The best tactic for FMH15?

Has anyone found a tactic that works on FMH15?

I started playing FM PC with version 2006. Needless to say, this year´s FMH resembles earlier FM PC sporting the new and more sophisticated match engine. I really urge you

to watch the matches on extended view. Then, analyze your team and try to counteract within the limited possibilities of the tactics module.

So far, it has rather worked well for me.

For me I never believed in the same tactic for all teams. Maybe there is such thing but sounds unlikely to me.

I make sure my best 5-6 players in my squad play in their natural position whatever formation that needs to be and the rest in their natural or accomplished position.

give em their preferred role or recommended one as alternative. Thats my starting point.

Generally my first seasons a rollercoaster of good and bad results. With tweaks here and there and 2-3 new players the 2nd season goes much better.

For attacking formations I mostly use offside trap and pressing for defensive ones behind ball and counter attack.

So I base my "tactics" on available players -> formation -> tactics.

Also recommend to base a tactic and instructions around the strengths of your team rather than a generic tactic.

After tinkering around a fair bit a basic 4-4-2 with Attacking and short passing seems best suited to my current save. Sounds basic but a solid defensive midfielder partnered with a creative playmaker, two pacey wingers and a Target man/Poacher up top has took my Forest side to the Prem and sit 10th in November with little transfers in or out.

I don’t change my approach to different teams massively, if we are playing away to one of the bigger teams I might drop a ST into AMC or have a DM but that’s about it – just play to your teams strengths and sooner or later you should find success!

I am always 4-1-2-1-2, mixed passing, men behind ball, attacking mentality and pressing opposition. I never use wide men in midfield. My defensive midfielder is often my MOTM when it's not a striker.

For attacking formations I mostly use offside trap and pressing for defensive ones behind ball and counter attack.

You use Men Behind Ball and Counter Attack together? I would have thought they wouldn't work together.

Counter Attack has your attacking players stay forward (in front of the ball) ready to break away. Men Behind Ball is obviously opposite.

How can you counter attack effectively if all of your players are behind the ball when you win possession?

I'm using the same formation i've used on the last 3 iterations of FMH (on iPhone) - every year, i've taken Woking to the Prem title in consecutive seasons and when loading multiple leagues, won the title at every club I move to within two seasons.

In a 4-3-3, Attacking, Short Passing, Committed Tackling and Pressing on.

GK

WBR CTR CTR WBL

APM BWM CM

CMF PCR DLF

As I say, this formation has been all-conquering for me for about three versions of FMH - however, I play on 'commentary only' (as I want a quick game) so if you're one of those who believes that affects things, make of it what you will.

Would love to see proof of success on this yrs version as just can't imagine anyone doing any good.

I've tried every formation including the one above

You use Men Behind Ball and Counter Attack together? I would have thought they wouldn't work together.

Counter Attack has your attacking players stay forward (in front of the ball) ready to break away. Men Behind Ball is obviously opposite.

How can you counter attack effectively if all of your players are behind the ball when you win possession?

Agree with you, however if your attacking players are blessed with high pace/dribbling stats then it could work.

Try play a flat 4-4-2.

x2 fullbacks, x2 CTR

x2 WM (not WNG), BWM and BBM in the MC slot.

PCR and TM up front.

Play balanced, mix/short passing, normal tackling and pressing on.

Thats should do it. Go attacking + short passing vs defensive formations i.e against 4-4-2 with the two MC playing in the DMC slot.

Good luck. You will not score 100 goals in 38 league matches, but you sure is not going to let in to much goals.

I play a 4-1-2-2-1 with PSV and find it very affective in both goals and defensively.

Def - 2FB's, 2 CD's

DM - BWM

Mid - DLM, APM

Wing's - WNG, IF

ATK - TM

Current Season with Tactic;

P - 16

W - 14

D - 1

L - 1

F - 39

A - 3

I am playing 442 attacking with the wingers pushed up with Porto

Attacking most of the time. I switch between short passing as the first and then go direct if the game suits it, ie poor conditions, or if we need a goal. Started with normal tackling although I go with committed in the really important games

I have pressing off, but I play with counter attack and offside trap both on

pc pc

wgr wgr

apm- dlm

fb- cd- bpd- fb

Works well. scoring lots of goals, playing well. Quite poor defensively thought but that's because my gk is a bit whack!

Best result was 2-1 away victory at Atletico Madrid in cl.

Worst defeat was away losing 4-0 against benfica. Though we beat them 5-1 in the supercup on neutral ground!

I used to have reasonable success with tactics with various versions of FM but dispite trying everything i can think of just cannot get nothing from this game but total frustration. There is a line between realism and enjoyment, for me this 'game' goes to far over the line. Fortunately Itunes has a 28 day refund policy. I got my refund not because of the money as i would happily spend x amount of money for something i enjoy, but i l would begrudge paying 50p for this stress related rubbish.

