retired_shirely

I decided to play a whole season using only the in-game tactics. I chose MU and 442. I only made two signings, Mathieau Bodmer and César Delgado. The only tactical changes I made was with the farrows. In some away games I disabled them but usually had them halfway up the field. The wingers tired so much when running from middle to the end line.

How did I fare? Well, actually better than I thought.

Premier League: 2nd Pos. (Chelsea 1st)
Carling Cup: Winners (vs. Newcastle)
European Champions League: Winners (vs. Barcelona)

I never did any tampering with mentality or anything.
I guess this shows that with a good team, tactics are not all that important.
Interestingly, my worst team performance was usually against the "smaller" teams. I beat Chelsea and Arsenal heavily on my home turf.
Maybe I will try this again with LL team.

retired_don4071

Always when I'm in trouble I switch to a default tactic to get back on track again. I think it shows that you have to simplify things, at least for short-term success. I love the ideas some of the guys on different forums have about tactics, but still I have most success when KISS is my first principle when making tactics.

retired_shirely

KISS?

retired_Cat1123

Keep It Simple S?

hdsegal

Stupid is the last S.

I finally feel like wwfan, helping the masses out.

retired_lswearne

i tried the same experiment with milan a month ago. i ended up wining the league and the italian cup and reached the champions league final (i came back from holliday before the final was played). i actually went on holliday for the whole season.

retired_don4071

I did some tests a while ago were I played the same match 20 times with two different tactics - one a default and the other I only changed mentality to fit wwwfans RoO. I did this with two teams. With Chelsea, being best in the leage, I got better results with RoO. With Watford, one of the worst teams in the league, i did better with the default tactic.

retired_echater

Interesting finding.

A note of caution though: Man Utd have no slow defenders and in Ferdinand, a defender that is very very quick. This makes them much less vulnerable to tactical counters designed to create space for the opposition strikers than top teams with a slower back 4 might be.

Not surprised to see the smaller teams doing better: they're much more likely to play a counter attacking game effective at exposing the relative lack of attacking verve and defensive solidity of the default tactics compared with the usual adjustments made.