[FM20 Tactics by TFF]

An observation and tip after finishing my 1st season with CSKA Moscow using exclusively Cerber v3:  For your two CBs I have noticed that strength, jumping reach and heading are sooooo important because I ended up scoring so many goals with them from attacking corners during the season. TFF has also put strength and jumping reach as top 2 in his filters for CBs and for a good reason and I would include heading too in that priority list. The way set pieces are set up by TFF in this strategy, your central defenders are going to get many headers so try to abuse that as much. But obviously remember that the success of this tip is relative to your league. For instance, if you are playing in English PL against top dogs that have excellent defenders with higher strength / jumping reach than you, then naturally your CBs will not be as effective in corners as it would be against more mediocre teams and defences.

But in short, don't overlook strength stat as well as jumping reach and heading, I have noticed in my playthroughs it is really important because in this tactic there are many crosses so at times it feels like it is better having strong players than simply pacey players. Same thing with striker, the goals he has scored due to his strength that secures him better positioning are more than his solo sprints with the ball due to his pace. Which also explains why players like Haaland are so great, not necessarily just for their pace but for their height and strength too.

As for my ML and MR wingers, I am still a bit puzzled about a certain thing: In my saves I have noticed slightly better goal ratio from them when using them with inverted foot (NOT inverted wingers role, just inverted foot e.g.  ML with strong right foot, MR with strong left foot) because when you are in possession and outside of their box, there are more opportunities for good shoots by ML and MR when they use their inverted foot. I am not sure if it is just my impression, but it would be helpful if someone else could share his observations on this matter.

[FM20 Tactics by TFF]

I used Cerber v3 with Olympiakos for 2 seasons with great success, now using it again in my new campaign with CSKA Moscow, absolutely terrific tactic and results. There is only one huge problem with Cerber v3, it has made the game borring because you now win so much. Shame on you TFF, hahaha.

Joking aside, I have noticed a certain thing that causes some struggles from time to time; When facing a 5-3-2 or any formation with 3 centre backs, then Cerber v3 has some problems creating chances and shots on target. Obviously I am talking about my team being a middle of the table team, because obviously if you have a top tier team with best players, then even 3 CBs are not enough to stop you consistently. In my Olympiakos save, for example, during my first season I was playing against a bottom team that were playing 5-3-2 and even though each player in my team outclassed opponents on paper, we couldn't score. It is not like it's impossible to win, it's just that winrate drops a lot from what I can tell when facing 3 CBs.

[FM20 Tactics by TFF]

Have beeing playing around with Cerber v2 since yesterday and I like it a lot! I particularly like the adjustments you made over v1 by shifting it to positive mentality and also the CAM to SS specifically as it feels SS is slightly more useful or so it appears in my playthroughs. Very wel done TFF! At this point it feels like a more consistent corner scoring tacting is missing and it is the perfect setup (for me at least).

Quick question: You mentioned above some of the settings you use for your personal testing. I wanted to ask what sample do you usually take during these personal tests? Do you think 10x seasons is a good enough sample when there are big fluctuation/discrepancies from test to test? I'm simply asking to learn what would be a good sample for my testing too when I'm tweaking small stuff and trying to see their effects. Once again, cheers for great tactics as always!

[FM20 Tactics by TFF]

TFF, it would be interesting if you could test tactics with teams that start their official games very early due to playing many qualifying rounds for champions league.

For instance, Olympiakos, Celtic, Plzen and PSV Eindhoven are some good examples because they have to play three rounds of games (6 games in total) to qualify for champions league and these games start from 3rd week of June (essentialy 3rd week of when you take over). It would be interesting to see if you can replicate success in these cases where its too early in the season for players to have good tactical familiarity or good physical condition and sharpness.

Personally, I have managed to do it with Olympiakos while using your executioner/bloodlust combo, but with watching the games and adapting accordingly. But when I try to quick test with holiday mode, in most cases you end up getting knocked out in the 3rd round and ending up in Europa League. So that's why I have been thinking it would be interesting to see what tactic or tweak you can come up to make these teams (that are mid-tier / underdogs in the big European competitions) succeed more consistently in qualifying to the group stages of champions league when you auto-resolve games in holiday mode. Obviously, for the national league and national cap, your tactics are working excellently and as intended.

Edit: I should add that bloodlust v3 is giving me slightly better outcomes and increased chances to make it to groups and further with these sort of teams on holiday mode.

[FM20 Tactics by TFF]

@Totalfootballfan
First of all, thank you very much for your nice tactics and contribution through your testing.

My question: For these strategies, have you tried different roles for the striker position (talking about actual position, not individual training)? So for example instead of "AF (Attack)", "PF (Attack)" or "PF(Support)) etc

I am asking because I have not found any such tests anywhere in any thread before, where people test the different Striker roles, especially for tactics that utilise 2 strikers. I only once remember Vujevic in one of his videos mentioned that he has
observed big difference between "CF (support)" and "CF (attack)" with the CF(support) surprisingly scoring more goals than the attack one, but no concrete numbers or thorough testing or any mention for other unpopular ST roles such as Target Man etc.

If you wouldn't mind, could you test that at some point unless you have done so already? It would be really interesting to know. Thanks in advance.