Chrissy's Tactical Concepts - Part 1 Pressure (other parts will be added on this thread)

Introduction

Hi folks,

This series of articles will basically be my interpretation of tactical concepts and how to apply them in FM14.

The purpose of these articles is to help players understand how to take tactical concepts and adapt them into an FM tactic or series of tactics. I will also include a player guide on how I play the game as well at a later date, to assist those newer to the game with this series. I will post more articles onto the thread, but at the bottom of the opening post I will include the links to the new articles, so that folk can reference them quickly.

The first topic I will address is that of creating a tactic using the concept of pressure as the principle concept.

Real Life application

Now the concept of pressure based tactics is nothing new in football. Since the beginnings of the game, pressure being applied to opponents has been the main defensive concept of most teams. As it is with most team sports, be it American Football, Basketball, Handball, Volleyball, the concept of pressurising the opposition into conceding possession and making mistakes is nothing new.

Pressure has recently become very much an oft quoted buzz word in tactical discussions, mainly due to the success on the continent of Spanish and German teams deploying systems where the whole team undertakes a form of group pressure. In these systems, the whole team pressurises the opposition and generally compresses the space which opposing team can operate in.

Pressure however, like all factors can be graded and applied on various levels. You can have teams which have players that are instructed to pressurise in various situations, but in others, stand off opponents. For example, a fullback may be told to pressurise an opposing winger when they approach a ‘red zone’ near the edge of the box, but to not lunge in or commit higher up the pitch, instead wait for support. Instructions for teams and players can vary hugely.

FM application

Now what I will try and show you in this section is how pressure can be applied both in team instructions and player instructions.

Before I continue, I have to state that in my opinion, the formation you play, the players you pick and to a lesser extent the mentality you choose, can have no bearing on the teams application of pressure. Team Mentality in particular can present a confusing stance You would assume that a ‘defensive’ or ‘contain’ philosophy would adopt pressure, but the interesting part about FM14 is that pressure is something you can choose to apply/amend as you see fit. You will see in the mentality options phrases such as “reducing space” which allude to pressure, but I feel to make sure this is in effect, you really must manually adapt the team instructions. There is too much ambiguity there for you to be sure. Maybe it is as such in order for you to make these decisions, regardless I will show you how.

In the team instructions there are two real options in terms of applying pressure. One is to “Hassle opponent”, the other is to “Stand off Opponents”. There are various tweaks you can implement, but this is really the crucial option to use. Note, your players may close down to the detriment of holding their shape if “hassle opponents” is chosen. If you want to retain your shape defensively, have your players ”Stand off Opponents”.

In terms of tweaking the tactic more in order to apply this pressure you can consider the following amendments to make in team instructions.

- How deep you sit

This is important because if you want to reduce the space the opposition operates IN then you really need to ‘push higher up’ the pitch instead of ‘drop deeper’ or standard. These are essentially your three D-Line defensive line variables. In conjunction with the strategies/mentalities (in game) from Contain, Defensive, Counter, Standard, Control, Attacking and Overload, your D-line will be adapted based on what two options you choose. Basically giving you three different options per mentality on how high up the pitch you want to go. I mention this because people have lamented the loss of sliders, but in effect they have never gone away as the D-Line for example has 18 different points of setting for example.

- Get Stuck in/Stay on Feet

Again, this is a tweak you can apply. Be aware though if you have players constantly pressurising and tackling hard, it is a given your disciplinary issues will be raised, as your players will receive bookings and red cards.

- Tighter Marking

Note, marking is a totally different concept than pressure and a lot of football fans confuse the two. Marking is basically a role designated to a player on if they should be assigned to a certain player or zone. Pressure would be the application of that role. So Tight marking and hassling your opponents may result in players applying pressure but also being dragged away and leaving a hole. To explain this, imagine a centre half tasked with marking a centre forward. The centre forward’s instruction is “roam from position” so the defender gets dragged deep and a hole is now in the centre.

Choosing a Mentality

Now this is a vital part. You do not have to have a defensive mentality to apply pressure. It is a concept that works with all mentalities. I have for example, created a series of tactics that have attacking mentalities combined with the team being asked to “push higher up” and Hassling opponents. Combined with player roles that are pressure orientated, I have a team full of defensive/pressure based players, who play in a very attacking system.

Player roles

Sweeper Keeper – You really need this option if you are choosing to apply pressure because if you don’t you leave your team open to long balls over the top (especially if you are applying a high D-line)

Ball winning Midfielders – These players are basically assigned to pressurise and win the ball back

Defensive Wingers – This player’s role is perfectly chosen to apply pressure. Be careful though in not allowing you Ass.Man to choose the players as this will more often the not mean a Defensive Winger AML gets an WBL or DL assigned to it, whereas the AML you have may be perfectly suited to the role.

Defensive Forwards – Again, these players are automatically assigned to close down. Again, do not let the Ass.Man choose.

Player Instructions

In amending player instructions to apply pressure you can choose to either ‘close down more’ or ‘close down less’. Like the team instructions, there are individual variables on how tight you wish to choose your players to mark and tackle. Again, remember how these will affect your players behaviour.

Other issues

You need a fit team to be constantly running and applying pressure. This means in games you need to sub players that are tiring perhaps more than those that are not performing.

Also, if you are applying a universal pressure system, if you have one player not doing so ,then the system has a weakness. I would strongly suggest you have all the players follow the same approach. The reasoning being that the AI may suss your flanks or the middle of the pitch is vulnerable. More so if you are playing versus online games.