I used to have reasonable success with tactics with various versions of FM but dispite trying everything i can think of just cannot get nothing from this game but total frustration. There is a line between realism and enjoyment, for me this 'game' goes to far over the line. Fortunately Itunes has a 28 day refund policy. I got my refund not because of the money as i would happily spend x amount of money for something i enjoy, but i l would begrudge paying 50p for this stress related rubbish.

I couldn't agree more

Been trying to think of a way to put this without sounding Mardy , you've hit the nail on the Head

It's also gone beyond enjoyment for me

It's so hard that it's inrealistic

I couldn't agree more

Been trying to think of a way to put this without sounding Mardy , you've hit the nail on the Head

It's also gone beyond enjoyment for me

It's so hard that it's inrealistic

It is not just hard but stupid. There are two fundamentals when creating tactics, you can go defensive or offensive. If you go defensive and try to concentrate on keeping it tight then build from there, but in this game you can restrict your opponents but they will ALWAYS score from the one chance they get. If you go the for offensive we know you will leak goals, and rightly so, but you will struggle to score despite creating plenty of chances. Sadly over the years Football Manager has lost touch and not what it used to be.

From a personal pont of view I like to attack and play short passes which go direct at half time if needed. I usually play an offside trap with no counter attack and go in hard on the tackle. As for a formation, you need to figure out your best xi by looking at the coach reports and put those players in your team. Then choose your formation to suit those players whilst keeping some balance in their preferred roles and recommended roles. Players first then formation, not the other way around.

It is not just hard but stupid. There are two fundamentals when creating tactics, you can go defensive or offensive. If you go defensive and try to concentrate on keeping it tight then build from there, but in this game you can restrict your opponents but they will ALWAYS score from the one chance they get. If you go the for offensive we know you will leak goals, and rightly so, but you will struggle to score despite creating plenty of chances. Sadly over the years Football Manager has lost touch and not what it used to be.

Completely agree. I stopped playing the full game because it became too complex to be enjoyable and I don't spend that much time gaming to get good at it. I loved the '14 version of this because it was just like old FM. I figured out a winning tactic and it was then about finding good players, building good teams and then moving to new jobs when I got bored.

I thought I'd cracked this version when I started playing a 4-3-2-1 with attacking, short passing, committed tackling, counter attack and offside trap. I won the title with spurs in my second season with my two inside forwards playing really well. I continued to win in the following seasons but just noticed a few things that started to really annoy me:

1. My shot to goal ratio was really low - I'd have 20 shots in a game but only ever score once or twice

2. Opponents shot to goal ratio was really high and they'd often score with their first shot of the game

3. Opponent a always come from 2 or 3 goals down even in the last 20 mins of games

4. Always got bad results against teams in the relegation zone

5. Strikers are always all or nothing with ratings of 8/9/10 when they score but 5/6 when they don't

6. DMs always get poor marks regardless of the player or player role

7. Trying other tactics is just pointless

8. Players suddenly lose form and then never seem to fully recover

I don't have a problem with realism in games. I know that football can be unpredictable and teams can upset the odds, just not as much as happens in this game. I also know that tactics play a part in football but this game makes it impossible to win if you don't get it exactly right.

Ultimately it just feels like smug developers deciding to make a game pointlessly difficult to show that they are smarter than we are. This happened with the desk top game too and nowadays only the hardcore fans play it.

Hopefully someone on one of these threads will stumble upon a good tactic that allows us to play the game with a bit more realism. Otherwise I'll give up one this years game and hope it improves for me to give it one last chance ext season.

"1. My shot to goal ratio was really low - I'd have 20 shots in a game but only ever score once or twice

2. Opponents shot to goal ratio was really high and they'd often score with their first shot of the game"

I've had this occur quite often....from Real Madrid to Dortmund to made up super squads.....

"1. My shot to goal ratio was really low - I'd have 20 shots in a game but only ever score once or twice

2. Opponents shot to goal ratio was really high and they'd often score with their first shot of the game"

I've had this occur quite often....from Real Madrid to Dortmund to made up super squads.....

Welcome to FMH. This has been happening for a few years now.

Are there any differences between the two match engines? Like, will a tactic perform equally in both engines?

The match engine doesn't know who is the human, there is no 'fixing' at all.

There's definitely something in the coding. 2 seasons running I've played the team bottom of the league who had lost their previous 5 games. Both times I replayed the game 10 times but could never get a win - basic probability dictates that i should have won at least once.

If there is no fix then could you give some advice on how to improve my performance? I don't have a problem with possession or creating chances but I do seem to find it much harder than the computer teams to score. Maybe I'm missing something?

Also, could you let us know if the complexity of the game has been changed from 14 or whether I just haven't found the right tactic yet? in 14 I found tactics that worked for big and small teams alike and never needed changing. I know this isn't very realistic but suited me as an occasional player. If it has been made more sophisticated now and the player needs to keep changing tactics then that's ok but means it's not the game for me any more - I don't have the time to play that I had 10 years ago!