My Winning Tactic

Hey guys, I'm relatively new to this forum but thought i'd post my tactic in the same way as NTFC and see what sort of feedback I get.

I started a game with St. Johnstone in the scottish D1 and have now won 6 spl titles in a row plus 2 champions league trophies and one uefa cup. I got promoted playing standard 4-4-2 but was struggling a bit in the spl in my 1st season until I changed to my current tactic which has knocked the old firm of the top!

The formation is 3-5-2

Emphasis - Normal

Passing - Short

Tackling - Normal

Pressing - Yes

Offside trap - No

Counter Attack - No

Men Behind the Ball - No

I also don't play with a playmaker.

Player instructions

Passing - All set to team

Tackling all set to team except 3 centre midfielders who are set to HARD.

Pressing all set to yes except the back 3 defenders and the goalkeeper.

Pass to - Everyone set to R/L/C

Set pieces - haven't changed

Free role - Both wide player (ML and MR) set to yes and everyone else No.

Forward runs all no except wide men and the middle man of the 3 central midfielders and one of the strikers

Run with ball - All no except wide men, middle of the 3 central midfielders and one of the strikers

Hold up ball - All set to NO

Long Shots - All set to No except all 3 central midfielders and the striker who is set to run with ball.

Through Balls - All set to NO

Cross Ball - All set to NO

Marking - Similar to NTFC, all set to man marking except goalkeeper, the middle of the 3 defenders and the middle of the 3 midfielders.

This tactic relies heavily on the middle man of the 3 midfielders, in my game the guy I have there has scored over 40 goals in every season and often scores four or five in single games. The key stats to look for in this role are shooting, dribbling, passing, tackling and movement and he will score loads of goals.

Obviously players like Totti, Lampard, etc are good but there is a guy you can get cheap really early called Sebastien Zuniga who you can get cheap as chips and at age 15 will give you years of service.

I have tested the tactic with Roam in Serie A alos and won Serie A and the UEFA cup in the first season so I am thikning it's a decent tactic, would be nice to here if anyone else tries it though.

Hey guys, I'm relatively new to this forum but thought i'd post my tactic in the same way as NTFC and see what sort of feedback I get.

I started a game with St. Johnstone in the scottish D1 and have now won 6 spl titles in a row plus 2 champions league trophies and one uefa cup. I got promoted playing standard 4-4-2 but was struggling a bit in the spl in my 1st season until I changed to my current tactic which has knocked the old firm of the top!

The formation is 3-5-2

Emphasis - Normal

Passing - Short

Tackling - Normal

Pressing - Yes

Offside trap - No

Counter Attack - No

Men Behind the Ball - No

I also don't play with a playmaker.

Player instructions

Passing - All set to team

Tackling all set to team except 3 centre midfielders who are set to HARD.

Pressing all set to yes except the back 3 defenders and the goalkeeper.

Pass to - Everyone set to R/L/C

Set pieces - haven't changed

Free role - Both wide player (ML and MR) set to yes and everyone else No.

Forward runs all no except wide men and the middle man of the 3 central midfielders and one of the strikers

Run with ball - All no except wide men, middle of the 3 central midfielders and one of the strikers

Hold up ball - All set to NO

Long Shots - All set to No except all 3 central midfielders and the striker who is set to run with ball.

Through Balls - All set to NO

Cross Ball - All set to NO

Marking - Similar to NTFC, all set to man marking except goalkeeper, the middle of the 3 defenders and the middle of the 3 midfielders.

This tactic relies heavily on the middle man of the 3 midfielders, in my game the guy I have there has scored over 40 goals in every season and often scores four or five in single games. The key stats to look for in this role are shooting, dribbling, passing, tackling and movement and he will score loads of goals.

Obviously players like Totti, Lampard, etc are good but there is a guy you can get cheap really early called Sebastien Zuniga who you can get cheap as chips and at age 15 will give you years of service.

I have tested the tactic with Roam in Serie A alos and won Serie A and the UEFA cup in the first season so I am thikning it's a decent tactic, would be nice to here if anyone else tries it though.

