FM08 - Heathxxx 4-3-1-2 (8.0.2) - Probably The Last Set I'll Upload For FM08

[oyveke]

Won promotion 4 years in a row with Telford, changed to your tactics, and now i have 4 points 10 games into the season in the championship.

Not too impressed yet...

[heathxxx]

The Championship is often a big leap from the previous divisions and a lot can also depend on your squad and club reputation being lower by far than your opponents.

It may be wise to look a little more defensive with the mentality and defensive line until you can build up your team, perhaps also consider ticking counter-attacking. Best I can suggest is dropping the individual mentality of each player by 4 or 5 to the left of the slider. The odds will usually be against your team and media predictions may be low for your finishing position in the league? Teams will be confident of beating you, therefore will attack more.

Also, bear in mind that changing from one tactic you've used for a long time to another, can take quite a while for your squad to get used to.

Let me know how you get on.

[oyveke]

yeah, to be fair my team is quite poor too, so i'm not gonna give your tactic all of the blame.

the board accepted offers "too good to reject" for most of my star players, and i haven't been able to replace them yet. actually there are less players willing to join the club now than when i was i league 2 - quite frustrating, and a bit strange.

i get on a bit better now, having done a few changes, like ticking counter-attack, ticking off offside trap, and moving the MC to DM. guess i will have to try to bring in a few new players in january too.

And thanks for the tips!

[heathxxx]

The biggest problem getting better players may be down to your club possibly being touted as relegation candidates, as opposed to promotion candidates in the league below.

You're a few seasons into your save, so it might be worth sending your scouts out on "regional" missions to any continent available to you yet.

In my current save, I managed to pick up "one for the future", a superb prospect with about 190 PA, from the Cook Islands of all places. He was delighted to join my team and hadn't attracted any interest from big clubs.

Taking a team upwards can be time consuming. My approach is usually to hold out for the best fee for players that I can. Board intervention can be frustrating, especially when a player should command a higher fee than they agree to, but it's something you have to live with.

Keep an eye on free agents and out of contract players. I got Crespo, Vieri, Salgado, Lehmann on free transfers at the start of my current season. They should all be top players for a Championship side. Their attributes are fast on the decline, but as they have high CA, they can still do a great job for me. They're handy as first teamers, squad players, also for tutoring, as they can pass on some good player preferred moves to my youngsters.

For the time being, work on the basis that you're going to be a "selling" club for a number of years, if you plan to stay with them. It will take a considerable number of years and major trophy wins to compete with the big clubs for the best players.

Of course, you may accept an offer from a big club in the meantime...

[Mravac Kid]

Originally posted by Ronaldinho93:

Don't really bother with downloading tactics, but gave it a try, and I must say it's really turned things around for my AC Milan side.

Meaning, you are now losing games left right and center? ;p

Anyways, I'll give this tactic a try. I've always thought about doing something with weird arrows all over the place, but I've been afraid to try it. But I had some success with the other 4312 tactic, so I suppose this one may work well too.

[heathxxx]

The arrows aren't all that wierd to be honest.

Back in earlier versions of CM & FM I used similar formations to this one. It's the player instructions that are important though nowadays.

The wide running midfielders are quite effective in both getting attacks going down the flanks, and dropping more central when the opposition attack.

The wider running strikers pull their marking centre-backs away from the runs of the AMC, thus creating much space centrally in attack. They can often get good angled opportunities too, that they perhaps wouldn't get staying purely central.

Although I set width in this system quite wide, some users may prefer to play narrow, in order to tighten things up if need be and control possession a little more. I myself prefer to open play and make space, but the reason I'll upload a tactic is so others can use it and adapt it as they see fit.

[powermjp]

hey, id like to say thanks for the tactic.

in my 2nd season after already just been promoted

my centre back is now my top scorer so far with 25 goals (nordtveit) im 4th in league 1 its very close nearing the end of the season hoping to nick 2nd.

the formation is great at home seem to lose the odd game away i find.

cheers

[rekoil87]

thanks for posting, its a good tactic , the foundations set are great and its a great tactic too tweak.

really appreciate it

[valete86]

hi heathxxx

as you are a experct in this kind of game i want to ask you for litles/midle teams what is the best strategy and tactic to have sucess in internal competitions(country) to the external comp.(continental)?

i ask it for teams like Benfica; Dinamo Kiev; Portsmouth; Rep. of Irland and Malmo or even Faroe Islands

thanks for your patience..

[macsoz]

why couldn't i find this thread earlier when i was lookin for a 4312 formation. i'm not to great a making tactics. i can either get them to be overly defensive or overly offensive but never end up winning. think ill give these a bash with weder bremen

[D - Pak]

The Championship is often a big leap from the previous divisions and a lot can also depend on your squad and club reputation being lower by far than your opponents.

