Creating a style of play

[Pozzati]

Hi

First of all I must confess that I have struggled in FM11 after having success with many teams on FM10. After reading "Inverting the Pyramid" I became very motivated to take control of a bad team with little history and evolve them to become a world-class team. I'm yet to find out which team I want to be or which league I want to play in. I'm a bit tired of playing in England and since FM11 have dynamic league reputation I can take a team from a league which isn't as good as in England.

My aim here is to make my own style of play. I'm not the best in tactics making in FM terms so I'm hoping that many of you will have inputs. However I'm not so bad in real life tactics, but as said earlier I'm struggling to make them work as I want in FM. It may sound a bit optimistic, but my inspirations are Arsenal, Barcelona, Roma and the old Ajax team. So a free-flowing style of play with lots of possession is what I'm aiming at. I know that I will struggle in the beginning as the team I will choose will not have the players to dominate in a league. My aim is to stick with my ideas no matter what and also to get players that suit my style of play.

So onto what I want in FM.

As you can see I decided to go for a 451. But this is just the base formation. It doesn't mean I will play a basic 451 formations as you will see later on.

Here's the team instructions.

Obviously I want my team to pass around a lot. Therefore I go with a shorter passing. In the long run I also want my players to be more decisive on their own and is why I set more creative freedom. As the teams I mentioned earlier I want to close down the opposing team as often as possible when they have they ball. I'm looking to have the ball as much as possible here. I set the tackling to default as I don't like to touch these settings. The roaming is set to default as I will set this up myself more in the individual settings.

These are the player instructions:

GK: Goalkeeper Defend

DR: Back Automatic

DRC: Defender Defend

DLC: Defender Defend

DL: Wing-back Automatic

DMC: Anchor Man Defend

MRC: Central Midfielder Support

MLC: Advanced Playmaker Support

AMR: Inside Forward Attack

AML: Inside Forward Attack

FC: Deep-lying Forward Support

There are som modifications to these settings. Only the Anchor Man should have "Hold Up Ball" Ticked. I have unticked this box for the deep-lying forward.

On the deep-lying forward I have set his long-shots to rarely, TTB Often, RWB Often, Roaming ticked. These player should not hold up the ball, but rather running across the field and open up space for the inside forwards.

The inside forward on the right side is also modified. FWR: Rarely? (Or should I leave it to mixed?), Long shots rarely, Cross rarely and wide play to normal. I want this player to get the ball out to his right. From there he will have the option to run with the ball inside to either set up his striker, central midfielder or left inside forward. He can also choose to go directly for the goal. The left inside forward should look to get inside and using the space the deep-lying forward leave open.

Then there is the midfield. The central midfielder should move into channels as wide-play. This will sometimes see him come through on the right side of the inside forward and make another option for him.

I don't want any special from my goalie. It's not an area which I will focus on. Will set him as a normal goalkeeper, but I want his distribution to be set as: defender collect.

This are my ideas so far. Feel free to disagree with me. I actually hope you will as I hope many of you know more about tactics in FM than I do. I'm also unsure of a few player instructions. I actually rather want a deep-lying playmaker in the DM area, but I find that a bit risky. Also very unsure of how to set up the central forward the way I want.

[celebritykiller]

The blend seems pretty good to me, I'd recommend moving the CM role to attack as there's a risk of your FC being too isolated on wide pitches.

To play this style of football you need the right players though, and at a low level you need to sacrifice some attributes of others. Here I'd say you need high technicals such as first touch and less of the physicals.

[roofrack]

in this set up how does your striker work. how many goals.

defence how tight(goals concededed)

ccc for you.

am using a defensive forward on attack. in a similair defence mine just fell apart.

aserwtsergsthgposr

[Pozzati]

celebritykiller: Yes, technical players are essential here. In some matches I'm sure I'm going to lose due to the opposition will be much more physical to me. Will try to have a tall, strong player in the anchor man spot who will win some of those midfield battles. Hoping that will help. I have some concerns having the central midfielder to attack if you look at the spaces who is covered offensively. Will try both settings, though

roofrack: Haven't started yet. This is a base of how I want the team to be playing and hopefully help others. The aim is to create a style of play who will be free-flowing. Haven't really covered the defence yet. Will start my game as soon as I have decided on a team and league I want to play. Will try to avoid the most physicals leagues.

[westhamunited]

I would suggest lowering the tempo, thus enabling your player to set themselves for a pass. The central midfielders should have good vision and utilising the natural width of the formation in that shape is what can only be deemed normal.

[Pozzati]

Decided to go for the Portuguese 2 divisao sul (?) t team Real SC for no specific reason really. Never played in Portugal before and the team had a short and easy name Some alterations to the tactic. The advanced playmaker is attacking now and has played excellent. And my central defenders are stopper and cover. My first games have been as expected. Completely outplayed Mafra at home in the first league game (3-0), but got completely trashed in my next game home to Oriental (3-0). I did however dominate in possession in both games. I will give a few screenshots later.

Here's my game against Trofeense which I was excepted lose much. Even though I asked my team to go out defensive and counter attack them I was very satisfied with the way my team played. Goncalo Martins (centre mid) and Hugo Rosa (striker) did exactly what I wanted from them. Martins arrived late while Rosa was a handful for the Trofeense defence. Especially Martins second goal is great (even if the first one was a individual beauty).

Download the pkm here: http://www.fmfile.com/images/1291421764.pkm

[Pozzati]

Here's a few screenshots as promised. First up is my Advanced Playmaker. The pic says itself.

Next is my striker. He would have had a higher average rating, but he was just a sub in the three first games. Then I thought I would try Hugo Rosa from start as my striker wasn't really performing that good.

And last is my fixtures. There have not been many matches I'm favorites in. I was only huge favorites in the Lagoa match.

[...Eternal Sin...]

when you upload your tactic?

[ZdlR]

I'm quite surprised at Hugo Rosa's goal tally considering his attributes. I'd have played him in the David Villa role that Spain use, starting wide and cutting across between the fullback and centreback. Hugo doesn't seem to possess the physicality, mentality - or even technicality - to play a lone role up front without a lot of support. Oh well, what do I know!

[Pozzati]

Gotta say the same thing about Rosa. There's a reason why he was just a backup in the first games. But he have good movement, decisions and work rate for this level which benefit his role. He drops deep, and getting a lot of support from two inside forwards, and two advanced midfielders who always look to support him. His off the ball movement together with Dani's creativity have proven to be vital.

The aim for this thread is how to get your ideas to FM. I can't just decide to play a possession-based game which is fun to watch. There are so many variables I need to consider. Everything from the right full back to the left inside forward need to have a pattern. I might release the tactic if I ever will be fully satisfied with it. But to have success in FM it's not just to download a "diablo" tactic. You need to have the right players in the right positions, player interactions, team talk, match preparations and so on.