I’ll try this on the way home from work. My arsenal team has dramatically fallen off the pace in 07/08, 13 points behind Chelsea now, with CL football guaranteed with 7 games to go. Might as well try something new, see if it works. I think I’ve got the players to pull it off.

What type of players do you have either side of the CM?

I always have more defensive players either side of the central midfielder, it help if they can shoot but more defensive stats are important.

what team dose zunga play for?

Has anyone else tried this yet?

I'm in my fourth season with Dortmund and have begun to lose the plot after winning three league titles and the German cup once. CL is jinxed against me as usual(never won),and in the first three years when all players were getting great match ratings and I was winning, my CB's were always getting 5/6's and the odd 7. Anyone else noticed this CB phenomenon?

Anyway I have tried to switch to NTFC's tactic, and to be honest, it doesn't work, so I'm looking for another and any feedback on this one would be appreciated. Very nervous about changing to man marking.

Its not Zunga, it's Zuniga and I'm not sure who he plays for, 8 or 9 seasons in and he plays for arsenal and is worth 20 million though, he's 15 and at some chilean team i think, he's usually available on loan at the start so he should be easy to find, i have signed him in season one for roma and he has taken totti's place in my team already!

Rosicky you should try this tactic, i also tried ntfc's tactic and i think it worked well in lower divisions but wasn't working for me either in the top division, i have tried this tactic on 3 or 4 different games now and it always works well for me, i just finished an spl season played 38 won 36 drawn 2 and got the champ league final with st johnstone. I like man marking and pressing, reckon they work well in the game.

Ok dude I'll give it a go and let you know how I get on....I have nowt to lose this season anyway!

It's official. This tactic works, a treat.

Won everything with it, hammered everyone with it. Now unlocked Sugar Daddy feature.

Thanks Rosicky, glad it's not just me. I have further tweaked my game with a new training regime.

Key is to have tactical and motivation up to intensive for all players and have attacking at intensive for attacking players and defensive up to intensive for defensive players. I have fitness set to moderate for everyone as I have usually got a large squad.

I just won my third champions league in 4 years with Go Ahead Eagles in Holland despite consistently selling all my best players at the end of each season.

Juts out of interest Rosicky...How many goals did your central midfielder score? I have a guy called Wiljan Pluim who has scored 60+ three years running!!

i'll give this ago. tried one of the 4-3-3 tactic mentioned on here and a couple of my own (i had a 4-5-1 tactic working well such that i had a 22 game unbeaten start to the premiership, but it was only 10 wins and 12 draws :S worked wonders for my defense but screwed up my attack), but in 5 seasons with manchester united have only finished 4,3,3,5,4 in the premiership with a few cups. need something special to give me that extra bit of a jump, and i hope its this

inital signs are good; lost to chelsea and liverpool 1-0 (but the games where a lot closer than normal), 4-2 & 2-1 vs. paris, 6-0 vs nantes (biggest win in 5+abit seasons, it must be doing something ) and wins vs. fulham and arsenal.

odd thing is, i score most the goals in the first 30mins using this, and then am left hanging on in the final 20mins while the opposition really have a go at me after getting a goal or two for themselves... anyway... il be back with end of an end of season report sometime...

Top tactic mate... Playing as Spurs and started using it with 4 games of 1st season to play. Was sitting 5th using my own 4-4-2 tactic and think i would have finished there but your tactic has transformed my side. Lost first game away to Bolton but won remaining three. Now unbeaten 5 games into season 2..... Top stuff !

only 4th in the premiership; so no improvement there for me. but did win the champions league had 5-0 home wins over liverpool and bayern munich in the quaters and semis so cant be all that bad.

i didn't get the 40+ goals midfielder tho. tried several of my players, even a forward, there and nothing clicked.

but have a new guy in now for the next season, hes good in the areas you said, but i dont hold much hope hes suddenly going to start scoring tons where others werent.

