Impacto

August 15, 2021

Honestly, I have no idea... lol

It's been a while since I "finished" a long term save. I just get bored too quickly and start a new save that's completely different from the old one(usually I take a big break before starting it).

My main issue with the game is that it's too easy when good times roll in. It's so easy to sustain them once you build a strong team. Almost nothing can break the cycle of you winning everything each year and that gets boring. You can change teams, but for some reason for a lot of my saves it just doesn't feel right, because of the nature of the save. (except journeyman types of course). And I also constantly get new ideas for a new save while playing the old one, and sometimes I give in... and then it's really hard to get back to the old save.

I'm trying to remember how I felt when I did finish a long term save... hm...

My first one was in FM 08. I took Welling to the EPL and won everything. It ran like 12 seasons and I gathered all the world stars like Pokemons in the end lol. Ronaldo, Messi, Fabregas, Rooney... They were like 35 each but FM 08 was weird like that and the players were still really good in their mid 30s. I think I felt really good when finishing that save. But it was my first long term one.

The next long term save I can remember is from FM 15. It was in my home country Bulgaria and I took a club from the 2nd division to winning the CL a few times. Destroying Barca 7-1 in the CL final one time, oh I remember that. That save lasted again like 12-13 seasons, I think? I ended it prematurely(the goal was to get the Bulgarian League to the number one spot), because it got a bit boring and I made a massive error - failing FFP and having no CL football the next season. That basically killed the whole save since I didn't wanna waste a full season I just ended it. I was a bit sad because of my screw up.

But I don't think I've ever finished another long term save... I mean, I have a few going, but they are not "finished" yet. I just get bored at some point and jump to a new save with the idea of getting back to the old one at some point later. And I do get back at it sometimes, but then life happens and I stop playing. Then I get a new idea and yeah... they drag on forever.

I have like 2 or 3 long term saves on FM 18 alone that I need to finish. And yet I'm currently messing around with FM 20, cuz I found a super cool tactic that I can try a moneyball type save with, so yeah...

April 18, 2021

One of the bad aspects of the game - pretty much nothing happens! A new board comes in, wipes all the debt and it's all good. There are very little consequences for running a club badly in the game.

In previous games, it was more severe. I've seen facilities being sold, stadiums reduced, point deductions, local chairmans with no money coming in and forced player sales. Now it still happens, but you almost have to delibirately try to destroy a club for it to trigger.

February 21, 2021

On 14/02/2021 at 18:44, frukox said:

After about 30-40 games playing with this, I can safely say this version is definitely an improvement. Even with lesser players the football that I saw was absolutely insane. I didn't even think that was possible on FM 20's match engine. Watched every game on extended just to see the plays. Awesome stuff.

In terms of results, the club I was with initially was overperforming slightly, but we always messed up in the end of the season, just before hitting the playoffs. So I just decided to jump to a new club in the 1st division mid-season, as my rep was getting bigger and now it was possible. I was just getting bored of the same thing repeating for 3rd season in a row... and I wanted to try out some slightly higher skilled players.

Anyway, the new club was perfect for this tactic. Full of high potential young players, possession and attacking oriented vision, and no big expectations. The start was super hard, even though we had a mini preseason, a.k.a long winter break with a bunch of friendlies, the team kicked into gear in freaking April. We were playing really well from the start, but missing chance after chance... and drawing games we should win, losing some we should draw. Thankfully in the end we found form and managed to stay up. And we also happened to win the domestic cup, so we're in Europe next season! When I joined the club was already in the semi finals, but still, it was hard to win it and I'm glad we did. Turned a bad season into an amazing one.

Key takeaways from this version:

Bulding up from the back is much better. The keeper seems to make good choices, even thoug he is not a sweeper by any means. A lot of times we manage to beat the press with ease. And when nobody is pressing, we build up nicely again. I love it.

The defense is just as solid as the previous version. I was afraid losing the IWBs and the Anchor man would impact it negatively, but that's not the case. The Full Backs defend just as well, and they overlap nicely in attack. In fact, one of my FBs managed 7 assists in about 20 games he played, while his back up chimed in with 2. Interestingly, this was only on the left side of the pitch. On the right, that was not the case. Then again, I did have an awesome tall super sub in the Treq position that scored like 6 goals coming from the bench, all from headers I added 'Get further forward" to both FBs and that helped.

