players


If you use farrows be careful, setting too high a mentality for a farrowed player could push him further away and make him harder to find. Furthermore all those forward runs he will make will only make him more tired. When setting mentality be aware of its incidental effects on other settings. When a player is set with a high mentality and is given passing instructions its best to give him either direct passing or short. Do this so he can find the player nearest him.

If he has a high mentality and is positioned higher up on the pitch, you shouldn't give him any ttb instructions if he is a winger, getting him to play a short pass or a direct pass to an MC or a striker is a far better option. Setting him on attacking mentality and with TTB on normal will definitely make him waste more passes. Even if his decisions are good he will look for the attacking option first.

Its far better to give a ML a farrow and then give him normal mentality. This means that he will be positioned further up to receive the pass but he will also be more effective when you lose possession of the ball since he is closer to the MC, then he would otherwise have been if he has a high mentality.


Mentality works hand in hand with a host of sliders that can complicate your target or enhance it..its best to keep CF neutral; Closing down normal and tempo normal in most cases.

CF increases the amount of actions a dot will more likely do. Keeping it normal allows his decisions to determine what these are. High mentality settings, coupled with high closing down will wear your players down. There is little neccessity to have high for both. Have closing down on normal for wingers, have it higher for your DMs. You can set really low mentality settings for your DCs. I would recommend having them on 3 if possible for FM 2008. You can even have it on 1. That will make em play like Wimbledon at the back with no thought on building play just hoofing


<LI>Defensive Line -
If you have a high dline then the midfielders and defenders try winning the ball higher up the pitch. This slider works with closing down and is affected by mentality. If your team is attacking and loses the ball, then players will fall back to win the ball.

If you are playing with a high dline and your fullbacks are set to normal mentality and low closing down, their higher positions will affect their closing down. Because they are placed higher, they will close down once a player enters his zone. And sometimes they may even track deep to do that. Attributes and player roles affect these too. If the ball is punted and is headed to the 25yard line, chances are a DC if he has higher anticipation will move to win the header. Bear all these in mind when setting a tactic up.


Player instructions

The best thing about setting player instructions now is "Match Flow", on match day you can actually close the tactical screen which displays the formation and then select player instructions based on their attributes. It certainly saves time.

Passing
Direct is good form of passing for premiership clubs. You can use direct passing for DCs and for wingers.
Short passing is good passing for MCs and for defensive MCs linking with either a DM or a an attacking MC who is set to TTB. In this case have the MC on passing of 1 and the playmaker on either mixed or direct.

Long passing - Not my favourite, use it with your Keeper. Look for a Forward with high jumping and heading, strength and pace and set that guy up to receive long kicks from your keeper. Plenty of cheap goals to be had from here. It doesn't happen ALL THE TIME though.

Short passing witj fast tempo works great with strong teams, but can be disasterous for weak teams who lack te attributes such as stamina, workrate and decisions to make a high tempo passing game work.High tempo also implies a shorter interval between passes, if a playerr can't make a decision where the ball is going it will most likely end up with the opposition.


Run with Ball and Cross Ball

The best setting for this has always been mixed. If you set someone on often for both these sliders, he will do the dribble or cross the ball even when its not the best option. Their first priority will be to follow those instructions. So always use decisions to govern player instructions.

retired_Kam_macca

Quality post once again Rashidi and it sort of ties into some thoughts I had today about tactics as I study other posts by both yourself, Cleon and other 'switched on' players of FM.

I was thinking today that perhaps there could be some kind of 'skeleton' of tactical settings, like a table of suggested settings for each position which can be used as the foundation of creating a successful tactic and then tweaking from there.

The table wouldn'nt necessarily have to contain pinpoint accuracy when it comes to slider settings, just in increments of 5 or so for things like Mentality, CF, Closing Down etc, recommendations basically to get people started.

Obviously depending on the shape of your tactic and of course your players, some positional settings may be quite different but I sort of see it as set of Lego bricks which when used together create an object, some bricks are slightly different shapes or of different colour but there is commonality between them.

It might be a interesting project to get others involved in.

Agruso

There are already pre set templates for each position in the tactic screen.

Great read Rash once again, you should see my blue square north team now with the tips from your cambridge thread.

I will bear these tips in mind when i decide to create a more adventurous tactic as my solid 4132 gets results but i feel i could attack more, plus I just like building tactics.

retired_cnote357

I never fully understood CF till now, thanks :thup:

retired_ahah

ive just created a tactic through these tips, and i must admit im absloutly flying. there is some tips on here that i didnt think of and they have really helped thanks

retired_lswearne

good read.
KUTGW :thup:

retired_kellyk

Actually I was thinking of that too, instead of what attributes are needed, it'd be what are the individual instructions needed to achieve what they have been set to do. The constraint in doing pre-sets and this is one of the things I learned after creating something similar for FM06 is that you could have a variety of instructions and you essentially need to know what you want to achieve. I think within this thread we could get it done.

Lets start with DCs - the easiest of the group. We can discuss it here before someone goes off to create a [code]table. I'm really struggling for time nowadays.

Individual Instructions for Defenders

Assuming you are playing a back four formation and whether its attacking or not the instructions will hardly ever vary:

Defender in a Defensive/Attacking formation
Average standard team, with a normal defensive line. Team is characterized with trying to hold possession when possible, and intelligent build up play Defensive/Control/Attacking Tactics

<LI> Standard Defender
Mentality: Defensive(5)
Creative Freedom: Low (5)
Passing: Short 6
TTB: None
FWR: None
Cross: None
Closing Down: Own Area (5)

Defenders who are expected to attack for counters, characteristic of good sides

<LI> Attacking Defender
Mentality: Defensive
Creative Freedom: None
Passing: Direct (first notch)
TTB: Normal
FWR: None
Cross : None
Closing Down: Own Area (5)

Defenders in classic 3 man backline formations
<LI>Sweepers
Mentality: Defensive (last notch)
Creative Freedom: None
Passing: Direct (first notch)
TTB: None
FWR: None
Cross : None
Closing Down: Last notch of own area or possibly own half.

<LI>Stoppers
Mentality: Defensive (last notch)
Creative Freedom: None
Passing: Short - Mixed (last notch of short)
TTB: None
FWR: None
Cross : None
Closing Down: Slightly higher if you're using a sweeper behind them. Preferably in the own area region as well. Probably the last notch,since you want them to drop back and close down first.

retired_mrosea

i coded the four of those templates up available here so that people can play around with them.

retired_Kam_macca

Nice start Rashidi, we'll have more Lego pieces in no time to help with the building blocks of tactics.

Yesterday I was comparing a couple of the tactics I got from these forums, from both yourself, Cleon and others, and noticed that the tactics that had common positions all had fairly similar settings for each position. They weren't identical but they were close enough to realise there would not be a huge difference in settings from tactic to tactic.

retired_anitarobinson

Only just noticed this rash, great stuff yet again, should be a sticky imho :thup: