NUFC Tactic (Work in Progress)

Hello everyone

I've created a couple of NUFC tactics that are seeing me overachieve in the first season, so I thought I'd share them here. The results are - naturally - quite mixed, but there's some stand-out fixtures which I would have expected to lose and took points from. Most notably, beaten a then-unbeaten Chelsea (they'd had a 15 match unbeaten streak) 3v0 at home. It was deserved, too: 17 shots to 12, 4 clear cut chances to 2.

These tactics use the classic tactics, rather than the tactics creator, which I find to be very limiting. As the title indicates, this is merely a work in progress, but I play the game so slowly that it would be into new year before I finish the season. So, I'm sharing this early in the hope that it might benefit someone.

Now, Newcastle's situation is fairly unique in the FM world. For all they are newly promoted, there are some pretty high expectations to fulfill. Thankfully, the team's reputation is also quite high, so I was going into early games away to Stoke and at home to West Ham as favourites. This means that we can attack a fair bit because the opposition treat us with quite a lot of respect.

Here's a screenshot of the team selection, formation and team settings:

And the results:

And the current table after 17 games:

Ok, as you can see, the default tactic is 442. Currently, Krul is on form but his instructions can be shared with Harper. Taylor and Williamson have developed a pretty good partnership since Taylor came back from injury. If you swap in Coloccini, have him pass mixed, try some through balls and hold the ball up. This is a nod toward him being a bit of a ball-playing defender. The best thing about Coloccini (and Enrique) is their composure (both 16) so they are comfortable with the ball at their feet even when pressed by opposition attackers. Enrique and Simpson are both pacey fullbacks but shouldn't risk going too far forward really, preferring to support the midfield and occasionally get forward enough to ping a cross in from deep. Smith is set up to intercept passes, break up play and distribute the ball forward. He has plenty of options in front of him and should, ideally, pick the simplest one. His pass completion so far is 81% with tackling success rate of 72% and a headers won rate of 61%. He has made no mistakes for me so far and has been the unsung hero of the team - collecting only 3 bookings in 17 starts (in FM10, 'normal' tackling on Alan Smith meant that he was sent off every other game).

Partnering Smith is Joey Barton. Now, Joey is an unpleasant man, definitely, but he is also a talented footballer. His settings aim to have him help Smith out somewhat in the defensive phase, but act as a creator when going forward. He has a 70% pass completion rate, 75% tackle success rate and 6 assists from 14 starts. He is on normal tackling in these tactics but you might want to err on the side of caution and set him to easy to avoid too many cards (he has had one already so far). Wayne Routledge is an odd player - not particularly inspiring when you look at his stats, but he has brilliant acceleration and will work hard enough to make a difference in some games. His game is to get beyond his fullback, either with or without the ball, and to send a cross or perhaps a through ball into the box for the strikers. He also gets amongst the goals on occasion and has 3 goals and 3 assists so far for me, with the assists generally being crosses for Andy Carroll. You might want to set him to hug the touchline so that he receives the ball infield (due to his Cuts Inside PPM) and then stretches the play. On the opposite wing is Hatem Ben Arfa. He is played as a kind of wide trequartista who doesn't contribute too much to defending, but can make all the difference going forward. He offers a lot more intelligence and guile than Jonas, who is almost a replica of Wayne Routledge and usually shares his instructions. I have rotated the Jonas and Ben Arfa throughout the season. Ben Arfa's 8 starts have yielded 2 goals and 2 assists, while has 1 goal and 2 assists in 14 starts. With such an obvious targetman up front in Andy Carroll, it is a shame that Newcastle don't have an equally obvious winger. Someone who receives the ball, beats his man, gets to the byline and crosses accurately to the centre. Given the paucity of transfer funds available, I'll be looking to raid Blackpool for Charlie Adam, Cardiff for Peter Whittingham or Spurs for David Bentley come the Summer.

Anyway, the strike partnership is the trickiest part of this tactic. Andy Carroll is the first name on the teamsheet and plays high up the pitch as an outlet for direct passes from defence or midfield. However, given enough games to find his feet, he can become fairly prolific. He has 11 goals in 16 games for me so far- including a four goal haul against Wigan and a brace against Chelsea, proving he is no flat-track bully. His shooting is often wayward because of his Shoots with Power PPM, his poor technique and his dodgy right foot, but when his shots are on target, they have an excellent chance of going in... Out of 28 shots, 17 have been on target (60%, not atrocious). So, out of 17 shots on target, he has scored 11. Keepers have only saved 6 of his shots! Anyway, Carroll is the easy bit. Partnering him is more difficult. Ameobi's attributes did not inspire me at all so I got Macheda on loan from Man Utd. He hasn't performed at all well so far, but he has only started 2 games with 6 substitute appearances so perhaps a long run in the team may be beneficial for him. Xisco is a decent finisher but he does not offer enough creativity or pace to partner Carroll long term or to justify his poor teamwork and workrate. However, he has scored 2 and created 1 in his 7 starts.

There is an alternative 4411 tactic with Jonas on the left and Ben Arfa supporting Carroll. This has proven useful a few times - away to Sunderland in a notable 3v1 win. I have not used Nolan as he appears to be sulking about being demoted to vice-captain in favour or the irrepressible Smith.

NUFC 442

NUFC 4411

Tips

You should only really need to change three team settings on a game by game basis, as well as in reaction to in-match events. The width, tempo and defensive line sliders are key to almost any tactic. Playing wide will certainly give you space to attack, but it will also give the opposition space, too. I don't generally like to give too much space away on the wings, especially as the EPL is full of tricky wingers, so I try to stay fairly wide. The tactic defaults to the lowest d-line that I have dared to play with this tactic. Closing down settings are fairly high across the board, to put pressure on the opposition rather than let them play their own game. This requires a fairly high line and I have sometimes played as high as 17 at home, depending on the opposition strikers' pace/acceleration. Tempo is a hard slider to get right, too. Too fast and your attacks break down without opposition pressure, too slow and the opposition will catch you in possession and launch a quick counter attack. This is the slider that has the largest range for this tactic. Whereas d-line and width never dip below 11, pulling the tempo down to slow when the opposition is chasing the game often frustrates them and gifts you longer stretches of benign possession, but can also generate the odd goal here and there. When going two goals up, widening the play, pushing up the pitch but playing a slow and patient game is usually enough to see it through.

Warning You will not have more possession than the opposition in this tactic, nor will your pass completion average anything above 65%. This is a functional tactic to try to maximize the strengths of the Newcastle squad. Yes, some of the football is nice to watch, but the key in season one is survival therefore substance over style...

Oddly, I forgot to mention that the tactic was created with this role editor that I made:

FM Role Editor

The file with all of the players' roles in is here:

NUFC Roles (Right-click and select 'save as...')

Don't forget to back up your original tactical templates file (located at [FM install directory]/data/tactics)