I absoluetly loved the DM. The player is just as good in helping the defense, but going forward, he spreads passes to the free players on the wings perfectly. The Anchor man was not doing that before, at least not often. He was more recycling possession, while here we have a role that is much more progressive. I really liked how it plays. Still, make sure it's a tall guy playing here, as he is still filling in as CB when defending.

Speaking of CBs, not much changed. Except - no stupid long balls that the BPD likes to do. I again added "Close down less" so the player here doesn't go crazy in the pressing and leave too much space behind him. Hold position is automatically ticked here. The offside trap also helps.

Moving to midfield. The DLP is an absolute superstar in this setup. Because there is more movement up forward, he can now shine. Huge upgrade over the previous version with the Mezzala. Ratings are over 7 almost every game. His partner - the CMs is more of supporting cast. Even though my best player played there, not many goals and assists came from this position. But again, lots of good ratings. Make sure to give him "Roam from position".

And now the bast part of this... the front 4. Off setting the striker really makes the difference. The movement, the one-twos that I saw and the quality of goals we scored in the last few matches when the team learned the formation was a joy to watch. It looks like having 4 strikes at times, and there is space for everyone. The Treq did not perform well for me, but that's because I just didn't have the proper player. I mean I did, but he was 33 and can barely run, so he only came in as a sub. And then he banged a bunch of goals, like I said above.

The AM has "Close down more" which really helped the press and also "Roam from position" which makes sure he attacks the right spaces - just like it was suggested. I used an 18 year old player for most games, who never played a game before, but had some decent playmaking stats. He ended up scoring a bunch of goals, not many assists, but I did see some good passes form time to time. I didn't use "Tackle harder", I just don't like it. Still, the pressing was really good.

The IW has "Stay Wider" and "Get further forward" and that's what he does. Again, I loved it. Really works well in this set up. Also tracks back. The Treq has "Cut inside" and I'm looking forward to bringing a proper player to play that position next season. Even with a poor one it still did well, so...

The CFs actually scored goals!!! In the previous version, the F9 was not scoring a lot... 1 in 5 games probably. Here I had regular goals, sometimes even 2! The movement is great, reminds me of Ozil's Invincibles Tactic for FM 18. A lot of through balls were sent to the striker that I didn't see before.

So yeah, overall I really like this version. It's fun to watch, maybe even more than the 1st one, it's less frustrating, but still plays on the edge, bigger teams will trash you, keep it in mind . Possession numbers and pass completion is very high, not a lot of stupid shots, but still a few so you get some awesome goals. Dribbling is toned down and only the right players are allowed to do it. Defending is solid... I mean, considering you have only 1 CB. Prepare for some scary moments... but overall it's really solid.

February 16, 2021

On 14/02/2021 at 18:44, frukox said:

That's amazing work as you said it's a really good formation for keeping possession as long as you can keep the ball or a long ball down the channels you're in trouble, especially in FM20 due to eye-excruciating long-shots or far-post headers by nimble attackers. This is the system after a number of tweaks, it's almost perfect. Let me explain the logic behind it:

Firstly, In FM20, final-third movement is not that intelligent. That's the main reason why it's a bit asymmetrical. It allowed me to create the movement I need in the middle of the park. CFS in the center doesn't really drop deep or roam to the flanks to create space for the oncoming AMC in the final third. So I offset them to create the movement. This opened up the flanks-1 vs 1 duels against their fullbacks or wingbacks. IW stays just wide enough to keep the width first. If he cuts in, FBS goes wide or if IW stays wide, he comes inside to link up with DLPS. On the other flank, TA behaves like a narrow striker but comes from deeper and let me keep possession there with a roaming CMS and a FBS behind. When he cuts in(players here all have the trait of cutting inside) FBS goes forward to offer a crossing option. In the middle of the park, DLPS is the orchestrator in front of a DM. I used a DM on defend duty because I needed someone to shut down space immediately in case of a counterattack. This is risky but as you see, it's risk vs reward situation.

