Incredibly basic yet effective ploy...

retired_KellyK06 · 11-09-2006, 01:03 PM

The other night I was sitting in my pants, pondering the attacking merits of the 442 diamond while my Sunderland team slipped to yet another humiliating home defeat to Bury (damn realism) when a thought struck me. I have made a point of watching full games to get an idea of the on-pitch movement of my players, and this led me to discover a potentially lethal attacking ploy. After the ineffectiveness of my adventurous 4-1-2-1-2 formation was laid bare for all to see I decided to revert back to a more orthadox 442. I set the team mentality to a more defensive outlook and slowed down the tempo. I set my team to counter attack and ensured every player was set to run with the ball rarely apart from my strikers, which were set to often. I set everyone's passing to direct, apart from my strikers who were on short, and concentrated passing down the middle. Added to this, I set one of my strikers to target man (ensured the "use target man" box was checked) and set target man supply to run onto ball. This seems a rather simplistic strategy, and I only did it to see what would happen, but all of a sudden my strikers were banging them in for fun. I wanted to test this so I played a full season and both strikers (Dawid Janczyk and David Connolly) scored over 30. This is not a tactic as such, and I assume it will work with whatever formation you're playing, I just happened to try it with a 442. I am intrigued to ascertain its overall effectiveness after more testing, so if anyone is struggling and wants to try something then give it a whirl and let me know how it goes for them. Obviously, the better your strikers the more effective it will be and you obviously need at least one forward with a bit of pace, but I'm sure you were already aware of that. Anyway, let me know.
ps - My pants were grey with a picture of Homer playing golf.

retired_lynchburgliz · 11-09-2006, 01:20 PM

Sounds real nice.
And TBH I really like that you're playing with Sunderland, a human team.

Translated means, if you have succeeded with the Cats that means it is doable with pretty much all Championship teams as they aren't too much apart from each other.
At least not much difference compared to the Premiership.

:thup:

retired_s1390174 · 11-09-2006, 01:33 PM

Please post a photo of your pants.

retired_KellyK06 · 11-09-2006, 02:09 PM

Yes, playing with sunderland gives an accurate measure as to whether or not a tactic works. I don't see any point in saying "hey this tactic is great, with Chelsea I dominated England for two years....", because that's not proving anything. With this I've been promoted and although I've only played 3 games in the Premiership my strikers have continued to bang them in.
I'm going to continue this tonight so I'll let you know how it's going, of course, tonight I'll be wearing different pants, but I will certainly post a pic of the Homer pants, as these may have a bearing on the success, or otherwise, of the tactic.

retired_monica90 · 11-09-2006, 02:13 PM

So relative success is only attainable with exactly the correct type of pants?

Sort it out SI.

retired_Busy Body · 11-09-2006, 02:36 PM

The success of your tactic seems logical to me.

I spend lots and lots of time designing and tweaking tactics myself. Usually based on the Rule of Two.

Slowing down down back + direct/long passing will lure the opposition forward. Strikers should play short passing only as they don't need to pass long, only short flick ons at most.

I think your "targetman" option is limiting your teams options of creating chances. Unless he is a player of great quality of course. The only time I use a targetman is when I have a strong tall jumping giant upfront (targetman focus passing to head) Or a gazelle speedie gonzales with a very high off the ball skill (Targetman focus passing run onto ball)

I think this tactic will suffer greatly if good teams play very defensive against you e.g. 4-3-2-1. This will happen if you finish above expectations because your reputation will be re-ranked higher. In that case your passing through the middle will not work very well.

But good luck to you... Just my thoughts

retired_KellyK06 · 11-09-2006, 02:37 PM

The level of success in direct relation to pants theorem is currently undergoing intensive testing, the results of which I shall post here forthwith.
Another interesting anomaly arising from this strategy is that one of my central defenders has the most assists. Is anyone at home, sitting in their pants, playing FM2007 at the moment who can try this ploy and leave some feedback? I'm sat at work (in pants but also trousers) and I'm bored.
Leave details of pants, obviously.

retired_KellyK06 · 11-09-2006, 02:45 PM

Thanks Jesp. Yes, I think this is a short term ploy, I certainly wouldn't build my team around it, but it's a hell of a way to turn your season around. It's still successful after a season and a bit and shows no sign of being "cracked" by the AI yet. Naturally, the tactic relies heavily on your front two. These men need to be fast and aware, and obviously the better their finishing the more they will score, and be prepared for your strikers missing lots of chances. This is because they AI balances out the amount of chances with the level of goalscoring from the front two, hence lots of shots going over the top or wide. Anyway, like I said before, this is not a tactic as such, it's just a way of scoring a heap of goals. I find it worked incredibly well against my mate who set his centre-backs to man mark my strikers. They were drawn way out of position and torn apart when the balls came through the middle. Well, thanks Jesp, anyone else?