APEX PREDATOR for 15.2. League = 102 points, 118 Goals.... playing 442

[ZeroBantam1]

Just started using this in my career save - second season in and Derby's first in the Premier League.....awesome results at home, beat Man Utd & Arsenal 4-1 but drew away to QPR 3-3! Only played around 3 or 4 games with it so far but looking pretty good. Will try setting up with 'counter' for the away games and see how i go.

Looks very promising though!

[Scully11]

For the people who have made a counter version of this tactic are there any Team instructions that have been changed or is everything the same apart from its counter rather than control

[CBP87]

This is what I've done man, do you remove or add any team instructions for attacking & control at all?

no pal, i just keep anything the same apart from mentality, i also have match training on teamwork once tactics are fully fluid rather than attacking movement, seems to work for me

[CBP87]

For the people who have made a counter version of this tactic are there any Team instructions that have been changed or is everything the same apart from its counter rather than control

no just change the mentality, with you changing mentality, its pretty much set up for your players to welcome the pressure on them and then hit the opposition on the break, i use quick wide midfielders with good passing, crossing and technique when using counter seems to do the trick

[Mr U Rosler]

Is there no way to upload photos on this forum?

Anyway, i have now reached january 2015, with this tactic playing with Nottingham Forest. No new signings, just some loans to beef up the squad. So far so good, 1st place after 24 games, 14W, 7D, 3L. Matty Fryatt has got 25 goals already!

You said don´t question the corner routine with a striker taking all the corners, but i have to question it since i don´t have any sucess with it....All that happens is that my striker takes a short corner to an unmarked player that gets tackles, or he plays the ball back to the striker and nothing more comes of it...

My goals from corners after a full season with West Brom.

More than acceptable for me, would probably get a few more with a stronger team.

Any more than that and it starts to look a bit 'gamey'

[Mr U Rosler]

Final table with West Brom, more than happy with that.

And the away form?

2nd best AWAY record in Division. I DID NOT use 'Counter', just used the original tactic all the way.

Its debatable whether you need to use counter away, if so i would suggest only against VERY STRONG teams.

[alinp]

I'm not massively in to using P&P tactics & suppose I could download to have a look at your TI's, but any chance you could post them anyway. FWIW, looks very similar to a Dalglish 87-88 esque tactic I've been working on

[Walrus]

I've taken the time to put the filters into a saveable format. Feel free to add it to your second port Mr Rosler. Apologies if it's stepping on your toes....

https://www.mediafire.com/?fwwxm7xuf7pir3d

[Mr U Rosler]

No problem.

When i'm at my PC i'll update front post.

Thanks

[TubewayArmy79]

Hey! I downloaded this tactic I changed the left striker put that to left am works perfect, So far played 7 games 5 pre season 1 league match 1 cup match won 7 hopefully more of the same.

[Godtfredsen]

Okay so I just finished my first season with FC København using this tactic. As I wrote in my previous post it is a great tactic, but you need the right players for it and my team have that, I won the league superior without any defeats. I reached the first knockout round of Champions League where I lost 3-2 on aggregate to the later champions Chelsea. (I won the first match 1-0 at home). To even reach the champions League group stage as number 2 from the Danish League was of course quite impressive since you have to get through much better teams than them from the champions route.

I put my assistant in charge of the quarter finale in the domestic cup and I lost

http://gratisupload.dk/vis/717544/

http://gratisupload.dk/vis_billede/717543/

http://gratisupload.dk/vis_billede/717545/

[Scully11]

i cannot get any sort of run going with this tactic i can win 5-0 away at man utd then draw 1-1 with norwich at home i must be doing something wrong

[WillMcG99]

So I have played a full season now, in L2 with Stamford, I just got promoted and was favourite to go down

Up until Xmas I had played 19, W17, D0, L2 I was amazed this tactic just was steamrolling everyone.

However after Xmas, I lost 14 on the bounce, I made no new signings or anything it just stopped working. I switched to my own tax and stumbled along, then changed back for the last 5 games w:1 D1, L3.

So now I'm really confused, it might have been something to do with having a thin squad, but players were not notably unfit or tired. I'm going to add a few new players based on the stats above and give it another go.

Has anyone else experienced these kind of dramatic changes of fortune?

[CBP87]

I've taken the time to put the filters into a saveable format. Feel free to add it to your second port Mr Rosler. Apologies if it's stepping on your toes....

https://www.mediafire.com/?fwwxm7xuf7pir3d

ive downloaded these filters and out them in my filters folder in my SI documents, however the player filters dont show, i can get the staff filter but not the players, i go import on the player search and go the folder ive put them in, but they dont show, you know what to do?

