Lumbertubs

August 13, 2022

I would imagine via a combination of your wing backs (assuming you're using WBs) on attack to occupy opposition full backs and stretch a defence horizontally.

Then have your 2 AMs running forward into the channels on each side where there should, in theory, be more space thanks to the opposition full backs being forced wider. The AMs should force the centre backs wider leaving more space in the middle for your poacher.

I reckon your 2 CMs would need to be advanced when in possession in the AM strata because someone will need to act as a pivot and play passes into your poacher and AMs through the middle.

EDIT: You could also have one of your CMs running into the channels from deep instead of one of your AMs (so, basically, a mezzala on attack). Bit less predictable that way

August 11, 2022

I just finished reading an Athletic article which talked about real life Ajax signing Lucca as a Haller replacement.

I genuinely had no idea that had happened. This can only mean I'm a team building genius (if not a tactical one) as I did the same thing.

August 10, 2022

Excellent stuff @Draakon

I recently started a save with Ajax on FM22 Touch on nintendo switch. I think my FM management style too often reflects my real life personality (fairly risk averse) and I rarely manage a 'big' club so my tactics in my first season were far too cautious. Came 2nd to Feyenoord by 5 pts. They went on a similar run to your most recent season where they looked unbeatable and it all fell apart in the last 3 games of the season.

Overall I lost 5 games and drew 6 which is criminal for Ajax really. I would dominate these games but my usually reliable players (Haller is usually immense) would miss easy chances. Like I said, my tactic might not have been attacking enough.

Won the cup and made it through the CL group stage which between them almost certainly saved me from the sack.

I'm a few games into my 2nd season now and I'm being a bit more aggressive with my tactic. I was able to re-sign both Onana and Mazraoui as, in my save, neither wanted to leave. I now use Mazraoui (spelling is probably wrong) as a WB on attack and he is getting assists. This is the main change to my tactic. I've still had a couple of games already where I'm dominating possession (66% for example) and xG but all the highlights seem to be opposition attacks. I've managed to win them but not convincingly at all. I suppose that's going to happen every now and then. Thankfully Feyenoord have had a worse start than me.

I use a 4-3-3 with Tagliafico and Mazraoui as my 1st choice FBs and at centre back I rotate between Timber, Martinez, Schurrs and Dan-Axel Zagadou who I signed on a free after his BVB contract expired. He's great. Big and fast and makes for a good BPD. Timber is a little short for a CB but he reads the game brilliantly and can often be found intercepting through balls. Rensch is my back up RB and I signed a Croatian fella called Borna Sosa to share time at LB.

I have Alvarez in the DM spot (with Blind backing him up). Blind was first choice until Alvarez started moaning about playing time. Blind's form was dropping at that point and Alvarez hasn't looked back. He's been really good as a DLP(d). Gravenberch is at left CM (as a mezzala on attack) and Julian Weigl at right CM. Weigl was my very first signing for £15m as I immediately identified the lack of depth in central midfield. He's great too but Gravenberch is something else. Using him as a Mez on attack means he's playing in a similar way as he does for you as an AMC but coming from deeper instead. Klaasen is backing up both CMs with Kenneth Taylor also getting minutes as he's clearly one for the future.

Antony is my inside forward in the AMR spot and Haller plays as a DLF(a). My AML is Reiss Nelson who I signed from Arsenal for £18m after the 1st season. He'd been at Feyenoord during the 1st year but has been fairly inconsistent for me. Seems to prefer playing as an inverted winger on attack rather than support which I'm not sure is right for my system (but, then again, maybe that's me being overly cautious again). I've struggled to get good performances from inverted wingers in the past on other saves. Tadic is still with us. He tends to back up both Nelson and Haller. I'd played him mainly as a winger in the AML spot but, like Nelson, found him to be inconsistent there. However, he did score something like 15 goals so he can't have been that bad.

I sold Berghuis for £30m after the first season as he wasn't really performing. No one has really begun sniffing around my top players yet but it'll happen sooner or later and the reason I chose Ajax is because I like the idea of developing players and always trying to have a succession plan in place. For example, I bought Lorenzo Lucca from Pisa as Haller's long term replacement. He only cost £6.5m but Pisa insisted he be loaned back to them for a season and I couldn't negotiate that clause away so yet to see him in action. I'm trying to groom Naci Unuvar to be a potential Gravenberch replacement although that project has only just started so no idea how that's going to go. He has the attributes, they just need developing.

