Wish I was a genious at tactics.

Every year for the past 4-5 years it seems as FM has gotten more and more deep which means for me at least that it gets harder and harder to win.

If I play as a good team teams just shut up shop against me and then score on the counter.

If I play a bad team and try to defend/counter I get beat 4-0 as the other team just crushes me.

I simmed ahead to 2030 and started in the Italian C2. Playing under where I should be after 10 games. I just can't get my tactics right. I went for the physical player direct approach since that works well in the lower leagues usually but its not really working so far.

The only thing that is keeping me going this save is my scout found a 19yr old Portuguese goalie on a free that could easily be starting in Serie B or be a backup in A. Hopefully I can get a few other players of that caliber with some luck. So far it's not happening.

What do you guys think? Is this year 90% tactics and 10% which players you have like most of the recent editions of the game or is the focus being shifted back to player ability and skill?

FM 2010, and your in the year 2030!!?

I just holydayed till 2030. I love to play with new stars. It also keeps me from signing sure things. After a few games you get to know all the good players at the start and it makes things easy. And I hate ignoring them to keep it fair. If I find a good player I want to be able to jump at the opportunity to sign him and feel happy about it. Going to the future makes scouting a lot more fun.

A part of me is happy that its all down to tactics but theres so many other factors involved with the match engine like moral, fitness, team talk etc... It can take the mick slightly when all these things can go against you.

In 09 I found it so hard to get my team scoring, they would always fluff chances and my defenders would make stupid mistakes, these were £50mil+ players, why do some peoples players score 2 a game where mine would get 2 in a month? If the tactics could be broken down better it would make understanding them so much easier and some people might get more enjoyment out of it. I know I would appreciate a more user friendly reason why my team isn't scoring other than my Ass Man telling me certain players are making too many mistakes.

It does seem to have become micro management.

I just holydayed till 2030. I love to play with new stars. It also keeps me from signing sure things. After a few games you get to know all the good players at the start and it makes things easy. And I hate ignoring them to keep it fair. If I find a good player I want to be able to jump at the opportunity to sign him and feel happy about it. Going to the future makes scouting a lot more fun.

Try unticking the 'use real players' box when you set up a new game

FM 2010, and your in the year 2030!!?

He did say he holidayed to 2030.

OP, the best advice i can give is keep things simple and dont overcomplicate. As your quite low down the leagues, i'd suggest using a formation to suit your players rather than acquiring players to suit your preferred formation. Start off with a default tactic, and adjust it from there once you get the jist of how certain things affect your gameplan.

DK10 - Could you give us an idea as to how the long-term aspect of the game looks. The big problem for me with FM09 (and versions before) was that after about 5 seasons the manager AI was terrible and every big team was still playing super old players and never bought good youngsters. I am only in my first season so far but the big clubs have already bought for the future.

Looking at your game do the big teams seem to have been more realistic - are they playing good youngsters that they have continually signed throughout the years and do the newgens look any good?

Thanks!

Try unticking the 'use real players' box when you set up a new game

That just renames players and gives them ridiculous ages.

You'll end up with Real Madrid having a Portuguese forward that is 17 has really good stats and 60 caps (or however many Rolando has).

I've never had a problem with tactics on any version of the game I've played. I've kept a version of 4-4-2 with advanced wingers since 97-98, which has only seen major changes to take into account the slider changeover. I have played at top league lower league and international levels with this formation, only tweaking it for individual players as needed.

I think most people's problems with tactics are that they are using ones that they don't know how to implement porperly in-game. What I usually do in that case is play a game for a season and hone the tactic down to what I want and then start up a proper game.

I also find that people seem to be chopping and changing their tactics a bit too much to suit the circumstances of the next game. IRL the successful teams only change their tactics either during the off season (for major changes), to bed the tactic in (minor changes) or when forced (all wingers injured gfo to 4-3-3 until they are fitr again).

I hope this helps.

I recommend giving this a good read:

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=159310

(Providing you have a spare 10 hrs).

Going forward things look promising.

The good players are good but not FM07 good where stars had 17+ in all their attributes.

There at first glance seems to be a decent mix of good players with proper technical and physical attributes. And of course the superstars that fill both roles.

