Rule of One Tactic Sets - and how to implement them to perfection!

[Finknottle]

I am getting to grips with the player settings for the thirteen settings. However, I am left wondering where should the team settings for "mentality" and "creative freedom" be placed?

I am thinking that maybe "mentality" be midway along the players settings range and "creative freedom" be whatever I choose it to be. Right or wrong? Help, please.

[WoIfsong]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by korzy:

thats respectable =) so how do you set the passing \ tempo \ timewasting? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

1stly sorry to O.P that I keep talking about diff tactics...I dun want to hijack the thread...

Anyway just quickly to answer korzy:

Passing/tempo/width/timewasting all normal irrespective of what opposition formation is.

Only changes are:

1. Opposition gets 1 man sent off and changes to a narrow formation and I am not leading - I change width to 'wide'.

2. 70-80 mins into game I am losing and opposition wastes time - I change timewasting to 'rarely'.

3. Opposition goes 4-2-4, as discussed in previous post.

[korzy]

i opened a diffrent thread Wolfsong, hope you can help me more there =)

[nezimhalilovic]

as-salaam aleykum.

i've just tried these googen tactics with the demo and they seem to be working very well indeed. had a go with sheffield united and was thumping everyone: p10-w9-d1-l0. i then changed to napoli and was doing slightly less well, but was still in 6th place after ten games.

anyway, my brother just called me and he says that football manager is being sold in edinburgh, so i'm off to get it bought.

peace.

[Finknottle]

Could rashidi1 or Cleon or anyone with a good working knowledge of the "Rule of One" tactics please read my post of 01.23 earlier today and possibly assist.

I am five games into the demo 08 season with Hull City and my stats read thus. P5 W3 D2 L0 GF10 GA4 Pos.3rd. I am unsure about were to position my team "mentality" at and also "creative freedom".

At present I put "team mentality" on 10 or midway and "creative freedom" on 5. But these are just guesses on my part. I have not been able to see anywhere in the postings as to where they should be, officially within the parameters of the "Rule of One" system. Kind regards to all.

[wwfan]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by oescus:

Could rashidi1 or Cleon or anyone with a good working knowledge of the "Rule of One" tactics please read my post of 01.23 earlier today and possibly assist.

I am five games into the demo 08 season with Hull City and my stats read thus. P5 W3 D2 L0 GF10 GA4 Pos.3rd. I am unsure about were to position my team "mentality" at and also "creative freedom".

At present I put "team mentality" on 10 or midway and "creative freedom" on 5. But these are just guesses on my part. I have not been able to see anywhere in the postings as to where they should be, officially within the parameters of the "Rule of One" system. Kind regards to all. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The assumption of RoO is that individual mentality totally overrides team mantality, so as to where the team slider is set, it matters not a jot. Equally, CF instructions should be set individually and equally overrides team

Be careful, you are reopening a huge can of worms here

[Finknottle]

Once again, I am obliged to you wwfan. I hope that at last, with the "Rule of One" guides from yourself and the postings from Googen, I am able to prepare a workable set of tactics in time for the new game.

My thinking in putting team mentality onto 10 or midway was that being in that position it would balance out the individual mentality gaps.

My thinking for creative freedom on 5 is that If it was in the wrong position, I had erred on the side of caution. I hope this makes some sense to you. Kind regards.

[Rashidi]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by wwfan:

Be careful, you are reopening a huge can of worms here </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I love that can very much...hahahahahaha

Yeah I agree with wwfan..individual overrides team.

[Finknottle]

Is anyone using this set of tactics with the FM'08 demo as I am?

I am playing as Hull City. I have the following stats. P10 W6 D3 L1 GF17 GA7 Pts21 Pos.2nd.

I have bought only two players. A GK, Julian Speroni from Palace and David Lilley, a full back from Kilmarnock.

I'm still unsure about my base tactic but I think it is +/- 11. I have not once used the opposition instruction option and left most of the team talks to the assistant manager.

I would be interested to know why the assistant has a more varied choice of team talk options. The setting up of the tactics set is a bit tedious and has to be double checked but if they work as well in the full game they are well worth the effort. Many thanks to the usual suspects such as wwfan, rashidi1 and googen for their postings that set me on the path that I am now on.

[Finknottle]

I spent a lot of time yesterday following Googen's tactical guide and eventually sorted out the fourteen tactics.

I now see that EA_mon_hello2 has managed to get them uploaded onto FMdownloads.

However, I notice that he has around twenty to thirty tactical sets. I can only find the fourteen sets in Googens posts. Can anyone please enlighten me? Twenty odd sets seems like a few too many to me.

[Paddy_Fowler]

Guys,

I know this is a stupid question. I've just downloaded EA_mon_hello2's tactics - and i'm just wondering where to paste these to? I presume they go into the Tactics folder under Football Manager 2008?

Just got the game today and rather than spending a few nights setting up the tactics - this would be rather handy! Tested out 2/3 of the RoO tactics in the Demo, and have to say i was well impressed.

[LazyD]

I spent 30 minutes trying to create 4-2-3-1 tactic using your method and failed... I feel dumb and frustraited, does anyone have home and away 4-2-3-1 tactic ?

[ezamudin]

I tried the approach for my current fm08's Arsenal with some little tweak. The idea is basically the same anyway. My tweak are.. i have 2 mentalities for my twin striker RVP and Ade. Ade (the target men type) have -1 mentalities of RVP at all time. In the original tactic, googen go with 2 strikers, McA, Wingers, McD, FBs, CDs, GK. Each having -1 mentalities from the higher position. I go with Fwd, TargetM, McA, Wgrs, McD, FBs, CD1, CD2, GK. So I have staggered formation in a middle. Both MCs dont have the arrows to AMC/DMC position as in the original tactic as well.

I played Fabregas as my playmaker McA, so he on low closedown at all time, also on free role. My McD is sometimes an attcking type player as well, so he is not really defensive type of player. Flamini, Diarra, Abou Diaby, Vande Vaart all capable playing in that slot.

Also, I found out that -4 tactic rule for away games dont work in fm08 (for my approach). I played with 18-10 at home and 16-8 away. Even going 15-7 set are a struggle. I'm blessed with a bunch of godly type midfielders, so I could field an entire set of different midfield setup tho.. from going full attack minded (Rosicky, Van de Vaart, Fabregas, Hleb) to pure defensive type of midfield (Diaby, Diarra, Denilson, Sagna).

Individual intruction for FWR, RWB,Hold, LShot, TTB depends on the player I played.. But FWR is often for FB both home and away until those dying minute to defend those goals on dying minute if needed. I also sometimes turn on target men option if needed

So far very satisfied with how my team playing. I dont score much goal per game.. averaging 2 goals, conceding around 1 goals per 3 games.. but then again I'm a slow player and only manage to play 3 months worth of matches so far, just going into Nov 07 ingame . Haven't lost a single game, drawed 2 games (but I blamed that for going too defensive so early -- around 70th minute on 14-6 set earlier of the season).

[EA_mon_hello2]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Guys,

I know this is a stupid question. I've just downloaded EA_mon_hello2's tactics - and i'm just wondering where to paste these to? I presume they go into the Tactics folder under Football Manager 2008?

Just got the game today and rather than spending a few nights setting up the tactics - this would be rather handy! Tested out 2/3 of the RoO tactics in the Demo, and have to say i was well impressed. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Using the program Winrar (If you dont have it then google it), right click the folder and choose extract then choose the location My Documents/ Sports Interactive/ Football manager 2008/ Tactics.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> I spent a lot of time yesterday following Googen's tactical guide and eventually sorted out the fourteen tactics.

I now see that EA_mon_hello2 has managed to get them uploaded onto FMdownloads.

However, I notice that he has around twenty to thirty tactical sets. I can only find the fourteen sets in Googens posts. Can anyone please enlighten me? Twenty odd sets seems like a few too many to me. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

28 Tactics, as you see in the latter part of googens post he notes some tweaks to home & away matches. To save time i just created 14 home and 14 away.

[goody1987]

sorry if i have missed this bit out but once you have made all of your formations how do you know which formation to use against your opponents?

[EA_mon_hello2]

He spends half his first post talking about that. Read more carefully

[Googen]

Hello everybody. Nice to see that this thread is still open for business I've been away for a while experimenting in my laboratory, mixing together strange football management potions. I've had to revise my approach to using this Rule of One set, firstly with regard to passing and width (there are some radical changes to the rules here... ) and secondly I have altered my approach to customising your tactics when faced with non-4-4-2 formations. The tweaks are now more basic and ultimately easier to implement. They are also much more effective.

The following post is a reconstruction of my original post, the one that began this thread. It will include any new changes to the rules, correct earlier mistakes I had made and include some extras - such as details on how I set up my set-pieces, the creative freedom settings I use for my players, etc. While it may not be definitive given the nature of debate here on the boards it will hopefully be very comprehensive and address most of the issues people here have. If you are already confident that you have set up these tactics properly and you know how to implement them then you should probably skip to the new rules for 'Passing, Tempo & Width' and the accompanying advice on dealing with different AI formations.

I've seen my results get better and better after implementing these new rules even though I'm in the middle of rebuilding a sickly Borussia Dortmund side. The good news is that for those of you who were proud of the football being played under the old rules prepare to see some even better attacking displays. The match engine is still a joy to watch thankfully.

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First of all a word of caution for anyone about to use the sliders while setting up these tactics. Always bear in mind that the lowest point on any slider is 1 and the highest point is always 20, i.e. the sliders don’t start at zero.

Googen's 4-4-2:

take a standard 4-4-2 shape from the tactic menu and drag short f-arrows from your full backs and wingers. Short f-arrow your right sided central midfielder to the AMC position and short b-arrow your left sided MC to the DMC position. This is your basic shape. For Home tactics the Full Backs will be short f-arrowed, while the arrows will always be dropped in away formations.

Player Mentality: Set your players' mentality individually as follows - Strikers(20), MCatt. (19), Wingers (18), MCdef. (17), Full Backs (16), Centre Backs (15), Goalkeeper (14)

This is the ‘Rule of One’ mentality range, now simply create thirteen more tactics like this, each one starting progressively lower on the mentality ladder, e.g. your next tactic's mentality range will run from 19 to 13. Finally you will end up at 1 to 7.

N.B. if you’re unsure as to how the numbers relate to the sliders just understand that 1 is the lowest point on any slider and 20 is the highest.

Hint: To make setting up these tactics a little less laborious you should set up all your set-piece instructions and Creative Freedom settings in your first tactic (the 14-20 range) and simply clone this tactic by progressively dropping mentality and closing down settings to create the rest of the set. I’ll detail my set-piece instructions a little later so you should concentrate on building your first tactic until then.

Defensive line and Closing Down: Two vital areas. Find the mid-point of your mentality range, e.g. in the tactic above it would be 17, so we set our defensive line at 17 and our team's closing down to 17. We're pushed very high up the pitch and playing an aggressive pressing game to dominate posession, just like any big club would at their home ground. In the 13 - 19 tactic our defensive line would be at 16, again just find the mid-point.

Individual Closing Down: In our 14-20 tactic the individual settings are as follows - FC 20, ML/MR 19, MCd 18, MCa 17, FB 14, DC 12, GK 3.

Googen's Rules for Pressing: To apply these to your other mentality ranges follow these simple rules -

Strikers always close down to their mentality but never below 15. This keeps them high up the pitch at all times without having 'forward runs' set to often, meaning less off-sides but lots of excellent counter-attacking opportunities.

Your attacking midfielder (the one with the forward arrow) always closes down to the team setting. He sets the tone for the rest of the team. So don't tick the individual instruction box for this lad, you can use him as your starting point for setting out everyone elses instructions.

Your defensive midfielder always closes down to one higher than your attacking midfielder, this is to prevent him sitting back and getting sucked into your back four.

Your wingers always close down to two higher than your MCatt. This just seems to be the magic number.

Your full-backs always close down to 3 behind your MCatt.

Your Centre Backs always close down to 5 behind your MCatt.

Your Goalie will usually close down to 3, however I never have my keeper closing down higher than my DCs, which means eventually you will have your keeper closing down to 1. (This is still a grey area for me and I'm not sure how much a keeper's eccentricity impacts on his ability to come off his line. I used to play with higher CD, using a sweeper keeper but found that this was a little too risky. By all means experiment though and let me know what you think!)

Passing style, tempo and width: These are all linked. If I choose to play with a passing setting of 6 then my team’s width and tempo will also be set to 6. Each competition, whether it be the English Championship or the Bundesliga seems to have a preferred passing style that works best agains teams playing in that league. While one setting will do you at home, in away games it’s beneficial to go slightly narrower and more compact to frustrate the opposition. For example in the Eredivisie when managing Feyenoord I always used a passing, width and tempo setting of 8 at home. Away from home I lowered it to 7. In the Champions’ League I found that a home pw&t of 9 was effective and switched to 8 away from home. Interestingly the same settings worked perfectly well in the German Bundesliga. I haven’t managed in enough leagues to be able to detail the correct pw&t for each competition, you’ll just have to take the above examples as starting points. I’m also not sure as to whether or not the effectiveness of each tactic is confined to the league or whether it is specific to the country you’re playing in, e.g. Would a pw&t of 8 and 9 would work just as effectively in the German 3rd Division as it would in the Bundesliga? I don’t know but I can imagine lower leagues being better suited to more direct, quicker pw&t settings.

Identifying the PW&T for your league: There are certain indicators to look out for when viewing the match engine. Obviously your team should be passing well, stretching the opposition when necessary and displaying a good all-round attacking game. However the most obvious visual indicators to look out for are through balls, particularly those being played out of defense or from your deeper lying midfielders. The through balls in question should be weighted right, landing just before the feet of the on-running forwards. Ignore the occasional bad pass and instead concentrate on looking at the team’s passing display over the entire match. You’re trying to identify patterns. You can include your home pw&t as default on all tactics and then manually adjust by going one lower in away games.

Creative Freedom: I really believe that this depends on the players you have at your disposal but I will detail my settings as an example. GK 3, DC 6, FB Default, MDd 8 ,ML 14, MR 15, MCa 16, FC 13, FC 15. I have noticed that my left sided Striker, (the one with the higher Creative Freedom value) runs the channels an awful lot, drifting wide to pick up posession. Since he’s very fast and a good dribbler he terrorises defenses when he cuts into the box. If you want your team playing ‘total football’ then you will have to experiment until you get these settings right.

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Home and Away set-ups: You can either set these up manually before each game or do what I did and simply set up your 5 most attacking tactics as being 'home' and the rest as being 'away', which is easier in the long run. Be careful, if you are a lower rep team then your home tactics could start at 9-15 and go to 5-11 so each tactic set will be unique according to the club you are managing.

Offside Trap: I have this ticked on any tactics where my defensive line reads as being ‘High’ in team instructions.

Counter Attack: Only ticked on away tactics.

Forward Arrows: Short f-arrows on Full Backs at home. None away.

Forward Runs: At Home - GK Rarely, DCs rarely, Full Backs Mixed, MCd Rarely, Wingers Often, MCa Often, FCs Mixed.

Away- GK Rarely, DCs Rarely, Full Backs Rarely, MCd Rarely, Wingers Mixed, MCa Often, FCs Mixed.

Tackling: Away my MCd and both FBs are set to Hard Tackling, everyone else is on mixed, excluding the strikers who are always set to easy. At Home everyone is on mixed tackling.

Run with Ball: Depends on the player ultimately but typically it's - Wingers and Strikers often, Full Backs and Defensive Mids rarely, everyone else on mixed. If you have an Ashley Cole style FB you can set him to often at home. RwB can be particularly effective with a fast, ‘quick out of the block’s’ type striker. If your Centre Forward is good in the air but useless with the ball at his feet, then set it to mixed. Common Sense!

Try Through Balls: MCa and MCd often, GKs and DCs rarely, everyone else on mixed. In away games you can set your GK to mixed, helps on the counter.

Cross Ball: Wingers often at home. Away full backs can cross often, especially if you have a target man.

Tight Marking: Just the back four at home. Away from home, all outfield players excluding the strikers on tight marking.

Cross From: Wingers cross from the by-line at home, full backs cross from deep away.

Using a Target Man: I've only had success with two target man types, the big Toshack style centre forward and the Bergkamp-like player who drops deep and wants the ball played into his feet.

Aerial Target Man: Set supply 'To Head'. Set forward runs to mixed. Tick hold-up ball.

Deep-Lying Striker: Set supply 'to Feet'. Set forward runs to rarely. Set through balls to often. If he's a ronaldinho style wizard then set RWB to often. (your looking for a player with excellent first touch here, good flair and vision and possibly dribbling skills too).

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Choosing your Tactic: Knowing what tactic to go with is the most crucial part of match day set-up. Some people advise having a scout to report back on teams you'll face. Forget about it, scout reports are useless. Instead leard to keep an eye on your opponents formation screen and be ready to react to any changes he makes.

I've come to the conclusion that the mentality setting your opponent chooses depends on a combination of their teams reputation and your teams. How to find a teams reputation? I would strongly recommend downloading FMM. It's the only accurate way of reading a teams reputation and since teams reps fluctuate depending on the success, (or lack of), that they've enjoyed you'll need this to guage your tactical repsonse.

Find Your Base Tactics: In any league the majority of teams will have the same reputations so one home tactic and one away tactic will do the business against them. Just find your home tactic through trial and error. Save and restart if you have to until your sure that you've found your 'Base Tactics'. If you're a prestigious club like Chelsea or Barca you'll find that your home tactic will typically be the 14-20 range. If you're a biggish club in a small league (as I was when managing Banik Ostrava), you'll find that your home tactic could be the 9-15 range. You'll know by the results.

You will need to observe the match engine to make sure that you have selected the correct tactic. Once you are confident that you know your base tactics you will become less reliant on the match engine and be able to quickly work through games in ‘key highlight’. Since each tactic has a defensive line and a range of closing down settings unique to that tactic you will need to pay close attention to your team’s defending. Since closing down is staggered for each player pay particular attention to your pressing game. Your team should be closing down as a unit. If one player is out of position or misses a tackle then the next player should be able to step up and make a tackle. Your players should be consistently recycling posession to good effect. Look at the timing of your defenders’ tackling. They should be stepping up to intercept long balls or through balls at the right moment. Look at how your defensive line is functioning. It should aid your teams attacking play without jeopardising your goal.

However the only way to know for sure that you've found your base tactic is consistently good results. And you will get these with the right mentality range.

Your Away 'Base Tactic' is easier to find. It will always be four below your Home 'Base Tactic'. Just count down four from your drop down menu. So if your Chelsea your Away tactic would be the 10-16 range (four below the 14-20 range).

Scoring Goals: As soon as you go ahead the AI will go more attacking. You counter this by dropping to your next more defensive tactic. If the AI equalise go back to the tactic you started with. If you find yourself a goal down do the opposite and go one more attacking. I watch all my games in key highlights and simply keep an eye on the formation screen, adjusting when necessary. As a general rule of thumb as soon as a goal is scored hit ‘detailed tactics’ before the replay comes up.

Cup Competitions and Away Goals: Away goals only kick in during the second leg. If the scores are level on aggregate but it’s the second leg and you're technically ahead on an away goal choose your tactic as if you were a goal up. The same applies in reverse.

Neutral Venues: So, you know your base tactic and your away tactic but what do you do at a neutral venue, say a cup final? Simply find the mid-point between your home and away tactic. If your home tactic is 13-19 and you find yourself in Wembley, drop down two tactics to 11-17. This should give you the edge.

Adjusting against Bigger Clubs: Every league has a few big fish so they will come at you slightly more attacking than the other clubs. This means starting at your base tactic and dropping down one or two tactics to a more defensive tactic when you go to face them. When I started at Feyenoord I was using the 12-18 tactic range as my base tactic at home. When it came to playing Ajax or PSV, however I chose the 11-17 range at home and the 7-13 range away. This same principle applies especially in Europe where you'll be up against clubs of varying reputations. Of course the same principle applies in reverse. If Feyenoord were playing some recently promoted cannon-fodder such as VVV, I upped to the 13-19 range.

If you don’t have FM Modifier or you don’t want to use it because you feel it would be cheating then you can look at the pre-match odds to judge when to adjust from your base tactics. If you’re playing a struggling club and you’re predicted to easily overcome them (e.g. “Club X will have to set up the barricades if they want to come away from this game with anything... “ ) It’s trickier than relying on FMM but probably more realistic and you’ll have to rely on reading the match engine more.

Reputations Change!: Bear this in mind, if you go on a successful run in Europe your reputation will improve drastically, meaning that other teams will set up more defensively against you. I'm in 1012 at the moment and after two league titles and two European Cups I now use the 14-20 range as my base home tactic nearly all the time. PSV fell on hard times recently, losing big players, failing to qualify for Europe and going through a slew of unlucky managers. I no longer treat them as a big club. Heerenveen by contrast signed an ageing Mark Van Bommel and Maxi Lopez. Both of whom improved their reputation. They also went on a brilliant Uefa Cup run. I would now put them in the same bracket as Ajax when it came to choosing a tactic to face them.

Still struggling to find your base tactic? This chart may help. It’s based on what I found successful with teams of varying reputations. Bear in mind these are just suggestions and are not written in stone. If it’s not going too good in the match engine then you will have to adjust and compensate.

Club Reputation Home Tactic (Mentality Range)

8000 + 14-20

7000+ 13-19

6000+ 12-18

5000+ 11-17

And so on....

Most mid-table Premiership clubs are typically rated as having a reputation in the low to mid 6000s. If you come up against a team that has a reputation greater than yours by over 1000 go one more defensive. If it’s greater by 2000, go two more defensive. Obviously the opposite applys if your club is the one with the bigger reputation.

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Set-Piece Instructions: Like it says in the game’s hints tabs, these can often be the difference between winning and losing. I’ll detail my own set-ups for those who’ve been curious.

Defending Free-Kicks: GK Default, DCs Man-Mark, FBs Man-Mark, ML Wall, MR Wall, MCa Wall, MCd Go Back, FCs Stay Forward.

Attacking Free-Kicks: GK Default, FBs Stay Back if Needed, DC Mark Keeper, DC Stay Back if Needed, ML Forward, MR Disrupt Wall, MCa Forward, MCd Forward, FCs Forward.

Defending Corners: GK Default, DR Stand on Near Post, DL Mark Far Post, DC Mark Tall Player, DC Mark Tall Player, MR Go Back, ML Stay Forward, MCa Go Back, MCd Mark Small, FCs Stay Forward.

Attacking Corners: GK Default, FBs Stay Back If Needed, DC Near Post Flick-On, DC Challenge Keeper, MR Go Forward, ML Attack Ball from Deep, MCa Lurk Outside Are, MCd Stay Back if Needed, FC (Best Header/Jumper) Attack Far Post, FC Attack Ball from Deep.

Attacking Throw-Ins (Right): GK Default, DC Default, FB Default, ML Go Forward, MR Come Short, MCa Come Short, MCd Lurk Outside Area, FC (Right) Come Short, FC (Left) Near Post.

To set up Throw-Ins for the left simply mirror the settings for the right of the pitch.

Note: I know my teams best aerial threats so I’ve built my set-pieces around them. If you have particularly tall winger who can head the ball then you will have to adjust to accomodate him. Leave your three quickest players up front when defending corners. The opposition will always leave four players back to mark them. That’s four less players threatening your goal.

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All of this advice should serve you well against the typical 4-4-2 Normal, arguably the most common tactic you'll face in your career. However these are not super tactics, rather they are an approach and you will have to tweak a little when facing other tactics. I'll outline a few examples for you.

4-4-2 Attacking: This one has long forward arrows on the wingers. Set your DCs to tight man-marking. Set your Full Backs to tight man-marking. Drop the FBs’ closing down by one notch. Tick Counter-Attack.

4-2-4: The AI will throw this at you late in the game if you're up by a goal. Set your DCs to manmarking. Drop your FBs closing down by two clicks and set them to tight man-marking. Make sure their fwd runs are set to rarely. Tell your wingers to hold up the ball. Start playing with an offside-trap. Bump up time-wasting and focus passing down both flanks. Tackling to mixed.

4-4-2 Diamond Normal: This one has no f-arrows on the wingers, an AMC and a DMC. It’s extremely common in the Bundesliga. Have your DCs tight man-mark the two strikers. Again don't specify the strikers' names. Set your MCd to tight zonal marking, drop his CD by one. Set his tackling to mixed.

4-5-1 Normal: Five in midfield (One DMC behind a bank of four) with an isolated lone striker. Have your best man-marking DC track the Striker. Go into opp. instructions on your tactics menu and click on their FC. Set closing down to always. Focus passing down both flanks.

4-3-3 Normal: This one has no AMC and two f-arrowed wingers. Set your FBs to tight zonal marking. Drop their closing down by one click! Have one DC tight man-mark their FC. Go into Opp. Instructions, always close down their lone striker and focus passing down both flanks. Tackling to mixed for the FBs. Focus passing down both flanks.

4-2-3-1: Possibly the best tactic in the game. If any of you could create a RoO variation of this you'd be laughing all the way to managerial infamy quite likely. There are a couple of variations of the 4-2-3-1 in the game including a Counter-Attacking variant I encountered once. One has two DMCs and f-arrowed wingers, common in Germany. The other looks flatter, has two MCs and no f-arrows on the wingers and is very common in Spain. The same approach should work against all of them. Set your FBs to tight zonal marking, drop their closing down by one. Set your MCd to tight zonal marking, drop his CD by one, set his tackling to mixed. Focus passing down both flanks.

4-2-2-2 Defensive: Real Madrid use this in my career game. Two DMs sit infront of the back four, two wingers, no f-arrows. Have your DCs tight manmark their strikers (don‘t specify), focus passing down both flanks.

4-2-2-2 Attacking: Two MCs and wingers pushed up to the AML/R positions. Same as above but set your FBs to tight zonal marking. Drop their closing down by one, set their tackling to mixed.

5-4-1: This is a wing-backs formation with a lone striker. The wing-backs are f-arrowed. It seems to cause problems for a lot of people due to it's heavily defensive set-up. Not any more. Side arrow your strikers and instruct them to cross the ball often. Put your best man-marking DC on their Striker. Set your MCd to tight zonal marking, drop his CD by one. Focus passing down both flanks. You won't have too many clear cut chances but you will bombard their goal with set-pieces so make sure you've take the time to set them up properly.

4-1-2-1-2 Diamond: This is a true diamond midfield unlike the one in the default tactics menu. Set your FBs to tight man-marking. Drop their CD by two. Set your MCd to tight zonal marking, drop his CD by one, set his tackling to mixed. Passing down both flanks.

4-3-1-2: Exactly the same as above.

5-3-2 Attacking: f-arrowed wing-backs with an AMC. Set your MCd to tight zonal marking, drop his CD by one, tackling to mixed. Focus passing down both flanks.

5-3-2 Normal: Wing-backs again, flat midfield this time. Set your DCs to tight man-marking.

5-3-2: Flat back five. Two side arrowed FCs. Drop your FBs CD by two. Set them to tight man-marking. Pass down both flanks.

3-4-3: The outer FCs are s-arrowed. Set your FBs to tight man-marking, drop their CD by two. Put your man-marking DC on the central FC, tight zonal. Pass down flanks.

Counter Attacking Variants: Some formations seem to be variations of normal attacking ones, they keep the same shape despite dropping f-arrows in certain positions. They are Counter-Attacking tactics the opposition uses for damage limitation or to catch you off guard. There is a special way of dealing with them.

First choose a tactic one more defensive than you normally would. This means you’re playing with a slightly deeper defensive line, it helps prevent against counter-attacks. Secondly choose a passing, width and tempo setting one higher than you normally would. So, if you’re at home in the Eredivisie, choose 9 when facing a counter-attacking variant.

I’ll list the Counter-Attacking Variants I’ve encountered in the game.

4-4-2 Counter-Attacking: No f-arrows on the wingers, just flat banks of four. Adjust for a variant. Set your DCs to tight man-marking.

4-3-3: No f-arrows on the wingers. As normal but adjust for a variant.

4-2-3-1: No f-arrows on the wingers. Two DMCs. This is not to be confused with the 4-2-3-1 Normal, where there are two MCs and never any f-arrows on the wingers, it‘s just a variation on the 4-2-3-1.

5-3-2: No f-arrows on the full backs.

5-4-1: No f-arrows on the wing backs.

Playing Against Ten Men: Ten-Man formations are actually the same as ‘Counter-Attacking Variants’, so adjust as you normally would, dropping to a more defensive tactic and upping your pw&t by one. Use common sense when dealing with marking assignments based on my advice above, e.g man-mark lone strikers etc.

-------------------------------------------------------

I hope that’s some help to managers using this set. The changes are definitely worth implementing. Best of all though, the football gets even better and you get to watch your team playing the beautiful game as it should be played.

[korzy]

do you use any kind of oppo instructions?

[goody1987]

this is truly a great thread can someone gave me a link to the FMM download please and let me know how to use it, and what it does etc.

Thanks.....

NOOB= moi.

[goody1987]

also does this thread apply to FM 08?

[Finknottle]

Googen, You say that the top five tactics, from 14-20 downwards are your home tactics. From 9-15 downwards to 1-7, are the away tactics. I am assuming that 14-20 is mirrored by 1-7 and the rest are mirrored accordingly upwards/downwards. Am I correct in this assumption.

I can't work out what use the additional fourteen tactics are that have been added by EA_mon_hello_2. I realise that he is trying to give assistance and more options but can I get by on just your original fourteen sets? Another fourteen tactics do seem a lot.

Should I respond to the "opposition instructions" prompt or not? Finally, Is the 1-7 tactic to be used in the final minutes to defend a lead, as in shutting up shop?

Please forgive if my questions may be tedious. Kind regards.

[Googen]

My top 5 tactics are my home tactics because I'm playing with a club whose reputation is in the low 7000s. If you are managing a club with a rep in the 5000s your home tactics will be different, lower down the mentality range.

You can just build the set of fourteen tactics and tweak them when you've found your base tactics. The advantage of having 14 home and 14 away is that you won't have to worry about adjusting in-game when facing any large reputation differences, e.g. in a cup game where you are playing away against a very small club you might find one of your home tactics (i.e. a very attacking tactic) works best but you will have to adjust forward runs, etc. in-game to make it an away tactic. I suppose it just saves bother in the long run. However, you're going to end up tweaking anyway becuase the non-4-4-2 formations are very common, especially outside England. It's up to you.

goody - I don't know about FM 08, I think some people have experimented. I won't be picking up the game anyway.

korzy - I use opp. instructions when faced with a lone striker, an isolated FC with no AMC behind him. I tell my best man-marking DC to tight man-mark him and I go into opp.instr. and click on close down often for the lone striker. Most of the necessary tactical advice should be in the opposition formations section of my above post.

[korzy]

im sorry, but it seems like when you close down a lone striker often, then he just flicks the ball to AML\AMR\AMC and they get a free clear way to goal because defenders are closing down the striker, any solution to that?

