Apex Predator V2 - Tuned for 15.3

[shirajzl]

Cant complain about coming 2nd, can complain about losing in the play offs even though i was far better over the season than the other teams.

Been offered some good jobs, including league jobs but determined to stay with WSM.

As mentioned in another post was offered the Margate job who are in my division, but where as i have £0 transfer budget and £4k wages, they have £1.5 million transfer budget and £150,000 wages!!!

Only 1 auto promotion spot down here so i'm gonna have to out perform a team with x40 my resources or its the lottery of the play offs again.......

What, you've been offered jobs in the 2nd season already? Even if you didn't even promote your team?

That's strange. I've never been offered a job in the first two season despite back-to-back promotions with Boston United.

What was your starting rep?

[Mr U Rosler]

What, you've been offered jobs in the 2nd season already? Even if you didn't even promote your team?

That's strange. I've never been offered a job in the first two season despite back-to-back promotions with Boston United.

What was your starting rep?

In third season now and are literally being offered every available job from League 1 down, i'm still in conference south. Just turned down the Oldham job in League 1.

[Mr U Rosler]

What, you've been offered jobs in the 2nd season already? Even if you didn't even promote your team?

That's strange. I've never been offered a job in the first two season despite back-to-back promotions with Boston United.

What was your starting rep?

In third season now and are literally being offered every available job from League 1 down, i'm still in conference south. Just turned down the Oldham job in League 1.

As i'm playing classic you dont choose a starting rep.

[shirajzl]

As i'm playing classic you dont choose a starting rep.

Yes, you do, you just don't do points allocation. I'm playing FMC as well. I always start with Sunday League rep, maybe you picked something higher without realizing.

[MTM1977]

Is this suitable for underdogs also?

I will probably once again start my career as unemployed, so my first team will probably be in the category "i took the job, because no one else wanted it"

I should get the game today or tomorrow... Will be very interested to test how this tactic goes with the unemployed start.

[Mr U Rosler]

Is this suitable for underdogs also?

I will probably once again start my career as unemployed, so my first team will probably be in the category "i took the job, because no one else wanted it"

I should get the game today or tomorrow... Will be very interested to test how this tactic goes with the unemployed start.

Even unemployed i doubt you end up anywhere worse than Weston Super Mare. Despite not yet being promoted i've over performed predicted 20th, finished 10th then predicted 16th finished 2nd,

You should be fine.

[MTM1977]

Even unemployed i doubt you end up anywhere worse than Weston Super Mare. Despite not yet being promoted i've over performed predicted 20th, finished 10th then predicted 16th finished 2nd,

You should be fine.

Excellent! Exactly what i wanted to hear

Have i understood correctly that this tactic is for every game? No changes for home/away or for example if you are chasing a goal late in the game?

[Mr U Rosler]

Excellent! Exactly what i wanted to hear

Have i understood correctly that this tactic is for every game? No changes for home/away or for example if you are chasing a goal late in the game?

I play it 'as is' but it depends on your play style.

Some people go 'counter' away from home, i dont and my away form has been very good the last season and a half.

If anything we could do with a version to close out games, thinking about that at the moment.

[MTM1977]

I play it 'as is' but it depends on your play style.

Some people go 'counter' away from home, i dont and my away form has been very good the last season and a half.

If anything we could do with a version to close out games, thinking about that at the moment.

I have usually had slightly different tactic for away matches, so probably will need to think about that. As i have not played the game yet, my understandings are based on what i have read/heard.

So, if i understand correctly, home advantage now plays a bigger part than before? So, having a separate away tactic could be worth it...

I need to get the game so i can see for myself Sadly it didn't arrive today, but it will tomorrow then.

[Mr U Rosler]

PLAYING THE LONG GAME

No i don't mean kicking it long, i mean taking a view beyond the season you're currently in.

Ok, here i am facing my third season in Conference South. Finished 2nd last season well clear of 3rd place but got beat in the lottery of the play offs.

Having been offered the Margate job and turned it down i am aware they have a ridiculous wage budget and transfer kitty, they've just spent £500,000 on a defender which is crazy money non-league

Reality check, there's only 1 auto promotion spot and its pretty unlikely i can get it myself this year with the mighty Margate now in the Division throwing money around.

