FM 2013 - A Simple Guide

What follows is essentially a basic guide for anyone who is struggling with the game. Its just basic concepts, there are also plenty of other threads where i have covered things in more detail, essentially the Stafford Thread where I cover a lot of whats here in greater detail, including adapting to changes. And how using shouts unwisely can unbalance your tactic. Its a very simple guide, and I may continue this

FM 2013 A simple guide

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction

2.0 Basic Concepts of the Tactical Framework

2.1.1 Football Terms

2.1.2 Player Roles within your system and their attributes

2.1.3 Marking Systems

3.0 Adapting to Changes in the Game

3.1 How attacking is the opponent

3.2 Where is it focusing its attacks

3.3 Match Ratings

4.0 Making Training meet Tactics

The following sections are lower down in the thread

4.1 Playing FM with Minimal Shouts

4.2 Tutoring and PPMs

4.3 Training in a bit more detail - CA, PA, PPA

1.0 Introduction

FM13 is considered by most to be the hardest football simulation that’s ever been released. I don’t share that view. Its actually the easiest, however managing the expectations of people is the hardest thing and I am sure Sports Interactive (SI)have found that out.

The game is easy, but first you the player need to understand that its stopped being a ‘plug and play’ game and instead become one that’s on its way to becoming a true simulation. Football isn’t about tactics, its about players and systems. Its about harnessing the enormous potential players have and releasing that in performances that are bound parametrically by the expectations of their managers. That’s reality.

Roberto Martinez when interviewed by Phillippe Auclair explained it best. “Coaching comes in when the individuals play as a team and when they express themselves and, at the same time, take responsibility for their roles. That’s where coaching is so valuable….I want my players to be outstanding in the areas where they’re good…. Every individual needs different things. As a manager you need to find whatever the player needs to understand what the teams wants from him – without the player losing what makes him what he is.”

“As a manager you have to adapt, tactical organization is a way or allowing your talent to be effective, to win games. The perfect system does not exist; it’s the players who make the system look perfect. For a player, the ability to play in different positions and understand what it means is far more important than being good in one system. Its something that has to be learnt.”

When I played FM12 I didn’t feel that way, when I played FM13, I started thinking in those terms, and if you want success in this game you need to start developing a holistic approach. The game isn’t about just tactics. Its about football, and successful football is about a system of management that creates a legacy. This guide is meant to simplify,where possible, the approach. I plan to look at as many areas as possible, some of it is my work, and some of it are gleaned from work of others, most notably Cleon and his training emphasis. I will show how to approach the game if your football knowledge is limited and time permitting, I will also display how you can create your own unique playing systems. This is not meant to be a “fix”, nor a method of making supertactics, its meant to be a guide, and if anyone is offended by my directness I do apologize in advance. Having played the game since 1992 I don’t owe anyone anything. If I come off sounding cocky and arrogant, I do apologize.

2.0 Basic Concepts Of The Tactical Framework

There are plenty of basic definitions you can grab from the ingame manual so I will avoid repeating a lot of it. Instead this will be a simplified illustration of the approach.

2.1 Step 1 – Football Terms When you pick the game up for the first time, assuming you know nothing about football, the first thing you should do is google some of the footballing terms and vernacular. Watch a couple of games on the telly, youtube or read the English dailies, assuming you can speak English. There are plenty of good pundits on TV, none more so then on ITV. Zonalmarking.net and Santapoleta are good blogs to follow, as is Bleacher report. When you observe a football game, don’t look at the ball. If you attention is only focused on the ball, you fail to understand whats happening off the ball. How team members support a ball carrier is way more important than what the person does on the ball. So if you are at stadium watching a game, take the time out to watch how a team moves off the ball, look for wingers and players who lend support. And pay attention to when commentators talk in tactical terms. Andy Gray sucks.

In FM, you need to have some basic understanding of a tactical system. A tactic is half the puzzle. A 442 is merely numbers that denote where players stand, but within those numbers are 4 methods of playing, that becomes the system. A 442 can attack like a 424 or a 442 diamond. You can make the 442 turn into a diamond with a few instructions, it can be a defensive formation or an attacking one. The first thing you want to ask yourself is how do you want to play, and that depends entirely at what you have at your disposal.

So study your players and come up with a baseline tactic first. The easiest one on paper is probably the 442 diamond. Once you have a tactic in mind you need to start planning for the long haul, and this means looking at training, ppms and backroom staff which I will deal with later. For now lets focus on the tactic.

Now look at philosophy and strategy. Lets keep things simple, I hate the definitions, so I will keep it really simple:

Philosophy depends entirely on what you have in stock, if your players are really good, then you can consider fluid or very fluid as a philosophy since everyone can perform the same role. In most cases you will pick standard or rigid. You pick standard or rigid because you want to set up specific roles within your team because you want to win battles in key areas. The reason why people say that more specialized roles require a rigid philosophy is counter-intuitive. It’s a chicken and egg discussion. A specialized role is created with different mentality/creative freedom, pressing and individual instructions. So you can see immediately that very fluid has everyone on the same mentality, setting someone to be a trequartista and another as a deep lying playmaker will immediately not make sense, since both roles change mentality settings. I used to think the better your team the lower down the scale you go, so Barca will go rigid and Doncaster should go fluid, but even then that makes no sense. You choose your philosophy based on how you want to play. If you aren’t sure go balanced.

When it comes to strategy, it gets worse. Take the ingame settings and throw them away, use this instead:

1. All out Defense, hope and pray football ( All out defensive)

2. Defensive with little or no possession (Defensive)

3. Patient football, low risk, possession based (Counter attacking)

4. Probing football, medium risk, possession based(Balanced)

5. Attacking football, medium risk(Control)

6. Direct attacking football, high risk, non possession based

7. All out attack football, high risk attacks, featuring little emphasis on defense

2.1.2 Player Roles within your system and their related attributes

These are some of the roles and the attributes as listed in the game, one caveat - I will not debate the relative merits/demerits of these choices, these are key attributes only. These are the general roles you may choose for the team. Whats important to realise is that the best thing you can ever do is to train a player in multiple positions so that he can develop into the kind of player you want.

