Search the Community

4-4-1-1 A very flexible tactic. Hello, this is my first post after years of lurking. I first wrote it in swedish then i translated it with google (Im lazy yes). Then i tried to fix some small errors but there might still be some of them left. Other parts will be written in English and even if its not my native language I hope it will be better flowing. This thread is quite long now, so I have collected all the posts here! Post 2 Inverted wing-back and inverted winger. Post 3 Attacking midfielder. Post 4 Winger + mentalities. Post 5 Central midfielder + 4-4-1-1 Arguments. Post 6 Deep lying playmaker. Post 7 Summary of roles + more. I also started a new series about positonal play. Will my team be able to pass their way to world domination? Stylistically, I (as a Man U) fan have always liked the direct 4-4-2 that Sir Alex Ferguson's first teams used (arguably 4-4-1-1 with Cantona). They focused mainly on wing play for the creation of opportunities and played a relatively direct style. Later, I was obviously amazed by Pep Guardiola and his Jugo De Position,overloads and diagonal movements. The most recent manager that influenced me was Jürgen Klopp and his Dortmund, who won the german league two years in a row and made it to the final in the Champions League. Klopp's team was known for its extreme counterpressing (gegenpressing) where they then tried to attack at high speed once the possession was won. The goal is to succeed in creating something that is a hybrid and with some influence from the best of them different styles. Of course, compromises will have to be made as I only play in a second division (at the moment). The pace and the length of the pass is something that I would really like to have balanced / standard but with better players (or that the current squad is developing) it should probably go away eventually. For now I have decided that I will start with these instructions for the team. The mentality is positive which is the first one that is "offensive" and the 5 out of 7 different where 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 goes from most defensive (1) to most attacking (7). It will, in turn, increase our playing width, tempo, passing directness, LoE, back line, press to slightly higher than standard. That is the whole basis of our game. After that, some adjustments are made to squad quailty and to get to the overall style I want to create. I Would like to have possession but not for the sake of it, press high but not too high, other instructions are to complement this. I try to stay away from extremes. So, I had to start somewhere and I didn't want to start in an top divison. The Premier Leauge has always been the "league for me" so I started looking for suitable teams in the Championship. Fulham with Mawson, Cairney and Mitrovic had enough ability to create a style of play that I was comfortable with. To increase the challenge, I tried to stick to players from the Nordic countries, Great Britain & Ireland, Brazil and Argentina (cause FLAIR). Thus, a large sale was initiated. Tried at all costs to get rid of players who did not meet these criteria. After that, a little more interesting phase began as I tried to strengthen the squad for this year's challenges. Most acquisitions are for the future and squad depth, but a few offer something from the start. Among others, the 22-year-old lightning fast forward from Blackburn Adam Armstrong. Well-rounded midfielder James Garner from Manchester United who came on loan will also get a lot of playing time. Other key players, as previously mentioned, include Alfie Mawson, a so-called ballplaying defender. Cairney is easiest to describe as a classic playmaker with good flair, technicals and vision. Our third designated key player Mitrovic, a physical phenomen that also possesses surprisingly good techique and touch for a lad of his size. As a base, I start to build from the back with 2 regular roles (fullback and central defender) and 3 more specialized roles (sweeper keeper, ball playing defender and inverted wingback). The idea behind this is that the Sweeper keeper is important to be able to build possession from the back, the regular full back to the right will overlap every now and then, the ball playing defender will help the SK to build out from the back. The regular center defender should primarily defend and only add short simple passes to the more technically gifted players around him (IWB, BPD) The inverted wing back is very important to start building the game deep, he will also occasionally appear in the opponsitions penalty area to end the attacks or make killer balls into the penalty area. This happens because the player gets an attacking mentality when I use "look for underlap" on the left. This player is almost playing like a marauding playmaker and is one of the most important roles in my system. The player in question who currently holds this role is Joe Bryan. Here there is plenty of room for a better player to have a greater impact on the team. Dwight Mcneil would be a quality signing for this, originally a winger but with 12 tackle, 10 marking and 11 positioning he is already a capable defender who has a lot of room for development. (Joe Bryan) The regular full back is a basic role (zero preset pi’s) and it can look very different depending on who is playing there. UNE (Jakob Une Larsson) makes the role very safe and secure and often thinks of the defensive side of the game in the first place. (UNE) If Cyrus Christie or Rankin-Costello plays, it will be much more buzzing. Christie (and Costello) because of his traits will be much more attacking in his interpretation of the role. Often advancing further up the pitch and when he plays it is almost like having two inverted wing backs at times. (Christie) The midfield is pretty basic and doesn't have that much finesse but hard work and grit is most important. I Would like to have great physical players centrally in the field. On the wings I like to see a classic winger (fast) on one side and one more “Arjen Robben (not because Robben was not fast) inspired” on the other. Something else is that in the middle field I handed out my first PI or personal instructions and that I have done to all players, they are all told to "push more" which the defenders do not have. This is to create a so-called "split block" as one half of the team pushes higher up the pitch and the other half of the team is standing off and more trying to steer the opponents out of dangerous areas. The exception that confirms the rule is the defensive midfielder, which I count to he defensive part of my split block. So, pressing we have midfield and forward except cmd. Low pressing we have cmd and defense. The defensive midfielder also has some other PIs so he looks as follows. Since the mentality is careful, I have increased the pass length to direct, then I have instructed the defensive midfielder not to dribble. This is because the defensive midfielder is rarely good at just this but also to speed up the game a bit as I would rather see a quick pass to a more technical player. The offensive is largely handled by two players where one is thought to be a link between the lone striker and the rest of the team. The spearhead should try to create as much disarray as possible for the opponents. An APA (advanced playmaker attack) links the play less than an APS and an AF is the striker who is most willing to move into channels and pull apart the opponent's defense. Combined with Mitrovic's ability to play with the back towards goal, I think the mix between the role and the "traits" will be perfect and it will be as a combination between several roles. Thoose two also are included in the pressing block and have thus been given this personal instruction (pressure more). When Armstrong plays at the top, the opponents often have problems with his high pace and they often have to adjust their back line to get control of him, or else he will probably score. The whole tactic thus looks like this: my preferred eleven is this: Next part I will try to analyse this and see how it plays out (and show some results). Also i will discuss some development and future plans.

