How important are opposition instructions?

I often use them based on my assistants feedback and common sense/knowledge in bigger games but not so much in other games. Is this suicidal or normal?

It depends on your team and your tactics.In my West Ham save i set opposition instructions every match but with Man City and Milan setting opposition instruction always messed my attacking minded tactics.

I found very early on in my FM2009 experience that if I didn't set some opposition instructions, then I'd get overrun by most opponents, in particular wingers and strikers getting an enormous amount of space.

I suppose since OIs are there in the game, you'd expect there to be a benefit to using them - and thus the opposite if you don't.

As such I started using OIs pretty much straight away. Closing down wingers and strikers, marking them tightly. Now I always man-mark strikers and wingers, as it seems to be the only way to get your defenders from letting opponents have the freedom of your back line.

Even then I get the odd game where tackling seems an alien concept.

Personally I go for Normal Tackling and Closing Down & Tight Marking on wingers, and the more creative midfielder, and the same except no Tackling instruction on centre-forwards (not wanting to give penalties away, I leave that up to the defender). I try to play them all on their wrong foot, too.

This is a bit of a ball ache to do every match. It would be nice in FM2010 if you actually set these in your tactics design, by position - i.e. instead of marking Frankie Flash on the left wing in my next match, I mark Left Midfielders and Left Wingers (and Close Down, Tight Mark etc.) in any match.

i.e. these settings are applied Globally in your tactics, by position - you would then be able to override them, by corresponding player, on match-day, as specific match instructions.

But hey. You can't!

I never use them mate, and haven't seen my results suffer.

Thanks for the comments, I think as I get to know the swedish league it will become easier but for now I'll follow your positional instructions.

i use them when i can b botherd. I do it at half times sometimes and i think the player become less of a threat

I hope they're completely modified for FM10. I also hate how they all change back to none once you change to another saved tactic mid-game.

I tend to set them for specific matches, but not every match out .. basically, if I expect to win, I expect the opposition to be reacting to me, not the other way around, so I don't bother .. and I won my league last season with that approach. So, you don't have to set OI every match to have success.

I found very early on in my FM2009 experience that if I didn't set some opposition instructions, then I'd get overrun by most opponents, in particular wingers and strikers getting an enormous amount of space.

Those issues can be addressed through your tactical settings as well as through OI; if you have a strong defensive set-up, you don't necessarily have to set OI to ensure wingers and strikers get appropriately dealt with.

However, I think most people find it easier to build attacking play than build defensive play , and a lot of the downloaded tactics one can find are built with strong attack and weak defense.

As such I started using OIs pretty much straight away. Closing down wingers and strikers, marking them tightly. Now I always man-mark strikers and wingers, as it seems to be the only way to get your defenders from letting opponents have the freedom of your back line.

Yeah, man-marking works much better than Zonal, especially for central defenders, in my experience.

I've had very good success vs. wingers simply by setting, for example, my DL on "Man Marking" and my ML on "Man Mark: their MR" .. it ensures my winger tracks back, though that can leave him knackered by the eightieth minute .. but that often leads to their winger getting double-covered, or with two of my guys working on him down in the corner, effectively shutting him down.

* * * * *

The way I use OI is a bit different: I like to use it to pressure weak links in the opposition defense.

For example, if I can find a young defender with low Composure - ideally with low Anticipation and Decisions, too - I can set "Closing Down Always", and further compound his misery by doing a lot of tight marking (vs the DL, DR, and MC's) .. this ensures that he is constantly under pressure. Tight marking the opp. GK can also pay dividends with intercepted back-passes .. and its always very rewarding to see a goal out of it, as it feels like you've really outwitted the opposition manager. Same with a low-Composure goalkeeper, you can pressure him into clearances out-of-bounds or fifty-fifty balls upfield.

I tend to make Tight Marking Always/Never based on the opposition's pace - "Always" can absolutely gut a talented veteran who doesn't have enough Pace/Acceleration to get away from his marker.

Hard Tackling against a player with low Aggression can wind up winning plenty of loose balls, and against a player with low Bravery seems to make him shy away from things and even lose interest in the game. Its worth the penalty risk to challenge an opposition striker with a mental weakness, and everywhere else on the pitch is fair game.

I try to play them all on their wrong foot, too.

I used to do that - simply set "Weaker Foot" for every opponent .. but then I started getting burned by players who had a fairly strong weak foot. Now I've taken to - for the games I decide to set OI at all - looking through each opponent's "Positions" screen to see the strength of his weak foot, unless he's listed "Right Foot Only", in which case "Weaker Foot" seems to be safe.

This is a bit of a ball ache to do every match. It would be nice in FM2010 if you actually set these in your tactics design, by position - i.e. instead of marking Frankie Flash on the left wing in my next match, I mark Left Midfielders and Left Wingers (and Close Down, Tight Mark etc.) in any match.

i.e. these settings are applied Globally in your tactics, by position - you would then be able to override them, by corresponding player, on match-day, as specific match instructions.

Here you and I are in complete agreement! I'd use OI more if they weren't such a pain to implement .. for example, if the key attributes I wanted to see were visible on the main screen so I didn't have to click on the player every time .. and especially if I could set it on a by-position basis.

The by-position thing would probably have to also be by-formation .. perhaps we could save and load OI, the way we save and load tactics?

"Default v 4-4-2"

"Default v 4-5-1 w/DMC"

If that were done, maybe our man-marking assignments would be considered part of it, as that seems related in my mind.

Whatever difference they make in the match engine is unlikely to benefit you any more than it might disadvantage you. I have tried with and without many times, including rerunning the same game with logical OI and without, and a whole season with and without, and have not seen any appreciable difference that would merit bothering with them.

