Da Project – Sweat & Tears – A strategy for playing FM (from a NooB perspective)

[New_Xieland]

What is Da Project?

This is my first year at doing this so please be nice. But the idea is to start unemployed and then try to get employed – with a football club and then discuss all aspects of managing that particular club.

(note had to restart the game early because I had left my past experience on Sunday Footballer and thus no team would take my job application seriously)

But after changing that to “international player“ or something along those lines I managed to get a gig with Zenit St Petersburg. Managed to finish 6th overall (was 10th when I took over) and now looking forward to my first full season in charge.

How will this year differ from previous versions?

Well technically it won’t since it’ll be my first attempt at this. But just to clarify some points I’ll be watching the full match when I play, choose a large data base and have about 12 leagues activated. I will be posting (hopefully) every match as the season goes along. Previously I have never gotten through 2 full seasons with my previous FM efforts. Started playing fm07, thought it was brilliant, played the demo of 08 – hated it, 09 was better but gave up because after tweaking 20 sliders every 10 match minutes I still managed to get thrashed by rubbish teams like Blackburn.

Why use the tactics creator?

Because I have absolutely no f***in idea how those damn sliders ever worked in the previous versions of FM. Seriously the tactics creator this year is an absolute god send and is probably the sole reason that have gotten me back into the game. I also recommend reading the Tactical Theorems 10 because I’ve read it.

What is the purpose of this thread?

Hopefully it’ll give you an insight on how an average NooB tries and struggles to play the game. I am certainly no tactical guru, live on a continent that’s utterly starved of football and am a hopeless romantic (Arsenal supporter).

I actually played the first game of the season last night before deciding to start his thread. I won 2-0 against some team in the Russian Premier League whose name is impossible to pronounce. It was only after the game that I realized that I was in fact playing Away and not at Home – so much for the need to have two different sets of tactics for home and away… Ha! Take that all you “it’s your tactics” posters !!!

Team Song

Well I thought I’d stick to the Russian theme and has thus opted for “No going to get us” by Tatu.

I quite like it as I think the name and lyrics are quite appropriate in alluding to the fact that they’re “not going to get us” as in not going to get Zenit as we march forwards towards winning the league!

Anyway I thought it was pretty clever…

[New_Xieland]

So my first home game for the new season against Krylja Sovetov -a team that I know next to nothing about. Actually come to think of it I don’t really know much about any of the teams playing in the Russian Premier League...

A little bit about my formation – it’s a blatant attempt to rip of Barca’s 4-3-3 with a striker as a Complete Forward and two Wingers which are Inside Fowards all on attack. The midfield is comprised of two MCs (Advance Playmakers on Support) and a classic DMC (defend).

Anyhow this is how we lined up – the first thing I noticed was that they’re playing a midfield diamond – meaning that they’ll lack width unless they have awesome FBs (which I’m pretty sure they don’t.) Second thing was that the odds were tipped in favour of a draw. Thus for my tactics I started with Balanced/Fluid with More Expressive creativity and Press More on closing down.

For shouts I started with Play Wider and hit the play button...

Okay the first 15 minutes was an absolute disaster ! We had close to no possession while my midfield got completely dominated – starting off with Play Wider meant that their 4 men midfield swamped mine while my wingers were sitting uselessly on the flanks denied of any sort of service. I immediately changed tactics, changed one of my MCs (Denisov) from a Deep Lying Play Maker to a Ball Winning Midfielder to hopefully try to wrestle the midfield our way. Out went Play Wider and in came Play Narrower with Play Deeper thrown in for good measure. I figured that by sitting deeper even if my midfielders lost all the second balls at least there’ll be somewhat of a buffering distance from the direct balls they were bombing at my backline. This paid immediate dividends as my passing and possession both rose considerably and eventually led to my opening goal, a pass from my LB cutting across the box and tucked in at the far post by my tricky little winger. And that’s how the first half ended with me 1-0 up.

