An Idiots exploration of tactics.

[danthemanwhocan]

Howdy yall!

I have never really taken the time out to explore tactics and how best to create them in FM.

I was always able to find a tactic that worked and used that or created on that was decent but never really brought me success.

That all changed in last year’s FM. I had an amazing save with LOSC Lille. When they had Digne, Sidney Sam etc. Cracking save. I deviated from my routine of going through the motions and took the time to watch the matches and make decisions based off what I saw, reading the scout report and using that to find their weak spot.

For example if it showed that Nice conceded a lot of their goals from the left flank via crosses I would use exploit the left flank, cross to target man. I am sure you get the idea.

This was a revelation for me. I was turning the tide of the game, not some match engine glitch or someone else’s tactical workings but my own observations and understanding of the tactics. Very Very rewarding albeit time consuming haha!

That save, unfortunately was lost. I think I deleted it thinking I could recreate the style with Villa. Life then took a drastic turn and well this is the first time in a year or so where I find myself in a position to play consistently.

I have skimmed through some of the excellent guides about combinations and fluidity and they were mind blowing! Phenomenal work there guys! It has unfortunately been a lot for me to digest off the bat so I intend to use those guides to supplement and refer to when my own tactical knowledge is deficient.

I am rather meticulous with my preparation in the preseason, scouting players, setting training, looking for bargains/good youth. However when I get to the tactics screen now, I just draw a blank. I am not sure whether its me just not comprehending them or maybe I have just failed to keep up with the jones’ as it were.

Anyway. I will be starting a save with my beloved Aston Villa FC, my boyhood team and the team that my two boys will be supporting with no exception. Not even the Portland Timbers. I live in Portland OR, born and raised in Sutton Coldfield! Represent.

I have decided that a formation in which i can utilise benteke the most and have delph making runs forward with the ball is the best route to go with this save.

Delph has some decent attriubtes that make him pretty good at getting in the thick of it further up the field. His low tackling and fairly high aggression means he he does give away the odd silly foul or two. The further away he can do that from my box the better!

This is the formation

GK- Defend- Guzan- No brainer really. Guzan is strong in the air, decent hands and good reflexes. Solid keeper.

LB- Full Back- Support- Luna. Best of the worst for me. Gutted that we still dont have Bertrand. Will attempt to sign him permanenty in the Jan Window.

RB- Full Back- Support- Lowton. Not the best full back but solid. Great anticipation and solid defensive stats and ok attacking stats. Solid but unspectacular

CB- Defend- Vlaar- Solid defender. He will be my rock and core of the team. Strong, good in the air hoping he will get on the end of some corners.

CB- Defend- Okore- Potentially a very good centerback, at least for Villas level. Strong, pretty nippy, solid tadkling and marking. He should complement Vlaars poor movement.

DM- Anchorman- Defendsive Mid- D- Sylla- Nothing special. But is pretty good physically and will do a job hussling and breaking down attacks.

CM- Attacking- Delph- As mentioned above, good going forward, not overly great at passing, but has good physicals and can dribble. Hopefully he will be dangerous. Also considered him as a BBM, i have my apprehensions.

CM- DLP/CM- D- Westwood if former- EA if Latter. Westwood can pick a pass and will provide stability in the midfield when delph goes on his runs. Neither spectacualar. But hopefully can do a job.

RW- Winger- A- Grealish- Villas Saviour.. Hope his trickery and skill will create some opportunities for himslef and others. Big Future ahead of him! Potentially Albrighton.

LW- Winger- A- N'Zogbia- Good pace and dribbling can also get in a good cross or two. He is on an absurd wage for how not spectacular he is so I might as well play him and make the most out of a bad situation

ST- Complete Forward- A- Benteke- I have chosen a complete forward as he has pretty much everything for that role.

I am a little stuck with individual and team instructions.

I want delph to surge forward so I have get forward more often, and dribble more as his instructions.

I have Westwood/KEA set to hold position and Sylla as mark tighter. I am hoping to keep them two pretty compact and hard to play through.

Team instructions I have Sit Deeper and Narrow with exploit the flanks, with a counter strategy and rigid philosophy.

My full backs have sit narrower and cross from deep, again to keep the middle compact If they are going to attack me I want them down the wings, where I feel comfortable in Guzans Aerial Ability and my defenders heading ability. With baker 17 jumping and 18 heading if i notice they are playing the long ball or corssing I will slap him on. No need for pace so much if you are sat deep.

