[Quickfire Questions and Answers Thread (Tactic and Training Questions Only)]

1 minute ago, Cleon said:

This is also my approach too. 

Ditto.

[Football Manager TV: Tactics]

56 minutes ago, Bunkerossian said:

Liking the set piece changes a lot! Inverted Wingers I'm confused by, but I suppose I'll learn how they actually work.

In simple terms its an Inside Foward in the RM/LM position. I'm hoping it addresses the issue of not being able to get these players to cross because that is sorely lacking. In the lower leagues its not unusual for Inverted-Wingers to nip inside and send an inswinging cross from the inside channel with their good foot.

[Football Manager TV: Tactics]

Not gonna lie, bit intimated by all the changes and other than Inverted Winger, which I'm very excited about, not sure I'm ever going to use the new Roles.

The pre-match player feedback on tactics and team selection is a very interesting introduction and has me both excited and dreading it. Another opportunity to lose the dressing room was the last thing I needed.

All in all a very interesting set of new options which will take most of us a good while to work our way through. I confidently predict that these forums will be ablaze with thread after thread about how impossible the new game is. So if that sort of thing irritates you it might be best to avoid this place for a while.

[Football Manager TV: Scouting]

One thing I am interested to know is whether clubs that can't afford data analysts will still be able to access to Analysis screen.

Also in real life your next opponent scout report will include things like patterns of play, especially things like whether the opposition play out from the back, which flank they like to build up on.etc

Also a big part of any opposition scouting report will be a set-piece analysis. This would be really helpful because a lot of coaches have very settled tactical plans and don't make huge adjustments depending on opponent (especially the top clubs, confident in their own ability) but what they do spend a lot of time on is preparing for the "great equalisers" like set pieces. If you're playing the likes of West Brom then its vital that you set up to stop them scoring from free kicks and corners because if you do then that's 90% of their goal threat gone.

[Football Manager TV: Scouting]

Just now, DP said:

I hope I can still just run a search and see all the top players in the game world even if I’m a conference manager? 

 

On one level, I imagine so. I mean, even if you manage in the 16th tier of Nigerian football you're going to know exactly who Lionel Messia & Ronaldo are. On the other hand, the scouting function is meant to assist you in recruitment and so as realistic as it would be to have intimate knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of Lionel Messi I doesn't real help you at all. Its pretty irrelevant information when you're trying to find players to sign.

[Football Manager TV: Scouting]

I'm not really into all the funky Italian/Spanish/South American wizardry. I'm very much bread and butter, old school, Mike Bassett-esque.

Excited to see how the inverted wingers play out.

Inverted Wingers, I'm hoping, are the answer to a thread I started a while ago about having "wrong footed" wingers who - instead of going down the line, check their run, cut inside, and send in an in-swinging cross.

Edit: And when I say cut inside, I don't mean go on a mazy run, I mean literally a stride or two.

[My guide to hoofball]

@Cleon how would you go about turning this into a functioning 4-4-2?

[My guide to hoofball]

Would love to be able to play this way. Never managed to get it work, unfortunately. Will reread this article and try and absorb some ideas.

Its a pity that the video of the Graham Taylor interview doesn't work. Would have loved to seen that.

[American Football]

Just a quick question about the 4-4-2 hybrid. You don't mention when you might start with it (other than against an exotic formation) in your specific 4-4-2 hybrid paragraph in the formations section. In the Pick a Base Formation section, near the end, where you go over which of your formations you use against common opponent formations you don't mention the 4-4-2 hybrid.

You mention a couple of times about the diamond being good against the 4-2-3-1. You say the 4-6-0 is good against 3 CD formations, better or stubborn opponents. You suggest the 5-3-2 against the 4-4-2 in a couple of places.

Are there any scenarios where you would use the 4-4-2 hybrid from the off?

[American Football]

Excellent response. Lots to think about.

[American Football]

A better way of putting might be to say that at any time we'll never have more than 1 goalkeeper on the pitch, 2 fullbacks on the pitch, 2 DMs on the pitch, 3 CBs on the pitch, 2 BBMs on the pitch, 2 WMs on the pitch, 1 SS on the pitch, 1 DLF on the pitch and 1 AF on the pitch. Not all at the same time obviously. But if we were building a squad of pure specialists then this is what we would need as a minimum. That's 17 players before we even get to cover. If we have a 2nd player for every first team specialist already mentioned then that is 35 players. Only 11 can play at a time. This totally makes sense in American Football, where they do have massive squads. What was your strategy for your squad to make sure that (a) your squad was a manageable 21-23, (b) without leaving yourself short in areas and(c) What corners did you cut and how? Are there certain roles within the system that act interchangeably? I've already surmised that the "backs" (i.e - CDs, FBs and DMs) have near identical skill sets and can probably be used interchangeably and thus if we take a minimum "backs" as six, as would be required in your Hybrid 4-4-2 then we can fudge around and find a happy medium between the minimum of 6 and the maximum of 12, i.e - cover for all six positions in the hybrid 4-4-2.

Basically I'm a big lover of parsimony, frugality and versatility when it comes to squad building and would appreciate your thoughts.

[American Football]

Mind blowing stuff @VinceLombardi

You deserve all the plaudits that you are getting. You've opened my mind to so many possibilities.

I would like to follow up on the point about familiarity. Are there three of your specific tactics (i.e - Hybrid Balance.etc) that you persevere with to begin with to get that familiarity up or do you just use the "playbook" system from the very start and just build up that familiarity as you go?

I'd also like to know how, mid-game, you'd transition between something like the 4-4-2 diamond and the 4-4-2 hybrid. I ask for squad building reasons.

You'd have to have a way of slotting two WMs & 2 DMs into 1 DM spot, 2 CM spots and then with the remaining player stick them up front in one of your AF, DLF or SS slots. Trying to work out the optimum squad balance for all the different roles is giving me brain ache.

So far I've concluded you could get away with a defensive unit of 10. This would consist of versatile defenders able to slot in at fullback, centre back or DM. The most you'll ever need in a match is six ( the hybrid system). 10 is a compromise number between 6 and 12 (12 would get you a like for like replacement in every defensive slot for your most defender heavy system). Hope that makes sense.

Where I'm struggling is the WMs who either play as a two or none. So, normally if I'd be called upon to have 2 wingers in any given match I'd want an extra two as cover but that would mean when we played a narrow formation we'd have 4 wingers sitting on the bench or in the stands. Then there are the BBMs who only crop up in a couple of systems. We'll need two at most at any one time, on the pitch, and again, usually that would make me want 4 over all but, again, then for DM formations we'd have 4 unhappy BBM's sitting on the sidelines. The DLFs are a simple matter as big, strong, hold up specialists. We can afford to have a couple of them. But the AFs only appear sporadically so should have you have cover or will 1 be sufficient? I never trust 1, personally.

If I were to have cover for every possibility I'd have a squad of 25 (including 2 goalkeepers) which seems to me on the uncomfortably high side.

How do you combine roles to limit the size of your squad and ensure you don't have specialists sitting around doing nothing most games?

 

[Marcelo Bielsa's Tactical Philosophy in Football Manager 2017]

8 minutes ago, argenmik said:

Great thread ozil. If we could get more of you and less of rashidi spouting grammatical nonsense that would be great 

 

No need for that at all. @Rashidi is a great community member as is @Ö-zil to the Arsenal!