Joey Numbaz

My other favorite thread was from @dcayton9 - Wiping the Slate Clean: A Logical Guide to Building a Tactic from Scratch. I have never really built a tactic from scratch. Often I'll take other tactics that seem to fit my players and tweak them a little. I have trouble sticking with the same thing for more than a season or two, I see some other cool idea and want to try that, etc. But I've never built my own. I am also pretty bad at changing up during the game to suit the situation, either chasing a goal or closing a game out, or adapting to what my opponent is doing or keeping me from doing. dcayton9's thread lays out a simple formula that guides you through building a simple tactic that suits your team. You can read the details at the link above, and I'll walk through how I used it here. The best part is that as you add players and squad build you can evolve the tactic. Or as injuries happen, etc. Seems fun and might scratch my itch for constantly wanting to tweak. His thread also talks about how he adjusts throughout a game in great detail, which is a lot fun too. The first step is identify how good your team is when building your base tactic. Relegation candidate, cautious. Champions League contentder positive. Everyone else, balanced. Everton is predicted 11th, that's as balanced as you can get. Next up - defensive style - if your defenders are good, push up one. if they are bad drop deeper. The key attributes for this decision are Pace, Acceleration, Marking, Anticipation, and Positioning (I added positioning) here's how my guys shape up there: That rating is just the harmonic mean of those 5 attributes. Godfrey and Holgate could probably push up. But the starting DCs are going to be Mina/Keane So the line will stay default. Next choice, line of engagement. Work Rate, Pace, Acceleration, Aggression, Bravery for your attackers. With Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison, we can push up; but no one else is really capable of a higher line of engagement. "Pressing high is a useful tool if you have the players to do it, but if you don’t it will be an ineffective waste of energy for your key attackers, so in that case, a lower LOE can open the door to quicker, more incisive breaks for those players." I'm going to go with a lower line of engagement. Now we get to pressing style. Look at your teams "general ability to make quick, strong challenges. Which specifically means Acceleration, Strength, Tackling, Anticipation, Decisions. A couple of these guys are good at pressing, but really not many. We'll leave that normal. We may add a PI or two if needed, but this team isn't really capable of heavy pressing. Plus, all things equal I want to conserve energy and not be tired for the last 20 minutes of the game. Building this from the back now, first choice is a back 3 or a back four. If you have three 3.5* defenders go with a back three, otherwise a back 2 is better. I love to play with back 3s, but I really don't have the squad for it here. Back four it is. Constructing the flanks - we'll have a DL/DR I am not pushing them up to WBL/R. Where do my wingers go? High pressing would be AML/R. Low to mid block means ML/R. I would lean towards ML/R, but ... Richarlison is only rated for AML/R, not ML/R. And Dominic Calvert-Lewin will be up top. We'll see what happens there. Striker(s)? Most teams play single striker these days, but you need someone capable both physically and technically. I think Calvert-Lewin fits the bill, so leaning single striker. Fill in the Middle - that leaves me 3 men for the midfield. Flat at first, adjust if necessary. If you have someone capable of AM push to CM-AM-CM. If you've got two dynamic CM's, and a guy suited to being deeper, go with CM-DM-CM. If we changed it, I'd lean towards the latter with Allan dropping deeper, and Doucouré and Van de Beek as the CM's. But we'll start flat. We are looking at a 4-3-3 wide with a flat midfield 3. Only team instructions so far are balanced with a lower line of engagement. We'll work out the roles and duties in the next post.

If you want to read the how we got to this part post first, which probably should be here, skip down to this post then come back up here! I probably should have posted that one first. Two threads over the last few months or so were really fun and neat tactic/team building threads. The first was @GIMN's Ceramic Army Sassuolo career, in which he took Sassuolo to the top of Italy with an amazing rivalry with Inter. The tactic was fun, but even better was the and the way he mostly hid ratings (no numbers just four color coded ranges). He only hired staff from job adverts and staff recommendations. And the Director of Football dealt with all staff and player negotiations. I also loved how he built a tactic to fit his squad and then evolved the roles in positive 4-1-2-3 over the years to match his talent. As well as some instruction tweaks along the way too. The player cards in this skin are super cool too - check these out. Then there is way he masks attributes - they are color coded not numbers and only four possibilities, not 20. This is neat for a few reasons, it's a challenge, but also in some ways you can eyeball guys faster, a lot of blue and teal, that guy is pretty good. A lot of yellow and red, not so much. I've always felt 1-20 is way too precise for most ratings. Are real scouts really able to tell the difference between say 14 and 15 dribbling with that kind of precision, accurately? I doubt it. Side note, I'm from the US and a baseball fan, been a Moneyball guy since before it was ever a book or a movie. I even went to scout school, though nothing came of it. Baseball scouts use a 2-8 or 20-80 system (20-80 if you want some 'half' ratings like 45 or 55). That equates to using words instead of numbers, think of the 1-10 pain scale or a 1-5 survey like bad, below average, average, good, great. So if we want equate this to Football Manager we could do something like this - note outfielder goalkeeper ratings tend to stay in the 1-4 range. So that's kind of in the ballpark of where our awful scale lands for example - at the top 5 leagues level. Applying this to FM we get something like this: 6-8 "poor but playable" in baseball is like a one-dimensional home run hitter's speed. He's not playing because of that trait he's playing in spite of it. Like Cristiano Ronaldo's marking or tackling. Note the colors are there now. Which is where this skin comes into play: Note for the 15-16 cutoff, visually I want to see 13-15 as average to a little above 16+ as 'elite' - also note I changed GIMN's Sassuolo green/yellow colors to more Everton appropriate hues The player pages are pretty awesome looking That being said, I like 20-80 better than 1-4 - so I need to do a little something for my own ratings. I have built a spreadsheet where I export the actual ratings for everyone, but then I convert them to 20-80 on the scale I shared above. Then I weight the appropriate attributes for every role/duty in the game. I take a combination of the game recommended attributes and the positional weights from this table. I was kind of surprised at how important the physicals are. The way I combine all of this is to use the harmonic mean of attributes. Harmonic mean is a way to combine a set of numbers that weighs the lower numbers more, so being "really bad" at one aspect is weighed more, sort of like a dealbreaker. As an example, the harmonic mean of 10 and 10, is 10. The harmonic mean of 19 and 1 is 1.9. This tends to nudge well rounded players up which is why I like it. To get to a player's rating for each position role and duty, I start with key attributes for the role per the game - those get weighted between 5 and 10. Five is the minimum, if it's higher on the table above I go with that number. Nice to have attributes from the game - those get weighted between 2-4. Two is the minimum, four is the max, again based on the table above. For example, if the table says 0 or 1, I weigh it 2. If the table says 6 I weight it 4. Then anything not covered in the game but shown above for the position at 2.0 or higher gets weighted one time. For weaker foot the scale is: 80 Very Strong 70 Strong 60 Fairly Strong 50 Reasonable 40 Fairly Weak 30 Weak 20 Very Weak I weigh that 1x for wide players that aren't AMRL, and for CD. Everything else gets 2x for weaker foot. Example - let's go with something like Advanced Forward. Weaker foot 2x Key: Dribbling (5x), Finishing (8x), First Touch (6x), Technique (5x), Composure (6x), Off the Ball (6x), Acceleration (10x) Nice to have: Passing (2x), Anticipation (4x), Decisions (4x), Work Rate (2x), Agility (4x), Balance (2x), Pace (4x), Stamina (4x) Positional attributes from the table (all 1x): Crossing, Heading, Long Shots, Concentration, Positioning, Vision, Jumping Reach, Strength It looks like this in Numbers or Excel. =HARMEAN(KG8,KG8,KI8,KJ8,KJ8,KJ8,KJ8,KJ8,KK8,KK8,KK8,KK8,KK8,KK8,KK8,KK8,KL8,KL8,KL8,KL8,KL8,KL8,KN8,KO8,KR8,KR8,KU8,KU8,KU8,KU8,KU8,KW8,KW8,KW8,KW8,KY8,KY8,KY8,KY8,KY8,KY8,KZ8,LA8,LA8,LA8,LA8,LE8,LE8,LE8,LE8,LF8,LH8,LI8,LE8,LE8,LI8,LJ8,LJ8,LJ8,LJ8,LJ8,LJ8,LJ8,LJ8,LJ8,LJ8,LK8,LK8,LK8,LK8,LL8,LL8,LM8,LO8,LO8,LO8,LO8,LP8,LP8,LP8,LP8,LQ8) Yeah it's a big spreadsheet, it goes out to column MZ currently. Applying this to Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Erling Haaland: Attribute Weight DCL EH Weaker Foot 2 30 50 Crossing 1 40 40 Dribbling 5 40 55 Finishing 8 60 80 First Touch 6 60 70 Heading 1 70 60 Long Shots 1 40 45 Passing 2 40 50 Technique 5 55 55 Anticipation 4 55 70 Composure 6 50 70 Concentrate 1 60 60 Decisions 4 55 50 Off the Ball 6 70 80 Positioning 1 30 30 Vision 1 40 55 Work Rate 2 60 50 Acceleration 10 70 70 Agility 4 55 50 Balance 2 55 70 Jumping 1 70 60 Pace 4 70 80 Stamina 4 60 55 Strength 1 70 70 Put it all together and Calvert-Lewin is a 55. Haaland is a 62. Haaland's highest rated role is 64 as a Poacher. That gives an idea of what an elite player looks like here. Calvert-Lewin's best is 57, as a PF (support or attack), or a WTF-A. The highest rated for Everton at this point in my save (October 2021) is Allan as a BWM (defend/support) from the DM spot (he's a 58 in that role at MC). Here's a snippet from the spreadsheet. I have a Mac and like Numbers much better than Excel, it's visually a lot more easy on the eyes. So what I do is export the attributes for my squad from FM, and dump them to a sheet. Then I have another sheet that converts the attributes to the 20-80 ratings. I only look at that one. In game I just see the color codes. I want to add though, I use this as guide, it's not set in stone. It helps me figure out which position and roles might be best to train my youth players for. Which players might have a weakness that is a dealbreaker, things like that. And with the greying of the ratings it helps me to focus on other things than worrying about minor attribute differences, and feels a lot more realistic than having complete knowledge at a 1-20 granular level. Next post I'll talk about the tactic and how I plan to evolve it as I squad build. My other favorite thread of FM22! I'll try to talk about how I make my decisions throughout. I sim full detail, every possible playable league at all levels. My database has over 400,000 players, so it's a very slow roll through.

Not that I am going to post about every game, but holy cow, this was a bit ironic considering the real life game at Goodison Park yesterday. Talk about art imitating life! I kept ratcheting up the pressure as the game went on because we were dominating. After tying it 2-2 I pushed mentality further to attack. That was pretty amazing. The winner was a Van de Beek direct free kick in stoppage time. I don't believe the fans stormed the field after it though. and it’s lost to history, it was just a dream. My game crashed before I could save it. I was having network issues which is why the images were in here multiple times before I could edit it. When I tried to force kill Numbers to free up RAM since I was not sure if that was the issue the game died. Ugh. Oh well based on that xG I’m likely to win the replay.

Check out this goal from my U18s - Mallon is the IWBd with underlap checked. Wow! Underlap is really fun when it works. I can't figure out how to get a video clip up here, so I'll just show it with a few screenshots, I can only fit 3 in here due to size requirements and my 4K monitor but right before this first one Mallon. the IWBd. was just past midfield and passed it down the touchline to the Ws Okoronkwo. Okoronkwo passes it to the MezA Jagne Who then lays a simple pass into space on the ground to the onrushing unmarked Mallon Who dribbles a few steps and puts the ball past the keeper and the inside post for an easy goal. It's not like Mallon is a star or anything. He's a DR/DC and a 1* with 1.5-2.5* potential prospect for a mid-table team on a defend duty. That's kind of awesome.

