FM14 TACTIC - "THE FULCRUM" - Back to Back Promotions + Cup Win

[Braumiller]

Interested to hear what match prep people are using with this tactic, and why?

[Mr U Rosler]

Interestingly (if that's even a word) I'm having great success by turning my False 9 into a Defensive Forward (think Dirk Kuyt at Liverpool).

Very consistent performance's, highly capable support striker when in possession, lots of assists and goals by playing it simple. Highly effective when out of possession stopping teams playing out of the back.

I've just had on of those FM moments that stay with you.

My opponents have just broken on me from one of my own corners, its not looking good, i've sat back and watched on of my players 'rocket' from the opponents 6 yard box, all the way up the pitch overtaking everyone including my own Centre Backs, i can almost see the determination in his eyes 'not on my watch' , motoring into my own penalty area just in time to clear one off the Line! Fully 90 yards! Who is it, yep my Defensive Forward...... It's a proud day..............

[legacalcoo11]

I am currently trying it out whit my juventus team. Will post updates later, but currently it looks good. I am going to try the defensiv forward Rosler

[legacalcoo11]

Rosler ho do you think will be the best soluition to play upfront? Tevez as poacer and llorente or Vucinic as defensiv forward or vice versa?

[Mr U Rosler]

Rosler ho do you think will be the best soluition to play upfront? Tevez as poacer and llorente or Vucinic as defensiv forward or vice versa?

I don't know the stats of the others of the top of my head but I would imagine Tevez would be an outstanding defensive forward.

His stats for work rate, team work, stamina and aggression must be very high. Not sure about his tackling but wouldn't worry about that.

[legacalcoo11]

okay, i will try him as defensiv and llortente as poacher. How are you getting along?

I just startet a new game, so i can get the tactic fluid faster. But the previus resuls where good. Defensiv i was a rock, but i allso whant my strikers to score

[Mr U Rosler]

I'm at work so apart from a couple of sneaky games this morning I've not played today,

I'll be launching my League 2 campaign tonight, with 3 automatic promotion spots up for grabs I'll be expecting to go up, even with a relatively weak team,

[Braumiller]

Did you change the False Nine (Support) into a Defensive Forward (Support) or Defensive Forward (Defend)?

[Mr U Rosler]

Did you change the False Nine (Support) into a Defensive Forward (Support) or Defensive Forward (Defend)?

DF Support. I'll put my player instructions up when I get home.

[legacalcoo11]

Nice Rosler, i am looking forward to it .

I startede i serie a whit Juve. Startede the game in June, so i can get a lot off friendlies a get the tactic fluid

[Mr U Rosler]

For those of you who want to try the Defensive Forward variant, change the False 9 to Defensive Forward support with the only additional player instruction being 'pass it shorter'.

[Kingbogo]

Been trying this with Aberdeen in my 2nd season after I lost my wingers to injuries, and I haven't looked back. Only lost 2 games all season and I am mid December. Lost 1-0 away to spurs in Euro playoff round and away to Motherwell. Beat celtic 3-2 at home and 3-1 in the league cup. But best was a 6-0 away win at Dundee Utd. The poacher works well, the 2nd striker seems to be hit and miss, he scored 4 in one game in the Dundee Utd game then goes on a wee barren spell. But Overall I think it is a really good tactic

[gareth250480]

For those of you who want to try the Defensive Forward variant, change the False 9 to Defensive Forward support with the only additional player instruction being 'pass it shorter'.

are you saying here that the only player instruction we should set for the defensive forward is pass it shorter. the false 9 had roam from position, pass it shorter and hold up ball.

[Mr U Rosler]

are you saying here that the only player instruction we should set for the defensive forward is pass it shorter. the false 9 had roam from position, pass it shorter and hold up ball.

Yes, exactly right.

[tottenham2k7]

cant see any mention of training recommendations on here ?

[gibbo101]

cant see any mention of training recommendations on here ?

