[FM 23.2.0] • • • MiNiMaL_FuSS - FuSStive Spirit 3.0 || 4-1-2-2-1 • • •

[FuSS]

FuSStive Spirit (getting in the world cup mood!)

 

News

• Version 3.0.

Changes

• I didn't like some of the changes to V2, so have gone back on a few of them (sorry!)
• DCs close down less.
• DLP dropped to defensive.
• Team mentality dropped to positive.
• These changes put together mean the tactics now uses a "structured" formation - this is working much better and is easily to see with the eye-test.

Synopsis

• As always with my tactics I'm aiming for football which is successful, easy on the eye, and uses a common formation.
• This tactic isn't plug and play, it'll out perform anything that is if you put some effort in though! It's almost like the games want you to "manage" your football club, outrageous I know!
• It takes me roughly 100hrs to play one season, so this is just my personal tactic, I don't have the time to produce something for everyone this year I'm afraid.

Mentality

• I'm mostly using Positive.
• I'll drop to standard if I'm against a top top side.

Team Talks

• Do them yourself, even the best Assistant Managers seem very poor at them.
  • Be harsh! Ask yourself what the stereotypical Sir Alex Ferguson would have done.
    • Before I match: I usually expect a result, followed by individually Calmly telling them "I have faith" only if they haven't responded positively already.
    • At half time: If most of my team have below 7 performance I will Aggressively tell them it's "not good enough", those that don't respond to that (or respond badly) I will individually tell they were "not good enough" Calmly.
    • At half time:  If my team are performing well I'll use the Calm "don't get complacent" option, those that don't respond to that (or respond badly) I will individually tell they were "not good enough" Calmly.

Opposition Instructions

• I only use them to resolve problems.
  • For example: This tactic has a weakness for route one play (fortunately very few teams play football this way).
    • If I started the game and it became clear that they were going to try to put balls over the top then I would then use the OI’s to stem their supply.
    • I'd set their creative midfield players and/or fullbacks to be closed down, marked tightly, and shown onto their weaker foot.
    • Problem solved.

Team Selection

• Do it yourself.

Pre-Season

• I think pre-season is super important.
  • I set everyone on double training and continue it for the full season.
  • I book a match every third day and rotate a completely different 11 each match in order to give them sufficient rest time.
  • I usually start the season with a entirely fit team and complete tactical familiarity.

Condition

• Think of a players condition as the peak percentage of the players ability that you're going to get on the pitch.
• A player with slightly worse stats at 100% condition/match-fitness is going to give you more than a player with better stats at 80% condition/match-fitness.
• Do not play tired/jaded/non-sharp players in important games, you're literally getting less of the player.

Rotation, Rotation, Rotation

• I follow the famous advice of Jose Mourinho here. 
• Aim to have two experts for every position - ideally a first team squad of 22 players.
• Personally I setup and save Team A and Team B and rotate them every single match - this guarantees player condition and keeps everyone happy with their playing time.
• If someone doesn't like it, I sell them, nobody is bigger than the club.

Shouts

• Shouts are awesome once again - they are akin to a boost button.

Players

• CF – Deep Lying Forward (Attack)
  • Type of player: You need an intelligent and speedy striker here (I've not had much testing time, so this position has been designed around Pukki at Norwich)
  • Best stats: Finishing, Composure, Physical 
  • Good PPMs: "Likes To Beat Offside Trap", "Placed Shots"
  • Note 1: Norwich don't have access to a complete forward, if you do have a top notch CF kicking around, that may work too.
     
• AML/R - Inside Forwards (Attack)
  • Type of player: A traditional inside forward (think: Salah or Sterling).
  • Best stats: Dribbling, Acceleration, Finishing.
  • Good PPMs: "Cuts Inside", "Runs with Ball Often".
  • Note 1: SHOULD USE OPPOSITE FOOT.
  • Note 2: I've found strikers can play well here.
     