Wasn't all that impressed with Daramy's attributes so loaned him out to a South Korean team. He was valued at £12m at that point but have recently noticed that has gone up to £30m so maybe he has something after all. If the Reiss Nelson project continues to stall, I might see if I can move him on (given his current value I should be able to get almost double what I paid for him) and let Daramy take over that AML spot. Nelson is only 22 so I will give him a fair chance before giving up. It's probably not his fault. I need to figure out the best role for him. He's fast and can dribble so seems like an obvious inverted winger but can't seem to get more than one good performance from him in a row.

August 3, 2022

His starting position in that clip is alongside Murray who, from what you've said, I'm assuming is the left sided CM and someone you'd prefer to be pressing the opposition CM rather than Bignot. But instead, Murray is hanging back as if he's the one playing as the DM.

That does seem strange. Bignot's running off like an un-neutered dog despite being told to hold position in front of the back four and not having any traits that would result in him acting like that. Sorry, I'm all out of ideas.

August 3, 2022

There's nothing in his profile to suggest he will ignore tactics and do his own thing. He has decent positioning and mentals. His teamwork is ok so he should generally do what he's told.

Making him a DM(d) should solve your issues when you're out of possession but if you want him supporting attacks, that would obviously be a problem.

Probably a stupid suggestion but in the past I have unknowingly had a DM marking a specific opposition player. Before a game I must've told him to mark an opposition AM but forgot to press 'next match only' or whatever that's option called where you can make temporary changes immediately before going into a game. This meant that I had permanently altered my tactic so that my DM was running around after specific players in games where I didn't want him to do that. Is it worth checking you haven't done something similar because that might explain why he's running after a CM like a headless chicken?

August 2, 2022

Others will provide better advice but with both wide men playing as inverted wingers, you might be compressing the play too much into the centre which will likely suit a team playing defensively. This might not leave much space for your AMC to run into or for your lone striker to operate in. The AF will look to move into channels (IIRC) but with play compressed, those channels are almost non-existent

I would try to stretch their back four horizontally and create gaps between their centre halves and full backs for the AMC and central midfielders to exploit. This would likely involve changing one of your wide AMs to perhaps a winger so he stays wider. Following on from that point, I'd be tempted to have one of your CMs getting further forward to take advantage of any gaps you create. If you have your IW and wing back on the opposite side to the winger that will help stretch things further (with overloads on that side which will force defenders over further creating gaps for players to run into on the other side). If you're IW on the overloaded side is any good he will spot those runs and play cross field balls into the space. Their midfielders will be more on the back foot having to worry about runners from midfield rather than just being able to focus on what's in front of them (as it stands, your CMs aren't really penetrating the banks of four).

You might also consider upping the mentality to positive but remember that will have a knock on effect. For example, the WB(s) on a positive mentality is naturally going to get further forward than he will on balanced and you might want to consider removing the overlap left instruction as the change in mentality might mean that becomes too aggressive.

July 29, 2022

OP, what you're experiencing is pretty much what I see with every save I've had on FM22. Its so frustrating and seems to be completely unrealistic.

I start off well and am obviously happy to accept that the AI will eventually start to see me as more of a threat if that success continues. What you'd expect to see in that situation is teams dropping back and defending more which does happen. However, in some games you'll also see opposition starting to play like absolute world beaters and my players suddenly can't complete 5 yard passes.

I also get that bad patches happen with teams IRL but I also think the game is too prone to putting you through long losing streaks. On the PC version, I imagine it's easier to get out of them with morale boosting team talks/player chats but I play Touch on the Switch which leaves me with fewer options. I can only call a team meeting if my Ass Man suggests one.

July 27, 2022

I'm no expert but nothing glaringly obvious stands out from the roles you've chosen for your players. I mean in terms of balance across the team and the number of defensive/supporting/attacking duties. I suspect some of the roles themselves could use a tweak but I'll leave that to others more qualified to comment.