I have created a new gegenpress based tactic after being successful with my previous wing play tactic. Here are some ss regarding the tactic:

Following from two recent threads, where I was asking for help for my unsuccessful Bologna campaign, I restarted the game with the same club, trying to be more careful about tactical approach and spend more time with it. https://community.sigames.com/topic/516742-which-match-data-stats-to-look-at-to-find-why-tactic-doesnt-work https://community.sigames.com/topic/516383-unable-to-recognize-tactical-problems-help-needed-bologna-4-1-2-3 The season started good, I even spent some time in top 5, but 31 games into the season, after two series of bad results (first 3D and 4L and then straight 7L) I am back to 12th position, same as in the previous save. I have watched every match for 15 minutes in full, tried to make some tweaks and then continued with comprehensive highlights... I am now devastated that hours of working on tactics did not produce any results! How is this possible? Is it that I am completely blind? Or is FM tactical side more luck then hard work? I wanted to take time and analyze what was going. First, I listed all the results in the season and tried to find out how tactics affected them. Here is the first tactic, which I used in 18 matches, with small changes and tweaks. 5W, 5D, 8L (1.11 pts/game). 31 clear+half chances (1,72/gm) against 34 (1,89) of the opponent I played it 6 times in home games (1W, 2D, 3L - 0,83 points per game) and chances were abysmal: only 8 chances produced in total (against 11) Tactics faced? I did not learn much from this. Most of the time, I faced 532wb (or variant): 3W, 2D, 3L (21:14 chances). 4123 in 3 matches (0-2-1, chances 1:1 in total). Against 4312, I played twice, 1W and 1L (chances 2:9!). Is at least this giving me some insight? Don't use 4123 against 4312? True, I've used this formation against stronger opponents, but still the result is quite poor, especially after surprising wins against Juventus and Inter using this tactic at the beginning of the season. The second tactic I used was 4231 - it looked something like this most of the time for 13 matches. 6W, 1D, 6L (1,46 pts/game). It seems this was all-or-nothing approach, I either win or lose 34 chances (2,61 per game) against 26 of the opponent (2,00) Home games: 5-1-4 (1,6 pts/game), 32:19 in chances created Tactics faced? It seems that this does not work against 4231 (6:11 in chances). Something to do with AMC and lack of DMC in my tactics? 41212 (diamong), 12:6 in chances. Obviously my wingers and full backs are able to use space available there? However, I used this tactic in 10 home matches and only 3 away ones. I also used it against similar or weaker teams, so more efficiency might not mean anything. Also, I lost two home games against relegation teams recently. As I was not able to learn much from here, I went to phase 2 - I made a list of all the goals through the season and how they were scored. Second post will be about that.