My squad is barely improved upon the one i started with, my best defender is still Clayton Fortune and my goal keeper is rate 1 star worse than my original GK who would not re-sign a contract with me.

Looking at who available to strenghten the squad, there are some players equal to my first team but none better who would come to me, i cannot get a good Gk or Centre Back for love nor money.

However i noticed last year, around November/December a whole host of far higher quality players suddenly appeared in my scouting list as interested in coming to join me at WSM.

Essentially i think that a load of players who have been without a club since last July became desperate enough to consider joining a smaller team.

I had enough salary budget to sign 1 good player, however i only signed him for the rest of that season and even he thought he could do a lot better than WSM when i offered him a new deal in June and refused to re-sign. When he was desperate WSM were fine, now he thinks he can do better.

So we have dynamic reputation system.

The 2 year plan.

First half of this season manage on a minimal squad of 16 players + reserves until December/January keeping 1/3 of my wage budget in reserve.

This essentially means giving up on the 1 auto promotion spot, i think i can still firmly be in the play-offs though.

Come December/January when a batch of higher quality players become available FINALLY add some real quality to the team.

The KEY here is to get them on 18 month contracts not 6 months or they'll leave you at the end of that season and you'll be back to square one again.

So Season 1, have go at the play offs with a newly strengthened squad, if we get promoted great.

If not, Season 2 our squad is so strong when combined with this tactic no one can stop us winning the League.

I only do 20 year saves in which I like to go from non-league to winning the Premier League & Champions League, if i get promoted next year i will have spent 4 seasons in Conference South which does not bode well especially when you consider there is only 1 auto promotion spot in the Conference.

However, i believe when we go up we will have a squad capable of competing from day 1 in the Conference, play offs year 1, auto promotion year 2 which gets us into the League proper with 3 Automatic promotion spots in League 2 and League 1 we should kick on arrive in the Premier league season 11 or 12 which gives us a good 8 seasons to go for the title.

Lots of if, buts and maybe's here but at least its a plan.

Well, it January now, lets see who wants to come to Weston Super Mare.

New Centre Back - Not brilliant but look how rubbish my other 2 are! Will keep looking for someone else.

New Central Midfielder - A full 1 & half stars better than Nathan Waters whose role he'll be taking

Another new Central Midfielder who is a full 2 stars better than Reece Prestedge whose place in the team he's taking.

Jermaine Easter, 1 & half stars better than the striker he's replacing.

NONE OF THESE PLAYERS WOULD EVEN THINK ABOUT JOINING ME IN AUGUST

So i'm gonna take my improved team and see what we can do, leaders probably a bit to far ahead but play offs are looking good and were going to be in much better shape going into next season.

[widowmaker-]

First half of the season was a struggle with the away games a little.

After pulling me hair out I decided to give V1 a go in away games.......

As you can see the results are fantastic!!! Both home and away im in control and winning games. At one stage i was 12/14 points behind Chelsea but with one game to go im just the single point and on a 18 game winning streak.

[englandmanager]

my not being able to really imrpove the team since Division 3 is really showing now in my results, currently 15th in Bundesliga 1 place above relegation play-off

the good news is if i do manage to survive i get atleast £20million in prize money, which should lead to a slightly larger wage budget, not too bother about transfer budget atm as i can sign a fair few free agents that should be alot better

gonna be tough, counter is no longer working away, control at home is having mixed results, obviously Bayern and Dortmund are just making me look silly at times

[ZeroBantam1]

OK - started using this last night in my career save where I'm currently Newcastle. After having mixed success with V1.....still getting similar results except I'm getting hammered away from home at the big teams lost 7-2 away at Man City and lost 6-3 away at Arsenal. I've not tried the "counter" option away from home but I'm thinking i may need to either tweak this tactic and have a true DM in there or use a different tactic when I'm away at the big boys. Oh and I have Bayern Munich in the Champions League :0(

[Jor-el321]

In fairness mate, you haven't played any of the big boys away from home in your streak...still very impressive though, hope you catch Chelsea.