Summary

I have created a tactic based on the concepts mentioned above and this can be referenced on the following threads;

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/370336-FM14-Plug-and-Play-Under-Pressure

http://www.thedugout.tv/community/showthread.php?p=4057039&posted=1

So folks, there is a summary on how I feel pressure can be applied in FM14. It is no doubt not perfect and I am sure there are a lot more contributions to be made on this concept. As such I would encourage discussion on this thread and debate on the merits of pressure within the game.

Extremely well thought out, and well presented thread.

Extremely well thought out, and well presented thread.

Thanks, trying to positively contribute on here from now on.

Shame I haven't noticed this one before. Great read!

Qustion though, do you ever let your assistant (in game that is) choose any of your players? I'd never advise anyone to do this for a lot of reasons.

As stated in the OP I don't suggest it as a good course of action Steve. I agree with you. Player's tend to get picked for their appropriateness to the designated role, more than the mentality/role you want them to assume.

As stated in the OP I don't suggest it as a good course of action Steve. I agree with you. Player's tend to get picked for their appropriateness to the designated role, more than the mentality/role you want them to assume.

I just thought, because you state with all those player roles 'don't let the assistant choose', you considered a lot or at least some virtual managers let their assistant do that. I thought of it as an opportunity to point out one should never do so. I never assumed you would do that because users posting in this kind of detail tend to be the 'hands on type'. I'm looking forward to you next update. It's been long since anyone took a small part of the beautiful game to describe this in such detail, while remaining simple in it's explanation. I will be referring to this thread, I'm sure of it.

Quality article, will look forward to more of these. This is why I enjoy these forums, doesn't matter if you are leading a thread or reading instead, but we all learn masses from it.

I'll upload more articles in the coming weeks. Trying to do something a little bit different and not repeat/parrot the fabulous content that is already to be found on here.

I'll upload more articles in the coming weeks. Trying to do something a little bit different and not repeat/parrot the fabulous content that is already to be found on here.

Well Steve I'll do articles on whatever folk want to learn about. I think I am in a unique position in terms of being a coach and a long time player. Not saying I can bring to the table anything better than what is currently out there, but I can certainly try to give it a different viewpoint/twist.

I find a lot of folk want to replicate how a certain team plays, but very few want to replicate a style or philosophy as much. There is some excellent content on here already though, so if there is anything you haven't seen dealt with, let me know.

Well Steve I'll do articles on whatever folk want to learn about. I think I am in a unique position in terms of being a coach and a long time player. Not saying I can bring to the table anything better than what is currently out there, but I can certainly try to give it a different viewpoint/twist.

I find a lot of folk want to replicate how a certain team plays, but very few want to replicate a style or philosophy as much. There is some excellent content on here already though, so if there is anything you haven't seen dealt with, let me know.

You'd be surprised at how many coaches actually play the game and post in here

so if there is anything you haven't seen dealt with, let me know.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/375140-Choosing-Strategy

You'd be surprised at how many coaches actually play the game and post in here

I don't doubt it for a second, makes logical sense.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/375140-Choosing-Strategy

As Cleon has stated on that thread, there has been threads produced on this already. I'm trying to avoid duplication dude.

Well Steve I'll do articles on whatever folk want to learn about. I think I am in a unique position in terms of being a coach and a long time player. Not saying I can bring to the table anything better than what is currently out there, but I can certainly try to give it a different viewpoint/twist.

I find a lot of folk want to replicate how a certain team plays, but very few want to replicate a style or philosophy as much. There is some excellent content on here already though, so if there is anything you haven't seen dealt with, let me know.

Thats what makes this forum so interesting for me. Since English isn't my first language I'd be better off posting in the threads in Dutch. But I haven't found any good Dutch/Belgian forum where people like to think "out of the box". Most of the times the posts just state something and then everyone believes it is God himself who came down to earth and gave us a new "ten amendments". There 's just a lack of interest in discussing, which I think is a pity.

Though I am skeptic about anything everyone says, I really like a fair discussion. So that's why I won't mind if its already discussed before. Discussion = Good!

I planned a to start a save with the 'psychological' element of football before but didn't find the time, maybe you can shed some light to this? I know there was the Psychological Warfare PDF by FMBritain before, but since last year some things changed in the options we have as a manager. I also found it to general in it's approach and it lacked a bit of strategic thinking. It wasn't available for free also, so a lot of people might have missed it and it seems to be the case it is often overlooked.

Anyway, whatever you'll be posting here will have my attention.

Steve thedugout.net forums have a good dutch section

Great thread GlesgaKillie

If you did want to do another thread, I'd love to see one on how you should respond when teams are applying pressure to your own side. AI teams often do this to my teams and its the bane of my FM life!

How tempo affect the pressing ? Does make sense use high or low tempo ? Thanks :-)

Wonderful post, thank you

Thanks dude.

Any thoughts on the next part? I'm eager, I know.

I am thinking of doing an article on simple, route one tactics.

Excellent - I look forward to the series!

Loved it look, forward to more

Excellent work - will definitely adapt some aspects in my tactics!

Looking forward to the next part

so its best not to sett the whole team to hassle,tight mark,get stuck in etc,just individual players?

Part 2 coming out soon. This will focus on how to apply a "Winning Mentality" to your side. A basic walk through guide on how to manage in one very particular but successful (in my opinion) way in FM.

Sounds promising. I'm looking forward to it.