Hi all, This seems to be the biggest problem I face in FM20 whenever I play. Absolutely great starts to the season. Then Come December/January ... absolute collapse ! I then proceed to deleting the tactic and creating a new one only to fail over and over and over .... delete save .... that's how it works. NOW I am trying to go from the lower leagues as a manager to manage in the Prem or else where. However, back to my issue. How do I adjust / adapt / change my formation that works (we don' score enough) to match what I will face in the league. Which inevitably will probably be more compact teams (I guess ?) Any words of advice will be so so helpful.

I've been playing the game since 2017 but have never gone into depth analyzing my squad. I always find myself using plug and play tactics instead of using the strengths of my side. I want a save where I actually go into that depth. How do you guys go about analyzing the squad you have and seeing what formation, style of play, and roles to assign to my players?

I found the last analysis project I did taught me a lot about the game. Player traits are something that I'm unclear on, so I thought I'd turn my attentions there this season. I’ve read this Player Trait Guide to start with: Traits don’t increase ability, they increase frequency of an action. Traits can work well in combination (e.g. shoot with power & shoot from distance) Traits that go against PIs and TIs will be used less often (I have my doubts) Traits that are encouraged by PIs and TIs will be used more often. Secondly, before analysing it, my impression is that the rate of PPM use is extremely high. There’s a video on the frequency of ‘shoots from distance’ here. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have two players for each position, who play the same role. I'm going to try to observe what affect different Player Traits have on style and outcomes. It is not a scientific test (that would involve duplicating players and playing the same match 20 times), my 1st and 2nd team have different skill levels, attributes and make-ups. The purpose is not to say at the end “X trait is better than Y”, but rather to analyse how they work. I'm continuing on with the same tactic: First 11: Second 11: Complete Forwards (Silva as more of a f9, Zambujo more to get in behind): Silva Comes deep to get ball Arrives late in opposition area Runs with ball through centre Plays 1-2s Zambujo Beats offside Trap Cuts inside from both wings Places shots Inside Forward, Left (Chiesa more of a threat inside the area, Marin more of a threat cutting in): Marin Runs with ball often Places shots Cuts inside Tries tricks Chiesa Beats offside trap Plays 1-2s Gets into opposition area Gets forward whenever possible Cuts inside Inside Forward, Right (Tete more inside the area, Kangin just outside): Kangin Tries killer balls Runs w/ ball through centre Cuts inside from right Tries tricks Plays 1-2s Tete Moves ball to left before dribbling Cuts inside from right wing Plays 1-2s Gets into opposition area Gets forward whenever possible Beats offside trap Mezzala, RCM (Gravenberch more of an Iniesta, Bekir more of a Kaka): Gravenberch Looks for pass instead of scoring Plays 1-2s Refrains from long shots Plays way out of trouble Bekir Dictates Tempo?! Tries killer balls often Tries to play out of trouble Arrives late in opposition area Runs with ball through centre CM, MCL (Tonali more of a Verratti, Julio Cesar more of a... Lampard?): Julio Cesar Plays short simple passes Plays 1-2s Plays way out of trouble Arrives late in area Tonali Comes deep to get ball Doesn’t dive in to tackles Looks for pass rather than score Half Backs (Sabbe more of a Xabi Alonso, D'amico more of a Busquets): Sabbe Dictates Tempo Does not dive in to tackles Refrains from long shots D’amico Comes deep to get ball Dictates Tempo Plays way out of trouble Stays back at all times CWBs, Left: Pellegrini Runs with ball down left Gets forward whenever possible Marks tightly Plays 1-2s Hugs line Verbeek None CWBs, Right: Martin Gets forward whenever possible Hugs Line Plays 1-2s Knocks ball past opponent Refrains from long shots Kristensen Short simple passes Gets forward whenever possible Runs with ball down right Long flat throw Hugs line Dives into tackles Refrains from long shots Central Defenders, Defend (will be interesting to see the affect of 'marks tightly' here, they have similar attributes): De Ligt None Edilson Marks Tightly Plays short simple passes Central Defenders, Cover: Gonclaves Refrains from long shots Breton Plays short simple passes Sweeper Keepers: Lafont Avoids using weaker foot Uses long throw to start counter Ixtaurraga None

