Jorgen

Due to Cleon being such a curious guy I have decided to post my work on my tactic pack here on SI-forums too. The tactic is, as always, based on the 4-3-3 that I love so much. But instead of it being a real 4-3-3 with 4 defenders, 3 midfielders and 3 attackers, it is more like "not really being a 4-3-3". I hope this is not too confusing . What I actually mean is, that when playin in a formation, it changes all the time. Players are running backwards and forwards, or even sidewards, hence all the arrows that we can put across the pitch. My tactic-pack concists of 4 tactics that have one thing similar in mind: when playing it "could look like a 4-3-3". Then again, it also could not... Oh, they have a second thing in common too: they are all based on the 4-3-3 normal that comes with the came, allthough players have been dragged and dropped a bit around. Please do note that corners and free-kicks, target-men and play-makers have not been altered yet. Taking that into account, it is the most promosing set of tactics that I have made so far for FM'05 and FM'06. You might find a lot of it not actually working the way it should, but with your help, I will make it allright.

The working title of this tactic is "GO", but when it is finished it will be name otherly.

One thing that I had in mind specially when creating this tactics, was it to be usefull for every occasion without having to swap players around the pitch. So when the LMC plays as a AMC, I did not drag and drop the winger to the LMC and the defender to the goalkeeper and so on. I made sure that when I fielded a player, I did not have to worrie about players that were wrongfully positioned when I changed formations mid-game. So every leftdefender is also a wingback, every DMC has also MC in his favorite positions, etcetera.


So to make everything entirely clear, here are the tactics:



1. The HOME tactic.
GO 4-3-3 Thuis -> 4-1-2-2-1

This tactic is the base tactic of the set. I used everything that I learned from Cleon, Macca, Jep, Justified, Marz, Synax, Sir Bobby and all those other great forum-members to create this tactic. I even put in some things that I think "Johan Cruijff" would have liked. (If he is actually playing FM, reading this forum, and downloading this tactic.) YES Cleon, that is me.

The Home tactic is a 4-3-3 normal, with a lot of alterations. I gave my 2 wingbacks farrows too, so that they may run to my wingers (who have kept their original farrows). I used Synax' mentality format (which you can find in his great topics) to tell each player how attacking or defending he must play.

The midfield is key in any real 4-3-3. And so it is here. (Or better: so I want it to be.) My DMC has a diagonal farrow pointed towards the LMC, who at his turn also is diagonally farrowed to the (yet empty) AMC position. The RMC has been given the task to control the midfield when the DMC and LMC are on their attacking positions, and to assist the LMC in getting back the ball and passing it again to the (hopefully) advancing LMC when getting back in possession.

This tactic is supposed to be fast and dangerous, using the greatest deal of the field.

The formation:



The instructions:



The tactic:
(Thuis = Home)

You find the tactic in the next post, if I have found a good upload site.
Please feel free to suggest any.



2. The AWAY tactic.
GO 4-3-3 Uit -> 4-1-2-2-1

This tactic is the 2nd tactic that I made, though I allready created it before the Home tactic was finished. I did all 4 tactics at the same time actually. Changed mentality in the 1st, then the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, then changing passing in the 1st, then 2nd, 3rd and 4th. And so on.

This tactic is very much similar as the home tactic, but being more defensive ofcourse. The big differences are in the mentality of the wingbacks and DMC (Synax' hints and tips) and also (my own idea) the LMC and RMC have their mentality somewhat down in comparison to the home tactic.

I always thought that playing on the wings was very attacking, but it seems that in FM (according to Synax) you use it for counterattack when in away games. So I tried to implement that. And I have scored a lot of countergoals this way.

The formation:



The instructions:



The tactic:
(Uit = Away)

You find the tactic in the next post, if I have found a good upload site.
Please feel free to suggest any.