It may be wise to look a little more defensive with the mentality and defensive line until you can build up your team, perhaps also consider ticking counter-attacking. Best I can suggest is dropping the individual mentality of each player by 4 or 5 to the left of the slider. The odds will usually be against your team and media predictions may be low for your finishing position in the league? Teams will be confident of beating you, therefore will attack more.

Also, bear in mind that changing from one tactic you've used for a long time to another, can take quite a while for your squad to get used to.

Let me know how you get on.

i am planning to work with Hull in the championship and get them promoted. they are being touted as relegation candidates. will the settings you suggested for the championship work for them?

[navarro]

Could someone upload all 4 tactics in one set? Not in filefront, couse it don't work for me.

[heathxxx]

I'm on an intermittent internet setup at the minute in rural Spain, but hope to have better internet access soon as we lost ADSL ability in this area recently. Hopefully I can update the thread then, but if anyone can upload the tactics to another file host for navarro (and any others who can't get onto filefront...), it would be greatly appreciated

[Smac]

Wow, the whole team is really getting involved. I've tried this for a match with my Argentinian 2nd division team "Def. y Jus." and it really upped their game. Been trying for half a season to make a good basic 4-4-2 set, but although I've been winning, it hasn't been convincing to me. These tactics are convincing though. Thanks Heathxxx. I'll give a more detailed report if I stick with the tactics.

[蟲ooO]

Great ~ i`ll tye it~

[Smac]

I have a question regarding making subs.

Because the AMC and FC switch positions, when it comes time to sub one of them on or off I don't know which one to sub.

IE, if I want to bring on a new FC, but when I look at the tactics screen he's currently in the AMC position, should I drag-drop the new striker to his name in the tactics list, or should I swap the AMC and FC back to their starting positions on the tactics screen, then swap the players by name (or by dragging onto the tactics pitch?).

I'm beating teams a division above me in friendlies over the winter break. This is looking great!

[ac_maras]

In Manchester I have very good def midfielders but they're playing really poor! Migouel Veloso has always 6, just like Hargreaves..

[Smac]

Heathxxx: It seems you've swapped which defenders 'challenge gk' in the newer RoO tactic. Thought you should know before you release a set. -S

[Riziger]

Having a go at this now, want to try a good tactic which utilises 2 strikers. With David Villa and Pato upfront and Kaka or Aguero behind them, should be great.

EDIT: Is the RoO variant necessary? I downloaded the normal one and demolished Napoli 5-0 in the first game. Really hard to dl from Filefront so if it isn't necessary I'll not bother with it.

[dexta200]

just trying this with my west brom side hope you like my feedback using RoO varient. which looks like this:

last season finishing 9th just to give you an idea of the types of results i should be getting.

1st game Wigan who are currently 19th in the Prem so should be an easy win: Wigan 1-4 West Brom - overall 10shots to 11 by no means dominated but it was away and i took my chances but 2 goals coming from corners and scoring a freekick not the best performances but i will certainly take the result.

2nd games Blackburn 15th after 15 games so should be a game i can win. West Brom 3-1 Blackburn - another close match 50-50 possession and 10 shots a piece, 1 goal corner, 1 goal Pen and one from Lulinha cutting inside nicely.

over 2 games majority shots on target which has been a problem for me so far over the season. these 2 games have put me up to 5th so sticking withit for now and getting me manager of the month . im yet to set OI ever so im going to try it next game.

3rd game Man Utd in League Cup Quater Final. i have set OI on Ronaldo - weaker foot and tight marking, Rossi - same, Guardado - tight marking. see what this does. West Brom 3-1 Man Utd, OI not sure if they worked or not Rossi managed to score. United out played me 10shots to 7 and 52-48 possesion but the result is all that matters, 2 quality goals from my AMC and my 1st from a striker Stancu. into Semi's now which is great.

4th game. Newcastle away currently 9th in prem. so should be looking to win once again but would take a draw tbh. okay this match was pathetic. 2-1 up then told my team not to get complacent. then they go and lose 5-2 bloody stupid! got beaten well and truely.

so over 4 games got 3 good results but not one very good performance. do the other teams always have alot of shots on goal?

im also not too keen on my strikers being so far out wide and not really being able to cross nor seem to manage to get the ball to the AMC as often as i would like and the strikers seem to shoot at some stupid angles rather than cutting inside.

does this happen with you? most of my goals came from set pieces, which any tactic could do. i like the look of it and it started off pretty decent but just not enough shots and too many for the opposition team im not keen really. but i will continue with it as 1 bad result shouldnt stop me playing a tactic im bound to lose some lol!