I use teamwork match prep with default training. Took bournemouth to the championship title and an FA cup semi final.

[Mr U Rosler]

Thought I would update after latest match engine update.

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10 wins in a row.

Its much better defensively after the update.

I have nearly finished version 2, same player roles/formation etc but everything is tightened up/optimised etc.

I have played around with the False 9 position but have come full circle and concluded I had it right in the first place. My False 9 has been awesome this season so i'm leaving it as it is.

[Aleynasdad]

So false 9 works better than defensive forward?

[Mr U Rosler]

So false 9 works better than defensive forward?

I now believe so, but not by much. If you have a good DF or can find one its still an excellent option.

[Ernest166]

Any date release Mr U Rosler?

[Mr U Rosler]

Any date release Mr U Rosler?

v2 up tomorrow.

I've actually made a fair few 'tweaks', some of them quite significant although as stated above formation & players roles are the same.

I just want to test it properly on the latest version of the Match Engine.

[Babak G]

Not sure how you have gotten the defensive stability post update especially from corners, crosses and players backing off. Can you explain?

[Jibby123]

This tactic is working very well for me (almost too well ). I never used to use out and out wingers, but then got fixated on them for a few versions (don't know why) and didn't always get the best results, so nice to go back to the good old days of tactics like this.

[Aleynasdad]

Playing Whitehawk in the skrill south and end of November Ive only lost one game all season and am still in the fa cup. Havent beaten any professional teams yet though. Now switching from defensive forward to false nine as think it suits my players better.

[pistol111]

Not had the best start in a Liverpool save i started with the demo. Seems to be taking forever for the team to become familiar with tactic. Im at the end of Sept with the team only half

familiar despite having match prep high on tactics only. is this a bug or a new part of the tactics

[Mr U Rosler]

Not had the best start in a Liverpool save i started with the demo. Seems to be taking forever for the team to become familiar with tactic. Im at the end of Sept with the team only half

familiar despite having match prep high on tactics only. is this a bug or a new part of the tactics

Not sure about how long it takes to become fully fluid when you start a new game, they seem to change this every update.

When i started my save it took until february! the first season, now its fuilly fluid by after 3 pre-season friendlies in july as i've been using it for years.

In any event, its much quicker the 2nd season.

[Babak G]

Mr U Rosler, Ive asked you a question above can you please answer it?

Thanks,

[Mr U Rosler]

Mr U Rosler, Ive asked you a question above can you please answer it?

Thanks,

There's a big post coming...... patience my friend...

[Mr U Rosler]

Greetings all,

The Fulcrum v2 is now available for download.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/jh2r7xranrmxcz3/The_Fulcrum_v2.tac

Changelist

• Improved defending corners
  
• Improved attacking corners
  
• Improved goal keeper distribution
  
• Behaviour of our 2 box to box midfielders altered when in possession
  
• Centre backs now staggered
  
• Changed from zonal to man marking across the back 4 and DM
  

What I didn't change but nearly did.

'Hassle Opponents' in team instructions.

This was out until the recent match engine update where I tested it again and it seems to be very effective. In the previous Match Engine I could see the team being pulled out of shape by this instruction so I removed it however with the update I tried it again and it seemed to be much more effective restricting the amount of chances our opponents created.

Lets look at the changes

Defending corners

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Only 5 conceded over 46 league games.

Well happy with that, in the previous season I conceded 18!

How is that achieved? Well the actual tactical instructions are fairly limited i.e. mark tall player, mark small player, man mark etc but there are 2 areas out side of that we can look at.

Set up; The more players we leave forward, the less players our opponents will put in our penalty area. What is the optimal set up? Well naturally I tried them all, leaving 8 players forward to leaving no players forward. In the end i decided that leaving 2 players forward (both strikers) and 1 player on the edge of the area was the best balance of having 'out' balls so the ball isn't constantly being recycled back into the box, yet leaving enough players back to deal with the initial delivery into the box.

