Matts TTF 4-4-2 Set For FM2011 {Real Men Use Classic Tactics}

I have perfected what i believe to be a solid set of three 4-4-2 tactics, that will see you play lovely football and win lots of games.

Attack - Ideal for games where you are clear favourites and the opposition is trying to park the bus. Attack uses a fast tempo and swift direct passing with lots of off the ball movement.

Normal - Ideal for all close odds matches.

Defend - Ideal for games where you are considered under dogs and expect to lose the battle for possession but feel you can counter attack when the opportunity arrises.

The defence is setup using a stopper/cover system. Its quite common for the stopper to get anywhere from 8-15 interceptions per match, this will result in your stopper picking up very high match ratings. As per usual your stopper needs to be aggressive, whilst your cover needs to be quick with good anticipation.

The Midfield, and striker partnerships are also setup as a stopper cover system. What this does is offer solidity throughout the whole team, and results in a lot of tackles and interceptions in the middle of the pitch.

The left DC is the cover, the right DC the stopper.

The right MC will generally sit back and build play rarely venturing from his position. The left MC is the playmaker, and will encouraged to play through balls and run with the ball to find space for a team mate.

The left FC will hold up the ball, and link play between midfield and attack. He will stick to his position more often than not and look to build play. The right SC is the typical quick striker with good dribbling and finishing attributes. Expect a lot of goals to be scored by this player.

I have left free kicks, corners and throw ins untouched so people can tweak them to suit their needs. I seem to be scoring a few with the default instructions.

I don't use any opposition instructions, i give all team talks and press conferences myself.

I move match preperation slider on its highest setting until the formations (thats all of them, Attack, Normal and Defend) is at fluid in every area. Then i move match preperation down to very low - 10% so my players can flourish on training.

If i start a game using the attack or normal tactics, and im winning 2-0 come the 70th minute, i will normally switch to defend to rest tired legs a bit (less closing down, off the ball movement).

Right, i think ive covered everything. If ive missed something out, please let me know.

Whoever said 4-4-2 doesn't work was lying.

Feedback welcome and appreciated. If you find a way to improve my tactic, please share with us all.

Long live the people that work long and hard creating tactics from scratch using the 'classic slider' method.

Matts 442 V3 Added

Change List

Increased closing down on mifielders and forwards by 1 notch on defensive and normal.

Added a left and right formation for each of the three tactics. You can now have your cover as DCL or DCR, just pick Defend Left Or Defend Right etc.

Tweaked passing slightly.

Tweaked deep lying forward instructions. On all three tactics he will now be allowed to roam from his position in order to get him more involved and earn better ratings. However his creative freedom, run from deep, run with the ball all remain balanced as his main job is to link midfield and attack.

Every team in the game plays with either a poacher, or an advanced forward. They also always play with a deep lying forward or a target man. If you see your defence getting ripped apart by long balls, or you see their poacher playing on the shoulder of your stopper you need to switch to the RIGHT tactic instead of left.

This will ensure your COVER is marking their POACHER. You need to be able to read the match engine and see whats happening. I hope you can do this. Most of the time it seems obvious by looking at player stats, but this is not always the case, for example Craig Mackail Smith from Peterborough (very quick) often plays as the deep lying forward in the game. So you would want your stopper covering him.

The reason i know all this...

A few days ago i encountered a bug, which i have not been able to replicate since. But i could see every teams mentality settings. It really gave me an insight into how the cpu sets up, and it also made me realise why the stopper cover system was invented.

Screens

Download Links

Matts TTF 4-4-2 Set Version 3

http://www.sendspace.com/file/qh7afw

OR

http://rapidshare.com/files/453287531/Matt442V3.rar

Video Highlights Of Normal And Defend Versions

Some video highlights of one of my early games after i won promotion to the championship. Im expected to get relegated, my squad is the weakest in the league. I was using normal left and right in this game. I had to switch between left and right several times in the second half, as leicester kept changing their forwards around. I monitored the leicvester formation widget, and my team shut them down superbly. Darius Vassel couldnt get a look in, nor could that big lump of meat howard. Also look at the rating my deep lying forward gets, and look how he creates goals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHD8kf7fGtc

This was a home game in which i was massive underdogs. I went with defensive the whole game. They had 20 shots on target, 16 long shots 0 clear cut chances. I had 6 shots the whole game, 4 clear cut chances and scored two goals. Final score 2-1. My keeper made a blunder at the end and allowed them a cheap goal which was a shame.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp_u5x6oWSw

it's on try hope it works mate

a very good opening post there.

could you put a lull list up as i would like o know what attributes you would need for each position.

a very good opening post there.

could you put a lull list up as i would like o know what attributes you would need for each position.