I will be updating this with tweaks/changes/overhauls as I go along. I am hoping this will result in a discussion and show a progression of tactical understanding. I don’t think there has been a thread that has shown the tactical progression of someone who is not as fluid with tactics as other. All the advice threads have started with advice from experts and I would like this one to show the progression of someone understanding in the hope that if there are people out there who are embarrassed to ask questions that others view as simple they have a way they can maybe seek the answers they need. However simple they may be.

I will also be using a Database that has the most recent goings on in the summer window, Randy Lerner for example putting the club for sale, LVG being manager at United. No other items have been changed. NO PA/CA Increase or Decrease, no adjustments to budgets and I do not play with the IGE.

Again any comments with regards to the above will not be accepted and I will request that they be deleted. I am not messing about with peoples attributes only the peripherals of what is happening in real world football at the moment. How I choose to play my game is up to me, No one else.

So please, step down from your high horses and lets go on a tactical journey with Villa!

[danthemanwhocan]

Reserved for update about squad analysis. Indepth reasoning for platyer selection in their respective positions.

[danthemanwhocan]

Reserved for explanation for the choice of team tactics formations, flidity etc.

[JD nawrat]

Will be interested in following this. I've built an empire at Villa on my only real long term save of FM14, basically the best side in England and one of the best in Europe after 5/6 years. Won the CL, have 3 PLs in a row etc.

I played a similar shape - 433 (I talk more in depth about it in my thread kicking about somewhere on this sub-forum) - but I had different roles. Jordan Graham was hugely influential for me as an IF/S and worth using if you ask me. Grealish didn't feature much for a few seasons but is now one of my best players.

Ashley Westwood is fantastic by the way. I use him at DM as a DLP/D and he's just plain incredible. Also the club captain

Anyway, your tactic itself looks a bit too one-dimensional. Two wingers on attack doing the same thing down either flank, two supporting fullbacks not really doing anything. Your midfield trio itself is quite nice, I would consider making the DLP/D or CM/D as a support role or you could lead to having a big gap between midfield and attack. I know you want your players to be hard to break through but I think with an Attack in MC and two Defend duties in midfield you could be very unstable going forward and essentially give away a lot of possession. Your two wingers will be bombing forward whenever you get the ball and without someone - anyone - in the centre of the pitch to link these wingers to the midfield you could struggle. I would suggest dropping at least one winger to a support role (I'd say on the same side as the Defend duty MC) in order to provide some sort of real link there.

Also Benteke could be a bit isolated as a CF/A. Maybe consider CF/S so he's not higher up the pitch constantly.

But don't take what I say too seriously. You have a clear idea and that's as good a start as you need. It's all one big learning curve and that's why I'll be following this thread closely. Villa are a great side to manage on FM if you ask me Good luck!

[CamillePunk]

+1 to CF(S) > CF(A) in a lone striker set-up.

[danthemanwhocan]

Strangely enough Jdownie that is how I had them set up in the beginning. I guess I sometimes over think these things. Maybe they are that simple, or atleast not as overly complex as I am maybe making them out.

Thank you CamillePunk. This is what I would like. Will make thos amendments now. How do I take screen shots and post them?

[llama3]

Jdownie's advice is super. I fully endorse this!

[danthemanwhocan]

Can someone direct me on how to get screen shots up here? Thank again guys!

JDownie, I opted for a CF A as I was anticipating with the request for Delph to get further forward he would occupy what on the tactic screen would be considered the AM spot. Is that a fair assumption? However I have decided to get benteke on CF S as I feel having someone near benteke in the middle would be a better option that having essentially 4-2-3-1.

I am also hoping that as Delph is surging forwar and I am assuming that Benteke will drop slightly deeper, that will pull defenders out of position for delph, Benteke, or my wingers to get in behind and catch the opposing team on the back foot.

[JD nawrat]

There's two ways to take screenshots.

The first way - my personal preference - is to use the in-game screenshot taker. Open up the in-game steam menu and it'll tell you how to take a screenshot. Do so then go back to the screenshots via the in-game steam menu and you can upload them to the steam website. Go there and find your image, then bring it here and insert it in between image tags like so (no spaces inside square brackets btw, I'm just adding them to show how it's done) .