The second half was grinding affair though I could slowly feel the game swing my way. With the changes I’ve made, possession was definitely with me. I shouted Retain Possession (to slow down the game as I was leading), Exploit Flanks (kind of playing wider without really playing wider ie hit them on the flanks during fast breaks) while changing the passing style to Default. After seeing several of my shots saved, I eventually scored my second from a corner set piece (78min), with my DC Hubocan tucking in the loose ball. There was late drama though as they manage to smash in a free kick 3 minutes later though by quickly changing to Counter, More Rigid, More Disciplined (creativity) along with shouts of Get Ball Forward (increase in mentality that will hopefully help with my counter attacking style), I was able to see out the game.

So looking at the final stats I was probably good for the win though there wasn’t really a stage where I felt completely in control. I got pretty luck in the first 15min when somehow I managed to hold out from their initial onslaught. However once I managed to wrestle the midfield back, I had enough quality to see off Krylja Sovetov.Interestingly at the press conference post match I was asked about only beating a team that I was tipped to thrash by a small margin... wtf ?!?! At my match analysis I was only tipped for a draw... But anyhow after two matches I am sitting pretty on top of the league with a perfect 2 from 2. My next game is away to Moscow (tricky) and three days later I host Olympique Lyon for the first leg of the UEFA Cup (or is it League now?) quarter final.

[New_Xieland]

My second away game for the seasons was against Moscow, a game that I was favoured to win. This was reflected in Moscow’s line up as they lined up with a 4-5-1 formation. I began with Attack/Balanced and enabled Short Passing.

Well everything worked brilliantly for the first 30minutes – I absolutely dominated possession (70-30), hit the wood work once and had already 8 attempts on goal. What was worrying was the fact only 2 were on target and 5 were from long range. I adopted Work Ball Into Box and Pass Into Space to try and counter act the long shots but to no avail. Then the whole thing came crashing down in the 37th minute when my Winger Bystrov was sent off for a violent tackle.

For the second half I changed my tactics completely – Counter/Rigid, Direct Passing and More Disciplined/Stick to Position. I ended up sacrificing my DMF and changed my MCs to Ball Winning Midfielder (Defend) and Box to Box Midfielder (Support). In retrospect I should have also changed my AMR/Ls to MR/Ls as my two man midfield was completely flooded. Even though possession was still in my favour, Moscow started to look a lot more dangerous in their attack. For some stupid reason my MCs refused to track back. I ended up have to Never Close Down on the opposition FBs so that my formation wouldn’t get pulled apart.

The game ended in a 0-0 draw and I guess I shouldn’t have any complaints. My Winger had a brain explosion while things were going so well. He probably costed me the game though playing a 3-2-4 on the counter didn’t really help either... Should I have done thing differently? Maybe I went on the defensive a little too early after going down to 10 men? I’d be interested to hear what you people would have done when losing a player so early in the game.

[DanTheMan999]

Liking where this is going. I have been trying to do the same recently with Aston Villa, as I usually download tactics or get so frustrated I cheat!

Problems I find is reading the match engine well. But I'm sure this will come with practice. KUTGW!

[New_Xieland]

Pre Match Build Up

Okay so here we are with my Zenit about to face one of the most important matches of this season – the first leg of the UEFA Cup Semi Finals. I’ll play host to Olympique Lyon the champions of France and although the media had me as slight favourites, Martin Keown (previously a scout that I poached from Arsenal) thought that I’d be good enough for a draw. Deep down I agreed... in fact I would have been happy with a 0-0 draw at home.

I was debating whether or not to start my tactic off as Balanced or Attacking. In the end I opted for Attack as I thought if I do concede early (a real possibility) I’d have to resort to Attack anyway. So with Fluid and Shorter Passing we were on our way.

OL started with a Deep 4-2-3-1 with Lisandro Lopez leading the line and behind him three quality AMs. The one I feared most was Sidney Govuo whom would end up wreaking havoc down my right hand side. To counter this threat I decided to show both onto Weaker Foot while for my shout instructions I began the match with Retain Possession, Play Narrower (to stop Lyon’s AMs running through my defence), Drop Deeper and Exploit the Flanks ( I have real pace on the wings and given Lyon’s formation, I’d figured that I’d find some joy).

