Rashidi

You have IWs and a mezzala. Those are creative roles and you are adding a playmaker to that too. Try it out see what happens and learn from it. Choose the role for the style of play you want and find the player to fit the role. If you want to use him as a AP then give him options to do something with the ball. A wide winger to stretch play or an IF to get behind the defence. Different roles give you different outcomes.

It’s learning a position and having the attributes to play a role. When you train a player in a new position it takes time. Any player can play in any role, how well he does that depends on his attributes. Best option train him in the role, but if he has capped his CA then over time you might see a small redistribution of attributes towards the role that is being trained. I would suggest playing in the role he is most suited to. The CM(A) role is fine if your goal is to make him do third man runs into the box and become a late threat.

If you choose counter then at higher mentalities the team is willing to risk trying to push the ball forward to risk a counter even if it’s a bad idea. So you could get rushed chances. If you choose hold shape the team will try to keep a more cohesive shape allowing it to move the ball in hopes of prying a defence open, this could lead to better goal scoring options if are playing on mid tempo settings as well. If you elect not to use either instruction leaving the option unchecked then the team will exercise its decision making attribute to determine whether it should counter or not. Ultimately the roles and duties you choose and having players with “stop ball” and “dictates tempo” will influence this further. AI generated counters will still happen under any option too. Personally I play it unchecked for most cases and only opt for counter when I am playing a low block.

The AI does try and copy your formation if you become very successful but I don’t see it happening all the time. And if it does copy it won’t be “downloading” your tactic but adopting the themes of the system. What the AI needs to do, and this is where balancing is an issue, is adapt and react to your in game changes. For example, you are always sending 10 players forward for set pieces, then the AI needs to defend with 10 in the area. Tactically though it’s a lot more debatable how much it should adapt. Some managers like Gasperini, never adapt to what other managers do and others like Areta might play 20 formations in one game. Ultimately as a start, what SI need to do next season is improve how the AI deals with defending set pieces. I am sure there are other areas that can be improved, but that would no 1 on my bucket list.

When in the set piece creator you do have the option to set Recovery defenders and you can have as many as 5 focused on being recovery defenders, Two will stay near the half way line and 3 more at the edge of the area. Its pretty difficult being exposed to counters at the moment and I usually only have one staying back. Granted its not what you want (ie, having 3 or more players at the halfway line), and that could be something that one requests as a future feature. I don't think there was ever a feature where we could assign someone specifically to be man marked at set pieces and that too could be a future feature request. What the game does at the moment is work off your priority lists. Here my priority lists are aerial, and I have set player mark as the first priority in my set piece so my best player will be assigned to mark a threat. And since this is aerial, it will follow my list of aerial defenders and choose the one at the top of the list to man mark their best aerial threat, like the one I have shown above. What I have noticed and this is something I could never do in earlier editions of the game was to target specific weak areas of the opposition via opp reports, and this I do diligently every game. If the AI likes to target the near post I have at least 2 players covering that zone, one for the aerial threat and one for the box threat, if I find that it has too many good players with jumping reach, I then move the player out of the box threat and have two players marking the near post aerially. The feeling I get of seeing in game tweaks to set pieces taking off makes this an OP feature for the human player on FM24, and some might even suggest setting everyone to mixed so that the feature cannot be exploited. I disagree, we need to push it as far as possible so SI can see what needs improving. I do find that the opposition reports are giving away a lot of information that can help you defend set pieces effectively. I think the human has an overwhelming advantage at set pieces, so much so that its quite frequently a given that I will score from one. I can't directly exploit them ie, play the near post routine for every game and score 30 goals with my central defender, and I am thankful for that. As far as throw ins go, this has always been an issue with the game, previously we only had the option to set up throw ins for the attacking third, never the defensive and middle thirds. Now we do, so there are more options in general terms, but in specific terms, SI has decided to go a different way with offensive throws in the final third and have given us two broad options " work ball into box" or "long throw". Now this is a design decision from them and they are entitled to make any decision choice they want - it's their game. So I am happy reconciling myself with the fact that an offensive throw is as equally effective for me as the AI. At the moment, the biggest gripe I have with the game is that the AI doesn't adapt to what I am doing. To give you an example: I always opt to front load all my direct freekicks, leaving only one player back. This gives me a numerical advantage, and its not uncommon in the modern game, more and more sides are front loading when they attacking the box on set pieces. What I would like to see more of is the AI trying that out or at least recognising that I have done that and pull everyone back. The set piece creator does give me plenty of options for corners and free kicks, and I do enjoy taking advantage of playing a mixture of short routines and near post routines, and switching things around midway when I notice VVD is defending the near post. Using everton I sat back and played a low block for 90 mins against LFC, and scored a goal off a setpiece sent to the far post. The set piece creator isn't perfect and can only get better, but to say we don't have any options to defend isn't an issue I face.

Whenever any event happens the m.e. recalculates, this can also include injuries, yellow cards and any tactical change made.

That’s a tactical question. Sounds like you are giving away too many easy chances or you just have a terribly chosen team. Without more info, people are guessing.

Heading, technique, strength and aggression.

A successful choice is always the right choice and not all right choices end up being successful. I cant help being philosophical.

Ah then it’s the AI manager, not all AI managers keep two upfront. And yes, the lack of adapting is SI’s issue to fix.

How are they supposed to be marked? You have 4 marking 4, 3 in the wall, and 2 up front. They are attacking you with 6 players only and they already out number you. So basically its 6 vs 4. Unless you know of a way to ask your 4 defenders to get themselves cloned, you did this to yourself. How could you fix your free kick routines? - Have two at the edge of the area, bring everyone back. Choose one player to be in the counter group, and set him to edge of area, and the other can be a tracker, also set to edge of area. This is not a bug, cos direct free kicks are a numbers game. Attacking sides ALWAYS have the advantage of being able to have more 'free' players since defending sides place x number of players in a wall. If this is happening to you once a game then its your set up.

Mentality is important because as a risk modifier it affects several things in the game. Pass into space affects the whole team and encourages riskier use of the ball. When one understands this they can apply it to tactics. The challenge is not being encumbered by what other people say. I had someone come on my stream insisting that the only reason I won was because I switched to attacking mentality. The next season I played the entire season on cautious to prove a point. Whenever I want to be very defensive and seek to use the 442 in a low block playing a style which aims to reduce passing options between the lines I also opt for more disciplined play and if I want to park the bus and make sure I don’t hand the ball to the AI each time, I time my use of pass into space. Without revealing too much of what happened from my Everton series, the low block 442 produced some fantastic results away from home. Using the same low block I had another game at home against a top 4 side and opted for the same settings with one key difference - I played on attacking mentality with a low block. When you do this it shifts the DL, LOE, adjusts the width, passing and tempo slightly higher. And with the team aiming to be a bit more risky with the ball, we beat a top 4 side by reducing their space. I do tend to score a fair few goals from setpieces, these normally happen after an in-game tweak. A lot of what I do is recognising how the AI is trying to play and then slightly tweaking my formation to make it harder for them. It takes practice and while it appears easy for me, it only works because I have a deep understanding of how the roles move and what players are capable of with their attributes. It takes time, but from feedback I get from other players it’s something that is richly rewarding once the effort to learn reaps dividends.

My subscribers want the AI to file a bug report against me, cos apparently I am a set piece merchant with the short corner routine.

Hmm, ok There is a trend where people seem to feel the only way to play is via gegen pressing. So I started a 442 with Everton. The goal is to play only the 442 and I have to admit it’s a lot of fun playing it in different ways. I will expand on this a bit more and will probably update this thread as I continue my save but, it’s entirely possible to do this. When playing a 442 the challenge is identifying your own teams strengths and weaknesses and in most cases adapting to what the opposition is doing. Sticking one 442 in and not make changes is probably going to give you a lot of issues especially if you seek to send those fullbacks up in attack. I am not in front of my PC and will make this short, but will update later. 1. What kind of team do you have? Everton only have Branthwaite who has jumping reach and heading to match. And with 4 others at 14, it isn’t strong in the air. 2. It has two strong forwards and a decent IW in Danjuma. On the right a slower McNeil and probably a retrained Patterson as winger options. 3. Fairly aggressive centre mids with Garner being creative and Doucoure a threat with long shots. First thing I did was set up set pieces to play them all short so we can keep the ball, Near and far post options aren’t very good. I have 4 types of 442. One mid block played with 4 defend duties a winger on attack and 2 strikers on attack duty and it has done very well, shutting the Hammers down and given us a good start. When I played Manchester City I took a leaf from Arsenal’s book and played a low block, trap outside and invite crosses, got both CMs to play on defend duty and turned both strikers to pressing forwards. We went to City and walked away with a point by being disciplined and giving them little space between the lines. You can do this both, most people I notice never adjust pressing intensity or use opposition instructions. For this match I used OIs to show the wingers to the flanks and the CMs too. City were reduced to taking long shots and because Haaland wasn’t playing I didn’t have to worry about aerial threats. Playing a 442 well with an underdog requires thought.

I think people are thinking that “magic terms” like a Rest Defence and Rest Attack are only available in specific formations. All formations give you some kind of shape/option when you have the ball and when you don’t. You can easily have good options when you are defending and have players ready for the counter. An example is the 442, if you were defending and had a winger on attack with 2 strikers that’s your rest attack. Analysts use terms like this to identify and name specific transition events. To answer your question it depends on your players. I am now specifically playing a 442 with Everton and have a counter attacking option with 3 roles, the winger and 2 strikers.