Tiki Taka masters: Cautious or Positive mentality?

[Kevinho7]

Hi there!

33 year old here and playing the game non-stop since 01/02, so no inexperienced one when it comes to tactics, engines, mentality ladder, knock-on effects etc. However, I’m always looking to learn more and now there's a thing I hope to get some more reasoning and/or clarification on actually...

According to the presets the Tiki Taka style of football is being played on a Positive mentality paired with a much shorter passing directness and a much lower (now lower) tempo.

Now, I'm watching Daljit’s streams and vids for many many years now and I value Daljit as one of the best, if not THE best, when it comes to the ins and outs of FM.

Around March of this year I onced asked Daljit on stream about how he would go about things when it comes to replicating Barcelona back from when they were the true Tiki Taka masters, passing teams to death and dominate world football for a significant period of time.
The answer Daljit gave me was that you would actually go and do this on a Cautious mentality paired with, ofcourse, shorter passing and a standard tempo. Or when doing this on a Balanced mentality, a lower tempo.

My question for @Rashidi, @Cleon, mods, or any other of the FM goats in here now is: What is the difference between, and the reasoning behind, the way the game has setup to play the Tiki Taka style according to the preset (positive, much shorter passing, much lower tempo), and Daljit's answer to me about replicating the Tiki Taka style that Barcelona played under Guardiola (cautious, shorter passing, standard tempo)?

Cheers guys, love you all 

Edited August 24, 2023 by Kevinho7

[Chapman7]

I know Johan Cruyff vision on his football who Pep has envisioned his style upon saw it more of an attacking mentality. So the way I go about control possession/tiki taka is Attacking mentality, whole team on support duty, get the support around the attacking phase to increase chances of creating a chance, use some player instruction to help with movements and positioning 

Team Instructions I'd probably go along with the attacking mentality would probably be: Much Shorter Passing, Narrow/Very Narrow, Standard/Slightly Higher Tempo *Would say latter more likely*, Play Through The Centre, Lower/Whipped Crosses, Play Out Of Defence, Work Ball Into Box as in possession instructions 

[herne79]

The important part is not Mentality, but how you combine that Mentality with your other tactical settings.  So playing tiki taka with Positive, Cautious or any other Mentality is perfectly doable, so long as your player roles and tactical instructions combine to compliment it.  So pick Cautious with a certain set of instructions/roles; pick Positive with a different set of instructions/roles.

Mentality sets your baseline risk.  Other instructions then feed off of or mitigate that risk.  So as @Chapman7 says above, start with the Attacking Mentality (high risk) then tone that risk down by using lots of support duty players and altering width/passing length and so on.  On the other hand if you start with say the Cautious Mentality (low risk) you may want to up the risk taking in certain areas so you're not just passing the ball around aimlessly or getting pinned inside your own half.

TL;DR - there's more than one way to achieve what you want .

[Kevinho7]

@Chapman7 @herne79 Thankyou kindly for your answers 🙏🏻

[Irn Rvd]

1 hour ago, Kevinho7 said:

@Chapman7 @herne79 Thankyou kindly for your answers 🙏🏻

@Kevinho7 How did your tactic turn out by the way? I’ve been doing a recreation of this as well recently. 

Edited August 24, 2023 by Irn Rvd

[Chapman7]

On 24/08/2023 at 17:49, Kevinho7 said:

@Chapman7 @herne79 Thankyou kindly for your answers 🙏🏻

No worries