TIs allowed us a possession game but with Positive mentality, they were also willing to pass the odd long ball whenever they please. Dribble Less was really useful to cut down on unnecessary dribbling because I only wanted my front four to do it and they did it to a deadly effect. As I was on Positive mentality, I also wanted to recycle possession until I got a clear shot. WBIB just allowed me to do that. Counterpress was ticked because I had seven players in and around the box. Winning the ball quickly was necessary to prevent any counterattacks immediately due to the aggressive play. Alisson is a world class goalkeeper-irl he's going through a tough time-hope he wşll get over it soon- I let him to start our transitions whether to a defender or to a flank or to our central playmaker. He enabled us to bypass high press immediately to start our deadly attacks. Lastly, our upper-mid block was set up to win the ball before it passes the halfway line to keep pressure on the opposition. A simple tactic for winning possibly everything but it was interesting to play with one CB. Thanks to you for giving me this opportunity:)

and these are the results of this test save. It's incredible but got boring quickly:(-just one unlucky draw. I failed to man-manage my players mentals.

Holy crap, that's insane! I know Liverpool are super strong on FM 20, but man, this is really impressive. I'm definitely trying that. I'm curious to see how my crappy team executes it

I love the Treq on the right flank, alwasy wanted to make a Trequartista work. Does he do enough pressing though? That's my only concern. And the idea about the offset is really clever. You basically bypass FMs poor movement patterns by manually creating them. Genius!!

Do you tell the IW to stay wider, or does he do it naturally? Any particular instructions for the AMa? You mentioned the CMs roams, why not just use a BBM? I guess the CMs gives you more freedom to customize his play, but still, I love the BBM in FM 20 so I'm curious.

Does the DM drop enough to play as pseudo-CB? In the original version we have the Anchor man do that, and that works really well for me. What is the advantage of the DM? More forward movement maybe? The A is like a DLP with no risky passes for me, perfect for possession play. But maybe the DM offers more?

Sorry about the tons of questions, I just want to understand the idea behind it. It really fires me up this stuff And I think I've said it already a million times on this thread, but absolutely love the idea of a 1 CB!

February 10, 2021

9 hours ago, raktim0699 said:

Hello, How do these roles and duties sound for total football because I just wanted to get those diamond shape right, and my theory is that when HB drops, he will make back three, and I have given the BPD to stay wide? IWB will act like a midfielder, in this case, to form the diamond in the center midfield with DLP behind them. Wingers are there to stretch the pitch as is necessary for the possession style of football. AF(A) will be exploiting the channels and pushing the defenders back while SS will be smart enough, dropping deep sometimes and making runs in behind to trouble the defenders.

I've used something very similar on FM 18 and worked great. (Another Ozil masterpiece)The IWBs really go into the midfield and help posession... But only if you have one player in the DM strata. We had a DLP on defend there, not a HB. In front of him there were 2 CMs who were bombing forward, leaving the space behind them for the IWBs. The Wingers strech the play, but no AMC, just a lone DLF (has to be good to make it work).

-------------------

The reason this tactic appeals to me is the fact that here the IWB who act as CBs in defense, actually go forward and overlap. It is not possible on FM to have a CB do that at the moment, so this tactic made something impossible to now be possible. It's like playing with an extra man at times. Seriously! I've had a man sent off and we keep dominating The only issue is that when you're using possession settings the game just punishes you...

I Didn't have time to play much recently, but currently we're 2nd in the league fighting for play offs(1st place is too far to catch and frankly, too good). Considering this is our 2nd season, we're full of young players and we were a bottom team at the start of the game, we're massively overachieving so far.

This tactic is good for any level, but apart from the obvious requirements, you need players that are good at:

Long shots(midfielders and attackers), Anticipation, Decisions, Free kicks and Corners(those add up and balance the lack of goals from play).

Here are my tips from my experience so far:

Just use good old wingbacks in the IWB positions. They will defend well, but going forward you want them to cross properly and make good passes, they will do that often so it's important. I've had many assists coming from them, and sometimes I have to use sraight up CBs to cover missing players. And yet they still get the odd crossing assist, I can only imagine if I had a proper WB playing. The benefit of using a CB in those roles though is the areal prowess. It can really help when you're fighting for a lead in dying moments, so a late sub there might be a good idea. But other than that, prime Dani Alves is what you want.

Focus on a CB with great heading and jumping, but also make sure he has some speed. Never ever use a player who is bad in the air here it's a suicide.

For the Anchor man you want a ball playing CB basically. Or a proper tall DM with good passing. This is your 2nd or 4th defender(depending on how you look at it) and your DLP in one. A lot of balls go through him so if he is bad... well you can't have that.

The Mezz and BBM - Here I focus on well rounded players, while the Mezzala is usually the more creative one, while the BBM is the more physical. The Mezzala is the set piece master, good free kicks and corners are a must for me.

