crusadertsar

@dzek @Maddux With all due respect it's not really an exploit. More of the intended use of shadow striker. If anything it's how Shadow Strikers usually work in real life. Offset to one side from the real striker to better move into space that's liberated by the positioning and movement of your #9 player. It's been something that also worked very well in all versions of FM since FM2014 when SS role was first introduced. So not exploit at all. Just smart tactical positioning. Sort of like playing with flat midfield 3 in narrow diamond where your Mezzalas will work better by moving wider into halfspaces if you play them with CM(s) with hold position in the middle. This was the presence of this player will naturally push the two Mezzalas (or carrileros wider without need for any other tactical instructions). Incidentally, I'm currently using offset Shadow Striker in my own Narrow Diamond 442 and he is scoring very well but not excessively, so as not to overshadow my AF. Which is very realistic. The combo of AF/PF(S)/SS had been great in FM24 but not gamebreaking.

None whatsoever. I never use any opposition instructions. Never saw the need for that kind of micromanagement as my tactics tend to work just fine without. That 4-0 Man City win - no opposition instructions. Smart use of shouts, strategic team instruction adjustments (such as tempo changes or removing build from back to better deal with high pressing teams) and late subs to throw in some fresh attackers when the opposition is tired are the things that win those types of games for you. Not opposition instructions. Your players don't follow them very well anyway and they tend to do more harm than good. In my experience. They do work for some people, mind you. BUT you have to really know what you are doing and adjust every little minute detail for each opposition (and often make multiple adjustments during same match). And depending on which of your players are playing. Same as with set pieces. They can make a positive impact but takes a lot of work and time to get right. And if done half-assed can do more harm than good.

Yup. Just finished 2nd season with the narrow system. 3rd position again and yet another year of Champions League football coming up. So a success in my books. Still cannot break Real Madrid, Barcelona stranglehold. But that will come eventually with better players. Looking to write about this soon after the holidays.

Don't know what you are talking about. There are plenty of examples of users who play game "realistically",as you say, helping many newcomers with invaluable tactical advice threads that they posted on here for years. Personally, learned to play FM by getting advise from these users on here. I also don't want to throw names around but common, don't tell me that you never got any help from @Rashidi @Cleon @herne79 or @Ö-zil to the Arsenal! among many others.

@avenger22 I actually feel sorry for people like you. Always trying to find the most "munchkin-efficient" way to beat AI in a single player game . It actually ruins the whole football simulation management aspect of the game. Anyway, it would for me. I don't even understand half of the stuff you rumble on about, low intensity tactics being "dumbplay", what? My "dumb" low-intensity, defensive, non-gegenpress tactic beat Man City 4-0 without any of the super efficient "meta" tricks. And I played as Real Sociedad in our 2nd season, not some superclub. But you don't really understand how to create good logical tactics, do you? You know tactics where you actually choose the roles and team instructions because of how they fit your squad or to counter a specific opposition formation. Or you know, just because you want your team to play in a specific way and not just use cookie-cutter high intensity geggenpress instructions with all teams. I feel sad for you because you miss out on the part of this sport simulation where you actually embrace the football manager role and get immersed in the game and make decisions that a real manager would. Creating a tactic to bring out the strengths of his players or because he follows a specific style of football. Example, Jose Mourinho sticking to his pragmatic, defense-first approach to football. In real football you don't see everyone jumping on Guardiola bandwagon because not every team is built like Man City. And other managers have their own tactical objectives they want to follow.

I don't need my PF to drop deeper. Mezzala is the main linking player between our midfield and attack. Although my PF still tends to come deep most of the time because he is very hard working player (Oyarzabal). In my tactic I needed a central striker that would hold up the ball and not move into channels (because AF and Shadow Striker already move into channels). PF(S) is one of the few striker roles that does both of those things. So it was a pretty simple choice.

Yes that's still overpowered. There were threads on here in the past of players overachieving with preset geggenpress only. It's that overpowered.

I dont think you understand the difference between what exploit means in game and overachieving in real life. You can overachieve with any tactic in the game if it fits your players . What "exploiting" is, is using the same set of cookie cutter geggenpress instructions, and I mean literally the same, I see like 100 tactics with same instructions of highest defensive line, highest line of engagement, max pressing geggenpress, get stuck in. And then using those same instructions with any formation really as long as it's top heavy and mostly comprised of attack duties. It will win you most anything with any team. That is not overachieving like in real life, it's more comparable to grown pro footballers playing against a bunch of 10 year olds, because that's equivalent of how AI can handle this. Not fun overachievement if you ask me.

Sure you could bypass. But in my book it carries more risk. And I'm more Mourinho than Guardiola in my management haha. Especially when we are Real Sociedad and we are being pressed by the likes of Haaland. I rather play it safe by not lingering too much in my own zone. It's also like @Manden said depends very much on quality of the players. In 2nd season in game I don't think I have the defenders to dribble against the top teams. But you can definitely play the way you propose.

I don't make any changes when AI is getting tired. Against better opponents, like in that Man City game, I tend to remove "play out of the back", increase the tempo and drop defensive line from high to standard. That's pretty much it. In the game I am not as much of a reactive opponent as Jose Mourinho would be haha. Although I do tend to watch most matches on comprehensive highlights to see how the match develops and not to miss any serious problems.

This is spot on! The main reason that I can't stand Bundesliga right now. And why I have been managing almost exclusively in LaLiga for the last 3-4 versions of FM.

