Rule of One Tactic Sets - and how to implement them to perfection!

It's been a long time since I've been on the boards but i've been busy tweaking these tactic sets to the point where I feel that I'm completely ready to share these with other managers. First of all it goes without saying that this entire tactical approach to the game is heavily indebted to wwfan for the RoO framework and possibly to a greater extent to a chap named Kristianohr who devised this approach, (more of which later... ).

Why would you want to adopt these tactics, even if you've been very successful with your current ones? Well I've had unparalleled success with this approach, almost to the point where I look back at the earlier part of my career game (thumping the ball up to my big centre forward at Banik Ostrava and hoping for the best... ) and wonder quite how I stuck it out. I've gone unbeaten in over eighty league games, won two champions league titles and two world club championships with a modest enough Feyenoord side. When I say modest I mean a respectable team, some first teamers with CAs in the high 150s and even one or two in the high 160s to 170s with good cover in most positions. Not world class I'm sure you'll agree but it's about countering the AIs tactic and maintaing an edge throughout the match.

Some of you may have built tactic sets based on the RoO framework so you may ask what's different about these? I had some success initially with wwfans approach but not enough to leave me completely satisfied. Studying the game in the 2d match engine screen I always felt that my defense was porous, with defenders closing down haphazardly and leaving me with little faith in my back four. People had varying ideas about the pressing game, some maintaining that high closing down for full backs was good, others saying that low pressing was better. I began to think about it - my midfielders always looked effective winning the ball back and their closing down was linked to the defensive line - why not relate my back four's closing down to my midfield and apply it to my other thirteen tactic sets, just as you would stagger passing style and tempo according to the mentality range? Initially I set my fullbacks closing down to three behind my midfielders', since their mentality was three behind his. Similarily my centre backs closed down to four behind the attacking midfielder. The full backs looke good but not the Centre Backs, still I felt I was on the right track. Experimenting further I reduced the centre halves' closing down to five behind my midfielder's. The results were really impressive. Once I was playing the right tactic set to counter the opposition my whole team closed down relentlessly, allowing the opposition very little breathing space while still keeping shape and giving little away defensively. As an added bonus it meant my team was able to counter attack more efficiently and I began to score more and more goals on the counter attack. My experiments didn't end there though, coming up against different tactics in europe required tweaking to maintain the effectiveness of my pressing game, reducing the fullbacks closing down when necessary or adopting a man-marking system against certain formations. Anyway, I digress, onto the tactics.

Just a warning, I'm not going to write out each and every tactic for you. I'll type out the first one and since they're all related it's just simple maths to produce the others.

------------------------------------------------

Googen's 4-4-2:

take a standard 4-4-2 shape from the tactic menu and drag short f-arrows from your full backs and wingers. Short f-arrow your right sided central midfielder to the AMC position and short b-arrow your left sided MC to the DMC position. This is your basic shape.

Player mentality: Set your players' mentality individually as follows - Strikers(20), MCatt. (19), Wingers (18), MCdef. (17), Full Backs (16), Centre Backs (15), Goalkeeper (14)

This is the Rule of One tactics range, now simply create thirteen more tactics like this, each one starting progressively lower on the mentality ladder, e.g. your next tactic's mentality range will run from 19 to 13. Finally you will end up at 1 to 7.

N.B. if your unsure how the numbers relate to the sliders just understand that 1 is the lowest point on any slider and 20 is the highest.

Defensive line and Closing Down: Two vital areas. Find the mid-point of your mentality range, e.g. in the tactic above that would be 17, so we set our defensive line at 17 and our team's closing down to 17. We're pushed very high up the pitch and playing an aggressive pressing game to dominate posession, just like any big club would at their home ground. In the 13 - 19 tactic our defensive line would be at 16, again just find the mid-point.

Passing style, tempo, width and time-wasting: These are all linked. Simply mirror them to your defensive line. If our defensive line is at 17 then our tempo will be at 3, (simply count back the clicks from 20 on your slider then mirror this to find the number you need). Since width and tempo are linked they are also set to 3. I've taken to linking time-wasting to tempo. It makes sense and seems to make my team's play flow better, with little time wasting in home games against weak teams and just the opposite in games with a fast tempo and direct passing. I still bump up time-wasting to often in the dying minutes of a one-nil lead though.

Individual Closing Down: In our 14-20 tactic the individual settings are as follows - FC 20, Wingers 19, MCd 18, MCa 17, FB 14, DC12, GK 4.

------------------------------------------------

Googen's Rules for Pressing: To apply these to your other mentality ranges follow these simple rules -

Strikers always close down to their mentality but never below 15. This keeps them high up the pitch at all times without having 'forward runs' set to often, meaning less offsides but lots of excellent counter-attacking opportunities.

Your attacking midfielder (the one with the forward arrow) always closes down to the team setting. He sets the tone for the rest of the team. So don't tick the individual instruction box for this lad, you can use him as your starting point for setting out everyone else's instructions.

Your defensive midfielder always closes down to one higher than your attacking midfielder, this is to prevent him sitting back and getting sucked into your back four.

Your wingers always close down to two higher than your MCatt. This just seems to be the magic number.

Your full-backs always close down to 3 behind your MCatt.

Your Centre Backs always close down to 5 behind your MCatt.

Your Goalie will close down to 4, however I never have my keeper closing down higher that my DCs, which means eventually you will have your keeper closing down to 1. (This is still a grey area for me and I'm not sure how much a keeper's eccentricity impacts on his ability to come off his line. I used to play with higher CD, using a sweeper-keeper but found that this was a little too risky. By all means experiment and let me know what you think!)

------------------------------------------------

Home and Away set-ups: You can either set these up manually before each game or do what I did and simply set up your 5 most attacking tactics as being 'home' and the rest as being 'away', which is easier in the long run.

Tackling: Away my MCd and both FBs are set to Hard Tackling, everyone else is on mixed, excluding the strikers who are always set to easy. At Home everyone is on mixed tackling.

Hold-Up Ball: Tick this box for your two full backs and your def midfielder.

Forward Runs: At home your FBs, Wingers and MCa will be set to often. DCs, MCd and GK will be set to rarely. Every one else mixed. Away, restrict your fullbacks to rarely and wingers to mixed.

Run with Ball: Depends on the player ultimately but typically it's - Wingers and Strikers often, Centre Backs and Defensive Mids rarely, everyone else on mixed. If you have an Ashley Cole style FB you set him to often at home. If your Centre Forward is good in the air but useless with the ball at his feet, then set it to mixed. Common Sense!

Try Through Balls: MCa often, GKs and DCs rarely, everyone else on mixed. In away games you can set your GK to mixed, helps on the counter.

Cross Ball: Wingers often at home. Away full backs can cross often, especially if you have a target man.

Marking: Everyone on zonal, more on this later.

Tight Marking: Just the back four at home. Away from home, all outfield players excluding the strikers on tight marking.

