wwfan

Introduction

In writing this thread, I am first taking into account the objections people have to my mathematical and supposedly highly unrealistic theories. In doing so I am trying to avoid reference to slider numbers, minor tweaks and graded mentality systems and instead concentrating on generalized ideas about:

A: How Real Life Football compares with FM
B: How to Design Standard Tactical Systems
C: How to Manage these Systems Effectively

I have also tried to keep the thread shorter and more concise than my usual musings, so people aren’t immediately put off by its length. Unusually, for one of my theory threads, I have also attached tactics.

Hopefully, after reading this thread and putting its ideas into practice, people will start enjoying FM07 again and appreciating the game-engine for what it actually is.


Are We Sitting Comfortably

Then we’ll begin. Before reading the rest of the thread, I ask you to take into consideration my following assumptions about real world football. If these do not sit comfortably with you, there is little reason for you to continue. If they do, then read on.


Assumption One: Definition of Formation

Before I embark on any tactical explanations, I need to be explicit about the difference between formation and tactic. A formation is the basic framework deciding the position each player generally takes on the field of play. Thus, a 4-4-2 will have four defenders, four midfielders and two attackers. Likewise, the Chelsea/Bolton formation has four defenders, one defensive midfielder, two central midfielders, two wingers and one centre forward.


Assumption Two: Definition of Tactics

Tactics, and tactical instruction, operate within the basic formation framework of a side. A 4-4-2 at home will thus differ heavily from a 4-4-2 away. In the home formation, the wingers may be asked to hug the touchline, support the attackers and be given a fair degree of freedom to be creative. In the away formation, they will be asked to tuck in, support the full-backs, and be ready for quick breaks when the reward outweighs the risk.


Assumption Three: FM Tactics

When designing tactics, one slider tweak difference alters the tactical instruction but not the formation. Thus, when I talk about tactics in the rest of this post, I am talking about them in the context of one formation. Sir Alex Ferguson nearly always sends Man Utd onto the pitch in a 4-4-2 but individual and team instructions differ from match to match, situation to situation. When I talk of tactics, it refers to these kinds of instructions, not to changing the formation.


Assumption Four: Changing Tactics

No team, no matter how good or how poor, ever goes through a match without some switches in tactical strategy. The extent to which these tactical changes work defines the course of the match. They may not be recognisable to the casual viewer but they happen nonetheless.


Assumption Five: Why Teams are Successful

Teams are successful due to a combination of four things: good tactical management, good man management, good transfer policy and availability of funds. Failure in managing any of the above is likely to lead to a season of poor performances and disillusionment. Translating this to FM; it is easy to succeed at three and four, but one and two cause difficulties.

If none of the above has caused palpitations and I still have your attention, I will outline some basic tactical (not formation) strategies that should allow for some successful gaming.


Tactical Design

I will outline five tactical strategies that I believe all managers, virtual or real, should be able to put into operation at any time during a match situation. Quality sides will tend to veer towards the attacking end of the tactical spectrum; poor ones towards the defensive, but all tactics should prove useful during the course of a season.

To avoid confusion, I will not refer to tactics as home or away; rather I will refer to them in relation to how I would perceive using them in match situations. I will also refrain from using slider numbers. In basic FM terms, the tactics follow roughly the following pattern.


Standard Systems within One Formation (4-4-2)


Defend

Defensive mentality
Narrow width
Deep defensive line
Easy tackling
Rarely closing down
Tight marking
Slow tempo
Heavy Time Wasting
Minimal Forward Runs
No Free Roles
Few Through Balls
Low Creative Freedom
No Farrows on Wingers


Counter

Defensive/Normal mentality
Medium/Narrow width
Medium/Deep defensive line
Easy tackling
Rarely closing down
Tight marking
Slow tempo
Medium Time Wasting
Wide Players and Forwards Make Forward Runs
One/Two Free Roles
MCs play Through Balls
Low Creative Freedom
Short Farrows on Wingers


Possession

Normal/Attacking mentality
Medium width
Medium defensive line
Normal/Heavy tackling
Medium closing down
Loose/Tight marking
Medium tempo
Medium Time Wasting
All players except DCs and MCd make mixed/often forward runs
Two Free Roles
All players play Mixed Through Balls
Low/Normal Creative Freedom
Short Farrows on Wingers