[amadeo]

So I have played a full season now, in L2 with Stamford, I just got promoted and was favourite to go down

Up until Xmas I had played 19, W17, D0, L2 I was amazed this tactic just was steamrolling everyone.

However after Xmas, I lost 14 on the bounce, I made no new signings or anything it just stopped working. I switched to my own tax and stumbled along, then changed back for the last 5 games w:1 D1, L3.

So now I'm really confused, it might have been something to do with having a thin squad, but players were not notably unfit or tired. I'm going to add a few new players based on the stats above and give it another go.

Has anyone else experienced these kind of dramatic changes of fortune?

How's the team morale? This can definitely have a say in the performances.

[Mr U Rosler]

Okay so I just finished my first season with FC København using this tactic. As I wrote in my previous post it is a great tactic, but you need the right players for it and my team do have that, I won my League superior withóut any defeat. I reached the first knockout round of Champions League where I lost 3-2 on average to the later champions Chealsea. (I won the first match 1-0 at home). To even reach the champions League Group stage as number 2 from the Danish League was of course quite impressive since you have to get through much better teams than them from the champions route.

I put my assistant in charge of the quarter finale in the domestic cup and I lost

http://gratisupload.dk/vis/717544/

http://gratisupload.dk/vis_billede/717543/

http://gratisupload.dk/vis_billede/717545/

I've still never done an unbeaten league season, congratulations

[Mr U Rosler]

So I have played a full season now, in L2 with Stamford, I just got promoted and was favourite to go down

Up until Xmas I had played 19, W17, D0, L2 I was amazed this tactic just was steamrolling everyone.

However after Xmas, I lost 14 on the bounce, I made no new signings or anything it just stopped working. I switched to my own tax and stumbled along, then changed back for the last 5 games w:1 D1, L3.

So now I'm really confused, it might have been something to do with having a thin squad, but players were not notably unfit or tired. I'm going to add a few new players based on the stats above and give it another go.

Has anyone else experienced these kind of dramatic changes of fortune?

Never seen anything as dramatic as that.

Morale can spiral quickly out of control but normally you can turn it around with a couple of good results and kick on again.

What kind of team talks were you giving when you were in that bad run?

[WillMcG99]

I was generally being encouraging, also held a few team meetings. Morale was mainly the yellow one fair I think it's called, with a few poor and a few good.

Although when I asked the captain he always said 'the lads are quite down'.

I finished 13th which defied all expectations, and my 3k wage budget is now 20k, some of my players are terrible so it might just that the high morale carried more than it should.

I did have some great stats on some of the team, my RM scored 17, assisted 22 in 39 games for example.

I've already signed a new MC who actualy has some stats above 11 now, so let's see who I can get in. I'll update tonight.

But any tips to get out of a slump would be appreciated

[Mr U Rosler]

I was generally being encouraging, also held a few team meetings. Morale was mainly the yellow one fair I think it's called, with a few poor and a few good.

Although when I asked the captain he always said 'the lads are quite down'.

I finished 13th which defied all expectations, and my 3k wage budget is now 20k, some of my players are terrible so it might just that the high morale carried more than it should.

I did have some great stats on some of the team, my RM scored 17, assisted 22 in 39 games for example.

I've already signed a new MC who actualy has some stats above 11 now, so let's see who I can get in. I'll update tonight.

But any tips to get out of a slump would be appreciated

Be very interested to see how you get on now with a stronger squad.

I had some similar runs with Tonbridge last year as i moved them thru the league's but not that extreme. I recall the the step up from Conference to League 2 being the biggest and was stuck in League 2 for 4 seasons before securing 3 promotions in a row to get them to the prem.

Its possible we are looking at this the wrong way round, your form at the end of the season was 'normal' with your squad and we need to be questioning how you were able to get off to such a strong start!

[GJHowell]

Agree with this - I think when you have a good tactic (as I believe this is, like most from Mr R!) it's sometimes easy to forget the "level" your team is at.

Currently using Apex Predator with Colchester Utd, in the Premiership - We've had back to back promotions from L1, with very little money inbetween for transfers. Consequently I have no players in the squad who are rated as being at Prem level, and a handful who would be deemed good/decent for the Championship. I'm relying mainly on youngsters that I had either brought through from the academy, or signed on frees after they were released from other clubs.

