What the sliders do - a comparative guide

Millie · January 20, 2007

First of all, if you haven't already done so please read Asmodeus' awesome thread on how to

set up a tactic which requires as few in depth changes as possible - "Slider

Apathy" - http://community.sigames.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1519717/m/3632074782

Then there's the thread that got me experimenting in the first place and got me hooked on

the Rule of Two before later deferring to more of a "Rule of One-and-a-Half" -

Tactical Theorums and Frameworks -

http://community.sigames.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1519717/m/9972005362

Also, take a good hard look at Cleon's thread where he shows how he uses each slider to

affect certain situations, and how he runs his club - The Sheffield United

Project - http://community.sigames.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1519717/m/3862031882

About me - Right, I'm not an authority on Football Manager. In fact, nearly

everything I've learned about the game I have taken from other theory threads then

experimented in the game with the ideas these have generated in my head. On FM06 I won a few

leagues, a few cups but never anything of note. On FM07, even less. However, I never really

play with large teams so this is to be expected. What I can say is that whenever anything

goes wrong I tend to blame myself, which is one of the reasons why I experiment so much with

the sliders. After reading through the Sheffield United Project, a few more pieces in my

rather sketchy jigsaw puzzle fell into place and, through fiddling on "full match" mode over

most of a 38 game season with Aston Villa (amongst all my other hours and hours of playing)

I think I'm finally in a position to explain exactly what each slider does.

This is not definitive - it's what I observe playing the game with the players I have in the

style I play, though most ideas are pretty universal. What I really want is to generate more

discussion. Even if we work out what each slider does, we still need to know how to use it,

right?

1.0 Mentality

We should first kill one myth that is perhaps one of the last that I managed to shake off -

team mentality does not completely override individual mentality. Here, we're

looking at what the team instructions sliders do so we can move away from the finer points

of how each individual setting can make a difference.

We are given three basic clues to what mentality asks of our players. We can attack,

we can defend or we can play somewhere in between (with all-out attack and defend as

our last ditch options). What exactly is "defend" and what is "attack". The answer probably

seems very obvious, but if you don't properly understand the difference then you could be

using the other sliders ineffectuallly.

1.1: A defensive team looks to primarily keep the ball out of their own net.

They will not look to take many risks in their own half, will hang back a little deeper in

normal play, try to put their men behind the ball and generally do what is necessary to

avoid shots on goal. There are implications for this in the way your team will play.

Obviously, the aim is to concede as few goals as possible. But how will this make your

players behave? From my observations, we can expect a team playing defensive mentality to do

the following:

<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Be more prone to hoofing the ball out of defence than look for the passing option

<LI>Look more for sideways and backwards passes when trying to hold possession than go for

penetrative ball forward

<LI>Attempt to get more men behind the ball...

<LI>... And therefore play a little deeper

<LI>Will be more likely to sit in their positions and not close down those on the ball so as

not to be dragged out of shape

Is is also clear, then, that some of our other tools will counteract these effects. Some may

be desirable, others counter productive. Which ones will cause what?

Passing will help us counteract the "hoofing" which may lead to a loss of possession.

Shorter passing may encourage the player to use the options around him, perhaps encouraging

a pass sideways. Or, on the other hand, longer passing may give the player more options,

particularly on the wings where a pass may be less dangerous than to a central player.

Passing will also help to counteract the sideways and backwards balls. Shorter passing may

re-enforce this style of play, perfect for a side in the lead or a quality side looking to

hold possession and tire out the opposition (a la the Manchester United sides of the

mid-1990s). Longer passing on the other hand may encourage more forward balls to help get

attacks moving yet still retain the defensive "shape" required. Linked to this we have the

"try through balls", "run with ball" and "cross ball" options in the individual

instructions, where rarely on each will re-enforce the possession play, wheras often will

encourage more penetration.

Tempo is another important tool. This was another slider that I thought had no

defensive implications, yet I've found it invaluable in holding leads and breaking down

teams playing possession football. A higher tempo encourages the players to find the ball

and do something with it. Therefore the players are likely to close down the opposition more

and perhaps sacrifice a little of their shape, but hopefully rush them into a mistake. A

lower tempo can make it more clear to your players that you want them to hold firm. This

should most obviously be used in conjunction with Closing Down. Then we have the more

evident use of a quicker tempo. Those sideways and backwards balls we talked about can be

encouraged by a slower tempo, or a more cavalier attitude can be sought with a quicker

tempo. Be aware though that a quick tempo is likely to leave a player with fewer options and

less time to play the ball.