The AMC is your main creator. Proper 10 profile of a player is needed here. Will move a lot, spray passes and shoot so you need all of those. Similar type to the Mezzala really, but here you need him to be a decent finisher as well. Give him dictate tempo and play one twos. Play one twos is also good for the F9, Mezz and BBM.

Also, try to get your F9 to be competetive in the air, not just technical, so when the team decides to do what they want and just hoof it forward, he has a chance to win the ball. And it helps on crosses.

Finally, for the IW you want the standard stuff, but you absolutely need good finishers. They get all the chances and they are going to miss a lot of them... so make sure you maximize the numbers here. Oh, If you're deep in a game, there are always crazy tall but technically good wingers(for some weird reason), those will be insane in those positions, because they will get on the end of those IWB crosses even more often(I think, not tried it yet).

Oh and don't forget to time waste guys... when the 80th minute hits and you're leading by less than 3 goals, make sure to time waste. I learned that the hard way...

P.S. Develep weaker foots as well. You can't have one legged players here.

January 31, 2021

1 hour ago, crusadertsar said:

I'm really glad it works for you man Are you still testing it in FM20?

I wonder if there's something different with FM21. Because as of my 3rd season with Real Sociedad the tactic pretty much stopped being effective for me. So I've had the same experience as @RenegadeMaster. I'm close to giving up on it. Although my youth are doing well with it.

And we are not leaking too many goals. But my First Team just can't score goals. I wonder if it would work better with a different team. It is rather disenheartaninh because I invested a lot time and effort in this save

Still on FM20. I don't like the direction SI are going, so I'm not buying future FMs until I see a massive improvement. Personal choice

It's totally possible the difference in FMs to be at play as well. Although I think this tactic should be even better in FM 21, considering all the positive changes. But at the end of the day, I don't really know.

One thing I missed mentioning - I am using the largest pitch available to make sure we have enough space at least at home. With everybody staying wider I think it has a positive effect. Now, the team is low on rep, so this might be helping us to overperform as well. I guess we'll see as we improve in the coming seasons(or I go to a bigger club).

January 31, 2021

One thing that I've always used to judge a tactic is to follow how the youth squad performs with it. When a tactic is solid, the U19s tend to do well, even if the players are not that great and don't really fit it.

Spoiler

11 out of the 14 teams are from the division above. Some of those teams have twice the quality of players that we do in our academy. And yet, we're 6th. This proves to me that the tactic is solid. With all great tactics that I've tried, the youth team always performed well, so this is quite a positive sign.

Btw, 5 wins a row at the moment, sitting 4th with a real chance for promotion. Found a good AMC on loan to upgrade my current young one who simply had no alternative up to this point, and he started with 2 goals and 1 assist in 3 games so far. I have attribute masking turned on and squad building is such a challenge. I love it!!

I also spent some time on doing the corners offensively and defensively. I didn't wanna use a broken set piece tactic, so I just found something that is decent, but not totally OP. I did this after noticing we only scored one goal from a corner all season so far. Overall I hope for 2 to 3 goals from corners to the end of the season(~10 matches)

Our defensive corner system is a mix between zonal and mixed marking and is focused on catching the opposition on counters. I left the tho IW at the edge of the area with the F9 staying forward. This should help our counter attacking game a bit and make us solid in defending the corners(I hope).

Looking good so far for sure. The team settled, keeps improving, and I learned who plays best in what position. I hava plenty of options left footers, right footers, tall players for the defensive positions and all of that helps. Plus, most players learned the PPMs I wanted.

This is fun!

January 30, 2021

7 hours ago, Giovanna said:

I agree with you guys i kept this tactic for the first half of my second second with it as my main and despite the tweaks i made i was dominant but not clinical, i fixed my defensives issues, and the play is beautiful but i think it doesn't fit the ME, i was losing points on draws and i had to made a decision i switch to my second tactic end ended up winning both the PL and UCL, i would like to see this work on UCL to know it is possible but i'm sceptical.

I decided to drop it definitely as I started my own tactic and you inspired me to play with 3 cb close to each other but i gave them PI's it's a 3-4-2-1 formation that is surprisingly solid in defense and produce à beautiful play with scoring goals, i kept my philosphy of play of course so i thank you i retrived my tactical instinct and got in the lab thanks to this topic

Winning on FM is not hard. This is more about doing it in a particular style that you rarely see. You can win the league with any team by just playing in a way that the ME favours. But doing in this style, where the ME is against you, you need perfect squad building decisions, great management skills to make sure you're getting the max of every player... this is a whole new thing.

