Fundamental Football Manager (FFM) - Basics of Tactic Making

[Rashidi]

korzy you're playing FM2007 right? So some of the instructions may not apply to you

At the back closing down should be low for cds and in normal for fbs. The dms should close at max

[korzy]

playing DM on max won't get him dragged out of position? leaving a huge gap in the centerfield?

[Abaddon879]

So from you have said, reducing the FB's mentality from Normal(10) to last notch Defensive(6) and also setting their TTB to rare would help secure my back line?

I have looked to reduce my mentalities to try and bring everyone closer together. I reduced FB , MC and the front men and I came up with this:

FB - Defensive(6)

DC - Defensive(5)

DMC - Normal(10)

MRC & MLC - Normal(10)

MC - Normal(12)

TS - Normal(13)

FS - Attacking(15)

Not sure, but I feel there may be too big a gap between DMC and my defence? I noticed however that in your reply to my original post you said that the MRC/MLC are well positioned, as is the DMC? I was thinking that simply from a numbers POV it looks a bit unbalanced? Should I drop the DMC to a lower setting to try and have the whole pitch covered? Perhaps drop him down to Normal(8), that way it keeps no more than 2 difference between any link players mentalities (if you get what I mean, I think that may even be RoT? Haven't ever really looked into that much)

[Rashidi]

yeah having the DM on 8 is a good idea..he will stay quite anchored at the back and will only move up when good chances come his way

[Rashidi]

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

playing DM on max won't get him dragged out of position? leaving a huge gap in the centerfield? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

You;re using FM2007, please...I'm trying to do this for 08, this is going to confuse people. The way to play is slightly different.

[kelvin1234]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by kelvin1234:

yo,,,just played against chelsea (strongest team since i use this tactic) at home and lost 0-1 =( .. chelsea were too good for my tottenham ... lol... here's the PKM for the match

http://www.savefile.com/files/1162258

if u have any ideas/advice to tweak it better please share =X </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

rashidi1.... is this good enough or maybe need some tweaking?

[towerofpower]

I had actually the mentality for my defence as you suggested for water-tight defence, and it's been working great. Took a lot of time wathing matches slowly and keeping eye on their movement.

I have **** POOR defence ( their attributes...no more than championship quality) with MK Dons at premiership at the moment, yet I'm doing good. I'm competing for EURO spots and I really limit my opponents to maximum 5 shots on goal, and often they get like one on target. I man mark opponent wingers with my fullbacks. I find opponent instructions before match very important and also keeping eye on their subs and tactic changes.

I'm still trying to find the best way to use my attacking midfield centre on my narrow diamond, need to figure best possible instructions for him. I'm also still so clueless about creative freedom, also I'm not sure how AMC passing would be best set.

[korzy]

Okay I got the game finally ( 08 ), gonna try now the basics all over again !

Rash, what version is this referring to? 8.0.1Beta? or 8.0.0?

[Jablome]

A couple of questions regarding a 442 LLM (playing Hartlepool):

1. Is short passing good for CBs b/c then they generally give the ball to a better passer i.e. nearest open FB or MC?

2. I have left my mentality for the two MCs at center and instead gave one a short farrow, the other a barrow. This should do the trick and give me an offensive and defensive MC, right? (one reason I opted for this is that means my 4 mids are the only ones on the team mentality slider and I can easily move them up or down in match.)

[Jablome]

3. Can you explain the benefit/purpose of putting passing for MCs on the lowest notch?

[Rashidi]

Korzy for the beta mate.

Jablome everything is relative in this game, if you are LLM and your players have a passing of 12, they're considered brilliant when they play another LLM side, but average when they play a premiership side.

So when playing another LLM side, I personally prefer the highest notch of short for DCs, if they look comfortable with the ball then I leave it. If I find them struggling then I change to mixed. You need to look at the attributes of the players to come to that decision. I've started another season with another LLM side this time its Gloucester City, and we're unbeaten in 10 and have only conceded 6 goals. We've won all our away matches and conceded only one. And that is with playing short at the back. They don't have TTB. You should never give a poor player TTB unless he's an attacking player, or has good decisions.

For your second question, yes. The barrow in effect tells the player to play as a DM when you lose possesion and play as an MC when you have one. A lower mentality for the DM will make him drop a bit deeper than the MC when you have possession as well, provided the other MC is on a higher mentality or with a farrow as yours.

[korzy]

Rash, I'm having terrible time defending ( I assume it is because all the talking about Closing-down changed and D-line not the same )

could you give me a small introduction about how to set those in the 08 game?

[xouman]

Your advices worked! I stopped using playmaker and target man, my players do not hold ball anymore and they play a little more defensive, plus I'm not counter atacking. These with some free signings after first season, and I have 13 points of last 15

Like often, KISS is the better path XDD

[Rashidi]

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

Rash, I'm having terrible time defending ( I assume it is because all the talking about Closing-down changed and D-line not the same )

could you give me a small introduction about how to set those in the 08 game? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Read the whole thread..again..its all there..now you understand why I didn't want to talk about 07??

[korzy]

haha yes, absoloutly :]!

I've read it, yet I feel my players usually stand-off instead of close down...

mainly to drop-off close-down are the wingers, how tight should they close down? and about Tight-marking... is it the same like 07? can I set overall tightmarking and just strikers to standoff? I also feel like my team likes to focus down flanks eventhough I instructed them to play mixed, solution ?

AMC - fwr mixed closedown ownhalf-wholepitch

DMC - fwr rare closedown: ownarea-ownhalf

left winger - fwr often rwb often passing short closedown: ownhalf

right wing - fwr mixed rwb often passing shortmixed closedown: ownhalf

also, Ive ticked my left winger as a freeroler ( petrov ^^ ), yet he's staying on his wing never coming to midfield center, perhaps more creative freedom should be given?

waiting for your input !

(so far im 3-1 and 6-0 on pre-season matches, but i feel my football could be flowing alot better! )

[Rashidi]

I feel that wingers shouldn't close down too much..preferably in own half..dcs in own area and strikers all over

[korzy]

what about the rest of the stuff I was asking lol =) I think we got you really tired...

[korzy]

and mroe things I want to clarify before I'm completing the research I'm onto :

Does giving my Tall striker ( Bianchi ) a often FWR, mixed RWB and HUB instructions are conflicting? ( also last notch of short passing +1 = mixed ) and does giving my often FWR winger a HUB instruction is conflicting the fact I'm trying to play counter-attack football on away?

sorry for posting that much

[allanshearer]

good read thank's for your help to

[Tigjaw]

Hey Rashidi, great advice in this thread and quite simply put too, I can never get into those big-theory threads with 2-page-posts with such intricacies like "the-comparative-relativity-of-proportionate-mentality-instructorial-stuff" (yes I'm exaggerating hehe ), mainly because when I want to play the game I don't have the time to read pages and pages of long oh so long posts so it's good to find some simpler cut-down advice.

Anyhoo, I'm really struggling with FM08 as I did with FM07. I had a great time with FM2006, possibly my favourite in the series and I was very successful with my club Wolves taking them to the very top of the world but I can't see to find my spark this time.

My main problem is, I don't know how I want to play. On FM2006 I played with defensive counterattacking football until I become a strong Premiership side when I changed to attacking counterattacking football. My winning point was playing my attackers and wingers on the last man and they'd get all of my goals by breaking that line on the end of through balls, crosses and the like.

I never found my form in FM2007 and I was slightly successful with FM2008 until the patch came along. My strong point before the patch was my attackers simply flattening the opposition with their speed and dribbling.

Now however, the patch has even taken that away

Now I can't put a peformance together. Apart from my strikers and Michael Kightly my team is quite slow (as are most non-top-league players for some reason) but other than that Wolves have got a very strong side for the Championship.

My first 11:

GK: Stack

DL: Michael Gray

DR: Rob Edwards / Kevin Foley

DC: Breen / Darren Ward

DC: Collins

ML: Mulgrew (I've retrained his position)

MR: Michael Kightly

MC: Gomis (from Dundee)

MC: Olofinjana

AC: Freddy Eastwood

AC: Steven Elliot / Andy Keogh

I've been trying to play:

Mentality - normal to attacking

passing - short to normal

width - normal to wide

closing down - normal (in the middle)

Man marking apart from fullbacks (as per your advice)

I set my defenders' CD to the last notch of own area or for my fullbacks the first notch of normal.

I've tried to set Gomis to a defensive midfielder role (without actually making him a DM) but I don't know if I'm gaining anything from it.

