Cleon

Probably not it would likely result in more wasted chances. You hit a certain point possession wise (imo that is 60%+) where you are just keeping the ball for the sake of it and just passing around, without really probing. More attacking isn't always better. I wrote this previously; One thing you will have noticed that I’ve not spoken about yet is the team mentality. The reason for not mentioning this topic yet is because, for me, it’s the least important part of the whole tactical creation. I know other people value this aspect as being really important and that’s fair enough but for me, I want to keep it simple. In simple terms, the mentality is the base attacking intent of the team. This may be described as a measure of risk-taking. More positive mentalities instruct the team to take more risks, and more defensive ones instruct the team to take fewer risks. Essentially it's a risk modifier that affects a number of other teams and player instructions like width, passing directness, tempo, line of engagement and defensive line. The higher your mentality the more risk your players are willing to take in these specific areas of the game. The team mentality also impacts individual player mentality, you can see the change this has on the player and his role by going to the player on the tactic screen, clicking the position, and then clicking his player instructions. You’ll notice when you change team mentality his own mentality is adjusted to reflect the change. Like I said above, rather than overcomplicating things and making out mentality more complex than it actually is, I always play with a balanced mentality. This doesn’t mean I don’t take lots of risks or play conservative, I can still be as attacking if not more than someone plays on an attacking mentality. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? But not really if you think about it. It all comes down to efficiency and how you use the ball and make the most of it. Being more aggressive doesn’t equal more attacking. I’ll show some analysis of how mentality changes impact the 4-2-2-2 box formation when we get into the actual analysis parts. But for now, some time ago I wrote this about the 4-2-3-1 and it should give you a good grasp of why I play with a balanced mentality with actual examples. I have debated adding this or not but I think it is useful and relevant to tactical building and because I’m trying to show step by step what I do, I think it fits. For the purpose of this analysis, I compare a balanced mentality against an attacking mentality only. Now, these average position images might confuse people at first and you’ll think I’ve got them the wrong way around. That is the attacking average position map which looks deeper than you might imagine. There is a reason for this and we will come around to that a bit later in the analysis. Believe it or not, these are actually the average positions for the players in the standard mentality structure that I am using. Yet it’s more attacking face value and players are positioned a lot different compared to the first screenshot I posted. A lot of the players are more attacking. The average positions are interesting in both screenshots. You’d have expected the attacking mentality to be a lot more aggressive with the average positions for when they had the ball (the purple icon with the number in it). Yet it’s actually the standard mentality screenshot which looks more aggressive. In the first image, you can see even the defence is deeper when out of possession too. There are a number of reasons why it could be like this; The attacking mentality is making defenders hit the ball earlier than normal as they look to hit the front players a lot more quickly decision-wise than you’d see in the standard mentality. This is entirely plausible. In the standard mentality system players likely have more time and spend longer on the ball, meaning they move upfield much more because they aren’t looking to rush play. In the standard system, players seem to be more spread out, especially in the central areas. One of the reasons behind this is likely the initial space a player has. In the standard one, the space is likely in front of the players, meaning they have time to work the ball and play with it at their feet. In the more attacking system, that space likely doesn’t exist due to its aggressive nature. The higher mentality should on paper push them further forward but as you can see in the images, this isn’t happening. This suggests the space isn’t there and the players are having to drop deeper to find space or by them being closer to the opposition players, it’s involuntary pushing them deeper and negating the actual attacking mentality. Those are some of the reasons why this might happen and are the likely causes. But now let’s add some more context and briefly show the match stats to see if there is much difference between the two. Attacking Mentality Stats You can see I won the game 1-4 and despite the scoreline, I was incredibly lucky in terms of the score. An own goal and two goals on and after 90 minutes really flattered us. We played well on face value with the score but that doesn’t tell the true story. The individual stats show us a little bit more of how the players play. Interestingly I notice the keeper's pass completion and have just realised that I’ve not actually set it up so he distributes it to the defenders. I’ll have to look into this more and see if his long distribution is worth the sacrifice for passes completed if it puts us on the front foot quickly. The player's condition is also in the low 70s for most people. I’ll need to compare this with the standard mentality one and see if there is a drastic difference. Standard Mentality Stats We created a few more chances but overall there isn’t much difference between both sets of match stats and the score. We won the game 1-3. The times of the scoring were better though and it looks like we didn’t leave it to the last minute or rely on our own goal. Could this be a sign of the way we attack? Possibly. I think the biggest noticeable difference is the condition, players seem to end the game with a much higher percentage left compared to the attacking mentality one further up. This is expected because they are less gung-ho in their approach and should conserve energy better. But due to the average positions above, it wouldn’t have surprised me to see it a little lower than it actually was. The goalkeeper's distribution is still the same as I played the match the exact same way with the exception of one being done with an attacking mentality and one without. Attacking Mentality Match Analysis Here we can see just how much space there is between the fullbacks and the inside forward on my left-hand side. It’s quite the distance and one simple ball from the opposition's fullback to the wide player takes out my inside forward from this phase of play. It puts me on the back foot immediately because now my midfield has to shift across and deal with it or my fullback is left with a 1v1 situation. Or alternatively, my inside forward could try and sprint back to make up the ground he has lost. If you want that to happen then it seems pointless having him so high, to begin with. You could play him deeper by the use of a different mentality and help him conserve more energy as well as reduce the space. We can also use the player's settings or role/duties to manipulate this but that brings up a host of other issues and isn’t really an option for this demonstration. The reason being is I need and want this space that appears just not as much of it. Space and time are what will win me the game by creating intelligent movement. Here we have my left wingback Zeca on the ball. Instead of driving forward with the ball, which he can do because he has the space available and the time ahead of him, he is already looking to launch it to the strikers. However you can see the striker and inside forward aren’t positioned the best, nor are they really making a run forward, especially the one in front of him, that’s the inside forward he is launching the ball to. This is an issue as this inside forward is going towards the sideline rather than away from it. So when the ball is played what can he really do as he is going away from goal? Not only that but the opposition has plenty of cover to now allow the fullback to be caught in a 1v1 situation. This is a rushed decision and my side is wasting good opportunities where the player can venture forward more. Instead, they’d rather look for the longer option regardless of how those players might be marked or what positions they are in. This is because the mentality is also a risk factor, the higher the mentality the more likely a player will take risks, or as most people would say, do dumb ****. I’m not saying on the lower mentality there isn’t a chance that this doesn’t happen as it very well could. However, if you’ve set the roles up correctly and have the right balance in the set up then it’s less frequent that you’ll see this happening. Whereas currently, this is very common to see. At times when this kind of pass works, it's great and we look deadly but it doesn’t happen enough and for most parts, wastes the move or just cheaply gives possession away. Another thing is that when this happens, it also means the striker or inside forward isn’t making those dangerous runs because they’re not getting the chance to do them. Instead, they get backed into corners or are surrounded by too many of the opposition's players. So trying to move the ball forward quickly isn’t always the best for this reason. It also makes it harder for the supporting players to catch up with play and is often why you might see people say things like their striker is very isolated and not getting a good supply. It might not be for this exact reason but it’s likely it’s something along these lines. In this situation, we have a move where the wingback is pushed on and is offering width. Then the inside forward is making a run forward too as is the striker. However, my Segundo Volante who is on the ball (Yuri) is driving forward with it but he has no real support as players are positioned too high on this occasion or surrounded by players who can easily cut out the pass or make the tackle. This is the downside of an attacking mentality when players get positioned too high, it means they have limited space to work with due to the high starting points. It also makes it incredibly difficult for the player on the ball to pick out a pass and often sees him just crack a shot from distance. Which happens on this particular occasion. I also see posts relating to this and people pointing out the good positions they think my inside forward, wingback and even striker have taken up. I guess they have if you look at it but when you add context to it and the player's position on the ball, it’s clear to see he is isolated with what he can do. The attacking side of things is cut off from him. Not all the time though and it comes back to the frequency aspect of how often something happens. You’ll find that in attacking setups this is much more common. In