The Match

It was a disaster of a start for the first 15 minutes - much like my first game. I found absolutely no release, my short passing game either gave the ball straight back to Lyon or went directly into touch. I couldn’t string more than 4 passes together. Possession count at this stage was 25-75 their way while Lyon also dominated on attempts on goal.

I quickly dumped Short Passing and went back to Default and since Retain Possession was not working, I told them to Get Ball Up there instead. I’d figured that a more high tempo direct passing game might alleviate some of my problems. Well in short they didn’t... I still had absolutely no grip on the game though on 24 minutes I’d manage to score against the run of play ! It was simple really – a long ball from my DMF that bounced off a Lyon defender and fell nicely to Komilenko (Complete F - Attack) who took one touch and blasted the ball past the keeper. Wow... I simply did not expect that given the way I was playing. On 46min I was in absolute dream land as Bystrov (Inside Forward – Attack, also the guy that got red carded last the week - the twit !) burst down the wing, got past Lyons FB and swung in a delightful cross that Komilenko powered home. It was half time and I was leading 2-0 !

As you can see from the half time stats I was getting butchered in possession. Shots were also in Lyon’s favour though the key stat was that we both had 3 shots each on target. And 6 of Lyon’s attempts on goal were Long Shots from well outside the area. Given their low Cross Completion rate (18% compared to my 66%), it told me that their AMCs were trying to pass their way into my goal and thus far my defence held firm. By this stage they had changed their formation to a more standard 4-4-2 probably to give them the width they lacked with Govou now deployed on the left flank.

I began the second half with Counter, More Rigid and Disciplined. Usually I don’t go on the defence at home especially this early in the match. But after reviewing the half time stats I knew I was getting dominated and have all but given up trying to win the possession war. The change of formation worked wonders for Lyon as they wreck absolutely havoc from down the flanks – especially Govou. I ended up having to change both Lyon’s FBs to Never Close Down while also changing Bystrov to a Defensive Winger and Support to counteract Govou’s marauding runs. Things became somewhat better when I discarded Play Narrower though it was not enough to stop Lyon from scoring a header from a free kick.

Leading 2-1 on 66 minutes a sick feeling was starting to overcome me as I began thinking that this could end up as one of those FM matches where it’s going to end 2-3 in the AI’s favour. I didn’t really change my tactics or rather didn’t have the time because in the 68th minute Semshov (Advanced Play M – support) scored an thunderbolt from 30 yards out – bless you long shot bug and SI !At this point I knew I had the game and while Lyon huffed and puffed I ultimately had the last laugh with Komilenko completing his hatrick in the 94th minute. It was a classic two pass counter attack– Lyon coughed up possession in the middle of the park, a long ball over put my striker straight through and he slotted it past the keeper. 4-1 to me at full time and I still have no idea how I managed to pull it off...

Post Match

Reviewing the post match stats still leaves me counting my lucky stars. I got hammered in possession (40-60) despite being the home team. However I guess the saving grace was that attempts on goal was roughly equal while I slightly shaded it in the shots on target department with only half the amounts of shots off target. However in terms of action zones half my possession was spent camped in my own half. I’ve got no idea how I pulled out 4 goals from having only 8% possession in Lyon’s half...

I guess when you win 4-1 there’s not much you can complain about your tactical approach but I think the key for me in this match was to cut out my short possession passing game after 15 minutes despite being at home and slight favourites. Lyon simply had too much quality to allow me play my easy passing game and by adopting a more direct approach I ended up the victor. Still though I think this game is one of those cases where by if I was Lyon and had lost, I’d be ranting WTF, F*** FM, etc etc directly on the forums and flaming anyone that dared to get in my way. So after 4 games, its 3 wins and 1 draw with Zenit looking good for consecutive UEFA Cup Final appearances. Fingers crossed that nothing drastic happens when I travel to France.