As I said, my main problem is, since FM2006 I haven't known how I want my team to perform and I don't know whether I should be playing with an attacking or defensive mentality, or normal.

Sorry if I'm being vague and if I'm not making much sense; I just don't know how to get my team defending like a team and attacking like a team. It's so frustrating after how successful I was with FM2006 and how long I spend fiddling with tactics.

I'm not expecting a miracle, I'll be chuffed with any advice you can give me, I don't know what else to try after reading tonnes of other threads and theories.

Thanks in advance.

[Jablome]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by rashidi1:

Korzy for the beta mate.

Jablome everything is relative in this game, if you are LLM and your players have a passing of 12, they're considered brilliant when they play another LLM side, but average when they play a premiership side.

So when playing another LLM side, I personally prefer the highest notch of short for DCs, if they look comfortable with the ball then I leave it. If I find them struggling then I change to mixed. You need to look at the attributes of the players to come to that decision. I've started another season with another LLM side this time its Gloucester City, and we're unbeaten in 10 and have only conceded 6 goals. We've won all our away matches and conceded only one. And that is with playing short at the back. They don't have TTB. You should never give a poor player TTB unless he's an attacking player, or has good decisions.

For your second question, yes. The barrow in effect tells the player to play as a DM when you lose possesion and play as an MC when you have one. A lower mentality for the DM will make him drop a bit deeper than the MC when you have possession as well, provided the other MC is on a higher mentality or with a farrow as yours. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thank you, Rashidi. Mostly as I had thought.

Been paying attention to your insight for a while now with pretty good success. But still one part of this discussion lingers for me.

Can you discuss again what it means practically if a player is on the first notch of passing v. the 5th v. the 10th, 15th etc.?

For example, I saw someplace the idea that you might put your DMC on the furthest left passing and your AMC on the first notch of direct. I am not sure I understand why. Is it b/c this will hopefully force the DMC to constantly play the ball into the "playmaker" AMC who will then pick out a wing or striker to finish the play off?

In another example, by leaving your keeper on very low/short passing w/ "defender collect" selected, are you trying to insure they only pass to an open defender? Does lowering the Keepers CF also insure that they will only pass to an open defender?

BTW, anyone else feel free to chime in. Rashidi is clearly up to his eyeballs in questions and I welcome any and all feedback.

[GunnersFan]

Rashidi,

I'm having a hard time scoring barr one of my forwards who's got 27 goals in seven apps but thats because he's well above the conference standard. If he where to get injured I don't what I'd do I wish my other players would chip in with their fair share.

Heres my attacking players instructions:

ML + MR:

Mentality - normal(10)

Creative Freedom - normal(10)

Passing Style - long(20) (I've really bad passing stats all round)

Closing Down - Whole Pitch(13)

FWR - mixed

RWB - mixed

TTB - mixed

Long Shot - rarely

Cross Ball - mixed(byline)

Marking - man

Tackling - easy

MCa

Mentality - normal(10)

Creative Freedom - normal(10)

Passing Style - long(20) (I've really bad passing stats all round)

Closing Down - Whole Pitch(13)

FWR - often

RWB - mixed

TTB - often

Long Shot - rarely

Cross Ball - rarely

Marking - zonal

Tackling - easy

FC

Mentality - normal(10)

Creative Freedom - normal(10)

Passing Style - long(20)

Closing Down - own half(10)

FWR - rarely

RWB - mixed

TTB - mixed

Long Shot - rarely

Cross Ball - rarely

Marking - zonal

Tackling - easy

HUB - yes

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks.

[Jablome]

27 goals from 1 player in 7 games and you are having problems? What????

[Rashidi]

Tigjaw, your instructions are basic ones and make sense. Do this then: Have a group of players (excluding: one forward) this should be the attacking group. Set their mentality to attacking, first notch. On the scale that's like telling them to be conservatively attacking. In defense you may want to reduce closing down some more for the DCs and the fullbacks, if you find that you are getting caught.

Honestly those instructions look fine, as you know, keeping things simple by applying mentality sider changes to one group is perfect. Hmm and perhaps increase the closing down for the midfield group to be max own half. This means that the moment enters their half they start committing.

Jablome

I don't care very much about notch 1 and notch 15 notch. As I've said before I only care about the scale. That means, if a person is on short he's on short. The difference on low end of short and high end of short is just that he has more variety of short passes. The first few notches being one touch passing.