Sure. Tbh i dont have a full team of ideal players, but as i progress i hope to get this.

They key positions are the DC left, the cover. He will need good acceleration, and anticipation so he can sweep up loose balls.

The DC right, the stopper will need to be aggressive, and be a good tackler of the ball, work rate would help too id imagine.

The MC left cover would also need anticipation, tackling, positioning.

The MC right playmaker would need good passing, creativity, dribbling, first touch, off the ball and technique.

The FC left cover would need to be strong, tall and good at heading the ball. Passing and creativity would be a nice bonus.

The SC right would need to have, acceleration, pace, finishing, anticipation dribbling, off the ball, composure and first touch.

The ML/MR combo just need to be decent players. Ideal to have pacy players with good dribbling and crossing in these positions. Sadly i only have slow players here, Jeff Hughes and Gavin Williams, check their speed ratings in game . But they still perform well for me.

Matt

We should have a "Classic" tactics club.

Matt

We should have a "Classic" tactics club.

Heh i agree.

I remember you knap from my TTF set thread a few years back.

Still going strong i see.

Only after 1 match I can say very good job! These sets are very well set up, beating Lazio away with Inter 0-5 ! Started with normal(but moved MR/L to AM R/L) and then just switched to def version after being 2 goals up to hit them on the counter and worked pretty well.

Just 1 match and my team wasn't even fully prepared in all areas of match preparation, fantastic!

Very well done Matt!

Good to see you back Matt.......will use your new tactic and feedback wont be far away ...cheers mate

What size pitch is used ?

I have a question for the Match Preparation section. What is your special focus area in each tactic?

I have a question for the Match Preparation section. What is your special focus area in each tactic?

None, just get your team blended and the formation fluid on very high match prep. Then as soon as assistant says they are blending well together, and all is fluid go to very low 10% match prep. Now sit back and watch the green up arrows appear over the coming weeks.

Also guys, i uploaded the wrong set, only a few things will change, a few closing down and marking tweaks. I'll go upload them now and edit the first post. Will post again once ive added them.

11.3 matt?

The attacking version seems like a total annihilation, playing at home in CL (with Inter) against Atletico Madrid with normal version, 3-2 for my boys, then switched to attacking around 50th minute - finished 7-2. Like I said - total annihilation.

It might be the wrong set but the attacking version seems really good.

U uploaded the correct sets now?

Sorry, the girlfriend came home from lunch. I'll get them uploaded shortly, will post here when ive done it.

All right,we're waiting.

And what can you tell about the pitch size?

Post some screens about your gf

jk

Hi Matt, I would think so but are your tactics 11.3 tested?

Hi Matt, has your GF stayed over for a bit of extra curicular activity, ha, only joking!! eagerly awaiting the updated links...

Waiting on the upload...

11.3 matt?

Yes, 11.3.

Hi Matt, I would think so but are your tactics 11.3 tested?

Yes.

Hi Matt, has your GF stayed over for a bit of extra curicular activity, ha, only joking!! eagerly awaiting the updated links...

Sorry for the delay. I discovered improved results by switching the MCL and MCR around. Now the playmaker is on the left, behind him is the DCL cover. The defensive MCR has the DCR stopper behind him. This works much better.

The attacking version seems like a total annihilation, playing at home in CL (with Inter) against Atletico Madrid with normal version, 3-2 for my boys, then switched to attacking around 50th minute - finished 7-2. Like I said - total annihilation.

It might be the wrong set but the attacking version seems really good.

U uploaded the correct sets now?

Because Inter are a much better team than Althletic this is not surprising. You should probably have used attack from the start. Sets now here btw.