this screenshot, we can see why my defence is deep and that is because the opposition striker is very deep in my half, admittedly we’ve just won possession but we won that at the halfway line. So we see that the defence is deeper than everyone else and likely too deep. This is because of the space the striker has, he’s making them stay deeper than they should. Also, using the Segundo Volante role doesn’t help here as we have possession of the ball so are already looking to attack. And it’s a role I want to use, however it looks like it's too aggressive for this set-up and how attacking it is. He is making more risky decisions and being overly aggressive. The role is very aggressive, to begin with, and then the added mentality isn’t helping the situation. He’d be better by playing deeper and slightly more cautious than usual. That would then provide two things. One would be to cover for the defence and pick up the opposition players who are playing between my centre-backs and the defensive midfielders. Secondly, it should allow the defenders to push up more because the defensive midfielders would become responsible for picking up the striker instead. At the minute due to the aggressive nature, the defensive midfielders push up and leave the defenders playing as a separate unit to the rest of the side. Again there are ways to combat this slightly by the use of different roles, maybe an even higher defensive line but I’m supposedly already playing with those anyway. And changing roles defeats the purpose of what I’m creating and how I want to play. Another thing happening in this screenshot is that Nilmar, who is my inside forward is the one who won possession back and as soon as he gets the ball he is already looking to hit the striker with those more direct/long balls. The issue with this is when that happens my striker becomes isolated or the ball is cut out by the opposition defenders. Support is lacking because Nilmar is supposed to be the support player. Again if he looks around though, he has space and time to play and decides against it. You can see when we get the ball my players are looking to get the ball forward as fast as possible. This is what mentality does on the higher ones, players take more risks and look to get the ball to the front players in the quickest, fastest possible way. Yet again another situation where the side is looking to get the ball to the front far too quickly again. This time we see Yuri do a long ball up to where the inside forward is. Typically the ball is cut out and instantly we are on the back foot again. We aren’t being clever with the ball at all and aren’t using it wisely. When these kinds of passes are pulled off properly it's a thing of beauty but it happens nowhere near frequent enough. Not only this but it’s making the whole side deeper than it actually should be. Every time we get into situations like this, the same thing happens. We look to go from the front to the back in the quickest possible way. But because the ball gets cut out time and time again players are always deeper than they should be. Hence the average positions we saw at the very start. Here is another perfect example of what happens when we attack recklessly at speed and without precision. The ball is lost and a simple ball back into my own final third means my defenders yet again cannot push up because they have to deal with the opposition striker who stays high up the pitch. It’s killing my play because it's not precise and well-thought-out football. The players highest up the field are isolated or drifting too deep because the rest of the side just cannot push up and are being bogged down. It just goes to show though that because someone is meant to be positioned high up the pitch because of his mentality, doesn’t mean he is. All sorts of factors play a part in why he might be higher than normal or deeper than usual. So far in the examples, you see players dropping off the front for two main reasons; Bogged down and can’t move upfield because we move the ball too fast for anyone to catch up. Going from a to b quickly isn’t always beneficial. The second reason is, that it’s hard to find space so players come deep in the hope of finding it. It’s like a never-ending cycle, for this game at least. We still won the game and scored four goals but like I pointed out at the start, the score line is flattering when you take into consideration the own-goal and the two very late goals. On a different day, this could have been a 1-1 draw without those bits of luck. I’m not saying never play attacking football with this shape, far from it. It’s more about understanding how the shape plays on different mentalities and how it differs. If you want to play attacking football then play it. Just beware of how everything links together. Also, remember that attacking doesn’t always translate to attacking. Standard Mentality Match Analysis It’s early in the game but you can see how deep my entire side is. Not only that, but my defensive midfielder is also picking up the opposition striker meaning my defence can stay intact and start moving higher up the pitch. My side is closing down and chasing the ball but I think you can already see how the small difference of the defensive midfielder picking up the striker is helping my back line and freeing them up, so they can push higher up. This is allowing me to reduce the space the opposition has in my own half as the defence is moving advanced upfield towards my own midfielders. Nilmar has the ball and this time drives infield because he isn’t rushing. And my Segundo Volante is in acres of space in the centre of the pitch and is a little bit more reserved in the build-up play and isn’t looking to attack constantly when we get possession of the ball. He’s being more clever in his play. Due to the team, not all advancing forward and beyond the ball, it means we actually have space to run into and people creating and using space as we all move together. In this picture, we have Yuri who can drive forward with the ball or play two different kinds of ball. One is a through ball straight down the middle for the inside forward to run onto. Or he can play it straight into the patch of the inside forward which is actually the more risky pass in this scenario due to how the opposition defender near the inside forward is positioned. Yuri passes the ball through the middle, so basically a through ball for my inside forward to run onto. Now had the side not moved together and at a relatively steady pace, this move wouldn’t have happened. Or if it was on a higher mentality than standard, the chances are the ball would have been played the first time from Yuri instead of him driving forward a little with the ball at his feet first. Our play now is more dangerous because we are playing as a unit, all of the team moving up and down the field at the same time. This is one of the reasons why the average positions in this mentality structure are actually higher than the attacking ones. Because we are moving and working as a cohesive unit. Bruno manages to get onto the end of the ball but is fouled literally on the edge of the box and we win a free kick in a dangerous place. In the attacking section further up, I showed the inside forward playing closer to the opposition's fullback(A) and leaving my own wingback exposed and susceptible to 1v1 scenarios. However now, we can see my inside forward is much deeper and inside my own half picking up the opposition's wide player. This means my wingback is free and can recover any loose balls or pick the player up should my inside forward not get the ball. Less pressure on the wingback is great as it means he is less likely to be exposed. Not only this but if he wins the ball back, he can also run with it down the wing and channel, which would put the opposition on the back foot. I win possession of the ball back here deep inside my own half. But if you look at my players' positioning, it’s not bad because they have space. The left-sided inside forward and the deep-lying midfielder are already doing their job. The inside forward is pushing up behind the fullback into where the space is. While the deep-lying forward keeps the two central defenders busy. Yuri the Segundo Volante can be seen unmarked in the centre of the pitch. So my defenders play him the ball. Yuri passes the ball to the attacking midfielder, Lucas Lima. He then hit it the first time into the path of the inside forward because he was already aware of his run. Now Bruno Henrique is onside and away causing them all kinds of problems. You will have noticed that in attacking mentalities the space is in front of the opposition players and when playing on lower mentalities or using players further down the pitch, then the space exists behind the opposition. This is a prime example of what I’m usually talking about. Due to me being deeper this makes the opposition higher up when they break forward. So when they lose the ball we get situations like this and I can hit them with clever counterattacks or clever direct forward balls. There was no chance of this happening on the attacking mentality because the player was either too advanced or forced to come deep because he was marked, bringing the marker with him. Also because it encourages getting the ball forward quickly, Yuri might have bypassed Lucas Lima in this move and looked to hit the striker or even the inside forward much earlier. This can make moves break down. On this occasion though we are more calculated in our play and it’s not rushed. Instead, the players are deciding when to take risks and the risks they do take are more likely to be successful. This is the same move just shown from a different angle to better illustrate it. The inside forward Bruno Henrique drove forward with the ball when he received it from Lucas Lima. You can see that the opposition centre-backs have been split, one of them has gone very deep leaving the striker alone in space. While the other one has gone across to deal with the inside forward. Now Bruno Henrique can do a simple sideways pass to Ricardo Oliveira who has lots of time and space. He drives forward a little bit after receiving the ball and lets go of a fierce shot which flies past the goal by inches. It’s a brilliantly worked team move which should have seen a goal scored. It all started with my central defender too. I’m not saying people can’t play on higher mentalities far from it. But you have to realise how they differ from the lower mentalities. Not only this but it’s vital you understand how the mentality works with the roles and duties you use. If you use aggressive roles and an aggressive mentality like a Segundo Volante on an attacking mentality, then you’ll see him venture forward constantly with disregard for any danger he might be leaving behind. While on a lower mentality you should see him play slightly differently and work better and make more intelligent runs and passes. He will still take risks but those risks will happen as and when he believes the right time to take them. Rather than allowing the mentality of the team to decide he should do it more frequently.

