If you register for free, you will be able to post threads, vote on polls and lots more. If you have problems with the registration or logging in, please contact the administrator.
to get the best out of my players on match day. I have done this because I think and find that most people who experience problems with tactics just expect to leave them as they are and hope that they will suit their team. Hopefully by showing you how I go about a random match I will be able to show you that by tweaking little things here and there you can get a good result!
I am also going to show how I deal with events during the match such as team talks and subs in order to get the best result possible. I am currently managing Ecjia (Spanish First Division – after a lot of hard work) and the match that I have chosen is:
My second to last match of the season – against Betis. I am 11th in the league and they are 7th. This should be a good match to test out the tactic – Betis are clearly a better team than we are and we are playing away.
1.Ok so the match day is Sunday 22nd of May 2011. You should start preparing for each next match at least two weeks before. You may be asking – how and why? Here is the answer: You need to prioritise your players and matches. If your next match is a cup final and in your last match you used yet again, your main striker who is now extremely tired – it wasn’t a very good decision was it? You’ll find your striker just won’t be in tip top condition to face the better team thus costing you the game (and in this case perhaps the cup). So for instance, my match before Betis was against Murcia. They are 16th and should be beaten easily hopefully, but I don’t want to take any chances and I need my best players fit for the match against Betis. I play my second keeper and my second choice midfield. This will ensure I have match fit players for the important match. Also, don’t forget that you REALLY should think about having one of your scouts scout the opposition. This will help you in step 2.
2.It’s now a day before the match and the media are giving their predictions. This is a really important time as you are given the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition especially if your scout has scouted the team as well. Let’s see what they say and how we can use this well:
Scout’s report:
Potential Threat: Mark Gonzales
Weakness: None (Apparently)
Strengths: Fast Midfield
Formation: Normally a 4-1-3-1 but in the last match they used a 4-5-1 (and won 2-0)
Media Prediction:
“High flying Betis are clear favourites for this match. They have been performing outstandingly in the league. Referee shown 33 Yellow cards no reds.”
Ecjia: 4-1 Betis: 4-7 (Fav) Draw: 5-2
Ok, so from what I see, we are not going to get a good result from this encounter – or so it seems. Everyone is against us but we can use this to our advantage. Although Betis have a fast Medfield, so do I and I have a DMC to counter the fast Medfield – so no changes here. However if say, they had a fast attack I would put a backwards arrow on my DMC to counter this. This is just an example of how to use the scout reports in your favour.
Their formation is not consistent which shows Betis are very adaptable and clever. We will need to match this be watching their play very carefully during the match and countering any changes in formation they make.
You may notice that if you get scout reports for the opposition you have an option to “comment on danger man”. Do you ever wonder “when should I use this”? I find that I only comment on a danger man if either – a) He is the team’s best player but not really that good compared to my players, or b) he is a truly world class player. I only comment if the player is either one of these. If they are in between I don’t bother, because the idea is to (If your player is “a”) tell the media he is going to be amazing on the pitch – thus making him nervous and not much use on the field due to the media attention and hype to live up to (or if he is “b”) tell the media he “might” be good or not at all – thus making him nervous and unconfident – leading to a poor performance against your team.
Let’s try and see if this works with Mark Gonzales. I go into his profile and notice a lot of high numbers, but not many high numbers that would do his position justice. He is a AML but creativity and speed are low. He also has low composure and concentration so he could be a possibly an “a” type of player. His form however is 7.14 in the league – quite good – this might mean that I still have to watch out for him. I also check his history in media. Not much, just a few complaints at form – this shows me he is inconsistent and hopefully with the right statement, I could make him nervous.
I’ve decided that this time, Mark Gonzales fits under category “a” I’m going to release a statement. My options are: a) possible threat b) main threat c) must stop him to gain anything from match. I want to put pressure on him, so I’m going to go for c. Hopefully, the media hype will unsettle him. We’ll come back to this in a minute.
Meanwhile, you might be able to release a comment to the media on the next match. This is also very important; it can give your players a huge boost before the match or after. In this case, Betis are a good team and are supposed to win. I don’t think they are that much better than my team, but we are playing away and they are in form so I don’t want to sound too cocky otherwise my team will have too much pressure on them. In this case I release this comment:
“ Betis will fancy their chances it’s up to us to stop them”
By doing this I hope to let my team know that the match will be hard, and that it’s up to them to win – if they want to win they need to rise to the challenge. Let’s see what this has done morale wise to my team. Be aware that some players have different personalities to others and you may never be able to please everyone – just try to please the majority.
Only two players of mine are affected by this comment, but good news – their morale is high. Both of them are now
“eagerly anticipating the match against Betis”
This should help them perform well on the field.
Right, before we go back to Mr. Gonzales, let’s take one more look at an important factor that is sometimes overlooked – the referee. If you notice that the referee has handed out a lot of yellow cards and reds, perhaps you should set your team tackling to normal or light to avoid any costly mistakes. In this case, 33 cards over 34 games isn’t a lot at all compared to the likes of 70 so we don’t have to worry this time.
The media haven’t got back in time at the match is about to start, obviously I don’t know how this will directly affect Mark Gonzales, but I can see his morale is very high – perhaps my plan backfired and he is actually going to perform really well, we shall have to wait and see.