Have some faith, the guy I have ion the position in my Go Ahead Eagles team has these stats:

Crossing 15

Dribbling 20

Heading 2

Passing 20

Shooting 20

Tackling 18

Technique 13

Aggression 15

Creativity 20

Decisions 17

Leadership 8

Movement 20

Positioning 19

Teamwork 13

Pace 7

Stamina 17

Strength 8

Average ratings for 3 seasons since I bought him have been 8.22, 8.33 and 8.44 and he has scored 65, 77 and 54 with 2 world player of the year awards.

If you get a guy in form in this position the tactic is almost perfect.

I bought that Zuniga character, but he was third choice after Rosicky and Inostroza for the attacking central midfielder. Between them they must have got about 60 goals, but on their own Rosicky was top with 27. I scored about 120 goals in the last season, it was ridiculous but fun (unbeaten in the league). I switch my team a bit but I would say my top side is:

Weidenfeller GK

Matthiu Ferreira DC

Metzelder DC

Jahn DC (bit of homegrown talent in there)

Mike Zonneveld ML

Inostroza MC

Rosicky MC

Kehl MC

Joe Cole MR

Kerlon SC

Pazzini SC

Subs

V Degre (GK)

Iaquinta

Cicinho

Zuniga

Kruska

I Akin or E Smolarek

If I get chance I'll have a crack at the training - you had much luck with it Jambo?

As much luck as you can have....I have won 8 Dutch titles in a row with Go Ahead Eagles (start with a crap team and no money in the 1st division) and I have now won 5 champions leagues in a row (6 out of the last 7).

One thing I would say is that after about 6 or 7 years of dominating my tactics stopped working so well for some reason and I had a terrible run. I tried another nfew tactics and eventually went for taking the wide men free roles away and playing more solid defensive players there, didn't score as many goals but have once again won everything!

I'm going to start a new game though after I win 10 league titles in a row hopefully.

Come on lad surely we've got to play the full 30 seasons and see what the best score is?

In fact will we be the first to start the

"what's your best score after the full 30 seasons" thread?

Sounds like a plan. I finished mt ten in a row last night so I have now done 14 seasons in my Go Ahead Eagles game, 6 champions leagues in a row now also.

I reckon we shouls start that thread for sure...

This tactic is very good indeed. I'm playing with Leicester and before I used this tactic I finished 8th, 7th, and 10th in the Premeirship (having got Leicester promoted in my 1st season and finished FA Cup runners up).

I started using this tactic in my 5th season and managed to stay in the top 2 for a few months of the season, before eventually finishing 5th (well ahead of 6th place and not too far behind the top 4). I also won the FA Cup - my first cup win on FM Handheld!

So it's a big thumbs-up from me - although the only slight criticism I have is that I didn't get the 40 goal midfielder (I play Ore in that role but he did get over 20 goals), and that my strikers were pretty rubbish in the number of goals they scored. Also, I found it difficult at times to break down the opposition at home when they simply came to defend - I ending up drawing too many games like this.

Overall though I was very pleased with the results.

The key to getting the massive scoring midfield is to have a guy with great stats like the ones I said in a previous post.

I have also tried Pablo Ore in the role but he didn't work too well for me. Strikers not scoring is also pretty common for me, only once in ten seasons in my Go Ahead Eagles game did I have a striker scoring over 30 goals and I agree that this is pretty strange but I think it's because the midfielders score so many with long shots that the strikers don't get enough chances.

Despite not scoring loadfs of goals they usually still get good average ratings of over 7.50 for me and I think with assists and everything taken into account the strikers do contribute enough without scoring loads of goals.

Marking - Similar to NTFC, all set to man marking except goalkeeper, the middle of the 3 defenders and the middle of the 3 midfielders.

Do you set the midfielder and the defender to zonal or no marking at all?

Good point pyscho3 - I wasn't sure either. I set the middle midfielder and middle defender to zonal, but I'm not sure exactly what Jambo_Dave meant.

I usually have them set to zonal but there are exceptions. IE playing against 3 strikers I have all defenders set to man marking, it doesn't actually make that much difference as I have often had the whole team set to man marking. The main reason why I don't have the centre midfielder set to man marking is that the player in this position gets pretty tired quickly and setting to zonal or even no marking lets him keep up the pace for a bit longer.