Cross From: Wingers cross from the by-line at home, full backs cross from deep away.

------------------------------------------------

Using a Target Man: I've only had success with two target man types, the big Toshack style centre forward and the Bergkamp-like player who drops deep and wants the ball played into his feet.

Aerial Target Man: Set supply 'To Head'. Set forward runs to mixed. Tick hold-up ball.

Deep-Lying Striker: Set supply 'to Feet'. Set forward runs to rarely. Set through balls to often. If he's a ronaldinho style wizard then set RWB to often. (your looking for a player with excellent first touch here, good flair and vision and possibly dribbling skills too).

------------------------------------------------

Choosing your Tactic: Knowing what tactic to go with is the most crucial part of match day set-up. Some people advise having a scout to report back on teams you'll face. Forget about it, scout reports are useless. Instead learn to keep an eye on your opponents formation screen and be ready to react to any changes he makes.

I've come to the conclusion the the mentality setting your opponent chooses depends on a combination of their team's reputation and your team's. How to find a teamss reputation? I would strongly recommend downloading FMM. It's the only accurate way of reading a team's reputation and since teams' reps fluctuate depending on the success, (or lack of), that they've enjoyed you'll need this to guage your tactical repsonse.

Find Your Base Tactics: In any league the majority of teams will have the same reputations so one home tactic and one away tactic will do the business against them. Just find your home tactic through trial and error. Save and restart if you have to until your sure that you've found your 'Base Tactics'. If your a prestigeous club like Chelsea or Barca you'll find that your home tactic will typically be the 14-20 range. If you're a biggish club in a small league (as I was when managing Banik Ostrava), you'll find that your home tactic could be the 9-15 range. You'll know by the results. Indicators to look out for in game as to whether or not you've found your base tactic are typically shots on target and passing percentage. You could include tackle percentage in there as well.

Watching the match engine your tactic's tempo should mean that your players are passing the ball just before they're being closed down in the final third, stretching the opposition and creating goal-scoring chances. Also your pressing game should be constantly putting the opposition under pressure creating good counter-attacking opportunities.

However the only way to know for sure that you've found your base tactic is consistently good results. And you will get these with the right mentality range.

Your Away 'Base Tactic' is easier to find. It will always be four below your Home 'Base Tactic'!. Just count down four from your drop down menu. So if you're Chelsea your Away tactic would be the 10-16 range.

Scoring Goals: As soon as you go ahead the AI will go more attacking. You counter this by dropping down to your next more defensive tactic. If the AI have chosen a counter-attacking variant (see below... ) drop down two tactics and adjust. Keep dropping down tactics as you score goals. It the AI equalise go back to the tactic you started with. If you find yourself a goal down then do the opposite and go one more attacking. If the AI moves to a counter attacking variant stay as you are and don't change. I watch all my games in key highlights and simply keep my eye on the formation screen, adjusting when necessary. As a general rule of thumb as soon as a goal is score hit 'detailed tactics' before the replay comes up.

Cup Competitions and Away Goals: Away goals only kick in during the second leg. If the scores are level on aggregate yet you're ahead on an away goal you have to choose a tactic as if you were a goal up, going one more defensive. This only comes into play in the second leg when the aggregate score is level. If it isn't level forget about it and choose tactics as normal.

Neutral Venues: So, you know your base tactic and your away tactic but what do you do at a neutral venue, say a cup final? Simply find the mid-point. If you're home tactic is 13-19 and your away tactic is 9-15 and you find yourself in wembley, drop down two tactics to 11-17. This should give you the edge.

Adjusting against Bigger Clubs: Every league has a few big fish so they will come at you slightly more attacking than the other clubs. This means starting at your base tactic and dropping down one or two tactics to a more defensive tactic when you go to face them. When I started at Feyenoord I was using the 12-18 tactic range as my base tactic at home. When it came to playing Ajax or PSV, however I chose the 11-17 range at home and the 7-13 range away. This same principle applies especially in Europe where you'll be up against clubs of varying reputations. Of course the same principle applies in reverse. If Feyenoord were playing some recently promoted cannon-fodder such as VVV, I upped to the 12-18 range at home.

Reputations Change!: Bear this in mind, if you go on a successful run in Europe your reputation will improve drastically, meaning that other teams will set up more defensively against you. I'm in 2012 at the moment and after two league titles and two European Cups I now use the 14-20 range as my base home tactic nearly all the time. PSV fell on hard times recently, losing big players, failing to qualify for Europe and going through a slew of unlucky managers. I no longer treat them as a big club. Heerenveen by contrast signed an ageing Mark Van Bommel and Maxi Lopez. Both of whom improved the club's reputation. They also went on a brilliant Uefa Cup run. I would now put them in the same bracket as Ajax when it came to choosing a tactic to face them.

------------------------------------------------

All of this advice should serve you well against the typical 4-4-2 Normal, arguably the most common tactic you'll face in your career. However these are not super tactics, rather they are an approach and you will have to tweak a little when facing other tactics. I'll outline a few examples for you.

4-4-2 Attacking: This one has long forward arrows on the wingers. Simply have your full backs mark their opposite winger but set them to loose marking, otherwise they'll get sucked into midfield too often. Try setting your DCs to man-marking, don't specify any names. Focus passing to mixed or down both flanks. Set your FBs fwd runs to mixed at the most.

4-4-2 Counter Attacking: This one has no f-arrows at all. It is a counter attacking variant, there are a couple that the AI uses so don't play into their hands. Choose a tactic that is actually one more defensive than you would against their typical 4-4-2 Normal and have your DCs man mark their strikers.

4-4-2 Diamond Normal: This one has no f-arrows. Have your DCs tight man mark the two strikers. Again don't specify the strikers' names.

4-5-1 Normal: Five in midfield with an isolated lone striker. Go into opp. instructions on your tactics menu and click on their FC. Set closing down to always. Focus passing down both flanks.

4-3-3 Normal: This one has no AMC and two f-arrowed wingers. Instruct your fullbacks to tight man mark the wingers. Drop their closing down by one click! Set their fwd runs to rarely. Opp. Instructions, always close down their lone striker and focus passing down both flanks. Tackling to mixed.

4-3-3 Counter Attacking: This one has no f-arrows on the wingers. Again go with a tactic one more defensive than you would normally choose. Follow the steps above but you can set your FBs fwd runs to mixed. Tackling to mixed.

4-2-4: The AI will throw this at you late in the game if you're up by a goal. Set your DCs to manmarking. Drop your FBs closing down by two clicks and have them man mark their opposite numbers. Make sure their fwd runs are set to rarely. Bump up time-wasting and focus passing down both flanks. Tackling to mixed.