This is what makes it interesting for me. And it makes the game more realistic, because I can't storm the league like normally you would once you know what works in FM and what doesn't. It's like playing on hard mode. And if I manage to figuire this tactic out to the point where I win everything with it, it would actually be an achievemnt. Not just another FM save where you win everything just by pressing continue...

And it's fun to watch the crazy good passing and movement.

January 30, 2021

Quick update - haven't had much time to play recently, but got a good session tonight. I made only 1 change since last time - switched the mentality permamently to Positive. The reason is, I found in a lot of games when were pushing for the win in the dying minutes, that switching from Balanced to Positive made our game more fluid and proactive. Few games after playing with Positive from the start and I think it improved things going forward. No new issues defensively so far.

We definitely create more now, but the problem is we just can't score our chances. We miss so many opportunities it's crazy. I feel like the game just doesn't want this tactic to win But it's still fun, were a crappy team playing like prime Man City and we just can't convert.

But yeah, I totally think Positive is better than Balanced with everything else staying the same. Basically that means:

---------------------------(F9)Balanced---------------------

(IWa)Attacking------(AMs)Balanced-------(IWa)Attacking

--------------(MEZ)Positive--------(BBM)Positive------------

---------------------------(A)Balanced-----------------------------

(IWd)Balanced------(BPDc)Balanced--------(IWd)Balanced

No idea about the GK, didn't check. The PI are the same as before - Stay Wider on the IW, MEZ and BBM. Get further forward & Move Into Channels to the AMs. The BBM also gets further forward btw. The BPD closes down less and holds position. Training almost all midfielders to play-one twos as well. That's basically it.

Still loving it. Just need to get converting the chances.

January 25, 2021

1 hour ago, alaugharne said:

Thanks for such an insightful and informative message Impacto 🙃 I’ve heard a lot about how good FM18 is, so might give it a try once I’m bored of this save. Why do you say I need a new name by the way?

Oh no, not you, I meant @Ö-zil to the Arsenal! needs a new name

January 25, 2021

FM 18 is the best one for this tactic and nothing comes close to it. (imo) If you don't care about updated squads and just want to see total football play out, I would recommend doing it on FM 18.

I've tried so many different styles, and all of them are fun to play. Apart from this masterpiece, Wenger's invincibles is such a joy to watch, the 3-6-1 cruiff is also amazing, I recently tried the Bielsa triple combo (switching between formations depending on opposition, but keeping the style of play identical) and it was also quite fun to watch(althoug not the same as real life Leeds unfortunately).

All of those are Ö-zil to the Arsenal!'s creations and are the reason I still enjoy FM 18 to this day. (although I do switch to FM 20 from time to time as my brain just likes new stuff to try out). Btw, mate, you might need a new name...

Unfortunately, those incredible tactical recreations are made for pre FM 19 ME and tactical interface and simply cannot be made properly in newer FMs at the moment. The new FMs have other advantages, but if you only care about the tactical side of things and want to watch and play a specific style, they are just not up to par. I'm not saying they are bad, they are just not as good.

January 24, 2021

28 minutes ago, RenegadeMaster said:

@ImpactoI am going to try your tweaks now and will report back. Do you have any added PI's to the AMC?

I mentioned in the last post, I guess you missed it - The AMC plays as AM on support with 'move into channels' and 'get further forward'.

As far as the team talks, for years 'don't get complacent' has worked wonders for me, but I don't know it that's still the case in FM 21.

January 24, 2021

10 hours ago, crusadertsar said:

Great stuff! Thanks for the update and tweaks. Was just wondering, with the modifications to the BBM role wouldn't it make more sense to just change him into another Mezzala? As with those PIs he is basically identical to mezzala role.

Also do you have any PPMs on your AMC? I'm starting to wonder that maybe "comes deep" on mine is doing more harm than good. Initially I thought it would help more with build up but he hasn't been performing well lately. I think now I'll try your tweaks. Are you playing on Balanced or Positive team mentality?

I was considering it, but it just feels wrong. I love the BBM role, it's a bit more balanced than the Mezzala - slightly more defensively oriented so it compliments the whole tactic well. The stay wider is there just for having more space up-front and the get further forward is on so we can have even more options going forward.