3. The DEFEND LEAD tactic.
GO 4-3-3 Consolideren -> 4-1-4-1

The Defend Lead tactic, or how I call it, the Consolidate tactic is not so different from the Away tactic as you perhaps might think. It has an even more defensive mentality than the Away tactic, which affect the wingbacks, DMC and LMC + RMC the most. To make more use of the defensive capacities, time-wasting has got a higher setting to let my players thing before they act. To achieve attacking danger from my side, the wingers (who are positioned as LM and RM have both been farrowed to the AMR and AML positions. With this tactic it is not really my goal to score lost of goals. It is created to achieve safety in every occasion. To prevent big teams from getting an even higher score against me, to prevend my team giving away the lead in a match and even the play 90 minutes with a big lock on the goal to make sure that the poinst taken in the first match are not spilled in the return match (for example when playing the return in a very hard Champions League playoff series).

The formation:



The instructions:

[IMG] [/IMG]

The tactic:
(Uit = Away)

You find the tactic in the next post, if I have found a good upload site.
Please feel free to suggest any.



4. The ATTACK tactic.
GO 4-3-3 AON -> 4-2-3-1

Where the Consolidate tactic has only one teammember playing on the opponents half the entire time, and the rest playing behind or on the half-line, the AON tactic has 4 advanced players but also enough power to prevent counterattacks. Well, that was the idea. This tactic is more than only an attack tactic to get a late goal. I created it with the idea in mind that my players should also have some fun on the pitch. When playing a minor opponent, players want to score 10-0 or more. I would like to see that, the fans would, the board would, and I guess that - if FM'06 is an intelligent game - my players would also like to play such matches. Therefor the striker gets help from the LMC who plays the entire match as an AMC (hence his new position on the field.) He also is farrowed to the striker position to act as a second striker when needed / possible. Both the wingers are on their original "4-3-3 normal"-positions again.

I have tried to implement all the things that make a tactic attacking, without losing the defensive aspects. In about 50% of the matches where I used this, it worked. Due to it having still defensive capacities it has giving it's name: AON, which is short for "Alles of Niets" (translates as "All or Nothing"). In matches that I been to in real life, there were many times that the crowd shouted and sang to get the team going, to score the late equalizer, or the 5th goal, etc. In that cases the fans sang: "Alles of niet, olé, olé - alles of niets, olé, olé". (All or nothing, olé, olé - all or nothing, olé, olé). I suspect you guys and girls here on the SI-forums know this things from the matches you have been to, too. So hence the AON.

The formation:



The instructions:



The tactic:
(Uit = Away)

You find the tactic in the next post, if I have found a good upload site.
Please feel free to suggest any.



The results so far are promosing, but also very inconsistent. I have won from AC Milan in the Champions League groupstage with 3-0 and lost form small Dutch teams in the Eredivisie 0-2. In about 110 matches, played with Ajax, Bordeaux and the Australian national team, I have won 60 matches and drawed and lost about 25 matches each. The season start is very weak; I go up and down round 12th place. Between the 10th and 20th match I will be around 6th place. Between match 21 and 30 the team is winning more and more and is good for the 4th position. The season-end is very important. When getting through the descision-matches, and actually winning them, can lead to me being division champions. Losing one or 2 (which has happened sadly to me) will leave the team in 2nd position. This I have found to be the fact in the 1st and 2nd season. I am in about 10 matches or so in the 3rd season and everything is happening pretty much the same again.


I hope I have giving you enough information to have a slight idea of what to suspect with this tactic and what I wanted to achieve. If you find something that is allready (very) good, please let me know, so that I can use it in any new tactic that I make. If you find anything that is not that good (or absolutely wrong) feel free to comment on that too. I want to learn to make my tactics better and I think this is a pretty good effort. Do note that I only want positive and negative critics that can actually point out what is so good or bad. Telling me that it is terribly wrong and the baddest tactic you have downloaded only makes me not posting here anymore. It doesn't help me make it better. And telling me that you were absolutely astonished by the quality, makes my jump up and down of joy and pleasure, but doesn't help me a lot eighter. So please feel free to download it, play with it, and react! Also, as some people here know, I am Dutch, so I have done my best to make it all a good read.



Have fun & Thank you all. :thup:



As this is the first time that I upload pictures to this website and even the first time that I use imageshack myself, as far as I can remember, I hope that every image link works fine. If not, perhaps a nice MOD can edit my post a little to make it all work. When necessary, thank you in advance.