All right,we're waiting.

And what can you tell about the pitch size?

Don't know. If youre a top team go wide pitch, lower ranked team middle pitch, relegation short pitch.

Post some screens about your gf

jk

Haha.

Waiting on the upload...

Wait no longer.

Matts TTF 4-4-2 Set Version 1

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ps0ava

Or

http://rapidshare.com/files/452872449/Matt44v2.rar

Few screenshots.

Hi Matt, thanks for the tactic set.

First thoughts is that the cover and stopper systems works brilliantly, with the stoppers in defence, midfield and attack all tracking down and putting in some crunching challenges.

i'm Juventus at the moment but i have no wingers having played with a no winger formation, so i am being realistic regarding my teams capabilities with your tactics. ATM i have Fleck and Giovinco for the wings and thats it!!!

Just a quick question when you go down to 10 men what would you suggest?

Hi Matt, thanks for the tactic set.

First thoughts is that the cover and stopper systems works brilliantly, with the stoppers in defence, midfield and attack all tracking down and putting in some crunching challenges.

i'm Juventus at the moment but i have no wingers having played with a no winger formation, so i am being realistic regarding my teams capabilities with your tactics. ATM i have Fleck and Giovinco for the wings and thats it!!!

Just a quick question when you go down to 10 men what would you suggest?

I'm in the same boat as you. I have Jeff Hughes who is a ML/DL but hes quite slow, so is probably more suited to a MC. My MR is exactly the same as Hughes.

As for going down to 10, no idea its not happened to me yet. I dont really use hard tackling ever, except maybe on the opposition dangerman as pointed out by my scout.

If i did get someone sent off, id probably go with taking off a striker, i guess if i needed a goal id take off the FC left, if i wanted to see the game out id take off the SC right. Either way id switch to defend, and max out time wasting asap.

this tactic looks great and I am going to start using Sergio Torres in the MCL spot on my Crawley save.. for the playmaker role should I put him on the playmakers list or just leave it blank?

this tactic looks great and I am going to start using Sergio Torres in the MCL spot on my Crawley save.. for the playmaker role should I put him on the playmakers list or just leave it blank?

Yes tick use as playmaker and put him n the playmaker section.

Going well for me atm.

Though im struggling to keep my squad motivated atm, a few players are suffering from over confidence, whilst others are looking demotivated and a few are struggling with the pressure.

I need a guide on press conferences.

I have noticed improved performances from my FCL by adding run with the ball, try through balls and cross ball often to his instructions. This might be worth a try if you notice him producing less than stellar performances.

Any feedback from the people who have downloaded this?

i have only played 2 games with your tactics but have beat blackpool and fulham 2-0 and 1-0.. so far both teams have had more shots than me and im using the attacking tactic.. maybe needs longer to gel but seems ok apart from the more shots. im villa btw

just played steau in euro cup and won 3-1.. they had same amount of shots but they had 10 long shots and 2 ccc and i had 6 ccc and 3 long shots.. looks good so far (Y)

my FCL is playing much better since i put those things on to his instructions.. and im still unbeaten in 6 with your tactics.. i got liverpool soon so will tell u when i played them as they will be the strongest team i have played since using your tactic..

Thanks for letting me know.

You might want to increase closing down 1 notch for the MCL on the attack, i noticed it was not level with the ML/MR. An error on my part perhaps. Also you could probably bump the strikers closing down settings up another notch too.

just lost 7-3 away to liverpool..

Would it of made a difference if i used the defend or normal tactic instead of attacking??

just lost 7-3 away to liverpool..

Would it of made a difference if i used the defend or normal tactic instead of attacking??

You should only use attack if youre clear favourites to win, normal or more likely defend against liverpool would have been a better choice.

Did you read the first post?

ill update on weekend mate.....busy times ahead....well drunk 2morrow and recover friday ...so yeh weekend looks good for fm

ill update on weekend mate.....busy times ahead....well drunk 2morrow and recover friday ...so yeh weekend looks good for fm

Sounds like fun, have a good one mate.

Pretty sure i can improve these even further with the help of you guys.

