Muja

Actually, yes. I know it's a weird option... But in my tests, it works. Look at this formation: https://imgur.com/h3E9SSQ And this is the results I obtained with it: https://imgur.com/URWWvDJ You could think it was a fluke, but it's worked in many other tests, too! I've had terrible luck with the presets. Like, terrible. Good teams performing horribly with the style suggested by the assistant. I started my tests to find something that works, and this is what I came up with.

Thank you, glad I could be of help! With some of my most recent tests, I think I've found even better instructions for the defensive tactic. Small changes, but still, much more effective. I'll do some more and then update the main post.

NOTE: The aim of this guide is for new players to be able to have the fun of creating a tactic that can be whatever the shape they want, while advising them on what instructions can win them more matches. The tips I am about to give you will NOT allow you to rout AI and lead a team that should be fighting for relegation to win the league title. More importantly, this is not the only way to succeed in this fantastic game. It's just one of many, and surely not even the best one. Someone who actually knows how to make good tactics, specifically tailored to his players, will achieve BETTER results. BUT this tips will be enough to allow you to: choose any shape; 4231, 442, 352, 343, you name it! achieve positive results, often above expectations for your team ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello everyone! I have been playing Football Manager for twenty years, since it was still called "Championship Manager". And yet, I'll tell you right now: I am NOT an expert in tactics. Everything I know (and would like to pass on to you with this post) comes from hours and hours of testing I do every year to find out what works best in the ME of the newest version of the game. Testing that I have also just completed for FM24, on the early access version, and am sharing with others for the first time. And yes, things may change slightly when new patches come out, but much of the advice I'm about to give you has been working since FM21, so I hope this guide doesn't become obsolete too soon. The Basics Football Manager allows you to save as many as three different tactics, but in my case you only need two: an offensive one, and a defensive one. It is recommended that both have the same shape, because this will speed up the familiarity level of your players, with a few exceptions that I will tell you about later. You can use the third tactic to train players in a different shape, just in case. Team Instructions There are team instructions that are not only good for both tactics, but I personally highly recommend in general. Shorter passing: this is new in FM24, but with the new ME and positional play, in my tests it turns out that this instruction is better to have than not to have it. Pass into space: this instruction is very good since FM21; it basically makes your players pass the ball forward, and NOT on the feet of their teammates; useful for attacking spaces Play out of defence: this is also an instruction that works much better in the new ME; to do without it is to deprive oneself of a powerful weapon for the struggle of ball possession Run at defence: this instruction works very well with short passing; without it, your players would end up missing passes when they have no options, thus losing possession; this instruction will NOT tell all your players to dribble the opponent like madmen, but to move forward with the ball when they have no passing options Roll it out: this instruction tells your goalkeeper not to throw the ball forward haphazardly; this, too, is useful so you don't lose possession unnecessarily distribute quickly: this instruction also tells your goalkeeper to pass the ball quickly, and not to wait for the opponents to reposition themselves in defense counter: there's really no reason not to attempt a nice counterattack as soon as you win the ball; whether you want to attack or defend, it's a great way to catch the opponent's defense unprepared Trigger press: more often and Get stuck in: I think you should always press a little, because whether you want to defend or attack you NEVER want to be too passive in defense; also "get stuck in" could increase the number of yellow cards, but I think it's worth it (you can and should turn it off if the referee is being particularly harsh, though) Shape, Roles and Duties Let's start with this: any shape can work, you can choose whatever you want (depending on your players and roster, of course). What's really important are roles and duties. Football Manager allows you to choose from a wide range of roles for your players, but some are statistically more effective than others. DC: Ball Playing Defenders on defend; in defense, they don't behave much differently from the more common central defenders, but they can handle the ball much better and help you with keeping possession, even if they have low attributes in technique and passing. I don't really know why, but they do. Wings: it is essential to have ONE player on each flank who creates width; wing-backs and wingers do exactly this, but if you place them both on the same flank one of the two must be inverted; Inside forwards have mixed performances this year too DM: if you have one, a Dm-su or Dm-de are very good; they occupy space in front of the defense and are reliable, as well as very useful for defending against teams that use an AMC if you have two, you can add a Segundo Volante; this role performs very well again this year, providing both defensive solidity and attacking support, just like a Box to Box midfielder CM: Cm-at and Mez-at are very efficient roles; in particular, if you don't have an AMC, they will rise to the limits of the opponent's box and occupy its place; the mezzala can help to provide width, but I find that for that it is still better to rely on real wing players Box to Box midfielder is still very good, and for him what was said for the volante applies (even if he seems a little less effective in defense) So, if you only have two players as CM, you can use a Cm-at + BtB partnership; I would advise against using three CMs in a flat line; better to drop one in DM position, and then use both CMs as Cm-at, or Mez-at if you need more width and support on the flanks (like, for example, if you don't use AML/R) AMC: there is one role here that performs much better than any other, and that is the Shadow Striker; ignore the description: each player will play this role in their own way depending on their attributes; a creative player will make many assists, one more skilled in off-the-ball movement and finishing will focus on scoring goals AF-At: whether alone or in pairs, you can never go wrong with an Advance Forward The new roles that come with this year's edition (the new Libero and inverted full-back) are also very good, BUT they require a good understanding of tactics and positional play when in possession. Sorry, but I can't help you there! Offensive Tactic This is the tactic you should use when playing against a team less strong than yours, in a match you are expected to win. When using a big team, you will mostly want to use this one. Use the positive mentality; in the past I would have always recommended using "attacking", but lately I found that mentality to be a little too offensive and should only be used when you are desperately looking for a goal higher tempo and work ball into box; they will ensure that your players try to move the ball quickly towards the opponent's goal, without shooting from too difficult positions High press, Prevent Short GK distribution and Drop Off More when out of possession; you can get away with using the infamous gegenpress combo (high press, higher defensive line, step up more, much higher trigger press) only when you have a top team with a long roster and quality subs, otherwise don't bother: the players will quickly become exhausted, and the results will stop coming; the instructions written above achieve a good compromise between intensity and defensive solidity (but it's still quite demanding, so be sure to rotate your players when possible) If you have players in the AM strata, it's a good idea to give them attack duty. You're attacking, you want players looking to score. Defensive Tactic You can use this tactic when you face a team much stronger than yours, or when you want to defend a lead. Keep in mind that there is no certain way to absolutely prevent your opponents from scoring, especially if they are the stronger team; but you will certainly limit the goals conceded. On the other hand, if you have world-class defenders and want to be a Simeone or Allegri style manager, this can become your primary tactic. This type of tactic is usually more difficult to recreate, because many don't understand one thing: in FM, the best way to defend is to play possession football. This doesn't mean that you want to win the possession battle: you just want to play it safe and take fewer risks, with patience and even wasting time in the process. It's true that defensive teams usually look for a quick turnaround as soon as they recover the ball... but that's what the "counter" command does. Outside of those situations, you want to keep the ball and not throw it away randomly. Use the cautious mentality; if you feel like you're still taking too many risks, go "defensive" slightly lower tempo, be more disciplined and narrow attacking width; these instructions will ensure that your team defends as a single block, and that in possession of the ball they do not take unnecessary risks Regroup in transition: when you lose the ball, you want your players to line up in an orderly defense as soon as possible Low Block and Drop off more will make your team harder to pierce by putting many men behind the ball line If you have players in the AM strata, you could give them support duty. Previously I told you that the two tactics should maintain the same shape, but if you have the right players it may be useful to lower the position of the AMs on the midfield line (AML/R --> ML/R, AMC --> MC) because they will be much more useful in defense, while still pushing forward when attacking. Likewise, it can be helpful to add a DM. Conclusions And that's all, folks! Tactical experts may turn up their noses at some of my advice, or say (rightly so) that there are more effective ways to set up a tactic. And, in fact, by following my advice you WILL still LOSE some games. If you want to win every match with a low-ranking team, the web is already full of tactics that you can download, plug and play. But if winning all the time bores you and you'd rather be able to choose your own shape, tweak with instructions and still get good results, then I hope these tips will be useful to you. Let me know how it goes! If you have better tips, share them here! And good game to everyone.