Reason why sometimes I put DMCs on passing of 1, is because they are near good passers of the ball who with direct passing find their targets faster

[Rashidi]

Getting others involved in goal scoring - Dominating Long Periods of Any Game

GunnersFan

I understand your concern right now my strikers are scoring at a rate of 3 goals per game, I had to change my tactic slightly by getting goals from other areas to improve my odds. Its something a lot of people forget to do.

Concentrating on improving the strike rate of forwards is important, but overemphasis is dangerous. For that I usually set up my tactics on a split mentality scale.

When the attacking set of players are on normal, I know that the main focus are the strikers, but when my mentality scale goes to attacking more attempts are made by my wingers/midfielders. So how do you improve this further?'

<LI>Play at a normal or slower tempo/

This allows play to develop in/around the AI box, bringing others into play.

<LI>Passing should be set on short/mixed. Combined with the tempo this allows play to develop. It's possible to use direct passing with link players like playmakers if you want.

<LI>Long shots, setting the DMs to long shots actually drives them forward when chances permit, adding more variety

<LI>Width..

Its interesting playing on wide, there's a hell of a lot of flank running and overlapping fullbacks, but sometimes too wide a setting, sets them off to early..I play on normal-wide..If I need more penetration I sometimes go wider. Haven't had to change it yet.

<LI>defensive lines

Each player has his own dline, so when you set it too deep, there's a lot of pressure on the mids to actually do something with the ball allowing others to come into play. If I want to do wholesale domination and force the AI into submission, I very rarely play on low settings. Of course I haven't found myself in a position to defend, but then again this is about dominating matches, not about defending and hitting on the counter.

<LI>Set-pieces

I can't emphasize this nearly enough, its so important in the game, and even now too many goals are going in from setpieces. Set ALL your set pieces properly, these should include: Throw ins; Corners and Freekicks. You can dominate corners over and over again. And you can set up your tactics in such a way that you can get freekicks around the box, and have run down byelines often enough for players who can get you corners as well.

[Quintano]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by rashidi1:

<LI>Set-pieces

I can't emphasize this nearly enough, its so important in the game, and even now too many goals are going in from setpieces. Set ALL your set pieces properly, these should include: Throw ins; Corners and Freekicks. You can dominate corners over and over again. And you can set up your tactics in such a way that you can get freekicks around the box, and have run down byelines often enough for players who can get you corners as well. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hey rashidi1,

Is there a way that you can fully explain the set-pieces. I mean what's the best possible positions for each player in like corner, free-kick and throw ins, because i am fiddling over and over again with the settings, but never have descent result.

Love your work and dedication for the FM community. Keep up the goof work..

Regards,

Quintano

[Rashidi]

They are detailed in the FAQ, i use the same set up

[korzy]

Rash I think I got you frustrated, as you've stopped relating to my comments ;]

[Rashidi]

Korzy a lot of what you ask is in the FAQ as well..things like setting up targetmen...where you set him on FWR often, personally i have it on none. Cos he's a target..

DMs depends on how you want to play them, you can set them to FWR often, if you like taking risks and have good defenders. Personally mine are on none

[korzy]

naw that's not what i was asking

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> about Tight-marking... is it the same like 07? can I set overall tightmarking and just strikers to standoff? I also feel like my team likes to focus down flanks eventhough I instructed them to play mixed, solution ? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Does giving my Tall striker ( Bianchi ) a often FWR, mixed RWB and HUB instructions are conflicting? ( also last notch of short passing +1 = mixed ) and does giving my often FWR winger a HUB instruction is conflicting the fact I'm trying to play counter-attack football on away? </div></BLOCKQUOTE> - he's not set as targetman

[Rashidi]

Teams tend to play to their own strengths, setting an attacking pattern to mixed focuses on decision making. If you want your attacks to go down flanks, then you need to play wide and focus wide as well.

Personally I haven't had the need to go tight, if I choose to take that route, it'll probably be through the Opposition Instructions screen as these kind of decisions are made on a game to game basis.

Why would you want your wingers to hold up ball for? I don't see any reason to do that. You want them to whip in crosses and to run at defenses as much as possible. Furthermore most wingers don't have the attributes for HUB.