Goalkeeper : Aerial Ability, Command of area, handling, one on ones, reflexes, composure, concentration, decisions, positioning, agility

Defender (Stopper):Heading, marking, tackling, concentration, determination, jumping, aggression, bravery, composure, decisions, positioning, strength -

Used in more attacking setups to ensure we keep the ball, he will commit first to the challenge by leaving the defensive line

Defender (limited): Heading, marking,determination, tackling,positioning, jumping strength -

Stands in line with the other defender, breaks up attacks, marks player tries not to give up fouls on the edge of the box

Defender (Cover):Heading, marking, tackling, anticipation, composure,concentration, decisions, determination, positioning, acceleration, jumping strength

Used in more attacking setups he sits a bit deeper than the dline, commits just as hard with the objective of maintaining possession

Fullback Support: Crossing, marking, tackling, positioning, acceleration, anticipation, concentration, work-rate, teamwork stamina

Does overlaps and through balls when opportunities present themselves apart from other defensive duties

Fullback Attack: Crossing, dribbling, anticipation, off the ball, team-work, acceleration, marking, passing, concentration, positioning, work-rate, stamina

Does overlapping as often as its possible, but does not do any through balls, waits for chances to run from deep

Ball Winning Midfielder: Marking, tackling, aggression, bravery, determination, positioning, team-work, work-rate, stamina, strength

Priority is to tackle and to lay off passes to more creative players when on defend

Defensive Midfielder (defend):Heading,marking,tackling,determination, positioning, jumping, strength

Priority is to tackle and to lay off passes to more creative players when on defend

Wide Midfielder:Crossing, passing, tackling, anticipation, decisions, determination, off the ball, teamwork, workrate, stamina

Essentially more creative than defensive wingers as they are looked on for playing more intelligent passes and crosses

Defensive Winger: Crossing, dribbling, marking, tackling, technique, decisions, teamwork, workrate, pace, stamina

A great option in a flat 4 or with advanced midfielders, these players have higher closing down than regular wide midfielders and are trained to tackle higher up the pitch. Its an invaluable position to learn imho

Winger: Crossing, dribbling, technique, decisions, flair, off the ball, acceleration, agility, balance, pace

A workhorse who gets down the flanks to make crosses and occasionally cut inside.

Box to Box Midfielder: Dribbling, finishing, first touch, heading, long shots, marking, passing, technique, stamina, strength, acceleration, work-rate, positioning, off the ball, determination, decisions, bravery , anticipation

Responsible to act as another pivot, that defends/attacks and looks for chances to do long shots

Deep Lying Playmaker defend: first touch, passing, tackling, strength, composure, creativity, decisions, positioning, off the ball, teamwork

Creates chances from deep with pinpoint passing and also a competent tackler of the ball, PIVOT

Advanced Playmaker attack : Dribbling, creativity, first touch, decisions, flair, off the ball, technique, anticipation and teamwork

In attack mode he has license to roam to create chances on to drop through channels of defenders to make himself available to lay off forwards, also has license to run at opposition defensive line from deep to fashion chances for others or himself

Inside Forward attack: Crossing,dribbling,finishing,passing,acceleration, decisions,flair, off the ball, teamwork, pace

Job is to run inside and behind or through from the flanks towards goal, he's best when a left footed player is cutting in from the right and vice versa

Deep lying forward Support: Dribbling, first touch, long shots, passing, technique, creativity, decisions, off the ball, teamwork, strength

Drops deep to link up players to the attack, can switch mode of attack to other flank and also lay others off before making a run for the penalty box himself

2.1.3.Marking Systems We have zonal marking and man marking in the game. Man Marking simply assigns a player to a specific opponent, and is expected to follow and cover that player during play. Zonal marking is a relatively new system where players mark designated zones and handle any player that comes into that zone.

Tight marking essentially forces the player to closely shadow another player who enters a zone or you literally stand on the shoulder of the player if you are man marking him.

Man marking is a traditional system of marking and was a feature of early W-M formations and even the earlier 424 formations, it featured strongly in the catenaccio formations from Italy and was an everpresent in the 352 and 532 formations. However, the biggest problem of this form of marking was clear as teams started to show how weak it was when players started playing multiple roles in the same formation and would typically switch around. If you have any man marking sets in your tactics, remove them. You don’t need it, no matter what anyone tells you and here is why:

The fm engine fails miserably with specific man marking. (SMM) I honestly think Paul Collyer must be sick of hearing me moan about its irrelevance. And if we can’t make it right for specific occasions we may as well just remove it. Then again that’s another discussion, our goal has to be marking management.

*EDIT* - As of match engine 1339, SMM has been fixed. Its now actually a viable defensive strategy to use SMM. It will help against formations that employ notoriously hard to handle wingers. My preference for using zonal marking is still unchanged however.

Generally I would just choose zonal marking, and if you want to make sure players have less time on the ball, set tight marking up. This is especially good if you are marking players with good acceleration. If your markers defensive positioning is good, he will stand on the right side of the player, if it is bad he may get caught on the turn.

Where you want to set up specific man marking, you need to play with the knowledge that your marker will engage anyone who enters the zone. So if he is marking A and B enters the zone he will challenge B. In most cases man marking and tight means that influential AMCs may not get the time to play that telling pass.

What about pressing or closing down? By default your choice of philosophy and strategy will define the closing down instructions. Attacking strategies employ higher closing down than defensive ones. You can if you want choose to set maximum closing down for your strikers and your attacking players. This however runs the risk of players getting injured so your training regime is important and so is your substitution strategy. You can conceivably play with a high pressing setup with loose closing down at the back. The rationale is logical. You want your attackers to press all the time, but you want the defensive third to hold their shape. Nothing wrong there. If you are unsure go very rigid in your choice, and then look at the closing down instructions for your players.

The quality of your defending is directly related to work-rate, determination, concentration, composure, anticipation or positioning. Understanding how each attribute relates to defending allows you to spot when something is going wrong. Concentration and composure are important for me, and that’s open to debate, but my reasons are simple. A defender needs concentration to avoid making mistakes and he needs the composure to deal with attacking teams pressing high. Teams like Barcelona thrive on a high pressing game because they know most other teams don’t have the technical skills to play their way out of trouble nor the composure to make those kinds of decisions.

3.0 Adapting to Changes in the Game

Once you have determined what kind of football you want to play its time to fit your players in. Now a common misconception is that you need to stick to one strategy. That’s entirely wrong, you can switch from control to defensive in one game. Strategy change is part of the game, it allows you to breath or lock down. Teams typically do this in real life.

Strategy and philosophy have already set up the main parameters for your team. Assuming you have started balanced for philosophy then there are plenty of options for roles. If your team is an average team, then chances are, you want to survive, hence you might have at least 3 roles in your team. Its easier to set up specialized roles if you are on rigid or balanced.