However, I would start by getting rid of all your team instructions and then watching the games on comprehensive highlights or even full match. It can be boring but think of it as an investment. That way you can see what's actually happening and decide whether they're playing in the way you want. You can then introduce team instructions and/or changes in player roles to try to tackle any issues you notice but do so one at a time and see what impact it has. If you're happy with the change, keep it and carry on trying to identify any other issues that might exist. In theory, you should eventually reach a style of play you're happy with.

Hopefully, you'll see some improvement and can then go back to watching games on extended highlights (I wouldn't recommend key highlights at all because you don't learn anything). Bear in mind that, unless you happen to stumble across a tactic which is pure gold, you may have to repeat the above process when the AI begins to treat you as more of a threat and starts playing more defensively against you.

July 22, 2022

9 hours ago, CARRERA said:

Counter asks your players to transition more quickly by immediately moving forward. Shorter Passing, Slower Tempo, Play out of Defence, Work Ball Into Box all favor a slower build up. You have to make a decision here. Transition quickly or build up slow.

Off topic (sorry OP) but I was under the impression that the counter instruction temporarily overrides the usual in possession instructions.

Back to the subject, I basically gave up on FM21 for the very reason that OP talks about. It seemed like no amount of tactical tweaking could overcome what appeared to be a ME issue whereby players would do precisely what OP has described. It's definitely not the case in 22 thankfully. You may want to try telling your full backs to dribble less as well as this should result in more passing/crossing although that would go counter to the WB role which (I think) has dribble more hardcoded in. You may want to consider going with FB(s) with the "get further forward" instruction on or FB(a).

June 17, 2022

12 hours ago, Rashidi said:

That’s a good tactic two support duties (Fb)to keep it safe and the DLF to allow for better buildup. It’s a good system, looks like it works with the players in ur system! And that’s what matters at the end of the day!

Thanks.

Having survived the first season, I'm now just over half way through the second season and find myself in 2nd place. I'm using the exact same system but with some of the TIs tweaked to make things a bit more aggressive (in terms of pressing mainly) now that I'm one of the better teams in the division.

Got myself two new CBs in the close season who are much better than what I had before mainly in terms of mental attributes which has made a huge difference.

June 15, 2022

I recently got promoted to the German 2nd division having won the 3rd division by about 14 points. I was also using a 4-3-3 DM wide which might be the most effective tactic I'd ever utilised. We would control possession, lots of triangles and combinations all over the pitch from front to back, we'd progress the ball forward really quickly and score some really nice goals following intricate 1-2s on the edge of the box.

I assumed this would also work in the 2nd division. 4 points after 10 games suggested otherwise.

After some tinkering, I settled on what is effectively a more defensive version of the 433 by simply bringing the wingers back creating a 4-1-4-1. I was hesitant to do this having read @Rashidipost above (specifically in terms of the lone striker) but it has worked. I'm on course to finish about 8 - 10 points above the relegation zone and if I'd played this system from the start of the season (and assuming I picked up points at the same rate) I would have ended up finishing around 8th - 10th I reckon.

I play Touch on the Switch so posting images is a pain but I play the following:

DLF(a)

IW(s) MEZ(s) CM(a) W(s)

DLP(d)

FB(s) CD(d) CD(d) FB(s)

I use a positive mentality and short passing/standard tempo. I find that this allows us to have decent possession stats while allowing time for the midfielders (particularly the two CMs) to get up in support of the striker. We tend to play narrow in terms of attacking width as we don't need to stretch opposition defences and it means my players are all that bit closer to each other.

I use counter obviously but either regroup or nothing at all for the counterpress option. I like my keeper to play it to my defenders (unless the opposition is trying to prevent that obviously which actually happens less than you'd imagine) and play out of defence.

I use standard LOE and DL (unless away to a top team in which case I drop the LOE to lower) and have a narrow back line. Having said that, defensively we're poor (only the bottom team has conceded more) and that's where I'll need to strengthen in the offseason. My full backs don't seem to be able to stop crosses and opposition strikers often find themselves unmarked in the penalty area. I might need to get a completely new back 4. This is obviously concerning for a promoted team but we seem to score enough to mitigate that.