Why would you want the tall striker to have FWR often...he's already the furthest player on the pitch. If you wanted to exploit him that use the TM settings you'll find in the FAQ

[korzy]

so, setting strikers on a 442 formation with 1 on mixed fwr and one on rarely and HUB and play first notch of direct passing should create alot of chances, right?

I agree about wingers not to HUB, already figured out myself it won't work =)

actually I'm doing pretty well with whole team playing tight-marking as I have a > 60% possession every game ( even away games, lol. ).

I barely to use Oppo instructions, only showing wingers weaker foot and tackling hard low condition players + closedown keeper.

never set tightmark on oppo ins. working well ...

my fixtures so far:

[Tigjaw]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by rashidi1:

Tigjaw, your instructions are basic ones and make sense. Do this then: Have a group of players (excluding: one forward) this should be the attacking group. Set their mentality to attacking, first notch. On the scale that's like telling them to be conservatively attacking. In defense you may want to reduce closing down some more for the DCs and the fullbacks, if you find that you are getting caught.

Honestly those instructions look fine, as you know, keeping things simple by applying mentality sider changes to one group is perfect. Hmm and perhaps increase the closing down for the midfield group to be max own half. This means that the moment enters their half they start committing. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks for the feedback Rash, just about to try out your suggestions, trouble is, Bolton in the cup isn't the best match to test with but I'm sure it'll be fine.

Anyway, when you said "Have a group of players (excluding: one forward) this should be the attacking group" I have 2 questions:

The exluded striker, what should I be doing with him? Is leaving him with slightly lower mentality making him link up more like a target man? (assuming you mean to leave him on team settings).

And before I try to impliment this; what should be the group, typically in a normal-4-4-2 formation? I'm thinking my wingers, 1 striker and Olofinjana. But then that means that only 1 central midfielder is not in the attacking group, is that okay?

[Rashidi]

yeah for the striker who is not in that group..you can elect to do 1 of 2 things.

1. Defensive mentality..drops back supports and acts as a link

2. Offensive mentality. if whole team slider goes to normal he may stay up as a lone striker

[vasilli07]

Hi there, a few questions.

1) If I want a defensive midfielder who sits in front of the back 4, what are the settings i should use? Are my settings, right?

My DM settings now

Mentality - 1st notch of defensive

Creative Freedom - Little

Passing Style - Short

Closing Down - Own half(last notch)

FWR - rarely

RWB - rarely

TTB - mixed

Long Shot - rarely

Cross Ball - rarely

Marking - zonal

Tackling - normal

P.S: I am using the DM in the MC position.

2) If i give my wingers TTB instead of crossing, will they drift into the centre more?

Thanks for all the help.

[korzy]

Vasilli07:

try setting your DM mentality 1 or 2 notches higher than your FBs, perhaps you'd want him to play first notch of direct passing so he won't just give the balls back to FBs because that's what you set him to. ( no RWB, very defensive mentality )

give him a b-arrow to the DM position so he will act as a DM when your team is off the ball.

try that and watch full match to see how your DM acts, change mentality according to your will after that and check again untill you're satisfied.

2) I won't recommand doing that, keep them on mixed TTB for this reason - TTB sets the player to search for the killer ball, and as the wingers sit on sides and oftenly getting closed down, they will just lose possession.

therefore, you may want the to cross rarely, RWB often ( if they're capable of doing that ) and TTB mixed on mixed-direct passing.

you can always play 1 winger with FWR mixed and play mixed passing while the other FWR often and TTBH mixed\often with direct passing.

try that, might work =)

[korzy]

oh and Rash, please tell me your opinion over my suggestions, I want you to check if I implemented things correctly.

[Rashidi]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by vasilli07:

Hi there, a few questions.

1) If I want a defensive midfielder who sits in front of the back 4, what are the settings i should use? Are my settings, right?

My DM settings now

Mentality - 1st notch of defensive

Creative Freedom - Little

Passing Style - Short

Closing Down - Own half(last notch)

FWR - rarely

RWB - rarely

TTB - mixed

Long Shot - rarely

Cross Ball - rarely

Marking - zonal

Tackling - normal

P.S: I am using the DM in the MC position.

2) If i give my wingers TTB instead of crossing, will they drift into the centre more?

Thanks for all the help. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Mentality for a DM: I personally feel first notch of normal is best, and that is being conservative. Having him on defensive places him to close to the defensive line, so there will be cases when the DCs and him react at the same time.

