One Minute You're Barca, The Next You're Stoke. Is This How To Manage??

Hi everyone,

I've asked this question before but never really got a proper answer.

As an example; I start a new game and take over as Liverpool Manager. I intend for my team to play a Guardiola Barcelona style of football, so I set the tactics up accordingly (pass short at speed, press much more etc). My intention is to make this Liverpool team play this exciting brand of attacking football and for them to implement it as their brand of football and playing style. But if for example; I come up against a solid Mourinho Chelsea Side in the 2nd leg of the champions league semi final (after taking a 1st leg lead of 2-0), do I change my style of football so that I play at a slower pace and be more rigid or do I stick with the attacking football I have implemented?

Basically what I'm trying to say is, once you have your style of play, do you use that style for EVERY game and in EVERY situation, or do you alter your tactics accordingly? (So one minute your like Barcelona, then the next your like Tony Pulis' Stoke).

Will this unsettle your team in anyway and will your team be able to adapt or are you just wasting your time?

It probably sounds like a dumb question, but I just wondered if this is what your supposed to do.

Many thanks,

Matt

In fm16 in particular, i've found that tweaking is needed more than ever.

You an certainly have and overriding philosophy of play, but staying rigidly to the exact same game plan every game against every opposition is suicide imo.

And it's certainly not what happens in real life..

There is a middle ground in between the two ways you described above. You can still play cater your tactic to the opposition while still playing a pressing passing game for instance, but you will need to taylor it somewhat to certain opposition. As an example, a short passing possession game will work wonders against teams where there is plenty of space given to you to do so, but you will need to adapt it to teams who won't give you any time at all on the ball etc.

Same tactics same style every single game.

I think this only works because my team is of elite quality. On the way up a bit more tweaking was needed.

Familiarity with tactical instruction gives you some advantage. Players know what is expected and how teammates move around them. I play as Ajax and in Eredivisie I use same tactics against every other team, regardless scoreline or home/away ground. I've found that if I tweak something, we lose our usual rhythm and it has backfired a couple of times.

But in Europe our own style doesn't work. Champions League is a completely different story and demands different approach.

Tweaking, though the better your club gets you get to the point where you're better than everyone else in your league and you can stick to your winning style - until you play in the CL and have to tweak again

Thanks everyone, really appreciate all them comments

Familiarity with tactical instruction gives you some advantage. Players know what is expected and how teammates move around them. I play as Ajax and in Eredivisie I use same tactics against every other team, regardless scoreline or home/away ground. I've found that if I tweak something, we lose our usual rhythm and it has backfired a couple of times.

But in Europe our own style doesn't work. Champions League is a completely different story and demands different approach.

I'd agree there, generally there is a certain style that you create that performs well for your team in the league against other sides and they usually play similar(ish) football within certain leagues. In Europe teams play different and your players are effected by the travels as well as the different styles of play. Im usually more conservative in Europe in the group stages, as my teams never perform to the same level as they would against a similar rep team at home

Hi everyone,

I've asked this question before but never really got a proper answer.

As an example; I start a new game and take over as Liverpool Manager. I intend for my team to play a Guardiola Barcelona style of football, so I set the tactics up accordingly (pass short at speed, press much more etc). My intention is to make this Liverpool team play this exciting brand of attacking football and for them to implement it as their brand of football and playing style. But if for example; I come up against a solid Mourinho Chelsea Side in the 2nd leg of the champions league semi final (after taking a 1st leg lead of 2-0), do I change my style of football so that I play at a slower pace and be more rigid or do I stick with the attacking football I have implemented?

Basically what I'm trying to say is, once you have your style of play, do you use that style for EVERY game and in EVERY situation, or do you alter your tactics accordingly? (So one minute your like Barcelona, then the next your like Tony Pulis' Stoke).

Will this unsettle your team in anyway and will your team be able to adapt or are you just wasting your time?

It probably sounds like a dumb question, but I just wondered if this is what your supposed to do.

Many thanks,

Matt

Your Liverpool and trying to play like Barcelona? That's nearly impossible, not because I'm hater but because I'm realistic, what player are you going to play in a Messi role?, or iniesta? or busquets, they are so good at the way they play because they are the only ones that can do it, there's no other player around atm that can play the same way Messi plays.

pass short at speed? maybe pass short but not at speed, maybe in intervals but they build up slowly.

in all honesty you need to have a proper look at your players and make a tactic that fits your team. Barcelona's defence is its slow tempo control style, Barcelona is small-tony pulis's Stoke was big,

you could make a seperate tactic that will 'play like stoke' so your players become familiar with it so when you do want to play with it the players will understand the instructions more, but again Barcelona to a stoke?, they are two completely different tactics in players selected in itself let alone the way the teams play, you can tinker with your game during the match to add different elements or as I said earlier make a second tactic that players can become familiar with and play when needed, Barcelona to a stoke set-up won't work though.

I would make re-evaluate the players you have, find something that you think may work then stick at it and tinker it, most times you get combinations of things you add during the game to change it, if you need a defensive tactic then find some combinations and put them in a seperate tactic so when you do want to go defensive your players will understand it better.

That's why there's Control, Standard, Counter, etc. Just changing that alone does so many tweaks for you. But as far as do I use different tactics against different teams, yes. I use two main tactics (but sometimes the reason a team IRL might use only one tactic is because their club has a specific philosophy that they are expected to meet, such as at Barcelona or Real Madrid. So IRL Barcelona is going to play the same way regardless.

Basically what I'm trying to say is, once you have your style of play, do you use that style for EVERY game and in EVERY situation, or do you alter your tactics accordingly? (So one minute your like Barcelona, then the next your like Tony Pulis' Stoke).

Will this unsettle your team in anyway and will your team be able to adapt or are you just wasting your time?

Why do you need to make wholesale changes to react against the opposite manager? Also are you in possession of players who can both play like Barcelona, and then Stoke? Good with their feet, vision, control - but also good in the air, hard tacklers etc?

Hi everyone,

I've asked this question before but never really got a proper answer.

As an example; I start a new game and take over as Liverpool Manager. I intend for my team to play a Guardiola Barcelona style of football, so I set the tactics up accordingly (pass short at speed, press much more etc). My intention is to make this Liverpool team play this exciting brand of attacking football and for them to implement it as their brand of football and playing style. But if for example; I come up against a solid Mourinho Chelsea Side in the 2nd leg of the champions league semi final (after taking a 1st leg lead of 2-0), do I change my style of football so that I play at a slower pace and be more rigid or do I stick with the attacking football I have implemented?

Basically what I'm trying to say is, once you have your style of play, do you use that style for EVERY game and in EVERY situation, or do you alter your tactics accordingly? (So one minute your like Barcelona, then the next your like Tony Pulis' Stoke).

Will this unsettle your team in anyway and will your team be able to adapt or are you just wasting your time?

It probably sounds like a dumb question, but I just wondered if this is what your supposed to do.

Many thanks,

Matt

You clearly have not seen Stoke play in the past couple of years. Tony Pulis' Stoke has long gone. It's now Tony Pulis' West Brom.

I normally play short passing game unitil my assistant tells me to change to long balls in the game.