[New_Xieland]

Liking where this is going. I have been trying to do the same recently with Aston Villa, as I usually download tactics or get so frustrated I cheat!

Problems I find is reading the match engine well. But I'm sure this will come with practice. KUTGW!

Cheers DanTheMan - glad you're enjoying it. Apart from showing how I play the game, I'm also hoping to get insight and feedback how you guys would have approached the same situation. I find that for me it’s much easier to see where your team is going wrong when you play by watching the Full Match. For example if my FB misses two or more tackles against the opposing winger I immediately change Closing Down to Never for that winger.

I have never downloaded any of the tactics posted on the forum although seeing some of the results that people are getting from them I’m very tempted to try. I really think that you can be quite successful at FM without tinkering and adjusting 20 different sliders at once. I’ve never had the patience for those damn sliders and I think that FM has taken big steps forward with the tactical wizard and the touchlines shouts this year.

[millwallrules]

I like this, Good read and insightful, and great example of how to counter the AI, KUTGW

[New_Xieland]

Pre Match

So before my crunch game with Lyon I had to host Amkar at home – a team that I was touted to comfortably beat. With an eye on the Lyon clash five days later I rested a few key players confident that I could get a result. As with most home games that I am tipped to win, I approached the match with Attacking, Balanced and Short Passing. Amkar started with their 4-4-2 that showed attacking intent. With Tight Marking and Always Close Down on their AMC I was ready to begin the match.

The Match

In the first 20 minutes I absolutely dominated possession, 70-30 with Amkar having not manufactured a single chance on goal. However I only had 3 shots myself and with those only one of them was on target. Throughout the first half I had created very little and come half time the score was 0-0 with me creating very little.

A change was definitely in order and given my lack of chances I put on More Creative and Fluid. By the 49th minute the scores was still deadlocked with 6 of my 8 shots coming from long range. Both my MCs were Advanced Play Makers with Support. Clearly I wasn’t doing anything meaningful with my possession with my MCS wasting too many opportunities to actually play the ball. To counter this I changed one of them to Attack so that he would run more at Amkar’s defence line rather than ping in long shots from range. I also threw in Work Into Box for good measure.

I finally managed to break the deadlock in the 55th minute thanks to a defensive error. A sweeping pass from my RB was missed by their CB and my left winger managed to tuck the ball in at the far post. Content with the lead I turned off Pass Into Space and replaced it with Retain Possession – hoping to slow down the tempo and frustrate the opposition. I also turned on Never Close Down for their FBS as Amkar created several potentially dangerous overlap situations down my flanks.

For the last 10 minutes of the match I decided to go into full Counter mode. Direct and Rigid was put into place along with subbing on my pace 17 Brazilian striker. The win was finally wrapped up in the 92nd minute when I managed to hit Amkar with a long ball over their defence.

Post Match

Looking at the final match stats I must say I was quite happy with the result. I absolutely dominated in all departments though most pleasing was the fact that Amkar had only 3 shots in the entire match with no shots on target. I think that was partly due to the fact that I started with Balanced, meaning that I held my shape better though consequently it also stifled my creativity. Despite the changes I still ended with 9 out of 15 shots from range – I think that’s because of Advanced Play Maker on Support.

Looking into the future starting off with Balanced might be a good way to begin your games despite the odds. I think it gives you a good gauge of how things are going and you can make adjustments from there. It’s definitely something that I’m going to experiment with in future matches. Bring on Lyon !

[New_Xieland]

Pre Match

I must confess I was feeling quite confident going into the away leg of the UEFA quarter finals having beaten Lyon 4-1 seven days ago. The plan was to shut out the game from the onset, retain my shape and hopefully cruise to an aggregate win without too many dramas. Thus I began with Disciplined and Stick To Position while tightly marking their AMC. Given the pace of the Lyon attackers I decided to Drop Deeper along with Play Narrower. I stuck to Standard as I didn’t want to sit back too early and invite too much pressure on my defence. Those settings seemed to work well last time round and I stuck by them. I was the clear underdog going into the match though I knew that I only needed a single away goal to secure progression.