[korzy]

again i struggle to defend, why am i the only one who cant set up decent defence?

[Googen]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by korzy:

im sorry, but it seems like when you close down a lone striker often, then he just flicks the ball to AML\AMR\AMC and they get a free clear way to goal because defenders are closing down the striker, any solution to that? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Like I said I only use opp. instructions 'close down often' when faced with an FC I regard to be a lone striker - someone who doesn't have an AMC playing off them. Just follow my advice with regard to adjusting against various AI formations. I've always had a very solid defensive record using this set. Have you staggered closing down according to the mentality range? So where your MCatt is closing down to the same point as the defensive line, e.g. 15 in the 12-18 range, your full backs will be closing down to 12 at default, and your centre halves will close down to 5 behind, so they are set to 10.

[Googen]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by oescus:

Googen, You say that the top five tactics, from 14-20 downwards are your home tactics. From 9-15 downwards to 1-7, are the away tactics. I am assuming that 14-20 is mirrored by 1-7 and the rest are mirrored accordingly upwards/downwards. Am I correct in this assumption.

I can't work out what use the additional fourteen tactics are that have been added by EA_mon_hello_2. I realise that he is trying to give assistance and more options but can I get by on just your original fourteen sets? Another fourteen tactics do seem a lot.

Should I respond to the "opposition instructions" prompt or not? Finally, Is the 1-7 tactic to be used in the final minutes to defend a lead, as in shutting up shop?

Please forgive if my questions may be tedious. Kind regards. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Not quite, 1-7 isn't mirrored perfectly because of the rules applying to 'Closing Down', at the lowest mentality range your entire back four and keeper might be closing down to 1, I can't do the maths at the moment. Just follow the rules, and you'll get the hang of putting the tactics together.

[youngtowser]

Giving these tactics a go but having problems with players (particularly defenders) playing suicidal passes and giving away stupid goals. Any suggestions?

[korzy]

youngtowser - have your Center Backs play direct passing ( first notch of direct, right after mixed ) and fullbacks playing last notch of short, also cut any through balls your CBs are playign, leave everything on rare for CBs.

[korzy]

by the way Googen:

is there no way to play narrow short passing quick football instead of playing wide and quick football?

[EA_mon_hello2]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by korzy:

by the way Googen:

is there no way to play narrow short passing quick football instead of playing wide and quick football? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nope they should all be linked.

[korzy]

that's a shame, because in the real world - a playing style of narrow and quick passing through the middle does exist.

[korzy]

ok, i worked out an away game vs Betis:

they played a 4-2-3-1 and i managed to go 3-0 on first half, then they switched to 4-4-2 with short f-arrows on wingers, so i set my DCs to tight man-marking and fullbacks to tightmarking, ( rest of the team is set to tight-marking anyway, because playing away should be a tight-marking game, no ? ) and they grabbed a 4 goals in 1 half to go 4-3 and winners of the game, my question is how to make sure that this stuff never happen again?

[Googen]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by korzy:

ok, i worked out an away game vs Betis:

they played a 4-2-3-1 and i managed to go 3-0 on first half, then they switched to 4-4-2 with short f-arrows on wingers, so i set my DCs to tight man-marking and fullbacks to tightmarking, ( rest of the team is set to tight-marking anyway, because playing away should be a tight-marking game, no ? ) and they grabbed a 4 goals in 1 half to go 4-3 and winners of the game, my question is how to make sure that this stuff never happen again? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Whoah, I've never advised anyone to put their DCs on man-marking when playing against a 4-4-2 Normal formation. As outlined in the above post on this tactic set the default settings will work fine against this formation. I only go to a man-marking system for my entire back four when I'm faced with a 4-4-2 Attacking or a 4-2-4 formation. Against the normal 4-4-2 my back four would be on tight zonal marking and their 'closing down' settings would be left as normal. I think you've misunderstood a lot of what makes up this tactic. Take the time to reread through the rules again if you get a chance.

[EA_mon_hello2]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Take the time to reread through the rules again if you get a chance. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes its quite simple once you've read it a few times, I was confused the first couple of times as well.

[korzy]

so, you're saying that when playing a 4-4-2 with short f-arrows not to give anyone tight-manmarking? and when playing against a flat? DCs get tight-manmarking?

[korzy]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">4-4-2 Counter-Attacking: No f-arrows on the wingers, just flat banks of four. Adjust for a variant. Set your DCs to tight man-marking. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

see? you said it yourself, set tight-marking against counter-attacking 4-4-2.

[EA_mon_hello2]

Counter Attacking means no farrows.

[Morrissio]

Can somebody upload the tactics because i am struggling to make some of these tactics and don't want to make mistakes because then i cannot tell if it works or not

[EA_mon_hello2]

I've already uploaded an old version on FM downloads but I really cant be bothered to make the new version again. I dont have enough time.

[korzy]

im facing a conflict:

im playing away against Real.Sociadad and they play a 4-5-1 normal ( the dmc formation ) with a lone striker.

i set a close down always, as well as gave felipe a tight specific marking on Uranga ( their FC ).

the problem is, Googgen mentioned that away matches should be set to tightmarking always for all of the team ( except for strikers )

so what should i do? give everyone tightmarking like i do now ( and they get to many chances ) or just felipe should tight-mark ?

[Finknottle]

Googen, I am currently upgrading to the new set of tactics. I have come up against a problem.

Creative Freedom. You give details of your players settings and then suggest that we experiment to sort out our players CF settings.

Where and or how, do I find base settings with which to begin? Unless I have missed something you make only the one paragraph in relation to creative freedom player settings. This does not give any sort of guidance, except saying to experiment. At present, in the old settings all the team and player CF settings are set to the same. The mentality settings being taken care of by the 1-7 through to 14-20 mentality settings. Is the starting base your CF settings for your players? If so,which of the 1-7 to 14-20 are they based on?

[Finknottle]

Sorry, that final queston should read. Is the starting base for your CF player settings, the mentality settings and if so which of the 1-7 to 14-20 is the starting point?

[WH]

I have had some success on FM08 (not patched)with this tactic set. I imported my tactics from FM07 and made some minor changes.

The only changes i made were to closing down due to the bug. Any of the tactics where closing down fell below the middle of the slider i just gave it a couple of clicks to set it just above middle 10 or 11.

I played as Sheffield Utd from the Championship. Some problems i found with the tactics are;

I found it difficult to "Shut up shop" on Fm08 and often conceeded late goals. But thankfully i was normally leading by then.

Also i found i got a lot of yellow cards often resulting in sending offs. But i cant have too many complaints about my first season. I only spent a total of £275k on 3 players.

Here is the final table.

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/7320/sheffutdtablekm7.jpg

Things are not going so well in the premier division. I currently have 2 points from 4 games. Drawing at home with Blackburn and away to Bolton. And losing twice away to Aston Villa and Portsmouth.

This is to be expected as i have made a few signings but the quality of players in my squad are nowhere near as good as most of the other teams. If i finish outside the bottom 3 then i will have done well.

I had the top scorer from last seasons championship. Then i managed to boost my fire power by signing the 2nd and 3rd highest scorers from last seasons championship. They scores 82 league goals between them last season. But it remains to be seen if they can make the step up to the premier league.

I also signed the top rated centre back form last seasons championship. Also getting in a defensive midfielder from a relegated premier league side and a Transfer listed sub goal keeper from one of the premierships top 4.

This was only going to be a game to pass some time and do a bit of scouting before the patch comes out. But thanks to these tactics i had so much fun i carried on. KUTGW

(Just a quick mention about creative freedom. I had it set globaly to 10/middle and didn't give my players any personal creative freedom settings)

[Googen]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by oescus:

Googen, I am currently upgrading to the new set of tactics. I have come up against a problem.

Creative Freedom. You give details of your players settings and then suggest that we experiment to sort out our players CF settings.

Where and or how, do I find base settings with which to begin? Unless I have missed something you make only the one paragraph in relation to creative freedom player settings. This does not give any sort of guidance, except saying to experiment. At present, in the old settings all the team and player CF settings are set to the same. The mentality settings being taken care of by the 1-7 through to 14-20 mentality settings. Is the starting base your CF settings for your players? If so,which of the 1-7 to 14-20 are they based on? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I didn't include much guidance for setting up creative freedom settings because it wasn't really a big part of the original set. I just included my current teams CF settings because some people seemed curious. My CF settings remain the same for every tactic in the set. If you are unsure where to start try copying my CF settings for the back four and MCd, then use that as a starting point for figuring out the best settings for your team's attacking component.

These settings have produced some football that's very easy on the eye. Bear in mind what I said about CF on forwards. If you have a pacy striker and you want him to run the channels a la Henry then a high CF setting seems beneficial.

[Aeolus]

I was just wondering... Im using Liverpool at the moment..

If im playing teams like Chelsea, United, Real Madrid etc... Should i be using 20-14?,

And if im playing the likes of Bolton, Derby etc, Should i be playing 1-7... Or have i got this the wrong way round?

[legaldinho]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">seems beneficial. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

obviously other way round, like.

[Aeolus]

Having some crappy results to be honest, lost 2-0 at home to Valencia, then 4-0 at home to Man City.... :\

[korzy]

googen please relate to my question above

[Googen]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Aeolus:

I was just wondering... Im using Liverpool at the moment..

If im playing teams like Chelsea, United, Real Madrid etc... Should i be using 20-14?,

And if im playing the likes of Bolton, Derby etc, Should i be playing 1-7... Or have i got this the wrong way round? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

No, find your base tactic, that will be 14-20 at home more than likely. You only adjust when you face a higher rep team than your own, and since you are Liverpool it's unlikely that you will face any higher rep teams. So you'll be using 14-20 at home most of the time. You can't go any more attacking, even if you are facing a very poor team. A smaller club would have to adjust quite a lot when they came up against a big club like Chelsea or Liverpool. Still, your base could be 13-19, meaning you play 14-20 when you are facing teams with an inferior reputation, like Derby as you have mentioned.

[korzy]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">im facing a conflict:

im playing away against Real.Sociadad and they play a 4-5-1 normal ( the dmc formation ) with a lone striker.

i set a close down always, as well as gave felipe a tight specific marking on Uranga ( their FC ).

the problem is, Googgen mentioned that away matches should be set to tightmarking always for all of the team ( except for strikers )

so what should i do? give everyone tightmarking like i do now ( and they get to many chances ) or just felipe should tight-mark ? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

googen can you clear it up?