Tried to sign up a couple of 35yr olds with amazing tech and mental stats but physical stats of 5 and under. So old players decline but mostly physically which is how it is supposed to be.

Good team buy youngsters and not just sure things. I've already seen a few Juventus/Inter/etc kids that were bought for $1-2mill at age 15-17 only to not make it at the age of 21 and be release on a free/offloaded.

I've only put in a few hours setting up my team and getting some frees in. Haven't had too much of a chance to look around. Hopefully I don't get fired and I can try to revamp the team next year.

Sounds like you're having fun again DK10. Good luck with it

I recommend giving this a good read:

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=159310

(Providing you have a spare 10 hrs).

Lol, While I love FM it is a game and I'd love if I could "play" it more focusing more on improving my team and players than tweaking sliders and shouts for 30 minutes every game. I know I know, you get out what you put into it but right now you could take a world class team and have them lose to their u-17 team if you screwed up your tactics enough while that would not happen irl even with me "coaching".

annnd i got a team relegated that was predicted to finish 4th. bleh

That just renames players and gives them ridiculous ages.

You'll end up with Real Madrid having a Portuguese forward that is 17 has really good stats and 60 caps (or however many Rolando has).

Really? Any time I've started a game on FM with that box un-ticked, I get a game filled with completely made-up players of varying ability, nationalities and ages. The staff all just seemed to have their names changed though.

Admittedly, I've yet to try it with FM10 and I'm not arguing with you, I'm asking you (or anyone else) to confirm if this is now the case on the new version? Would be disappointing if so tbh.

annnd i got a team relegated that was predicted to finish 4th. bleh

That's quite an achievement tbf, how on Earth did you manage that?

That's quite an achievement tbf, how on Earth did you manage that?

I don't really know. I tried a few of my own tactics and even downloaded some but it all went to hell fairly fast.

Seemed like I was giving up a penalty a game.

I know I'm whining but it stinks when you can't focus on the development and finding of new players more instead you have to spend your time beating the match engine.

You could certainly have plenty of success with no tactical investment in 2007. I haven't played the later versions enough to comment, but hopefully the backroom advice and tactics wizard will set things on the right track.

@DK10 -

I take it you are managing obscure/lower league teams?

If so I'm not surprised; I recently tried my hand at LLM and was put on a course of anti-depressants.

Yea it was llm. My first ever CM game was on whatever CM came before CM4. I stated with Catanzaro in the Italian C2 not really knowing what to do and eventually managed to get to Serie A. Ever since then I've been trying to play FM that way.

In FM08 I managed to repeat that and go on to win the CL with a team of similar stature. This was mostly done me scouting and buying the future Italy captain FL/ST for about 200k. My chairman sold him over my head for 50ish mill to AC Milan when I was in Serie A even though I did not need it at all. In fact at that point my team was more famous than Milan and he kept saying he would be flattered to move to my team. It made every game against AC that much harder. They had the best 2 Italian attacking players by far and I'd owned them both at one point but had to sell due to the chairman.

Anyway long story short, I don't want to take 60 hours playing a season. I should not need to tell my defenders to defend, my wingers to make runs and for my forwards to get into space. But that seems to be the case, and even then it still doesn't work. Like I said I had a team that was predicted to finish 4th and managed to add a Serie B/A level goalie to the team and managed to get relegated. I love this game series but this is a depressing start.

I guess I could try a game with my powerhouse favorite teams but that is even more expectations to live up to.

I guess I could try a game with my powerhouse favorite teams but that is even more expectations to live up to.

OR you could try something I read on the tactics forum not long ago. Can't remember what the thread is called and I can't find it so I'll try to paraphrase for you. Obviously I'll have to hide this with spoiler tags....

That's just a basic summary, but the guy was clearly on to something. If he (or anyone else) recognises this info could you direct the OP to said thread as I can't find it?

Just a quick tip , take a look on your opponent's previous games and see who have beaten them and how , it works since fm1844

Every year for the past 4-5 years it seems as FM has gotten more and more deep which means for me at least that it gets harder and harder to win.