Fantastic response Amaroq, I think this is what I've been subconsciously all along in relation

'I tend to set them for specific matches, but not every match out .. basically, if I expect to win, I expect the opposition to be reacting to me, not the other way around, so I don't bother .. and I won my league last season with that approach. So, you don't have to set OI every match to have success.'

Thanks, will be very useful!

Fantastic response Amaroq, I think this is what I've been subconsciously all along in relation

'I tend to set them for specific matches, but not every match out .. basically, if I expect to win, I expect the opposition to be reacting to me, not the other way around, so I don't bother .. and I won my league last season with that approach. So, you don't have to set OI every match to have success.'

Thanks, will be very useful!

I would say that it is not the deciding factor. You can ignore them and you won't be in any way disadvantaged. It is just a placebo because if you rerun the game with and without you will find that the OI has a negligible effect.

I hope they're completely modified for FM10. I also hate how they all change back to none once you change to another saved tactic mid-game.

As of 9.3 they don't reset anymore.They stay same to whatever you changed them , even after you change tactics.

I would say that it is not the deciding factor. You can ignore them and you won't be in any way disadvantaged. It is just a placebo because if you rerun the game with and without you will find that the OI has a negligible effect.

I've still seen from the changes I've made making an impact on the second part of my season as in stark contrast from a 4-0 loss to Helsinborg's where Larsson destroyed us in the return fixture we grabbed a 1-0 win with Larsson's impact fairly limited. I've also seen a much improved rearguard performance since my wingers have began to track back:p

It's still bugged in 9.3. It was only partially fixed.

As of 9.3 they don't reset anymore.They stay same to whatever you changed them , even after you change tactics.

I've still seen from the changes I've made making an impact on the second part of my season as in stark contrast from a 4-0 loss to Helsinborg's where Larsson destroyed us in the return fixture we grabbed a 1-0 win with Larsson's impact fairly limited. I've also seen a much improved rearguard performance since my wingers have began to track back:p

If you replay it many times or watch the effect over the course of a season (I played a season playing with logical OI and the next ignoring them) you will see that it really makes very little difference. Basically I don't think the AI is good enough for it to be of any benefit ie they are just as likely to cause your team harm as good.

If you replay it many times or watch the effect over the course of a season (I played a season playing with logical OI and the next ignoring them) you will see that it really makes very little difference. Basically I don't think the AI is good enough for it to be of any benefit ie they are just as likely to cause your team harm as good.

Fair enough

Might use them against big players as a precaution but managing in the Swedish league that won't be often.

well Im Lyn in norwegian leagues.

And I can tell you OIs are very useful if you care to use them. For example look at a striker. If he is good with his head, of course show the right wingers to their left and left wingers to their right, IE make it so the strikers are getting no crosses and instead only through balls.

ANd also dont close down the middle

And if a striker is bad with his head but deadly on the ground? Close down the middle and show the wingers down the wing...right wingers show them to right foot and left wingers to their left foot.

Using OIs like this, I have beat teams I have no business beating, such as Lyon and Inter Milan and now have just beat Roma 2-1 at home in the first leg of the semi final. Because I showed the wingers down the wings vs Lyon, Benzema didn't even score and hardly got any shots.

It is useful vs teams better than your team, but vs bad teams, its kind of a waste, except of couse tackling the strikers hard and showing them to their weaker foot

well Im Lyn in norwegian leagues.

And I can tell you OIs are very useful if you care to use them. For example look at a striker. If he is good with his head, of course show the right wingers to their left and left wingers to their right, IE make it so the strikers are getting no crosses and instead only through balls.

ANd also dont close down the middle

And if a striker is bad with his head but deadly on the ground? Close down the middle and show the wingers down the wing...right wingers show them to right foot and left wingers to their left foot.

Using OIs like this, I have beat teams I have no business beating, such as Lyon and Inter Milan and now have just beat Roma 2-1 at home in the first leg of the semi final. Because I showed the wingers down the wings vs Lyon, Benzema didn't even score and hardly got any shots.

It is useful vs teams better than your team, but vs bad teams, its kind of a waste, except of couse tackling the strikers hard and showing them to their weaker foot

Yeah i have to agree with you quite honestly as this was my instinct, I think I will follow the advice of others and apply it to my oppositions instructions.

Being Lyn Oslo, I wondered whether you'd shed some light on your career as there seem to be very few people currently doing this sort of thing.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=131556

well Im Lyn in norwegian leagues.

And I can tell you OIs are very useful if you care to use them. For example look at a striker. If he is good with his head, of course show the right wingers to their left and left wingers to their right, IE make it so the strikers are getting no crosses and instead only through balls.

ANd also dont close down the middle

And if a striker is bad with his head but deadly on the ground? Close down the middle and show the wingers down the wing...right wingers show them to right foot and left wingers to their left foot.

Using OIs like this, I have beat teams I have no business beating, such as Lyon and Inter Milan and now have just beat Roma 2-1 at home in the first leg of the semi final. Because I showed the wingers down the wings vs Lyon, Benzema didn't even score and hardly got any shots.

It is useful vs teams better than your team, but vs bad teams, its kind of a waste, except of couse tackling the strikers hard and showing them to their weaker foot

The thing is though - It's not the OI that is getting you the success. Unless you replay with and without it's not possible to know that - there are simply too many factors influencing the match engine. It's understandable why you might think it is the OI but if you replayed the game with and without you would see that the effect on the players is negligible.

For example, I could tell my team to show a player onto his weaker foot with an OI but even without they will still show him out wide even without an OI telling them to do that.

I think ultimately there is alot of split opinions on this topic because of the obscurity of the impact but nevertheless even if they may be a waste of time, is it not sensible to apply them in big games?:confused:

DR.ogba - yes I absolutely agree that it is

It is after all a game we want to get immersed in.

Exactly couldn't have put it better.