How good is your DMC? Is he strong and does he have good decisions, if he does then set ttb to often. The passes he pings will be worth the choice. Depending on the level you're playing at and how good his passing is. The safest option is usually mixed. If other players are not far from him then highest notch of short. That way you hold possession. Direct passing, well, in some cases yes, but with most teams you don't need to use that option with a DMC.

Now all that information was for an orthodox DM in a DM position. I didn't see the P.S. till now. If your plan is to have him play as a DM..then the mentality choice you made is the perfect one. With him placed that high up the pitch then direct passing may be a better option..IF your wingers have FWR often. That means they do the early runs once you have possession.

Why does anyone want to give a winger TTB often? Having a winger look for the killer ball is a waste. They won't drift in looking for killer balls to play, instead you may end up losing possession half the time. Set Cross ball to mixed and set him to cross from deep, and tell him to do RWB mixed. That way he won't dribble all the way to the byeline, will wait for the overlapping fullbacks and then cut in...like magic.

Korzy Go try out what you want..sometimes the best way to do things is to learn from ones own mistakes. This thread has covered the basics as in what I consider to be the ABCs of making any tactic work. The kind of fine-tuning you want to specifically exploit players abilities is something you need to take over on your own. Have fun doing it..this is only a game, so what if you get fired?

[Tigjaw]

Hey Rash,

I tested your suggestions earlier and there's been some improvements but I'm still not seeing any solid team frame. This wasn't against Bolton either; I reloaded an earlier save and played a few games but it clearly wasn't working, I was having more chances, more possession but my team wasn't playing in unison and to top it off, the opposition keeps scoring even though my players can't seem to put away sitters.

Then again, I'm not creating many clear cut chances, most of my goals come from quick random attacks that I certainly can take no credit for.

At this level, with slow (apart from my strikers and my right winger Kightly) how should I be trying to attack? What is the easiest route for me to exploit? My strikers aren't good in the air at all so crossing doesn't do much.

[korzy]

yo rash, a new enigma for you:

Petrov ( my ML ) is certainly my best player and best performer so far, given a free roll, normal CF, often FWR + RWB and mixed cross shot and TTB, passing is mixed middle.

on the other hand there's my -enteranyplayerhere- MR, which I tried to set same as Petrov ( just not having free-role ), which was a failure, then I tried setting a mixed FWR, and again a failure, not getting involed. I tried there Elano and Geovanni and both haven't made impact. what could possibly be the reason?

[Law_Man]

Rashidi,

I don't know about you, but I think there is a first season title winning side bursting to get out of Blackburn Rovers on FM2008, and loving the traditional English 4-4-2 or DMC/MC/AMC variants, I'm determined to get it out of them.

However, I just had possibly the only frustrating experience of FM2008 to date for me, when playing away at the start of the season in the Euro Vase cup. The first leg, we controlled the game, and kept a clean sheet winning 1-0 and looking very comfortable. In my mind the clean sheet was all I wanted. The second leg was a similar story but with a very different outcome - we lost 5-1! On paper Benny McCarthy should be a goal machine, but I personally don't seem to get the best out of him, he simply keeps spanking it high and/or wide. (I know this was on the fixlist for the beta patch so perhaps it will be toned down for the full patch). It's a football manager's nightmare to be fully aware that you have a potentially good player on your hands and know that through you're own decisions you're not getting the best out of him.

Take a look at the pkm below and if you can provide any tips both defensively and offensively which would help to convert the 55% possession, 19 shots on target, 82% pass completition and 94% tackles won into anything better than a 5-1 defeat that would be great!

I've also included base tactic that I started the game with. In the second half I tried different things out of desperation, all of which seemed to continue creating chances and having possession without looking like hitting the back of the net. The tactic I've uploaded is my default tactic, and then I've created an attacking tactic by increasing the mentality of the front five, increasing the width, and raising the DL. I've created a more defensive tactic by doing the opposite.

Gloria v Blackburn pkm

Blackburn 442 Tactic

Thanks in advance for any help you provide, the time you take to help others is appreciated.

[Rashidi]

Time-out i need a few days break..just screwed up my entire graphics folder and i'm ****ed

[Law_Man]

That sound's very annoying mate...! Take a few deep breaths and count to ten before hitting the computer!

