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Pairs & Combinations - The Ultimate Guide I am delighted to release the 2020 edition of Pairs & Combinations! The guide will contain some similar information to last time, but a lot of new information too - taking account of the changes to the game in the last 5 years since the previous release. I have removed sections on formations, playing style etc., and focused much more on the real purpose of this guide - getting a balanced and effective setup for your team, making the best of your team. There are some amazing guides from some amazing writers, vloggers etc. that cover many topics like youth development, in-game tactical changes, style development far better than I do. I have put a lot more into my "how to build a team" section, to try and illustrate the thought process in a clearer manner. Thanks to everyone who downloaded the last version and I hope this version helps you too - the last guide was downloaded over 1 million times! This is by no means the complete authority on football manager, but they are sensible starting blocks for a team. Please leave any constructive feedback, I'm always happy to hear it. Please do not redistribute this without my expressed permission. Pairs & Combinations (2020).pdf

After issues with under performing AMC in 19, I started trying more 2 striker formations initially a 4-2-2wide-2 which was great against weaker teams, then a straight 4-4-2 and a 4-2dm-2wm-2 for the big boys and I adapted these from a 4-2-3-1 setup using more modern player roles, the front 2 are a PF(a)+CF(s) seem to work well on 20 at the moment. What I would like to do is build a traditional 4-4-2, which anybody who watched British football in the 70s and 80s will know what I mean, I also want to make it a 3 in 1 tactic so one of the alternatives would be adjusted mentality and lines and the third possibly a 4-1-3-2 with narrow wide midfielders. I plan on testing during beta and then long term to bring 80s 4-4-2 back to the top. I would like to get advice on player duties for the traditional game, also on whether 3rd tactic should be 3 at the back or another off the back of the 4-4-2? Tactical style I'm guessing clean slate, just let them play, basically no TI or additional PI well apart from use offside trap. I'm also interested in advice for a 4-4-2 based tactic for use against the big boys, as my defensive tactic that I used in 19 against the big boys just isn't cutting it in 20, though I also introduced it after few seasons with squad so that may influence the effectiveness. I see the 4-4-2 like this GK(d) FB CD CD FB Should the FB be support or auto? CB traditional but NCB acceptable? WM CM CM WM Should WM be W? One CM on def other on sup or att? Possible the WM mark opposing FB/WB? 4-1-3-2 with a DM(s)+CM(d)+2WM? TM ?? As much as I'm enjoying my PF+CF pairing at the moment, traditionally I think it has to be a TM plus I think poacher, don't think the other alternatives suit? Any feedback or thoughts welcome.

Is the box to box midfielder a stable "sitter" in midfield ? I want to play a certain player as a BBM next to a DLP (s) and just want to know if that qualifies as a semi solid, 2 sitter midfield base. If not, can you guys please suggest a suitable sitter to join my dlp, who also performs some creative passing. Thank you

Hello guys, I have some mysterious affection with the Target Man role and now I want to create a tactic with a more specialised version of Target Man, the Wide Target Man. I am uploading the tactic because the tactic is, for some reason or the other, not working well enough. I lost a friendly match against Everton 1-2. The first match of Premier Division against West Ham ended in a 1-4 lost. Second match was against Liecester city which ended disastrously in a 0-5 lost. I am ready to change the tactic completely but the only thing I want is a Wide Target Man. Open to critics and suggestions.

This maybe better in stupid question thread but will try here. At the minute I have my 2 cb as DCL cb def and DCR bpd def, doing ok but would like them to be doing better, both their attributes are good for their roles, but conceding few too many for my liking. In a previous save I think I had the same 2 but set as DCL cb cover and the DCR bpd def and can't remember if this combination worked better. I don't use a DM in any of my 3 formations and I'm still getting results. I know that a lot is trial and error, but I don't want to throw points away experimenting. Which attributes should I be looking for for the pairing to work well? Would the pairing with the cover duty be better against the bigger teams?

Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere but how does training roles work now? Is it like training a new position where you select the role in individual training and play the player in that role consistently and he gets better at it over time? And how do duties factor into it? Say I have a player who's a natural DL and his natural role is Wing Back Support, if I were to train him as Complete Wing Back (support) and keep playing him as such, would his half full kind of yellow circle grow over time to become almost full green or totally full bright green? And would he automatically be able to do it in attack duty as well or do I have to separately train for that? Thank you.

I checked this forum & google, but there are no complete guideline regarding the player roles & positioning/movement. There are bits by bits of information but mostly incomplete. Can any one summarized a complete player roles guideline for all position? Example: Roaming Playmaker - The player moves less than the box to box midfielder, loping around the field and preferring to find pockets of space and focus on interceptions in defence. - His primary focus is obtaining the ball when out of possession. - When attacking, he surges forward from deep whilst on the ball, attempting to take on the opposition with dribbling in order to open up space for others. Box to Box Midfielder -Non-stop motion, contributing in defence and attack, getting in tackles, blocks and interceptions and charging upfield to take shots and provide assists.