The Match

It started well enough – in the 15 minutes I dominated possession 60-40 while also making two attempts on goal (both off target). Lyon was trying to pass and play through the middle and thus had found no joy; I was feeling rather confident. However there were danger signs after seeing my DC running all the way to the halfway line in trying to win the ball. This prompted me to change Closing Down to Stand Off as I didn’t wanted my formation to be pulled apart. On the 26th minute Lyon’s LB put their AMR clean through with a lovely pass – worrying...

On the 30th minute their striker Lopez had ample amount of time to trap, turn and blast the ball pass my keeper. 1-0 to Lyon. Clearly now my defenders weren’t closing down enough. And when on 40th minute their struck the cross bar with a venomous shot from 25 yards out, I had to change Closing Down back to Default as I was giving them far too much time on the ball. This was always going to be a dilemma as technical teams like Lyon can literally cut your defence to shreds when you close down too much. But if you stand off, you always risk conceding from long shots. Anyways I managed to make it to half with without further conceding.

Reviewing the half time stats I felt I was definitely in the match. Possession was an even 50-50 but Lyon’s had twice the number of attempts on goal. But the action zones were a nice spread and I was only a single goal down. I stuck by my tactics and began the second half still feeling confident.

Then 2 minutes after the restart Lyon scores again! They flooded forwards, swamped my midfield and my DCs got pulled apart before the ball was slipped through Gomis who coolly slotted home. 2-0 to Lyon and I knew I had to make changes. Fluid and Creative was adopted given that I wasn’t creating all that much in terms of attack. This paid immediate dividend as I managed to equalise 5 minutes later – a long hoof up the park released my left winger who crossed to the far post where Bystrov tapped in for an easy finish. Clearly Lyon was flooding forwards and leaving holes in their defence. I changed to Counter, Direct and Rigid, knowing that the vital away goal I just scored is probably going to see me through the semi-finals.

I sat back and Lyon changed to a 4-4-2. I responded by getting rid of Play Narrower, replacing it with Play Wider (to limit the damage done do my flanks) while also changing one of my Deep Play Makers to a Ball Winning Midfielder. On 84minutes Lyon scored again from a free kick. The score was now 3-1 with me leading by a single aggregate goal. I quickly changed to Contain and Retain Possession – desperately trying to hold on and waste away the final minutes. Luckily for me that was how the score stayed at the end – meaning that I have progressed to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup !

Post Match

It was a bad game for me full stop. Despite having a roughly equal amount of possession, I was completely dominated. Looking back I think I got my tactic wrong from the onset and should have adopted Counter or Defend instead of Standard. But the fact that I was doing well in possession probably put my mind in a false sense of security. Playing with Rigid and More Disciplined meant that I created very little while unlike the last game, it also failed to stifle their attack. 4 out of 5 of my attempts on goal were from range and this really illustrated the fact that I failed to break Lyon down. In the end the only reason that I progressed was because I got lucky in the first game and was able to bring a sizable aggregate lead that Lyon managed to cut down to a single goal at the end.

I play Athletico Madrid in the semis and I will definitely be starting with either Defend or Counter for that away match !

[Columnarius]

Very helpful and great insight. Keep it up!!!

[New_Xieland]

Quick Update

After losing to Lyon (away), I played back to back matches against Saturn. The first was a league match that I won quite comfortably 2-0 away while the second was a quarter final cup match that I managed to in 2-1 with mostly my reserve team. The home match against top of the table Spartak Moscow was another affair altogether and after battling hard for 90minutes, it ended in a 2-2 draw. So undefeated in 3 matches and seating third in the league on goal difference I was really for my semi-final away tie against A.Madrid.