3.Ok, first screen is the “Select team” screen. Usually I ask my assistant to select and then I just check to make sure everything is ok. This saves time and usually is the best way to go. Everything seems fine, but I’m going to select a different sub because It’s near the end of the season, I’m safe from relegation and want to give some young players experience. Ok, next screen – line ups - all ok here onto match analysis. Yet again they predict victory for Betis, but also they suggest Melli as another treat to my team – I’ll bear this in mind in opposition instructions. Now team talks. Very important. I find that the golden rule is to compliment what you told the media. If you said you didn’t predict a win don’t tell your team you expect a win – it’ll confuse them and cost you the game. In this case I told the media that although it’s going to be tough, we have to perform. So in this case I set everyone to
“Wish luck”.
Normally if there was a player with low morale, I would always use the talk “no pressure” individually to put less pressure on him so that he can concentrate on enjoying the game, in this case everyone is relatively happy so on we go to opposition instructions.
4.What you must do here for this tactic is select every single AMC, AML, AMR, FC, ST and any danger man to this:
Tight marking: ALWAYS
Closing down: ALWAYS
This ensures that your defence give the attackers and danger men little time to create chances. It is part of the tactic, and not doing this will not result in the same tactic. I do this to every single team my ability and above. Any others then you don’t need to do this – but as this is a tactic for the harder teams you MUST do this if playing them.
5.Right, now click continue and the match begins. Here are the important events that happened and what I did during the first half:
4th min: Betis crossed and Pisculichi scored with a header. Betis 1 – Ecjia 0. An early goal and this could spell trouble, but I give some more time to my players to gel. No changes.
7th: Nicolas Cami Injured (my best Defensive midfielder) not a good start, I sub him for De la Torre – a decent enough DM but not great.
15th Betis almost score again, I’m seeing that they keep crossing and yes indeed – their midfield is very fast. I decide to take action so I set my play to wider and more attacking to ease the pressure.
20. Another chance for Betis.
25: and another.... I leave it be
29: Dani scores for Betis making it 2-0 – Time to take action. This defensive tactic doesn’t seem to be working just yet against Beits so I change some of the aspects for the tactic. I notice that Beits are playing wide so I switch to play wide. I also increase our tempo a bit to match that of Betis.
34: We finally have our first chance, unfortunately we miss.
44: Arana scores for Ecjia – finaly!
End of the first half – Betis 2 Ecjia 1.
6.Not a great start but not too bad either, we managed to get one back. Now what to do to improve? Before changing tactic let’s check on our players. All of them apart from 2 players are level “6” – this shows me they have not been giving their all. Their morale isn’t low but it’s not great either. I tell the two good players “We can win this” and everyone else either they have been disappointing or “prove a point” Hopefully this will give them the kick they need. I won’t change any tactics either as we started getting better towards the end of the first half. On to the second half:
55: A chance for us, but it is saved.
60: This is where I make my first substitution, just one usually, but as one player has already been subbed – I won’t this time. This is also where I change to my older tactic “LU” (you can find it here http://community.sigames.com/eve/for...8922074953/p/1 ) This is because changing to an attacking formation after the first half can catch your opponents by supprise.
62: We get a goal! Betis 2 Ecjia 2
70: This is where I make my next substitution. I usually take off anyone with a low rating, or the lowest fitness level, or both if possible. I sub a defender.
72: Betis score again. 3-2
75: This is where I make my final substitutions. I decide to take off a tired AMC with a rating of 8 – just to see if we can get another goal. I also change back to “DU” hoping that Betis wouldn’t suspect this.
83: Success! We score another – its 3 all now!
It’s full time, and the final score is Betis 3 – Ecjia 3. I tell my team “well done” as I am happy with the end result. The media have good praise for us “I’m surprised Ecjia managed a draw, the Betis manager however will be wondering just quite how his side didn’t manage to win”
So I hope this has proven useful to you, and shown you how you can incorporate different tactics successfully during a game. Just be sure that you don’t use completely different tactics, so for instance changing from a 4-4-2 to a 1-5-4 would be a bit silly as you won’t have enough strikers up front and will have to sub too many players to achieve this.
I use a basic formation in 4 different guises and use them accordingly throughout the match.
I rarely change any sliders, except TW towards the end of the game only if i'm winning, or drawing against a far superior team.
I also use opposite team instructions, the media and team talks in such away to gain any advantage I can. Sometimes it can backfire, but you soon come to understand which options bring out the best reactions from your players. This helps you understand your players personalities, strengths and weaknesses, I suppose just like a real manager has to 'man manage' different players and treat them in ways in which to get the best performance out of them.
So far following these methods it's working out well for me, and it seems that SI have gone in this direction of having to actually 'manage' your team far more than before to achieve results.
Thanks, and yes I agree. It takes time to understand your team but it's all worth the hard work in the end when you get resuslts, especialy when you come back from lossing ant half time and get praised by the media in the end!
Lol, indeed - I knew it would be something so simple - I've had some breakfast now and some coffee so hopefully that should help ;-)
4-4-2 is a hard formation because the slightest change (An arrow or mentality) can change it completley, so it's always different for each theam. But if they have a DMC I tend to play wider and cross earlier not deeper, hoping that this would render the DMC useless. But as I say, it really depends, if you send me your save game or snapshot of the opposition I can show you what I'd do or even play a game in your save game and save the match and upload it so you can have a look at what I've done? That's for everyone not just leeds :-)
“A random match – how I go about it” 
Linear Mode
