FM12's tactical restrictiveness and what to do about it

Having experimented with and tested numerous formations since the 12.1 morale changes, it seems that achieving consistent, optimal performance on the pitch requires that one severely limit your choice of formation. While it's generally good that the various exploit and morale fixes now require a more balanced approached, it seems you can only achieve a balanced approach in the context of a 442, 4411 or their various derivatives. To some extent, this seems to be a result of AI behaviors largely being calibrated to the 442. While "wide play" and "roaming" instructions should be the way to work around the problems with various formations, they seem to be largely interpreted by players as "cautious suggestions" rather than explicit instructions, so, for example, a midfielder in a narrow 4312 set to "Move Into Channels" will rarely move out wide to whip a cross into the box, preferring to mainly remain central and produce the kind of false, through-the-middle CCC's that raise an opposing keeper's confidence and, thus, typically prompt a man of the match performance. Similarly, centrebacks in a 3-man defense prefer to stay bunched up next to one another as if they were playing with a 5-man defensive line instead of providing cover on the flanks.

And then, of course, you have the issue of attacking wingers failing to track back, turning any kind of modern 433 or 4231 into a defensive lottery the moment the opposing side's fullbacks decide to overlap.

So, on the whole, the 433/4231 are defensively unbalanced, 3-man defenses are even more frail and narrow formations (4312/41212/4221) lead to too many bad chances and awesome opposing keeper performances regardless of wideplay instructions.

This is not to say you can't win with these formations. You can certainly go on and win the Champions League with a crazy 2-4-4 if you have a strong enough squad, but it is, for practical purposes, something of an aesthetic luxury as you will not achieve optimal performance because stubborn AI behaviors either prevent you from creating a balanced array of attacking options or a solid defensive system that actually marks every area of the pitch.

So that leaves you with the 442 or 4411 if you want your players to consistently play coherent and logical football.

Now, I'm not making the case for the return of "supertactics." Rather, the game should enable a player to adapt any basic modern formation (be it a 442, 4231, 41212 or 352) to multiple opponents as managers do in real life rather than forcing players to accept the hardcoded "compromises" that come with deviating from the 442/4411.

To accomplish this, I recommend introducing three additions to tactical instructions:

1) Wideplay Instruction "Move to Touchline"

This would be an extreme form of "Move Into Channels" for central players. Rather than remaining central most of the time when in possession, this would prompt a MCL/MCR/AMCL/AMCR/STL/STR to immediately move to the flanks to make himself available for a pass or attempt a cross or angled through ball. This would enable players using narrow formations to employ pseudo-wingers who provide width to the attack while still tracking back into the middle to clog the midfield when out of possession.

2) Track Back "Rarely, Normal, Always"

Simply, this would reduce or increase a player's tendency to track back relative to their mentality and position. This would enable players to achieve better representations of the 4231, 433 and 4-6-0 formations, particularly against opponents using aggressive fullbacks/wingbacks.

3) Cover Flanks "Yes, No"

This instruction would only apply to players in the CBL or CBR position. It would, obviously, instruct them to move out wide and defend the flanks until wingbacks or wingers arrive to defend the wide areas. This would enable players to better represent 3-man defensive systems.

I like the ideas, especially the "track back"! I hate it when my 4 players upfront just watch from the kick-off spot how the opposition scores goal by goal. BTW I have mentality set very low already, duty is "support".

It's not clear to me why the AML/AMR positions even exist and what advantage they're supposed to offer over using ML/MR or just three strikers. On top of that, they just create AI squad building problems since many "attacking wingers" are incapable of playing in the ML/MR positions.

It's not clear to me why the AML/AMR positions even exist and what advantage they're supposed to offer over using ML/MR or just three strikers. On top of that, they just create AI squad building problems since many "attacking wingers" are incapable of playing in the ML/MR positions.

This! At the moment AMR/AML (as opposed to ML/MR) seems to be an instruction to "Don't bother to defend. Ever.", combined with "You're a striker now, so go stand between the centreback and fullback!"

Having experimented with and tested numerous formations since the 12.1 morale changes, ...

So that leaves you with the 442 or 4411 if you want your players to consistently play coherent and logical football.