I thought I mentioned it, but I guess I've missed it - The AMC is on support and has get further forward and move into channels. He does drop deeper by default, but is also often in dangerous positions forward and I really like that. I gave the player there 'Dictate tempo' and I'm currently training him to 'play one-twos' as you suggested, no other PPMs.

Still on Balanced. Sometimes I bump it to Positive in the dying moments of a game if we're behind, other than that I don't change it.

January 23, 2021

I'm seeing some lovely football after making the Inverted Wingers stay wider, plus the Mezzala naturaly doing it and adding the Stay Wider + Get further forward to the Box-to-Box mid. This leaves the space for the Attacking Mid to do his thing and the False 9 is also making better movements.

In the last game we scored 2 almost identical goals from both sides, with lots of passes to disrupt the opposition, followed by great movement from the AMs and the F9, which left the half-space behind them unoccupied, resulting in the IW making a run into the channel which thankfully was spotted by the Mezzala -> one on one with the keeper -> goal. Beautiful stuff.

I also made a slight tweak defensively, that I think will offer us a bit more stability. The BPD now closes down less and holds position. I spotted him going to press way too hard, leaving acres of space behind him which leads to a lot of trouble sometimes, so I think this will help with that.

The team continues to overperform, last season we missed out on promotion playoffs by 3 points following a bad form near the end, and this season we're moving in similar tempo without any significant transfers. The squad is young and inconsistant, I think with a better one this tactic will absolutely shine.

January 21, 2021

Guys, I think we're changing too much stuff at one time and that is causing the issues. The original tactic worked great. Let's just try to perfect it, instead of changing million things?

With the original I found two problems - IFs underperformed and the SS didn't do enough. We also didn't have enough width. So, I switched the IFs to IWa. made both IW stay wider, and switched the SS to AMs. I also added 'move into channels' + 'get further forward' so he can take advantage of spaces that open up. Here is the dilemma - Do I make the AMs roam a bit more, and use a CAR alongside the MEZ, or do I leave him as is, and use the BBM to naturally roam instead.

Honestly, the whole point of this system is to overload the opposition. The CAR doesn't really help with that, not enough movement and fluidity from him. So I think I'll stick with the BBM.

Everything else seems pretty good to me, but let's see how we get on.

January 20, 2021

1 hour ago, Deeplying said:

I have lurked and followed this thread for a little while as I am also a fan of the 343 but find it very hard to replicate in FM, big fan of your work so far. So much so I've made an account to contribute.

I've tried both versions and find the newer one less potent - I've had 1 win with my young Brighton side in 2027 so it probably isn't an accurate test and I will keep going however my possession stats hover around 55% regardless of opposition, goals are a struggle.

On the other hand, it is very rare I concede more than 1 goal and seems to deal with the counter attacking threat a lot easier.

Disclaimers; I have an 18 year old wonderkid leading the line and have played 6/7 games so familiarity isn't quite there.

Welcome, glad to have you! Just like you I was lurking for a long time, but eventually I got so inspired by Total Football that I started posting

Quick update on my trials - The version with Wingers is indeed creating more chances, but at the expense of controlling the game. I noticed in the 6-7 games I played with WIngers that we had ~200 passes less in games on average. While that's not a bad thing, it's not what I want so I decided to give the new version a go. And we lost a bunch of games which helped my decision

For some reason, even though only the roles changed a bit, pretty much the whole team had no familiarity with this version of the tactic... so annoying. Because of this and because my players don't have the skills and the PPMs I felt it was lacking a bit from the original version.

Some things I like better:

The AMC indeed helps out a lot more. Drops deeper to get the ball and tracks back without it.
The DLP does pretty much the same defensively, but offers more offensively. Not sure about having a ball magnet so deep though. Sometimes I see stupid pass backs, but that could be because of the low quality players.
The double IW seems better than the original IF & IW combo.

Some things I think are worse:

In the previous version, we had a lot more freedom in midfield. Now players seems stuck in their positions and we don't take advantage of the open spaces enough. Not enough roaming for my taste.
The CAR as a player role seems inferior to BBM and Mezzala. Just the way it feels at the moment. Obviously with PPMs that can change.
We lost the awesomness of the F9

To combat this, I decided to make one of the CAR back into a MEZ. One CAR I can tolerate, because it helps recycle possession, and he can still help out in attack in certain situations. Two is too much for me. The MEZ is so much more impactful. I think that helped things a bit, but I'm not too sure yet.