Consequently I was expecting nothing than a long hard fight against relegation. As it is, just coming up to the midway point of the season I am sitting in the top half of the table (having hit the dizzy heights of 4th at one point!). My results are inconsistent - my best run is 3 wins in a row, which was immediately followed by 3 losses. But I sort of expect that inconsistency as I know the squad just doesn't have enough prem adequacy in it (let alone quality!). There's still a long way to go, but it's looking hopeful that we can stay up and then I should have funds available to start rebuilding and consolidating. At the end of the day, as good as the tactic is, if the players aren't of the required standard then you can only overachieve by so much, and probably without much consistency.

Should say though, and this probably won't please you Mr R, but best result to date is a 2-0 home victory against Man City (closely followed by a 4-1 dismantling of Spurs), but inbetween those games I threw away a 2-0 lead over Hull for a draw, and got spanked by Norwich 4-2 - which kind of bears out the point I was trying to make.

[Mr U Rosler]

Agree with this - I think when you have a good tactic (as I believe this is, like most from Mr R!) it's sometimes easy to forget the "level" your team is at.

Currently using Apex Predator with Colchester Utd, in the Premiership - We've had back to back promotions from L1, with very little money inbetween for transfers. Consequently I have no players in the squad who are rated as being at Prem level, and a handful who would be deemed good/decent for the Championship. I'm relying mainly on youngsters that I had either brought through from the academy, or signed on frees after they were released from other clubs.

Consequently I was expecting nothing than a long hard fight against relegation. As it is, just coming up to the midway point of the season I am sitting in the top half of the table (having hit the dizzy heights of 4th at one point!). My results are inconsistent - my best run is 3 wins in a row, which was immediately followed by 3 losses. But I sort of expect that inconsistency as I know the squad just doesn't have enough prem adequacy in it (let alone quality!). There's still a long way to go, but it's looking hopeful that we can stay up and then I should have funds available to start rebuilding and consolidating. At the end of the day, as good as the tactic is, if the players aren't of the required standard then you can only overachieve by so much, and probably without much consistency.

Should say though, and this probably won't please you Mr R, but best result to date is a 2-0 home victory against Man City (closely followed by a 4-1 dismantling of Spurs), but inbetween those games I threw away a 2-0 lead over Hull for a draw, and got spanked by Norwich 4-2 - which kind of bears out the point I was trying to make.

Again last year, I got relegated from the Prem with Tonbridge my first season there on the back of 3 promotions in a row, didn't get sacked as I was a club legend by then . Knew I would ruin the Championship and go straight back up which I did and never looked back finally winning the Prem in my 19th Season moving up from Skrill South.

Sounds like you're doing ok

[Walrus]

ive downloaded these filters and out them in my filters folder in my SI documents, however the player filters dont show, i can get the staff filter but not the players, i go import on the player search and go the folder ive put them in, but they dont show, you know what to do?

Not sure. Are you sure they are in the right folder?

I'll try and see if I can get them on the Workshop later tonight.

[CBP87]

Not sure. Are you sure they are in the right folder?

I'll try and see if I can get them on the Workshop later tonight.

yeah positive pal, the staff filters show but not the players, dont worry about it, i just copied and saved the attributes Mr U put on the 2nd post, cheers pal

[bariscakan]

Hi Mr. R.,

It's been a while since FM14's great run of 4132s that you've blown it away like this, well for me. I've been trying pretty much everything you put up but nothing wowed me like this one...

This year, for the first time since FM12 I've been able to come up with strong tactics on my own, suited to my squads. Nothing I tried from the forum worked anyway. So funny enough I was settled with a 5-2-1-2 WB formation, even though I play 4 defenders almost always since 1998 or so. But with the defenders I had and the decent CWB's, I put together a Bundesliga winning Mainz team in 3 seasons. I was mid-season when I saw this APEX. Decided to try it out, maybe add it as a secondary setup. And holy smokes! What a turn of events! Won 12 in a row including 3 friendlies, 8 Bundesliga matches and one CL match against Barcelona!! The least I scored in a game is 3, most is 7 !!! Yeah I think I'll build around this next season )

Also, I didn't change my corner takers. Still scoring with the default setup though. And I don't have many WM's per se, but my attacking midfielders and shadow strikers are absolutely killing it, scoring and assisting for fun. Many of my top players form is between 8.30 and 8.60 in last five games. INSANE.

Altough I was doing pretty well before this, I now see that I was still holding the team back. Food for thought to anybody who didn't get good results with this: Maybe, and it's just an idea, if your team is not suited well for the tactic, progress a little with something custom for the squad, and slowly introduce this one. Because I was doing well, 3rd season with team, strengthened and with high morale, adopted this and BoooM.