Hi all. I don't understand how to make a player more accomplished in his position. I retrain them in the new position I want them to learn and play them in that role and it never changes, even with young and gifted players. For example, Pulisic is only 'competent' as an right sided inside forward attack, meaning he only has half a circle in the display. I want that to grow but nothing happens. I kind of understand you can't make a player natural but surely they can become accomplished? It's doing my loaf in! Grateful for ideas!

Hello guys, so I have been using a tactic by Eusebio which I downloaded fmscout website. The attack has been quite reliable but defense keeps me quite disappointed as I have to struggle in matches even where I scored 4-5 goals or even suffer defeat Here is my tactic: And here are the instructions : Please suggest the changes so that my defense can also become reliable. Thanks !

Hi everyone, this is a series from my blog, hope you enjoy it The Fantasista: Intelligence, Creativity, Technique - Part One What is perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of football culture is the different interpretations of player roles and playing styles that various nations bring on to the wider football scene. The global football discourse often involves specific, almost trademark terms like the 'Volante' in Brasil - a term that has its roots in the name of Argentine player Carlos Volante, who was one of the first to play the position during the 1930s. It literally translates into English as Flywheel – a rotating device used as an energy store – or steering wheel. They are very much the fulcrum of attacks and the engine room of defence, and will use their technical ability to engineer attacks whilst also being able to garner the energy to break up opposition moves. Then you have roles like the 'Raumdeuter' in Germany, based on Thomas Muller's style of play at Bayern Munchen - a term that means 'space investigator' when translated literally and provides a good account of the style of play it often employs. When it comes to Italy, however, someone accustomed to the English football terminology would probably need a dictionary to make sense of pretty much anything they're talking about. Italian football culture is deep-rooted in history and has often been described as the nation that focuses most on the tactical side of the game. The trouble is, there are different words for similar things, however....not quite similar. For example, a 'mezz'ala' would be regarded as the equivalent of the 'box-to-box' midfielder in the UK, however that isn't necessarily true: the mezz'ala role entails more horizontal movement rather than vertical, box-to-box coverage, and its' literal translation actually means 'half-wing', which relates to the player operating in the 'half-spaces' and covering the wings (mostly relevant in 3-man midfield systems, such as the 4-3-3 or 5-3-2). This is of great importance when trying to make sense of specific football terminology. As mentioned above, a lot of these 'trademark' roles entail definitions of specific players and how they interpret the roles, as well as the context of the football culture they are part of. Along with the 'regista', One of the Italian terms that gained a wider recognition in world football as well as in English football culture is... 'the trequartista'. Literally translated as 'three quarters player', the term refers to where the player would likely play on the pitch As Roberto Mancini points out in his Master's Thesis that is based solely on analyzing the trequartista, "The magic of the number 10 comes from the trequartista's feet, the player of inventiveness, the one who is capable of wrong-footing “everyone with a piece of skill perhaps he is not even fully aware of.” He also breaks down his definition of the 'trequartista' into two aspects, which highlight the importance of football culture and the context it creates: From the point of view of “football culture”: The trequartista is a player with great technical skills and specific characteristics: sublime unmarking qualities; great basic technical skills and good applied technique quality; unpredictability; ability to serve the strikers with ease in various ways; predisposition to dribble and individual play; poor attitude to the defensive phase. From the point of view of the “position on the field”: The trequartista is a player who places himself in the central zone between the defensive midfielders and the strikers' lines. His analysis covers a lot of aspects about this role, and I strongly recommend giving it a read here - Roberto Mancini Master Thesis. Perhaps the most relevant part of his research to the objective of this article however, is his observations on how the 'trequartistas' of Serie A (in year 2000) show very different styles of play, and how much of it is down to the player's particular characteristics and how he interprets the role. For example, you'd have a player like Juan Sebastian Veron, who drives forward from the deeper area of the pitch, or someone like Locatelli (Bologna 2000) who mainly drifts laterally behind the strikers. The tactical set-up, the player's personal style of play and his general characteristics can result in a variety of interpretations of what is a 'trequartista'. In fact, so different where the styles of football that different trequartistas employed, that a new term was coined out in order to refer to a particular type of player that derives from the more traditional interpretation of a trequartista: The Fantasista, as the name itself suggests, is a role that implies artistry with and without the ball. Sparks of magic that vow the crowds, an imaginative ability to think about football and the technical ability required to execute it. The fantasista has traditionally been the main star of the show when it comes to exciting, creative pieces of play. Some of the names that made the role famous are undoubtedly - Roberto Baggio(pictured above), Diego Maradona, Francesco Totti, Alessandro Del Piero, amongst many others. Just to illustrate how mind-twisting Italian football terminology can be, I will quote the author of this fantastic piece. "Fantasista is usually or mostly a trequartista, but trequartista is not always a fantasista. Simone Perrotta, Thiago Motta, are one of the players who have been put as a trequartista but not fantasista. They interpret trequartista as hard working attacking midfielder who spread the pass and shoot at the goal when the opportunity knocks out. In Italy, fantasista is being described as the one who wears no 10, in which every little italian kids dream to wear no 10." What differentiates him from the traditional trequartista is a combination of: a) tactical intelligence - the ability to read the game, position himself favourably, make decisions that unlock stale pieces of play, trick the opposition, anticipate the opponent's collective/individual moves b)imagination/creativity - the 'fantasy' brain that comes up with pieces of skill or finds unconventional solutions to complicated situations of the pitch c) technical ability - the ability to execute the combination of the above two points with the feet: ball control, dribbling, technique, first touch and so on. Roberto Baggio is truly one of the first players that helped bring even more weight to what a 'fantasista' means: In a nutshell, we are talking about a football player with complete abilities in the attacking/creative department of the game. With less focus on physique and with limited defensive responsibility, the fantasista conserves his energy and focus on creating play in the final third, or more appropriately... in the third quarter. Unlike the trequartista, however, he will look to get involved even more in the box and be there to apply the final finish or curl the ball into the top corner, as a certain man did on numerous occasions only to get that finish trademarked as the shot 'a la Del Piero'. In the next parts of this series I will look at how this role can be translated into Football Manager and how different players or tactical systems can result in interpreting it differently.