[Stevow]

I rarely post but felt compelled after finishing my first season with V2. I'd previously taken Mirandela form the 3rd tear of Portugal to the Primeira League with V1.

I got the Inter job in 2017/2018, with them having finished 6th the year before. The squad was quite good, but had only 1 recognised winger, Mohamed Salah + I was given £55M to spend and also recouped over £7M on players sales.

I bought Uros Spajic as the defence lacked pace. Pablo Sarabia & Lucas Moura for the wings (who were both on the transfer list and cost less than £10M for both) and Erik Lamela who I splashed the most money on, £27.5M as he could play wide or as the DLP.

The season was amazing, I won Serie A by 14 points & didn't lose a league game all season: W31 D7 L0. Leading golascorers Mauro Icardi 36, Erik Lamela 19, Jesé 18, Manolo Gabbiadini 16, Mohamed Salah 14, Nemanja Matic 13 (nearly all from lay offs from corners). Notable mention goes to Lucas Moura's 20 assists from 25 appearances playing right wing.

This was achieved simply by playing with V2 at home but going with Counter in difficult away games.

The only disappointment was getting knocked out of the EURO Cup by Club Brugge on away goals (I foolishly went too defensive in the away leg) and loosing in extra-time to Juventus in the Copa Italia (I didn't manage to beat Juventus at all that season)

AMAZING TACTIC! I'm now going to give it a sterner test! May even go back to Mirandela

[Dyvim Tvar]

Haven't had much joy with 2015 so far, so decided to give a downloaded tactic a whirl, also since I wasn't having much luck or fun with my beloved Arsenal I figured starting unemployed might be worth a go. I enjoyed your tactics for 2014 Mr. Rosler so this thread was my first port of call.

Ended up employed by Vise in the Belgian Third Division B. Predicted to be relegated, and set the goal by the board of just avoiding the automatic relegation spot.

It's been a pretty rocky ride:

but ultimately the outcome isn't something I would turn my nose up at:

Never actually played classic mode before, so I don't know if bringing in ten new players (all but three of which were pretty much regular starters for the whole season) really had any effect on the up and down nature of things. I know it would have done in full fat mode, but honestly my knowledge of classic is negligible at best.

Team still isn't exactly great, as you would expect from part-timers, but some of the performances were pretty nice to watch. And honestly more than a few of those defeats and draws were just really bad luck. For example at the start of the competitive season I had a run of five games with an injury a game, then went one game without any before having two players injured in the next, the upshot of which being I spent pretty much the first half of the season with a makeshift team most of the time. I also got a more than a handful (ten if my count is right) pretty unfortunate goals against me (dubious penalties and insane flukes etc.), each of which decided results of games.

Of course I got a few dubious and flukey goals of my own, so I'm not going to grumble about that. I also noticed that injuries were rife all across the league so at least it wasn't just me suffering (seriously, I lost track of the amount of games that saw two to three of my opponents players go off injured).

My DLF managed a solid return of 20 goals and 8 assists (to be fair this is skewed because he had to play more than a few games in the more advanced role due to injuries) in 28 league games. The AF didn't fare quite as well with 12 goals and 5 assists in 20 games (injuries hampered him quite a bit I think). The rest of the squad chipped in nicely with goals as well, which is something I always quite like to see.

I messed around with switching to counter in away games, but honestly that never made much of a difference (my heaviest losses came with that strategy in fact) so eventually I just gave up on that and let control do it's thing.

All in all I'm pretty happy with how things turned out. Sure I never got a storming run together but this kind of finish for a team like Vise is still pretty damn good.

[MattP100]

I rarely post but feel as if I should share my experience on FMC...

I used the previous version of the tactic with Southampton in season 1, we finished 2nd.

For season 2 I've used v2, to be fair it feels like we've struggled a bit (by struggled, I qualified in the Champions League Group, finishing 2nd to Bayern and above AC Milan and am in the breakaway group for Premiership - Saints, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U and Arsenal all separated by 3 points). Goals don't seem so freely flowing and I'm nicking games 1-0 or 2-1. This might come down to having the wrong players in the DLP and DLF roles, or the demands of Champions League etc.