Btw, did you watch the City game tonight? So many similarities, it was beatiful to see

January 19, 2021

Interesting stuff. I tried something different. I'll explain it in a bit.

Defensively so far I have no issues, but that could be the difference in the ME. The Anchor man is really helping, the IWB are doing their job and the CB is playing like Van Dijk. He is one of my better players ability wise though. We still get opened from time to time, but the team defends really well. I'm currently playing on Extended Highlights and I'm seeing a lot of blocks and key recoveries. The keeper is doing a good job as well. But this is 'playing on the edge' so I love it!

Take a look at this:

Spoiler

92% passes completed and 72% possession. Madness. But see the chances? Not much there. And this is my issue that I tried to solve.

I think the problem was that we just didn't have width. Players were cramped up in the middle, leaving little space for the F9 and the SS to operate in, the wide players struggled being forced inside and there was nobody to overlap behind them to stretch the game. We were still unbeaten for like 10 games, but something was missing. 1-0, 2:0, but no more. And we barely had games where we had a lot of shots and chances. We had a ton of possession, but that's about it.

I decided to try something that never worked in FM for me - to have my IF and IW stay wider, while still cutting inside. It did stretch the game a little bit, but I just didn't like it. It was ineffective in my eyes so I went with another option - using pure Wingers on attack.

The difference was instant - the whole midfield got more room to operate, resulting in a lot more highlights. The SS and F9 suddenly came alive and the wingers exploited the space wide, dribbling and beating players which opened up even more space. The IWB also started contributing even more! It's incredible to watch, at least for me. The game got more open and that makes it even more fun, again, at least for me. We might suffer a bit more defensively, but considering we barely conceded before that I'm okay with it. And we still felt like controling the game, although slightly less and even more 'on the edge'.

I'll keep updating (as long as it's still fun) with the team's progress. I'm curious how far this can go.

January 18, 2021

3 hours ago, crusadertsar said:

@Impacto Thank you so much for such a deep analysis!

No problem! I love trying out tactics like this. I don't have the time and ability to create them, but I love testing and playing with them.

Played a few more games today. Didn't lose one. Few more things:

Going a man down is not a big issue - happened twice, just dropped the SS to the position that was missing and it's like we're even on players. Won a game with a man down and also drew one.
4-4-2 is a real danger... if they get the ball. Just had 70% possession against a better team, but they had some great chances on a counter. Ended up 2:2.
It might be worth changing the left side from IFs to IWa. I think the IWa is just working better. Also, the IWB behind the IW is getting better ratings so far as well. Could be a connection? No idea, still a small sample, but it feels like it.

January 18, 2021

This sparked my interest and I decided to boot up a save on FM 20 just to see how it would play. It is definitely a plug and play tactic... I'm using a 2nd Bulgarian division team that is full of youth players with not much passing or technical skills, and the general strength of the team is about mid-table. And they took to it so easily!

Judging by the attributes of the players, I would compare it's level to a national conference English side or a bottom League 2. Played 4 games I think with this exact set up, I won 2, draw and lost 1. The team is constantly on average to poor morale(no idea why, as it's generally overperforming), but I'm using a really powerful training method that is quite effective in boosting attributes. No idea if that plays a huge part in using this tactic tbh. I'm not using shouts as well.

I just slapped this tactic on the team. We were playing a controlling 4-3-3, with similar instructions, but after the change the team had average familiarity with the new tactic. Still, we won our first game, got unlucky in the second one and lost, heroically drew the third and beat the league leaders away 2:0.

My takeaways:

I love the control and the fact that there is always someone open. 58% possession in 3 of the 4 games so far.
The combo at the back is incredibly reliable. The IWB are playing well, and what I really love is that they get forward and help the team. When we were trying to recreate Atalanta's overlapping CBs, this is exactly what we wanted. This is exactly how to achieve that! Absolute masterpiece. Obviously, good and fast wingers are hard to deal with, but isn't that always the case? And it makes the tactic not overpowered.
The Anchor man is key. Without his help in defence it would be a different story. I would prioritise a player that is good in the art of defending in this position if you can't find a complete player
the MEZ and BBM have the freedom. The BBM scored a few already, but I feel that's just FM 20 being FM 20.
The SS gets bad ratings, but that could be because I don't have a proper player for it right now. I'm using more of a playmaker in there, so that could be the issue.
The IF and IW are as expected - pretty good. I like the IW slightly more.
The F9 is okay. It's the best player ability wise on my team so that's expected. Not as useful as the FM18 version of a F9,) but hey, I'll take what I can get.
The whole tactic looks really good and fun to play. And it works with smaller teams. Obviously you'll be trashed by stronger ones but that's the challenge. Otherwise it will be an op tactic that gets boring within a week.
This is on FM 20, so I assume it's even better in FM 21. I'll probably try some version of it on FM18 as well.

