Why does my team NEVER follow my tactics?!

I don't know if anyone else finds they have the same problems, but could someone please help me if they know how to solve it:

I've been playing since FM10 and I have invariably found that, no matter what I set my tactics as, the players will just play their own style and almost completely ignore my tactical instructions. It seems to be even worse this version than it was in FM11, which was frustrating enough.

For instance, I try to set width as the narrowest setting, tempo as the slowest, focus passing as through the middle, individual passing settings as shortest, and even my playmaker as a central midfielder. It doesn't matter what formation I use, whether it be 4-4-2, 4-3-1-2, or even 4-1-2-1-2, the players kick it to the wings, generally at a fast tempo and often play long, direct passes rather than short ones and look to get it to the striker as soon as they can.

Also, another thing which has constantly been annoying me is that my lone striker will ALWAYS drift out to the wings no matter what I do. Whether I'm playing a 4-5-1, 4-3-2-1, 4-4-1-1, etc etc, I've set the team width to narrowest, focus passing through the middle, tempo slowest, even the striker's creative freedom to as little as possible and instructing him to tightly mark one of the central defenders, his wide play to every possible option, but as soon as we get the ball, the striker goes out wide, and instead of my defenders and midfielders looking to build up the play at a slow tempo through the middle, my striker runs out to the wing and they always look to play it to him straight away.

Another thing which seems to happen is that I set my fullbacks and wingers Run with Ball option to often, and yet they seem to try and pass the ball off as soon as possible. This often results in left back passing to left midfielder/winger, who then passes it to the striker who has drifted out to the wing. Why won't they just run with the damn ball?!

Does anybody else have the same problems? I had them in FM11 and sadly it looks like they are still there. If I set a narrow formation with slowest tempo and shortest passing with focus passing up the middle, I don't expect my players to try and get it to the wings or the striker out wide as soon as they can, but this seems to always happen! Is there anything else I can do differently?

Thanks in advance for your help

Mentality & passing range I would say are two of your problems.

Passing range - Setting it to shortest is rarely a good idea, you need to have other players within that range for the pass to be made. If the other players are outside of what the ME deems to be "shortest" then the player on the ball will mostly ignore them as per your instruction and play safe longer balls forward.

Mentality - This covers risk, direction & speed. The higher the mentality the more the player will look to pass forwards (rather than square or backwards), play quicker (less time to spot better passing options) & will attempt riskier passes. It also has an effect on a players position & movement, a higher mentality will result in a players starting position being slightly forward from the base position and their first movement will be forwards which could make them unavailable for an early pass.

You'll probably see an improvement if you play around with these two settings or if you are using the tactics creator play around with the roles & orders.

In terms of a lone frontman there isn't a lot you can do, they'll always look for space and typically this will be out wide due to the opposition defence.

EDIT

A screenshot of your tactics screen would probably be helpful as well as people could then see what orders you are using.

Thanks Cougar, that's some really helpful advice. I'll try to fiddle around with those two settings and see if I have any good results.

What about the problem of left/right backs rarely running with the ball even though I set it to often. Would a more defensive mentality make them more likely to run more or less, and is there anything else I can do to try and get them to run more rather than passing the ball straight to the left/right midfielder who usually then passes it straight to the wide striker rather than attempting to run with the ball as well?

Yeah the passing style is really passing range. Imagine a circle around the player within which he will look for teammates to pass to. If the circle is too small he will kick the ball safely upfield.

Players will look for space, and if you play very narrowly, there is no space. So whenever there is a 3d animation that shows you attacking, it will necessarily have to show the few instances where your players have achieved a string of successful passing and movement - which in your case will be whenever they are ignoring your commands.

Thanks Cougar, that's some really helpful advice. I'll try to fiddle around with those two settings and see if I have any good results.

What about the problem of left/right backs rarely running with the ball even though I set it to often. Would a more defensive mentality make them more likely to run more or less, and is there anything else I can do to try and get them to run more rather than passing the ball straight to the left/right midfielder who usually then passes it straight to the wide striker rather than attempting to run with the ball as well?

