I doubt you are interested and this has probably been mentioned a million times before but anyway this is my understanding of the tactics and how the game works. I wrote this as it seems by reading Paulowen’s thread that lots of people are still struggling with the game. Personally this is my favourite release yet and don’t understand the complaints.
I think you can be in danger of over complicating things in the game.
I try and keep it simple and play a certain way and stick to certain rules. I find that FM08 doesn’t like extremes and punishes you for playing that way. What I mean by extreme’s is constant formation and team instruction changes, having certain sliders too far apart. You will rarely succeed with extreme tactics like Very high attacking mentality and a very defensive backline or High extreme width and short passing with a High tempo.. Fast tempo and short passing also has a very short shelf life in my experience. The AI works out these tactics very easily as they have glaring flaws.
I try to think of my team as a unit which sits within a certain amount of yards between defence and attack and work it out from there and it works for me. I imagine the midfield sit on the half way line (if you keep their mentality as normal) and the defence 15-20 yards behind them and the attack 15-20 yards in front of them as a starting point.
When you move the Defensive Line you begin to stretch the unit backwards and the same applies for attacking mentality forwards. I prefer to keep my team working closely together, allowing less space for the opposition to exploit and using a slow tempo’d short passing game so I keep these two sliders very close to each other (1 or 2 clicks apart). These two sliders should in my opinion always be close together if you are playing a short passing game.
Passing / Tempo / Width I keep close together also. As Defensive line and Attacking mentality stretch your team unit forwards and backwards away or closer to your midfielders, width stretches the team across the pitch (Obviously) so if you play a short passing game with high width you are asking your players to play longer balls to each other. So for the best results you should increase the range of your passing and tempo also (the same applies for the defensive line and attacking mentality. I have found for best results you should increase their passing range, tempo and width together). Most of what I am writing in here is my interpretation of information I have gathered through reading Cleon’s unofficial tactics bible, personal experience and using a little common.
If in a particular game the opposition have a pacey striker I will use a deeper line but will bring the attacking mentality back slightly also to keep the team compact. If you do this and employ a fast striker you normally will entice the opposition defence to move slightly higher up the pitch allowing lots of space for your striker to run in to. Try increasing the strikers personal instructions to allow him to have slightly more attacking mentality and increase one or two of your creative midfielders passing range and creative freedom so they can exploit the space in behind. Ps.. I always play counter-attack home and away.. Also the added benefit of having your team closer together is it is much easier to press the opposition into making a mistake and you have other players closer to pick up the loose ball etc.
Opposition instructions… I always close down every player and show them on to their weaker foot, the only players I don’t close down are the Centre Backs and the goalkeeper. I don’t want to tire out my strikers running around like headless chickens. I don’t use any other opposition instructions. Actually I do sometimes put hard tackling on players I know are inclined to be a little hot-headed or if they are a bit of a wimp (Low bravery).
I usually change my defensive personal instructions slightly. I play my CB’s on the first click of normal (From defensive end) and their Closing down exactly the same. I also put my Fullbacks on two clicks higher and their closing down the same. I try and keep an organised back four. This way there are less opportunities for the opposition to exploit holes in my defensive line and the AI has to find other ways to combat my tactic. Usually a little individual brilliance from a player is their main route to defeating me (or a strange run of set pieces).
I’m not saying my tactics are world beaters but I have found if I stick to these basic rules then I win a lot more than I lose regardless of what team I play with. I usually start with Pompey but I have started with Norwich and got them promoted to the EPL first season top of the league and they managed a 12th spot in the premier season two. Got bored though, I mean.. who likes Norwich??!
My current season I am playing a network game with a friend, he’s Man City and I am Pompey. We’ve played 22 games so far, I am 2nd in the league behind Man U who have won 20 and drawn 2. I have won 16 drawn 4 and lost 2 (Man U and Arsenal… Oh and I lost to Newcastle in the league cup quarters.. Michael Owen Hat-Trick… 4 shots 4 on target and 3 goals). . I’m pretty much playing with the same team I started with except for Arshavin who is my AMC.
I think this makes sense to me.. Sorry if it comes across as utter ***** to everyone else!
FM08.. Working for me. 
Linear Mode
