Panda333

Another frustrated failed tactician checking in...

I've read every tactical discussion thread there is to be read at this forum (and a couple of others) and applied the ideas to my own creations, but I still can't get any consistency. In fact, I'm beginning to think that the amount of research I've done is actually the problem! Perhaps I'm trying to apply too many conflicting ideas.

As much as I hate to admit it after many years of happy CM/FMing, FM2007 has overwhelmed me. On top of that, although I know the wwfans and Cleons mean well and undoubtedly offer top notch advice, I get the feeling that their discussion threads are just too complicated for folks like me with scarcely enough time to play the game, let alone examine a host of theories on tactical development before being able to start. Don't get me wrong, I love the feeling of gradually producing a tactic of my own, but I long for some simplicity - or at least a basic but promising foundation to build on.

The point of this thread is to hopefully establish a brief set of "universal truths" - the basic building blocks of a tactic that are accepted to be useful by most/all players. Obviously the amount of variation in the game is huge and as we know no single tactic will work for all teams, but what I'm looking for from this thread would be things like: "For a top-half Premiership team playing at home, it is generally accepted that the defensive line should be between x and x"

Perhaps this idea is destined for failure but for the sake of those of us who are despairing over our underachieving Arsenals and no-hope Newcastles I feel that we have to try.

N.B. While writing this first post I've been trying to decide whether to risk opening with my own suggestions but I fear I might set things off in the wrong direction, so please forgive the lack of content.

Cleon

Start with your own views, noone can tell you its wrong if its your opinion

And yeah a lot of stuff is complexed what we talk about, but I do that because to understand what I'm doing I need to break it down and analyze every detail I can.

However you can do things simple and not as detailed as someone like me or Rashidi. Keep it simple and use the instructions rather then player ones. Then once you get something that works okay but needs altering slightly, then try and exeriment with other things like indv ment etc.

As for unviersal things id say none exists, things vary game to game and person to person imho.

Jumbalumba

In my opinion, it is always best (and not to mention rewarding) if one creates one's own tactic(s).

Firstly you have to understand what everything does e.g. mentality governs how a player approaches the game, whether to stay back, look to keep possession (in terms of team possession not individual possession) and do safe passes (defensive) or look to run and pass forward (attacking). There should be many suitable threads on these; synax created a good version of it although I still find it lacking (it is for FM2006 but it is still the same).

Then ask yourself how you would like your team to play considering the (relative) abilities of your squad, i.e formation and style.

Then think about how you want each individual player to play and vary their instructions.

Others things are corner, free-kicks and throw-ins which are not too important but you can fiddle around with that.

Then is the testing point. Play a few games, watch at least some part of the match on full to see how major parts of your tactic works out, and adjust your tactic to make it better, e.g. see whether certain players' passes are reaching their targets or over-shooting them to a significant degree and adjust individual passing style respectively.

Over time, after much tweaking, it should be very solid in terms of how everything comes together. The next consideration is adjusting it in terms of a specific situation. I keep my initial template tactic and adjust it accordingly for my opponent's lineup when I am at the match but before I start it, e.g. faster central defender against their faster forward.


Anyways, I'll offer some universal truths:
<LI> central defenders should not have more than the medium for mentality (creative freedom is less so but also applies for most situations)
<LI> wingers should not have less than medium for mentality
<LI> forwards should have short or low mixed passing

I cannot think of anymore really 'universal' settings at the moment but as you can see, they would be really quite obvious. The other non-obvious settings are what makes or breaks a tactic and it would depend on your formation and the style you want your team to be playing.