manufan

You struggle? Could've fooled me. When are you coming out with more of your article type threads. I've read all of them so far, and each one teaches me a little bit about how things work in the game. So far I'm having zero success with individual slider settings so I'll stick to my simpleton global mentality settings for now until I get a better understanding of the game.

Looking forward to your other threads!

Cleon

Yeah sometimes, I wasn't born good at FM

More threads will be done when I find the time maybe

crazy gra

cleon: just had a quick browse through the thread, and i've been doing the same thing with my tactic recently - changing my tactic to what i'm told in the scout report.

as well as the scout report though, i also take into account the manager profile information - their pressing, mentality and marking.

not too sure how to look at a marking style, but a higher pressing may mean that you have to play a quicker tempo so that your players aren't closed down too quickly and lose possession.

as for mentality, then i've found that when i've played against an 'adventurous' manager, it's better to have gone slightly more defensive and use a counter attack. this is because they're more likely to attack me, so i'll have to be tighter at the back but will get some decent opportunities on the break.

Cleon

I don't play faster tempo, I would tend to play direct passing though.

crazy gra

well, a closing down pressing means your player on the ball won't get as much time to think about the pass, so you should increase the tempo a little so that he doesn't lose the ball.

so you'd still want him to make a short pass but you'd want him to pass it quicker so he's not caught out. however, i'd make the passing more direct if i increased the tempo anyway as i always have these 2 settings the same in team instructions.

Kevaldo

Closing down (as I understand) relates to how high up the pitch the opposition will press. Therefore a high closing down will mean the opposition presses you in your own half when you have the ball. Cleon's solution of direct passing would therefore make sense ... if the opposition are pressing your back four you don't want them passing short and risking a loss of possession in a dangerous area. In addition because the opposition are pressing high up the pitch it should mean there is space in behind their defence for your strikers to exploit so it would make sense to get the ball up the pitch as quickly as possible.

I see your point crazy gra over how a fast tempo could theoretically work however if you think of closing down as a positional thing a team on 'rarely' closing down would press just as hard as a team on 'often' closing down ... the difference being they would wait for you to get well into their half before they start the press.

josefk

I'm curios about the "tempo".

Does that mean how fast the players move the ball around, or does that mean how fast they get the ball up the field to try and finish the attack? Should'nt the players figure it out by themselves if they're getting closed down then they're spending too much time on the ball?

How does the "tempo" work vs. the "width", if I play wide, does that mean slow tempo won't work?

josefk

About the "closing down" instructions.

Sounds newbie, but do basically the forwards have it on "rarely" and the defenders near "often"? Whatever personal preferences. I just would like to know if I'm understanding the basic things right here.

Because if defenders close down often it means they can be easily be undone with neat passing and that means there's nobody left between the opposition attacker and my goalkeeper. So to me, defenders need to not commit themselves too often, but rather rare (closing down).

And because the whole team defends, the forwards need to make an effort aswell whem the team is without the ball, so with closing down rarely the forwards are just jogging around without pressing the oppositions back line at all?

Benoit2

According to the manual, its the second.

josefk

Ok. But how can you make them pass it around then without getting it up there too fast?