So I tweaked it up a little before the West Ham game, went with this: The thinking is that Calvert-Lewin is by far my best scorer and just let him do his thing. He's below average passing and vision. He's not a hybrid, he's a goal scorer. Richarlison's ideal position in the game, and in my personal rating system is IWs or IWa. So again, just let him do his thing. Also his work rate is great for tracking back. I dropped Demarai Gray back to the MR strata for solidiness on the right side. But he does have get further forward instruction ticked to also stretch play. Other PIs Mykolenko WBs stay wider; Doucouré CARs close down more (not sure if I need this one though). Allan BWM hold position. If I want more push down the left I leave overlap on; if I need to more solid I turn it off. That's very situational. Godfrey is the guy most likely to lose the ball, so defend works. But ticking underlap right gives a little more support to the right side. Doucouré is kind of a cool player, and the versatility in the midfield helps. Because when I have to sub Van de Beek, who is playing through an arm injury, Doucouré can step right over to Mezzala. Godfrey can become the BWM, Allan can move to Carrilero, and Coleman can close out the game as the IWB, with fresh legs since he's old and losing it physically. Dele doesn't really fit here, but what are you gonna do? Normally Mina would be starting over Holgate, but came back from the international break kind of tired. Did any of this work? Kind of. You see where we flatline about 2/3 of the way through the first half? That's when I dropped it down to cautious and just rode the game out. I kept ramping down throughout the second half, though I started on positive by mistake. Once I noticed that I dropped to balanced and then quickly down to cautious. I made the subs described above. Eventually I had to take Richarlison off because he was on the sideline with a minor knock and didn't want to play down a man up 2-0 with 10 minutes to go. 2 assists, 4 dribbles, 4 key passes, hit 3 of 5 crosses, made 4 tackles, 3 interceptions, 2 clearances. That's a nice days work! Ben Godfrey also had a great game as the IWBd/BWMd/CDd (when he moved to BWD, I made the IWB support and took off underlap; Keane had a yellow, so he dropped to CB when I brought Davies on, who became the Carrilero with Allan moving back to BWM). First half team stats: I got a little lucky here in terms of xG compared to result, but overall the tactic played well and there were no glaring holes. We'll take it so far. The goals were fun. FIrst goal on the counter Calvert-Lewin takes the clearance in our half, lays it off to Doucouré, who finds Van de Beek through the log jam in the middle, Van de Beek hits it across the field to a charging Richarlison who has acres of space, dribbles into the edge of the area, stops, spins around a lays a beautiful pass on the ground past the defender to Doucouré who blasts into the top nearside corner of the net. Second goal, Richarlison beats his man, Calvert-Lewin passes it into the space Richarlison is running to, he dribbles almost to the byline and floats a cross that Van de Beek heads into the same corner. Really nice play for both of these. Both shots had a .10 xG, but they seemed better :-) If this keeps going well and I stick with it I might start a thread for it in the Career Updates area.

