[The "Official" Tactic Request Thread - Can't find what you're looking for? ASK HERE!!]

No matter how I set up my team I just can't get them to score the way I want them to, which is through 1. cut-backs and 2. through balls. I really need help especially with (1). Has anyone managed to implement that?

[Mr Hough 10.3 Tactics]

whats the best defensive formation? call me old fashioned by i dont like 4-4 and 6-4 results etc. theres so many tactics now that testing them all will take me days. i was hoping someone out there might help me?

Most if not all of the popular and succesfull formations in FM10 are excesively offensive ones. If you are specifically looking for a defensive formation, I would recommend taking a look at the TT&F '10, in the appendix section there is an excellent implementation of a counter attacking 4-5-1 based on the real Bolton team. It works well and with a few tweaks it can be quite effective. If for whatever reason you can't find it, PM me. Let me point out however that most of Mr. Hough's tactics have a good ballance between offense and defense, so unless you absolutely want to play anti-football you will get lots of convincing wins without conceding much if you use any of the tactics in this thread.

[Mr Hough 10.3 Tactics]

Excellent analysis of the correlation of d-line and 2-MC midfields. How did you do in difficult away games against better teams (assuming you played any)? Do you think defending with 6 players will work with teams that aren't really top quality? At any rate, the Everton results are more than convincing, the attack looks spectacular, so I do believe congratulations are in order.

[Mr Hough 10.3 Tactics]

This tactic sucks if you play against a team that has quicker players and counters.

Assuming you are refering to the tactic that was linked from a french forum, the defense is a complete shambles. The offensive part is fun but it uses 8 players to attack, and has just 2 DCs sitting back and relatively deep as well. Often you will have 8 players in the opponent's area, and the rest of the pitch will be empty, with your two DCs sitting back miles away from any kind of support. Unless your DCs are vastly superior than the opposition strikers and can win in every 1v1 situation you will concede every time you loose possession. It's still a good way to score a fast goal when you're desperate and it can also steamroll small teams.

The Invincibles has also performed poorly in defense for me, possibly because I don't manage the best team in the world and when my DCs get dragged all over the place, every time they miss a tackle I concede.

[Mr Hough 10.3 Tactics]

So the theory of only narrow formations working well on fm10 could be true after all. It's the only times I've ever had success on this version but kudos to you if you can pull out a winger tactic. I'll certainly try it out.

The reason I believe most narrow formations work better defensively that any 4-4-2 / 4-2-4 variant, is that a three man miedfield in FM10 can cover the flanks and the midfield at the same time, exceptionaly well. With any 4-3-3 variation you could have up to 3 players covering each flank, switching to 3 covering the middle of the pitch when the ball is being played through the middle ( depending on the particular instructions of each tactic of course). In any 4-4-2 you can usually have 2 per flank and you can't cover the middle with more than 2 either. For example, if you try to get 3 per flank in a 4-4-2 (adjusting the closing down for one of the MCs),it will simply leave one midfielder alone to cover the central area of the pitch, whereas a 4-3-3 will have 2 players there in a similar situation. Similarily, when you are playing a 4-4-2 and your opponent is attacking through the middle it is hard if not impossible to get the wingers in that area, so you're left with 2 MCs/DMs covering the middle. In any situation a 4-3-3 variation can have more players in whatever area of the pitch the oppossition are attacking from.

[Mr Hough 10.3 Tactics]

I'm playing in the classic tactic type and my overall team mentality is the last notch of normal,

I have reduced the fullbacks creativity to the lowest it will go, It was on the last notch of little anyway so it won't that high. As i see the play unfold i have been watching my fullbacks very closely and what they seem to do is go up with the ball and then come back with the ball if you get what i mean, Obviusly staying in there positions but if the ball get passed into midfield they will move to midfield if it goes to attack they will move to attack, What seems to happen is that if i lose the ball the opposition counter like demons and my fullbacks are out of position, I have RFD on rarely too, I'm not sure what is causring this to happen.