Training; As soon as my tactic is fully fluid, I change the match training so its 1 notch from the right edge (i.e minimal match training) and set it to defending set pieces. I then leave it there ALL SEASON.

Sure your missing out on attacking movement, defensive positioning etc but its a small price to pay for knowing that you will be a 'rock' all season from corners and free kicks.

Attacking Corners; Yep, near post is most effective again (although not OP this year). Centre Backs swarming all over near post, strikers picking up the pieces. You can expect a healthy 12-15 league goals.

Goal keeper distribution; Apart from Corners, the next biggest source of conceded goals was from our own goal kicks, our keeper would hoof it long, one of there midfielders would produce a defence splitting header for there striker to run onto and score. Hugely irritating. Throwing it out wasn't working, keepers were still kicking long too often. It turned out that 'distribute to defender' along with 'pass it short' nullifies this problem.

Box to Box midfielders; A simple tweak that improves our attacking play. 'shoot less often', our goal scorers are our 2 strikers and our central MC/APM. We want the guys with good finishing taking most of the shots, we don't want our 'workers' wasting good attacking positions with -EV pot shots.

Centre Backs. We had been vunerable to long balls over the top. We dont play an offside trap, so i simply set one of the defenders to 'cover' which means he has few yards head start when balls come flying over the top. I've seen a lot less of this.

Marking; Its seems the default defensive set up is 'zonal', we all know that is 'pants'. I got fed up of watching my defenders running around like the 'keystone cops' whilst opposing attackers were waltzing through the middle of my penalty area. Strangely there is no 'man mark' instruction but setting my defensive players to 'mark tighter' combined with hassle opponent seems to achieve this effect or as much as is possible in the current match engine.

[Mr U Rosler]

The story so far....

Season 1 - Skrill North - Media prediction 3rd - Won League by 12 points - PROMOTED

Season 2 - Skrill Premier - Media prediction 24th - 2nd, PROMOTED via play offs. won FA Trophy

Season 3 - League 2 - Media prediction 24th - Finished 11th.

Experimenting with different player roles for F9 and swapping him for AMC again testing player roles.

Also identified the 'bug' with club reputation making it very difficult to improve your squad as you move through the leagues. SI Investigating this

Season 4 - League 2 - Media prediction 24th - Finished 4th, beaten in Play Off final, beaten in Johnstones Trophy Final....Grrrrrrr

By January I stopped messing around and kept with the False 9. Conceded 18 goals from corners which cost me promotion.

Season 5 - League 2 - Media prediction 14th - Won league by 22 points. 102 goals, 105 points. PROMOTED. Won Johnstones Trophy

Added bits to create v2 along the way.

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Post patch results.

26 LEAGUE GAMES

23 WINS, 1 DRAW, 2 DEFEATS.

58 GOALS SCORED, 18 CONCEDED

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The power of the 'False 9'

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34 LEAGUE GAMES, 23 GOALS, 25 ASSISTS

Good luck all..........

[legacalcoo11]

Nice Rosler! I am starting a new game right now now, will post back

[Wijnand fens]

Mr Rosler,

Do you have a screenshot of your training and MP when it is fluid.

Thanks!

I give it a try!

[Mr U Rosler]

Mr Rosler,

Do you have a screenshot of your training and MP when it is fluid.

Thanks!

I give it a try!

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So training, nothing special but as someone said 'simplicity is the ultimate sophistication'.

To clarify,

Squad return for pre-season

Maximum match training (slider far left) tactics only until fully fluid then as above, slider 1st notch from right and defending set pieces all season.

General training (average) - Fitness only until 1st August, 1st August to 15th September = team cohesion, 15th September till end of season 'Balanced'. (UK example)

Simples

[Wijnand fens]

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Babak G]

How are your full backs performing in the game? Both in terms of ratings but also practically in allowing wingers to getting past them?

Also how are you dealing with crosses compared to before latest update?