What you do with the team when they are on the pitch is adapt to the game. Adapting includes various things, and like a doctor you need to look for symptoms:

3.1 How attacking is the opponent?How far away from the 50 yard line are the defenders? If they are very close to the line, it’s the first clue that its attacking, if your defenders hardly have any time on the ball when your keeper plays the ball from the back, they are pressing high. If the keeper kicks a ball and you see the defenders track back to receive the ball then its playing a high defensive line, in line with an attacking formation

3.2 Where is it focusing its attacks?This is vital because of the way the tactical creators shouts are set up. You have exploit the middle and looking for overlaps. When the AI is coming down the flanks, typically the fullbacks and the wingers will be driving most of the attacks, and sometimes it may even be down one flank. So look for these signs, it affects how you play. If the AI is coming down the middle, its usually locked down its flanks with players who won’t be moving out to go up. So if you are attacking down the flanks then you will see yourself snuffed out. This is where you start looking at your tactical system.

This is why I always recommend making systems that have multiple attack fronts you can choose. So if you have a 442 diamond you immediately have 4, left flank, right flank, both flanks and middle. When you use the shout “exploit the middle” runs from deep get set for your central midfielders, and removed for your wingers. This is so important to understand because using this shout wrongly will unbalance your tactic. If you intend to go through the middle against Man City playing a 4231 then you need to make sure your players are way better than theirs, and chances are it won’t work.

So understanding, how the attack flows allows you to adapt. You do have the option to change things around in a game, that’s why the game has sliders, that’s why the game has shouts. These are tools that you use to change the flow of a game.

3.3 Match Ratings?

Before we begin, lets clear something up. This is a computer game, we aren’t playing a person, we are playing a long complicated equation. It lumps all the attributes, tactics, conditions and then depicts your players performances as match ratings. It doesn’t make subjective assessments. Essentially if the computer is doing well, its going to rank how well its players did in following raw instructions and spits these out. Even partnerships don’t get adequately recognized, it only spots the key passes, not the move by the DLF where he drops deep within your half to start the move, nor the 300 passes your midfielder strung in the match. If a player makes a mistake he needs to score a goal to get his average back up to 7 and he needs to be on the winning side.

Match ratings don’t give the whole picture, if you are transfixed with the need to see your Trequartista getting 9 a game, you have a long wait in front of your PC. You should instead, use match ratings to assess how your players are doing with your tactic . This is what I do:

The best way to explain it is via expectations. Throughout the game you should be looking at ratings to understand how your team is doing. Some ratings mean that you are tactically screwed; others indicate that a player/players may be underperforming. Then you need to make changes

<6 Ratings range from the high 5.9 to the low 4s. Some are down to errors, but if one player has less than 6 after you kick off then its time to be concerned. If a majority of the team is lower than 6 then major tactical shifts are needed since you are being beaten in all areas of the pitch.

Sometimes these come in pairs, and its especially indicative of attacking focus, for example if both players on one flank are getting the same rating then chances are that flank is being overrun. If your defenders are getting low ratings, they need support.

<7 This rating simply means your players are meeting expectations. This implies they are doing ok, not especially brilliant, and it needs just a creative managerial spark to get things going. It’s a rating you typically expect to see at the start of a game, if players are hovering around 6.5 to 7 these players aren’t doing exceptional things, its time for you to start paying attentions to certain areas of the pitch where you can get an advantage. It may involve changes as minor as removing hold up ball on one player to changing one players role to support.

<8 This is one rating you should be aiming for any rating between 7-8 is good, it means your players are usually playing well, and out of their skins, you have an advantage in most areas of the pitch and you can afford to bide your time. Paying attention to ebbs and flows of the game is vital here. If most of the TV highlights feature your team attacking then it’s a good sign.

<10 any rating between 8 and 10 indicates exceptional play and doesn’t need explanation.

I have on many occasions lost a match and had players rating 7 on average across the team. That meant I couldn't do anything more, I was beaten by a better team, but we gave as good as we got.

Several factors affect ratings:

Defending and Midfield support roles: Concentration, Anticipation, and Composure. A defender needs all three if you want to see him get 7-10 in ratings, assuming of course you’ve done the right tactical stuff.

Concentration and Composure affect how well they do under pressure, and anticipation helps them defend. These are my picks for vital attributes

Attacking pivot roles: These include players upon whom you depend to create chances, and these could include fullbacks if you are inclined. These roles demand decisions, passing, composure, flair. You will rely on these players to carve out your chances, so they need to make the right decisions and be able to pass the ball when they do. And if they find themselves under pressure they should have the composure to hold the ball and pick out someone with a good pass. Some roles even need flair because these players need to do the unexpected like a no look pass.

Strikers: Determination, Finishing and Composure are attributes that allow them to play to their full potential

These attributes in isolation aren’t enough, Understanding what’s needed in your formation is equally important. Flat formations like the 442, 441, 451, 433 require physical presence. The 442 formation is notorious for needing hardworking central midfielders who are physically strong and tactically capable. They need to dictate the tempo of the game, and break up opposition plays and on top of that they need to carve out chances for their team, should the flanks fail at putting in the cross. The reason why so many football teams struggled in the past was down to one dimensionality in their tactics more than anything else.

Formations that play with a DMC or an AMC, remove one player from either attack or defense to give a certain part of the pitch more insurance. If you opt to use a DMC then you can get away from less physical players in front since you have placed someone in front of your back four.

Opting to make these kind of decisions when choosing a tactic affect how your team handles space around them. Remember this when you choose to specifically man mark another opponent on the pitch. Specific man marking can work in the game, but its finicky. The biggest issue I have with SMM is how unbalanced it is. Traditionally when we assign someone SMM duties, we expect the marker to stay on the shoulder of the target and in between the ball carrier. That way the marker is the first to intercept the ball or close enough to put in the challenge. The engine tends to go zonal when a player enters the markers zone, so what happens is the man on SMM tends to zonally mark others who enter his zone as well.

This can be very annoying if all you want to do is shut someone out. Without knowing it you could inadvertently give them room. My suggestion is always to opt for a formation change to man mark dangerous opposing players instead of going for SMM. So if you are faced with Man Citys narrow 4231 and you opt to play a 442, those wingers you have should be automatically on the fullbacks when they come in. They will also pressure them in the opponents half. The Man City formation plays through the middle, so countering this will naturally lock your fullbacks down, and the only way to get around that formation is to get behind it while your players play narrow and squeeze the gap between the defensive line and midfield, (Pushing up Dline does this). You could opt to use SMM, but you need to be aware of how players behave. This will continue to happen till SI fix man marking.

On paper those fixes should work if your players are good at their task, but what if the opposing team is way better? Their pace and because they are using an AMC will see them go rampant down the middle. Your two central midfielders will not be enough. This is when I go to my 41221 formation, or you could use any formation that offers security down the middle like a 442 diamond. The goal here is to control space.

Failing to tactically handle a match can also see your side slump in match ratings. You can have the best players in the world, but if you don’t do enough to handle the space and observe what’s going on, then your top players will get low ratings.