I've had something similar happening on various tactics. In my opinion this is happens because the fullbacks always have a lot of space in front of them to run into, and possibly not enough passing options. What I usually do is increase their crosses from deep, and increase their passing range to mixed. Furthermore, personaly I never put any player on 0 mentality, I think giving them a mentality of 2-5 notches can help prevent them from doing irrational things at times. I also believe Tempo has a role to play in this so it probably depends on more than one factor.

[Mr Hough 10.3 Tactics]

I say no to a High D-Line. The oppenents get at least 3 CCC a game.

I was playing with a D-Line of 18. It all depends on how you play. If you have any questions or want to discuss more on the d-line topic let's take it to PM's please so we don't spam MR Hough's thread too much

[Mr Hough 10.3 Tactics]

mostly counters, down on the wings and through the middle just depends

I don't presume to be an expert or anything, but for what it's worth when pressing high up the pitch I try to have a DMC on relatively low CD, and mentality close to or even lower than the CBs', depending on the philosophy of the system. It helps because he tends to move into DC position if one of the DCs gets draged out of position. That, and having the fullbacks as defensive as reasonably possible seems to work for me, although obviously it is not possible to never concede on the counter when playing a high DL. It is however possible to make a very solid defensive system with a high D-line. Just my 2 cents, best of luck with your tactic, I'm sure it will be as solid as the rest of them.

[Mr Hough 10.3 Tactics]

Yeah alot of the goals i have conceded seem to come from mistakes like missed interception stuff like that, I'm not reading that much into the defence i wanna try and get the DM's working better in defence.

In my experience that tends to happen more often the more pressure you put on your defenders. Personaly, when I see too many "mistakes" by my defence it's a sign that my attackers and/or midfield are leaving them exposed. Out of curiosity, is it "through the middle" play you find harder to defend against or is it the flanks?

[Mr Hough 10.3 Tactics]

but this way, he doesnt put pressure on the opposition.

he just waits for the opposition to come towards to him.

but i want to put pressure on the opposition in their own half with my two wingers striker and amc.

how can i reach that without increasing the d-line?

So basically you want them to mark the oppossition AND be available for counters at the same time, AND not increase the D-Line? That's an awfull lot to ask. If you want them to pressure adjust the closing down accordingly, set their tackling to hard to win the ball high up the pitch, and set their marking to loose/zonal, that will make them more available for counters since they won't be tight marking anyone and probably won't be right next to an opossition player when you win the ball back. That's about the best I can think of but I am honestly not sure what exactly it is that you are trying to achieve.

[Mr Hough 10.3 Tactics]

what you mean by mentality and closing down? high mentality + much closing down?

The exact opposite. If you want a player always available for counters lower his closing down and set his marking to loose/zonal.

[Mr Hough 10.3 Tactics]

mr.hough, how do you get your both wingers not to track back too far when your team is defending?

I want them to stay a bit closer to my striker, when my team is defending, so that I can outplay the opposition on a counter, but my wingers often act like full backs, when I am defending and so it takes so much time, to get back the ball, since my defenders always shot the ball forward but the opposition midfielders are the only ones, which are in the near of the ball, so that they can still continue the pressure.

ivre tried everything from zonal to man from tight to loose from high closing down to low, but nothing helps.

my d-line is set to a bit over normal and the mentality of my wingers are 16, so logically they shouldnt support the defence that much.

hope you can help me

Mentality and closing down should take care of that! Also set marking to loose/zonal.

[Mr Hough 10.3 Tactics]

Could you send me a PM of your winger tactic with the best defence you can make it and i'll apply my attack to it hopefully it'll work.

I haven't used wingers in a while, I did however have a couple of tactics for previous patches. I tried one of them last night in a few matches and it didn't work (defensively) as well as it used to, so I'll take a couple of days to fix it and adjust it to 10.3 and I'll PM you as soon as possible.

[Mr Hough 10.3 Tactics]

Nope i'm afraid not, I have been trying but i can't make it stable in defence.

My main problem with all winger tactics I have tried is scoring goals. In fact all my winger tactics work better defensively since it's easier to close down the opposition fullbacks, but offensively, the wide forwards work so much better as right/left ST or AMC than wingers. Plus, the wide play options in the current FM (cut inside etc) are plain horrible, and playing from the flanks seems less effective compared to playing through the middle.