Barnsley FC

Just a brief note to say I am going to bring together all the tactic questions and try to answer them. I am playing as Man Utd with the beta patch and a 4411 formation - unbeaten so far with quite a few clean sheets. I know the purists will say that I should be looking at Lower league management and I will once I have got this tactic working well. I am not going to try and take all the credit as there are many posts on this forum that have lead to this tactic. Now I have got your attention I am off to write the guide and will paste it in later. Screenshots will also follow along with a download link. Please keep checking this topic as it will be worth your while and probably get rid of what appear to be 'buggy' items pending release of a full patch.

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Well a nice intro

Barnsley FC

Only twenty minutes to finishing work then I will start the write up.

Barnsley FC

Sheepskin coat – check.
Appropriate swear words, facial expressions and gesticulations zip downloaded – check.
Sunglasses and Factor 50 suncream for FM2008 skin glare – check.
Welcome to the world of football management – this guide will hopefully be helpful to old and new players seeking glory and fame.
I chose Manchester United as I wanted to test this would work with players that will follow instructions – no rudeness meant to any other team – spread the love through winning the game.
There is no doubt that FM has evolved and the new game is still quantum leaps ahead of the competition – not bad for a glorified spreadsheet!!!! I started the preseason with an inspection of my backroom staff and got rid of any coaches that could not give me 6 – 7 star ratings offering mutual terminations – this will always be accepted unless the board think the payoff is excessive. I trawled the filters and brought in coaches with good youth and mental skills (determination etc) as well as their specific coaching skill. The stats required have been covered in other posts so I am not going to go into them.
I used TUG’s 2008 training for the youth and first team and got coaches that could coach both – no specific youth coaches as you can get decent dual ones. I then looked at the squad and picked out my lead players offering extended contracts and making them unavailable. I also put as many of the first team tutoring the under 18’s / reserves as was possible.
I told my assistant to deal with booking friendlies and deal with the reserves and under 18’s but use my tactic. I like to control the contract side of things although if you notice the AI giving a contract to a youth player it may be a good indicator that they be worth keeping an eye on. When it comes to loaning players out I only take offers where they will be guaranteed a game otherwise you might as well keep them under your wing.
I set up my tactic 4-4-1-1 using Faeron’s topic on linking the closing down and defensive line in team instructions and then individual settings for the players. The two fullbacks have arrows pointing inwards to the central defenders – believe me this works as they still help in attack on their individual instructions but, when watching the match engine, you can see that the four players link nicely. The fullbacks tend to have more pace than a central defender and cover across if a player breaks away from the big two in the middle.
The two central midfielders are set up with the left one more defensive (back arrow on this one) and the right more attacking. The two wingers have been set up with two short forward arrows which have evolved into two curling arrows to just behind the forward (explain later). By the way for any new players you hold your right mouse button over the player and drag the arrow to where you want it.
The player in the hole behind the forward has an arrow forward and you could set those two players to swap positions in their individual instructions. I have never found great success playing two strikers as one seems to hog the scoring where as the early signs are that the goals are going to be spread around in this tactic.

Just stopping at this point to see if I can paste this in.

Barnsley FC

I started off in the friendlies just playing the tactic as is and not doing any tweaking – forgot to mention that the hole player was ticked free role but no target man / playmakers assigned. All were duly trounced with no points to worry over. Then came the Charity Shield with Chelsea – little bit of verbal banter prior to the game - how I wish it was Mangy Mourinho still!!! As stated the team talks were left to the Assistant as I could never seem to pitch it right and got fed up with the limited choice of answers. Chelsea went 2-0 up (oh god I thought the tactic was blown at an early stage – any way I left things alone only making any necessary substitutions). The lads pulled it back to 2-2 and the dreaded penalty shootout.

This is something I found hard to take as all my players missed and Chelsea won 2-0 on penalties. Praise be to Lawman for giving me the answer that you should pick your penalty kickers on composure, technique, penalty kicking and finishing. I do think there are still issues around dead ball situations which will be hopefully fixed with a full patch.

I had a look at setting up routines for corners, free kicks and throw in’s taking a huge nod of gratitude to other topic posters here. If these can be tweaked please reply.