SI have provided us with a variety of tools that can be used to adapt to changes, but before you go blindly choosing any shout, understand what they shouts do, then pay attention to whats happening on the pitch. Match ratings help you identify weak spots. And your response may be

a. Opposition Instructions

b. Specific Tactical Changes such as specific man marking

c. Shouts

d. Strategy changes

e. Substitution Strategies

4.0

There are plenty of threads on the forums that cover all these, and they are mostly all right. For now I am taking a break this is taking too much time from my game, and my weekend.

3.0 Making Training Meet Tactics

Building a tactic is one thing, making it work for the long haul isn't hard to do. There are some fundamental things you need to do before you begin:

3.1 Getting feedback

You need your screens to talk to you, the default screens are fine, but there are so many ways to customize them you get caught up making nice tables for yourself. What you need to do is to go to Custom Screen section, create a copy of the existing screen, rename it, then edit the elements that you want feedback on. I like to divide my team into three basic roles, the defending group, attacking pivots and my strikeforce. You can create more and I suggest you make one separate for the newgens.

On each screen I like to choose key attributes, topmost on my list is always, composure, anticipation, pace, tackling marking for my defending group. Then I will have their training performance levels, ppms and matches played. During the course of a season I track how players do based on these screens and I make quick notes of how they are doing for ppms. Its relatively easy to set these up, the return you get is fantastic. You can even make screens for how you want to select your starters and remove attributes and just focus on important match data, like key passes, key tackles, interceptions. Information like this is vital especially if you want to set up partnerships. I was on a really bad run once, couldn't figure out why, but when i set the screens up to compare anticipation and key headers, i realized that even though my players were good tacklers, neither was quick off the mark. I looked at my subs bench and a defender there had higher key header % per game then the ones on the pitch. He started the next game, and even though he was far younger, he's now an everpresent in the side. These custom screens are going to be more important than the match stat screens in a match. These will give you a far better understanding of your team. If people want me to go into this in detail in the future, let me know.

The training feedback screen now duly set up should be one of your go-to screens throughout the season. The next step is tight integration.

3.2 Training for the future - Player Preferred Moves

Every player between the ages of 15-27 can learn player preferred moves or ppms. These ppms form an important component of how your tactic plays out. I had this MC who joined my side as an 18 year old, he had all the right attributes to make dangerous passes and runs into the box, or so i thought. After 3 games I noticed he wasn't as adventurous as I'd like, so I began focusing on his ppms.

Get forward whenever possible

Plays killer ball

Likes to switch play to other flank

Plays one twos to set tempo

These were some of the ppms he started to learn, and then a change came over him. The gameplay difference was huge. In his second season with the club, he won the PFA Young players award and was instrumental in us finishing in the top half. His ability to link others and drive to go single handedly won us quite a few games.

PPMs need to be taught by the right people, so make sure your coaches are qualified (pro continental license do it faster if I am not mistaken). Attacking coaches teach attacking ppms and defensive coaches teach defensive ppms. Speaking of defensive ppms, I have also managed to create a "John Terry" defender. This player Guisio, is his name, has occasionally charged all the way to the opponents box with the ball and even taken a pot shot. The first time he did it, I was just staring at my monitor. And then he started doing this at least once every few matches, in one game he did it twice. I don't expect him to do this regularly, in fact i rather he not. Looking at his ppms, i released when he was younger I had wanted to train him to be a defensive midfielder, and one of the ppms he learnt was "Get forward".

If you want your tactic to play a certain way you absolutely need to make sure those opportunities come for your players. My charging defender could only do that because I modified the default settings of the MCd. You can only do that once you have come to grips with the game. I do plan on doing a more advanced tutorial for how to customize tactical creator settings to create unique positions like the "engache' which is a uniquely argentinian playmaker thats very different from the traditional defensive midfielder that we have come to know.

For now consider your tactic and whats important, then choose the ppms that will play a role in your side. If you play to use a DLF then back to goal is an important ppm, if you plan to go down the flanks, then run with ball down the line is important. PPMs should be incorporated into your training because there is now a direct knock on effect.

3.3 How does one setup training?

I take zero credit for this, a large part of the work was done by different posters on the board, I do have my own ideas but feel that this general approach works best. There are some decent threads on the forum for this and I will in the near future just give some key things to do for training, for now though just make sure you are training ppms and tutoring your players, since these can transfer hidden ppms as well

Cracking thread. Really enjoyed reading that and will come back to this and look at it again. There's something in this for everyone

Great stuff op.

gread reading, but it´s important not to overcomplicate this game, very fluid any formation with a good team seems to be a winning formula.

Fantastic effort, only browsed it at the moment as good football on television and it's late, but will add some input tomorrow. well done

Very good read I will book mark this as i 100% i will help me. this should be stickied!!!

Thanks .. I just added a section on ppms.

Thanks .. I just added a section on ppms.

Nice work

What I've noticed is after all these years we still have a very similar playstyle and still think along the same lines.

It's great to see someone else utilise PPM's as well because I hardly ever see anyone mention them in tactic threads.

Nice work

What I've noticed is after all these years we still have a very similar playstyle and still think along the same lines.

It's great to see someone else utilise PPM's as well because I hardly ever see anyone mention them in tactic threads.

Yeah i reckon quite a few people have the same playstyle, lots of old-hands here in the forums still.

It's great to see someone else utilise PPM's as well because I hardly ever see anyone mention them in tactic threads.

I'm now a PPM obsessive, and in my fifth season I have a squad of players who have PPMs set as I want.

I'm convinced that achieving this has reduced the appearance of known issues with the current ME in my save. The main benefit I'm seeing is very creative play in the final third - lots of one-twos, and a pleasing amount of successful through balls.

when it comes to ppm's I'm often more worried about a player having a ppm that would contradict what I'm attempting to do tactically, so for this reason I would be reluctant to use players with wide play ppm's and tackling ppm's unless it match the style I'm going for

for example having Michael Kightly cuting inside was not very helpful when I wanted my wingers to hug the touch line and put in crosses

when it comes to ppm's I'm often more worried about a player having a ppm that would contradict what I'm attempting to do tactically, so for this reason I would be reluctant to use players with wide play ppm's and tackling ppm's unless it match the style I'm going for

for example having Michael Kightly cuting inside was not very helpful when I wanted my wingers to hug the touch line and put in crosses

True which is why I take options, sometimes I want to play on a wider setting, cos a team is hard to break down. And with my wingers cutting inside making lateral runs, I get fullbacks coming up to support, the football I get is exquisite. In previous editions of FM I wasn't bothered with ppms, because truth be told, it was fairly easy to overpower the engine via attributes. That turned out to be something SI wanted to fix, and I wholeheartedly applaud that move. Its made football management more viable for long term saves cos you can get so many options. Imagine what your football would look like if:

a. You had a DC who love to get forward when possible, who has passing and loves to play the killer ball

b. You have fullbacks who love to get forward, and switch play to other flank

c. have an attacking pivot, who dictates tempo, plays one two, switches play, looks for killer ball and loves to get forward

d. a DLF who plays with back to goal, plays simple one twos and places shots

e. One winger who loves to cut inside, get forward and another who likes to look for killer balls and switch flanks.