I just meant it as as a shot at meta exploit instructions and players who use them. At this point I see that same combo of attacking mentality and duties and 4-5 team instructions for highest LOE, highest defensive line and counterpress, get stuck in and max closing down. Most of the tactics in the download section here use them. Or if you check on other sites like fmscout. It's not very original. But I guess it wins games and trophies if that is all that FM were for. To me the satisfaction is always in the process of coming up with a tactic and tweaking it endlessly, not using some cookie cutter formula.

Totally agree with this! It's not so much roles but combination of team instructions, mentality and duties. The moment I see attacking mentality with the long list of instructions like ones you showed above (and usually combined with about 5-7 attack duties) I am turned off right away. The tactic creator can claim to win titles with all the underdogs they want, I know exactly what they are doing. And it doesn't interest me. The ultra attacking geggenpress seems to be the meta tactic right now and it's so so boring.

I have had most luck getting Targetman-like behavior from my striker Umar Sadiq playing as AF in narrow diamond tactic. My tactic is more of a fluid counter-attacking system however. Definitely not Route One. I use early crosses instruction though.

Dunno but you should definitely look closer at your player traits and team instructions. It's not what I'm seeing at all. And this type of 433 seems to work for many other people. If anything Positional Play like this is a bit overpowered right now.

It's not about the potential ability as much as the actual quality of player. Examine his attributes and see if he can be useful to you. Star potential can be very misleading and is influenced by overall quality of your team. I assess all of my youngsters and if they don't fit my club DNA then I get rid of them even if they have high potential. A player who has 5 Determination and 4 Teamwork is not gonna get that much better even with 5 star potential. At the same time I have had 2.5-3 star potential youngsters who developed to have important roles in the team. Mind you, I am playing region-specific, Basque-only save so I tend to get milage from players that other FM players would long get rid off.

No it's not buggy. It works how it's supposed to. You just need to set up the tactic to suit the role. I like to create 3-2-5 shape in attack. Meaning I have two IWBs coming into DM space while HB drops back to join CBs. At same time I ask my two CMs to be more aggressive and act like Free 8s. Usually AP(a) and Mez(s). Two IW(s) on flanks with instruction to stay wider. DLF(a) in middle. Works well just as expected.

I'm currently running a tactical experiment where I try different formations to find one that's most conductive to Defence-First Football. Not "defensive" football per say but football that prioritizes defensive side of things and not just running full agro attack mentality, geggenpress meta to overwhelm AI and exploit the match engine. After a few attempts I finally settled on assymetric Narrow Diamond 4-3-1-2 which I find to be very solid. We barely concede goals. Mostly clean sheets and occasional 1-2 goals against tougher opposition. And my goalkeeper recently won World Keeper of the Year award, beating both ter Stegen and Ederson in clean sheets and fewest goals conceeded stats. You can read more about my tactic in link below (it starts on page 2 but I also go into "Defensive" DNA, which you might find helpful, in my 1st post). Hopefully you will find some things that could help in there. Although, mind you, I am playing with a higher quality team in an elite league. My roles and duties are actually very similar to yours but as you will see, everything else, especially team instructions, are very different. You actually don't need to play on Defensive mentality and with lowest line of defence to defend well. If anything it will make you too passive and will allow AI to set up a veritable "killing zone" in front of your goal so then they DO beat you through 1000 crosses and shots. Also, you are giving away the ball to opposition too easily by having both "counter" and "pass into space" selected. What you want to do is use trap instructions smartly, take advantage of your midfield superiority and set up a very tough, compact defence in your own half. Mid-block on steroids if you will.

Nope. None at the moment.

This makes me really happy to see. It's a good sign of things if our primary goal-keeper has won Top World Keeper award. Meaning the tactic is doing something right defensively. I mean Remiro is still a pretty good keeper, just not on the same level as ter Stegen or Ederson. Yet he still managed to beat them in clean sheets and fewest goals conceeded statistics.

Yes. Maybe not pushing the lines higher but taking off short passing and going more direct. Also for me going slower tempo actually works better against teams that are parking the bus. By giving my players more time on the ball, it allows them more chances to pick those stubborn defences apart. Although it's never a sure thing when facing an ultra defensive formation.

Regarding the attributes to focus on, you can read about that in my very first post in this thread. For LaLiga I usually look for minimum 13-15 (same for EPL) in the important attributes. Although higher is always ideal obviously.

A few more reports are trickling in but still not as many as I expected. So ended up doing it manually. Every few months I go through all the national teams (for Spain and France) and scout any Basque youngsters I see. It feels like cheating, although not quite like it I was playing with attribute masking turned off. But I don't know what else to do. I miss the old scouting system we had a few FM versions back. It might have not been as realistic but at least it was easy to set up and worked. And we didn't need to scout player multiple times over weeks just to see all of his attributes. Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

Haha I gotta admit this year it took me longer to settle on a tactic that I really enjoy. Hence the frequent changes. But the 4-0 Man City win (and a few other results since like the most recent 1-1 Real Madrid draw) convinced me that this tactic might be it. It defends well but also does not compromise our attacking potential too much. I always start out with distribute to centrebacks and throw long because I hate losing possession due to long kicks from my keeper. Absolutely hate it. And yes it's a good way to start counterattacks. Play out of defence instruction you have to be more careful with, however. For example, I removed it during both Man City and Real Madrid games because we were facing superior opponents who were pressing us hard in our own half. During such situations "play out of defence" becomes more of a liability. It's also usually a good idea to play with increased tempo in such situation.

I liked managing in 3rd Division in Germany back in the day. Hands Rostock was my go to team whenever i was looking for a save where you bring up club through the leagues. Great blue and white kit too. But they have been Bundesliga 2 for a few seasons now.