Recently been thinking whether it is possible to recreate the football that Manchester Utd have been displaying, and with me not doing anything today, I thought I would give it a try.
After reading the thread by Agent on FMB (he attempted a similar thing but with Spurs), I thought this could be an interesting challenge, and with everyone chipping in with ideas theres no reason why we can't get it working.
Though I'd start us off with some basic observations and how we could implement them into FM.
The 7-1 thrashing of Roma was a great result for both Utd and Ferguson and it really showed off his tactical prowess and guile. The effervescent running of Ronaldo on the blistering Utd counter-attacks were brilliant to watch and caused havoc in the Roma defence, leading to the flurry of goals.
Despite the 7 goals that Utd smashed past Doni, they did also concede, maybe a lucky break or maybe a slight over commitment in attack, either one shows that they were always liable to concede and also showed this frailty in their following 4-1 victory in the FA cups versus Watford. So what can we tell from this, is it a too attacking of a mentality from Fergie or is it just one of those things, where the opposition has one chance and manages to score (of which I must mention happens far too often in FM).
The switching of positions in attack from Utd no doubt was impossible for both the AS Roma and Watford defence to deal with, as marking them was never easy to do. This makes me think, can this be successfully accomplished in FM, with free-roles in the higher echelons of the pitch, i.e CR7, Giggs and Rooney.
Now onto getting all of this to work in the FM tactical area, do we counter attack or do we just play a fast paced attacking game? This is a telling question and will need to be tested over the course of a season and maybe more. For me though, I thought a direct, wide (to use skill of Giggs and CR7) counter-attack approach should be used with the mentality at the first notch of attacking.
Due to the counter-attacking game that will need to be played I thought that defensive line should be just below the middle (about 7-8 notches), as we need to be able to draw the opposition on to us and then look to break with the pace of Ronaldo, Giggs and Rooney as previously mentioned.
So to sum this up here is a screenshot of the team instructions that I have chosen.
Feel free to add you own suggestions to improve this.
As you can see the CF, PS, and CD are left on normal, as I will be using individual instructions for these settings, and it is these settings that we now move on to.
Creative Freedom
Creative freedom is still something that baffles me, I still can't after numerous tests, get my head around how this works, it states in the manual that this should be used sparingly, but this means nothing to be at all.
As I am not sure how this works, I am leaving most of the players on normal apart, from the two CB's Rio and Vidic, who will have low CF and CR7 Giggsy and Rooney, who will have higher CF.
My reasons for these choices are that I want the two CB's to play simple stuff, the players on normal to decide for themselves what it best, and the three mentioned above to try something special and use all their talent to great effect, as we see IRL.
Too sum that section up, here are the settings I have chosen for CF.
Again feel free to give your suggestions on CF.
Passing Style
Passing style is something that I feel has to be set individually as we can't have all players on the same short setting for instance as it would be very beneficial in the attacking third where Man Utd excel in playing little flicks here and there to try and create a goal scoring opportunity, but in defence this is not what is needed as their job is to defend and just defend, we don't need them passing it short for a while before starting an attack, especially as we are playing a counter attack.
So with this is mind I feel that passing style should start with direct when in the goalkeepers hands, as he can quickly catch the ball and launch a long kick or throw to CR7 fro example and then we can burst towards the oppositions goal at pace. Then the PS should be decreased as we progress up the pitch.
So here is what I have set-up.
Please comment on these settings, and suggest improvements as before.
Closing Down
This is another setting that can't be set the same for all members of the team in my opinion as I want to be able to close down high up the pitch and low in the defensive thirds, as I don't want my defenders pulled out of position as this could be costly, especially against speedy attacks.
Watching Man Utd play, their closing down seems to back-up what I am trying to get across, you see the hard working Alan Smith harrying the defence, leading to mistakes on occasions, and Rooney likewise. Yes, they do pick up cards on occasions due to their spirit and determination, but as the title suggests, we are trying to recreate the way Man Utd play.
In the centre of midfield we have Carrick and Scholes (okay Fletcher played in the defeat of Roma, but on the game Fletcher is a bit cack, and he usually is in real life, so I'm going with Scholes here) these two players are both perfect for Utd and in ways have changed the way that Utd have played IRL, the signing of Carrick was a disputed on, 18 mil was regarded as a hefty sum of money. Despite this though, he has been a revelation for them, wining the ball then spraying it all over the pitch with a high degree of accuracy, and getting his settings right is crucial to getting them playing like real life.
So the closing down for these two will be the same at about 13 notches, this could be changed and I will and I hope others will experiment these settings, as getting the two of these playing to their full potential is a must.
Here are my chosen closing down settings.
Please comment and criticise these if needs be.
Individual Mentality
The final thing that I feel needs to be thought about is the individual mentality of each player, I have read on many forums of the different frameworks and theories on this and some have worked for me in my past games, must notably the RoO. This framework gave my team a strong bond all over the field and worked really well. As much as I enjoyed using this framework, and enjoyed seeing a good team connection, I feel that this wouldn't work with Utd.
I will elaborate some more. The Utd side have a great structured defence, and this is also helped by the quality that they have there, so having these players on a RoO setting could work well. The centre of midfield is also well atoned and Carrick and Scholes work magnificently as a pair. Then we come to the players that I feel aren't great team players (brilliant players but certainly play for themselves.) This leads me to the assumption that C.Ronaldo, R.Giggs and W.Rooney, need there own mentality to really try and get them to be playing like they do in the real world.
As I write I think of a new idea, I will keep the defence and two centre midfielders on a team mentality of normal(11) and have the three aforementioned on attacking mentality's (15-17).
So if you didn't understand what the hell I was talking about then, just look at the mentality screenie.
Don't agree with me, then please say what could be improved.
Conclusion
So there it is, I got bored and decided to write that, and will now go on to the testing. (Yes I haven't tested yet, but with the help of you guys we could recreate it really well.
Oh and if you couldn't be bothered to read that cos your a lazy arsed git
(safety smilie) I have listed here basically what I have done.
1. Ronaldo, Giggs and Rooney need to be giving some sort of free-running role, free roles assigned and switching of positions.
2. Fast, direct counter-attack.
3. Low CF and CD for defence, high CD and CF for front 4 (Ronaldo, Giggs, Rooney and Smith) Normal for rest of team.
4. Direct passing for GK, gradually getting shorter as we move up the pitch. i.e Mixed for midfield, Short for attack.
5. Global mentality for defence and two CM's (11), Individual Mentality's for front four (15-17)
So there we go.
Please reply and give your views.
Oh and the formation is a standard 4-4-2 with short farrows on wingers. This could also be tested, and hopefully will.
Playing the Man Utd Way 
Linear Mode