Put that together and you get some fantastic football. And once they fix the SMM issues in the current build, the football you are going to get will beat any me before.

I've trying to develop the ultimate Libero with all the PPM's mentioned in A. Can't wait until he's learnt them all. I've already got players who can do b, c and d. I'm trying to develop a Libero back 3 with rampant wingbacks. I've also managed to get a left footed AMR who I've taught curls ball to. Can't wait to see it all in action in the coming weeks, the play will look awesome.

PPM's is something i still need to look into. Its kinda of funny, I played this game and owned every addition since 2001 and only just now feel that i am learning how to play the game. I always used plug and play tactics made by other people same with training. which has given me a bad habit of not understanding the game. FM13 seems to the most indepth version so far with a more advanced ME.

Wich is why so many people are complaining the game is broke. with posts like '' I played for 10 years and won everything, i cant win in this version..worst version ever!!!'' Im learning now and im getting the most enjoyment i have ever had in FM. i have won two promations with ST albans, now im in league 2, The feeling i get knowing i achieved this with my own tactics and team managerment is just great!!! I still have a long way to go and still lots to learn..im so excited by this game now.

3.0 Making Training Meet Tactics

Building a tactic is one thing, making it work for the long haul isn't hard to do. There are some fundamental things you need to do before you begin:

3.1 Getting feedback

You need your screens to talk to you, the default screens are fine, but there are so many ways to customize them you get caught up making nice tables for yourself. What you need to do is to go to Custom Screen section, create a copy of the existing screen, rename it, then edit the elements that you want feedback on. I like to divide my team into three basic roles, the defending group, attacking pivots and my strikeforce. You can create more and I suggest you make one separate for the newgens.

On each screen I like to choose key attributes, topmost on my list is always, composure, anticipation, pace, tackling marking for my defending group. Then I will have their training performance levels, ppms and matches played. During the course of a season I track how players do based on these screens and I make quick notes of how they are doing for ppms. Its relatively easy to set these up, the return you get is fantastic. You can even make screens for how you want to select your starters and remove attributes and just focus on important match data, like key passes, key tackles, interceptions. Information like this is vital especially if you want to set up partnerships. I was on a really bad run once, couldn't figure out why, but when i set the screens up to compare anticipation and key headers, i realized that even though my players were good tacklers, neither was quick off the mark. I looked at my subs bench and a defender there had higher key header % per game then the ones on the pitch. He started the next game, and even though he was far younger, he's now an everpresent in the side. These custom screens are going to be more important than the match stat screens in a match. These will give you a far better understanding of your team. If people want me to go into this in detail in the future, let me know.

The training feedback screen now duly set up should be one of your go-to screens throughout the season. The next step is tight integration.[/Quote]

Absolutely brilliant thread mate, I have been playing the game for a few years now but have still learnt a lot from this first post, one question I have is what do you mean by Custom Screens? Do you mean on the squad view where you can amend which columns it shows?

A good thread for the beginners. Hopefully, it will reduce the number of basic questions that new players have that get asked.

However, don't agree with "There are plenty of good pundits on TV, none more so then on ITV"; almost all TV pudits suck and in general ITV's coverage is pants

Absolutely brilliant thread mate, I have been playing the game for a few years now but have still learnt a lot from this first post, one question I have is what do you mean by Custom Screens? Do you mean on the squad view where you can amend which columns it shows?

Aye he does. I posted my custom views and rashidi posted some of his in this thread from reply 242 onwards http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/334248-Understanding-Your-Tactic-The-Discussion/page3 to give you an idea of how we set up.

Absolutely brilliant thread mate, I have been playing the game for a few years now but have still learnt a lot from this first post, one question I have is what do you mean by Custom Screens? Do you mean on the squad view where you can amend which columns it shows?

Yeah thats what I mean by customizing screens in Cleon's Training thread we linked a couple of screenshots of these as well...an example would be, you should have no problem getting a player to master at least 3-4 pkms in one season, if one pays attention.

Now look at philosophy and strategy. Lets keep things simple, I hate the definitions, so I will keep it really simple:

Philosophy depends entirely on what you have in stock, if your players are really good, then you can consider fluid or very fluid as a philosophy since everyone can perform the same role. In most cases you will pick standard or rigid. You pick standard or rigid because you want to set up specific roles within your team because you want to win battles in key areas. The reason why people say that more specialized roles require a rigid philosophy is counter-intuitive. It’s a chicken and egg discussion. A specialized role is created with different mentality/creative freedom, pressing and individual instructions. So you can see immediately that very fluid has everyone on the same mentality, setting someone to be a trequartista and another as a deep lying playmaker will immediately not make sense, since both roles change mentality settings. I used to think the better your team the lower down the scale you go, so Barca will go rigid and Doncaster should go fluid, but even then that makes no sense. You choose your philosophy based on how you want to play. If you aren’t sure go balanced.

When it comes to strategy, it gets worse. Take the ingame settings and throw them away, use this instead:

1. All out Defense, hope and pray football ( All out defensive)

2. Defensive with little or no possession (Defensive)

3. Patient football, low risk, possession based (Counter attacking)

4. Probing football, medium risk, possession based(Balanced)

5. Attacking football, medium risk(Control)

6. Direct attacking football, high risk, non possession based

7. All out attack football, high risk attacks, featuring little emphasis on defense

The above description for strategies is much better compared to the in-game one . The 3 middle strategies ( counter-standard-control ) in particular make more sense this way

About the philosophy part :This option decides the mentality framework and the amount of creative freedom given .On its high end allows high levels of cf and a global mentality ; on the lower end it sets the cf quite low and has the mentality split . It also sets creative freedom in accordance to the player's position , so the attacker has almost always higher cf than the defender . I have noticed that this cf distribution favors standard and lower strategies more , whereas a setting that allows the attackers low creative freedom fits better to the aggressive strategies . A disciplined attacking winger reacts very quickly in a way that fits the attacking logic (quick tempo low time wasting) .A non-restricted one will take a bit of time to consider his options and allow movement around him , in accordance to the style of play defensive strategies encourage

Yeah thats what I mean by customizing screens in Cleon's Training thread we linked a couple of screenshots of these as well...an example would be, you should have no problem getting a player to master at least 3-4 pkms in one season, if one pays attention.