I think defensive mentality would probably mean less often. Remembering that mentality is partly risk then the player could decide that it is too risky to run with the ball and maybe get tackled.

I'm using FM11 but I would try the shout "Look for overlap" perhaps if its still there, it might help a bit.

Ok, thank you both for that advice. I'll try and have a tinker with the tactics now.

Will tempo set at the slowest have any adverse effect on tactics? I can see how having too short a passing range or too narrow a width potentially causing the players to disregard the tactics, but can I keep the tempo at the absolute slowest without expecting to have similar negative effects?

Ok, thank you both for that advice. I'll try and have a tinker with the tactics now.

Will tempo set at the slowest have any adverse effect on tactics? I can see how having too short a passing range or too narrow a width potentially causing the players to disregard the tactics, but can I keep the tempo at the absolute slowest without expecting to have similar negative effects?

Why do you want the tempo to be the slowest? Have you made the observation that slow tempo = better (but possibly fewer) chances? Have you made sure that all he players make themselves available for a pass instead of looking for through balls or challenges with their defenders - aka Run From Deep Rarely rather than Often? The latter is better suited to quick, direct football while the former is more suited to slow possession football (IMO).

Start with mixed (click 10) tempo and tweak it to where your strategy/formation/tactic yields the desired result. Instead of going straight ahead making an extreme tactic and expecting it to work, tweak a TC standard 4-1-2-1-2 tactic until it does what you want it to do. Otherwise it will be impossible to know where to start if it doesn't work.

The less "Often" instructions and extreme slider movements you have in your tactic, the bigger is the chance that the players you have will use their particular skills to the benefit of the team.... that is my philosophy at least.

Why do you want the tempo to be the slowest? Have you made the observation that slow tempo = better (but possibly fewer) chances? Have you made sure that all he players make themselves available for a pass instead of looking for through balls or challenges with their defenders - aka Run From Deep Rarely rather than Often? The latter is better suited to quick, direct football while the former is more suited to slow possession football (IMO).

It isn't so much that I find the slowest tempo produces the best results, but the style I want to play is a short passing game (which I also find generally to produce better chances). Therefore, having a slow tempo generally goes hand in hand with the short passing game, as a quick tempo + short passing tactic doesn't generally work too well.

From all the advice above, it would appear that putting options too extreme one way can often have the opposite result (as in a too short passing game resulting in long passes). Can having too slow a tempo somehow result in my players playing the ball quickly for some reason? Or is it safe to have it on slowest as long as I've adjusted the mentalities and passing style to reflect this tempo?

Slow tempo can mean your players get caught on the ball and lose possession in bad areas of the field. On the flipside it does give more time for moves to develop producing better chances as you've identified.

A lot depends on what the opposition are doing. If they are sitting back with men behind the ball then a slow tempo will work but if they are up in your faces putting pressure on its probably a bad idea.

It isn't so much that I find the slowest tempo produces the best results, but the style I want to play is a short passing game (which I also find generally to produce better chances). Therefore, having a slow tempo generally goes hand in hand with the short passing game, as a quick tempo + short passing tactic doesn't generally work too well.

From all the advice above, it would appear that putting options too extreme one way can often have the opposite result (as in a too short passing game resulting in long passes). Can having too slow a tempo somehow result in my players playing the ball quickly for some reason? Or is it safe to have it on slowest as long as I've adjusted the mentalities and passing style to reflect this tempo?

Yeah but setting the passing to short doesn't mean that the team will pass short passes, it means they will look nearby for passing options. The difference is that if there are no safe options (influenced by mentality, Creativity, Passing, Anticipation, Technique and Decisions), a player on short passing will clear the ball unless he has a very attacking mentality - and then he may lose the ball to an opponent instead. You should set your players with comparatively good Passing and Creativity attributes to Direct passing style and the more limited players to short. They will still pass short passes if the tempo is slow and there are players dropping deep to get the ball - even if you tell them to play a Direct passing game.