Now, I'm not making the case for the return of "supertactics." Rather, the game should enable a player to adapt any basic modern formation (be it a 442, 4231, 41212 or 352) to multiple opponents as managers do in real life rather than forcing players to accept the hardcoded "compromises" that come with deviating from the 442/4411.

To accomplish this, I recommend introducing three additions to tactical instructions:

1) Wideplay Instruction "Move to Touchline"

This would be an extreme form of "Move Into Channels" for central players. Rather than remaining central most of the time when in possession, this would prompt a MCL/MCR/AMCL/AMCR/STL/STR to immediately move to the flanks to make himself available for a pass or attempt a cross or angled through ball. This would enable players using narrow formations to employ pseudo-wingers who provide width to the attack while still tracking back into the middle to clog the midfield when out of possession.

2) Track Back "Rarely, Normal, Always"

Simply, this would reduce or increase a player's tendency to track back relative to their mentality and position. This would enable players to achieve better representations of the 4231, 433 and 4-6-0 formations, particularly against opponents using aggressive fullbacks/wingbacks.

3) Cover Flanks "Yes, No"

This instruction would only apply to players in the CBL or CBR position. It would, obviously, instruct them to move out wide and defend the flanks until wingbacks or wingers arrive to defend the wide areas. This would enable players to better represent 3-man defensive systems.

I like the idea of it. Would love them being introduced in FM13, especially the 2nd and 3rd point

Players defense effort should be influenced by his character, his work rate and to a degree with managers instructions. Currently it's mostly influenced by position. Dirk Kuyt positioned as AMR won't track back and Arjen Robben positioned as MR will, this freaks me out. Players positioned as AMC don't track back as well and always seem to stay to close to the strikers when team is not in possession. Mentality doesn't seem to help at all with these issues as it mostly influences players willingness to choose risky solutions and timing of forward runs.

Cut in instruction is poor replacement for side arrows as it doesn't affect player movement off the ball so it should be there on top of arrows. And I would really like to see All men behind ball brought back.

This is a bit off topic, but this is excerpt from terrible online manual on Wide Play (8.2.4. Player Instructions):

"...intention; the technical ability of the player determines whether the ball will be put in the right places regularly.

Wide Play

Hold Up Ball: This will see the player to put his foot on the ball and take a look around to see what’s on before moving it on and making the appropriate decision. It works best in a slower..."

Wonderfully informative!

Great tactical shouts! Love the ideas.

Best. Idea. Ever!

It's not clear to me why the AML/AMR positions even exist and what advantage they're supposed to offer over using ML/MR or just three strikers. On top of that, they just create AI squad building problems since many "attacking wingers" are incapable of playing in the ML/MR positions.

That second point is particularly annoying. I have some excellent wingers who can only play AMR/L or MR/L, seemingly never both. I have plenty of players who can play both AMC and Striker, or AMC and MC, or MC and DM. It seriously limits the flexibility of my formations, meaning I can't 'employ tactical surprises' because i'd have to sub one or both of my wingers off to adopt a more defensive approach. As a result I don't even bother training a defensive tactic because I would have to bring new players in to adopt it, compromising my primary tactics and adding unneeded players to my wage bill. There are players who can do both but they are too few and far between.

The positions should be simplified. The difference between a MR and a AMR should not be a positional one (i.e. requiring a different player, or a player who is naturally able in both positions) but simply be a case of adjusting tactical instructions.

Then it gets complicated even further with the difference between a full back and a wing back. Their role in real life is not determined by their static position, it is determined by what actions they take in what situation. For example, most full backs occupy a defensive role, but go forward when attacking to offer support on the wings. Full backs in Football Manager can do this (And they do it well, my full backs create many chances), but the same isn't true for an attacking player tracking back. This is a significant flaw in the tactical flexibility for any team that likes to play out wide.

You can solve the AML/R tracking back problem simply by having them as ML/R and have them getting forward. Basically a 4-4-1-1 is the same as a 4-2-3-1, the wide players will still get forward a lot more than the central players.

There is a thread on the tactics forum which goes into greater detail about this and shows the positional heatmaps to show what area of the pitch these players operated in.

p.s. I play a narrow 4-1-2-1-2 at the moment and am enjoying some good success with it. Wingers are not that helpful in FM12 as long as you have full backs on a wing back role.