Yeah thats what I thought you meant, just wanted to double check. Cheers :-)

Absolutely fantastic thread. Gonna implement a lot of your theories here into my current save that I started last weekend (only played 2 pre season matches because I have been watching the matches in full and tweaking the tactic til it gets closer to what I want and what works!).

Thank you for taking the time to put togethe your thoughts into your OP- really helpful for people like me who aren't very good at FM and have always just downloaded a tactic and had success.

This might be a stupid question but its not the first time I see this and I don't know its meaning What's pkm?

Great thread btw, its the likes of you, clean, lam, wwfan that are making this game much more enjoyable and rewarding, cheers and keep up the amazing work!!

a pkm is just the highlights of a match saved in a format that allows you to share it with others or view it on your own at a later date. Its the action bar button called "save match" that you find after you've finished playing a match. All saved matches then get saved in the SI documents folder.

This might be a stupid question but its not the first time I see this and I don't know its meaning What's pkm?

Great thread btw, its the likes of you, clean, lam, wwfan that are making this game much more enjoyable and rewarding, cheers and keep up the amazing work!!

I think 'pkm' is the file type your matches are saved as? When you 'save a match' in-game...

"you should have no problem getting a player to master at least 3-4 pkms in one season, if one pays attention" I don't understand how that applies in this sentence :confused:

"you should have no problem getting a player to master at least 3-4 pkms in one season, if one pays attention" I don't understand how that applies in this sentence :confused:

He means PPM's.

What cleon said

I don't quite get why tight marking fast players is generally a good idea. I always thought tight marking enables faster players to outmuscle defenders more easily, even if those have other good defensive attributes that might be able to negate the pure speed. What am I missing?

I don't quite get why tight marking fast players is generally a good idea. I always thought tight marking enables faster players to outmuscle defenders more easily, even if those have other good defensive attributes that might be able to negate the pure speed. What am I missing?

I'd personally never tight mark anyone unless my player was far superior. They just get skinned all day long in the ME if not.

I don't quite get why tight marking fast players is generally a good idea. I always thought tight marking enables faster players to outmuscle defenders more easily, even if those have other good defensive attributes that might be able to negate the pure speed. What am I missing?

You need to spot whether balls are passed to feet or passed to space. Furthermore, I always advocate acceleration over pace, and in this case I would suggest tight marking. I prefer tight marking over closing down, because closing down usually leads to your shape being stretched. Using the wrong players to tight mark can lead to your players being skinned, but there are exceptions.

If a player is receiving balls to feet, the tight marking instruction is better than the closing down OI instruction because your player should stand in a spot to intercept the ball. Furthermore tight marking a player who is on the flanks usually forces him out further to receive the pass. I rather take more dangerous players out to the flanks then allow them to run into space which closing down sometimes creates.

When I want to play defensively, and I have on many occasions won games against sides that are way better than me and have outshot me, I typically go tight marking. And since my players have good acceleration they usually track their targets.

Now I wouldnt practice tight marking if my players didn't have, anticipation, acceleration. I have produced many matches where I take better teams and force them to flanks, and although they outshoot 10-1, my 1 usually gets me one goal.

Here's where I take simple tactics and make mine a bit more refined, the tactical creator does not have a forward pressing strategy. Essentially this involves a very "mourinho" style of defending which features high forward closing down and tight marking of wingers. I tend to do this against very good sides, and its worked. It involves finetuning the closing down up front and then during the course of a match if I see passes to feet, then I tight mark those players.

4.0 Training

Time to look at training, I see a fair bit of questions on the forums lately so I thought I'd some more information here. Once again, no originality here, plenty of information here that can be gleaned from the rest of the forums, consider this a condensed summary.

Training Needs

Before I begin lets clarify some points, I may be wrong but this is what I have gathered:

Training in Football Manager is based on the Elite Player Performance Plan. Clubs in the top tier of training academies in England compete with others for young talent. If you look at the game you will see in the Club Overview section: Training Facilities, Youth Facilities and Youth Setup Category.

Training Facilities, essentially describes your facilities and can go from none and poor to state of the art, likewise with youth facilities. Youth setup category, I assume follows EPPP, where it defines the level of contact and attention is giving to developing youth and can go from 1-4 with 0 implying no academy and 1 implying having the highest level of contact with players implying the best training, within the parameters set by your current facilities. 1 also need an operational budget of 2.5m, based on EPPP, and 18 coaches.

What this implies is that your player development or youth development will also be capped by the facilities they are training under

Coaches

There are plenty of good coaches in the game, and there is no issue with language. You can bring a coach from Timbuktu and it still generates 5 stars. What I do believe in is the happy harmony multiculturalism fosters. There is no ingame proof of this, and neither is there a requirement that a coach speak the same language. I have never really noticed a side effect. There may be one for players but certainly not for coaches. Whats important is the coaches information panel and this will tell you a lot especially when it comes to PPM training. Coaches do develop over time as well..so if they don't have ppms keep checking especially after their pro licenses.

Training Loads

Ideally you want one coach per schedule, thats not always possible for poor clubs, but its mandatory for elite clubs. Your training load should look like this

Training Intensities

How do you keep your squad happy and fit? Simple, have a decently loaded training schedule and practice some rotation. This is what I normally do over the course of a season:

Preseason General Training - Very High Fitness: Match Day Training 40% (rotate through all ie defensive position, tactics, cohesion,attacking movement etc no rest days)

1 Week before Kick off - Balanced High General Training; Match Day Training 40%(No rest days)

(Match Day Training set to Attacking movement all the time, from this time on, tho i think it doesnt matter after the second week)

1 Game week - Balanced Low Match Day training 10% and No rest day

2 Game week - Balanced Low Match Day training 10% rest day after

3 Game week - Balanced Low Match Day training 10% both rest days

All players have high individual training, and I practice some rotation;

Players below 21 years old - Need active rotation to reduce risk of long term injury, anytime they need to play more than a game a week, they are a priority for rotation

Players who are active fulcrums, ie most important, defensive/offensive, are rotated to ensure they play no more than 2 games a week max, possible for players with good natural fitness, not possible for players < 10 Natural fitness

Thats how I manage my squad, I do get injuries, i usually get like 2 long term ( 2-3 months ) per season. Not sure but i reckon it was due to me having only 3 physios, so I ramped up to max this season. At most times I have key players available for almost all games. The single biggest focus of my training is purely PPM based, and when its time I move them around schedules to max out whatever key area they are lacking.