Getting high possession on FM is relatively easy. Being productive with it, is another thing. Once you get past 60% imo you're just keeping the ball for the sake of it and not really attacking. This game for example 81% possession, won the game but I could have won this 5 or 6-0 if we didn't mess around with the ball as much, as we didn't attack when we should have and slowed everything down just to retain the ball. It's just pass, pass, pass for the sake of it.

I can’t thank you enough, the skin is brilliant as is your skin making ability. Thank you so much.

I never use OI's and none of the players above have individual instructions. Individual instructions are a good way of getting a player to do something specific that he currently does do, but I had no need for them here. I dislike OI's as they make your tactic behave very differently to how you've set up, so I never use them as I always have full faith in my systems.

The Mez plays more in the half spaces rather than the flanks for most parts. The AP is also mobile but they're usually in close proximity to each other. As for suggestions for a source for ideas on playstyles etc, I'd honestly use the presets. Read what the roles do and the settings they have and then play around. If you start reading real life stuff, I think that might be a bit overwhelming and confuse you even more. Especially as FM doesn't always use replicate life terminology like you read about. In FM the same thing can be slightly different.

The AP sitting deep and just hitting the Mez in high up positions constantly with the ball and playing him into space. It's devastating due to the runs the Mez makes.

Thanks It's a personal preference of mine but I believe it to be the best for me for sure and the way I play yeah. Just like I prefer aggressive roles in less aggressive mentalities, This is taken from my book; The Passing/Possession Approach Over the last few years, lots of teams have gone possession crazy since the likes of Barcelona and Spain both set the tactical trends of what we see now over 10 years ago. This type of game often involves a slow meticulous build-up of play where the ball is patiently passed around the pitch, often being played out from the back. The aim is to keep possession at all costs until an opening is created and there is a possibility of a shot at goal. This does require highly technical players who are composed on the ball so they can keep the ball at their feet until an opening occurs. It also requires patience and needs to have runners so you can do something useful with the ball. Having possession is easy but can you create something that retains possession and uses it in dangerous positions? This part is hard and might require a lot of time watching games and seeing how the players and roles interact with each other. Technical Attributes First Touch – You need people who can control the ball and won’t risk giving it away by having a heavy first touch. Passing – You want people on the side who can distribute the ball well to take advantage of situations in the game. Poor distribution will lead to missed opportunities. Technique - As you are creating a passing game you need to ensure you have players who are comfy with the ball at their feet and can actually do stuff with it. Mental Attributes Anticipation - You’ll want the players to anticipate the movement of others around them as well as the type of ball they might be about to receive. Composure - Quite a vital attribute for me as someone with low composure will have their decision-making rushed and could become flustered if they are being pressed/closed down heavily or have little time on the ball. You don’t want players who are likely to panic to have lots of possession as they will likely always be forced into making a quick decision that they aren’t capable of doing correctly. Concentration - Players need to be switched on for the full 90 minutes, any lapse of concentration could see them making more mistakes and these can be costly especially if you intend to retain possession. Vision – Again this is important as you need a player to be able to see his options around him. Someone with low vision is unlikely to see all the available options and could miss seeing the obvious choices. Off The Ball - You need players who are able to move around and find a bit of space so they aren’t static. This will help keep possession if players move around losing their marker etc as it means the player on the ball will have free options around him to pick out a pass. Teamwork - Again this is needed to play as a unit. But if you have a few special talents in your side that might be better playing as individuals then this isn’t as important. But very few teams have that kind of luxury. Physical Attributes Agility - Provides the player with the ability to turn fast if needed. Ideally, all attacking players should be agile when playing an attacking game. As they’ll be receiving the ball a lot and sometimes might find themselves with it when they weren't expecting it. Balance - You don’t want players who can’t stay on their feet to see much of the ball as they’ll give possession away far too cheaply. You have to be confident that players who see lots of the ball don’t fall over or go to the ground easily. Strength - Not everyone needs this but it can be a good idea to have a few physically strong players on the side, especially in those positions where you might need the player to be creative and get stuck into certain battles. The higher the attribute the better as it means they should be able to shrug certain challenges off and not lose the ball so easily.