Attacking corners
Place good headers on near post flick on and challenge GK, put a decent header / finisher on stand on far post. Place people with decent long shots on attack from deep / outside area, one to give a short option as it would pull a defender out and one to attack near and far posts. I started with corners aimed to near post and so far three goals in twelve games from corners – looking at possibly changing delivery to mixed to give more goals hopefully. Two full backs always stay back

Defending corners

Full backs on both posts and central defenders to mark tall players - started off with only one doing that but now deciding to use both as the opposition’s only real chances come from dead balls. Place one player to close down on the corner taker, one to mark small man and rest man mark leaving one midfielder and one forward up front for breakaways.

Defending free kicks

Full backs on both posts, two central defenders man marking and rest in wall leaving midfielder and forward up front for breakaways.

Attacking free kicks

Place your best header to challenge GK, two people to disrupt wall, one with taker (confuse the opposition / AI) and rest forward. Full backs stay back.

Throw in’s

Pick decent long throwers and set to long throws on both sides. Place decent long shots on lurk outside area, one decent header on near post, one to come short and the opposite winger to go forward.

Barnsley FC

The next thing I looked at was supply from GK and I went long kick but as the games have progressed I have changed to this to quick throw due to lack of decent heading from Tevez and Rooney. I chose to throw to one of my midfielders but then found his stats dropping as if he was closed out. This is still being looked at and currently throwing with no specific player chosen.

I chose to deliver crosses to far post but this has not done anything particular for me so looking at mixed crosses now.

The first league game and I felt a more hands on approach was required. Sunderland away and respect paid by Roy Keane – replied that I thought it could stave off relegation – well he did praise me!!! This is where opposition instructions are key in this tactic and I have not even set up an away and home set – I tweak as applicable due to the scout report and opposition. I went through the opposition and closed down all the midfielders – any with decent long shots and the wingers were put on opposite foot as well. I closed down the two full backs and showed on to opposite foot. I then looked at the two central defenders and closed down if they did not have much composure. I left the two forwards alone as both my central defenders were set to man mark and if you are closing down almost everywhere else they are not going to get any service. The only time I do anything closing down is when it is a single forward and I set one central defender to man mark (who ever has the lowest pace) and one to zonal to pick up the pieces. I wanted accuracy with plenty of possession so went slow and time wasting with mixed width. A 2-0 win with domination and possession which then followed on with a five game run without conceding a goal.

I always put on screen split view with the opposition formation and my team stats showing with no replays and key highlights on screen. This way you can quickly see any change in formation or substitutions the opposition make as you have to set closing down again for any players coming on. The tackling is on normal but if one of the opposition players gets injured and plays on you could look at hard tackling to put him out of the game – at least it will make him less effective.

I know some people want to play through this game quickly but you have to keep an eye on the match engine as you will see if something is working or not. I only make minor tweaks as games are played and as to whether I have a lead or need to chase the game. Obviously Man Utd have very capable players but I set the defenders and wingers to direct passing and the rest to short passing.

I have now played several Premiership games and three games in Europe (does really well – no goals conceded against Stuttgart, Besiktas and Sevilla – 1-0, 3-0 and 0-0 respectively). Any players that are mainly substitutes or on the fringes of the first team are declared for the reserves just to keep them fit. I have not gone mad in the transfer market only buying Van der Vaart and Aaritalo is coming in the January transfer window. If I decide to keep with this as a career game my aim is to bring through my own team of British players but I will noyt get rid of the likes of Ronaldo just for the sake of this.

Barnsley FC

The arrows on the wingers were changed to come in as I found they were not effective enough – instant reward three goals in two games from Ronaldo. Some tactics are touted as giving unbelievable score lines – I want to play realistic and be hands on during the match as you would not see any manager sit there and let it slide by (except for Sven!!!)

I am not saying that this is the be all and end all but it is working well – admittedly with a top four team. I would like people to test this at various levels and give feedback with any tweaks they feel necessary.

Two last things to mention is that I checked the players training after several games and if their stats needed improving I have set up personal training for the individual in question. The reserves and under 18’s are running really well on the tactic and I would appreciate it if someone wants to test in holiday mode just to see what happens.

This is the final thing when closing out games to keep the lead or when an opposition player is sent off (it is funny seeing them get booked because they can’t deal with the closing down) go down both flanks and slow down the game. I always tend to leave the overall passing on slow but tweak tempo according to what happens in game.

Happy managing and screen shots / download to follow.

Barnsley FC

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Barnsley FC

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