I found that with overly defensive tactics, we were far too passive. I try to maintain a defensive shape as much as possible to try to mitigate against what appear to be relatively poor defenders.

None of this is perfect and I'm sure others could pick holes in it if they wanted to but the upturn in form since I implemented it has been season (and job) saving. I'll stay up and can then invest some of the tasty prize money coming my way with a view to eventually (maybe in a season or two) progressing back towards my awesome 4-3-3 DM wide tactic that got me promoted and I'm confident will be successful again once I have good enough players for this level.

June 8, 2022

Others are infinitely better qualified to talk about your tactic and possible improvements than I am but, having recently been through what you're going through now (albeit in relation to a promotion from a third tier to second tier), I just had to accept that my players weren't good enough.

In my case, I won promotion via a play off against the team that finished third from bottom in the tier above. Hammered them 5-1 on aggregate and that gave me confidence that I could compete. That confidence soon disappeared and I was too stubborn to bring in loan players. What I should've done is everything I could (inc maxing out the number of loan players I could bring in from bigger clubs) just to avoid relegation in that first season. I'm too stubborn as I prefer to develop my own players rather than someone else's but that attitude cost me. Survive that first season at all costs (whether that be to, for example, your existing player's feelings or your preferred playing style) and then you can gradually go back to whatever your overriding philosophy is once you've consolidated your place in the higher division.

Not saying any of this applies to the OP's situation but the topic is generally about staying up so I thought I'd add my thoughts.

May 19, 2022

@Draakon others have answered your question better than I can but just wanted to know if Blind is keeping up with your team's demanding style (particularly when you're not in possession). Do you have to rest him often? in my (limited) experience, FM22 seems to punish you more than previous versions for playing a higher pressing style in terms of player fatigue.

He's an older player in a team playing a high line and higher pressing. I realise this impacts on other positions more than his but it's not like he's being asked to play as a FB on defend. As a wing back (even on support) he's gonna be expected to get up and down a bit. I'm just wondering if he suffers from fatigue more than most which can then affect his performances (notwithstanding the points others have made about why he might be averaging around 6.8).

May 18, 2022

On 16/05/2022 at 16:47, yuchd said:

IW-S is an interesting role that cut inside from wide area. but what's the better CM duty beside IW-S?

getting further forward like a Mezzala or CM-A? will MEZ collide with IW-S in the half space ?

holding like a DLP or CM-D? will there be too less attacking movement on this side?

or roaming like BBM or RPM?

Tell us about your good experience using IW-S.

I'd echo what the others have said. I'm currently using an IWs in the AMR role with the stay wider instruction on (can't remember off the top of my head if that's something I added or if its one of the default instruction for an IW) and he has a Mez(a) in the MCR position (the IW's stay wider instruction gives more room for the mez to run into), an IFa on the opposite side (AML) and a lone striker playing as a DLF or AF. For the IW, the AF might seem like the better option as the AF will look to get behind a defence more than the DLF but the DLF will open up more space for the Mez(a) and the IF(a) to run into which are runs the IWs can look to take advantage of.

May 18, 2022

@Joey NumbazI've also enjoyed this thread. I had been managing in the German 2nd division on FM 21 but the more I played, the more I realised I don't fully understand the roles/duties/instructions so this thread has been useful in forcing me to consider this in more detail. I've started an experimental save with Atletico to test this thread's ideas and to see the different ways I can set a very good team up (I'm going to do another save with someone like Burnley in order to learn how to set up as more of an underdog).

In your second screenshot you have Van de Beek as a mezzala on attack. One thing I've learned with my Atletico experiment is that I absolutely love the mezzala on attack. I use Rodrigo De Paul in the same role and he is regularly running clean through in to space and is my joint top scorer. I have Koke and Llorente as the other midfielders behind him who can pick out that pass. I also use the IF on attack on the left side too and he again is often found by Koke/Llorente or whoever is playing AMR (often an inverted winger on support who has the vision to spot the IF's run). My IFa is my other joint top scorer.

If Calvert-Lewin as a complete forward (a role I'm not familiar with) can open up the space for the mezzala and IF to run into and your support players have the ability to pick out the passes then you should hopefully see some similar results. In my opinion it definitely suits the lower LoE and counter instructions that you have. I tell my players to use shorter passing but they're more than happy to pump it forward if there's someone running in behind.