It's all about context and the level you are at. If you are a amateur/weak side then getting high possession numbers 65+ is much harder as it relies on technical players. But all that matters at those levels is having more possession than any other side in that league. If you manage that, then no one can argue it isn't a possession tactic. If you're a strong side like you with Barca then imo anything less than 65+ first season would be deemed a failure for me with the players they have. It's easier on FM23 to have major possession numbers if you play as a good side. Harder if you play as a rubbish side as it's passes that count now like explained in the article. We'll have to agree to disagree here though because in game terms (not talking RL so no idea why you keep bringing that up, the article was clear I was talking about the game and don't think I brought up RL once) there is such a thing about toothless possession and doing nothing with it. I was just reading another post of yours actually just now, where you was talking about this exact thing and wasn't really scoring as much as you should or creating anything meaningful. And that was posted in 2020. Remember that the style you are creating is the end goal, something a lot of people don't realise or forget. Yonko above seems to have forgotten that with his replies and is posting like you have the end product at the start, which isn't realistic. The recreation or whatever you are making should also be the end goal and what you work towards, which you seem to be doing already . You'll also have to make some kind of compromise along the way too due to it being just a game and unable to replicate the most advance things. If things go wrong then take some time to assess what is going wrong. You can use the data hub, watch games, even pause the game at random intervals and look at players positioning etc. Try and pin point what is going wrong and then you'll likely have limited options to fix it anyway. So a lot of stuff is easily fixable when you narrow them down. Another thing is, when doing a recreation it's much harder. Let's take the Pep example you spoke about above, this is hard to replicate because it wasn't a one fit for all. If he played different personnel then his style changes slightly too, with how they used the ball, created space and had runners. Still the same end product but slightly different in the way it was achieved. So it might be much easier to focus on a specific event, goal, phase of play or so on, for the recreation as it's much easier to replicate compared to a full 90 minutes.

When I eventually add the second piece of this article, it will focus on how we use the ball differently when we make a subtle change like a different role or duty. And show the impacts it has overall and changes all the dynamics of the team meaning you now use the ball in a different way but still achieve same results.

As I pointed out in the article, every other team I played except 1 are all way stronger than me. I also spoke about asking the defensive line to drop off when facing fast players. Those are the only changed I'd make. So you think I can take the 2nd worse team in Denmark, playing in the 4th tier and have way higher possession in the first season than 58% playing with no attributes, no star ratings etc? Winning games and having the most possession in the league and competing when the board expected me to win no games and get relegated? Give over man and get some perspective, you're chatting nonsense I'll kindly wait to see you playing the same way with the weakest team in the nation and showing how you do it Also in FM terms there absolutely is a difference between possession and possession for the sake of it. Just look around the forum or social media and it's littered with posts about having high possession but doing nothing with it and unable to score. You yourself played as one of the best teams in the world and it took you a few seasons to get really high possession numbers. Yet you expect me to do it first season; This was you no? With the way possession had been reworked it's much harder to get greater numbers now as it's actually passes that count and not time on the ball. So you're restricted.

Thanks I still have fast transitions when its a realistic option, like I showcased in the article. It doesn't stop you having them, it just lets it happen naturally instead of forcing it by using counter like in your set up. Using counter instead of hold shape just forces the issues and makes you try to attack, attack, attack constant with no real build up. Holding shape, we play our usual game and let the roles/duties/TI's dictate how we play. Using counter with these roles and settings that I've used just don't make sense. If I was using counter I'd be better off using more aggressive roles. Everything is standard yeah.

No never due to the reasons highlighted in the article. What you see if how we'll always play. If you're getting lots of needless possession side to side then it suggest there is an issue with the roles. As they should be enough to give you an outlet like I've shown above,

I wouldn’t change if I was on FM22, I’d enable the off side trap and play risky. As you have the offside trap on 22, we don’t in 23. That’s all these settings are really. But it’s like anything really, just do what suits you. If you wanted you could alter the mentality but then changes the base do everything. So has more of an impact. You could also just drop the defensive line too. Which is probably the simpler option imo

All the info is in the post, what more do you need?

I answered it in the same post you quoted. I mixed it up and didn't want to use roles/combinations that I've already written about/used AP isn't static either and drops deep and drives forward just like the RPM does. The only real difference between the two roles is how they use the pitch. But both roles are very mobile.

Don't let anyone ever tell you that your memory goes as you get older, as you are correct I purposely didn't use a SV as that is what I used heavily with the Brazilian Box formation I used last year and included in the book. Tried to mix it up a little. As there's some roles on the game and pairings that I'd always use. An AP support and a Mez on attack, for me is the best combo on the game. The drop off more instruction.

Aye the change is really good. As when I did the original thread I think they said it was too hard to change it and was likely unable to be done. So it's great to see the match engine evolving. The Art of Series is probably my 2nd favourite thing I've done behind the Ajax stuff. Which ironically I've also started to rewrite I totally forgot your hate towards the HB role, so glad I used it now . The reason for using it was purely down to me wanting a natural playmaker without using a playmaker role and forcing the issue ever so slightly. So opted for the HB as I think they're fantastic at retaining and recycling possession. Especially if you play a creative player there. Something which I don't know if I have or haven't as I'm attributeless and using fake players. So it's all a mystery. But non the less, with the changes to how pivots work on FM23, I think the role has become better indirectly due to that. So he also steps up into midfield too with his ball at his feet at times. So it fitted what I wanted. But 100% my choice was driven by what I class as it being a natural playmaker. I also like the defensive side of things and allows us to easily shift into a back 5 or back 3. It gives us better passing lanes and able to use the entire of the pitch when playing out from the back. It allows us to be progressive and move as a unit and no matter what, we always have a free player in the back line open for the pass.

Thanks Johnny, appreciate that I think fullbacks in general are quite an underrated role and get left behind for a WB's a lot of time. But I just love how they overlap more naturally and are more "link" players than anything. They make for better combination play imo When I get the time, I actually want to add a second part to this and show how it changes the type of possession we have when I change roles around. And the fullback to a WB is one of the writeups I planned.

Cheers I already have the halfback dropping back to help with them and I use two ball-playing defenders who play out from the back. I didn't see the need for a sweeper keeper. If someone is going to cause me issues or I see something happen in game, I'll ask the defensive line to drop off instead. Like I did in the article. You could use a SK if needed though. But for me, if I did, it would mean the defence/midfield had already failed. So I'd rather make them do their job correctly

The game works different now though and we have way more settings than back then. I used 13+ TI's in the original article too and we didn't really have settings back then to select the kind of block, pressing, or what to do out of possession. So it's basically the same . 9 of the ones I use above in this article are either used for dictating how to distribute the ball from the back or related to how we press the opposition and the type of block we use. It's still minimal when you break it down. Just looks bloated because the game has moved on from having to select a team shape that did all this stuff under the hood. Now we have settings to really shape it