Can someone be so nice to tell me where to upload my tactics, please?

Jorgen

Some small additions:

My 3 midfielders should be like:

DMC: Tomas Galasek at his best days. A good defensive midfielder, but also very dangerous in the attack must be able to run, defend and score. Descision making is his quality. I think Hedwiges Maduro from Ajax will perform fine here.

LMC: Rafael van der Vaart / Wesley Sneijder type of intelligent footballer who can pass with flair and vision, but also know when to stay in position and defend.

RMC: Mark van Bommel / Nigel de Jong kind of player. A footballer who has the vision to control the pitch so that the DMC and LMC can safely advance making use of their farrows, or giving them the time to run back. This player has to be the stabile motor of the tactic. In all 4 the different cases. Creativity is ok, but only to pass and shoot, not to run around. This years Ajax would probably use Gabri in this position.

I have not yet decided who of these 3 is the real playmaker, or which player may hold up any balls and such.


The opponents seem to play in somekind of Christmastree formation lately. (4 defenders, 3 central midfielders, 2 AMC's and 1 striker. This is very hard to counteract.)


As I suspected, my pictures are not yet displayed correctly. Can someone please make it right?

ofer_000

Here you go



1. The HOME tactic.
GO 4-3-3 Thuis -> 4-1-2-2-1


The formation:



The instructions:



The tactic:
(Thuis = Home)



2. The AWAY tactic.
GO 4-3-3 Uit -> 4-1-2-2-1

The formation:



The instructions:



The tactic:
(Uit = Away)


3. The DEFEND LEAD tactic.
GO 4-3-3 Consolideren -> 4-1-4-1


The formation:



The instructions:



The tactic:
(Uit = Away)



4. The ATTACK tactic.
GO 4-3-3 AON -> 4-2-3-1

The formation:



The instructions:



The tactic:
(Uit = Away)


You can upload to here

Jorgen

ofer_000,

Thank you very much for helping me out with the pictures. That is very much appreciated! :thup:



There is one picture that should be replaced. The 4-3-3 Consolidate instructions are:





The tactics are available here:

Jorgen GO 4 pack

Jorgen

Hopefully working link:

Jorgen GO 4 pack

DGN

Will give it a whirl..

cheers

Jorgen

I am looking forward to your comments!

oescus

I notice that in your "away" tactic and "defending a lead" you employ both offside and counter attack. My understanding is that these two are diametrically opposed to each other. The one requires the defence to be pushing up to force the offside decision, while the other requires that the defence plays deep in order to force the space behind the opponents as they attack. This then allows the counter to take place. How do you reconcile the two? I can't appreciate how the two can be used at the same time. Either you can use offside with a defensive line pushing up, or you can use counter attack, with a deeper defensive line but not the two together. Kind regards.

Melench

ok, I tested the "home" version of this tactic. I noticed a few things.

1. High defensive line
2. Wide formation
3. Very attacking full backs

As a result i found i was getting "destroyed" down the flanks and through the middle. Balls over the top were a real problem too.

This was in game where my team was 2-3 divisions better than the opposition.

In short , the defense is all over the place.

However, I did manage to make a few teaks which made a HUGE difference.

1. Reduced defensive line to "normal"
2. Removed farrows off fullbacks. Change FR to mixed
3. Chaged CD on CBss to 6/7 and FB's to 8/9
4. Removed FR's from the rmc and made him playmaker
5. Gave forward forward runs "often"

This made a HUGE difference.

The interaction between the midfield 3 was a joy to watch, playing lovely traingles etc..

i now enjoy 55-65% possession, with 75-85% pass success. Fequently i have over 20 shots on goal with 10+ on target.

Most pleasing all, it was much better defensively.

Jorgen

oescus,

Thanks for testing and commenting on my tactics.

I thought about the combination of both counterattacking and offside trap like this:

The best way to defend counterfootball is having fast defenders, and using the offside trap to prevend any player that comes through having a real change to receive the ball and come away with it.

I had not yet thought about it being 2 different things when used at the same time by one team. I thought it would help me score fast on the break while at the same time it would help me preventing being victim of a counter myself.



I have more time to think about this in a few hours.