4-2-3-1: Possibly the best tactic in the game. If any of you could create a RoO variation of this you'd be laughing all the way to managerial infamy. Have your FBs man-mark their wingers, drop their closing down by one and set fwd runs to mixed at most. Have your MCd man mark their AMC, drop his closing down by one. Set tackling to mixed. Focus passing down both flanks.

4-2-2-2 Defensive: Real Madrid use this in my career game. Two DMs sit in front of the back four, two wingers, no f-arrows. Have your DCs manmark their strikers, focus passing down both flanks.

4-2-2-2 Attacking: Two MCs and wingers pushed up to the AMC position. Same as above but have your FBs man-mark their wingers. Drop their closing down by one, set their tackling and fwd runs to mixed.

5-4-1: This is a wing-backs formation with a lone striker. The wing-backs are f-arrowed. It seems to cause problems for a lot of people due to it's heavily defensive set-up. Not any more. Side arrow your strikers and instruct them to cross the ball often. Make sure your DCs closing down is 10 at the least, and your FBs closing down is at least 14. Have your MCd man mark their AMC, don't drop his closing down. Focus passing down both flanks. You won't have too many clear cut chances but you will bombard their goal with set-pieces so make sure you've take the time to set them up properly.

5-4-1 Counter Attacking: This one has wingbacks with no f-arrows. Again go one more defensive. Other than that it's the same as above.

I haven't encountered any other tactics in the game yet although I can guess that the 3-5-2 is probably fairly ubiquitous in Brazil so you'll have to create your own tweaks for any missing tactics. Still, find your Base Tactics and follow the above intstructions to the letter and you should see your career head into the stratosphere. Maybe I'm exaggerating because after all these aren't super tactics, I've still lost games because of dodgy penalties being awarded and keepers having a mare... but then again that's football innit'? Enjoy

It's been a long time since I've been on the boards but i've been busy tweaking these tactic sets to the point where I feel that I'm completely ready to share these with other managers. First of all it goes without saying that this entire tactical approach to the game is heavily indebted to wwfan for the RoO framework and possibly to a greater extent to a chap named Kristianohr who devised this approach, (more of which later... ).

Why would you want to adopt these tactics, even if you've been very successful with your current ones? Well I've had unparalleled success with this approach, almost to the point where I look back at the earlier part of my career game (thumping the ball up to my big centre forward at Banik Ostrava and hoping for the best... ) and wonder quite how I stuck it out. I've gone unbeaten in over eighty league games, won two champions league titles and two world club championships with a modest enough Feyenoord side. When I say modest I mean a respectable team, some first teamers with CAs in the high 150s and even one or two in the high 160s to 170s with good cover in most positions. Not world class I'm sure you'll agree but it's about countering the AIs tactic and maintaing an edge throughout the match.

Some of you may have built tactic sets based on the RoO framework so you may ask what's different about these? I had some success initially with wwfans approach but not enough to leave me completely satisfied. Studying the game in the 2d match engine screen I always felt that my defense was porous, with defenders closing down haphazardly and leaving me with little faith in my back four. People had varying ideas about the pressing game, some maintaining that high closing down for full backs was good, others saying that low pressing was better. I began to think about it - my midfielders always looked effective winning the ball back and their closing down was linked to the defensive line - why not relate my back four's closing down to my midfield and apply it to my other thirteen tactic sets, just as you would stagger passing style and tempo according to the mentality range? Initially I set my fullbacks closing down to three behind my midfielders', since their mentality was three behind his. Similarily my centre backs closed down to four behind the attacking midfielder. The full backs looke good but not the Centre Backs, still I felt I was on the right track. Experimenting further I reduced the centre halves' closing down to five behind my midfielder's. The results were really impressive. Once I was playing the right tactic set to counter the opposition my whole team closed down relentlessly, allowing the opposition very little breathing space while still keeping shape and giving little away defensively. As an added bonus it meant my team was able to counter attack more efficiently and I began to score more and more goals on the counter attack. My experiments didn't end there though, coming up against different tactics in europe required tweaking to maintain the effectiveness of my pressing game, reducing the fullbacks closing down when necessary or adopting a man-marking system against certain formations. Anyway, I digress, onto the tactics.

Just a warning, I'm not going to write out each and every tactic for you. I'll type out the first one and since they're all related it's just simple maths to produce the others.

------------------------------------------------

Googen's 4-4-2:

take a standard 4-4-2 shape from the tactic menu and drag short f-arrows from your full backs and wingers. Short f-arrow your right sided central midfielder to the AMC position and short b-arrow your left sided MC to the DMC position. This is your basic shape.

Player mentality: Set your players' mentality individually as follows - Strikers(20), MCatt. (19), Wingers (18), MCdef. (17), Full Backs (16), Centre Backs (15), Goalkeeper (14)

This is the Rule of One tactics range, now simply create thirteen more tactics like this, each one starting progressively lower on the mentality ladder, e.g. your next tactic's mentality range will run from 19 to 13. Finally you will end up at 1 to 7.

N.B. if your unsure how the numbers relate to the sliders just understand that 1 is the lowest point on any slider and 20 is the highest.

Defensive line and Closing Down: Two vital areas. Find the mid-point of your mentality range, e.g. in the tactic above that would be 17, so we set our defensive line at 17 and our team's closing down to 17. We're pushed very high up the pitch and playing an aggressive pressing game to dominate posession, just like any big club would at their home ground. In the 13 - 19 tactic our defensive line would be at 16, again just find the mid-point.

Passing style, tempo, width and time-wasting: These are all linked. Simply mirror them to your defensive line. If our defensive line is at 17 then our tempo will be at 3, (simply count back the clicks from 20 on your slider then mirror this to find the number you need). Since width and tempo are linked they are also set to 3. I've taken to linking time-wasting to tempo. It makes sense and seems to make my team's play flow better, with little time wasting in home games against weak teams and just the opposite in games with a fast tempo and direct passing. I still bump up time-wasting to often in the dying minutes of a one-nil lead though.

Individual Closing Down: In our 14-20 tactic the individual settings are as follows - FC 20, Wingers 19, MCd 18, MCa 17, FB 14, DC12, GK 4.

------------------------------------------------

Googen's Rules for Pressing: To apply these to your other mentality ranges follow these simple rules -

Strikers always close down to their mentality but never below 15. This keeps them high up the pitch at all times without having 'forward runs' set to often, meaning less offsides but lots of excellent counter-attacking opportunities.

Your attacking midfielder (the one with the forward arrow) always closes down to the team setting. He sets the tone for the rest of the team. So don't tick the individual instruction box for this lad, you can use him as your starting point for setting out everyone else's instructions.

Your defensive midfielder always closes down to one higher than your attacking midfielder, this is to prevent him sitting back and getting sucked into your back four.

Your wingers always close down to two higher than your MCatt. This just seems to be the magic number.

Your full-backs always close down to 3 behind your MCatt.

Your Centre Backs always close down to 5 behind your MCatt.