The other way which most use (I think) is to take the screenshot how you usually would (PrntScr) and then upload the image to photobucket, imageshack or imgur (imgur is my personal choice for uploading images). From there, copy the codes and paste them here and they should work

Hope those are clear explanations.

As for your question - it probably is a fair assumption but I would be worried about Benteke as a CF/A being too high up the pitch that he wouldn't get involved with play at all and players would either ignore him because he would often be in the last line of defenders or they would try and force the ball into him, meaning you would give possession away cheaply and lose out easily, allowing counter attacks from the opposition. With a CF/S he's more likely to drop deeper and link midfield and defence together. Plus, like you say, if he drops deep (it's not a common occurrence for a CF/S but it's not uncommon either, it just depends on the player in question and the space available, the nature of the game etc) then it may allow Delph to surge into the open space behind.

[danthemanwhocan]

O I see what you mean. I did change him to CF s and he does look like he is linking play a little better.

My only aprehensions about the friendlies are that I have them all with Lower league oposition. So im not really sure how the tactic is going to do against stronger opponents.

Helenius has been some what of a star recently. He seems to have decent attributes to do well up top in this type of formation.

Hopefully this works. Below should be a screen shot of my tactics. No team instructions as of yet. Still wondering what direction I should be taking that side.

Will post some more screen shots of stats from games and some of the off aha thats what I want from my tactic moments that have arisen.

Massive injury to Westwood. Torn Hammie, out for three months! Gutted, Had Coquelin lined up to be his understudy but he got injured and transfer was cancelled. :/

Thanks again JDownie. How is your save going? How long was it till Villa regained their glory?

[danthemanwhocan]

Just played my last friendly against Valencia. Pick of the match was a superb goal from Grealish. He started at the edge of our penalty Box and ran the length of the field and attempted a cross which cam straight back to him. Then attempted a cheeky cross come shot to the far post which went in. Nearly woke my son up when that went in!

The screen shot below highlights what I want from my players. There were some lovely combination plays before that and this was last minute vs a team I thoroughly expected to get hammered by!

Fixture list. First two games are big games. If we can pull a draw from one of those I will be over the moon. This will really test my tactic.

[JD nawrat]

Good to hear your tactic had a successful start in pre-season Two big, tough opening games though. Doesn't get much tougher unfortunately. I'm sure it'll be good to see how your tactic does in a competitive fixture. Although I wouldn't be too worried if you left those two games with 0/6 points.

My Villa save hasn't been touched for about a month now unfortunately. A mixture of FM experiments and just plain losing interest in the game at one point meant I've not touched the Villa save for a while. Here's a screenshot showing my success with Villa, which you can read more about if you like in this thread (where I also talk about my own 433 system (same shape as your own) in a lot more detail) if you ever need ideas or inspiration

That image also misses out my most recent season where I won the PL for a third year in a row, by the way

[danthemanwhocan]

Unfortuantely I lost the save. I was transfering to a new Laptop and I guess I deleted the sigames folder of 2014 and not 2013. Gutted. I started poorly but was begining to build on some of the ideas that were mentioned through this forum.

I am now looking to begin a save with Real Sociedad. I didnt see a team guide when I searched through the forum. If I have missed it if anyone can point me in teh right direction that would be gratly appreciated. Cheers guys!

[JD nawrat]

The team guide thread over in that forum isn't very good - http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/372988-FM14-Real-Sociedad-Thread-Menace-to-Sociedad - and there isn't another team guide thread so I guess you're on your own with Sociedad

[danthemanwhocan]

haha thanks. Lone ranger I like it. Maybe I will make my own as I am off for two days starting Tuesday.

Mayeb you could help me here JDownie, am somewhat in the right area when I say that a fluid tactic is one where you have little to no individual instruction you allow the players to play within a structure that you set by givng team instructions, but allow those players who posses the ability to make their own decisions. Rigid would be where you have a lot of player instructions and you want them to perform those no matter the situation?

[JD nawrat]

Rigid is used when you want players to perform to exactly what you've asked, yes. You can use as many or as little PIs as you like.

Fluid is the opposite by nature, so the players are afforded a lot more creative freedom and they can deviate from your instructions to their own liking usually. Likewise, though, you can use as many or as little PIs as you like. The players just might not abide by them too closely.