Anyways great job, fun to watch football and extremely confident sidelines here

Cheers

[Mr U Rosler]

Hi Mr. R.,

It's been a while since FM14's great run of 4132s that you've blown it away like this, well for me. I've been trying pretty much everything you put up but nothing wowed me like this one...

This year, for the first time since FM12 I've been able to come up with strong tactics on my own, suited to my squads. Nothing I tried from the forum worked anyway. So funny enough I was settled with a 5-2-1-2 WB formation, even though I play 4 defenders almost always since 1998 or so. But with the defenders I had and the decent CWB's, I put together a Bundesliga winning Mainz team in 3 seasons. I was mid-season when I saw this APEX. Decided to try it out, maybe add it as a secondary setup. And holy smokes! What a turn of events! Won 12 in a row including 3 friendlies, 8 Bundesliga matches and one CL match against Barcelona!! The least I scored in a game is 3, most is 7 !!! Yeah I think I'll build around this next season )

Also, I didn't change my corner takers. Still scoring with the default setup though. And I don't have many WM's per se, but my attacking midfielders and shadow strikers are absolutely killing it, scoring and assisting for fun. Many of my top players form is between 8.30 and 8.60 in last five games. INSANE.

Altough I was doing pretty well before this, I now see that I was still holding the team back. Food for thought to anybody who didn't get good results with this: Maybe, and it's just an idea, if your team is not suited well for the tactic, progress a little with something custom for the squad, and slowly introduce this one. Because I was doing well, 3rd season with team, strengthened and with high morale, adopted this and BoooM.

Anyways great job, fun to watch football and extremely confident sidelines here

Cheers

Thanks for the feedback.

In my experience, you can 'stutter' for a few games with this tactic but sooner or later you get on a roll, morale gets 'sky high' and then there's no stopping you.

[WillyBroadband]

Just thought I'd give you a little feedback dude.. 11 games in, 5th season.

2 annoying away losses at Man U & Newcastle where I left it on control then decided to try using the tactic but with counter and have beaten CSKA Moscow & Chelsea away in a row, the Chelsea result was particularly satisfying as I had 3 goals disallowed for offside!

The Ox is unreal in that MR role! 7 goals & 10 assists in 10 games!?

[Scully11]

I retract my last comment i just played against sunderland and was winning 8-0 at half time. I eventually won9-0 but i think ive cracked where i was going wrong

[QuickZombie]

I retract my last comment i just played against sunderland and was winning 8-0 at half time. I eventually won9-0 but i think ive cracked where i was going wrong

potential tweak you can share? Thanks

[Scully11]

just the players i was using i was using slower creative wingers with good passing, vision, dribbling etc rather than faster wingers with slightly worse passing also i think mitrovic has moulded to the team now he couldnt score for toffee for the first couple of months. My advice would be to just stick with it. Yeah ive had some bad results but now its paying off and im still in 5th position in january

[Scully11]

I've taken the time to put the filters into a saveable format. Feel free to add it to your second port Mr Rosler. Apologies if it's stepping on your toes....

https://www.mediafire.com/?fwwxm7xuf7pir3d

i have the same problem with the player filters this only seems to be the staff filters

[DB11]

I find that my very good creative and attacking midfielders just cannot flourish in the ball winning midfielder role.

[Feriboy2]

I find that my very good creative and attacking midfielders just cannot flourish in the ball winning midfielder role.

I retrained a few to ML and MR so they can play wide midfielders.

[Mr U Rosler]

I find that my very good creative and attacking midfielders just cannot flourish in the ball winning midfielder role.

Your right, they have too much defensive responsibility to flourish here and will likely not be upto the defensive side of the role anyway, requires a different type of midfielder for West Brom Yacob/Mulumbu were ideal, for Man City it was Fernadinho, Fernando and Toure. Natural DM's can be excellent in the 2 central roles.

As Feriboy2 suggested your flair players can prosper on the wings, Silva, Nasri, Navas for City, Sessegnon, Blanco, Brunt for West Brom.

[WillyBroadband]

I find that my very good creative and attacking midfielders just cannot flourish in the ball winning midfielder role.

I've had great success with Aaron Ramsey in the MCR role, he's been one of my best players. Have even played Götze there a few times and he's done well too.

[Scully11]

Your right, they have too much defensive responsibility to flourish here and will likely not be upto the defensive side of the role anyway, requires a different type of midfielder for West Brom Yacob/Mulumbu were ideal, for Man City it was Fernadinho, Fernando and Toure. Natural DM's can be excellent in the 2 central roles.

As Feriboy2 suggested your flair players can prosper on the wings, Silva, Nasri, Navas for City, Sessegnon, Blanco, Brunt for West Brom.

Yeah i use tiote, anita and broccoli who is a youngster from my youth team im in 3rd season so hes pretty good. i retrained bigirimana and odegaard as mr and ml and they get a load of assists but not as many goals as the likes of salah because they dont have the pace. im looking at investing in a few physically strong players at the end of the season although im in february and im sitting comfortably in 4th position so if i can stay there i will have reached my season goal. Mitrovic as the af and ayoze as the cf are amazing ayoze has 29 goals so far and mitrovic is on 26 but it took him a couple of month to get firing. I was sad to have to offload sissoko although i got £19 mil for him from zenit but he just didnt have the defensive qualities for the bwm and didnt have the dribbling or agility needed for the wide midfield roles, also he wanted to leave so i wasnt going to stand in his way

[Walrus]

yeah positive pal, the staff filters show but not the players, dont worry about it, i just copied and saved the attributes Mr U put on the 2nd post, cheers pal

Ah sorry. I'm trying to get them on the Workshop now but it seems the hardest thing in the world to do!!!

[CBP87]

just completed my 4th season with Harrogate, finished 2nd in league 1 by one point, won league 2, conference and conference north in my previous seasons comfortably, tactic works fine, last season with my team made up of league 2/conference players i finished with 29 wins, 11 draws and 6 losses, scored 118 conceded 59, not happy about the amount i conceded but again down to player quality.

My AF finished with 42 goals and 29 assists, absolute beast just like this tactic

[Walrus]

Ah sorry. I'm trying to get them on the Workshop now but it seems the hardest thing in the world to do!!!

Ignore this post!

[fatlad86]

going to try now with my newly promoted bolton

[WillMcG99]

So i said i'd post an update -

2nd Season in L2, i signed a lot of players (14), which upset the harmony somewhat. However the season was OK, I finished in 12th, with 63 points the same as the year before, but this season was more consistent, rather than 50% awsome, 50% terrible!

In this last off season, i got 5 new loan players, and signed 2 other guys, and after 16 games i am top of the league, and looking pretty good. I'll update again at end of the season

[WillMcG99]

Just for reference, i just lost a game 8-7. This is ridiculous.

[WillMcG99]

Well I cant seem to post pictures for some reason (Why cant i use Gyazo like most normal websites?)]

However, as bed time has arrived my latest update:

with 6 games left (7 for me), I am in 2nd place, 1 point behind the leaders, 7 points above the playoffs. I will be gutted if auto promotion is not achievable now!

Some key stats for me:

Striker: Niall Phillips Played 37, Scored 26, Assists 16

MR: Heffernan Played 35, Scored 19, Assists 19

ML/CF: Chapman Played 22, Scored 17, Assists 15 (Shame he is so injury prone)

ML/BWMs: Haslet-Cregg: Played 38, Scored 8, Assists 13

All in all, incredible happy with the season, so thanks Mr R. a fantastic tactic that works even with weaker teams.

[gotlandskommun]

why dont the player filters works when trying to import them in game?

[Mr U Rosler]

why dont the player filters works when trying to import them in game?

Not sure, I didn't put them up.

[gotlandskommun]

should i chnge role for the complete striker if i want to have a target man? or just leave it as complete forwared?

[Mr U Rosler]

should i chnge role for the complete striker if i want to have a target man? or just leave it as complete forwared?

If you change the role to Target Man he will attract the ball and you might find your players going long a bit too often. I would leave it as Complete Forward but feel free to but a 'Target Man Type' in that role, he will still be very effective. An 'un-official' Target Man if you like.

[gotlandskommun]

oki thanks =) can this work in lowest league in england u think? thinking to do a dafuge challange =)

[Mr U Rosler]

oki thanks =) can this work in lowest league in england u think? thinking to do a dafuge challange =)

A few on here have gone well in lower leagues. I think CBP87 got 3 or 4 promotions in a row, think WillMcG99 struggled for a bit but got it going well in the end.

If you're good at team talks, morale management and squad building i think it would go well.

[gotlandskommun]

okey thanks for the help =)

[WillMcG99]

Yeh I am doing the same challenge (start with a newly promoted team in lowest league Vanarama South), just won the L2 title, hardest bits for me were getting out of Conf. South, then L2 proved a tough league too, but 3 seasons in I dominated.

I found in Conf South and Conf, physicality is the key, I just signed players who had good physical stats, even with crappy technicals they still dominated.

In League 2 I had to bring on board some players who could actually play football, but now I have. 40k wage budget, did some scouting abroad and got some solid foreign talent coming in!