This is taken from my website https://www.viewfromthetouchline.com/ FM23: The Art of Possession - Quite some time ago I did a very popular article about possession football named The Art of Possession Football. It’s a bit outdated now so I thought I’d rewrite it for Football Manager 2023. If you want to look at the old article it can be found here; https://www.viewfromthetouchline.com/2022/09/04/the-art-of-possession-football FM23: The Art of Possession - So why rewrite the guide? Well, there are a few reasons really. One is people keep asking me to update it as the game has changed in the years since writing the first one. Secondly, I always wish I’d done more with the original article. Thirdly, I’m waiting for a fix for my long-term save that hopefully arrives in a patch sooner rather than later. So while I had some spare time and was unable to play, I’d revisit some old stuff. While the game has changed, the principles for possession football are the exact same, which means that everything written in the first article still applies now. So rather than repeat those principles here, you can just read the first article above to learn more about them. So my aim this time around is to be more complete and show how possession football changes with the roles and duties you use. I also wanted to show that you can play possession football (or any type of football for that matter) at any level. That’s why I’m playing as Boldklubben AB Tårnby in the Danish 4th tier. They are predicted to finish 11th out of 12th in the league. The board and the fans expect us to lose most games and attempt to avoid relegation. The Danish leagues don’t go any lower than where I’m starting without an edited database either. So it’s quite a challenge. FM23: The Art of Possession The Tactic If you’ve been following us on Twitter and Instagram, you’ll have seen that for a bit of fun we have been guessing how teams at the World Cup would play. So before the teams have been announced, we’ve been posting our tactical lineups. You can find the thread here; We did them for every team for the first round of games. They are just a bit of fun and we know teams might have set up differently once the games kicked off. But still, they provide a good base to build from. So that is what I’ve done, I will be using one of the tactics that I posted as the base. The Spanish tactic. FM23: The Art of Possession New Information Today I learned that how possession works in Football Manager 2023 has been reworked compared to the previous version. But this doesn’t seem to have been communicated by SI and was found out by listening to a third-party podcast with someone from the SI QA team. They’ve added a new metric called ball share which is how possession worked in previous games and is basically how much time the team has on the ball. The actual possession metric is now calculated by how many passes the team did and completed. This is a massive change and the new metric is hidden away and isn’t shown by default, you have to customise the stats and data you have shown during a game, to see it. So be sure to check this out for those who didn’t know. I think the change is a good change and is more in line with how real football works now. So I approve of the change. Just a shame it’s hidden away and that the ball share metric isn’t shown by default. Defence The idea here is that the fullbacks push on but not too advanced so they don’t become detached from the rest of the defence. This is why I went with fullbacks over wingbacks, as they’re more suited to this style of play and are less aggressive. If the fullbacks push ahead too quickly and too far, then we lose potential passing options and passing lanes as they’ll not be as heavily involved in the build-up play. I don’t want the fullbacks to be isolated, I want them to be proper outlets. Building out from the back like this with them slightly advanced means that if the ball does go wide to them, then the opposition will shift over. This then creates space for the central players and frees them up. The back four has now become a back five. The halfback drops deep to form a back three with the two centre-backs. The two ball-playing defenders actually spread too wide but at the time of writing this, it is a known bug and scheduled to be fixed in a patch. But the halfback drops deep and can also help us progress the ball. In some ways, the halfback is a playmaker. They help to progress the ball, can split defences open from deep, or can dribble with the ball at their feet. I think having a natural playmaker is better than having a playmaking role as nothing feels forced. That’s how I view the halfback. With the halfback and two ball-playing defenders, I have three players at the back who can bring the ball forward. They also have the potential to launch defence-splitting passes or put us on the front foot from deep. You might think this is counterproductive as I’m wanting to retain possession due to building a possession tactic. But the fact is, I still want to win games and they don’t do those types of balls constantly. For most parts, they’ll pass around and bring the ball up the field. Then if they see an opportunity they might try a defence-splitting pass. However, it’s more likely they play in the midfield or wide players unless they spot a really good opportunity to launch a more risky type of ball. Examples of Aggressive Passing from the Defenders I’m classing the halfback as a defender here because he is, with the way he defends and helps us transition the ball. Here the halfback is taking his time on the ball and waiting for players to get into position. I know this because I see him dwell on the ball and the commentary confirms it. Knudsen is scanning around to see what his options are and has a lot of them, 4 in fact. Actually, 5 should he decide to the bring ball further forward himself, which he does at times. On this occasion, however, he chooses the furthest option top right. Immediately this puts us on the front foot and has opened up a potential overload down the right side of the pitch. The mezzala can take his time to turn around and assess his options too, he doesn’t have to rush. When he turns around he can either lay it off to the inverted winger for a quick one-two. Or he can play in the fullback making a surging run down the right. We are using the full width of the pitch. From here we can either directly attack with the overloads down here or retain possession should the players decide now is not the best time to attack. Either way, we have multiple choices here. While we are building a possession-based system, we also still want to attack and win games. The possession we have has to be meaningful and not possession for the sake of it. We still want to win games and take the game to the opponents. This is another example but this time, this is much riskier. I want to highlight this pass particularly as it demonstrates exactly how aggressive the ball-playing defenders can be at times. It is almost reckless. He has lots of time on the ball to bring it out of defence if he chooses and he also has three (red circles) immediate passing options. All of them present a different level of difficulty to pull off. We also have the yellow circled player, which would be the reckless option and the least likely to pull off. Of course, that’s the option he chooses here. The ball-playing defender has been reworked on Football Manager 2023 and is much more aggressive with their passing and the positions they take up on the pitch. It’s not uncommon to see them attack deep inside the opposition half these days. I wanted to highlight this move so you are aware of the changes and just how risky the role can be. If you use ball-playing defenders and want to create a possession system, keep an eye on this as at times, it might go against what you are creating. Especially if they give possession away cheaply like in my example. Initially, he actually won the ball so the pass was successful but the player lost control of it once he’d won it. I guess if we look at the image above, there is another issue at play here too. Look at the defensive five then look at the attacking five. There are massive gaps between the two bands of players, which is a major issue. It means that if any long or risky pass like we saw above happens, then positionally, we don’t have the support to help him out. Again this can go against a possession-based philosophy and be a way of giving possession away cheaply. I must admit, I don’t find this an issue myself as it doesn’t happen all the time. But for someone else, it could be an issue which is why I wanted to highlight it. In certain games, the issue can be worse than in others. This shows the successful passes of my left-sided ball-playing defender. It looks fine on the surface but in this game, we were playing a much better side from a higher division. My side is a weak side for the league it’s in, let alone when playing higher-ranked opposition. They pressed and hounded us and really gave us little time on the ball. This meant that the ball-playing defenders panicked more and began hitting it longer to beat the press. But it failed spectacularly. 