Started using your tactics yesterday and i'm loving them so far. Playing as Aldershot in League 2 and after 10 games we've won 8, drawn 1 and lost 1, scored 19 and conceded 3. And that loss was my fault for not noticing I selected the Attack tactic against a better team (still only lost 2-1). Also I only switched to this tactic after a few pre-season friendlies, so my team still isn't 100% fluid in every area, when they are it should be awesome!

I am pleased to release V2 of these tactics.

Nothing major has changed.

I have made tweaks to closing down settings, and other small settings which have improved performance on all three tactics.

I will now wait for more feedback from you guys before i make any more changes.

Download Links

http://www.sendspace.com/file/qh7afw

OR

http://rapidshare.com/files/453287531/Matt442V3.rar

Screens

Hi Matt, just wanted to give you an update on how your tactic is going on my Juventus save...

i've also just started using V2 of the tactic...here are my results so far:

http://img683.imageshack.us/i/juventusjuventusfixture.png/

http://img138.imageshack.us/i/juventusjuventusfixture.png/

All in all the tactic is very solid. The defence is pretty solid keeping 17 clean sheets all season as the tactic restricts your opponents to long shoots only. The attack is good aswell as the inter-play between the 2 strikers is great to watch. The tactic plays how you'd expect a real match to.

On the down side you will notice from my fixtures that i struggle ridiculously against the bigger teams like AC, Inter, Palermo, etc. I've just got stuffed away from home against Spurs 4-0 and i swear they crushed me!!! I used your "normal" tactic as the odds were very tight (they were slight favourites), fingers crossed it was just a freak result!?

Let me know if you better the tactic in anyway, you've done a very good jod so far...cheers

Hi Matt, just wanted to give you an update on how your tactic is going on my Juventus save...

i've also just started using V2 of the tactic...here are my results so far:

http://img683.imageshack.us/i/juventusjuventusfixture.png/

http://img138.imageshack.us/i/juventusjuventusfixture.png/

All in all the tactic is very solid. The defence is pretty solid keeping 17 clean sheets all season as the tactic restricts your opponents to long shoots only. The attack is good aswell as the inter-play between the 2 strikers is great to watch. The tactic plays how you'd expect a real match to.

On the down side you will notice from my fixtures that i struggle ridiculously against the bigger teams like AC, Inter, Palermo, etc. I've just got stuffed away from home against Spurs 4-0 and i swear they crushed me!!! I used your "normal" tactic as the odds were very tight (they were slight favourites), fingers crossed it was just a freak result!?

Let me know if you better the tactic in anyway, you've done a very good jod so far...cheers

Thanks for the excellent feedback.

Perhaps when playing the big sides you could try defensive away, and normal at home. When i play any of the top sides in my league its always normal at home and defensive away. Sometimes ill even go with defensive at home against a top side and see how its playing out, can always switch it up if its going well.

I find that sometimes the match odds aren't always correct, a lot of the time it is based on recent form so sometimes its best to go with instinct.

And if youre struggling mid game, you can always switch to defensive, or vice versa.

I'm just wondering in those games you mentioned whether you, or your assistant got the team talk and press conference wrong. Perhaps relaxing your players too much or putting them under too much pressure. I saw that just happen to my side and i got stuffed 4-0 away from home.

Keep an eye on assistant feedback before the start of every game (pre-match), this will tell you if any of the above is happening. Also monitor team motivation during the game, notice people looking disinterested? They think the win will come without trying. Playing with pressure? Relax them in press conference and team talk. Also pay attention to effects on players after your half time team talk. If things go bad, you know you made the wrong choice. Check team talk feedback at the end of every game, remember what worked and what didn't.

Just won the Serie A title at the first time of asking and it's all down to your tactic...cheers Matt!! And like i said in an earlier post it's a pretty sub-standard squad with Buffon being so old i'm gonna put him in a home at the end of the season, no true wingers, and my strikers aren't the best.

With regards to press conferences i leave them to my ass man as he has great motivation stats.

Team talks against the bigger teams in Serie A i'll use "for the fans" the reason behind this being that the are all Juventus's fierce rivals (which can be found in the information screen) and this is what i've used for a couple of years on FM now and it's worked very well.