With the reemergence of a back 3 as one of the most popular tactical systems for defences, a new role for the right and left centre backs of Wide Centre Back would be a good addition. Currently with a back 3 and wingbacks/wide midfielders, the analysis of the formation has the right/left fullback areas red and an area of weakness when actually the right/left centre backs should be covering those areas to some degree (at the expense of weakening the centre). You can put centre backs in the fullback positions as ‘Defensive Fullback’ as a rough equivalent but i) they often aren’t familiar with that position and ii) it’s a more extreme widening of the back three. A specific role that allowed for centre backs to cover the flanks while not being too wide would be very useful (and realistic). It’s also possible to see them in a back four, Puyol & Pique used to play very wide for Barca to give better options to Valdes when the wingbacks had pushed on.

In two seasons I developed my Everton side into a top 5 side. We can consistently compete with the big boys and came second to Arsenal in second season. So naturally we are starting to face parked bus teams more to a point where our original simple direct 4-4-2, has become less effective. It's 3rd season preseason and I'm trying to develop a tactic that can break down stubborn defences better. A lot of teams started using 3 central defenders against me, Italian anti - football Catenaccio style. So my idea is what if get a central beast of a targetman and surround him by 2 poachers on both sides. I got Andrea Petagna who is probably the best young targetman after Giroud. Anybody tried something similar? My plan is to get the ball to him quickly so he can boss around the defenders and then with his good passing (14) he can pass quickly to one of the poachers/advanced forwards to whom I can give PI of run wide with the ball.

I have a question. I've read Cleaon's thread (not entirely) but still couldn't find the answer for that. I have a young player, his position is CM and his natural role is B2B (full cake). since I'm not playing with player roles such as B2B or RPM or APM and instead I tend to play only with CM roles, my question is: 1) Should I train my player as a B2B even though I play him as a CM role so he can fulfill his full potential? (the player isn't natural at CM role, he is competent and missing 3 lines from the full cake) 2) or Should I train him as a CM role so he become more familliar with the role? 3) Does a player with 'competent' role familliarity will perform the same as natural, does it has a huge effect over the role? (I know it doesn't make much sense, but I still kinda afraid to throw away the player potential ability and not fulfill most of the player potential). The thing is, if I train him as a CM he will work on less attributes than B2B role working on, which he probably at the end won't fulfill his full potential and this is what I'm afraid of mostly. I have another question: I have a young winger with very low compusre, concetration, anticipation and decisions, would it be wise to train him as a Raumdeuter so he can improve those attributes? Please help guys. Thank in advance.

Hi guys, I think it would be useful to understand roles available in FM by mapping them with real footballers - especially mapping with most well-known players like Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zidane, Ronaldo, Suarez etc. All your feedback is appreciated a lot. Thanks in advance. Edit: You may add PI to customize the role.

Hello, Can any of you smart people tell me the basic differences / positives & negatives of using a Wing Back with Support duty vs Full Backs with Attack duty? I'm playing as Hull using a 451/433 with my 2 wide forward players with instructions to move inside and support the central striker. Therefore I need my left and right backs (Robertson and El-Mohamady) to provide my team with width and get crosses in but I'm not sure which roles to use. Initially I thought FB-A but after reading the tactical guides it seems that the general consensus is that you shouldn't have too many players on attack duty unless you're playing an attacking style. Being Hull, it's rare that I'll be taking the game to teams so this has made me reconsider... Basically I want their approach to be defence-first but willing to get forward on counters and when the opportunity arises to do so safely and to exploit openings. Any advice welcome. Thanks