Fal's 4-3-3/4-5-1, epl winner with Bolton in the first year

Foreword:

this tactic is first and foremost a grinding machine that deliver consistent results, dont expect high scorelines for every game (even if it does happen from time to time), I probably still have some fine tuning to do (with the wingers in particular), but I supose I wont be fully satisfied until fm12 arrives anyway, so its probably better that I give it a proper upload post since it's already a good tactic

Formation:

Player Requirements

I always look for players with high stamina, determination and technique for all positions, so I will not mention that in the following summary:

GK: i use a sweeper, regular stuff really, go for reflexes, agility, jumping, one on one, rushing out aerial ability

Full Backs: pace, acceleration, natural fitness, good mental's and passing is a bonus

CD's: jumping, strength, positioning, marking, tackling, heading and concentration

DMC: I like to use a diverse guy here who is decent in the air, strong, got some legs, and okish passing, in short i would go for a player in a similar mold to Yaya or Busquets, on times against weaker teams i would consider using a pure playmaker in this role

CM's: passing, first touch, creativity, decisions, anticipation, the cmr should be the one with best stamina/natural fitness, I also like to have a more defensive minded player on the bench and a runner (like Lansbury or Diaby) as an option

Wingers: these are in practice your poachers, pace, acceleration, off the ball, agility, finishing, composure, first touch, good passing and dribbling is a bonus, I like to have to have players that can play on both sides and have different footing so that I can ether stretch play, or play more central by switching them around

Striker: creative player or big guy (if you have one of these consider ticking hub), preferbly a bit of both, no need for him to be hyper fast

Match Prep:

team blend on average workload (the value the game start out with) until the jan window closes, and the tactic is fluid, then attacking movement on the same workload at all time, only consider changing back to team blend during preseasons if you have made lots of new signings for your first team

OI:

I employ hard tackling on players that start the game on fitness lower then 90% or on players that pick up knocks in match, I dont use any other OI, since i feel it make the team detract to much from my main game plan and formation structure

Pitch Size:

I play on a standard pitch, 102m long, 65m wide

Results:

please note that I have used this as my main tactic and that i have used it as a plug and play for most games (I started with it in 32 out of the 38 epl league games on my Bolton save for example), but I do play on a lot of formation matching against teams that are considerbly better then mine (in my bolton game that was the full irl top 6), and I may consider to shake things up in match and switch to a different tactic if my team just aint showing up for it, if there's wishes for me to go more in depth explaining how I do this and which tactics I use as back up plans, then I will do so

league table with Bolton, I have to admit that i was a bit lucky injuries, and I dont think wining would have been possible had I not got dumped out of the cups so early:

track record with Arsenal:

have also been playing early versions of this tactic with Pompey (got directly promoted on first time asking), Barca (good results, but hey that was sort of expected), Athletic (got the team into cl during the only season i have played with them on fm11) and Roma (only ok, should have done better, still went on a bunch of good cup runs and won cl a couple of times, but it did take longer then I would have liked to win the league)

Download (gamefront)

Download (mediafire)

thats incredible mate..what about pitch size?

Looks good, but can you post the link with your save game?

thats incredible mate..what about pitch size?

I have always been going for the one defined as "standard pitch", 102m long, 65m wide

Looks good, but can you post the link with your save game?

I play very slowly, sometimes only going into the game to think over possible transfers, who I should pick in my next starting XI, etc scrolling forward a few game days before saving, watching a couple of matches I have played already to see what kind of mistakes I have made or just to enjoy matches I did well in, I dont use the auto save (hence save on semi regular basis), so if thats what you are asking I have saved this Bolton file a grand total 103 times for one season and spent 21 days 14h 43min playing it, thinking over every decision I made and enjoyed every bit of it

like I mentioned I did have a bit of fluke, so maybe I would not win the league every time if I tried to do it again with a team of a similar level that have suitable players, but I am sure that I could get a team like this one into CL everytime I attempted it on fm11

I'm interested to know what other formations/tactics you would use against better teams or when it's not working out.

When i load the tactic the playmaker i set to DMC and the targeman is set to "nono" is this correct?

When i load the tactic the playmaker is set to DMC and the targeman is set to "none" is this correct?

yes that's intended

Frag: will get back to that when I get back home from work on thursday

Hi Falahk............I am currently using your tactic and must say i am very impressed.........current league table and fixtures todate:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

The defense is awesome, and although you said you didnt have many big wins........as you can see by my fixtures, ive had alot of 4 goals and a very good 9-0 against Norwich!

Also have got through my Champions League Group with one more game to play and into the semi-final of the League Cup having beaten Stoke, Liverpool and Man Utd all away from home!

Will come back and let you know how the rest of the season went!