May 13, 2022

On 04/05/2022 at 23:48, dcayton9 said:

Tempo: Tempo directly relates to the time that a player takes to make a decision on the ball. Whether it is the right decision or not depends on their mental attributes. Because of this, set to high when your players are capable of making good decisions with high anticipation to quickly read the next move. If they are poor decision makers or can’t anticipate the team’s next move, you may want to drop it a notch, and give them more time on the ball. However, if their composure is low, they may get pressed into a bad pass, so be wary of this. If your players are good or bad at both, maybe keep your tempo on normal and let them react as they will. Results should still follow.

Tempo is one of the things I struggle to fully get my head around because, as you demonstrate with what you've said above, it seems to me that there are arguments for having poorer players play with a higher tempo and arguments for the same players to play with a lower tempo.

Sticking with the example of poorer players, a higher tempo might work if you're playing against a team that's pressing you and you don't want your players dawdling on the ball which increases the likelihood of them being dispossessed but, at the same time, telling poor decision makers to do things more quickly could equally result in an errant pass and possession being given up that way. I suppose the solution to that last bit would be to make sure that your poor decision makers have plenty of options around them so that they're less likely to give it away.

Meanwhile a lower tempo might work if you want your poor decision makers to take their time over what they're doing (thereby negating their poor decision making to a degree) but that would obviously only apply if the opposition isn't pressing so much and is allowing your poorer decision makers the time they need.

Like you say, normal is probably a good starting point and it can be adjusted up or down depending on what you see in game.

Would you say that the above is a fair summary?

This thread is really useful by the way because I think a lot of people (myself included) don't fully understand what all these different instructions (and roles, duties, mentality etc) actually do and the game is pretty bad at explaining it in my view.

May 5, 2022

3 hours ago, Bruce Drundrige said:

This might be too late based on your later update, but I generally always play this formation and had pretty good success on FM21 with a fairly simple version, so here's a couple of things that might help:

You're playing a Target Man/Forward but have shorter passing and Play Out of Defence active, plus you want your keeper to distribute to your defenders. If you're looking to take advantage of his height, heading, jumping and his pace/OTB stats then I'd suggest you probably need to be going a bit more direct so the service he gets takes advantage of that in a more deliberate manner

For example: more direct passing, get your GK to distribute to him, and look at how you cross the ball. Should it be floated crosses so he can rise above the defence? Maybe hit early crosses to prioritise getting the ball into him?

Then, if he's winning in the air he needs bodies around him to capitalise as is mentioned earlier. CM(A) and an IF who can benefit from his knockdowns and flick-ons.

OR if you prefer the shorter passing style, perhaps he needs to be a DLF or PF so he's involved more and there's less contradiction in his role v the TIs?

Thanks. You're right. I changed him to a DLF and generally have my B2B midfielder and one of the AMs getting alongside and/or beyond him. He doesn't really score all that often himself but as a team we're much better off.

@Overmarsthanks to you too as you've said something similar. Such a great feeling to see the ball played into the DLFs feet before he turns and plays a through ball behind the defence for the B2B midfielder to score.

May 3, 2022

UPDATE (if anyone's interested):

I implemented some of the changes suggested by @DarJ mainly but also @wearesportingin terms of getting people in and around my striker more.

I decided that, despite him not being all that great at attacking, my LB is one of the three best players in my squad (in terms of current ability). The other two are my AML and the mezzala playing in the MCL position. Having my top 3 players all on the same side led me to using the LB as the more attacking full back which meant that these three players would be creating overloads on our left hand side. I also told my MCR (a B2B midfielder) to get forward more to hopefully take advantage of gaps created by the overload. He chipped in with a few goals as a result.

I finished 2nd behind only Bayern's reserve team who can't be promoted from the German 3rd division. I've now found myself a couple of excellent CBs who are composed and two games into the new season in the 2nd division I can already see that they'll retain the ball better than the morons I had before.

Obviously, my approach now needs to change again quite drastically because I'm tipped to go down again and my board want me to battle bravely against relegation but hopefully I'm better equipped now to adapt.