[Rashidi]

I can't d'load says i gotta wait a couple of hours...i'll try again l8r

[Law_Man]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by rashidi1:

I can't d'load says i gotta wait a couple of hours...i'll try again l8r </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Cheers Rashidi, I've uploaded them to fmdownloads - just search for Law_Man. So hopefully that should work.

And thanks again for having a look, there's no rush, after all, you're doing us a favour

[Rashidi]

Just had a look at your tactic...some questions.

Why do both fullbacks have different instructions?

Why do you have one MC play obviously defensive instructions and still assign him with forward runs

Why are your strikers given instructions to cross ball

Why do you not make one striker drop deep?...

[Law_Man]

Cheers for taking a look

Fullbacks: the thinking behind this was that my first choice left winger (Pedersen) isn't great at dribbling, so I set him to cross from deep and not to run with the ball often whilst at the same time setting my DL (Warnock) to make forward runs and overlap, which did work on a few occasions. My right winger (Bentley) on the other hand has good dribbling stats so I'm happy to let him dribble the ball to a crossing position himself, so I wanted my DR to stay back as he wasn't really needed, and to provide additional cover at the back.

MC: I put him on mixed FWR to see how often that made him make them. With some instructions it's really a choice between rarely or often but just thought I'd see. I didn't really want him staying too close to the DCs and not doing very much. Any thought's on the two MCs would be greatly appreciated as I'm really not sure what I'm doing here.

Strikers: given cross ball mixed because none of them are terrible in the air, and because my ML and MR aren't bad in the air either at the far post. Would you recommend setting cross ball to rarely for the strikers then? Is that so they don't pull wide?

I've got one striker outside the team mentality so that he is more attacking. The other striker is set to team mentality which is top notch of normal to start with the aim that he dropped a little deeper. I've noticed that if I set one SC to free role it makes them play deeper but as with the MCs, the SC instructions give me trouble too.

Did you take a look at the pkm too? Can't believe I had such seemingly good stats (aside from obviously only a couple on target) but couldn't convert, and especially so against such poor opposition.

Thanks again Rashidi

[Rashidi]

try things out with some of the changes i've made...just used it with another team seemed ok..your set-pieces for corners is good.

[Law_Man]

Thanks a lot I know this is probably a really dumb question, but where is the altered tactic?

[Rashidi]

Fullbacks: the thinking behind this was that my first choice left winger (Pedersen) isn't great at dribbling, so I set him to cross from deep and not to run with the ball often whilst at the same time setting my DL (Warnock) to make forward runs and overlap, which did work on a few occasions. My right winger (Bentley) on the other hand has good dribbling stats so I'm happy to let him dribble the ball to a crossing position himself, so I wanted my DR to stay back as he wasn't really needed, and to provide additional cover at the back.

I was not looking at their dribbling stats, their mentality is different, so I changed it to be the same and to make them overlap set them to mixed from crossing

MC: I put him on mixed FWR to see how often that made him make them. With some instructions it's really a choice between rarely or often but just thought I'd see. I didn't really want him staying too close to the DCs and not doing very much. Any thought's on the two MCs would be greatly appreciated as I'm really not sure what I'm doing here.

Obviously you have one MC set to defend, so to make it more explicit I reduced his FWR to none. That way the other MC can participate more and he acts as a solid link and even as a playmaker

Strikers: given cross ball mixed because none of them are terrible in the air, and because my ML and MR aren't bad in the air either at the far post. Would you recommend setting cross ball to rarely for the strikers then? Is that so they don't pull wide?

No they won't, strikers will go wide, because it puts them in a better forward position to support the play, but when you give them cross ball instructions, they will take the chance to do wide running more often. So instead I gave one a deeper mentality. If you have a strong player, add HUB and he will act like a feeder

I've got one striker outside the team mentality so that he is more attacking. The other striker is set to team mentality which is top notch of normal to start with the aim that he dropped a little deeper. I've noticed that if I set one SC to free role it makes them play deeper but as with the MCs, the SC instructions give me trouble too.

You may want to consider removing free role, the mentality settings now make him more involved in buildup play.

Did you take a look at the pkm too? Can't believe I had such seemingly good stats (aside from obviously only a couple on target) but couldn't convert, and especially so against such poor opposition.

afraid not...i was in a hurry, so i took a quick look made some changes, ran it in a game, thought it was fine and sent it to you. Hope you didn't mind