After being beaten 5-3 away to Man Utd, I changed back to the previous version for the next match against Arsenal away. I won 5-4. I kept the previous version for the following match, Boxing Day at home to Liverpool and won 9-0.I then beat QPR 4-0 in the cup and Burnley 5-0.

So I guess my conclusion is that it really is horses for courses and that the right player make a huge difference. Obvious really.

[sinovim]

so finally this tactic is working well.

i finished one full season with just 3 losses, won the league, league cup and FA cup easily.

The only shocking result was my second leg quarter final champions league versus Atletico Madrid. I won the first leg 2-0 (missed a penalty too) and lost the return 6-3 and got knocked out!

The only minor issue with this tactic (if it can even be considered an issue) is that I score way too many goals from corners. Corner is taken short, my winger crosses it nicely to my central defender in the 6 yard box or passes it to my Box to Box Midfielder and he buries it.

[sinovim]

I rarely post but feel as if I should share my experience on FMC...

I used the previous version of the tactic with Southampton in season 1, we finished 2nd.

For season 2 I've used v2, to be fair it feels like we've struggled a bit (by struggled, I qualified in the Champions League Group, finishing 2nd to Bayern and above AC Milan and am in the breakaway group for Premiership - Saints, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U and Arsenal all separated by 3 points). Goals don't seem so freely flowing and I'm nicking games 1-0 or 2-1. This might come down to having the wrong players in the DLP and DLF roles, or the demands of Champions League etc.

After being beaten 5-3 away to Man Utd, I changed back to the previous version for the next match against Arsenal away. I won 5-4. I kept the previous version for the following match, Boxing Day at home to Liverpool and won 9-0.I then beat QPR 4-0 in the cup and Burnley 5-0.

So I guess my conclusion is that it really is horses for courses and that the right player make a huge difference. Obvious really.

right players really do make a difference.

It is best if you take youngsters and you train them to fit this tactic. Once they slot in, your team is unbeatable.

[MTM1977]

Finally got the game, so i will be starting my game tonight

Reading this thread has given me the impression that it could be smart to use either counter or the older version of tactic on away matches...

At least on the difficult ones.

So, i will probably start it with the following:

-Use this tactic as the home tactic

-Use counter version of this tactic as the away tactic

-Maybe put the older version in to tactics also, so it is fluid just in case.

Will see how that goes with an unemployed start

edit:

What i really like about this tactic (without testing it yet) that the formation is standard stuff.

Should make it easier to find decent players, no matter what level the team is.

[englandmanager]

finished 13th in my 1st season in the Bundesliga with Kaiserslautern which was a tremendous achievement as we were heavy favourites to go down, i've now earned £20 million in prize money, my balance has gone from £1,363,000 to £21,363,000

so next season i can really imrpve the team and aim for Euro Cup, although i will be telling the board midtable!

[Mr U Rosler]

finished 13th in my 1st season in the Bundesliga with Kaiserslautern which was a tremendous achievement as we were heavy favourites to go down, i've now earned £20 million in prize money, my balance has gone from £1,363,000 to £21,363,000

so next season i can really imrpve the team and aim for Euro Cup, although i will be telling the board midtable!

Good job

Meanwhile, i'm still pissin about in Conference South...... Grrrrrr

[shirajzl]

Good job

Meanwhile, i'm still pissin about in Conference South...... Grrrrrr

Don't mean to sound offensive, but...

I'm afraid it could be that the tactic isn't really as good as regarded, not for such circumstances, at least. You know better than I do that if you can't get out of Conference South/North in 1 or 2, max 3 seasons then it's a tactical issue. The tactic is what gets you out of those leagues, not players.

[Mr U Rosler]

Don't mean to sound offensive, but...

I'm afraid it could be that the tactic isn't really as good as regarded, not for such circumstances, at least. You know better than I do that if you can't get out of Conference South/North in 1 or 2, max 3 seasons then it's a tactical issue. The tactic is what gets you out of those leagues, not players.

To be fair i took one of the weakest teams and i think player quality still matters a lot.

Finished 2nd behind Margate last season, i checked out the team they fielded against me and they had Championship Rated Players & Leading Stars for League 1, worst player they had was rated good for League 2. They topped a 100 points, not much i can do about that.

You're probably right in that the tactic is not optimal for non-league, but suspect it will be more effective the higher up the league's we go.

Twice i had a points tally high in the 80's and came 2nd, that would often be enough to win the league.

So as ever, circumstances can conspire against you and things are never simply black or white.

In terms of how the tactic is regarded, some regard it highly, some don't. No skin off my nose either way, i simply play around until i find something i like and put it out there.

I don't make bold claims, i just test and report..... even when things aren't going well

[shirajzl]

To be fair i took one of the weakest teams and i think player quality still matters a lot.

Finished 2nd behind Margate last season, i checked out the team they fielded against me and they had Championship Rated Players & Leading Stars for League 1, worst player they had was rated good for League 2. They topped a 100 points, not much i can do about that.

You're probably right in that the tactic is not optimal for non-league, but suspect it will be more effective the higher up the league's we go.

Twice i had a points tally high in the 80's and came 2nd, that would often be enough to win the league.

So as ever, circumstances can conspire against you and things are never simply black or white.

In terms of how the tactic is regarded, some regard it highly, some don't. No skin off my nose either way, i simply play around until i find something i like and put it out there.

I don't make bold claims, i just test and report..... even when things aren't going well

Fair enough.

[englandmanager]

so after buying 5 decent bundesliga players for a total of 14 million (my budget for the season, it was 10 million but due to being already an icon at Kaiserslautern down to 2 league titles and the quarter finals of the german cup i managed to convince them)

£350,000 wage budget up from 210,000 has made a huge difference

Played 13 won 7 drawn 4 lost 2

4th position coming upto half way!!!

although i will say Counter is not really working for me away now, too much player quality i think

[dansloman1]

Enjoying using this tactic. Having similar problems with away games but do pick up the odd win and draw. Am finding my best away results come using version 2.

Does anyone have any particular players who have flourished in the system? mainly strikers for both roles? My current strikers have been decent for my sheffield wednesday team (performing above expectations in the prem), but none of them are looking to hit more than 20 for the season. One player I would reccommend is a left back called Baba Rahman. He's averaging something like 8.50 in this formation.

[englandmanager]

i've got a 31 year old called Boubabcar Barry on right wing that is a beast in this formation

it's the year 2026/27 so not sure if he is a newgen or a very young prospect from 2015

[danny_123]

seems to be working well for me, as for away games it can be hit or miss but im hartlepool and the lack of money and players wanting to leave into the prem all the time is the biggest issue, thanks to one guy turning down his contract at arsenal then blaming me for not letting him go my full team seem to hate me which has lead to a couple of big losses and 10 games without a win, but before that i was in the play offs with a average hartlepool team

[MTM1977]

Ok, i have got my "journeyman career" going.

First of all, it seems Mr U Rosler has created yet another solid tactic, thank you

I setup my game so, that i have quite a large database (around 90 leagues and 152k players).

I started unemployed, with semi-professional reputation, created a fictional character who is an Italian man, who had a promising start as a footballer, but injuries killed his career.

So, he decided to continue his career as a manager.

Getting first job is not always easy and you have to take what you get. So, when he got job offer from Witbank Spurs (South Africa, National First Division), he was more than happy to take it.

I have used following tactics:

Home matches, Apex Predator V2

Away matches, Apex Predator V2 with counter or old version of Apex Predator, depening on the opposition.

This is still early in the season, but here is what the results look so far:

edit:

I have handled team talks and training pretty much the same way i did in FM14. Seems to be working ok so far.

edit2:

Board expects a midtable finish.

Media prediction is 14th.

[sinovim]

my second season using this version and the tactic absolutely rocks.

I go a full season with like 1 defeat (including cup and champions league)

mind you I have world class players at Arsenal and I have taken 4 seasons to mold lots of my players and youngsters to fit this tactic

[scottyboylad]

This is a great tactic and has seen me through the Unemployment Challenge a lot quicker than I had thought. Plugged into Grimsby and got Auto Promotion, then promotion from League 2 with Crawley and League 1 with Plymouth in successive season. Currently with Norwich and jumped from 16th to 5th and using a fair few players out of position to make it work (Ravel Morrison is bossing it as the DLF!).

Just one note though - I have had to remove 'Get Stuck In' from the tactic permanently. I had a crazy game where I had 3 sending offs and 8 yellow cards! I was fined by the FA after the game for being unable to control my players. I did manage to hang on for a 2-0 win though despite not having a full compliment of players for 30 minutes so that is the upside of this tactic! I thought this was just a one-off but have since had players sent off in 3 other games throughout the season (making 6 in total for the season) and a bunch of suspensions for accumulation of yellow cards for my defence and central midfielders. Since taking 'Get Stuck In' off my players have been much better behaved on the pitch!

Cheers for the tactic Mr U Rosler, it's a great piece of work

[Mr U Rosler]

This is a great tactic and has seen me through the Unemployment Challenge a lot quicker than I had thought. Plugged into Grimsby and got Auto Promotion, then promotion from League 2 with Crawley and League 1 with Plymouth in successive season. Currently with Norwich and jumped from 16th to 5th and using a fair few players out of position to make it work (Ravel Morrison is bossing it as the DLF!).

Just one note though - I have had to remove 'Get Stuck In' from the tactic permanently. I had a crazy game where I had 3 sending offs and 8 yellow cards! I was fined by the FA after the game for being unable to control my players. I did manage to hang on for a 2-0 win though despite not having a full compliment of players for 30 minutes so that is the upside of this tactic! I thought this was just a one-off but have since had players sent off in 3 other games throughout the season (making 6 in total for the season) and a bunch of suspensions for accumulation of yellow cards for my defence and central midfielders. Since taking 'Get Stuck In' off my players have been much better behaved on the pitch!

Cheers for the tactic Mr U Rosler, it's a great piece of work

Thanks for the comments.

Picked up a few Reds myself, although never more than 1 in a game.

Any downsides to removing 'get stuck in' that stand out?

[widowmaker-]

Second season and WOW. I use the V2 at home and V1 away. Nothing else great work

[gredawarha1979]

Okay some feedback for @MrRosler and everyone else, any negatives comments are meant as constructive feedback not a whinge.

Quick overview of this save, finished first season in 2nd in The Championship and gained automatic promotion, finished 8th, 10th and 8th int he following three seasons in the Premier League. I was happy with those positions if not amazed. Toward the end of last season the game updated to the 15.3 and the tactic did not work as well but I carried on. I was pleased when Mr Rosler released the latest tactic so plugged it in and began building for 2018-2019.

Just completed season 2018/2019 with Leeds United and overall I have really struggled. Ended up finishing 14th (predicted 9th) in the league and at the board meeting at the end of the season my previous good work at the club is all that kept me from getting the sack.

We started with some very hard games and I hoped that we would pick up but we never really did. My anecdotal assessment is that we simply let in way too many goals. In so many games it either felt like we conceded early and then struggled to get back into the game or we took the lead only to let victory slip by then of the match.

Looking at the final results we netted 58 goals with only 5 other teams getting more. 28 from Saido Berahino who won the golden boot whilst this is good our next highest scorer was Sergio Canales with 5, Francis Coquelin with 5 and Ayoub Abou also with 5. I don't think I chose my wide players well and after Christmas I began to retrain Abou and Luka Jovic as LM and RM. I am hoping that once they are fully trained they will perform and with a years extra experience they could do well. They certainly have the pace, balance, dribbling and finishing to suit the tactic.

At the back we where awful. I have been regularly checking the team stats where my team where consistently in the bottom 4 teams for conceding. Millwall had a torrid time and Reading fell away toward the end but we were not much better.

Some screen shots to follow interested to see if anyone has any thoughts about how my team has performed or any comments in general really.

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[Mr U Rosler]

Thanks for the post Gredawarha,

I must admit i'm dissatisfied with the tactic in the lower leagues. Put some good runs together but too inconsistant.

Think i've stumbled onto something which improves the tactic a lot lower down and seems to work in the Premier League as well.

Will keep testing and post up if it continues to go well.

[gredawarha1979]

Good to know that you are working on it. Appreciate all your hard work.

Are you thinking of moving away from the 442?

[Mr U Rosler]

No still same 442 and roles but i've found away to change to a 'counter' mentality, remove 'retain possession' and 'work ball into box' add 'pass into space' yet still win the possession battle and not invite pressure outside my own area.

I'm half a season in with Weston Super Mare and are comfortably winning the league and are literally creating double the chances i was before.

I've run it 20 games in the Prem with City and its as good as the original with the potential to scale better with mid/lower teams.

Its much more enjoyable to watch to my eyes at least, much more direct.

I'll finish the season with WSM and if all looks good i'll add it to the thread.

[afailed10]

Wonderful tactic. Thanks for making FM15 fun for me, finally.

Actually, i use it more like a template. I tweak a few settings sometimes unless the team scores early and shows clear dominance.

I am having a blast training players new positions and new ppms and it's so pleasant to see their virtues come true on this ME.

For instance, shoots from distance ppm, which was broken on previous editions, it's now working for me beautifully. I bought this kid Andrija Zivkovic, and he has become a monster on my Heerenveen side, playing as right widemid and cutting inside with his left foot. He also has the ppm place shots, and this combination has been explosive. Scoring screamers from 30 and 40m out on a consistent basis.

Bought him for 5M, scored 14 goals on his first season at 18 y old and assisted 24 times for goal. 10 times PoM. Wonderful little player, already world class.

Crisetig has also been great on his first season here (my 2nd) as boxtobox, recommended.

I'm just having some problems with the DLS to be as effective as the other roles. I know he is more like a passer in this system, but with the wingers overloading the middle and against teams that keep 1 or 2 def mids, which happens often in Holland, he often finds himself surrounded by a sea of enemies. I've adapted Van Ginkel to this role and he is class, but still loses the ball far too many times. His dribbling his relatively low so that could be the reason. I've bought Fierro as alternative to that role and some games he goes by unnoticed.

Might try some tweaks with that role in the next games and will report back if i find any improvement.

About the tactic, as it was expected, you invite a lot of space in the middle, so i found a fast midfield pairing to help greatly covering the holes. Inverted foot also works better on the wings and probably a right footed DLF would be preferred too.

As you invite lots of long shots, a top shot stopper keeper would be great. I bought Krul on my second season and i only conceaded 1 goal against 28 scored.

New season results, after selling my core midfield for 100Million. Lucas Romero and Lucas Silva. And first time in Europe.

[afailed10]

No still same 442 and roles but i've found away to change to a 'counter' mentality, remove 'retain possession' and 'work ball into box' add 'pass into space' yet still win the possession battle and not invite pressure outside my own area.

I'm half a season in with Weston Super Mare and are comfortably winning the league and are literally creating double the chances i was before.

I've run it 20 games in the Prem with City and its as good as the original with the potential to scale better with mid/lower teams.

Its much more enjoyable to watch to my eyes at least, much more direct.

I'll finish the season with WSM and if all looks good i'll add it to the thread.

I have been using counter and removing play narrower and even sometimes adding play direct and pass into space, with great effect. I do this when a tough team starts opening up, like when I'm leading by one goal against Ajax or PSV\Feyenoord.

Also just untick play narrower against teams with wingers that don't track back, that way i can use more width to exploit. It really depends where the space is, sometimes it's between their midfield and defence, and that way the high tempo and exploit the middle is great. But when they sit low with 1 or 2 defensive mids, I change to counter, might tick push higher up so I don't sit too low.

It really depends imo. For example, against a 442 diamond i found Counter with default tempo to work better. Because you have more space in the middle and you give your players more time to think with lower tempo. With the default tactic you would just overload the area they want you to overload and result in few CCC.

[Walrus]

Anyone had problems with the new update? I was flying and now have had a few results go against me. Not sure if it's just that point of a drop in form or the new update.

[Mr U Rosler]

***** TACTIC UPDATE *****

OK, as mentioned above i wasn't happy with the tactic in my Weston Super Mare save, it had taken me 5 seasons to get out of Conference South (although i lost in playoffs 3 times) and following my promotion i had run 2 seasons in Conference and the best i had managed was 6th, although this was well above media expectations, its not good enough for me.

I had a think about the style of football i was asking my players to play, a quick, possession based game prioritising ball retention and patient probing attacks, this requires technical, creative players and intelligent movement..... a big ask for my non league heroes...... time for a re-think.

I was happy with the 442 and player roles, my dream was a high tempo, fairly direct, counter attacking 442.

I wanted rid of 'retain possession' and 'work ball into box', they are not compliant with my ambitions for this tactic, i wanted 'pass into space' as this compliments a counter attacking system.

It nearly worked, in testing we scored lots of great goals but were defending on the edge of our box and conceded too many, we were also on the wrong end of possession 40-60 in some games, you just can't get away with that in FM15.

I was desperate not to put 'retain possession' back on and tried to think of a way to solve the dual problem of winning the possession battle and not conceding ground, i remembered reading about Arrigo Sacchi at Milan who employed a high press and a very compact shape drilling his team to ensure that when they lose possession there was never more than 5m between the front of the team and the back......... so a high press and a compact shape...... surely it couldn't be that simple....

This is easily achieved by adding 'much higher defensive line' to team instructions, were already playing narrow we should be a very compact unit and difficult to breakdown and we should also win a lot of ball in our opponents half.... 'win ball in opponents half, 1 pass, 1 run and shoot'... i liked the sound of that.

However, were employing a high-press and we're not prioritising ball retention, i thought we would get hammered on the counter attack with balls over the top as soon as we lose possession..... turns out that could not be further from the truth.

The compact shape with Defenders and Midfielders in close proximity ensured they had multiple, simple passing options & solved the possession problem, we're winning that battle marginally 53-47 is typical but its enough to turn the tide in our favour.

For whatever reason we are not vulnerable defensively, i think its basically a Counter - Counter system, when we lose the ball there are always players nearby, shutting down passing options, forcing a stray pass which we pick up and put someone in.

Its high energy, high tempo, direct and very refreshing to watch after the dominance of Tiki-Taka tactics.

We murdered the League (Media Prediction 9th).

Also picked up the FA Trophy.

Plenty of goals and conceding less than 1 goal a game with none league defenders is good.

Home and Away records..... not much in it, both excellent.

New team instructions

I'd recommend it for Non League/Lower Leagues for sure.

I ran 20 games with Man City and it was excellent, think it could work well for lower/mid table Premier League teams.

Player roles/attributes still valid, you may now consider a Target Man (type) for the DLF to take advantage of the more direct play.

Anyway here you go....

Apex Predator - Nemesis

https://www.mediafire.com/?n4nan6g6ook14i6

[shirajzl]

Looks much better.

Have you done the "obligatory" lower PL team test?

[Mr U Rosler]

Looks much better.

Have you done the "obligatory" lower PL team test?

Nope, too engrossed in my WSM save.

Its designed for lower/non-league teams, i have a feeling it would go well with lower PL Teams, if it does its a bonus as its main job is to get me through the leagues quickly.

[gredawarha1979]

Thanks Mr Rosler. Will plug this into the Mighty Leeds save and see how we go.

[MTM1977]

Nice, i will replace the old Apex on my team and test the new one.

I am currently using tactics from two different sets (=two different creators) with quite a lot of different instructions etc., so i should hopefully get the new one fluid soon.

[Praha06]

Im with Arsenal and doing very very well with V2 for home and away. Should i stick with that for now on the "if its not broke don't fix it" basis?

[Mr U Rosler]

Im with Arsenal and doing very very well with V2 for home and away. Should i stick with that for now on the "if its not broke don't fix it" basis?

Nothing wrong with v2, especially if you have technical players. No reason to change

[gredawarha1979]

First game of the season tough one against Chelsea, lost 3-1 but no surprise there. What was surprising was afterward the board asked for a meeting and I got sacked! :-(

[Praha06]

Nothing wrong with v2, especially if you have technical players. No reason to change

Yeh thought as much. If i find myself getting on the wrong end of a doing away at the likes of Barca, Real etc is there a more defensive option? Saw someone mentioning they use a more counter version earlier in the thread.