I think the game is easier now, as the awaygames was insanly hard in 09. Now you can win away games

Lol, While I love FM it is a game and I'd love if I could "play" it more focusing more on improving my team and players than tweaking sliders and shouts for 30 minutes every game. I know I know, you get out what you put into it but right now you could take a world class team and have them lose to their u-17 team if you screwed up your tactics enough while that would not happen irl even with me "coaching".

Not really, look at what happened to Real Madrid. With star players like Raul, benzema, guti, gago etc, they lost 4-0 to a spanish 3rd league team... 3rd league!! their stadium looked like a city park. In football anyone can lose if you mess up tactics and also if players are not motivated. That game ended Alcorcon 4 -0 Real Madrid, funny eh? Same goes for Argentina losing 6-1 to Bolivia and more. Unlike basketball where if you buy Briant, he will score at least 20 points per match for you, in football buying super stars doesnt mean a sure win.

Thing is, everyone says you should have different tactics in the game fot different situations, but I only ever keep one set of my tactics and formation, and im still winning. ok yes, i'll lose a few games during the season, but im winning more than im losing and dont feel the need to change tactics for situations. does anyone else get this?

Thing is, everyone says you should have different tactics in the game fot different situations, but I only ever keep one set of my tactics and formation, and im still winning. ok yes, i'll lose a few games during the season, but im winning more than im losing and dont feel the need to change tactics for situations. does anyone else get this?

Yes, pretty much the same as me mate. I generally keep a 4-4-2 using only minor tweaks if needed. The only time i'll change is if injury forces me to.

I suppose I'll be picking up another team this season and trying all over again.

Try man city with all that cash not even you could get them relegated

Really? Any time I've started a game on FM with that box un-ticked, I get a game filled with completely made-up players of varying ability, nationalities and ages. The staff all just seemed to have their names changed though.

Admittedly, I've yet to try it with FM10 and I'm not arguing with you, I'm asking you (or anyone else) to confirm if this is now the case on the new version? Would be disappointing if so tbh.

Whenever I use it, the players ae all exactly the same, though one or two have a single name changed

I think what I need is a different change of pace possibly. I tend to play in the Italian structure, because of my first love game with Catanzaro.

Italy tends to be very unforgiving and tedious. It's is also well known in the world for being a very hard nosed and defensive minded nation. I don't know if that is truly reflected in the game but maybe that is part of my problem. I'll be first to admit when I look for players my eyes tend to focus on people on the attacking part of the pitch as well as on the physical attributes, especially pace.

I've never played in France, I think I'll try a game there. I also think France has a large number of African nations that are counted as non foreign which would be pretty cool.

i only change my formation, i don't listen to the coaches in the pre match meetings and i keep everything (the sliders and the whole tactics creator - dont use that) as default and rely on players

works for me very well

Hey, DK10, it the player who doesn't feel like he's a tactics genius that the new Tactics Wizard feature is aimed at.

The "Classic" tactics approach, the UI from FM'09 and earlier, was very sensitive to "conflicting" tactical instructions. In other words, it was kind of easy to shoot yourself in the foot without realising it.

The Tactics Wizard focuses on reducing tactics back to simpler concepts .. and guaranteeing that you don't have conflicting instructions.

I've found it much easier to just "pick up and play", I can set out a basic formation, pick out a few stylistic preferences, and have a tactic set up in a few minutes.

The key then becomes adjusting the "Starting Strategy" according to the opposition and match situation.

All-out defense: when trying to nurse a result home in the final ten minutes or so

Counter: to start out on the road against a good team, or an upper division opponent. In second half, when defending a lead, or a draw against a better side.

Standard: good base tactic for the first 60 minutes or so of most "even" matches, even when you're a goal up or down.

Control: the perfect antidote for that team that shuts up shop against you; useful when trailing in the second half. Also useful against a weak team even when you're leading.

All-out attack: when desperate for a goal in the final five to ten minutes.

That's basically the approach I'd take in FM'09, too, but for that I'd actually nurtured and saved five different tactics, which I'd load depending on the situation .. now its as easy as a quick click.

I'm a super control-freak so I haven't yet decided if I'm going to stick with the Tactics Wizard for the long term, but its certainly worked well enough for my first save-game.