I've just finished my 2nd season using this tactic and ended up with exactly the same points total and exactly the same number of wins, draws, and defeats.

I'm slightly disappointed that I didn't do better, I drew 8 and lost 8 out of the 38 league games, finishing with 74 points (again) and finishing 4th - one place higher than last season. My home form was poor - 7th overall (losing 4 and drawing 4).

I also failed to win a trophy this season - being runners up in the League Cup after losing on penalties to Chelsea (grrr) and then losing on penalties to Liverpool in the FA Cup Semi.

I have got some great players - Felipe, Brandao and Cabral in defence; Pablo Ore, Fernando Rogriguez, Ladesma, Vecchio in midfield; and Pablo Vitti up front. I don't know how else I can improve with this tactic, I've followed the instructions but it seems I've hit a glass ceiling.

i'm chester in the premiership and i was struggling in 16th at the time, but i tried ur tactic and i immediately hammered liverpool 3-0, knocked arsenal out the league cup with a 3-0 win and then went on to drew with everton 1-1, im now sitting in 14th place and the season looks good, cheers for the tactic Jambo_Dave

I am playing as Barcelona, and after a relatively disappointing 2026/2027 season i decided to try this tactic and in the first 3 games i had i played at home i won 4-0, 4-0 and 4-1. GREAT.

But then i played 2 away games and lost 0-3 and 0-2. BOO.

Has anyone else had a similar experience that can offer any advice?

Thanks in Advance.

p.s. as my centre midfield player i use Iker Carrasco who has come up through my academy and is now worth £24.5m and he has great stats, or Diogo Correia who i just signed on a FREE from Sao Paulo.

Just finished my first season using this tactic.

League: 1st

Champs Lge: 2nd round

Spanish Cup: Q.Final

Spanish Super Cup: Winner.

Leicesterfan...

I had a couple of seasons where I wasn't doing that well before I started dominating.

One thing you could try is changing your training so that every player is on intense motivation and intense tactics.

After I changed to intense tactics training I never looked back.

Jambo_Dave - In my first season using this tactic I changed my training methods so that every regime was intense motivation and intense tactics. However, after a while a lot of my players started getting injured in training, and I think it may have been to do with the intense motivation (but I'm not certain).

Since then, I've taken off the intense motivation but kept intense tactics, and it seems I'm getting less injuries in training. It may be a coincident but I'm not sure.

just finished my first season in spl with gretna, which i won, but only after reading your post, i looked for a good central mc, and found one called, gilles yapi yapo from lens,i got him on a free at the start of the 2007/08/season and he hit 55goals in 38 starts, ave 8.05, he often hit 3 or 4 per game. this reminded me of a simmular tactic years ago called diablo, you got the same sort of stats and it was the same mc doing the damage. i dont know if it was just the player or the tactic, because i tried the old 4-1-3-2 tactic, and set up the middle mc, exactly as in your tactic, it didn't have the same effect. i'm going to try your tactic out on my saved games with carlisle and newcastle to see if i have the same sucsess, thanks for the great tactic.

which is the training that improves teamwork?

from language i assumed it is tactics but i see that the value is a mental attribute so im not sure if its motivation.

I'm not really sure if teamwork can really be improved. I think guys may just be team players or not, maybe the sports interactive guys could help with this one?

Amazing! Bought the game yesterday, started playing today. After five matches I had one draw and four losses. Changed to your tactic and won 4-0 in the first game after, even in an away-match! Amazing!

Hi Jambo_Dave,

Thank you for the tactic, I statred using it with Go Ahead eagles but I am leaking Goals badly. Any advice on tighting the defence or some decent Defenders to look out for that suit your tactic would be welcomed.

Many Thanks

Monkster

Monkster,

I think I would look at the defensive midfielders more than the defenders, because this tactic scores so many goals I think the defenders you are never going to keep clean sheets every week, I often win games 7-2 or 6-3 etc but i find that when I have dmc's playing either side of the central attacking midfielders who can get average ratings close to 7.5 with high tackling and positioning you will do much better.