One thing I've learned is that I was relying too much on what my scout's opposition report was telling me about an opponent's style of play and how attacking/defensive they are. Between that and an opponent's form/position in the league, it's far too easy to just assume that an opponent will play a certain way. Within the first 5 mins of a game you can normally tell how they're going to play and adjust things accordingly.

April 25, 2022

3 hours ago, DarJ said:

So the fact that you striker is very strong and good in the air doesn't mean you have to play him as a TM. Personally, regardless of the role I'm playing up front, I want my striker to be at least decent in the air because it gives you a lot of options to break teams down.

Because you said your AP is only good at passing so I'll keep him however, I'll make changes to the fullbacks, striker.

The FB is on attack because you have a DM so you can afford to take more risks. You'll end up with the AP, B2B and FB working close to each other on that side. You could use a WB on attack instead but I'm not a fan of the role

I changed the TM to PF because it stops the players always trying to find him with the long ball then he's more of a goalscoring threat then the TM plus he'll come deep a bit and help progress the ball forward.

The winger is on attack because he's there to be a goal threat, I'm really not interested in his crossing ability. I left the winger because he will start very wide and come in narrow so he might find himself in a lot of space a lot

I changed the left FB to a WB on defend because even if he's bad you still want him to be a passing option so with this setup he will not move forward until your team have control of the final third.

If you're to worried about the FB on attack leaving you exposed you could change the DM to an anchor man or HB. In terms of team instructions I'll just ask them to play a bit narrower, it will help them keep the ball.

Now this is all theory, I'd have to watch the games to see how it plays out and see if I need to make changes

Thanks @DarJ. My AML is my top scorer but that's not saying much with this team as it stands.

Thanks to @wearesportingtoo. Definitely gonna try getting more people around my striker.

April 24, 2022

57 minutes ago, DarJ said:

So I have a few questions for you. Why are you so conservative on the left with your full back? Why do you have an AP on the wing and why have you picked a target man in front?

I'm not saying it's wrong, I just want to understand if it's because of the player's you have before I make my suggestion

Thanks @DarJ.

My left back's attributes are very much geared towards defending. He doesn't offer much at all going forward (unlike my right back). The defensive left back is also why the mezzala is on that side of the central midfield pairing.

With the AP in the AMR position, he doesn't have the attributes to play as a winger or as an inside forward. Believe me, I've tried him with both. He's not quick and doesn't dribble etc. However, he does have decent passing, flair, vision etc compared to the rest of the team and playing him as an AP finally got some decent performances out of him.

The target man is 6'3" and has 15 heading and 15 jumping reach. He also has 14 for pace, finishing and 1st touch and 13 off the ball. I figured TM(a) would get the best out of all of that but it hasn't.

My other striker is also a good finisher but not as big so never know what role to give him when he plays. He's a pure finisher, doesn't do much else well so he tends to play as a poacher but, again, it hasn't really worked.

I've managed to get runs of good results. This is just the latest system but they've all used the same formation, just the roles/players have changed. However, each tactic inevitably stops working after a few games and it's so frustrating.

I'm hoping any help with this tactic may help me to understand why I get into that repeating pattern.

April 24, 2022

Afternoon all.

I'm struggling to get any consistency going in my current save on FM21 touch on the switch. For the most part, I can design a system which gets results in the (very) short term but after about 4 or 5 games things start going south. I change things up and start getting results again but then, after a few games, well you get the picture.

I started the save unemployed and am currently managing Jahn Regensburg in the German 3rd division although I had the same issues with my previous team (also 3rd division). I'm about 5 seasons into the save.

This is my current system:

As a team we don't have good passing but I want to be able to keep hold of the ball which is why I use shorter passing and have tried to make sure that there are always short options available (for example, the DM in front of the CBs who I hate cus they have absolutely no composure and just look to lump it forward despite the POOD instruction). I figure even players with 9 or 10 passing can play it 5-10 yards accurately if there's an option available.

The results below show the 3 wins in a row from when I implemented this system and then the downturn in results after that. As I say, this is an all too familiar pattern and one I want to overcome otherwise I'll never get anywhere:

For reference, the board want a top half finish but the bookies have us 4th favs to go up this season and we were the outright favourites last year so we should be challenging for promotion really (currently 8th and on the way down the table as you can see from the results above).