Your Goalie will close down to 4, however I never have my keeper closing down higher that my DCs, which means eventually you will have your keeper closing down to 1. (This is still a grey area for me and I'm not sure how much a keeper's eccentricity impacts on his ability to come off his line. I used to play with higher CD, using a sweeper-keeper but found that this was a little too risky. By all means experiment and let me know what you think!)

------------------------------------------------

Home and Away set-ups: You can either set these up manually before each game or do what I did and simply set up your 5 most attacking tactics as being 'home' and the rest as being 'away', which is easier in the long run.

Tackling: Away my MCd and both FBs are set to Hard Tackling, everyone else is on mixed, excluding the strikers who are always set to easy. At Home everyone is on mixed tackling.

Hold-Up Ball: Tick this box for your two full backs and your def midfielder.

Forward Runs: At home your FBs, Wingers and MCa will be set to often. DCs, MCd and GK will be set to rarely. Every one else mixed. Away, restrict your fullbacks to rarely and wingers to mixed.

Run with Ball: Depends on the player ultimately but typically it's - Wingers and Strikers often, Centre Backs and Defensive Mids rarely, everyone else on mixed. If you have an Ashley Cole style FB you set him to often at home. If your Centre Forward is good in the air but useless with the ball at his feet, then set it to mixed. Common Sense!

Try Through Balls: MCa often, GKs and DCs rarely, everyone else on mixed. In away games you can set your GK to mixed, helps on the counter.

Cross Ball: Wingers often at home. Away full backs can cross often, especially if you have a target man.

Marking: Everyone on zonal, more on this later.

Tight Marking: Just the back four at home. Away from home, all outfield players excluding the strikers on tight marking.

Cross From: Wingers cross from the by-line at home, full backs cross from deep away.

------------------------------------------------

Using a Target Man: I've only had success with two target man types, the big Toshack style centre forward and the Bergkamp-like player who drops deep and wants the ball played into his feet.

Aerial Target Man: Set supply 'To Head'. Set forward runs to mixed. Tick hold-up ball.

Deep-Lying Striker: Set supply 'to Feet'. Set forward runs to rarely. Set through balls to often. If he's a ronaldinho style wizard then set RWB to often. (your looking for a player with excellent first touch here, good flair and vision and possibly dribbling skills too).

------------------------------------------------

Choosing your Tactic: Knowing what tactic to go with is the most crucial part of match day set-up. Some people advise having a scout to report back on teams you'll face. Forget about it, scout reports are useless. Instead learn to keep an eye on your opponents formation screen and be ready to react to any changes he makes.

I've come to the conclusion the the mentality setting your opponent chooses depends on a combination of their team's reputation and your team's. How to find a teamss reputation? I would strongly recommend downloading FMM. It's the only accurate way of reading a team's reputation and since teams' reps fluctuate depending on the success, (or lack of), that they've enjoyed you'll need this to guage your tactical repsonse.

Find Your Base Tactics: In any league the majority of teams will have the same reputations so one home tactic and one away tactic will do the business against them. Just find your home tactic through trial and error. Save and restart if you have to until your sure that you've found your 'Base Tactics'. If your a prestigeous club like Chelsea or Barca you'll find that your home tactic will typically be the 14-20 range. If you're a biggish club in a small league (as I was when managing Banik Ostrava), you'll find that your home tactic could be the 9-15 range. You'll know by the results. Indicators to look out for in game as to whether or not you've found your base tactic are typically shots on target and passing percentage. You could include tackle percentage in there as well.

Watching the match engine your tactic's tempo should mean that your players are passing the ball just before they're being closed down in the final third, stretching the opposition and creating goal-scoring chances. Also your pressing game should be constantly putting the opposition under pressure creating good counter-attacking opportunities.

However the only way to know for sure that you've found your base tactic is consistently good results. And you will get these with the right mentality range.

Your Away 'Base Tactic' is easier to find. It will always be four below your Home 'Base Tactic'!. Just count down four from your drop down menu. So if you're Chelsea your Away tactic would be the 10-16 range.

Scoring Goals: As soon as you go ahead the AI will go more attacking. You counter this by dropping down to your next more defensive tactic. If the AI have chosen a counter-attacking variant (see below... ) drop down two tactics and adjust. Keep dropping down tactics as you score goals. It the AI equalise go back to the tactic you started with. If you find yourself a goal down then do the opposite and go one more attacking. If the AI moves to a counter attacking variant stay as you are and don't change. I watch all my games in key highlights and simply keep my eye on the formation screen, adjusting when necessary. As a general rule of thumb as soon as a goal is score hit 'detailed tactics' before the replay comes up.

Cup Competitions and Away Goals: Away goals only kick in during the second leg. If the scores are level on aggregate yet you're ahead on an away goal you have to choose a tactic as if you were a goal up, going one more defensive. This only comes into play in the second leg when the aggregate score is level. If it isn't level forget about it and choose tactics as normal.

Neutral Venues: So, you know your base tactic and your away tactic but what do you do at a neutral venue, say a cup final? Simply find the mid-point. If you're home tactic is 13-19 and your away tactic is 9-15 and you find yourself in wembley, drop down two tactics to 11-17. This should give you the edge.

Adjusting against Bigger Clubs: Every league has a few big fish so they will come at you slightly more attacking than the other clubs. This means starting at your base tactic and dropping down one or two tactics to a more defensive tactic when you go to face them. When I started at Feyenoord I was using the 12-18 tactic range as my base tactic at home. When it came to playing Ajax or PSV, however I chose the 11-17 range at home and the 7-13 range away. This same principle applies especially in Europe where you'll be up against clubs of varying reputations. Of course the same principle applies in reverse. If Feyenoord were playing some recently promoted cannon-fodder such as VVV, I upped to the 12-18 range at home.

Reputations Change!: Bear this in mind, if you go on a successful run in Europe your reputation will improve drastically, meaning that other teams will set up more defensively against you. I'm in 2012 at the moment and after two league titles and two European Cups I now use the 14-20 range as my base home tactic nearly all the time. PSV fell on hard times recently, losing big players, failing to qualify for Europe and going through a slew of unlucky managers. I no longer treat them as a big club. Heerenveen by contrast signed an ageing Mark Van Bommel and Maxi Lopez. Both of whom improved the club's reputation. They also went on a brilliant Uefa Cup run. I would now put them in the same bracket as Ajax when it came to choosing a tactic to face them.

------------------------------------------------

All of this advice should serve you well against the typical 4-4-2 Normal, arguably the most common tactic you'll face in your career. However these are not super tactics, rather they are an approach and you will have to tweak a little when facing other tactics. I'll outline a few examples for you.

4-4-2 Attacking: This one has long forward arrows on the wingers. Simply have your full backs mark their opposite winger but set them to loose marking, otherwise they'll get sucked into midfield too often. Try setting your DCs to man-marking, don't specify any names. Focus passing to mixed or down both flanks. Set your FBs fwd runs to mixed at the most.

