retired_teepicot

Recently I have taken an interest in all things tactics, and so have done some reading, mainly posts by wwwfan on theory behind tactic making etc...

Now, what I really struggle with is when many say the key to winning consistently is adapting to what happens when watching the key highlights. My question is what to look for? I would be very grateful if anyone could help me in this or point me to some helpful reading material. For example what do people look for/see usually, and what is then the action taken?

Cheers

retired_hope

At the most basic level consider whether you are playing home or away and whether you are favorite for the match. Consider also what players they are likely to field, e.g strong defenders who are good in the air, but not very quick etc.

During the game most of my tactical change happen after a goal has been scored or when a subsitution occurs.

At higher levels of the game you also need to keep an eye out for changes in formation and changes in player position.

You need to adjust you orientation of your tactics between a neutral, offensive or defensive one based on the situation of the game and taking into consideration who you are playing.

retired_FaultyFate

When watching highlights you should look for some patterns, for instanse:

Defensively.

1. Does the opposition try to play ball over the heads of your defenders? If so, do they succeed? If not, why they try to do it anyway? Maybe they think your def. line is too high, so they try to catch you on break.

2. When do your players start to attack (close down) the opposition? Is this consistent with your instructions? If your players start to close down early, do they succeed or often out of position.

3. When opposition winger has ball, how often is he able to cross? If a winger is able to cross often, where is your FB? How often crosses are completed? Who usually intercept crosses and is he the one you want to do it? Once cross is intercepted, who usually picks up loose ball?

4. When your defenders have the ball, do they have options to pass or all your players are too far?

Etc.

Similarly on the offensive side.

Basically you want to determine whether your players follow instructions and if the instructions work. It's not always easy to pick up, but if something does not work at all, you will see it right away.

Once you get used to it, you should be able to see what happens if the opposition changes tactic (according to comments or formation screen). Actually, if you realy want to learn the game, you may want to spend some time watching games in full mode, making notes and experimenting and moving sliders. It may seem waste of time as most of the match-time nothing realy distinctive happens, but by spending that time you may save yourself a lot of nerves later. Another option is take a look at match reports for your previous fixtures. If there is a hole in your tactic (i.e. you allow too many crosses), you will see the corresponding messages quite often.

Good luck :thup:

retired_rayrhi

There's not much you can discover by watching the game on highlights—you need to watch the full match for this. Of course, if your tactics are good enough then you wont have to worry about the opposition too much. I play the game on highlights and with the split view opened. On the left side I have my player ratings open and on the right I have the oppositions formation screen open. This is so I can see when the AI changes to its 4-2-4 and 5-4-1 'cheat' formations. If it changes to a 4-2-4 then expect a goal to be scored against you in the dying moments, or change your tactics accordingly—play the counter attack, get it wide, man mark the opposition's front 4. If it changes to its 5-4-1 then expect to see teams like Watford defending like Italy and watch on as the highlights stop flowing and the clock ticks down. Or, you could increase your creative freedom, play wider, time waste less, and have more players set to forward runs. Think about bumping an extra striker in there too so their defence is left with a 3 v 3 situation.