I struggle a little with the AI to be honest. The 0-0 away against Uerdingen we were all over them and created good chances but were unlucky not to win. They were 20th and were parking the bus (as you'd expect).

In the next game at home to Zwickau (who were 18th at the time) I was expecting the AI to go defensive again yet the opposite happened and we were outplayed at home by a team in the relegation zone. I find this confusing because my understanding is that the AI only adapts by, for example, becoming more defensive if you're doing well (which I was at the time). I'm seeing the opposite in lots of games.

Any tips on the system and/or my point about the AI would be really helpful.

Thanks

March 16, 2022

As a further example of the kind of thing I'm talking about, I started a save with Atletico Madrid (on FM21) as I wanted to try and figure out how to set up a solid 4-4-2 and figured they'd be a good team to use. I was doing really well up until Christmas. I was either 1st or 2nd (swapping places with Barca), finished top of my Champions League having won all 6 games (including beating Juve by an aggregate score of about 8-2 across the two games). Key midfielders like Koke, Saul, Llorente were all on fire and Suarez was scoring for fun.

However, along came the slump at around Christmas time which I'm all too familiar with from FM19 except, as noted in the OP, instead of drawing games I would previously have won easily, I began to lose 2-0, 3-0 against objectively poorer teams. Weirdly, during that period I went to the Bernabeu and beat Real 5-1. It once again seemed like FM21's response to success was for opponents to attack me more rather than sitting back. I don't have an issue with how the AI responds as such except to say that FM19 taught me how to try to break down defensive teams but now I'm having to respond in the opposite way and, I'm not gonna lie, I'm struggling with it.

March 16, 2022

I've had a google and this thread from @engamohd is interesting.

I'm slightly widening the scope of what I intended this thread to be about but one of the issues I've had with my 4-4-2 is that I play wingers on both sides and I've been struggling to get them to play narrower because they're too far away from their teammates. Narrowing the attacking width doesn't seem to have helped so they'll be playing new roles next time I'm in game.

What @engamohdtalks about in that thread might also help me to overcome the increased pressing I've been seeing but do so in a methodical way rather than just pumping it up to the big American lad I've got playing as a TM(s).

March 16, 2022

1 hour ago, fraudiola said:

are you conceding via long balls?

No I'm not seeing anything that you'd associate with an opponent sitting back (such as long ball counter attacks).

I have noticed that my players are being pressed more by opponents which @StabbyMcGingementioned in their post above.

The opponents' average positions are higher up the pitch and their heat maps seem to support that.

It's completely different to what I would see on FM19 which is why I'm confused.

I started my save unemployed so I'm managing a German 3rd division side. I like my playing squad but, given the level they're playing at, they're not likely to be able to beat a press by passing around it so I might have to try going more defensive and compact myself and trying to play more direct, counter attacking football.

As I said in the OP, this all seems counterintuitive to me.

March 15, 2022

I'm playing FM Touch on the Switch but AFAIK the match engine is the same as on PC so posting this here.

In FM19, the AI would generally adapt to your success by becoming more defensive and the result would be only earning draws against teams you would have hammered previously. That makes perfect sense and the challenge would be to make your tactic more suitable to breaking these teams down.

I've recently re-downloaded FM21 (still on the Switch) having grown a bit bored of the FM19 save.

I might be imagining this but it seems that the AI is now reacting to my success by becoming more aggressive rather than going the other way and trying to park the bus.

Where in FM19, the symptom of the AI adapting would be more draws, in FM21 it seems like I'm conceding more goals and generally being attacked more which seems counterintuitive.

Am I imagining this?

Or perhaps the AI has advanced to the point where it's able to adapt in more complex ways (rather than making a very simplistic decision to go defensive against good teams) and, in my case, that just happens to be by going more attacking?

I'm not playing FM22 because a handy bug on the Touch version means you can't change your team's mentality (and I found out the hard way that Nintendo don't do refunds) but hopefully there are enough people around who can remember the FM19 AI and can tell me if I'm going crazy or not.

Cheers

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Posts posted by Lumbertubs