22 unsuccessful passes here and each one is a risky pass where the player is looking to pass through the lines to put us on the front foot. It’s great when it comes off but when it doesn’t like this, you should likely change the role. You might find yourself options to use a standard centre-back or even a no-nonsense centre-back. All of the roles can be suited for this type of player and all of them will play the role slightly differently to each other. Find the best fit for you and what you are needing. As I’ve already mentioned, 90% of the time it isn’t an issue. But like everything else, there will be times during your season when it doesn’t work as you like or becomes a hindrance. Make sure you are paying attention to make sure it’s only a one-off and not a regular thing. When it does go right though, it can be a thing of beauty. This is the right-sided ball-playing defender picking up an assist. Here he hit a proper defence-splitting pass into space for the mezzala to run onto. The mezzala runs onto the ball and slot’s it home. This game was a tight affair too and the only game I scored in this game. So while the ball-playing defenders can be very aggressive with their passing, it can be very beneficial at times. It comes back to the age-old risk vs reward and if you believe the reward outweighs the risk. I’m actually a huge fan of the changes to the match engine this year, especially the ball-playing defender. They are now real tools to use against sides and can help break sides down or open them up, with passes like those highlighted above. The Midfield and Attack The idea here is that the inverted wingers on both sides, will cut inside and allow the full-backs to overlap them. This allows us to create central overloads with the on-rushing roaming playmaker and mezzala. If we can’t overload the central areas then it allows the full-backs to provide the width and frees up space for them. You can customise the inverted wingers too, to give you all different kinds of various styles of play. I’m just using both inverted wingers with the default settings. But if I wanted I could focus even more on central overloads if I wanted by asking them to sit narrower and even hold up the ball. If I made this change I’d likely go with more aggressive wingbacks over fullbacks too, to make most of the space that would be vacated out wide. But I left them to default as I didn’t want to become too one-dimensional and try and force the narrowness too much. I want the formation to be very fluid, flexible and attack in various ways. While maintaining a high level of possession. If I allowed them to be more narrow then I’d likely have to rethink the roles of the central midfielders too. The central two would have less space to play into due to how much more compact we’d become. This might see us retain the ball much better in the final third and make the numbers much greater. But we would be less varied in our play. Not that we don’t retain the ball well now, as we do. But more in the sense, we could be keeping too much of it and not doing much with the ball. Whereas now I think the balance is much better. We still have width, runners from deep going forward into space and so on. But you could easily make the changes I mentioned above and still retain possession, just in a different way than how I retain possession. Neither is better than the other and it all depends on what you are wanting from your tactic. I just want to point out that you can achieve the same as me in many different ways. I don’t want to jump too far ahead but this example is too good not to show. In this game, I was playing a side possessed with speed, so I was slightly more cautious and asked the defensive line to drop off. This helps us with balls over the top and just adds a protective layer to the defensive line. I also instructed them to pass into space too, so the attacking players can run onto balls behind, rather than having the ball played to their feet. This is useful against sides who mark your players tightly or play a high line. I only made these changes for this specific match though. One of the other changes was I used an advanced forward instead of a false nine. Again this was strategic because the opposition was using a defensive line and an aggressive press. The false nine in these kinds of games can become somewhat limited with what they do, due to them dropping deep initially. As the defence is pushed up the false nine has less space to play in. What that means is that the space for the striker to play in is now behind the defensive line and not in front of it, like in lower defensive lines. To take advantage of that I use a striker role that stays high up the pitch and can push the defensive line back or feed off defence-splitting passes and is happy to keep running in behind them. The main reason for this is I don’t want the centre to be too congested as that makes it hard for us to play our possession game and eliminates a lot of our running from midfield. Which is the DNA of our play style. In the above screenshot, the goalkeeper regained possession of the ball and then plays it out instantly to the ball-playing defender. Now here you can see the space we created for ourselves by the defensive line dropping off when the opposition had possession of the ball. This has given us a lot of space and time for the roaming playmaker to utilise his skillset. It might look slightly disjointed and have too much space between players, especially in the midfield. But this is our own making by telling the defensive line to drop off. But it doesn’t matter much due to what the roaming playmaker role does. He drives forward with the ball and makes things happen. He also has options outwide with the full-backs providing the width So the ball-playing defender receives the ball and then plays it to the roaming playmaker. Due to the opposition holding a high line, look at all the space the fullback has down the left because the inverted wingers and striker are occupying the defenders. Also, do you notice the mezzala sitting higher than usual in the half-spaces? This is also a new change for Football Manager 23. The mezzala and central midfielders on attack duty now generally sit higher compared to past versions of the game. So don’t expect them to sit as deep as the roaming playmaker, deep-lying playmaker etc. The roaming playmaker sees that we can attack down the wing and plays a ball out to the fullback. As you can see, the roaming playmaker didn’t perhaps choose the ball we all thought he would and chose a much more difficult one to pull off. Well, I say difficult, I mean in length. The yellow box would have been the easiest option for a pass and would have played it straight to the full-backs feet. But wait a minute........remember we added pass into space. We are seeing this be played out here in this exact move. We’ve got the numbers advantage here. So once the fullback gets the ball he plays it to the inverted winger who is acres and acres of space. He then plays it straight back down the wing for the fullback to run onto. The inverted winger carries on his run and the fullback finds him again with the pass. But the inverted winger is in open space and unmarked and slots the ball home to make it 1-0. I wanted to highlight this goal to show the variety in how we play. From our own goalkeeper to a goal in 5 passes. Every single one of them accurately into space for the player to run onto, rather than the ball played at their feet. It also showcases the combination play that we build down this left-hand side too. The inverted winger and fullback linked up multiple times and both continued their runs. Allowing us to use the space that the move has created. If you look at the other players positioning too, you can see they’re all arriving in the box at different stages. At this point, the opposition's defensive line is nonexistent and all over the place. But Cleon, this isn’t possession!! Well it is, I still have to use the ball well and not just have possession for the sake of it. This is highlighting what we do with the ball. But let’s wrap the article up now with how we retain the ball rather than how we use it and show some stats. This is what my average possession stats look like for the end of the first season. Not bad considering we were predicted to get relegated out of the playable leagues, meaning it would have been game over! We were predicted to finish 11th out of 12th, so to create this possession tactic and get these numbers is impressive. Remember I also play attributeless so I have no idea how good my players actually are or what their attributes/potential is. As star ratings are also removed. Retaining the Ball How we retain the ball and pass it about is actually simple, it’s all about space and movement. The ball has progressed again from the ball-playing defender to the fullback. The inverted winger has started to run to create space and the roaming playmaker is also moving forward too. But should the pass not be on to any forward player, all players on this side are in close proximity to each other. Meaning they can easily retain the ball and someone will always be free and open for the pass, should they need it. Here the inverted winger has received the ball and is now facing away from the goal. But the rest of the players are also advancing up the pitch too, giving him several passing outlets. It’s vital that players move up and down the pitch together, passing and moving. This is still the same move and you can see how far up the pitch we have progressed but as a team. Now though, the fullback has provided the overlap allowing the inverted winger to stay deeper to receive the ball. The inverted winger receives the ball but is pressed, so plays the safe option back to the ball-playing defender. Suddenly we have the potential to bring more players into play now, as people have started running towards the goal and becoming a threat. A pass from the ball-playing defender to either the halfback or inverted winger and the entire pitch opens up. It doesn’t matter which side of the pitch we are on, the same thing happens. The tactic posted at the start all works because of a few key factors; We move up the pitch together We move down the pitch together Pass and move Players going beyond those in possession These aren’t all the key factors but these are vital for us and the core of it all. Our team instructions are what is allowing us to mainly play like this too. And then the player roles and duties used, give us added variety. That’s why we can go from being cautious and retaining possession like in the above screenshots and staying as a unit. To be able to score in 5 passes from the goalkeeper, as we showed a bit further up the article. Playing a possession game doesn’t have to be all about short passing, you can also be very direct at times too. You can also be risky too like the ball-playing defenders are. It’s all about finding the right balance for everything and that’s what I’ve done above. Hope you’ve enjoyed the article. Any questions, you can ask them below or on our socials.