QME, unfortunately. I realized after a while that the results thus obtained are not reliable because they are not in full detail. That's why I did it again, this time with the top 5 first divisions in full detail! In the same google drive folder I linked, there's now a new file called "Silent Observer - 2035 - Full Detail". This is not that far into the future, and with full detail I think the results are even better, tbh. I mean, I'm sure it could be better, but if you pick a random team and become their manager, you'll see they all have balanced rosters and enough quality to fulfill their expected position in the league. I think I haven't found even a single team which made me think "wow this roster is terrible, AI really f@@@ up here". And I think that's a great improvement over past editions. LOOOL! I'm happy they're still playing football in 3024!

I should preface this by saying that I selected only the first division of the top five nations as playable, and none of them were simulated with full level of detail. I chose to do it this way so that the simulation would be faster, but I will probably do another test with full level of detail to see if things change substantially. That said - what does the game world look like in 2043? Perfectly fine. This is my answer. The average age of the teams seems in line with reality, the skill of the players too! The big teams have strong players in their starting lineups, as you would expect, and their rosters are well constructed. But even mid-tier teams have good rosters, with the occasional champion popping up now and then. Basically, my impression is that the AI transfers are very good. Of course, without the editor or other programs to examine the data exactly, this is just my eyeball impression. Therefore, I decided share my savefile so that those who want to can try it themselves. Perhaps someone with a greater inclination to examine the data will be able to draw more in-depth conclusions. Here's the link: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1ALhrBp4YLUCCVOwNNF0YZORL5Pl7nZRF And good game to everyone!