4-4-2 Counter Attacking: This one has no f-arrows at all. It is a counter attacking variant, there are a couple that the AI uses so don't play into their hands. Choose a tactic that is actually one more defensive than you would against their typical 4-4-2 Normal and have your DCs man mark their strikers.

4-4-2 Diamond Normal: This one has no f-arrows. Have your DCs tight man mark the two strikers. Again don't specify the strikers' names.

4-5-1 Normal: Five in midfield with an isolated lone striker. Go into opp. instructions on your tactics menu and click on their FC. Set closing down to always. Focus passing down both flanks.

4-3-3 Normal: This one has no AMC and two f-arrowed wingers. Instruct your fullbacks to tight man mark the wingers. Drop their closing down by one click! Set their fwd runs to rarely. Opp. Instructions, always close down their lone striker and focus passing down both flanks. Tackling to mixed.

4-3-3 Counter Attacking: This one has no f-arrows on the wingers. Again go with a tactic one more defensive than you would normally choose. Follow the steps above but you can set your FBs fwd runs to mixed. Tackling to mixed.

4-2-4: The AI will throw this at you late in the game if you're up by a goal. Set your DCs to manmarking. Drop your FBs closing down by two clicks and have them man mark their opposite numbers. Make sure their fwd runs are set to rarely. Bump up time-wasting and focus passing down both flanks. Tackling to mixed.

4-2-3-1: Possibly the best tactic in the game. If any of you could create a RoO variation of this you'd be laughing all the way to managerial infamy. Have your FBs man-mark their wingers, drop their closing down by one and set fwd runs to mixed at most. Have your MCd man mark their AMC, drop his closing down by one. Set tackling to mixed. Focus passing down both flanks.

4-2-2-2 Defensive: Real Madrid use this in my career game. Two DMs sit in front of the back four, two wingers, no f-arrows. Have your DCs manmark their strikers, focus passing down both flanks.

4-2-2-2 Attacking: Two MCs and wingers pushed up to the AMC position. Same as above but have your FBs man-mark their wingers. Drop their closing down by one, set their tackling and fwd runs to mixed.

5-4-1: This is a wing-backs formation with a lone striker. The wing-backs are f-arrowed. It seems to cause problems for a lot of people due to it's heavily defensive set-up. Not any more. Side arrow your strikers and instruct them to cross the ball often. Make sure your DCs closing down is 10 at the least, and your FBs closing down is at least 14. Have your MCd man mark their AMC, don't drop his closing down. Focus passing down both flanks. You won't have too many clear cut chances but you will bombard their goal with set-pieces so make sure you've take the time to set them up properly.

5-4-1 Counter Attacking: This one has wingbacks with no f-arrows. Again go one more defensive. Other than that it's the same as above.

I haven't encountered any other tactics in the game yet although I can guess that the 3-5-2 is probably fairly ubiquitous in Brazil so you'll have to create your own tweaks for any missing tactics. Still, find your Base Tactics and follow the above intstructions to the letter and you should see your career head into the stratosphere. Maybe I'm exaggerating because after all these aren't super tactics, I've still lost games because of dodgy penalties being awarded and keepers having a mare... but then again that's football innit'? Enjoy

/\

/\

Great post mate, looks like a lot of work went into it.

Having had a scan through and considering giving it a bash, one thing that is bugging me are your comments concerning width.

If I am reading it correctly, your sysrem would mean that the more attacking your tactic, the narrower it would be, which would be directly opposite to what I would normally be looking to do.

Just wondering what your thinking behind this would be?

In a very narrow tactic just focus your passing through the middle, it makes sense in a short passing, posession game that your players are never too far away from each other. Conversely when youre sitting deep in a difficult away game you want to break quickly with quick, direct passes down the wings. They're a bit of work to set up, these tactics but they're well worth it.

Interesting system Googen, and a good, inspiring read. I like how you've gotten into the details of setting up a tactics collection for ease of use, etc..

hey googen,u better upload it to somewhere

This is a really fascinating approach to the game Googen, one that is well worth trying, have read through your instructions and one thing that you don't mention in the set- up detail, unless I haven't read it properly, is your preferred use of "creative freedom" within each of the templates.Does this vary with each version, or do you have one universal setting for all of them.

Another thought that springs to mind is the placing of the team sliders on the settings where you have individual instructions. For example, as far as team mentality goes, do you adjust the team slider for each of the different versions, bearing in mind that individual over-rides team settings on the sliders.

All in all though, a quality, well presented theory to help others try a different approach - well done mate.

Cheers Hot Dog. Yeah, whisper it but 'creative freedom' is a bit of a controvertial subject round these parts. I'm actually using my old creative freedom settings from my Banik Ostrava team so they're probably not as well suited to my current Feyenoord squad. Having said that I had completely forgotten to reappraise them but never noticed a need to do so... hmmmm.... so certain basics must apply to creative freedom, i.e. defensive players have less, attacking players have more. If your holding midfielder is in the pit-bull makelele mould than give him less creative freedom but if he's a more cultured holding midfielder like Carrick or Alonso then give him a generous setting. I'll have to start experimenting again.

No, I never varied creative freedom according to the mentality range I just picked a level that suited the abilities of the individual player and stuck with it for the 14 different tactics. Also, I've never touched the team mentality slider. I think these rule of one sets will prove beyond doubt the efficacy of individual settings over any team slider. The only slider I leave on team is passing, which is linked directly with tempo and width. I have been tempted to start tweaking it a bit for individual players but in all honesty it might just over-complicate things. Plus my lads always pass the ball around well

It really is well worth putting in the time to create the 14 different sets, I've never had a more consistent team as a manager. With all the mentality ranges covered it just means you have a response for every situation. I'm not being arrogant but I don't even bother checking the boards for other tactics any more, simply because I'm almost completely satisfied with this approach. The one real draw-back though is the lenght of time it takes to set them up when you consider that in order to be thorough you have to fourteen different corner taking and free kick instructions... which is a pain in backside whichever way you look at it.

Sorry Deniz but I won't be uploading them anywhere. I don't know how to do it and I have no interest in doing it. The reason I took the time to write this piece is so that other people could adopt this approach to fit their own preferred formations. With a little adustment I'm sure you could make very good 4-5-1 and 3-5-2 tactic sets as long as you follow the basic principles listed above. I'd love to hear about peoples' results.

For those of us without FMM, wouldn't the pre-match odds be of similar use when deciding on the tactic?

Tactics worked wonders for me anyway, got promoted from Conference North first season, and at Christmas in second season third in the league. Thanks for that!

Meant to say, got promosted with my own tactics, but was struggling in the Conference National. That's when I used these tactics.

18th to 3rd in 2 months. Not bad going if I say so myself!