I wrote this a while back and it's one of the chapters in my book. You might find it helpful as a detailed response to your question and might give you a different take on things @woolymuffler Game Strategies Before I start with my own plan b’s let's have a look at some of the game plans that other people might or could use. Before a game A second formation is something people often use when they feel a team will play a certain way based on the pre-match odds, scout's reports and the analyst's reports. Others might just take a stab in the dark and decide they need to change shape based on how they believe the team will play irrespective of what the reports or odds are. The use of team instructions is also another popular one, people might add more of them or remove some if they already use various ones. One of the reasons for adding or removing them is to either counter or nullify a possible threat. The use of player instructions also ties in with the above and people might want specific players to do something slightly different from normal for the reasons highlighted above. Changing player roles seems to be one that I see people talk about frequently. They’ll change the role to get the player to change the way the team usually plays. Again it comes back to trying to take advantage of a possible opposition weakness or to cover the weakness of the user's tactics. Match plans are not something I see people talk about but they can be used to create a specific set of rules for certain points or circumstances in a game. You can use them for certain scenarios you anticipate might happen. Using different players is one I see from the odd time. Someone might use a slightly more defensive/attacking player for a particular game because of a certain type of danger or to take advantage of a weakness in the opposition's lineup. Player selection can also be used to target certain individuals in the opposing team. Those are some of the ways people do and can utilise certain tools available, as well as showing a variety of ways to play before a game has even started. Some users even do more than one of the above before games. During a game Some of the changes you can make during a game follow a similar pattern to the above. Changing the shape during a game is a drastic change. Nonetheless, a lot of users still seem to do this. They change shape to either protect a lead and see out the game or because they are chasing a result. A change of shape can see them be more aggressive or passive. You can use team instructions to change the style of play and to either try and win the game, protect a lead or even take advantage of a weakness in the opposition. They can also be used to cover up your own weaknesses. If you want something just as effective but less drastic than affecting all your players like team instructions though, you could attempt to use player instructions instead. These allow you to tailor players and select different instructions which are available depending on which role and duty someone has to give you something different that you might currently lack. Swapping player roles is also another good one to use as it allows you to make players more or less aggressive depending on what you need. If you want to hang on to that 2-0 lead but your midfield is very aggressive and leaving lots of space to be exploited, then a quick role or even duty change can make all the difference. One of the other things people do is make tactical substitutions and swap out those players who might be underperforming, tired or just because you feel someone else might do a better job. There are other ways to change games too but these seem to be the most common ways that get discussed. None of them is better than the other and they all can be viable options to utilise at some stage. Which, though, tends to be based on the user's playstyle and which fits best with that. Some of the above are what I class as really extreme though, especially changing shape during a game. I understand why people do it but it’s not something I’d ever contemplate doing but that doesn’t mean those who do, are wrong. It just doesn’t suit my own playstyle. My Own Playstyle and Strategies So how do I play the game? I don’t micromanage half as much as people believe I do. I’m more of a subtle change kind of game. In reality, my plan A is my plan B, C and everything after. Obviously, if I’m creating a tactic then I take a slightly more hands-on approach until I believe it’s balanced enough and offers me the style of play I was aiming for. After that point, it’s all about keeping it as simple as possible in order to fly through the seasons in the quickest possible time. What this means for me is that, if I make changes it’s purely based on what my own players are or aren’t doing. I totally ignore the opposition and just focus on my own side, some might think this is strange because AI is a big part of the game and they’d be correct. However, you don’t always have to set out to play the perfect game and adapt constantly for the AI. You can make subtle changes to achieve this and you don’t always need to be drastic. Also by focusing on your own side, you can stick to the style or brand of football you are creating without constantly trying to adapt and match the opposition. This allows me to stick to my own game plan. Giving up space to the opposition is fine, in fact, giving up space, in general, doesn’t have to be a bad thing as long as your side is doing everything you want them to do. This is what I focus on. If my sides do what I want and expect of them, then in 90% of situations I will get a result. Let’s break it down and give a few examples of how I adapt in-game for certain situations. Before I play I never change anything. I stick with whatever my base formation is and choose the best starting eleven I can field. This means I don’t look at the match odds, I don’t pay much attention to the scouts or analyst reports and. There is no adding or removing of team instructions, or player instructions and I don’t even change player roles. In-game changes During a game, I don’t tend to tweak much truth. I try my best to stick to the things my team does well, even if I go behind in a game. If I go behind in a game then the context and the manner in which I am currently playing is the most important thing. Even if I go 2-0 down, the context of why is everything. You can be playing extremely well and go behind due to bad luck, or just for the fact, the opposition made a great move. It happens and at times no matter how well you are playing, you have to accept you’ll concede goals against the run of play. If a game isn’t going well though or I am chasing a result then I do have a hierarchy of sorts that I try to follow; Substitutions. Player instructions. Role change Mentality change Team Instructions. That’s the order I tend to follow. If I get to 3, 4 or 5 on the list then **** has really hit the fan. I’ve not used any of those in any of my saves so far for quite some time though. I tend to stick to the first two mainly as it’s simpler for the style and the way I play the game. Substitutions 90% of the changes I do in games are based on substitutions. For me, this is my playstyle and allows me to influence or change games by doing substitutions. The way I squad build and develop players allows me to use this as a tool because I don’t buy/develop players who play the same position and are similar to what I already have. What I like to do is either find or develop players who will play the role differently from what the others who I have in the squad play. Rather than getting hung up about someone not having role suitability or that the attributes determine a player can’t play a role, I focus on the opposite. Football Manager isn’t restricted just because someone can’t play a role based on the suitability on their profile screen. Any player can play anywhere, you’ll just find his decision-making may take a hit and it’s not up to the standard of someone more familiar with the role. However, that doesn’t mean he can’t play it and cannot be successful or good at it. If someone has the attributes to play a role he doesn’t have listed in his profile, still play him there. It’s the attributes that make up the skill set of a player so he will be fine. If we take the striker as an example and for argument's sake say he is a creative (creative as in player attributes) advanced forward. I will build a squad in a way that allows me to also have two other types of players who can play as my advanced forward too and each one of them brings a different skill set. The other two players I utilise in that role could be, one of them offers me a more physical presence and is more akin to a target man above all else. He’s like a battering ram. The other one is your more stereotypical advanced forward. Each one will play the role vastly different and give you a new take on the role. Now if I was chasing a result and needed to change things around and I knew the advanced forward position wasn’t doing what I wanted, I’d make a change. The player I brought on though would depend on what I felt was the right move. If the creative player was being bullied then obviously I’d bring on the target man type of player so