Unfamiliarity with tactics at the start

Isn't it a little unrealistic that no matter which tactic you begin with, the players' familiarity is at best the high end of awkward? I mean, it's not like they've never played in a system before. It should be fluid if you play the same system as they played the season before and unless you play a completely bizarre tactic, should hardly ever be awkward.

Isn't it a little unrealistic that no matter which tactic you begin with, the players' familiarity is at best the high end of awkward? I mean, it's not like they've never played in a system before. It should be fluid if you play the same system as they played the season before and unless you play a completely bizarre tactic, should hardly ever be awkward.

Yup, the Manchester United players sure did look comfortable with the system Louis van Gaal got them playing at the start didn't they...

I think van Gaal would fall under the 'completely bizarre' category! If you play a familiar tactic it should say so.

I think van Gaal would fall under the 'completely bizarre' category! If you play a familiar tactic it should say so.

A 4-3-3 is classed as bizarre now?

I would say van Gaal's behaviour is the reason Utd are as they are.

Anyway, Utd don't look awkward, they just can't break a team down. Seeing as you're intent on trying to argue against my suggestion, do you think it's normal for every type of tactic to be awkward from the start then?

I FULLY agree with this. It annoys me that I take over a squad of players at the top of their game (BvB for example), and have to teach them how to play football. It's a bit silly.

I do understand the need to be "gamey" and encourage training and match preparation, but it should still be as realistic a level as FM professes to aspire to. You should be able to take over Barcelona and set up a playing style similar to how they have played for the past few years, and see them be at least accomplished...

This is what I mean. Not like it took Enrique long!

To emphasise my point, it seems once you are fluid in 2/3 tactics, you can change it to whatever you like and it'll only drop to accomplished.

Totally agree. I've been fired a couple times due to brutal starts with top teams, and I'm blaming it on this.

Tactical familiarity being low won't cause your team to lose so frequently that you get sacked, don't be ridiculous. It really doesn't have that much of an effect.

If it did, every manager would be sacked at the start of every season.

The reason you were sacked is that you weren't good enough. It's that simple.

I recall I raised this in the bugs forum last year, but got very busy and never followed it up with a relevant saved game. I recall I wanted to check if it was different at the start of a save, vs changing clubs mid game. Maybe someone with the problem could take a more detailed look and submit a new bug report.

Tactical familiarity being low won't cause your team to lose so frequently that you get sacked, don't be ridiculous. It really doesn't have that much of an effect.

If it did, every manager would be sacked at the start of every season.

The reason you were sacked is that you weren't good enough. It's that simple.

If it didn't have that much effect, then the OP's suggestion would be perfectly acceptable [to implement in future].

I do agree with your last line of course, because there are plenty of players who can be successful right from the start regardless of tactical familiarity. Still, the point remains - top players should be pretty comfortable playing basic tactical systems from game start. Hell, any professional player really.

If it didn't have that much effect, then the OP's suggestion would be perfectly acceptable [to implement in future].

I do agree with your last line of course, because there are plenty of players who can be successful right from the start regardless of tactical familiarity. Still, the point remains - top players should be pretty comfortable playing basic tactical systems from game start. Hell, any professional player really.

That is why it starts at high end awkward and not low end "We have no idea of what we're doing"

I think it's more of the team needing to gel together and learn cohesively rather than individual players not having any idea of the tactic.

There's no issue. Simply schedule adequate preseason games.

Have you even tried? It takes most of a season at a club to get 3 tactics fluid. Full Mach Tactics training for pre-season, full 3 day, since it was FC Twente, I could somewhat continue with 3 day match training, but it still ended up taking most of the season to get fluid.

Got headhunted by Barca and joined on the match day of the Super Cup against RM, no pre-season for me and Spain is brutal with matches every 3 days for week after week, so can't train match tactics much, think it's going to be into second season (if I last that long) before I get fluid.

Totally agree. I've been fired a couple times due to brutal starts with top teams, and I'm blaming it on this.

Me too, going to give Roma a go now hopefully I can get a save going.

That is why it starts at high end awkward and not low end "We have no idea of what we're doing"

I think it's more of the team needing to gel together and learn cohesively rather than individual players not having any idea of the tactic.

I think you're half right here.

The players have to get used to not just a formation, but the players within that formation, and how the manager wants them to play. Every single tactical input is going to need adjusting to. Personnel, their preferred moves, their personal instructions, team instructions, how they attack, how they defend, etc etc. So whilst a player might be very familiar with lining up in a, let's say, 4-4-2, they might not be used to inside forwards opposed to wingers, an AMC rather than a CM. All of those permutations have to be gotten used to.

I think it should be that the team is already familiar with the previous managers tactic. So if you start a save with Barca and continue their Tiki Taka philosophy the familiarity will remain relatively high (not full) but if you go more direct it will drop down to pretty low.

I think it should be that the team is already familiar with the previous managers tactic. So if you start a save with Barca and continue their Tiki Taka philosophy the familiarity will remain relatively high (not full) but if you go more direct it will drop down to pretty low.

There's maybe something in this, I always start off playing as Hibernian and Alan Stubbs tactics are tactics I also prefer, so when I took over the tactic bar was almost full after 6 friendlies.