I'm not a gambling man Zadok so the odds system is a little obtuse for me. I'm trying to work out a formula for choosing your tactic set based on reputation differences, e.g. if it's less than a thousand stay with your base tactic, if it's greater than 1000 go one more defensive and so on.

I took over an ailing HSV as an experiment. They were in disarray at the bottom of the bundesliga in 18th place, with these tactics I took them on a 4 game winning streak and we went shooting up the table. Didn't coninue the game though as I missed Feyenoord too much - went back to my previous save game. Amazing how this game can make you become sentimental about a bunch of statistics!

The real key is finding your base tactics once you've put the work into setting them up. After that it's just a matter of judging how much more attacking or defensive to go against different opponents.

Even if I could read the odds system I wouldn't trust it as being reliable. Unless of course some brainiac could come up with a formula for it? I'm laying down the gauntlet.

I can't believe I left this out of my original post but it's crucial to the counter-attacking nature of these tactics.

N.B. Always leave the Counter-Attack box ticked

It doesn't matter whether you're playing home or away, make sure it's ticked on all 14 of your tactic sets. Like wwfan said, it simply means your team is more effective and economical with the ball.

Something else I also left out of the original post but needs to be addressed, (don't seem to be able to edit my posts.. ), but it's important to drop the forward arrows on your full backs when using away tactics. Like I mentioned earlier I've set up my 5 most attacking sets as being 'home tactics' while the rest are set up as 'away tactics', meaning no f-arrowed full backs, tight marking outfield ,etc. . This is also important when countering the opposition's 4-2-4 formation, you want your back four playing as a unit, man-marking their front players and closing down to the same degree.

Played one game so far after setting all the tactics up, beat West Brom 8-1!!!

Never seen anything like it

i no i am going o sound like a complete uttter lazy ******** but honestly im not well any way there isnt a chance you could upload is there please mate

There's a mistake in my first post concerning setting up your team's tempo, width and passing. Since these three areas are mirrored to the defensive line (17 in the 14-20 set), passing, tempo, width and time wasting should actually be set to 4 in your most attacking set. This is because you read the sliders with 1 being the lowest notch and 20 being the highest, so mirroring 17 (3 clicks from the top of the slider), we arrive at 4 down the other end, (3 clicks from the bottom of the slider). Please bear this in mind when setting up tactics. I always count clicks on the mouse since there are no numerical marks on the sliders themselves.

Glad to hear that they're working for you Swash. It won't always be that easy. Particularly when smaller clubs park the bus in front of the goal (usually with the 5-4-1 formation), so it pays to have your set-pieces set up correctly. I've had a lot of games recently where I have limited the other team to one or two shots on goal in the entire match but had to rely on a dead ball speacialist to make sure of the three points. Royston Drenthe is a bit of a Beckham like figure for my current Feyenoord team.

Although I haven't implemented everything Googen, I have used some of the ideas, and I am very impressed with the way you have researched and presented your findings!

well done KUTGW!

They won't be completely effective unless you implement all the details - and I havent even gone into setting up set-piece instructions for every one of your tactics (you have to duplicate them 13 times unfortunately). Don't mean to sound like a school teacher. My only worry is that these tactics will get forgotten about in a swamp of quick fix, one-size fits all 'super-tactics'. A lot of work goes into setting them all up , granted, and that's not going to suit your garden variety fm manager but I've never had the success I'm currently enjoying with other downloadable tactics on these forums.

I implemented this tactic yesterday and now after playing half a season with Inter i can say it sure does work Not that Inter is the most difficult team to manage but its the way this tactic(s) perform, dominating and winning almost every game comfortable.

But it can go wrong, after 9 wins in a row i got beaten 4-0 away to Fiorentina, had som players injured but im sure i picked the wrong tactic.

I will keep on testing and tewak i little.

Its important to set up your set-piece instructions to have great success.

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

They won't be completely effective unless you implement all the details - and I havent even gone into setting up set-piece instructions for every one of your tactics (you have to duplicate them 13 times unfortunately). Don't mean to sound like a school teacher. My only worry is that these tactics will get forgotten about in a swamp of quick fix, one-size fits all 'super-tactics'. A lot of work goes into setting them all up , granted, and that's not going to suit your garden variety fm manager but I've never had the success I'm currently enjoying with other downloadable tactics on these forums. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Good for you. If people don't want to put the effort in and learn how it all works then that's their loss.

By the way, if you set up the first tactic with all the set pieces set, then you can just modify this "base" tactic and it'll save you having to do it on all of them.

That's what I always do when creating a tactic "set".

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">some first teamers with CAs in the high 150s and even one or two in the high 160s to 170s with good cover in most positions. Not world class I'm sure you'll agree but it's about countering the AIs tactic and maintaing an edge throughout the match. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

wow cool tactic. i will try it out some day. i just made an own tactic and pressed the sliders little random and now i am 14 games in row winning haha.

i wonder how u set up your corners? do u use target men and flick on or?

Never thought of doing that Millie. The only problem is that when you take over at a new club you may need to rejig your set-piece instructions to accomodate new players who are an aerial threat, e.g. you may find that your def mid is now a great target at the far post where as at your previous club it was your left winger. Anyway, the end result is a lot of tedious clicking but it's always worth it though.

Lobo - I haven't had the need to tweak anything in some time though I'm thinking of having another look at my players' creative freedom. If you are starting out using these tactics I would imagine the easiest way to go wrong is by reading the opponents' tactical changes incorrectly. If you are playing against a standard 4-4-2 and go a goal up you may see your opponent change to a flat counter-attacking 4-4-2 with no f-arrows. This is one of the 'counter-attacking variants' I mentioned earlier. Rather than dropping down one tactic from your set as you normally would drop down two instead to counter it. You end up playing a little deeper than you normally would which helps negate the other teams' counter-attacks, e.g. You start out at 14-20, go a goal up, you see the AI change to 4-4-2 Counter Attacking so you in turn drop to 12-18.

Another common mistake is simply misjudging your opponents' reputation, starting out with a tactic that is either too attacking or too defensive for the game in hand. This is where I find FMM invaluable, as you can make an informed guess now that you have a better idea of your opponent's reputation. Like I said earlier, reputations change, so if you are successful it will mean finding new 'base tactics' that work.

After Feyenoord's latest European adventure I have had to revise some of my rules regarding two-legged fixtures. I said before that away goals only kick in once the scores become level on aggregate.I now firmly believe that away goals kick in right from the start in the second leg - so if you are two goals down from the first leg choose your starting tactic as if you were two goals down and carry on from there.

kennec - I might post my set-piece instructions here in the future if I have the time. Most of it is common sense though. I have found that instructing your best long-range striker of the ball to lurk outside the area can be a real goal threat. Also, when defending corners I leave three pacey players up front, typically my wingers and my smaller striker. The AI alway leaves 4 players to mark, which means there are 4 less players threatening your goal from the corner being taken.