Attack

Attacking mentality
Wide width
High defensive line
Hard tackling
Often closing down
Loose marking
High tempo
Low Time Wasting
All players except DCs/MCd make forward runs often
Three/Four Free Roles
All players play Often Through Balls
Offside Trap
Attackers/Wingers Hold Up Ball
Wingers High Creative Freedom/MCa/FCs Normal
Long Farrows on Wingers


Control

Attacking mentality
Ultra-wide width
Medium defensive line
Hard tackling
Often closing down
Loose marking
Slow tempo
Low Time Wasting
All players except DCs/MCd make forward runs often
Three/Four Free Roles
All players play Often Through Balls
Offside Trap
Attackers/Wingers Hold Up Ball
Wingers High Creative Freedom/MCa/FCs Normal
Long Farrows on Wingers


Tactical Management

Herein lies the key to succeeding at Football Manager 07. The extent to which you effectively manage your tactics decides your long-term success. Although a certain degree of personal judgement has to be used with regard to squad quality and the level of football they can play, the following hints on reading the AI , and thus picking the right tactics should be useful. I will refer to variants of the 4-4-2 system to keep things simple, but it isn’t too hard to work out other systems once you have this in mind


The 4-2-4

The bane of many an FMers life, it has been argued that real life teams rarely, if ever, use such a formation against big sides. Maybe there is a case, but how many teams won’t risk a punt at a comeback when only one-nil down with 15 minutes to play?

In real life, managers have two options when deciding to limit the possibilities of a determined effort at getting back into the game. The first is to defend for their lives. This would be the preferred option if:

A: you are by far and away the worst side on paper
B: you are using the counter tactic and are seeing too many chances for your liking
C: there are only a couple of minutes left

At any of these times it is realistic and sensible to opt for the defend strategy.

However, if you are pretty sure you are the superior side (especially if you are at home) you may wish to stick with the counter strategy to try and grab a goal and kill off the game.


The 4-4-2 Long Farrow

The standard AI home strategy: translated in real world terms as a tactic used by teams playing at home and expecting to win. Bearing in mind, that unless you are very weak in divisional terms, you will rarely face this tactic at the beginning of a home game, the tactical management decision is whether to use the counterstrategy or the possession one.

Again, your own personal evaluation of your squad is the key towards making the correct decision. If you feel you are a better side, then the possession option will likely offer you more chances without giving up too much ground. If you think the other side is better, the counter tactic is more likely to bring you joy as it is harder to break down.


The 4-4-2 Short Farrow

This is the standard AI away formation unless it feels it outclasses you or is outclassed by you. It can quite easily be beaten by the attack strategy, although reverting to possession if a goal or two to the good can also bring rewards.


The Flat 4-4-2

This system, or those more defensive than it, is the reason users struggle to beat weaker AI sides at home. Using a deeper defensive line than the 4-4-2 Short Farrows, the Flat 4-4-2 also presses heavily, reducing time and space on the ball. Therefore, the attack tactic become redundant and the control should be the tactic of choice.


The Subtle Difference between an Attacking and a Control-Based Tactic

An attacking strategy invariably outwits the AI’s counter-attacking or possession tactics. It moves the ball around quickly, has everybody looking to play killer through balls and most people looking to make forward runs to get onto them. The 4-4-2 Short Farrows have medium defensive lines and normal pressing. A team playing fast, flowing football will create a lot of chances to break through the defensive line. Many of these breaks will offer good goal-scoring opportunities.

However, this type of strategy falls down heavily against more defensive tactics. These systems play a much deeper defensive line, which is protected by a flat midfield and strike force, all heavily pressing, reducing time and space. The high tempo, high d-line attacking system fails to break it down as final passes are too hurried. Invariably the team’s frustration grows and the opposition often scores on the break. I’m sure we have all had a match in which we have all the possession, multitudes of chances, yet lose one or two nil. The control-based strategy stops this from happening.

Although in many respects a control-based strategy and an attacking one offer little difference (same individual instructions throughout) the differences it does have are vital. A medium defensive line (too low and you give up too much space for the opposition forwards to exploit), a wider width and a slow tempo force the deep lying opposition players out of position. In doing so, it opens up space for the midfielders/full backs to exploit between the attack and midfield. The slow tempo assures the team keeping hold of the ball and the attacks are controlled, careful build ups rather than rapid, rapier like thrusts at the opponent.