so 5th game Reading at home, they are 16th with a below average squad no real stand out players so should be an easy win for me. i am clear favourites so i have said i expect a win, once again though they seem to be dominating at the early stages, but i get a penalty and 1-0 up, they went down to 10men after 40mins, so really should be a bbig win or at least a dominant performance,turned out very dominant in shots but not possesion butstill only 1-0 winners because of a penalty, this due to my strikers shooting from silly angles and my AMC always seeming to be marked when they are looking for a pass.

still though another win another 3 points and another step closer to finishing 5th(my aim lol)

last game im going to report with. Sunderland, 2nd bottom, and useless tbh. easy win. lets see... 1-0 down due to a counter because my striker lost the ball trying to pass to a 3man marked AMC, 1-1 corner tactic, 2-1 corner tactic, so another win 2-1, not great but another win, im not liking the performances my team are giving with this tactic, but i am winning. so its hard to know whether to like it or not. i do like alot of shots to if i can 0 for the opossition, but so far so good really.

okay 1 more before i go to sleep. Southampton away, once again below average 14th in the league. (not a bad run of game tbh lol) won the match 4-3 really should have been 4-2 or 1, ustari cocked up. possession for once 57-43 in my favour, but they still had 12 shots! a hatrick from jimenez though, mainly playing up front???? didnt realise until this game that he swaps position withthe striker? is this supposed to happen lol, not sure that would be very successful i can understand the 2 strikers swapping. is it just so the striker drops back for a pass or something?

would be great if you could answer a few of my questions heath. cheers Mate. the tactics getting me results so im going to stick with it for this season.

[mackemforever]

I have to admit, this is the first time in any of my games of FM or CM ever that I have used a downloaded tactic and I love it.

I am currently in a Bristol City game and was doing well. Won the championship with ease with one of my own tactics but found that in the prem my two main tactics, one scored loads and conceded loads, resulting in lots of 3-2, 2-2, 3-3 results, and the other tactic always finished in 0-0 draws.

However since using your tactics my team has been playing much better and my past few results are as follows.

Bristol City 4 - 2 Sunderland (as my team were getting used to the tactic I think)

Man Utd 1 - 1 Bristol City (more shots and shots on target than them but Van Der Sar was MoM)

Bristol City 3 - 1 Blackburn (outplayed them all over the field)

Middlesbrough 0 - 2 Bristol City (should have been more but their keeper played a 9 and was MoM)

As you can see, in only a few games it is doing very well, and considering this is a team with an average age of only 21 and predicted to finish 14th, it is pretty good.

Now, if I can just stop my left back taking shots from 35 yards every 10 minutes it might be a perfect tactic

*EDIT* I do however have one question. What do you do if your opponents start playing a 4-2-4 as I find that no matter which of your tactics I use I always concede a couple of goals when my opponent switches to a 4-2-4.

Thanks

[Philhj]

I have to admit, this is the first time in any of my games of FM or CM ever that I have used a downloaded tactic and I love it.

I am currently in a Bristol City game and was doing well. Won the championship with ease with one of my own tactics but found that in the prem my two main tactics, one scored loads and conceded loads, resulting in lots of 3-2, 2-2, 3-3 results, and the other tactic always finished in 0-0 draws.

However since using your tactics my team has been playing much better and my past few results are as follows.

Bristol City 4 - 2 Sunderland (as my team were getting used to the tactic I think)

Man Utd 1 - 1 Bristol City (more shots and shots on target than them but Van Der Sar was MoM)

Bristol City 3 - 1 Blackburn (outplayed them all over the field)

Middlesbrough 0 - 2 Bristol City (should have been more but their keeper played a 9 and was MoM)

As you can see, in only a few games it is doing very well, and considering this is a team with an average age of only 21 and predicted to finish 14th, it is pretty good.

Now, if I can just stop my left back taking shots from 35 yards every 10 minutes it might be a perfect tactic

*EDIT* I do however have one question. What do you do if your opponents start playing a 4-2-4 as I find that no matter which of your tactics I use I always concede a couple of goals when my opponent switches to a 4-2-4.

Thanks

First of all, many thanks to Heath for an excellent set of tactics, which have been working well for a full season now.

In response to the 4-2-4, I change to a SUS tactic, presently one I devised myself. This employs 2 DMs in front of the back four, an MC with attacking options, 2 forward wingers with barrows, and a lone striker barrowed. Very often it produces a late goal for my team, while concedes very few, depending, it seems, on when the switch is made. This tactic has worked well now for 3 seasons and I will make it available once I've sussed how to utilise a file sharing site.

I'm also working on adapting the Heath tactic to work in a SUS formation, as the one I use now came from a 4-1-2-2-1 set (where a DM is already on the pitch), which I developed successfully for LL football but which has been found wanting higher up. If I can get it to work as well as my own tactic, I will make it available for download ASAP.