[Mr U Rosler]

Basically, when the team wins they get good ratings, when they lose they dont. I'm not sure how much you can actually read into the ratings.

In game they perform very well, are very offensive and are helped of by the box to box midfielders in defence.

I have been restricting teams to between 5 and 8 chances per game, of which 2 or 3 show up in the match highlights. These are from all over the pitch and not all down the flanks so they do not seems to be exposed.

i hope this helps.

[Babak G]

And you are avoiding specific man marking instructions for your full backs from the OI screens?

[Mr U Rosler]

And you are avoiding specific man marking instructions for your full backs from the OI screens?

Yeah, i dont use any OI instructions.

[Ernest166]

Will give it a go. Cheers.

[jayahr]

Looks interesting. Might give it a try as well

However, the dropping deeper instructions seems to be conflicting with the hassle opponent instructions at a first glance. Don't you face issues with having too large gaps between midfield and defence due to this? Or is this an instruction to counter a lack of pace in central defence which can be left away if the DCs are quicker?

[mibsweden]

I had been struggling with Stockport, you saved my save so to speak :-)

I haven't really come to grips with the new tactics creator, so this helped a lot in short term. THANKS!

[Wilbur]

Again excellant formation, used your fm13 one to great effect. Now doing well on my save with this one, although the update isn't effective as your 1st attempt. doesn't seem to be as fliud with the passing or attacking. Still great effort Mr Rosler and thanks, will be following for sure.

[Mr U Rosler]

Looks interesting. Might give it a try as well

However, the dropping deeper instructions seems to be conflicting with the hassle opponent instructions at a first glance. Don't you face issues with having too large gaps between midfield and defence due to this? Or is this an instruction to counter a lack of pace in central defence which can be left away if the DCs are quicker?

Dropping deeper and hassling opponents are not mutually exclusive, a lot of the hassling is done high up the pitch by your forwards and midfielders.

The Tactic is not actually that 'deep', there is an option to sit deeper. If you sit higher up the pitch you will constantly be undone by balls over the top.

There are no large gaps in the formation, if there were it wouldn't have worked consistently across 3 different Match Engine updates.

[Mr U Rosler]

Again excellant formation, used your fm13 one to great effect. Now doing well on my save with this one, although the update isn't effective as your 1st attempt. doesn't seem to be as fliud with the passing or attacking. Still great effort Mr Rosler and thanks, will be following for sure.

I would't have thought i have changed enough to alter the style of play from the earlier version, just tightened things up. Attacking is slightly more difficult following the ME update, perhaps you are noticing that?

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, always appreciated

[Aleynasdad]

As we are hours away from the REAL thing and want to start from scratch when it does Ill start with this tomorrow. Whitehawk waltzed the Skrill South with this tactic by 18 points

[erik86]

This shall be my first tactic in FM2014 - yet to decide on team but I will keep you posted.

[erik86]

I'm starting with Blackburn

[TheDentalist]

Here we go with Preston...

[Mr U Rosler]

First 12 games on new match engine.

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At first I was thinking it might be a bit less effective, but looking at the last 2 results (4-1, 8-1) its hard to argue that.

Considering its my first season in league 1 following promotion and I have maintained my automatic promotion position i can't complain.

Player ratings are messed up, 20 mins in and the chances are your fullbacks are on a 5.5 rating, for no reason. As they are key to making the tactic 'tick' it cant be helping us. But due to the number of complaints about this on the main forum I think this will be sorted out pretty quick.

So, tactic still looking good, we are creating double the chances of most of our opponents but it seems there is the odd 'stinker' of a performance in there as well.

[Trents]

Testing this with Farnborough. After 10 games it's given me 1 win and 5 draws.

In every match though I've had more shots that the oppo and most possession in most of the games. Problem is a combo of shocking defending and finishing. Despite always in double figures for shots, only 1 or 2 end up on target. My squad is 5 stars in every position.

I'll give it a bit more time as squad still not fully familiar with tactic.