Individual Training loads are high, this encourages player development. This is what I gathered from threads read on the forum and Cleons Ajax thread

Other training setups

1. Getting your assman to do training is definitely the wrong thing to do, you can if you want, practice complete " I Dont Give a ****" training. You still need to do preseason, but once the season starts set your training to Balanced - High and for match prep set it to Cohesion till the 2nd week and then leave it on attacking. Now this isn't ideal and your player progression may not be perfect but if you don't care then it still works, but its median level training.

2. Having two squads, I've also done it before. However, the challenge is poor player development as well. In the end you are gonna face, player unhappiness and poor development of top players. If you still want to do this then I suggest having a reserves made up of your future talent, and making sure you use them and only them for your cup competitions.

3. To keep players in top condition must be considered a priority, too much time on the treatment table and results get affected. So have a forward thinking substitution policy. Always ensure that your youth players don't get burned out, one serious injury and their long term development can get curtailed early.

Now understandably this may see rather brief, but thats the objective of the thread, for more detailed information on training go to the Ajax Development Thread

So this is the soon to be famed Stafford Academy eh?

So this is the soon to be famed Stafford Academy eh?

yeah baby :-)

How do you approach pre-season in terms of getting tactics fluid?

My tactics don't become fluid in preseason, they get fluid by October usually. My preseason is fairly standard, the usual fitness, teamwork and cohesion drill. This season cos I noticed my players were already quite familiar with the tactics, I went and got them to drill on match prep for the other 20% during preseason, ie. Attacking movement, defensive etc. Once i hit the first game I was balanced and 10%. I hardly noticed it but I got very fluid pretty quick this season.

I reckon teams who use the same tactic season after season seem to get very fluid really fast, and this must also be affected by the number of new players in the team. This season I only had 2 new players.

My tactics don't become fluid in preseason, they get fluid by October usually. My preseason is fairly standard, the usual fitness, teamwork and cohesion drill. This season cos I noticed my players were already quite familiar with the tactics, I went and got them to drill on match prep for the other 20% during preseason, ie. Attacking movement, defensive etc. Once i hit the first game I was balanced and 10%. I hardly noticed it but I got very fluid pretty quick this season.

I reckon teams who use the same tactic season after season seem to get very fluid really fast, and this must also be affected by the number of new players in the team. This season I only had 2 new players.

You can get them fluid a lot quicker if you wanted, by the end of August at the very latest. Obviously the more friendlies etc helps too but in terms of training once everyone is match fit which is usually around 2-3 pre-season games on my saves I switch to very high team cohesion to help with any new signings or players who might be promoted from the youth teams. And I choose tactics as the individual focus and it learns a lot faster

True I could make cohesion happen a lot faster need to remember that..i tend to do so much that I forget, and training is actually more fun for me now than tactics. My 4411 tactic hasn't changed in almost 3 seasons.

True I could make cohesion happen a lot faster need to remember that..i tend to do so much that I forget, and training is actually more fun for me now than tactics. My 4411 tactic hasn't changed in almost 3 seasons.

Training and player development is the only reason I still play FM in all honesty

I don't know if it's an error on my game, but I only can go as far as 50% to match training, all the way down to the left. How do put it at 80%?

I don't know if it's an error on my game, but I only can go as far as 50% to match training, all the way down to the left. How do put it at 80%?

OMG i am so sorry I can see why that would be confusing...THERE IS NO 80...i just calculate that in my head since the slider acts as a modifier. Essentially a player has 100% time to be trained, you can choose how much time he should spend training on match preparation. A player can only spend a maximum of 50% of his time on match preparation. So when I say I want them to spend 80% of their time training their abilities, it just means that he should spend 20% of his time on match preparation. I hope that makes sense, cos it always did to me...

80% of his time is spent training for his abilities and only 20% of his time is spent on match preparation. And thanks to you, i cleared up that note...sorry bout that..damn i knew i missed something..

OMG i am so sorry I can see why that would be confusing...THERE IS NO 80...i just calculate that in my head since the slider acts as a modifier. Essentially a player has 100% time to be trained, you can choose how much time he should spend training on match preparation. A player can only spend a maximum of 50% of his time on match preparation. So when I say I want them to spend 80% of their time training their abilities, it just means that he should spend 20% of his time on match preparation. I hope that makes sense, cos it always did to me...

80% of his time is spent training for his abilities and only 20% of his time is spent on match preparation. And thanks to you, i cleared up that note...sorry bout that..damn i knew i missed something..

It makes sense, cheers

It's interesting that you used 'balanced - low' in general training, it's definitely something that I should consider doing as I've always left it on 'balanced - average.' Does this mean that you see limited benefits in general training in comparison to individual training?

It's interesting that you used 'balanced - low' in general training, it's definitely something that I should consider doing as I've always left it on 'balanced - average.' Does this mean that you see limited benefits in general training in comparison to individual training?

When you choose balanced training, the AI trains your player generally based on his current position. Having it set to low allows me to set the individual focus training to High, which consequently affects how they develop.

If you have a squad with low injury proneness you can also try balanced average AND individual focus on high. The individual workload will be heavy, but many players can handle it if they are professional enough.

Are there any manuals which highlight the specific attributes which improve if you use a certain training schedule? For example, centre midfield, TRQ etc.

It's already in the game, just click the Area button on a player's training overview page.

Playing FM with a minimal use of shouts

Is it possible? Yes. This season I've used the 4411 formation and basically watched nearly all my matches on commentary mode, won the title at a canter and smashed Manchester City 5-1 in the ECC final. If you want to set up a tactic without shouts you need to look out for those that influence your game. I usually pick 3 basic ones:

a. Hassle Opponents

b. Exploit Middle

c. Look for overlap

I take these shouts and try and adapt them into my tactic. The system I have been using is the 4411 and this is what I do. Since I want to close down chances and win the ball high up in the opponents third I tend to prefer max closing down from my front line. Some roles do this automatically like the defensive winger. Alternatively you can mod the closing down settings and max them out. Another key adjustment is tackling, setting them to hard ensures you win the ball. Doing this increases the chance you pick up cards, so choosing the right people for the job is important. Note their aggression. I choose to turn Hard on for fullbacks, DMs and ML/MR. That sorts that group out without having to use the shout anymore.

Another shout that works well is exploit the middle or overlap. Now these work if you have the right people for the job, but the shouts in themselves also switch on and turn off runs for players .Exploit the middle pushes your central players and locks down your flanks, whereas the reverse is true for overlaps. Exploits middle sees your central players run forward and sometimes this can leave you with holes. So what I like to do instead and if you look at my 4411 you will notice that my DLP/MC combination is pretty staid. They tend to sit back or do they? My DLP on support actually has these PPMs, "Get forward, dicate tempo and play killer ball", my right FB has play killer ball and get forward, the one on the left has play killer ball and switch flank. This allows me to dictate play deep from my own half if I need to. These ppms also influence the way we play. I get the same kind of attacks without having to use the shouts and they are defensively solid.