[New_Xieland]

Pre Match

I went into the match as heavy underdogs and although I did actually quite well against A.Madrid in the group stages (won 2-1 at home, and drew 1-1 away), I wasn’t really feeling confident. In both of the previous matches I was thoroughly outplayed and I had a feeling that my luck was going to run out this time. With that in mind I began with Defend, Rigid, Disciplined and Stick to Position - a thoroughly defensive approach. For my shouts I started with Play Narrower (as I always do against a marauding 4-2-3-1 formation especially with Forlan leading the line!) , Retain Possession (slow temp = frustration for opposition or so in theory) and Drop Deeper (when you have three AMCs running towards your D-line, I like to put as much space as possible between them and my goal line.

The Match

Well it was an awful start for me – I conceded the first goal with less than 10 minutes gone; Diego Forlan turned and smashed a vicious shot that gave my keeper to chance. Okay... not the start I had in mind. I decided against making too many drastic changes though I did switch Defend to Counter. The rest of the half played itself out and although I was doing quite well in terms of possession, you had the feeling that every time A.Madrid got forward, they were going to score. I managed to limp to HT with the scores at 1-0 – which isn’t too bad I guess...

In the second half A.Madrid absolutely destroyed me. They doubled their lead in the 54th minute through Maxi Rodriguez (I had Tight Marking & Always Close Down !) who got free of his marker and slotted home from close range. Diego Forlan completed the rout when he doubled his tally in the 73rd minute. By this stage I had pretty much given up and feeling rather despondent about the entire affair...

Post Match

Reviewing the match stats I really don’t know why things had gone so terribly wrong. Yes conceding early was always going to be hard but reviewing the match stats you’d feel that I was good at least for one goal ! I had the only Clear Cut chance in the entire match where my Winger promptly shot straight at their keeper from 8 yards out. I trailed only slightly in terms of Possession and Shots on Target. I think why really screwed me over was my persistence with Direct Passing. Forcast was Strong Winds which probably didn’t help my long balls. Also if you look at Headers Won, it was 74%-38% in A.Madrid’s favour – clearly showing that I was losing the aerial battle. But then this so clearly reflected in the Possession Count... I actually thought that yes I was being dominated but I was still creating semi-decent chances.

In terms of formation another probably mistake on my part was to persist with (my Wingers) on Inside Forward – Attacking. I failed to realize that A.Madrid’s 4-2-3-1 was actually completely different to that of Lyon. Whereas Lyon had 2 DMCs sitting in front of their defence, for A.Madrid G.Torrado and I.Camacho were effectively MCs that roamed the centre of the back. This meant that at any one stage my midfield was being outnumbered 3 to 5! In retrospect I probably should have changed both my Wingers to Defensive and Support or maybe even played a 4-1-4-1 formation from the onset. This was probably exacerbated by the fact on my part to Play Deeper. What was in theory suppose to give me a buffering zone turned into extra space for their 5 man midfield to completely swamp 3 man setup. I should have probably opted for Default or even Push Up – but than again against pacy and technical AMCs that itself is another risk all together.

My only other complaint is that despite having tight marking, strikers like Forlan will always get away from your defence and score ! I don't know... half way though the match I got that distinctive sinking feeling where no matter what tactical changes you pull, you are going to get hammered in the match regardless.

So yeah a pretty dismal day at the office with me needing to score at least 3 goals at home while also keeping A.Madrid scoreless to have any chance of progression in the finals. Realistically I don’t see Zenit making it... oh well it was a good run while it lasted and I am pleased to have exceeded the Board’s requirement of at least making the quarters.

[Columnarius]

I also struggle to figure these types of matches out.

My best success defensively comes when I instruct my FBs to mark their AML and AMR and stay tight. I then instruct my DM to man mark their AMC. That takes a lot of sting out of their three main setup men, as they usually try to play a ball to one of them from midfield before turning and looking for the cross or shot.

But I don't have a lot of luck attacking. Their CMs tend to break up my counter attacks quite effectively.

Has anyone else reading this thread had any luck countering the 4-2-3-1?