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For afeckingname and others - the tactic seems to work due to the team playing as a unit. First off I wanted possession football, good approach play and quality goals. I have been playing this game since Noah was a lad and the early versions of the game were easy (I took York from the old 4th Division to 1st Division on back to back promotions and won the FA Cup whilst in the 2nd Division).
The more modern versions have got increasingly more in depth and the difficulty has been notched up to make more of a challenge - quite rightly so!!!
I tried and failed miserably with FM2007 even when downloading other people's tactics and could not get any consistency. This game cannot be 'whizzed' through quickly and pre-season is all important for setting things up. You have to find the best staff you can afford - I would advise setting relatively high targets when asked (for instance if a relegation candidate opt for high finish which gives you more money in the pot). If you can afford it set the bonuses for leagues and cups to high and several of your players will have what seems to be a permanent 'pr' flag next to them stating they are inspired by the bonuses. It is all about getting a team of players that gel together and trying to keep people happy. I have also found that putting as many players on tutoring as you can gives the tutoring player a boost even if they are sat on the substitutes bench. When you look at your youth / reserve players as the season progresses you will get comments from the coach report that they may benefit from being tutored by 'x' player - try it. Sorry but I am going to have to sign off for a bit but I will carry this on later.
11-04-2007, 02:27 PM
Hopefully all tactic questions answered and a work in progress tactic to download for testing Post #32
Right where was I??? The defensive unit GK, full backs and central defenders are working well together as the side arrows on the full backs allows them to come across and help catch any forwards on the break. I tend to find that the majority of full backs have more pace than central defenders and someone who is a defender r/l/c seems to love this formation (eg O'Shea who covered well for Neville's injury at right back at the start of the season scoring lots of 8 ratings). I leave the keeper on default settings but Faeron's thread on closing down and defensive line is how it is all set up - read his thread for how to set it up. I have not altered the settings since and only tried dropping the defensive line twice which opened up room in midfield for the opposition and meant my defenders were closing down nearer to my goal. The settings as is (when watched on the match engine) tend to show the defenders closing down just outside the centre circle. Both central defenders are on man marking unless playing against one forward - on those occasions you need to set one with the lowest pace on man marking and one on zonal. This negates any AI tendency to have a player in the hole behind the forward running on whilst both defenders are man marking the forward. The match engine is showing Van der Sar coming out to the edge of the area and slightly beyond to kick the ball as a 'sweeper keeper'. You may think that the full backs would not get forward without forward arrows but that is not so and is accounted for in their instructions.
The midfield generals in the middle are set one slightly defensive and one slightly attacking. The defensive midfielder sits around the centre circle or further back when defending and stunts any attacks through the middle but still gets forward to the edge of the opposition are when in attack. The more attacking midfielder links it all really nicely and plays some lovely through balls for the wingers and forwards due to his settings - I started out with Scholes in this position but Van der Vaart is there now as Schole's stats are on the decline due to his age.
I started out with the wingers playing from the half way line but found they just weren't getting involved enough. I pushed them up the field and curved arrows towards the forward and they are now chipping in with goals as well. The man in the hole is given plenty of creative freedom to link attacks together and run on when necessary and I started off with Rooney and Tevez swapping positions - this did not seem to get the best out of them so I have ended up with Rooney in the hole and Tevez up front and they have both scored around 13 goals each so far. I could never seem to get this when playing two strikers as one seemed to always score more than the other and one of them always seemed to get poor post match ratings. The man up front does what it says on the tin but obviously Tevez / Saha / Rooney are never going to be target men but are full of pace for running the legs off the defenders. There is absolutely no reason why a target man could not be put there to feed balls to the three players running on - if anybody wants to test that I would like to hear the results.
I have a team setting of normal on tackling and I am hardly picking up any bookings. I do tend to put the worst tacklers on easy (Ronaldo for instance) but the opposition do tend to get loads of yellow cards (dependent on referee) for frustration due to being closed out of the game.
Speaking of closing down I have not experienced any problems with the beta patch installed. The reason I go through the opposition instructions and close down practically every player is to restrict their chances. A clean sheet and 1-0 did Arsenal well for many a year. If I wanted to get rugby score games then I would not employ it but I am finding it makes the game more realistic - one match I can think of where it was employed really effectively in the Premiership was Reading at Man Utd when they practically man marked every United player. The closing down on the full backs to weaker / wrong foot means it stunts their option to get it to the wingers or make effective clearances - in one match both opposition full backs only got 5 ratings afterwards. I only tend to close down a central defender if they are injured during the match causing a fitness % loss or if they have poor composure to rattle them into making poord decisions. I mean let's face it they are there to stop goals not play pretty football.
In midfield I close down everyone with the wingers and long shot people to weaker / wrong foot as well. Due to the higher defensive line the midfield is compact and pressing on in the opposition area. I am going to play this first season out and will post up fixtures as played and give a season review. I am not a Man utd fan and will be looking to move this tactic to my home town team and online name Barnsley FC once I have got everything tweaked.
I would really appreciate it if people would try this with other teams or take the core instructions and set up other formations - I have no idea how it would work with a three or five man defence for instance. I am now scoring from a good few corners but there have been very few penalties in the game so far only 2 for and 1 against with not many at all in the game world - still not sure if there is a bug around the penalty situation.
I would like to end at this time by wishing you all good luck and I look forward to hearing from you.
11-04-2007, 06:43 PM
Hopefully all tactic questions answered and a work in progress tactic to download for testing Post #35
Right that is it - if that is what you think then forget it. I don't know why I am wasting my time as I am trying to help with a tactic that does work. There are people out there who won't have picked up a game of Football Manager before this year and I was only trying to help. Your replies only strengthen what I always thought about humanity in modern life - no one can stand being helped - everybody expects the stick instead of the carrot. As I said that is it I am not going to waste any more time on this!!! I would use stronger language but I don't want banning from the forum.
11-04-2007, 09:09 PM
Hopefully all tactic questions answered and a work in progress tactic to download for testing Post #38
i don't understand some of you. if you don't like the thread then don't read it. if you think it's helpful then you can use it. moaning doesn't help anyone just stops this guy doing the good work he has been that may help someone!
11-05-2007, 12:01 AM
Hopefully all tactic questions answered and a work in progress tactic to download for testing Post #40
Well, I´ve been testing your tactic with Man U and I can assure you that your thoughts and tactics hav saved my FM playing. I´ve failed all my previous tactics so I am very pleased that you are taking your time to share your ideas.
A qouple of questions and impressions so far. Did your AMC score for fun? I am playing Tevez in that position and he is marvelous. The SC on the other hand does´nt do much. I am experimenting a bit with the striker issue but have´nt really solved it.
The main feeling about this tactic is that it rocks the world with a big team. Due to my lack of free time my playing time is very limited so i can´t promise you that I will test this with smaller clubs but I will try to.
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