Creative freedom - as I will point out later, creative freedom is one I still haven't

got my head fully around, and I usually leave this a little above normal and then set

individuals to either creative or uncreative roles. With a defensive line up, I would say

that creativity isn't a big deal - how creative is throwing your body in front of the

opposition? I think this is up to the individual manager, though maybe having a few forward

players on a higher setting will allow some good counter-attacking football.

Width will be covered in more detail further down the page, but a quick note is

useful. Narrower widths are obviously going to be more beneficial to a defending team as

they can hold a tight middle to stop the team being penetrated - but too narrow and you

leave the wings exposed. You won't need overly much width as you don't need to exploit the

space - the opposition do. If you're playing on the counter, however, you may need to expand

a little to make up for the natural tendency to play narrower in defensive situations.

Defensive line is again something to be covered later in relation to the whole team.

We can safely say a lower defensive line seems to go well with a team sitting back. A higher

one will counteract the natural tendency to fall back when defending.

Timewasting can be covered in far less detail as its uses are primarily an aesthetic

one - do you want to kill a game off or do you desperately need a goal? Defensive

mentalities lend themselves to higher timewasting as the team will be further encouraged to

keep the ball, knock it into the corners and hold it. When the counter-attack ensues, your

players should already be in position. However, I find it is equally likely to encourage the

"hoof" from defence. Like I say, I think this is a matter of choice.

1.2: Now, attacking teams are, in many cases the opposite. The point of an

attacking team is to outscore the opposition. Therefore we need to be as creative as

possible, give ourselves room to play and generally get stuck into the opposition. Our team,

when playing on an attacking setting is therefore likely to:

<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Look for more penetrative balls in an attempt to break down the opposition

<LI>Attempt to run into space to give a passing option, maybe at the expense of positioning

<LI>Move further up the pitch

So, how will our other sliders help us?

Passing works pretty much opposite to how it works for defensive teams. Longer

passing will encourage even more balls forward, again re-enforcing this instruction.

However, better quality teams may need to reduce their passing to encourage possession play

and therefore reducing the "killer balls" to those which have a high percentage of working.

Longer passing should give you more chances, though these are likely to be rushed and

therefore off target. It's also more likely that you'll give the opposition the ball.

Shorter passing will allow the team to systematically break down the opposition.

Tempo is linked similarly. Slower tempos will help tone down the desire to move

forward at all possible times, whereas a quicker one will encourage a more open game. A

slower tempo and shorter passing will be more defensively sound, but will create fewer (but

better quality) shots on goal.

Creative freedom should be used pretty much the opposite to when in defence. Not too

much (you'll end up with no shape at all), but creativity shouldn't be stifled either. We

need to break them down, and we won't do that with monotonous balls over the top.

Width is on the same lines. The team are playing with more natural width, so reduce

it to tighten the defence, widen to utilise even more space.

Defensive line - you get the picture. The team are naturally playing further up the

pitch. Force them back by reducing this, encourage them forward by increasing it.

There really is nothing more to say about timewasting.

A mixed team will obviously need to use elements of both attacking and defensive slider

settings and common sense should dictate what you choose to use. We've covered the links

between each of the sliders above in good detail, so now we really only need to decide what

the other sliders do and what their effects are on their brothers. Common sense should now

prevail, and I can save my keyboard from the hammering it's getting!

2.0 Passing

We have short a bit of a mixed bag, direct and long. Each is

pretty self explanitory. Short will knock the ball around to nearby teammates, direct will

look for players further up the field, and long will send speculative balls towards the

rough direction of John Fashanu. All this is explained in the manual - but what about the

affects on the team?

2.1: Short

A mentality of 1 is, as some of the gurus have noted here, one touch passing. The other

"short" options give us a progressively longer time on the ball and progressively longer

passing options available. Short passing has its advantages - play is usually quick and

played around to people close by, encouraging the team to keep possession and stretching the

opposition who have to chase the ball all over the place. However, if players are too far

apart or all the closeby players are tightly marked then the player has no option but to

risk running with it or hoofing it away. Therefore short passing needs to make sure it

always has options available as well as the obvious skills of reasonable ball control and

passing accuracy. Then there's the problem of the soggy pitch. Short passing will:

<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Encourage the team to keep possession

<LI>Keep the ball on the deck

<LI>Prerserve the condition of your players

Now, clearly passing and tempo are linked. A quicker tempo will move the ball around

faster, but also make the players rush. Chances are that with a short passing game players

will panic and kick the ball away. A bit counter productive. Slower tempo will get the

players to take their time and pick the right pass. A higher defensive line may be

required to keep the team closer together, and ditto with the width, but be aware

that if you're trying to break down the opposition this could be counter productive and you

may be better off giving the passing a couple more clicks to the right if things aren't

going well. Creative freedom will allow the team to break from monotonous triangles

and break down the opposition, but could equally lead to "hollywood balls" to nowhere.