I’ve tested preset Gegenpress for 4-5 matches with Palermo in Italian Serie B (no transfers) and frankly it doesn’t appear OP to me. What often happens is that my team starts strong but eventually concedes a lot in the second half of the game… which makes sense, as it’s a very demanding tactic and the players eventually get tired. I’ve had better success by using it sparingly during a match, and then get back to the vertical tiki-taka preset.

I just conceded this goal. https://imgur.com/a/8ZgBzYX I laughed so hard I'm not even mad

Well, we MUST leave some decision-making to ourselves, otherwise we might as well simulate the whole season! Though I’ve heard that the Gegenpress preset is a little OP? I’m avoiding it for now, but I might use it when I’m looking for a comeback in a match

I feel you. I, too, hate it when I can get unrealistic results with my team. In my opinion, that always comes down to two things: transfers: human players are much better than AI in managing transfers; after a few years, human teams are filled with strong players and potential wonderkids in every position (which is unrealistic, by the way) tactics: human players always find a way to make up tactics that exploit the ME, allowing them to win consistently even when they have weaker players; this only gets worse when they start having stronger players than everyone else With these two aspects in mind, this year I want to limit myself so that my transfers are made by the AI. And about tactics, I didn't say this before but I decided to limit myself to using only and exclusively preset tactics, with perhaps minor adjustments as needed. That way I should compete on a level playing field with the AI, and hopefully that will make my career and results more realistic. I will probably get sacked more than a few times, but for me that is also part of the game

Lol, man, your game mode is harder than it would be to start a real football coaching career! I mean, even starting with all the stats at 1 is like, in the game you're a person who has never played - not even seen! - a football game, and suddenly decides to be a coach! Ahah! Perfect! All I want to do is tell my Director, "Hey I need a left fullback!" without even giving him a name, and see who they get me! More or less like coaches do IRL, I guess!

Wow, you’re going at it HARD! Awesome! I’m not starting as low as you, as I plan to (hopefully) make it to the big teams eventually, but I also don’t plan on ever making my own transfers. on that note, can you still tell your talent scouts what kind of player you’re looking for? During staff meetings, maybe? So they’ll at least buy me a central midfielder if I need one

Hello everyone! To test the new beta I decided to start an experiment that I have NEVER tried before in at least twenty years of my (somewhat) honored career in Football Manager. Basically, trying to achieve as much realism as possible, I decided to: - delegate ALL extra-football aspects to the management and staff, including entry/exit transfers even of the senior team; in practice I will deal exclusively with the tactical aspects of the team, as IRL coaches do, and only give final confirmation to transfers - adopt the advice found in this thread by DaveIncid to have a save that is as realistic as possible even 10-20 in-game years later. I'll also start my career in Italian Serie B (though this is something that I usually do as I like to start my career from the bottom). What are your thoughts on this? Has anyone ever tried something like this? If so, how did it work for you? And if not, are you interested in the outcome? If you are, I'll keep you updated

We think alike, then!

Okay, after a few hours of play I feel like giving feedback as well. Many people have already expressed their satisfaction with the new ME, so I have nothing more to add. What I am very happy about is something that I don't know if it was introduced this year (since I haven't played FM22 and FM23). But the preset tactics in my opinion are at a perfect level. They are good enough to allow you to make the team play the way you want right away, but not good enough to allow you to dominate the league without the slightest effort. I'm someone who has never liked "winning big" with lesser teams (because in my eyes it is simply not realistic), so this is something I am very happy about. I think I will count on these tactics to keep me from coming up with some game-breaking tactic that risks making my experience too easy, unrealistic, and therefore less fun.

Which is never possible anyway

Oh, I absolutely agree with you. I always strike for realism. I might actually lean on the other extreme: if I could decide, rather than allowing the AI to be on par with human players, I’d completely prevent the players from filling their teams with wonderkids because it’s simply not possible (or very, very hard) IRL.

I think the problem is that human teams eventually ARE filled with wonderkids. Is it realistic? Not at all, but it’s still possible for human players, and AI falls short compared to them. I think it’s a matter of preventing human players from creating unrealistic rosters, or allowing the AI to do the same to keep up the challenge.

Oh no, this brings back bad memories from the past…

Yep, I admit I did. I've been playing FM mobile in the past two years. Seems like I missed an edition I would have liked very much! Lol

I'm currently downloading the game. My only gripes about past editions of FM were mainly about the lack of central play, and the drastic decrease of difficulty after 10+ in-game years, when AI-controlled teams begin to have weaker, non-competitive rosters. But from what I've seen and what I've read in the list of new features, it seems that both problems have been addressed, and I can't wait to find out how. I haven't been this excited about a new FM in years!!!

Wow, this looks sooo good!

Yes, I can confirm I've found this bug too. And I've also noticed that even if you change a player's CA or PA, some attributes won't change no matter what, especially strenght, speed and stamina.