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I used to be the sort of player who would use complicated tactics, 4-4-2's with wingers stepped forward to be a 4-2-2-2. Nothing too special, they'd usually dominate for a while but then lose their edge. I suppose you'd call it "AI tactic cracking" or "re-ranking" but I'm going to try make this less of an effect on my tactics.
I've seen a few good topics here about how I could improve my tactics and I've spent a good few hours reading up. I decided to take the simple route, while tweaking.
I chose Liverpool as my team as I felt inspired by Starr_Man4's Liverpool Experiment thread. I decided a 4-4-2 would be best but after reading some tips I dived in.
As you can see, I play slow, short passing football. Most the other settings are quite average, I've usually done extremes, like pushed up, short passing, or very deep, longball counters.
I think the average settings give me alot of room to tweak, I find tight marking to be a must. In the pre-match screen I set opposition instructs, I put "Always" tight marking on the opponent's strikers. I put "Always" closing down on the opponent's keeper. I put "Always" closing down, and turn onto wrong foot for the opponent's wingers.
I find alot of teams have been using a 4-4-1-1 against me, this is quite easy to counter, I leave the guy behind the striker alone, I don't close him down and I don't mark him, I just set to turn him onto his wrong foot. That way, if he does come near anybody they position themselves so he hasn't got an easy pass or long shot.
I thought this guy would be my main scorer, he's more attacking than everybody else and is set to make runs although oddly enough this isn't the case, he's more of a distraction to draw markers from my support forward.
This guy has been pure gold, sometimes I up his attacking mentality if I'm losing or drawing and not getting chances. However, if I'm winning I take off his "Hold Up Ball" setting and I set his mentality to one click below the middle.
Everyone Else / Defenders
Everybody else is set at the defaults, sometimes I set the centrebacks passing to 3 clicks over the middle to get some length on their passes, and the sidebacks to be 2 clicks under the middle.
Central Midfielders
If I use Gerrard in the middle rather than 2 DM's I'll set him abit more attacking and the other abit more defensive. Otherwise, I'll use 2 DM's and have them set to normal mentality.
Wingers
My wingers I also tweak abit, sometimes I change their mentality to "attacking" (the first click from when it changes from normal to attacking.) I decided against forward arrows after reading someone's suggestion that it might make then wander too far forward too often and expose my wings. I can gladly say that when I played Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo was the least effective player on the pitch.
I'm pleasantly suprised by Kuyt, he's been free-scoring and giving solid performances. I could do tailoring one of my defensive midfield positions to suit Xabi Alonso but I haven't found one that works for him yet. I've tried using him like Pirlo in some cases, sitting him back and just letting him pass how he wants. He makes good, consistent passes but his match ratings aren't doing very well.
This is my first try at a simple tactic, this is also my first try at tweaking everybody just slightly. I've been happy wth the results and I hope to keep them up.
Does anybody have any suggestions? The goals I have been leaking are usually against the run of play, quick taken free kicks.
Also, could I blame my striker's lack of goals on Torres's lack of form?
09-02-2007, 03:31 PM
Simple Tactics, the way forward? Liverpool 4-4-2. Post #2
It's always a good idea to start off simple and build up a solid base before trying anything else. Most often than not something simple and basic will work fine, its only when you try complicating things that the real problems come into it as you upset the balance.
A good initial opening post, I'll be following this thread
09-02-2007, 05:04 PM
Simple Tactics, the way forward? Liverpool 4-4-2. Post #3
I'm honored that my thread inspired you.
I haven't played my game in a few days for "personal" reasons but I'll be getting going again soon.
I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for sure (Rafa). :thup:
09-02-2007, 05:06 PM
Simple Tactics, the way forward? Liverpool 4-4-2. Post #4
I just had a run of 5 wins on the trot halted by injuries to Kuyt, Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina. Had a few draws since then, including a 3-3 draw to Newcastle which I had to come from behind every time.
Bad luck gets even worse, Xabi Alonso just picked up a red card in a draw against West Ham.
My tactic is holding up though, dominating on possession and shots, just lacking the end product.
Kuyt and Torres have now scored 14 between them. My alternative strikers, Voronin and Crouch have scored 3 between them. Missing my two main men have hurt my chances greatly, they're back and nearly at full health though. Will elaborate more with screenshots later.
09-02-2007, 08:43 PM
Simple Tactics, the way forward? Liverpool 4-4-2. Post #7
After a huge initial success my results are slowing down, my key players are struggling to find form because of constant injuries and I'm relying on a player I bought to be a left winger to do all my scoring. 8 goals in 14 matches isn't bad though.
I did amazingly well here, dominated the game in all ways, pleased the board. At this time I hadn't made many tweaks at all to my initial formation. It remained virtually unchanged during the whole match.
I managed to beat Chelsea, Porto, Everton and surprise high flyers Aston Villa in a row.. then I struggled since.
Going to attempt a diamond shape, I'm also going to play wider and play my centrebacks abit further back. I realised in my latest draw, I had 60% of possession but Portsmouth almost matched me on shots, 15 shots to 13.
Also considering playing slower, pushing further up the pitch and getting my left and right midfielders to try cross from the byline.
The AI is really stumping me though with a 4-5-1 formation. They always score on the cheap counter-attack and it's starting to annoy me as my defence are solid but they can't seem to block Michael Owen from beating them to a throughball.
09-02-2007, 08:54 PM
Simple Tactics, the way forward? Liverpool 4-4-2. Post #8
Mate, 1 loss in 16 isn't shameful, you're being to hard on yourself. And you always seem to have a spell at some point where you concede a few goals for a bit.
09-03-2007, 11:00 AM
Simple Tactics, the way forward? Liverpool 4-4-2. Post #10
Followed your instructions to the letter with my Pompey team and its has worked very well. A few tweaks here. Working with wonderkid Lenny and Eddie Johnson up front and but we are creating and scoring more goals. More solid midfield than I had before, defence still needs a bit of work Simple system it may be but at present things are holding up pretty well with a team that isn' t "top four".
Simple Tactics, the way forward? Liverpool 4-4-2. 
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