he didn’t get bullied as much and could hold his own. But if I felt I just needed a simpler method and nothing too fancy and flash, in other words, nothing too specific then I’d revert to the good old-fashioned type of advanced forward instead. That’s just one example and I don’t restrict myself, it could be any player I changed really. It all depends on the context of the game and which players I felt were struggling to do what I expected. This is why I build to bring in and develop different kinds of players, so I can have a lot of variety on the side with players I can bring on in any position and they’ll offer me a different take on that role. Another example might be that of my defensive midfielders. I have the usual type of player for the role but I also have a very creative player who lacks the usual defensive skills for the role. But more than makes up for it with his creativity. I tend to bring him on if I feel my defensive midfield is doing okay but getting caught in possession time and time again and slowing our play down. I might also use him if I feel that the defensive midfielder is struggling for time on the ball. I’d sacrifice the defensive side of things for someone who can distribute the ball better and might be a calmer head under pressure while having the ball at his feet. Now I could simply do a role change but that would usually impact how my tactic functions and would have massive knock-on effects elsewhere. So changes like that are usually the last resort and why do I change the player instead. It’s all about finding what works and fits in the way you play the game to simplify things for yourself. If you were watching me play the game and I made a substitution you’d likely just think I was changing a player and don’t realise it would be a tactical tool that I was using. And switching things up to get a different outlook. It would be very subtle but in most cases, would make a huge change to how the role was functioning before. That’s my number one method. For my second way we look at; Player instructions There is nothing fancy or complicated here but rather than impact the entire team and use team instructions, I might focus on an individual from time to time if I see them doing things I don’t like. An example would be if my midfielder was getting pressed heavily and didn’t really have time on the ball but he had short passing. I might decide that going more direct might help him better and release him from the pressure he is currently under. So depending on the situation or scenario, this would impact what I change. This isn’t something I do frequently though and in my current save is something I’ve only done four times in six seasons.Nonetheless, it’s still an option. Role/Duty changes Now we are treading squeaky bum territory and things are starting to go very wrong. Things aren’t that bad yet but they’re well on the way to being disastrous at this point. So if my usual methods highlighted above had not worked then I’d look at changing player roles to give me whatever I was currently lacking but this has drawbacks too. In most cases, my tactics are set up to play a specific way and what might seem like a simple role change would mean somewhere else, another role was likely to be changed. An example would be if my roaming playmaker was having a rough time and he usually is the one supplying the ball from midfield to the front players. Not necessarily being a creator as such but more that he was the link and the one bridging the gap from midfield to attack. If I changed his role to let's say, a central midfielder on a support duty then the whole dynamic of what the player offers the team changes. It’s clear that what usually works wasn’t either and a change has to be made so now he’s a CM support. What I then have to look at is how does this impact the forward players? If they struggled to get a ball from the roaming playmaker but were seeing it the odd time, how are they now going to get the ball from the CM support? He’ll not link in the same way, which was one of the reasons I initially changed him from an RPM. But exactly how does the CM fit into the current play and now where does the supply come from, to the front players. I need to identify this and see if it’s going to be a major issue and then begin addressing it. My options would be seeing if any of the other midfielders could possibly supply them the ball and if they can, how does this impact how we usually play and how do we make it work. Another option may be asking a striker to come deeper for the ball but then again I have to ask who is then scoring the goals? Sure, a deep striker can score goals but now the way we attack has totally changed which will impact how we score. While you can make this work, for me, this is one of the most complicated changes I’d make. It’s probably one of the most drastic things to do that is on my list. But it’s not at the bottom of the list for one very simple reason, sometimes, just a simple duty change can be enough. You can make the player more/less aggressive with a quick duty change. To give you a quick example, if we go back to the striker coming deep. Let’s say we started out that way and I felt the defensive unit of the oppositions were having an easy time because my striker was dropping off, so they didn’t really have any defensive duties to do. I’d maybe give the striker an attack duty if possible and instantly he would be higher up the pitch and suddenly the opposition's defenders would now be occupied. A duty change is a lot more subtle than a full role change and in most cases has less drastic consequences elsewhere because the role is still essentially the same, it’ll just be starting higher up the pitch or lower down depending on the duty. Mentality Changing mentality is relatively simple and you can change the way you are playing in an instant. However, you need to remember that it changes it for everyone on the side and will impact your defensive line and tempo as well. The higher the mentality the more risks you’ll take and the lower the mentality the fewer risks you’ll take. But this is far down my list due to me normally creating a specific style of play and changing mentality would change everything on the side yet again and mean I’ve possibly strayed away from my style. Now I know what you’re thinking, stop being a stubborn ***** and change if it's needed and you’d be correct. However, I am trying to keep things simple and change as little as possible. So this doesn’t really fit that due to how it changes every player's behaviour as we spoke about at the very start of the book. Team instructions Team instructions are a great tool to use but again this falls in line with the above, I’m not keen on using things that change the entire team's behaviour unless I really have to. This for me is the last option I’d use and is my ‘out of ideas’ approach. Now I understand how the team instructions work and I understand what they actually change under the hood but for me, it’s still a farce using them. I’ve normally got team instructions selected more than likely anyway based on the style I was creating. Adding more or removing them would take me away from that style or add another layer of complexity to things which I can do without. So this is how I approach games and think and view the game. It’s probably a lot less micromanaging during games than you were expecting though right? I guess that stems from the guides I normally do but you have to remember, those are normally targeting those who struggle with certain aspects, want to learn more about how the game works or discuss certain footballing philosophies and concepts. So they go into more details than your usual stuff.

Before the game I had them setting up like this; Looks like it was pretty close to what you was seeing. Kind of tricky with things like this though because at various different stages the midfielders for example, were probably a mixture of all the roles. So is harder to define If I do a recreation myself, I usually pinpoint a specific phase of play or a specific moment as I think they're much easier to define. But yeah there is so many different ways to achieve things from roles, duties and even shapes. Like the England one, you could easily recreate that from a 4141 as the base and so on.

Remember these are just a bit of fun to give people a chance of working from a decent base. Iran will likely set up something like this today and morphing into a 433 when in attack. They don't usually have much play centrally, it usually comes down the wings. The right back, right winger and right sided midfielder often overload the right side of the pitch. They also look to hit direct balls to the striker playing on the shoulder of the defence and hoping he do a bit of magic. It's all about the vertical play for Iran though. Surprisingly they also like to press high and win the ball back in the oppositions half if they can. EDIT - Looks like they've gone for something really different today;

They usually play 433. They only defend in a 442 during certain phases of play when they lose the ball centrally or are forced inside. The actual formation they use though is 433 that turns into 424 in attack and a very rigid 442 during certain phases.