There's more information on my blog..I had typed a lot more but this thread got wiped accidentally the first time around and I will try and add more here as soon as I can.

First time I am linking a youtube video not even sure if it will work cos i hate encoding stuff

[video=youtube;-oXnp8mXxn8]

4.2 Tutoring and PPMs

Basically it boils down to player personalities, tutoring and ppms. Information in the forums is scattered, though Cleons Ajax thread does a good job of discussing it in detail. I do not plan to replicate that thread, but I do plan on simplifying it so its easier to grasp. This is only about newgens.

Newgens enter with personality traits and these could be one from a long list of personalities. Essentially these personalities determine how their attributes develop, and of course that in turn depends on facilities and opportunities. You basically want your players to develop along certain lines and this is where you need to determine where you want to head. For a full list of personalities hidden or otherwise, you can find it here in Cleons thread.

Its a big list, what I do is make a simple note of the kind I want in my team. For me professionalism and ambition affect their development. Pressure affects their play. And determination is great as well. So i focus on these 4 areas when I want to tutor someone.

[/code]

[TABLE=width: 475]

[TR]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD]Model Pro[/TD]

[TD]Professional[/TD]

[TD]Perfectionist[/TD]

[TD]Resolute[/TD]

[TD]Driven[/TD]

[TD]Spirited[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Pressure[/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD]1-16[/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD]15-20[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Professionalism[/TD]

[TD]20[/TD]

[TD]18-19[/TD]

[TD]18-20[/TD]

[TD]15-20[/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD]11-17[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Temperment[/TD]

[TD]10-20[/TD]

[TD]10-20[/TD]

[TD]1-9[/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD]10-20[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Determination[/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD]18-20[/TD]

[TD]15-20[/TD]

[TD]20[/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Ambition[/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD]18-20[/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD]10-20[/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Sportsmanship[/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD]5-20[/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD]1-14[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD] [/code]

[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

So that sorts out my grouping of the personalities, I essentially want to see a bunch of youth that are at least Resolute and ideally Model Citizens, but since they are so rare, I didn't bother putting them in. So my priority for development is always Model Pro >Professional>Perfectionist>Resolute, Sprited or Driven. Though I rather not handle Driven if i could.

I go through my squad look for players and then I decide along these lines:

I have a system of play thats built in a tactic around key players having Player Preferred Moves. For a full list please read this. Now there are 3 key positions I worry about. My first goal is to make sure the players have the right personalities. So I refer to my list, if their personality is not on the list or if a tutor is not available then I get them to learn the ppms. There are 5 they can learn while they wait. If a tutor is available then he is tutored. If you look at the screenshot below a player is about to be tutored and there are 2 options: The first option helps to "improve his game" and the second option "mentors him off the pitch". What this means is that my first option changes his personality and there is a chance that he will learn all or some of the ppms. The second option only affects his personality and does no ppm training. This is very important to remember and understand.

When a player is young you have the chance of helping him grow and develop the kind of tutoring you choose can accelerate his development. Tutoring takes 180 days and ppms can take a max of two seasons to learn if the player already has the right personality and is playing in a position that encourages USING those ppms. So if you have a defender and you want him to go forward with the ball, chances are if he is being trained as a defender he won't because in most cases he won't be going forward, but, if you train him in a new position as a DMC then he can learn that ppm and when he's done even his positional training doesn't stick the ppm will.

A player can learn up to 5 ppms max, if someone tells you that ppms don't change the way the game is being played and it can be completely done via sliders, they aren't entirely correct. Some of the ppms DIRECTLY affect their play and can't be done through ticks and slider changes.

http://s162.beta.photobucket.com/user/yrashidiy/media/ScreenShot2013-02-19at31437PM_zpsf48b2b7b.png.html

Lets face it we all want wonderkids right? We look for those 5 star wonders, pay 10 million for a 17 year old and hope he matures into Messi. One out of 10, maybe even out of 50 will turn into Messi. There is a lot of hard work that needs to be done and it all starts when they are young. It takes attention to detail and good planning.

There are some things that people need to do:

A. Training schedules for youth

Gotta thank Cleon for this as I didn't even notice till he mentioned training programmes for the young. When a player is between the ages of 15-17, leave him in the U-17 squad, focus on getting him tutored by the right mentors and get him to learn the ppms you want if he needs them. The training schedule should be set up either with a focus to Fitness which will focus on his physical attributes or ball control. I prefer ball control but when at times I get a batch that has low natural fitness then I consider Fitness, tbh I usually stick with ball control. The intensity should be set to low and the individual focus areas should be set to high. You can set match training to the lowest notch on the right, which reduces match preparation and increases time they spend on their individual training. You can even set them to learn new positions. This is a great time for their development.

B. 17 years old

At this age they have to be moved to Reserves and the better players need to start playing football for the senior side. The rest if home grown go on loan.Remember to move the better ones, the ones you really want to focus on to the senior side so they get the training schedule for them. This is the killer:

C. Planning

In order to see them improve by "leaps and bounds" which is some crazy green arrow bonanza, they MUST play a minimum of 25 games for the senior side. Thats a lotta football, and this is where it gets hard. You absolutely need to choose the right players to play. Make sure you don't field a whole bunch of 17 year olds unless you are sure you can win the match, and thats where the final piece of the puzzle comes in.

D. Match Preparation Training

Now match preparation training does give a small temporary boost to training, and a positive result cascades into training performance. So there is a knock on effect when you win. Match preparation especially early in the season allows you to get past the initial lethargy of your team. I've gone on massive winning runs this way and its especially vital to the way I play9

E. All you need to do is get the balance right for 3 months.

So for 3 months after the season has started and after fitness preseason...you match prep Offensive training, Offensive set pieces, Defensive positioning and defensive set pieces. That means you need to move the match preparation slider to the second notch on the right. Its nearly perfect cos during the early part of the season, the chances of injuries are the highest. So by moving the match preparation slider to the right and having individual focus training set to heavy, their overall intensity per player is always going to be medium. If its set to one notch from the right, its heavy if I am not mistaken. Once the team settles in and they start playing better, by three months you should be able to abort match training completely and focus on individual training.

During the first few matches of the season, don't be surprised to see a lethargic team, once they catch up in terms of match preparation, you can start playing more attacking football. I for one alway default by midseason to attacking for most sides and control for good opponents. At the start of the season I am usually control and standard.

I thought the match prep was just a slight boost for the next game not where you can learn them and then the team will keep that knowledge and you can go back to no match prep.