Googen, I'm impressed, I will take in all of your advice and do exactly what you say, with my Gateshead team, I'll tell you how well I did at the end of the season.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by EA_mon_hello2:

Googen, I'm impressed, I will take in all of your advice and do exactly what you say, with my Gateshead team, I'll tell you how well I do at the end of the season. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Googen you say the indicators to look out for, for a good base is pass percentage, shots on target, and tackles won. Could you put these into priority order?

Im using these sets, in smaller version thou.. Dont needed that many...

Got around 2 away, 2 home that i basically use...

But the tactic rocks, im currently running on 53 unbeaten games with Juventus..

Shots on Target is the best indication that you've found your base tactics but even that isn't always reliable, against better teams their players will always be able to out-play you to a certain extent but you should be able to stay close to level with them in SoT over the course of the game. Since linking all my players closing down with the defensive line I have come to dominate posession in most games, usually around the 56% mark but then again my Feyenoord team is quite experienced by this stage.

Looking at the game in the 2d engine you should pay attention to your players passing in the final third of the pitch. They should be releasing the ball just before they're closed down and creating good attacking opportunities.

I'm a little ignorant of English lower league clubs but I take it that Gateshead aren't a big club. You may find that your base home tactic is something like 8-14 or maybe even 9-15. Your away base tactic will be 4 below your home tactic. With higher reputation clubs you seem to be able to get away with more attacking football, i.e. shorter passing, slow tempo posession game etc., which is as it should be I suppose. As your reputation increases you will be able to adopt more attacking tactics as your base tactics. The best aspect of 'rule of one' tactics is the 'pass and move' style of football that your players adopt. It's always great to win games playing good football.

The Czech division 1 was the lowest league that I tested these tactics out in and I found (like many people), that pairing a big target man with a pacey forward worked wonders. I had David Strihavka up front with Adam Varadi. Neither player had great finishing attributes but lower league defenders simply couldn't cope with the combined aerial prowess and pace. Try and find a similar combination if possible, it won me two league titles. These tactics really kick in with your second season once your team chemistry has improved and your players are used to the formations.

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

Im using these sets, in smaller version thou.. Dont needed that many...

Got around 2 away, 2 home that i basically use...

But the tactic rocks, im currently running on 53 unbeaten games with Juventus.. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah, with Juve you will probably be using the 14-20 range as your base tactic and the 13-19 range when you face the other big Seria A clubs like milan and inter but the advantage of having the full tactics set is that even at 4-0 up you can drop deeper and counter attack, constantly maintaining an edge over your opponent. I always drop a tactic as soon as I score, or two tactics if the AI goes to a counter attacking variation. This is vital in the knockout stages of the Champions League when you don't want to concede an away goal or are hoping to sneak a goal on the counter attack away from home. Obviously you probably have a better squad then me which means you can get away without a full set. I kind of need all my tactics when I go into Europe against the big clubs. In the eredivisie though I'm mainly using the 14-20 range at home now against other Dutch clubs, dropping to 13-19 when Ajax come calling.

The winning run feels great but it's a kick in the teeth when it comes to an end. Ajax crashed my 104 game unbeaten run... all because of a goal that was blatantly offside. Bloomin' linesmen

Ive been using these tactics for five games with Atletico and although they are a bitch too set up I must say the results so far are spectacualr including a 4-0 home win against Barca. Brilliant work for coming up with thses tactics Googen their brilliant .........keen to hear what you have to say about set pieces regarding thses tactics as well

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

Im using these sets, in smaller version thou.. Dont needed that many...

Got around 2 away, 2 home that i basically use...

But the tactic rocks, im currently running on 53 unbeaten games with Juventus.. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

53!!! nice whut year are u in?

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

4-2-3-1: Possibly the best tactic in the game. If any of you could create a RoO variation of this you'd be laughing all the way to managerial infamy. Have your FBs man-mark their wingers, drop their closing down by one and set fwd runs to mixed at most. Have your MCd man mark their AMC, drop his closing down by one. Set tackling to mixed. Focus passing down both flanks. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi Googen,

I want to try out a new formation and your description of the 4-2-3-1 intrigued me. I was just wondering, which formation you were referring to. Are you referring to the formation with 3 AMC's with the outter AMC's on SArrows or the formation that utilises the AMR/AML with an AMC lurking behind the striker?

I would also like to know why you feel this tactic could possibly be the best tactic?

Googen, would any team use the 4-10 range at home?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by EA_mon_hello2:

Googen, would any team use the 4-10 range at home? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Possibly, I don't have enough experience of playing in the lower leagues with this tactics set. It was probably inaccurate of me to describe the Czech First Division as a lower league. Maybe a conference side in England might use it. What club are you managing? You sound like your having difficulty finding your base tactics. There should be a tactics range that will work agains the bulk of the clubs in your division, after all there is a limit to how attacking or defensive AI managers can go with their formations, just as Rule of One tactics can only go from ranges 1-7 to 14-20. So don't stress it, you will find them after a little trial and error.

Alexsaxon - glad to hear they're working for people. I can imagine the time it takes to set up the entire set could turn a lot of people off them. The key to building up unbeaten runs is keeping an eye on the AI's formations and tweaking to counter, particularly against the formations that utilise wing-forwards, e.g. 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 so be sure to heed my advice in the formations section. There are a couple of tactics that I haven't covered in my AI tactics advice section which I'll try to update in a future post. I've been facing the narrow 4-4-2 diamond quite a bit recently and while it looks exotic it's actually one of the easier formations to counter.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by jjnjnkj@hotmail.com:

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

4-2-3-1: Possibly the best tactic in the game. If any of you could create a RoO variation of this you'd be laughing all the way to managerial infamy. Have your FBs man-mark their wingers, drop their closing down by one and set fwd runs to mixed at most. Have your MCd man mark their AMC, drop his closing down by one. Set tackling to mixed. Focus passing down both flanks. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi Googen,

I want to try out a new formation and your description of the 4-2-3-1 intrigued me. I was just wondering, which formation you were referring to. Are you referring to the formation with 3 AMC's with the outter AMC's on SArrows or the formation that utilises the AMR/AML with an AMC lurking behind the striker?

I would also like to know why you feel this tactic could possibly be the best tactic? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm referring to the formation that uses actual wingers. Deportivo were famous for using this in Europe with Luque on the left wing and Valeron playing in the hole behind Tristan. I had forgotten about the other alternative since it has been a long time since I've encountered it in-game.

If youre thinking about creating a RoO tactics set based on this formation, by all means go for it but you may need to alter it a little from my 4-4-2 rules, particularly with regard to your pressing game.

I imagine the mentality range for the 14-20 tactic could run something like this: GK 14, DC15, FB16, MC 17, Wingers 18, AMC 19, FC 20.

The accompanying 'Closing Down' instructions could look like this: FC 20, AMC 19, Wingers 18, MC 17, FB 14, DC 12, GK 4. Your wingers now close down to one higher than your central midfielders since they are already pushed quite high up the pitch. This is only speculation though and I had to study the match engine a fair bit to guage the effectiveness of my pressing game. Still, your back four should more or less remain the same as in the 4-4-2 set. Also try making one of your central mids more attacking than the other, e.g. one has forward runs set to often, the other doesn't. I imagine this could work better than having to MCs with fwd runs set to mixed. Or maybe not, you'll just have to experiment.

Why do I believe that it's the best tactic in the game? Well, it's the one that I had the most difficulty facing for starters. Also, you have to take into account the in-game bias towards target men. If you had a tall striker with good jumping ability and a ready supply coming from your wingers I imagine the end result would be goals.

Thanks for your feedback, I have tried this formation before, but I seemed to get dominated alot in midfield. I used a fast striker instead of a Target Man type as you suggested with my wingers running inward to join the striker seemed to work pretty well with the wingers banging in a fair few.

I am tempted to start a new game to try it out but with the demo soon to be released (fingers crossed) I may wait till then to try the formation. Thanks again.

Googen, well done on the tactic set.

I have implemented them on my ECN side and have slowly started to get results...undefeated in 5!

I am playing a 4-5-1 with one DMC and 2 MCs with th e attacking MC farrowed. Here's hoping for promotion!

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by jayare35:

Googen, well done on the tactic set.

I have implemented them on my ECN side and have slowly started to get results...undefeated in 5!

I am playing a 4-5-1 with one DMC and 2 MCs with th e attacking MC farrowed. Here's hoping for promotion! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Cool, I would advise to tweak both the mentality settings and closing down if your adapting the 4-4-2 set for a 4-5-1 formation. I imagine they would be very similar to what I suggested for a possible 4-2-3-1. Of course it helps to be familiar with the 4-4-2 set (so that you understand exactly why the staggered closing down seems to work among other things) but jumping in at the deep end is how I learned to put this set together.

I will try to build a 4-2-3-1 set in the future but it wont be for a very long time... I have ambitions of managind in Serie A someday but first I'm going to take charge of a Bundesliga side, after a couple of more seasons in Holland Best of luck in the conference anyway.

I am trying this set as I would like to win something big with Palace before FM2008 comes out.

I have a couple of questions after following the instructions.

1) If I take the most attacking tactic are the tempo, width and passing style all the same at 4? It's just I always thought narrow was best away when more defensive and wide was better when trying to open up a team.

2) Apart from the GK who goes down to 1 and the FCs who go down to 15 for closing down all the others drop one per tactic?

I'm looking forward to winning it all!

Sorry for the double post but would you recommend playing a target man?

Hi, well I'm 100% sure that passing and tempo are linked, the game itself confirms this in the hints and tips tabs that pop up when the game is processing fixtures. You aren't the first person to question the logic of setting width at the same notch as the afore-mentioned instructions. All these settings are based on wwfan's original thread about the 'rule of one', I'm sure you could find it with a quick search. I printed out all 13 pages of it but I don't have it with me though I'm nearly certain that he linked passing, tempo and width together.

I understand what you're saying, you want to attack so you want to keep the ball out wide to stretch the opposition's defense but from what I've observed watching the match engine, even in the 14-20 range where your formation will ostensibly be at it's narrowest, my team still creates most of it's chances bringing the ball down the wings. So we have width despite the corresponding slider being set at 4. Watching the game in key highlights, (which is basically all the time because life is unfortunately far too short to spend fretting over FM 07), my wingers still play a crucial role in creating chances. There's also a certain logic in connecting passing, tempo and width. If you are playing a slow, continental posession game (a la Milan, where you have a lot of talented midfield players) and where you are passing the ball short as an extension of this game, do you really want your players spread out as wide as possible on the pitch when attacking? Surely this would go in conflict with a short passing game?

I really think that closing down overrides width when your team doesn't have the ball. In the 14-20 range where your strikers are set to 20 CD, they will still harry the opposing fullbacks despite playing in a narrow formation. Conversely, when you win the ball back and want to counter attack with the more defensive tactics do you want to do that with a short-passing game through the centre or do you want to spray quick passes down the flanks and release you strikers? I haven't heard of a wide short passing game or a narrow direct passing one. Still, I'll dig out my print out of wwfan's RoO thread this wknd just to make sure.

"all the others drop one per tactic?" Ehm, I would imagine so, that's basically what happens when your building a RoO set. It's impossible to keep dropping the GKs closing down as you drop the outfield players so it eventually becomes one. You could experiment and link a correlation between Strikers' closing down and the defensive line but I work my team hard and I like the idea of my forwards constantly pestering the opps. defense so I never lower them below 15. Just follow my closing-down rules and you should be fine. I always count the clicks on the mouse when I have to mirror settings or count down the sliders since there are no numbers there. It can be confusing though.

As for winning it all, well it will take a little time to find your base tactics. If I was to hazard a guess I would say 9-15 at home for Palace? I'd start there anyway, assuming you are starting a new game in 06/07. As reputations change so do your base tactics so beware.

A taret man is always good, given the in-game bias but it's not essential. The advantage of RoO tactics is that your players will link up well (as long as you have the right tactic selected), playing quality football, so eventually the advantage of having a target man becomes less signifigant. Don't waste your budget on one if you have more pressing needs in other areas.

If you're unsure about closing down settings, just remember that your attacking central midfielder will always close down to that tactic's default closing down so don't tick his individual setting. You can always use his setting as a starting point for the rest of the tactic's closing down settings.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Individual Closing Down: In our 14-20 tactic the individual settings are as follows - FC 20, Wingers 19, MCd 18, MCa 17, FB 14, DC12, GK 4. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Okay, but what about the rest of the tactics!?

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

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Individual Closing Down: In our 14-20 tactic the individual settings are as follows - FC 20, Wingers 19, MCd 18, MCa 17, FB 14, DC12, GK 4. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Okay, but what about the rest of the tactics!? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

If I understoood correctly the 13-19 tactic would be - FC 19, Wingers 18, MCd 17, MCa 16, FB 14, DC 12, GK 3 and so on through the tactics but the FCs are never less than 15.

Hi Googen ,Im going to give this a go mate.

Just one question whats FMM you mention to download to read teams reputation?

Any chance you could upload the tactics plus instructions?.

Would save a lot of hassle, especially as you've made alterations from the first post.

Gaz

I've set all these up on my lappy at home, I'll mail them to you tonight if you like.

Will be home at 6'ish

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

Gaz

I've set all these up on my lappy at home, I'll mail them to you tonight if you like.

Will be home at 6'ish </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Cheers mate, any advice on their implementation?.

Can't really add much to Googen's instructions.

Found I was doing better away than at home though.

I still think this might be down to the lack of width at home although Googen finds it works fine for him.