Finally timewasting may emphasise to the team that you just want to keep possession

and couldn't care less if you broke out of your own half providing the opposition don't get

the ball. Or, conversely, you may decide you want to quickly pass the ball around the

opposition and get on goal as quickly as possible.

2.2 Direct and Long

This system is by its very nature quick, penetrative and attacking. Very potent when used on

the counter attack, it hits the opposition before they have chance to fully assemble their

defence. More Bolton Wanderers than Bologna. However, it also reduces the time the team have

on the ball, and a possession rating of 45% may actually be quite good. We all know, of

course, that this doesn't matter if you can score 4 while the opposition plays pretty

on-the-deck stuff but can't get into the final third. Direct football gives your team more

options, but they will almost always choose to go to the forward players, i.e. wingers,

attacking midfielders and strikers, and if the opposition can adequately mark them or are

strong and good in the air then this system could just be giving the ball away. There is

debate as to whether this system is better for lower league sides because it at least makes

sure the team give the ball away in the opposition's half or whether short is better because

it requires less skill to pass a ball over 5 yards than over 50. Personally, having watched

League 2 a few times this year I'd go for direct or long, but this is personal preference

based solely on my footballing background. Teams in England who aren't very skillful tend to

go for this approach. Direct football then. It will:

<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Look for attacking players at every available opportunity

<LI>Have a high amount of balls in the air

<LI>Quickly move from the defence to the attack, good for counter attacking football

<LI>Reduce possession, but increase the likely hood of getting shots on goal

Again, tempo is linked. A quick tempo is implicit by the nature of the longer ball.

Can you really hit a 40 yard pass slowly? I suppose you could try it to keep the ball on the

deck and at the back and wait for the killer opportunity to arise, but then why not use

short passing and counter attack with more "try through balls" selected? Creative

freedom isn't as necessary in this system as the short game, but if you have a player

who plays most of the forward balls he could do with a bit of freedom to choose his passes.

A deep defensive line would encourage the opposition on to you to make the direct or

long ball game more effective as the other team will be more out of position. Also good if

used in conjunction with the counter attack. However, a higher line may help to negate some

of the adverse affects of the direct system by encouraging at least a few build up passes

first as the play will be squeezed more. Width is something you can choose. Wider

witdth to give more attacking options, particularly on the wings? Narrower to deal with the

inevitable counter attack from the opposition and encourage more balls over the top to a

target man striker? This would, I feel, depend on the situation and your style of play.

For the long ball, pretty much the same as direct, only emphasise everything.

3.0 Tempo

Tempo serves two functions as far as I can tell. Primarily I believe it affects the pace of

passing and how quickly the team should get from one end of the pitch to the other and how

vital it is to shoot at every available opportunity. However, it also can serve as a

defensive aid, making your players more concerned with regaining possession. Obviously the

advantages and disadvantages stick out like a soree thumb - high tempo leaves the team more

out of shape and creates rushed attacks; low tempo keeps the team tight and patient, only

attacking when there is a good chance of success.

The uses of tempo have been discussed above, though it's probably most heavily linked to

passing. As a personal preference, I try to never have more than a three-notch gap between

my passing and tempo as I see a quick-short passing game or a slow-long passing game

completely contradictary. If you want to play a game like Arsenal (slow build up, but

explosive counter attacking), check the counter-attack box. This would be far more

advisable than trying to play short passing with a fast tempo as this would make the players

dive in for challenges all over the place and leave your men out of position. Best to soak

up the pressure then explode. As for creative freedom and defensive line I

would base this more on your mentality and passing style. The rest should fall into

place. However, it's safe to say that as a slow tempo implies short passing you're better

off playing a style which keeps players closer together than spredding them far apart. See

passing and mentality.

4.0 Creative Freedom

Now I tend to keep creative freedom reasonably central and then change it for each

individual, which isn't really the discussion here. However, as a rule of thumb I would keep

this pretty neutral. Cleon has mentioned that he finds his players get stilted and confused

with too low creative freedom, whilst it's plainly obvious that too much will result in a

free-for-all and not much quality team play. There's plenty in other threads about the

merits of low CF on centre backs, high CF on playmakers etc. Again, base this on individual

players and personal preference. I would go further, but as we're only discussing

team instructions, I would check back over the passing and mentality

sections for a few ideas.

