Cleon

Tactic tweaking is probably the most important thing on the game in terms of tactics and is the main reason why so many people feel their tactic is inconsistent. All good real life managers do it and FM is no different. However on FM it's not as confusing as people make out or would like you to believe. Nor do you need to constantly be changing things for the full 90 minutes duration of a game. But on the other hand it can be complex but only if you allow it to be.

To be able to tweak effectivley you need to watch probably most of the game in full, unless you think you can handle just using the highlights. I myself use just highlights now, as I beleive I know how the AI works and how it's going to react at certain times. In most cases I can tell what the AI is going to do before it even happens. Hopefully by the end of this, a few others might find it easier than they first thought.


In this thread I hope we can give you a better understanding and generate a decent discussion about one of the most troubled areas of FM for many users. It might also be worth noting that people do things differently and just because one particular person does something a particular way, it doesn't make it a rule and mean it will always work.. These are just my ways of doing things, to just give you a better insight of the things you can try.

Often wonder what I mean when I say tweak to suit your needs? Then read on...

Let's start off by having a look at a few common occurences that could force you to tweak.

The Basics

Before A Game

Tempo
Mentality
Defensive Line
Man Marking
Counter Attacking
Passing



In Game

You go a goal behind
Opposition getting too much space
A forced injury
A substitution
You see something worrying
Your style just isn't working

These are the most common things I look out for, and is one of the main factors before I tweak something. If something is working and my tactic is doing what I think is good, then I won't change anything. I don't tweak just for the sake of it, I only tweak if its needed. If I am being really dominant in a game, its very rare that I ever change anything, after all I am being dominant. So I must be doing something right?!

Before you play your next fixture its quite possible to tweak a few things here and there, before you enter the game to give you what should be a slight advantage hopefully. How I determine what I tweak before a game depends on my scout report on the next opposition says. Most of it is really common knowledge and nothing no-one shouldn't be able to work out by reading what it says. Its nothing too complex and in most cases, really easy to determine what needs to be done. For example my next game is against Newcastle and my scout said ' Newcastle play a defensive 442 and like a quick direct style to hit teams on the break'. Now this tells me I can play quite attacking against them, as they tend to sit deep and hit me on the counter attack. So as long as I don't over commit on the attacking front, I should have quite a few shots if I can break them down. Another thing I can do is play a short slow tempo game and try and limit the possession Newcastle have, because they play on the counter and rather direct, I should dominate possession in this game as at times they will give the ball away. So by playing short and slow I will be making them play a style which does not suit them at this time.

I will probably drop my defensive line slightly too, as i know they got fast strikers just by looking at their probable line up. So I don't want my defence to play too high or they might get caught out here, especially as my defenders lack pace. As you can see, I can change quite a few things here, it might seem a lot of messing about, but really its not. All this should take no longer than 30 seconds to change, it sounds harder than it actually is. Newcastle line up against me defensive as I am one of the better sides in the league now, but you get the drift about what I mean with scout reports hopefully?! One more thing I should add, is that if my defenders have good man marking attributes then it might be worth while man marking their fast striker who is likely to cause me trouble, I find this helps keep them at bay most games.

I'll just give a brief summary of the basics, I'll go into more detail later on in the thread as it starts to develop.

Tempo

I find this a really good tool and one I can often find myself changing, especially on a game by game basis. During a game, I may also find myself altering tempo depending on how the game is going.

Mentality

This is something I don't generally mess around in game. Unless I need to play counter attacking in the big games away from home, or for the weaker teams at home I may find I need to be more attacking.

Defensive Line

Something I like to change a lot, depending on the style I'm playing and what I want from a game; I.E if I go counter attacking then I'll drop the defensive line deep and invite the opposition onto me, so I can play a counter attacking game.

Man Marking

I normally use the 'opposition' instructions for this, but only if I am confident my player is good enough to man mark.

Counter Attacking

This is a must in a lot of games for me, especially if I'm having a hard time and not having much space.

Passing

Again something I change, but this depends on wether I am counter attacking or not. That would probably be the only time I changed passing during a match. Except for very rare occassions were one of my players maybe giving possession away too much.

I'll not touch upon the ingame tweaking basics just yet, as I hope to show you a game were I tweak a few things. But that's a bit away yet as I'll probably wait until the patch is out and a lot of the bugs have been fixed. That way it will be more valid

Cleon

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Cleon

The reason I've posted this now is to generate a bit of discussion while we all wait for the patch. Plus a few questions might arise which I maybe able to use at some point in my games I tweak.

kolobok

Cleon,

Do you ever use opposition instructions? If so I guess it would be a great addition. :thup:

Cleon

Sometimes, but majority of the time I find I don't need to as I've changed things between games. But I'll touch upon this more and opposition instructions thats for sure :thup:

Law_Man

Really useful thread Cleon, KUTWGW A lot of good threads from you recently

Patrick27

Cleon, when your scout reports that the opposition likes to play a possesion game, how would you play to conteract this?

Great thread as well.


Thanks in advamce,
Patrick