Thanks@Lumbertubs! Appreciate that feedback. I've been looking at it a little further and I think I'm going to go with this for the second tactic, still not sure of which tactic I'll try first: El Ghazi is more of a true W-S than Gray is, but I'll give them both a chance. Also removed the distribute to Target Man though I'll put it back if I flip Calvert-Lewin to a TF and make Richarlison an Inverted Winger. I think this combination is a better fit for everyone though. One thing I'm noticing is that there are a lot of potential combinations with this group that would fit. Made Doucouré a CAR instead of a B2B, needed more support and solidiness on the left, there is already plenty of penetration. Mykolenko stay wider; El Ghazi hold position; Coleman/Godfrey get further forward. Take Long Kicks suits Pickford really well too. We'll see how it goes! I am going to train them both so I can switch based on player availability too. I have simmed a few seasons with this squad trying some tactics out earlier a month or so a go, and I'm pretty sure I am not going to get fired unless we get relegated or close to it, so that helps too. But I really want to do well so I have many more squad building options in January and June, so it's not a total free roll either. Also nice that I have four youth games to test on before my next game. EDIT - not a bad start so far in the youth ranks anyway (I have everything simmed with the full engine so it's apples to apples) U23 Lost 3-2 (1.96 - 0.75 xG) vs. Arsenal U23 won 1-0 (2.11 - 0.91 xG) at Arsenal Total 2.86 - 2.87 vs. a good U23 squad with no prep and the players aren't specific to the system U18 Won 5-2 (1.73 - 1.75 xG) vs. Man City - the goals were cool, two started from long keeper kicks, CFa scored 4 goals and isn't even a great prospect U18 Won 4-0 (1.68 - 1.30 xG) at Stoke - MEZa, CFa, IFa all scored. The best player on the team by far did not even play because he was tired from the earlier game. I get the xG were pretty close, but outscoring teams 12-5 over 4 games without the specific players it was chosen for, it at least passes the smell test of not being fatally flawed I'd think. At West Ham tomorrow in game time!

This is pretty incredible. I really like how it's customizable to any team, with plenty of room for interpretation and growth as you squad build. And also for tweaking due to injuries and the like. Probably took me a day to figure out how I wanted to deal with this for Everton. I'm going to switch to this now. Before using this, I am halfway through the October international break (2021) and doing OK so far with my previous tactic, 9th after match week 7, having played 3 of the big 6 already. 3-2-2. 8 goals for an 8 allowed, 9.1-7.1 xG. We'll see if this can do better :-) This is pretty average squad overall, a couple of key strengths, and some glaring weakness, especially DR. If everyone can stay healthy I kind of like this lineup: Note the intensity is super low. Thinking here is: Definitely don't have three 3.5* defenders. So back 4. I've got some wingers so that works too. Looks like a 4-3-3. Dele isn't really physical (he's slow) and technical, he's just technical. So that's not great for a solo striker, but Calvert-Lewin as a wide target man seems like it might be fun. The 3 defend duties are the CBs and Allan. Coleman could go FBd, with Allan as BWMs, but that leaves a lack of support on the right. It's a little more balanced this way. I will also play Godfrey out a DR and see if his speed makes up for lack of mentals, he's a completely different player than Coleman, we'll see who works out better. He's by far my best scorer, but I think I can get away with him in the hybrid role, with Richarlison on the goalscorer role of IF(A). Van de Beek is the creator. Filling in the five lanes, so far we've got Richarlison in the left channel, Dele in the middle (Van de Beek is set to hold position for some attacking cover, but he'll still get into the area, move into channel, and get forward with his PPMs, so he's basically a roaming playmaker on attack. Calvert-Lewin on the right flank. So for the left wing, Mykolenko is the WBs with stay-wider and a gets forward when possible PPM; right channel will be Doucouré as a MEZs running through the middle and playing one-twos. Filling in the gaps, Allan as a BWMd to cover the left side with Mykolenko getting forward. Dele as a deep-lying forward on support to link everyone together. He really can't press. I am not sure if that will work well with an APa? I guess we'll see. Lower line of engagement because Dele can't pretty and we can draw them out some. Pickford can kick the hell out of the ball, and it could be fun with him hitting Calvert-Lewin out wide. Counter pressing because this team is average as well, but four of the five lane guys (Mykolenko, Richarlison, Doucouré and Calvert-Lewin) can press just fine, and Allan is a poor-man's destroyer backing them up. We are average at everything, so none of the possession tweaks seem to make sense. Hopefully I'll get to play some games the next few days and see how this goes. If anyone sees any glaring holes please let me know your thoughts. I did have one other possible option I was toying with: Gray/Van de Beek on the right kind of kills the counter-pressing idea, but that's a nice front three for trying to hit counters so I changed that up. When Godfrey plays I'd put him on support and Allan on defend.