when do you play and change mentality?

[drevil1969]

As the title says, when do you play and/or change mentality?

Its the one question in football manager that I havent been able to answer and despite looking on here and all the other football manager websites I havent been able to find the answer.

Ok for example when you go a goal down or you score do you change mentality? Or do you leave it as it is. Ok just now I did a test on a game and I was playing as wigan, away to arsenal. Was playing ok, arsenal were finding it difficult then next thing I know arsenal score a great goal out of the blue. Now I didnt react and arsenal went on to beat me 3-1 in the end. Should I reacted to trying get back in the game or what?

I also have problems with starting mentality.

I really hope I can get some help on this cos im quite happy with everything else I do in the game (I even managed to crete my own tactic!)

[Steve Odom]

It really depends how I'm doing. if I find myself behind but playing very well, it might be bad luck. Changing mentality doesn't help then (if it's not the last 15 minutes). But if we don't create enough CCC's, I'll change to a more attacking strategy.

The starting mentality depends on how I will play. I'm currently Arsenal (first pre-season, though, before i've had my new Pc, I managed Arsenal too) and the starting mentality depends on if i'm using my poacher or my targetman. The first situation would be control, the second would be attack against averyone except the top teams.

[furiousuk]

I normally start standard with no shouts (I'll sometimes immediately use shouts to combat the pitch size and/or conditions or a specific threat i KNOW the opposition will present me). I like to check how the opposition have lined up and how it looks like they're going to play and then make any changes as I see fit.

The key is to watch and spot weaknesses and it's very hard to learn how to do it by reading or listening to someone else - it's really something you have to hone through experience. Some general ideas might be: if you spot space down the flanks then 'exploit the flanks' and/or 'look for overlap' might work, if your short passing game is poor then 'get ball forward', if you notice the opposition have too much time on the ball then 'hassle opponents'. Most shouts are fairly logical and you'll quickly work out how they can change your setup and style.

A control or attacking strategy tends to be a little impotent with my team but it does allow me to control the ball which is very handy when seeing out a game. Likewise, if the opposition is piling on the pressure then changing to counter is usually a good bet. I'm a top team now but frequently use the counter strategy and have no issues with using the defensive strategy to see out a game or absorb pressure.

The width shouts (play wider/narrower) and depth shouts (push up / defend deep) are really really useful for adding flavour to your team without changing strategy. A general rule of thumb is that width creates gaps across the pitch whereas depth creates gaps between the lines. If I'm playing against a 4231 I'll often want to push up higher to cramp the AML,AMC & AMR. If I'm playing against a 442 or flat 451 I'll probably play deeper to allow space for my AMR,AML & DMC to play. These scenarios might not work for your formation or team though, every situation is different.

[drevil1969]

Thanks for the reply fella, I didnt think to use shouts just to do it manually

[tigerhgrrrrrr]

See below, courtesy of RT:

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/184003-Starting-Strategy-Discussion?highlight=combat+formations

(its post #31)