Changing Tactics During the Match

The AI changes tactics throughout the match. Some of these changes are obvious, moving form long farrows to no farrows, a 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1. Others may not actually be obvious on the formation screen (deeper d-line, faster tempo) but they happen all the same. If the change is obvious, it is easy to decide upon a decent counter-tactic, but if it isn’t then other tools need to be used.

The two best tools available for understanding the effectiveness of your tactical decision-making are the possession percentage and the passing percentage indicators. Ideally, you want to manage each match so you have a significant advantage in both areas. If you do this, you should then win. Watching these as much as possible gives you an indication the AI is doing something you are failing to deal with, despite them having made no obvious changes. Try to switch too a different system to maintain the advantage you have.

If you keep a close eye on these things, you should generally be playing a competitive tactic and be maximising your chances of getting a result. However, you may not always win, and there will be occasions when you have to decide a draw is a good result and settle for it. Changing to an attacking tactic just because you feel it unrealistic or frustrating not to win could bring you a goal, but it could equally likely cost you the match. Keep an eye on your rival’s performance in the Latest Results screen and only change if you feel you have to win.


Things Not To Do

If you are playing well and are pretty sure you have the right system for the situation, don’t panic into changing to a more aggressive tactic if you do go behind by an early goal. Keep on with the same system until you are a: running out of time or b: sure it isn’t working. The possession and pass percentage indicators give you the best indicator of how well you are playing, although they will still be high if you are playing an attack strategy against a defensive AI. Looking carefully at how the AI is playing (heavy pressing or not) gives you the best indicator as to when to change from attack to control.


Useful Links

Theories and Frameworks, many of which I have just broken

Insights into AI managers’ strategy

Set Pieces

Man-management theory

Reading the AI


Credits

FM-Britain’s Tactical Team (The next Diaby, Millie, Justified, garyh, GarryWHUFC, crazy gra, admin and staff)

Abramovic: his Assistant Manager AI thread revolutionized my ideas

Everyone who moaned enough about FM being too difficult (which got me off my ar$e long enough to write this) and for those who defended the game and copped the abuse

My local grocer who supplied my cheese for all the whine

Everyone who has supported and contributed to TT&F in any way


Download the Tactic Set

Link



Note: I have included a beat 10-men tactic as well. I have tested it in three matches, scoring seven and conceding none, but it may still need work.

faruq

awesome post mate! am tempted to start a new game with some small club after reading your post! KUTGW!

paulsgruff

Fantastic thread, I'm loving the simplicity of it, very easy to understand and as usual - totally packed with useful information!

I didn't realise how important the quote I have included in this post actually was until I played through a few saves with my Mathematical Sliders approach, where I literally don't change anything in my formation or tactics ever during a match - no matter what's happening. I must try out some of your downloadable tactics when I start playing things other than test saves again

Are you planning anything similar for training methods - or can you direct me to your thread if you already have done one and I haven't found it? I am frequently finding myself wondering if my 34 year old centre backs are benefiting what so ever from having any level of aerobic training - points that I could put elsewhere to improve areas where they still have ability to improve on their current standards

Once again, many thanks on the brilliant post! :thup:

chriseldiablo

I disagree with that you need "up" the Def Line when you attack, and lower it when you defend.

I look at my defending players speed, I then compare it to the oppositions attackers. By this, I decide what DL to go for.

wwfan

I used to do that, but found the above more effective. I do have fast defenders so I place the d-line at the higher limit for each of my own sets. However, I would not recommend a d-line of 2 with a team mentality of 18 just because you have slow defenders. The correlation between mentality and d-line is more important than defensive speed.

chriseldiablo

Allright, I will give it a try. I always try to improve my game


But I am still unsure how D line works. Does it kick in when we loose possession, or is it "active" all the time?

Aquaplex

Thank You for your insight wwfan. As always your knowledge of the game of football is much appreciated to rookies such as myself.

jaycar

Nice one wwfan, nice to see someone coming up with new fresh theorem. :thup:

just a shame that rashidi, etc are so quiet these days

timpino

wwfan you say nothing about passing style, but some general guidelines to the sets would be nice, I would opt for direct on the defend and counter, mixed on possession, and going short on control. Correct me if I'm wrong

Great thread, gave me an aha!

Taunton

I am using many of your ideas, together with Paulsgruffs mathematical approach. It has been a revelation for me.
Now I really enjoy the game, and feel I can win every match. I am understanding more what I have done wrong and what I am doing right.

Thanks for all your efforts, wwfan.
You are really doing a great job.