Interesting that you are go ahead eagles, let me know how you get on, it took me 5 seasons to win the premier division as Go Ahead but I have now won 14 in a row with 8 champions cups.

Good luck with the tactic mate.

hmmmmmm that might be why, I am playing Ore and Lula either side of Zuniga at the moment. Doh!

Monkster

Hi Just satarted using this for my feyenord team and we havent lost a game yet. Dirk van Kuyt Is killing the league and so is salemou (spelling). he is my Center attacking mid and he is amazing. Only 1 goal let in after 9 games. Thanx J_D

btw the reason why some of you guys can't find jambo's sebastian zuniga is because he got a alternative letter in both his names. just search for sebas and u can see him in team Cobreloa

A progress report:

I finished my third season using this tactic with Leicester - I ended up second in the Premiership (with 83 points, bloody Arsenal romped to the title with 90 points) but I managed to win the Champions League by beating Liverpool.

This tactic is excellent, I just need to improve my home form to win the league. I always end up drawing too many games at home whenever the opposition come to defend, particularly the likes of Everton, Bolton, Man City, Derby etc.

I have been experimenting a little with slight variations of this tactic and I think the best way to break teams down who come to defend is to change to direct passing and attacking style. In my Go Ahead Eagles game I could never beat NAC BReda but changed to direct and attacking and absoloutely blew them away 7-0 first time we played.

In general stick to short passing and normal but try this against teams you find hard to break down at home, I wouldn't advise using this away unless you are losing or you are drawing and need the 3 points

Hi, just tried with attacking as mentallity and direct as passing worked beautifully beat roma with feyenord 4-0.

Be careful when you use direct and attacking though, as I said in my last post it's good when you are trying to break teams down and it's ok if at home and you get an early goal but I have had a few disastrous results (3-0 away loss to man u in the champions cup semi after beating them 4-1 at home and going out away goals)

Normal and short passing is definitely more reliable in most games.

Just like to say this tactic is the dogs doo dars I used to use the 442 featured on here, got to the premiership with Grays with it but was stuck in a rut.

change to Jambo_ tactic and boo boom! league title in the bage 2 years in a row made most other cup finals winning the majority of them!

cheers

fella

Jambo

Just to say, tnxs.

Tried all the tactics on this web site for my Nottinghame Forest side. 4-3-3, 4-4-2, and ur 3-5-2.

Have to say that ur tatics seems to work the finest in the Prem. As long as u got reasonable gud players.

The other tatics, i think, u need very gud players to use if effectively, otherwise u end up drawing games and losing games.

BTW, who is the best striker and scores most gols ???

Finally, I Can't wait until the World Cup Starts today !!! GO GO GO Brazillllllll !!!!!!

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jambo_Dave:

I have been experimenting a little with slight variations of this tactic and I think the best way to break teams down who come to defend is to change to direct passing and attacking style. In my Go Ahead Eagles game I could never beat NAC BReda but changed to direct and attacking and absoloutely blew them away 7-0 first time we played.

In general stick to short passing and normal but try this against teams you find hard to break down at home, I wouldn't advise using this away unless you are losing or you are drawing and need the 3 points </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hey Jambo, that attacking mentality combined with direct passing just worked a treat.

I was 2-0 down at Middlesbrough (their first 2 shots on goal resulted in 2 goals!) after 25 minutes and I couldn't see a way back. I immediately changed the team instructions as per your advice and I ended up winning 3-2.

Excellent work Jambo_Dave!

I strongly reccommend this tactic. Before i used it i was struggling in 13th place in the prem. I am now 2nd in the league and just won the uefa cup twice in a row. I was Bolton by the way.

I am very impressed with this tactic.

ntfc's tactic got Cambridge out of the conference and we were struggling manfully until I tried this tactic. my central MC has already scored 45 goals this season and the January transfer window is just opening!

Cannot recommend enough!