I propose to analyse every goal conceded over the course of a season in order to master the defensive arts! I'll look at conceded goals focusing on: - Player quality (e.g. defender is out-jumped or out-paced) - Tactics - Set pieces I'm Ajax, playing a 4-3-3,and have a very good squad! Won a quadruple including the CL in 2020, last year I lost to Mourinho in the final Tactics: I leave OIs to my assistant. Goal 1: Home to Vitesse Part 1: (player quality) Zorro wins aerial battle, but heads straight to opposing midfielder. He had 8 for heading at the time. Obvious mismatch for the 18 year old Zorro! Welcome to your new training program:

Hey, I don't know if this a a bug or just a setting I've accidently changed in the game, but I've stopped receiving post-match analysis emails from my Data Analysts (example attached). I've checked staff responsibilities but there's no option that seems relevant, I even put more budget into my data analyst facilities. Does anyone know how I can get these emails back? Cheers

Note sure what section to post this in, apologies if this is wrong. I have previously posted a few tactics on this forum creating FM18 and analysing the tactics of other managers and have decided to create an analysis video on YouTube. I was hoping anyone on this forum who is interested would take a look to help promote the video. Here is the link -

On the stats screen under match analysis, it would be great for there to be way to watch highlights strung together by certain incidents. In the image above I've all Key Passes from my players, instead of clicking on each one I would love to be able to start a mini highlights package where each incident plays consecutively.

Just needing a bit of help regarding analysis of your team. On my team report analysis section it currently says that "10 of 33 goals against have come from the right side of the pitch" as a weakness. Does this mean that the goals are coming down the attacking team right side i.e. my left back, or they are coming from my right side of the pitch i.e. my RB? I want to make a tweak to amend it but not sure which side to change! Thanks in advance!

FM18 crashed when I tried to open highlight from the previuos match in the analysis tab. crash dump is attached FM 2018 v18.0.3.1036176 (2017.11.07 21.44.46).dmp

During (or at the end of each half) clicking analysis shows many information. But the SHOTS tab shows absolutely nothing (even if there were shots which are shown on other tabs)

As part of the tools for analysing matches, I'd like to see a feature where FM gives us a static view of how the play and ball movement developed to end in a goal. Dailymail provides these kinds of goal overviews but it is also prevalent in game analysis sites and football coaching books. Examples: Sometimes I'd prefer it if I could quickly look at a diagram outlining a goal then seeing the actual replay, and the inclusion of the above would be a great addition to the game.

I would like to suggest a new statistic that shows goals scored against my team by opposition players by their position. For example, STCL - 10 goals STCR - 20 goals AMR - 30 goals AML - 5 goals AMC - 10 goals MCL - 5 goals This will be useful to identify and improve weakness against particular player position.

Does anyone know if there is a way of viewing how many goals the team has scored while a specific player is on the pitch? Can't see any. It would be good if there was. This is a one that gets used a lot.