Just won the Serie A title at the first time of asking and it's all down to your tactic...cheers Matt!! And like i said in an earlier post it's a pretty sub-standard squad with Buffon being so old i'm gonna put him in a home at the end of the season, no true wingers, and my strikers aren't the best.

With regards to press conferences i leave them to my ass man as he has great motivation stats.

Team talks against the bigger teams in Serie A i'll use "for the fans" the reason behind this being that the are all Juventus's fierce rivals (which can be found in the information screen) and this is what i've used for a couple of years on FM now and it's worked very well.

Glad to hear it mate.

Fair enough with the team talks and such, just thought it might be worth a mention.

Maybe try defensive in those games a bit more next time.

Congratulations btw.

One thing ive realised, as well as having a quick defener as the cover, the cover also needs good attributes in anticipation and positioning, i cant stress how important those two attributes are when using a cover.

Just signed a player with 14 and 13 in those attributes (decent for league 1 imo) and hes getting excellent ratings with 15+ interceptions per match.

love the tactic and was unbeaten in my first 15 with Crawley having not conceded more than one goal in a game. I switched to the V2 and have now gone 5 games without a clean sheet and have conceded 3 in each of my last four games! should I switch back? I always start games with the standard tactic and only switch to attack or defence during the game.

A quick update of how i'm doing with this tactic. After 30 games, i'm top of League 2 by 14 points! Which for a team expected to be mid-table is quite an achievement. The games I have lost have more been down to having to field a very weak team due to horrendous fixture congestion and injuries rather than a tactical problem. My star player has been the right-sided striker who has an astonishing 27 goals and 10 assists in 32 games (he has 8 for finishing!). The key seems to be having a striker who is happy to run after everything and surrounding him with more technical players capable of working through-balls for him. Wingers with good pace seem to flourish under this tactic aswell. And getting two centre-backs who fit into the stopper and cover roles works brilliantly.

So in all, i'm very happy with this tactic, suits me down to the ground.

love the tactic and was unbeaten in my first 15 with Crawley having not conceded more than one goal in a game. I switched to the V2 and have now gone 5 games without a clean sheet and have conceded 3 in each of my last four games! should I switch back? I always start games with the standard tactic and only switch to attack or defence during the game.

Tbh mate nothing drastic changed, minor tweaks here and there. I would be surprised if the change to V2 caused this. V1 had a few inconsistencies, for example on attack one DL/DR's closing down was much higher than the other. I'd stick with v2, maybe your team just had a blip.

A quick update of how i'm doing with this tactic. After 30 games, i'm top of League 2 by 14 points! Which for a team expected to be mid-table is quite an achievement. The games I have lost have more been down to having to field a very weak team due to horrendous fixture congestion and injuries rather than a tactical problem. My star player has been the right-sided striker who has an astonishing 27 goals and 10 assists in 32 games (he has 8 for finishing!). The key seems to be having a striker who is happy to run after everything and surrounding him with more technical players capable of working through-balls for him. Wingers with good pace seem to flourish under this tactic aswell. And getting two centre-backs who fit into the stopper and cover roles works brilliantly.

So in all, i'm very happy with this tactic, suits me down to the ground.

Excellent feedback thanks. Sounds like its going really well for you, i have found the same thing as you.

Not good. Tried it with Leeds. Started well with 6-3 win over Milwall, but after a draw, we suffered three consecutive losses in the league.

Not good. Tried it with Leeds. Started well with 6-3 win over Milwall, but after a draw, we suffered three consecutive losses in the league.

Any chance i could take a look at your save game?

im liking the title real men only use classic tactics

http://random-gif.com/gif/One.gif

im liking the title real men only use classic tactics

Heh. Although the TC creator was a great invention, the real work gets done with the old method imo.

Matt going to use these now with Forest Green in BSP. They look quite good. Be back with some feedback mate. Perhaps we can give birth to a great 442 lol

Glad to hear it let me know how it goes.

matt who's the playmaker?

The left central midfielder.

Any chance i could take a look at your save game?

Well, I got upset so I didn't save the game. I'll start a new game and see how it goes.