The passing style, like the Counter Attack tick-off box, both do the opposite of what it sounds like.

Ok, I'm still trying to alter the tactics but I'm finding that my players are still playing to the wings, even if I'm on a 4-1-2-1-2 with narrow width. It's very frustrating!

How does team width affect play in different formation? For instance, how will a team play with width on either narrowest or widest in a narrow formation like 4-1-2-1-2? Also, how will they play with narrowest or widest setting on a wider formation like 4-5-1? Will a wide formation make them drift to the wings more, or would it allow them to actually come into the middle of the park more from the wings?

Ok, I'm still trying to alter the tactics but I'm finding that my players are still playing to the wings, even if I'm on a 4-1-2-1-2 with narrow width. It's very frustrating!

How does team width affect play in different formation? For instance, how will a team play with width on either narrowest or widest in a narrow formation like 4-1-2-1-2? Also, how will they play with narrowest or widest setting on a wider formation like 4-5-1? Will a wide formation make them drift to the wings more, or would it allow them to actually come into the middle of the park more from the wings?

I suppose a narrow formation will react differently to the width setting than a wide formation. Width is simply a sort of radius centred around an imaginary line in the centre of the pitch, as sideways team movement is not too well programmed in this game. So a narrow formation with narrow width will leave lots of space down both sides, so that the full backs will be drawn out wide leaving space behind them to exploit. Narrow width is good when you defend deep and bad when you attack high - a slow passing game will normally demand that you use the whole width of the field in order to create enough space to pass and run in. A wide formation playing narrowly will have less space between the players in the centre of the pitch but leave gaps by the touchlines.

To be honest, I don't think it is possible to achieve a very narrow, short passing, low tempo game with any sort of consistency.

I don't know if anyone else finds they have the same problems, but could someone please help me if they know how to solve it:

I've been playing since FM10 and I have invariably found that, no matter what I set my tactics as, the players will just play their own style and almost completely ignore my tactical instructions. It seems to be even worse this version than it was in FM11, which was frustrating enough.

For instance, I try to set width as the narrowest setting, tempo as the slowest, focus passing as through the middle, individual passing settings as shortest, and even my playmaker as a central midfielder. It doesn't matter what formation I use, whether it be 4-4-2, 4-3-1-2, or even 4-1-2-1-2, the players kick it to the wings, generally at a fast tempo and often play long, direct passes rather than short ones and look to get it to the striker as soon as they can.

Also, another thing which has constantly been annoying me is that my lone striker will ALWAYS drift out to the wings no matter what I do. Whether I'm playing a 4-5-1, 4-3-2-1, 4-4-1-1, etc etc, I've set the team width to narrowest, focus passing through the middle, tempo slowest, even the striker's creative freedom to as little as possible and instructing him to tightly mark one of the central defenders, his wide play to every possible option, but as soon as we get the ball, the striker goes out wide, and instead of my defenders and midfielders looking to build up the play at a slow tempo through the middle, my striker runs out to the wing and they always look to play it to him straight away.

Another thing which seems to happen is that I set my fullbacks and wingers Run with Ball option to often, and yet they seem to try and pass the ball off as soon as possible. This often results in left back passing to left midfielder/winger, who then passes it to the striker who has drifted out to the wing. Why won't they just run with the damn ball?!

Does anybody else have the same problems? I had them in FM11 and sadly it looks like they are still there. If I set a narrow formation with slowest tempo and shortest passing with focus passing up the middle, I don't expect my players to try and get it to the wings or the striker out wide as soon as they can, but this seems to always happen! Is there anything else I can do differently?

Thanks in advance for your help

how much creative freedoom do you give your players? the more CF you give to to more players the more likeley ity is that your tactics will be ignored

how much creative freedoom do you give your players? the more CF you give to to more players the more likeley ity is that your tactics will be ignored

I generally have the CF setting depending on their creativity + decisions rating. More defensive players with low ratings have slightly less than normal whilst more creative players I give more freedom.

Do I really need to give almost all of my players low CF just so they will follow my tactics?