retired_weeha

Exactly, Cleon. I have recently been following a new approach- i only change what i understand, that obviously means abandoning your ideas, wwfan's and rashidi's but the advantage is i will know what to change.

retired_kellyk

We're not here to propound a certain methodology and to say that there is one perfect way to play the game. The only way someone is going to get good at it is to understand things along the way. It'll take small steps, and even then those who think they know it all stumble as well.

retired_cssly

This is a fantastic read rash. Ive never really tried creating a tactic of my own but the last few days ive started looking at my team and getting them to play how I want them to play and not some downloaded tactic. Its a pleasure to have the likes of you and cleon on here giving us advice and tips.

Thank you

retired_anitarobinson

Rash, Using those examples, then a basic 442 would be?...

CD's on Ultra defensive mentality...you want them to defend and nothing else.

FB's on defensive, you want them to support the attack when they can but defense is their main priority

MC One MC also set to defensive, this is your holding midfielder.

MC and wingers These are set to normal mentality, you want them to both attack and to defend, maybe the wingers more so than the MC

ST This is your link man (If you use one) he is also on a normal mentality to link midfield with attack.

ST The other st is on the shoulder of the last defender, he has an attacking mentality.

Does this make sense to you? I'm 50/50 on the fullbacks maybe being normal mentality.

Also would rarely closing down at the back, mixed in midfield and high up front still apply here?

Really trying to get a grip on the basics

retired_anitarobinson

Sorry one other thing I forgot, with the settings I just posted, would these cause gaps?

I tend to think of mentalities in blocks of 5, i.e. attacking is 15, mixed is 10, def is 5 etc.

retired_kellyk

Yes that would be how I'd set up....the next step would be understanding what that would mean firstly for defensive lines.


Remember DCs are impervious when you change their mentality. They don't move any higher or lower. Mentality does not position them any higher or lower. What mentality does is govern the way they play.

At the present moment with closing down working the way it is, would having defenders on Ultra defensive prove worthwhile? Remember too that each position has its own defensive line. So you have large gaps to worry about.

When the DC is in possession of the ball and being on UD will he play the ball on the ground to another defender or will he hoof? Chances are, a hoof is in store.

Is that what you want? If ball clearing and punting is what you want to see then UD 1 will give you that. If you want them to pass and build up play at the back then set them to the highest notch of defensive. And observe their passing at the back.

As far as your other instructions go, I'd do what you outline, and I would go even further....I would take a group and assign them a "hotkey" by giving them a team mentality. This whole group is my attacking group.

And if i wanted to play with dlines and mentality,this is the group i need either to push up or drop down and support.

The rest of your instructions make sense to me

The only gap I'd be worried about is the one created by having your defenders on UD, and that's because of the current depth of the defensive line and the way closing down is working. Once these are patched, you'll need to assess whether to change the mentality of your dcs, and if you need to reduce closing down at some stage.

retired_anitarobinson

Yeah, to be honest the settings were purely the 'ideal' if you know what i mean, i realise that the working atm is to have defenders on a higher mentality than normal to compensate for the closing down situation.

But thanks for looking at that, when i get the chance I'll put it into practice :thup:

retired_balls

Thanks for this. I refuse to give up despite my sometimes negative posts. Going to wipe all my tactics tonight and spend some time with this thread and try and alter the way I approach the game.

One thing I do which mirrors yourself is wipe out the backroom staff as soon as I start. This is force of habit from my early years on CM and then FM 05 etc when I was always Newcastle and I had a poor opinion of the physio and coaching abilities IRL so I translated this to all of them getting the chop in FM

retired_kellyk

Sven, I'm glad to hear that. The problem for us old fogies who've been playing every version since Amiga, is that we went from dirt easy CM to razor sharp FM07, so it made a lot of people confused.

The one thing I do with some of my friends, and I've had a few call me up, is to go down to their houses and see them play and when I notice them with pen and paper, fixated with the numbers on the sliders, I always stop them dead.

The important thing to understand is that this game is fundamentally easy. I always follow these steps and they work for me, even when the game became as tough as FM07.

1. Clearout the backroom
2. Get the best coaches I can
3. Set up the balanced training schedules and make sure none of them are intensive
4. Know what are my basic acceptable attributes for the position and the team.
<LI> Team - Pace, determination, workrate
<LI> Players - Position specific
For example, in midfield, if any player does not have 12 for decisions he's not playing. (Premiership standards)

5. Then I set up a basic core tactic, ideally I want a back four setup, which does not require me to make many chances when I want to switch between 442, 4141, 4132, 4231.

6. Once I've set up a basic tactic, I look at playing the same 11 as much as possible.

7. If I am not sure I will say "no comment" to the media..its almost default now

8. If I'm not sure, I will hire an AssMan who has at least 12 for discipline, 15 for tac knowledge and 17 for motivation..and then tell him to motivate the squad.

Then I'm off.

Following on from the mentality sliders I hope you can use the same principles...eventually when you get the hang of your tactic you should be aiming to do this:

A. Learn how to tighten up and hold onto a lead
B. Learn how to slow down a game and maintain possession
C. Learn how to chase a game and shut your back door

I will focus on these later once closing downs are firmed up for now though this will have to do...gotta take my dog for a walk

retired_balls

Got started on it last night. Took some time and consideration over my setup so only got 5 games played.

I took your 4132 formation as my base to build from but set up my own individual players instructions as to how I wanted the team to play. I am implementing this in my current game as I am 5 seasons in and have already acquired a strong backroom team etc. Thought I might as well do it it with my current game as FM08 will be along very shortly.

I watched every minute of the games on almost the slowest setting to get a real appreciation of player positions etc.

In the 5 games I played the results were as follows:

(a) Orebro 1 - 3 IFK
(h) IFK 2 - 0 Djurgarden
(a) Hammarby 1 - 3 IFK
(a) Halmstad 0 - 0 IFK (22 attempts on goal)
(h) IFK 0 - 1 Orgryte

I am not reading too much into the defeat as I seemed to pick up a spate of injuries and also I broke my 1 cardinal rule in FM...never slag another manager off in the press before a game. Seems like I never win a game after I tell an opposing manager I can't wait to see him crash and burn. I won't be doing this again.

I am comfortable with the setup I generated. It is based around mentality's as follows - CB's ultra defensive, FB's defensive, Mids neutral, 1 striker attacking (drops off) and an out and out flying machine with Gungho mentality. Looks really impressive. The after match stats are really encouraging, I have never had a run of games even though it was only 5, when I have enjoyed so much possession. All games finished with 55% possession or more in my favour and in two games I had a pass completion rate of 82%.

One thing I have noticed which I am not sure about is the tendancy of my strikers when I have good midfield possession to go out very wide almost to the touchline. This has happened consitently in the 5 games leaving me with few options in the box.

I will be able to test big style over the weekend. I will be locked in the study tonight as my other half entertains her mates then for the rest of the weekend it will be an FM Marathon only punctuated for the England match and a few bottles of magners.