5.0 Width

Three choices here - wide, narrow and normal. Wider play exploits the

space of the wings, spreads out your players and therefore should leave more of your players

in space to receive the ball and do something with it. Conversely, narrower play will keep

the team tight and make sure that the opposition are forced wide from where it is virtually

impossible to score (directly, obviously, but then they might be able to cross the ball and

cause no end of damage). As a rule of thumb, find a "natural" width for your team. A width

that allows some attacking room but will also be defensively tight. Then widen it to attack

and get at a weaker opposition, tighten it to hold the defence together.

Width can have an effect on passing as very short passing requires players to be

quite close together. To play a wider width you may need to increase passing by a couple of

notches just to make sure players have enough options. And, as we've discussed, because this

is related to passing you may need to check tempo as well. A quick wide game against

a better team may lead the team to be contracted on the defence then burst wide on the

attack meaning players will get very tired very quickly. Width is also linked to

defensive line, the "height" of the team if we are to look at the pitch as a tactical

oblong (which it is). Narrow width and deep defensive line is fine to keep the box filled

with men, but if playing an attacking mentality there will be lots of space inbetween

the midfield and the defence. Wide width, low defensive line and attacking mentality may be

useful to draw out a team who refuses to attack, but it leaves massive holes. Think about

this when setting the width - what is the tradeoff between space for attacking and leaving a

vacuum for the opposition to exploit?

6.0 Defensive Line

As I say, the y axis to width's x. Defensive line can be used as a spacing

tool like width, or as a defensive tool. Deep defensive lines are good for

counter-attacking football as they draw the opposition in. They're also great for stopping

the opposition's pacy forwards getting in behind you. However, if player and team

mentalities are not closely spaced together it can leave the team with massive gaps between

its midfield line and defensive line. High defensive lines can squeeze the play and

give the opposition little room to move (particulalry if utilised with a narrow

width) but leave the team vulnerable to the direct/long ball over the top. Tactical

Theorums and Frameworks usually advises the defensive line to be on a "natural" setting of

the same mentality as the most attacking midfielder so as to keep the gaps as narrow as

possible while allowing the team space to breath. From this position you can go up or down

based on the demands of the game, but stray too far and expect problems. Needless to say, if

you wish to move quickly from a deep defense to the attack you'll need longer passing

than usual, while a high line may allow you to play a shorter game as players should be

available for one another.

7.0 Timewasting

Timewasting is a funny old game, and I would never set off with this in mind. Even if I were

playing Chelsea with Chester I would not go for a high timewasting setting from the off. Nor

would I go for a low one if the roles were reversed. A neutral setting seems to work for me.

With the slider dead on the centre, the team will play quicker when behind and be more prone

to hold up the ball when ahead. They seem to do this naturally to what my natural preference

would have been anyway. So I never change it.

If you were to change it, then I think it's fairly logical. Quick tempo does not lend

itself to more timewasting, unless you wish to negate some of its effects by artificially

forcing it down by using timewasting. Switch this round for slow tempo games. Slow tempo,

low timewasting. Rush, but don't rush? Quite contradictary. I steer well clear of this

debate usually.

8.0 Conclusions

We can see, then, how the sliders are inter-related. We can either emphasise certain effects

by using the sliders in harmony, or try and tame some of their deficiencies by using

complimentary instructions. For example: attacking, slow tempo - "I want you to go for goal,

but don't rush things and make a mess of it". Or how about slow tempo, defensive - "I

definitely don't want you to rush forward. Take your time. Just don't concede!"

I will, perhaps later, draw up some sample instructions which would show some obviously

contradictary instructions and some that perhaps work more in harmony. However, from this

rough guide it should be fairly obvious how one affects the other.

My starting point is always mentality, as shown by the emphasis on it in this guide.

Then as we go through the list, passing is next important for me in deciding my style

of play. This goes hand in hand with tempo, so there's two birds with one stone. Then

I set my shape with width and defensive line. These decisions can be based on

my opposition (do I need to counter-attack this team, or can I just go for it), the weather

(I can't play along the ground on a bog), my team (my tall striker is injured, need to play

to feet) or a combination of all of them. Cleon's thread will show how once this has been

acheived, very few changes are needed game-to-game.

It's long, I know, but I hope it helps some people. I feel that sometimes the settings seem

obvious, but it's not until it's written down that you really understand the relationship

between each slider. Writing this made it clearer in my head, and I hope you get the same

from reading it. More importantly, I hope this can be practically applied to your games.

Mille - 20 - i - 07

Millie · January 20, 2007