• MCL - Box-to-Box Midfielder (Support)
  • Type of player: Your midfield dynamo. A good box-to-box player is hard to find, but they act like having a 12th man on the pitch.
  • Best stats: Needs decent stats across the board.
  • Good PPMs: "plays one-twos"
     
• MCR - Central Midfielder (Attack)
  • Type of player: This is where you use your typical AMC superstar.
  • Best stats: Anticipation, Decisions, and mental stats rule the roost here.
  • Good PPMs: "Shoots from Distance"
     
• DMC – Deep Lying Playmaker (Support)
  • Type of player: You're actually after a competent DMC first and foremost, if he can also pass and create then that's a great bonus.
  • Best stats: Tackling, Positioning, Anticipation.
  • Note 1: This position is important, there's lots of good value DLP's out there, buy one if you don't own one.
     
• FB – Full Back (Support)
  • Type of player: The most important position in this tactic, you're asking a lot of your full-backs, they need to be great defensively, fast, dribble and cross (think: Trent or Trippier).
  • Best stats: Marking, Tackling, Crossing, Dribbling, Acceleration.
  • Good PPMs: "Runs With Ball Down The X".
  • Note 1: This is the most important position in your team - get good players here, this is where to splash that cash!
     
• CB – Ball Playing Defenders (Defend)
  • Type of player: Heading, Jumping and Positioning are vital as this tactic uses a high defensive line, so you'll need to win the ball in the air.
  • Best stats: Heading, Jumping, Marking, Tackling, Positioning.
  • Good PPMs: "Does Not Dive Into Tackles"
  • Note 1: This tactic uses a high-defensive line, that means you want your defenders to win the ball "in the air", there's a common misconception that acceleration is key, it certainly isn't bad, but you can be the faster player in the world, if you're facing the opposite direction from the attacker, you'll still lose the race.
     
• SK - Sweeper Keeper (Defender)
  • Type of player: Just the best keeper you can get hold of.
  • Best stats: Handling, Reflexes, Arial Reach.

Download

 

FuSStive Spirit 3.0.fmf

 

Edited December 21, 2022 by FuSS

[FuSS]

Norwich - Season 1:

 

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by FuSS

[FuSS]

It's usually a good sign when your under 21's and under 18's are also smashing it all by themselves using your tactic:

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by FuSS

[FuSS]

Some results:

Yes, we did win the Carabao Cup from the championship  Europe here we come!

 

Edited December 19, 2022 by FuSS

[Augustin1979]

Shouts: - "Get creative": which shout exactly is this?

[Gorando]

22 hours ago, FuSS said:

• 'm having a lot of success using in-swinging corners.
• This means you want a left footed player to take the left corners and a right footed played to take the right corners.

I believe in-swinging means left foot on right corner and vice versa

[FuSS]

2 hours ago, Gorando said:

I believe in-swinging means left foot on right corner and vice versa

You are correct, I meant outswinging! Will fix now.

[FuSS]

5 hours ago, Augustin1979 said:

Shouts: - "Get creative": which shout exactly is this?

I hadn;t updated from FM21, it's easy for you to work out though. They've changed the wording, not the use or effect.

Edited November 18, 2022 by FuSS

[burnum]

@FuSSWhen playing with a high defensive line, wouldn't it make sense to use a sweeper keeper who could rush out and collect some of those over-the-top balls you're going to face with a high DL? What's your thought process in favour of a 'normal' GK?

[FuSS]

52 minutes ago, burnum said:

@FuSSWhen playing with a high defensive line, wouldn't it make sense to use a sweeper keeper who could rush out and collect some of those over-the-top balls you're going to face with a high DL? What's your thought process in favour of a 'normal' GK?

Balls over the top are pretty rare, neartly every modern team plays out from the back, so I wouldn't worry about it unduely. I'm half way through a season and there's been two route one goals against me, annoying to watch yes, but not worth messing with the blance for.

That said, this is a very early release without much testing, what you see in my pics is ALL of my play so far in 2023.

So I'm considering two changes:

1. I'm trying the NIKE defence myself right now (I beleive KNAP coined the phrase as it makes your defense look like a big Nike Tick) - it simply involves settings one of the DC's to "cover" instead of "defend" to provide that little bit of extra cover at the back.
2. I've not tried with a Sweeper Keeper yet, but in theory you're avbsoloutely right, they would tidy up those lose balls over the top. I'm not conceeding enough to try it, but then I am by far the best team in the Championship. Next season may well be different!

 

[pemell]

@FuSS Hey man, nice to see you around for FM23. The game is very challenging these days and it will be interesting if you find it as hard as me. I was Blackburn, winning the championships comfortably, but struggling the following seasons. I tend to tweak my tactics now and then to cope with bad form, and suddenly I think i found a nice one just to follow up with another bad run. It's extremely hard compared to a couple of years ago.

 

Good luck and I will follow closely what you will think of the coming seasons managing Norwich in the PL. Cheers

[FuSS]

15 minutes ago, pemell said:

@FuSS Hey man, nice to see you around for FM23. The game is very challenging these days and it will be interesting if you find it as hard as me. I was Blackburn, winning the championships comfortably, but struggling the following seasons. I tend to tweak my tactics now and then to cope with bad form, and suddenly I think i found a nice one just to follow up with another bad run. It's extremely hard compared to a couple of years ago.

 

Good luck and I will follow closely what you will think of the coming seasons managing Norwich in the PL. Cheers

Thanks!

I think you're right.

I'm a firm believer that tactics don't okay a very big part in the game anymore.

FM21 and FM22 you could win with the default gengen press 4-4-2 quite easily if you got everything else right.

I did also do tactics for FM22, but I just released them in my FM21 thread rather than start soemthing new, it's usually too much trouble!

[nemanja2306]

Any chance you could upload the screenshots of team/player instructions? I’m playing FMT, so I can’t download.

Edited November 18, 2022 by nemanja2306

[FuSS]

tidied!

Edited December 12, 2022 by FuSS

[gooders11]

I'm going to give this a go with a new save, i plugged it into an existing save and i like the look of it. Can you send a screen shot of the rest segment for pre-season  and in season. Thanks.

[peterbolam78]

can an AF be used instead of the DLF?

 

[kalu00]

So I played a couple of matches with this tactic, liked the look of it and just wanted to plug it in and try it.

First game with it was against Salernitana, which I won very easy, I also dominated throughout the whole match. I continued using it afterwards and after the Sassuolo loss, precisely in the second half of Udinese game, I switched Counter Press off, and it paid off as you can see.

Then I decided to continue playing without Counter Press turned on and the results are great. Oh and don't mind the Cremonese game, I tried messing up with OIs and failed miserably, that one is on me 

As you can see I dominated in both of these games, even though they were away from home.

Also occasionally mid game or when I am struggling to create chances, I change the DLF to CF as suggested, but cannot still say if it paid off. For example in Lazio game, Osimhen played the second half as CF and scored one.

Sometimes mid game I like to change the mentality to Positive or Balanced when I'm trying to hold on to result.

Under 18s and Under 20s are also doing really really well, despite Napoli not having great talents or great youth teams/squads.

All in all great tactic, nice job FuSS!

Edited November 23, 2022 by kalu00

[DominicForza]

On 18/11/2022 at 11:52, FuSS said:

 

1. I'm trying the NIKE defence myself right now (I beleive KNAP coined the phrase as it makes your defense look like a big Nike Tick) - it simply involves settings one of the DC's to "cover" instead of "defend" to provide that little bit of extra cover at the back

 

My earliest memory of NIKE defense in FM goes back to early TTF/wwfan days.  

 

FuSS, thanks so much for posting a 433!  I always love how your tactics FEEL.  Thank you

Edited November 26, 2022 by DominicForza
added stuff

[Jamieac]

Looks very good. Will give it a try

[Emozil]

Will give this a test run tonight. Any team recommendations? Happy to feed anything back if you need. 

[Glassy]

How are people getting on with the tactic? I've always liked Fuss's tactics so it would be nice to give this one a whirl!

[FuSS]

Hi all,

After domianting my first season I was finding certian aspects of the game tougher in the Premier League.

Mostly we weren't retaining possession well enough and my IFs were being too wasteful with half-chances.

Version 2.0 has been uploaded to the first post and is an attemtp to rectify these areas with a couple of relatively minor tweaks.

Thanks,
FuSS

Edited December 13, 2022 by FuSS

[FuSS]

On 23/11/2022 at 02:36, kalu00 said:

So I played a couple of matches with this tactic, liked the look of it and just wanted to plug it in and try it.

First game with it was against Salernitana, which I won very easy, I also dominated throughout the whole match. I continued using it afterwards and after the Sassuolo loss, precisely in the second half of Udinese game, I switched Counter Press off, and it paid off as you can see.

Then I decided to continue playing without Counter Press turned on and the results are great. Oh and don't mind the Cremonese game, I tried messing up with OIs and failed miserably, that one is on me 

As you can see I dominated in both of these games, even though they were away from home.

Also occasionally mid game or when I am struggling to create chances, I change the DLF to CF as suggested, but cannot still say if it paid off. For example in Lazio game, Osimhen played the second half as CF and scored one.

Sometimes mid game I like to change the mentality to Positive or Balanced when I'm trying to hold on to result.

Under 18s and Under 20s are also doing really really well, despite Napoli not having great talents or great youth teams/squads.

All in all great tactic, nice job FuSS!

Great stuff - I've not dropped CP myself, so credit to you there!

 

On 26/11/2022 at 22:26, DominicForza said:

My earliest memory of NIKE defense in FM goes back to early TTF/wwfan days.  

 

FuSS, thanks so much for posting a 433!  I always love how your tactics FEEL.  Thank you

Good knowledge. I've given it a go and I'm not sold though, I think it helps against route-one football but open you up to long-range shots from AMCs.

 

On 28/11/2022 at 16:46, Emozil said:

Will give this a test run tonight. Any team recommendations? Happy to feed anything back if you need. 

Fraid I've only just finished ym first season this year, so can't make any suggestions.

You're after a technically gifted team for whatever league they're in (Norwich are tehcnically gifted for the Champ for example, but not for the Premier League). The likes of Dortmund, Ajax, Lille, Arsenal, etc.

[Vspec1]

Great seeing you back fuss

[QuickZombie]

Loving this tactic. Playing 2.1 with assistant OI and beating teams 2/3/4 nil without the as is tradition goal for the opposition at the end of the game.

[QuickZombie]

Just one question 

Shouts

• Shouts are awesome once again - they are akin to a boost button.

Is there a guide to shouts? I've tried the Assistant on them who likes to tank morale at a moment's notice with his high stats but I don't really know what I'm doing. I've left it off and just don't bother but don't want to hinder myself of there is a guide to using them 

Edited December 15, 2022 by QuickZombie

[FuSS]

2 hours ago, QuickZombie said:

Loving this tactic. Playing 2.1 with assistant OI and beating teams 2/3/4 nil without the as is tradition goal for the opposition at the end of the game.

Glad to hear it

[tropicsafc]

Thanks for this, really enjoying it.

Was having mixed results early on but persevered as, like someone else said, I liked the feel of it. Had much more joy changing the striker to Complete Forward (A).

[FuSS]

v3 uploaded.

I think v2 was a bit kneejerk to the change in quality in the premier league, so I went back to v1 and tweaked from there.

• DCs close down less.
• DLP dropped to defensive.
• Team mentality dropped to positive.
• These changes put together mean the tactics now uses a "structured" formation - this is working much better and is easily to see with the eye-test.

It's early days, but v3 really feels like we've cracked it. I'm steamrolling everybody!

Edited December 19, 2022 by FuSS

[Vspec1]

Hi fuss. Can you share your team view? That custom view you posted a few years back. Ive lost it

[FuSS]

1 hour ago, Vspec1 said:

Hi fuss. Can you share your team view? That custom view you posted a few years back. Ive lost it

I won't be on my comp until tomorrow evening, I'll add it to the thread then.

In the meantime it's in my last tactical thread (fm21/22?), so you can just import it from there if you want it quicker :)

[Glassy]

@FuSS I'm going to start a new save with this. I remember using your tactics in the past with good success and they are always decent football too. Have you done many holiday tests with V3 at all? It's always good to see how it does with different teams. 

[smagaius]

Best one i've tried this year! 

[FuSS]

8 hours ago, Glassy said:

@FuSS I'm going to start a new save with this. I remember using your tactics in the past with good success and they are always decent football too. Have you done many holiday tests with V3 at all? It's always good to see how it does with different teams. 

I've done no testing at all - this is just my personal tactic and I've only played 1.5 seasons so far.

I also don't believe in "tests", they generate the best "plug and play" tactics only. If you actually manager your side and your matches you can easily beat any "plug and play" tactic.

5 hours ago, smagaius said:

Best one i've tried this year! 

Cheers.

[Jamieac]

Unbeaten in 9 since plugging this into my Leicester save running a very tight title race with Liverpool and City. Only draw was against Liverpool away overwise all wins! 

Tweaked it slightly it's somewhere in between V1 and V3 but liking it so far. Will try a Complete Forward as suggested to see how that performs. 

[Warszawa]

good start

[FuSS]

9 hours ago, Jamieac said:

Unbeaten in 9 since plugging this into my Leicester save running a very tight title race with Liverpool and City. Only draw was against Liverpool away overwise all wins! 

Tweaked it slightly it's somewhere in between V1 and V3 but liking it so far. Will try a Complete Forward as suggested to see how that performs. 

Nice.

I'm always interested to hear tweaks, please do share!

I really don't use a CF, I find my DLF scores just fine, although some players do much better than others and I'm yet to pin down exactly what stat or PPM makes it work perfectly. I suspect "like to beat offside trap" play a big part, as it means the DLF will spend some of his time coming deep and assisting others and some of it playing high on the line....which is the best of both worlds.

 

5 hours ago, Warszawa said:

good start

Good stuff!

 

Just be aware that the AI isn't stupid these days, as you do better they'll learn to take you more seriously and setup in a way to counter the tactic. Ultimately I find myself using the mentalities more to counter this and not having to tweak anything else, which isn't too bad.

 

When I first hit the Premier League with Norwich I pretty mcuh only used attack and everyone underestimated us, we won everything. Toward the half way point of the season the expectations got higher and other teams started taking us seriously, the result, I now mostly use Positive/Standard....and I occasionally have to use counter!

 

Still works though.

Edited December 22, 2022 by FuSS

[Glassy]

Started well so far, only a 1-0 loss to Liverpool. Impressed with the defending side of things for sure! 

My only issue at the moment is Harry Kane isn't scoring! He's only got the 1 goal so far which is definitely unlike him!

 

[FuSS]

1 hour ago, Glassy said:

Started well so far, only a 1-0 loss to Liverpool. Impressed with the defending side of things for sure! 

My only issue at the moment is Harry Kane isn't scoring! He's only got the 1 goal so far which is definitely unlike him!

 

I'll admit it's not the best tactic for the striker, my guys average around a goal a game which is good in real life but not amazing for FM.

That said, you've got the most "goals for" by some way

[Warszawa]

progressing slowly, still good

[horned frog 94]

Hey, Fuss,

Thanks for saving (so far) this game for me. I didn't play '22 and am coming from '21 and I had already uninstalled this game once. Nothing was working consistently for me and I was going mad with this match engine (which I really don't see as much of a grand improvement) like many seem to do. Headers to nowhere, long balls over my centerbacks, ai centerbacks constantly keeping pace with my strikers on a breakaway, it was maddening. This has finally gotten me back into the game and doing well, thank you!

One question though, I have so many shots with your tactic but they aren't great shots.  I'm doing two saves with Arsenal and West Ham and I'm going with a CF rather than a DLF....I noticed on the analysis tab that my CF actually influences more of the pitch than the DLF so I decided to try it out that way and it's doing well so far. But anyway, I have noticed you have shoot less often on the IFs and FBs...would it diminish the tactic in any form if I also put that instruction on the CM and BBM?  I mean I even had "work into box" instruction on in my last game as West Ham versus MK Dons and I finished with 29 shots but only 9 of them were on target. Or is part of your thought process here to have all these shots so that players may pounce on any rebounds and whatnot?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated and once again, thanks for bringing out some enjoyment of this version of the game for me!

[Jamieac]

On 22/12/2022 at 09:33, FuSS said:

Nice.

I'm always interested to hear tweaks, please do share!

I really don't use a CF, I find my DLF scores just fine, although some players do much better than others and I'm yet to pin down exactly what stat or PPM makes it work perfectly. I suspect "like to beat offside trap" play a big part, as it means the DLF will spend some of his time coming deep and assisting others and some of it playing high on the line....which is the best of both worlds.

 

Nevermind I messed up the end of my season trying to tweak, should have really waited till next season before trying to mess with it!

[FuSS]

8 hours ago, horned frog 94 said:

Hey, Fuss,

Thanks for saving (so far) this game for me. I didn't play '22 and am coming from '21 and I had already uninstalled this game once. Nothing was working consistently for me and I was going mad with this match engine (which I really don't see as much of a grand improvement) like many seem to do. Headers to nowhere, long balls over my centerbacks, ai centerbacks constantly keeping pace with my strikers on a breakaway, it was maddening. This has finally gotten me back into the game and doing well, thank you!

One question though, I have so many shots with your tactic but they aren't great shots.  I'm doing two saves with Arsenal and West Ham and I'm going with a CF rather than a DLF....I noticed on the analysis tab that my CF actually influences more of the pitch than the DLF so I decided to try it out that way and it's doing well so far. But anyway, I have noticed you have shoot less often on the IFs and FBs...would it diminish the tactic in any form if I also put that instruction on the CM and BBM?  I mean I even had "work into box" instruction on in my last game as West Ham versus MK Dons and I finished with 29 shots but only 9 of them were on target. Or is part of your thought process here to have all these shots so that players may pounce on any rebounds and whatnot?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated and once again, thanks for bringing out some enjoyment of this version of the game for me!

I really don't like "work into box" I think it makes the team too one-dimensional, always trying to work openings rather than occasionally just having a go.

I've actually been playign with the IF instructions in my personal tweak, which I'll include below, it's not ready for release yet, but might give you some ideas.

FuSStive Spirit 3.3.fmf

[FuSS]

Well our first seaosn in the premier league finished on a bit of a high!

 

[horned frog 94]

1 hour ago, FuSS said:

I really don't like "work into box" I think it makes the team too one-dimensional, always trying to work openings rather than occasionally just having a go.

I've actually been playign with the IF instructions in my personal tweak, which I'll include below, it's not ready for release yet, but might give you some ideas.

FuSStive Spirit 3.3.fmf 46.44 kB · 2 downloads

Ok, I'll untick that instruction and see what I may glean from your own tweaking efforts, thanks!

[dansloman1]

Any further improvements on this? Have always liked your tactics.

[dansloman1]

The tactic is struggling now since the patch. I hope you can come up with some tweaks for us I was really enjoying it before the patch!

[philiphansell]

1 hour ago, dansloman1 said:

The tactic is struggling now since the patch. I hope you can come up with some tweaks for us I was really enjoying it before the patch!

Why don´t you try doing that by yourself? If it´s struggle now you have nothing to lose.

What´s the struggle?

[WillyBroadband]

Hello everybody, if anyone was wondering if FuSStive Spirit works well in FM24, here are some screenshots from my first season at Arsenal. 

As you can see, I won everything but finished 2nd in the league with 96 points losing the title on Goal Difference on the final day. Was one of the most exciting title races I've ever been involved in. 

Thought I would share my transfers too.

Edited December 1, 2023 by WillyBroadband