Confused By The Basics

[BnadnerB]

Hello all,

 

I’m trying to get a grip of creating tactics on FM, I’ve read all of the stickied threads and they seem great. I try and put this knowledge into FM with not great results.

 

What confuses me is that so much that is written in this forum, such as balancing Defend / Support / Attack roles throughout your team and carefully distributing roles etc is completely ignored by many, including people who work at SI and other renowned streamers.

 

I’m seeing tactics with 5 attack duties, whole frontlines having attack duties as well as the fullbacks etc. Now I know somebody will say that theres a reason it works, but it goes against a lot of the ‘recommended’ reading on this forum!

 

Confused is an understatement!

[Jiggins]

I understand what you mean. What I'd say is to ignore any ruleset regarding tactics but understand this; the fundamentals can only be ignored if you've got a good reason to do so. For example if you can make 5 attacking duties work then go ahead. However, it'll be difficult right? You're committing so many men to attacks you have to respect the consequences of it going against you. 

 

A lot of tactics comes down to risk, so in certain games 5 attacking duties my provide the risk you need, in other you may get torn to shreds. But don't feel like you're cornered into playing by someone's 'rules', be as wacky or boring as you'd like.

[CARRERA]

I totally understand what you are saying. When I started playing FM years ago, I was overwhelmed pretty much by everything you could change tactically. 

The most important thing to understand is that there is no right or wrong, there is always an alternative. Like in real life. The Guides you read are always only a guideline or a certain view of a particular person. They are not set rules which can’t vary. 

It’s correct if you are looking for a balanced approach to properbly choose 3 defend, 3 attack and 4 support duties. But that’s not the best approach, it’s just what it says, a balanced approach. By shifting around some of the duties, you can achieve a different approach which might even work better for your team or against a certain opponent.

I would highly recommend to simply try out things to see how they affect your game. Another way to better understand the game is by posting your tactics and letting the people know what’s your idea behind the decisions you made. They will help you to understand why things might not work as intended.

Edited January 9, 2023 by CARRERA

[Andros]

a lot of experienced people have learnt from many years in the game - they have a very good understanding of what each role does, how each team instruction and player instruction will affect things - so they are able to change things knowing what the results will be.

I am not one of those people  

So, as you can imagine - the more complicated you make things - the more likely it is that something will go wrong.  Therefore, the advice for new players is often keep it simple - just choose one of the presets and see how it plays.  then make a small change and watch the games and see what differences that change makes (leave that change on for a few matches and see the results - not just for 1 match). I think i remember a few years ago someone suggested creating a save that is just for trying ideas.  they would replay the same game over and over again to see how changes would impact the game.

Think of this like music - before you can play around with mixing genres and chords you first need to know what those genres and chords mean/represent.

[phnompenhandy]

I enjoy the game by imagining I'm a FOOTBALL manager, not a computer coder out to beat the system. I want to win, but not at all costs, and it does dismay me to see FM influencers on YouTube promoting clear exploitative tactics like 7 players on attack duty and suchlike. Just like a real manager, I like to study others' tactics and for me, following discussions here and realistic YouTube videos enhances my education of the game.

This year, for those plug-n-play exploit tactics, I read that people are flummoxed because now the AI opponents will respond by changing their tactics in reaction to ours - that's how real-life is and as it should be.

The above posters give good advice - start by keeping it simple and make incremental tweaks based on what you're seeing in your own game and reading articles and posts by more experienced FMers.

[Andros]

3 hours ago, phnompenhandy said:

I enjoy the game by imagining I'm a FOOTBALL manager, not a computer coder out to beat the system.

I really wish I followed this advice more. 

[Rashidi]

Speaking for myself, I would always recommend people start with the basics, understand how roles and duties work, how they operate in combination with team instructions. To do that I will always recommend creating a balanced structured approach, where roles and duties are distributed for a balanced system where  you get good cover while attack.  Without understanding the basics its hard to become creative. For example, its perfectly ok to use pass into space with run at defence, combined with work ball into box. However, you will find a lot of people suggesting you don't do this. They do this not because its bad advice but because you need to know why these instructions in combination create specific patterns.

One could sit down and explain everything, but that isn't the job of Sports Interactive or anyone else, they give us the basics and we are expected to put on a "manager's hat' then go in and set things up. Each players attributes dictates how each role plays. And it isn't the other way around. You only learn the basics when you keep things simple and structured.



this for example is a crazy attacking tactic that I am enjoying sometimes I even play with only one central defender, but to make something like this which is a lot more "out there" one needs to understand the impact of how these roles work together and what kind of team instructions are best. However if you start downloading tactics and then make some systems like this, I doubt things will go well.

My advice is to start at the beginning put on your managers hat, learn how to get the best out of your players with something simple and then move on to more creative systems you can make on your own. Starting with the preset tactics is a great way to begin, and when you hit a bump on the road, there will always be someone on the forums who will help you out.