It's early days but so far I really like it. Some of the movements are really cool, and the team defends surprisingly well. Well done!

January 6, 2021

I remember the times where players didn't become useless when they become 30. I had a save on FM 08 and in the year 2020, I had Ronaldo, Messi, Fabregas, Rooney and so many more that I have forgotten, all around 33-35 age range still being good, having Pace and not being useless. This was my favorite save of all time. Now when players reach the magic number 30 they just do nothing. They lose all their pace, but they don't improve their mentals to compensate like it's supposed to be.

In another save on FM 08, I remember Thierry Henry gaining CA at 30+ years of age. He was in mad form, scoring every game. My memory could be failing though, it was a long time ago. I'm almost certain though that he was gaining CA, why would I remember this for so long otherwise?

Both of those cases are absolutely impossible in current FMs. Sure, maybe it was a bug with FM 08, but it was fun to play. And this is the problem. Everything with player development is soooo predictable. Predictable is not fun in a game. And there is no reason to use a 30 year old player over a 20 year old player. The latter one will improve and is worth more, while the experience of the 30 year old counts for nothing. And it's also nowhere near realistic.

It's not normal for players to stop improving once they become 24. Maybe they should only increase their mental attributes from that point on, but they should be improving. And it's not normal that players fall off a cliff when they become 30. Some do, but not all.

But this is nothing new and I'm not saying the current system is bad. It's okay. But it's old. And you can't tell me there isn't a better way to do this. Problem is, SI doesn't want to find a better way. They like this one and it's here to stay. Otherwise it would have been improved a long time ago.

January 6, 2021

Wow, there were so many positives when the game launched, so I came here to see what's up and If I should consider buying the in the next month or two. I'm shocked to see how things have changed. I guess I'll pass this year as well. Tbf, I still enjoy FM 18 and I can always boot up 2020 that I got for free if I want to quit FM so I can focus on other things

I've been crying about the game being too easy for a long time. No one cares. Some people like to win every match with no effort and some people complain that the game is hard for them. What can I do? Nothing. Just don't buy and play the game I guess. I don't think this will change, it seems like this is what the SI team wants. An easy game that anyone can play. After all, the bulk of the money comes from the casual player.

It's all good though. FM is not everything in life and there's always the older versions to get my fix and move on. One day things might improve, until then I'm focusing on other stuff.

January 6, 2021

Hey @felix_klaus, awesome stuff! I would love to see some more info about replication when you get the chance. How many goals do you score per season? What about conceding? What position is performing best, what are the goals & assists ratio for them?

In FM 18 the WM was the absolute superstar, regardless of teams and players. Whoever played there was scoring insane amounts of goals and assits, with the CF and WP following closely.

On FM 20 I never managed to replicate it, it was still successful to an extend, but it didn't play or flow the same, it was more of a defensively sound structure with goals coming from the wing back, set pieces and the odd long shot from the CMs & WP. Still, I've had some moments where the WM again was going crazy, but it wasn't as sustainable as on FM 18.

I would love to read some more about this!

November 25, 2020

I am glad there have been so many positive reviews. I guess my whining hasn't been in vain! :lol: A lot of people are saying this is the best FM to date, so props for that. I can't wait to get the chance to play it!

November 15, 2020

I advise you to use the WM role for the right midfielder with a right footed player(Ljungberg ). It was absolutely insane in FM 18, players playing there were constantly the best out of the bunch with getting insane amounts of goals and assits. That was still true for FM 20(at least from my limited testing). The whole concept didn't work the same in FM 20, but that role was still great. I have sneaky feeling that it will still be really good in FM 21, so if anybody wanna try the WM, please let us know how it plays.

November 11, 2020

So how's the ME feeling? I've seen a lot of people saying it's been improved, are guys enjoying it so far? Are there a variety of goals, through passes, etc? How about the AI, any noticable improvements there?

Sign In

Forums

Articles

FAQs

Online Manual

Support: Blocks

Support: Games

Bug Tracker

SIGames Manual (beta)

Profiles

Posts posted by Impacto