Im sorry for the hold up, not being home (going on a trip to Tallinn and geting drunk among other things) and work commitments have taken out a fair bit of time

anyway here goes, in addition to my main tactic I do on occasions use:

-Gump's barca style of play narrow 4-2-3-1 (can be found on fm-base)

I dont really think this tactic offer enough attacking penetration with an averange team, so I pretty much only use it vs good teams playing 4-5-1 (same formation as my main tactic), narrow 4-2-3-1 are from my experiance conspicuously difficult to deal with for a 4-5-1, and since a draw would probably be a good result, I dont mind playing crazy possession football in that case....I suppose its debatable if the tactic is well ballanced, or good for that mather, but it sure as hell will give you silly amounts of possession and compleated passes

-John_Cro's 4-1-2-1-2 v2 (narrow diamond) an old fm10 tactic, on defensive with updated corner set ups

still might be the most well ballanced tactic of this kind, I pretty much only employ it against decent teams that start out in 4-4-1-1 or 4-2-3-1 formations, I recall speaking about why this work in an other thread at some point, but it pretty much comes down to that the AMC will be very difficult to mark, I may also on rare occasions use it to match a narrow diamond played by the ai, but before that happens I will need to watch 30-45 min of my regular tactic get played of the pitch before making a change, however since I never really had a proper natural AMC with the attributes I would look for, I did not use this tactic much with Bolton

-randominator‎'s 4-3-1-2 unbeaten tactic

the attacking play of this tactic is really really good, maybe the best I have seen in any fm11 tactic, but the defense is not really up to my standards (if I somehow could merg the good part with the just mentioned narrow diamond and implement my own thoughts on defense I would might be onto a winner, but I have not found the time to do so), this one has its use in a similar way to the John_Cro tactic, but since its better going forward I would pretty much only use it ether in pure desperation, or if I feel that the John_Cro tactic dont offer enough going forward

-betterhalf's converted fm09 tactic set (mostly the standard version)

this 4-4-2 is the one I mostly use if feel stuck in a match or if I really really need to score while my team is playing like crap, just to shake things up, its very rare that I start with it, I have also play what is pretty much this tactic

-on having a player sent off

if im in full control of the game, I use to drop a central defender from my regular tactic put the width on full narrow, add roaming on the remaining central defender and put the fullbacks on defend, you should be a bit more careful with doing this vs teams that play 2 strikers

if thats not the case I opt for the betterhalfs tactic but with one less striker on the pitch

Any chance of uploading it somewhere else so i can have a test ? for some odd reason Game Front don't like me and the tactic don't show, thanks in advance :-)

Any chance of uploading it somewhere else so i can have a test ? for some odd reason Game Front don't like me and the tactic don't show, thanks in advance :-)

added a medifire mirror to the op, first time im using that site for uploading, so should hopefully work

Do you have a preference on team talks before, half time and post matches?

added a medifire mirror to the op, first time im using that site for uploading, so should hopefully work

Thanks, will have a test with my Coventry team (2025) and see how it does.

Do you have a preference on team talks before, half time and post matches?

I cant claim to be a guru on the team talk aspect, and some would probably say that my approach is a bit to harsh, and maybe it will not give those massive boosts in motivation, but it does seam to keep my side under control and disciplined for the task at hand

Before a match:

most of the time I use ether "for the fans" or "I expect a win" before match (I may go with something else if the assistant suggest it but its not common, and i may on rare occasions go with "your have faith" team talk for most players both at the start and a halftime, but its not common)

Half time:

if happy with the result at half time (when im ahead or playing a draw against a decent side) I use "Pleased", players who have done really well I put in "delighted", if im not ahead I use disappointed for pretty much the full team, players with a rating of 7 or more will still get "pleased", players with a rating at or lower then 6.3 will get slapped with "angry", if the team is playing like crap and leting in to many goals the full team get faced with a somewhat "angry" manager at halftime

Full time:

if I win (or play a draw vs a top side) I will go with "pleased" players who have done well will get "delighted", if I pick up a draw against a team on a similar level I use "disappointed", if I pick up a draw against a team i think I should beat I go with "angry", if I lose while being on an unbeaten run I always go with "angry", its however important to not overdo the "angry" part if you are in poor form (if you lose your secound game in a row, dont use it), in that kind of case just use "disappointed" when you are not happy with something, also if you have lots of players with low determination you should probably employ "angry" a bit less then I would do

Im of the opinion that the players need a good slap around if they mess with my unbeaten runs, just to keep them on there toes

the tactic seams to be working well on fm12 to, currently using it with Depor on the demo, will report back when i have progressed longer into my quick start, clearly the teamtalk is a fully different thing now whit the improvements made to that aspect of the game thought

finished up my demo save in one go (did not save until I got to the end), played the tactic as a plug and play, did not really bother with seting up a proper staff or training, and let the assistant deal with the press, and experimented a fair bit with the new teamtalk system (and hence botched it a couple of times)

League table:

was a bit unlucky to get that lose and the draws, but I did also get lucky in a couple of games, so it all balance itself out

Results:

considering the dire economical situation Deportivo are in, I had to bring the wage expenses down and get atleast some profit out of it, also knowing how solid this tactic is at the back I sold what was probably my two best central defenders, gambling on that I would be fine with Aythami (who got injured for the last 3 months), Rochela (who picked up a couple of minor injuries), Morel Rodrigues and youngster Insua, and it was probably a good call seeing that my defensive unit still did really well

Transfers: