Match Preperation Tip

I am not sure how much the match preperation effects the results, but I reilize that I get better results if pay more attention to match preparation. If I have a big game I set it to high or very high with "defensive positioning". If I am playing against a smaller team I set it to low or very low with "attacking movement". It is up to you and up to your tactic, but my tip is to create a note for match preperation for every monday and thursday. I was forgeting to change the settings, but I find it useful to create notes that reminds me to change the match preperation settings. You can change the days depending your league schedule. As I am playing in Turkish League and Euro-Cup Monday and Thursday fits for me.

And with the National team, Match prep is always on maximum.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the first time I purposefully set the workload to high and 'Defensive Positioning' from 5 days prior to the match, I gave an excellent defensive performance in a 3-1 away victory against a team who dominated possession.

So the slider has an impact on the focus areas? I though that it only influences the fluency of your formation and tactics.

Check your player training tab, there's a section there for match prep. The higher the match prep workload then the less the players do elsewhere...

So the slider has an impact on the focus areas? I though that it only influences the fluency of your formation and tactics.

same here, thats what i thought!

same here, thats what i thought!

mm this is what i read too, wish i could remember where it was from, if it was offical or not >.<

It is like you train mostly the areas where you check IMO. If I could summarize it:

Attacking movement: We read the news of a big team working their strikers on shooting in the week they are going to play much smaller team. Or working on crosses to find their targets. Also for strikers to be timely when running to near and far posts for a cross. I believe Att. Mov. represents something like this

Defensive Movement: It is for playing a higher rep team. We have it on the news such as a coach is concentrating on his defensive players, giving them talks and paying more attention to them in mid-week before the big game coming up. Or showing them how to mark opponents tightly, when to tackle. It should be something like this

Team Belending: This is before the season starts and the for January camps when there is new signings and when the League have a breake.

Attacking Set piece: I believe this is used before the derby matches mostly. When the two teams are very smilliar and when a goal can make a big difference. In the match equal teams will cancel each other out, but if you can score from a free-kick or from a corner; you can win the match. It can even let you win the game with bigger marigins; when the opposition changes their game-plan to more offensive one to get the tie. You can use the free space you are going to have to have mor chances. This will be most usefull against derby games I suppose.

Defensive Set Piece: You can use this option if you have a weakness conceding goals from free-kicks or corners. Also it can be usefull if the opposition has player who can score from fee-kicks such as Drogba or Simao.

These are what I can imagine. However as I said creating a note to remind me to change settings gives me opportunity to see the difference. I was forgeting to change the slider or the focus areas, so I couldn't reilize to see the difference. If you forget to check the match prep after every game like me; I can suggest you to create a note for yourself. It will remind you to lower the slider; if you have a game againts a smaller team, so that your developing players could increase their attributes. It will also remind you to set the slider higher levels; for the stronger opponents.

When I get the scout report of the next opposition I click on Match Preperation there and adjust depending on how confident I am and/or whom Im playing. Used to think it was another useless feature which delayed you getting to the game but now I actually like it.

What i tend to do with match prep is set it very high pre season and then lowest thruout the season. If you need to learn a new formation in a hurry set it to high and only train the one formation you want. That way all the work is focused into one area.

What i tend to do with match prep is set it very high pre season and then lowest thruout the season. If you need to learn a new formation in a hurry set it to high and only train the one formation you want. That way all the work is focused into one area.

I see the theory behind this (Eg to improve fluidity in your tactic before the season,) but doesn't this completely go against the Title of the feature?

What I mean is, the feature is called "Match Preparation," yet you are doing most match preparation when you have no matches (Pre Season) and least match preparation when you have lots of matches (During the Season)

FM can be very confusing!! So far I've tended to keep my Match Prep quite high both pre and during season. Not got far enough into the game yet to see what my results are. my theory though is to prepare lots for games during the season, then in the off season decrease the match prep and concentrate on improving player stats etc.

I always use Team Blend for the first month or two of the season then change to attacking movement and keep it there.

However that is because my team are amazing now

When it was my first season in the premiership i did use alot more defensive phases

I see the theory behind this (Eg to improve fluidity in your tactic before the season,) but doesn't this completely go against the Title of the feature?

What I mean is, the feature is called "Match Preparation," yet you are doing most match preparation when you have no matches (Pre Season) and least match preparation when you have lots of matches (During the Season)

FM can be very confusing!! So far I've tended to keep my Match Prep quite high both pre and during season. Not got far enough into the game yet to see what my results are. my theory though is to prepare lots for games during the season, then in the off season decrease the match prep and concentrate on improving player stats etc.

If you keep it high both before the season and in the season; your developing players (youth players) won't improve their attributes a lot since they pay more attention to match prep than their individual development. So if there are any player in first or reserve suqad that you want him to improve personally; I suggest you to tone down the match prep. time to time.

As far as I understand match prep are trainings that you mostly focus before a match. I see it as a way that the manager concentrating more of an area which is picked. As IRL the teams are having an half day or so bofore the match that they gather up and concentrate on the tactic they will perform. The match prep is all about that gathering IMO. You can have match discussion for only couple hours (very low setting) or you can have it for one full day or maybe one and a half day (very high). In the upcoming match discussion period, depending to your opponent, you can focus about attacking or defensive moves or you can focun about set pieces. If you pay more attention to attacking movement it means that the whole team is concentrating on attack as write before and visa versa.

The improvement in match prap. should be that if you concentrate on defensive movement the match prep on defensive players should be higher than attacking players. What can you say to your striker on a defensive training. Or what can you say to your CB when you concentrate on attacking movements.

It is indeed needs to be improved, but it is a good feature IMO.

I have a set of three tactics all variations of each other ie one "normal" one more defensive and one more attacking. I am in December 2010 of the first season and I use the normal tactic most. I occasionally checked the 6 blue bar graphs which appear when you click on the specified tactic and they were all at different levels for the various headers. Now I just noticed today that in my normal tactic the blue bars are complete in all six areas. In the other two lesser used tactics they are still at various levels from almost full to half way full. I used to change from the Fluid setting to one of the other options depending on how many days between matches but never really seen any difference so just left it on fluid. I am wondering now if the intention is that once these facets of the tactic are fluid in each area is it then the meaning that now you can concentrate on improving the options other than Fluid?. I do use the Preparation screen on a match basis and usually set my match tactic there after the staff advice meeting. I have found that my team responds better to my instructions this way as opposed to setting it up prior to the actual game as I have always done in the past. What do you others do once the graph has gone fully blue?.

I am in season 2014/15. All bars in all 3 tactics are full. However I believe the match prep is something more than just your team learning to play your tactics. It must be more than learning the tactics. If it is only learning your tactics in all areas; then once the bars are full the feature is useless. So it should be called "tactic practice" or "tactic learning" rather than "match prep". IMO as I said before; it is the time when a coach gathers the team and tells his team to be carefull in an area which he chooses for the upcoming match. Maybe some training about it. This is my imagination about match prep. I can be compleatly mistaken about it. Maybe the blue bars should change in between the matches. I am sure about one thing though: as I started paying more attention to match prep my team started to get better results.

This feature should be improved in next versions. I agree that if the goal of the match prep is to fulfill blue bars; then once they are fulfilled; we should leave it to lowest so that the player's could improve their individual attributes.