Surprisingly Effective Tactic? *POTENTIALLY HUGE TACTICAL SPOILERS*

Remember my thread telling about the unbalance of home and away matches and how there was a recent exception?

I was winning and drawing home and away matches most of them easily when I found I had no instructions, everything was in the middle and unticked.

In my last match against Mons, I changed my "plain" instructions to something I had used in the first game, so that it was logical. Half-Time result : 0-0. Then I decided to use my instructions that contained absolutely nothing, guess what? A goal in the opening five minutes gave me the lead, and final score : 3-0.

Is that the key?

Is that the same for player instructions aswell?

Only for player instructions. My tactic is custom. A 4-4-2, with DMF, SMF and AMF and the rest is normal.

Thought I'd escaped this stuff you post on PESFan

These things happen in real life, there is such thing as home advantage you know, just look at Stoke for example.

It's funny...I was getting this idea also. It just seemed if everything was "normal", or "moderate" that my squad always performed better.

I think that there are two potential benefits to the approach:

1. You are guaranteed that you don't have "conflicting" instructions, which seems to be a common user mistake when building our own tactics. (E.g., large gaps between players, lack of options in the passing game, excessive risk-taking in attack, etc.)

2. You place a high reliance on the mental attributes of your players: Anticipation, Decisions, Creativity, Positioning, Off The Ball, etc. If you tend to value those attributes, or are playing a high-end team which naturally has mental acuity, a "just play" approach actually plays to their strengths.

I noticed this first with wingers in FM'05 - previously, I'd always given wingers instructions like Forward Runs: Often, Run With Ball: Often, Cross From: Byline, etc. - the "classic" winger instruction set.

When I built up to world-class wingers, I discovered that I got more out of them by dropping that to Fwd Runs: Mixed, Run With Ball: Mixed, Cross From: Mixed. Suddenly, my wingers looked a lot more dangerous. They would cut inside with the ball, they'd pass central, they'd cross early, they'd cross from the byline, they'd cut in along the byline .. they were much less predictable, and consequently became much more effective as attackers.

However, when I dropped that tactic back down into the lower echelons, it didn't pay off: my wingers didn't have the vision, the creativity, the decision-making, to pick the right option, and so often naffed up a promising build-up by doing something unexpected .. unexpected to their teammates, and passing up a great opportunity to instead try something which was clearly never going to work out for them.

Lesson?

Its certainly a potential approach - and it can be a lot of fun to reset to it and develop some tactics from that - but it isn't going to be a silver bullet super-tactic, either.

I think it seems fairly self-explanitory and reasonable.

It's not so much that is is a "Super Tactic" at all. More that a more "balanced" approach is more effective that the tactics they are currently using.

In my experience, many people on these forums seems to think that extremes of slider use are the way forward.

When they want to create an attacking tactic, they put the attacking slider all the way to the right.

When they want to defend they put it all the way to the left.

When thay want to defend deep they defend VERY deep.

When they want to play a high tempo the play a ridiculously high tempo.

Many people also seem to be a little clueless, (not pointing the finger at anyone), when it comes to marrying up different slider usafe.

What I mean is that it seems fairly common to see a very high defensive line, with a very direct style and they wonder why they struggle.

In my mind it is always better to start from a central slider position when creating a new tactic, (and move outwards), that to start with a wide slider position and move inwards.

Seems pretty straightforward to me.

I think that there are two potential benefits to the approach:

1. You are guaranteed that you don't have "conflicting" instructions, which seems to be a common user mistake when building our own tactics. (E.g., large gaps between players, lack of options in the passing game, excessive risk-taking in attack, etc.)

2. You place a high reliance on the mental attributes of your players: Anticipation, Decisions, Creativity, Positioning, Off The Ball, etc. If you tend to value those attributes, or are playing a high-end team which naturally has mental acuity, a "just play" approach actually plays to their strengths.

I noticed this first with wingers in FM'05 - previously, I'd always given wingers instructions like Forward Runs: Often, Run With Ball: Often, Cross From: Byline, etc. - the "classic" winger instruction set.

When I built up to world-class wingers, I discovered that I got more out of them by dropping that to Fwd Runs: Mixed, Run With Ball: Mixed, Cross From: Mixed. Suddenly, my wingers looked a lot more dangerous. They would cut inside with the ball, they'd pass central, they'd cross early, they'd cross from the byline, they'd cut in along the byline .. they were much less predictable, and consequently became much more effective as attackers.

However, when I dropped that tactic back down into the lower echelons, it didn't pay off: my wingers didn't have the vision, the creativity, the decision-making, to pick the right option, and so often naffed up a promising build-up by doing something unexpected .. unexpected to their teammates, and passing up a great opportunity to instead try something which was clearly never going to work out for them.

Lesson?

Its certainly a potential approach - and it can be a lot of fun to reset to it and develop some tactics from that - but it isn't going to be a silver bullet super-tactic, either.

Definately something I agree with. High quality players - particulalrly those with great mental stats - can often be left to do things on their own. Mixed everything, high CF, maybe a Free Role, and they can tear the opposition to pieces.

@Adam- Mainly yesterday, when I was banned in PESFan. No you wouldnt.

And Im sorry I meant team instructions, player instructions have some stuff yeah.

But, how can this thing work? I swear I got through half this season with this without knowing it and I now come out 1st. Weird, huh?

The great thing is, I cant feel unbalance between home and away anymore.

Thanks for all the help and explanations, appreciated

Something else to consider - tactics aren't everything. Morale can play a massive effect - if you're getting your team talks and press conferences right, then your players' morale could well be covering up for a weaker tactic.

As for why it went bad (well, less good) when you fiddled with it, well, maybe were probably just used to the "simple" tactic and would've taken some time to "bed in" the changes. Or maybe, you just got the changes wrong

Yeah, I considered them not being used to the 'real' instructions but in this crucial time of the season (all of them are tbh) its good to get points.

And I thought if the tactic/instructions are doing well why should I change them?

This is something thats been around for a while, i've seen it guide many people to success... my mates girlfriend wanted to play and had no interest in doing training and tactics... she took Spurs to the premier league title in her first season after doing basically nothing? She only brought two people in January and had no tactics...

Yet i've seen more people fail when making a tactic or download a "super" one...

Weird stuff.