Playing the Tackling Game

[SFraser]

Tackling is one of the most simple and most powerful of all Tactical Instructions. Effective and intelligent usage of tackling strategies can win you games. Failure to understand what tackling can do to your team and the opposition can lose you games. Tackling strategies can be very obviously seen in the AI's on pitch performance, usually in conjunction with Time Wasting strategies, and it is crucial that the manager is able to spot these and respond to them properly, otherwise the AI will be able to control the general ebb and flow of the match. If you find yourself seemingly unable to get any kind of a grip on a match, suffering from regular equalisers and last minute goals, or squeezed out of the match in midfield, then hopefully this short guide will be able to point you in the direction of winning control back of a match.

Before I describe the strategic importance of tackling I will first describe the options and what they do.

Tackling

Light Tackling/Stay on Feet: This instructs your players to avoid getting drawn into a tackle unless there is a very high chance of success.

Mixed Tackling/No Shout: This instructs your players to go in for tackles based on their own Decisions. Poor tacklers and Poor Decision makers will miss alot, good Decision makers and good Tacklers will win most challenges.

Hard Tackling/Get Stuck In: Players will aggressively commit to challenges that have only a low chance of being won. Very often as soon as the player gets close to the ball he will attempt a challenge. This instruction is ultimately nothing less than a "stop the player" instruction regardless of success at winning the ball.

Tackling Strategies

The tackling strategies I will describe here are not complex, convoluted individual player tackling strategies. These can easilly be developed by the manager once the basics of tackling strategies are understood. What I will describe here is generic team wide tackling strategies and explain how they have a massive impact on the football match.

The Underdog Strategy

Hard Tackling. High Timewasting.

If you play as any of the big clubs in FM then you will come up against this strategy a lot. This strategy is not so much an attempt to win the ball at the first sight, it is aimed at taking the man out of the game as soon as a player gets close and prevent the opposition from being able to play their football. Unless passes are inch perfect, control is sublime and the ball is played quickly then the man on the ball is coming down. Maybe even getting injured. Ontop of this whenever the opponent tackles you in return you fall over looking for the free kick.

Although this strategy will inevitably collect a lot of bookings, it is a huge equaliser between teams. Their superior attacking skills are met with tackles aimed purely at stopping the opponent get past, while their superior defensive skills are met with your players diving and falling over and looking for free kicks.

The Top Dog Strategy

Light Tackling.

As a top dog it is vital that you meet the opponents match controlling tackling and timewasting strategies with a counter. The first part of the counter is invariably to make sure you only tackle when you can clearly win the ball. This defeats their timewasting strategy.

The second issue is to defeat their tackling strategy. There are two specific ways to do this and I would tend to use one after the other.

The first way is to timewaste yourself and dive and fall over whenever the opponent touches you. If the ref is sympathetic the opposition can quickly rack up yellow cards.

The second way is to understand that if the opposition commit regularly to hard tackles, they will also miss a few tackles. Your job is then to make sure you put them under direct pressure so that they miss tackles in key attacking areas. Either quick direct passing or lots of skillfull dribbling and running. Players with Anticipation, Agility and Dribbling will tie mister average midfield hatchetman up in knots.

Strategy Explained

This is just a quick guide but you should be getting an idea now of how one or two simple instructions in combination make vast tactical differences on a football pitch. The above strategies are what I would consider the basic "battle" that goes on in all matches, with all other strategies being variations on these themes. You can tackle hard and attack hard, particularly good in cup matches or to make a flying start to a match against relatively equal opponents, you can tackle light and timewaste when defending the 18 yard box to within an inch of it's life, but the above two strategies are the core strategies.

However the above two strategies are not static. As goals are scored and the match develops then teams will adapt their playstyles to respond to match events. And likewise you need to be able to respond yourself to these match events to keep yourself in control or to re-establish control of the match. This is where the mantra "the first goal is key" comes from. If you score first the opposition will have to respond, and do so by altering their timewasting, allowing you the possibility to alter your tackling strategy to reinforce your grip on the match. You can switch from an early "Attack/Stay on Feet" strategy to a "Control/Get Stuck In" strategy to keep control of the ball when in possession and keep the opponent on their backsides as they try to look for an equaliser.

Tackling strategies are vital for keeping control of the match. The control you get might not be total domination of the ball, it might only be opposition players kicked out of the game down the flanks and in the centre circle, but if it keeps them away from your goal and keeps your narrow 1-0 lead intact, then that is precisely the control you are looking for.

[YBlade]

Great write up, well done. But I didn't understand you all in this 'The Top Dog Strategy'. Whay you say about counter, do you mean on counter strategy or something else?

[Cleon]

Another excellent thread

It's funny you started a thread on this because I am writing up something now to add to the attribute guide when I update it later. And I was just explaining how I just beat Man Utd because of the tackling style I choose.

These are my tackling stats for this game;

Now this was my second game in the Premiership after promotion from the Championship in the first season. I had the home advantage but not the players to play Manchester United off the park. Man Utd are very good at set pieces in my game I was wary of player's like Rooney and Berbatov causing chaos for my side. I didn't want to give needless freekicks away in dangerous situations and there is no doubt I'd be punished. Because Man Utd have far superior player's man for man. So to prevent giving away freekicks I choose easy tackling, stand off for closing down and choose a deep defensive line. I did this to make sure my player's only tackled if they were 100% sure they'd get the ball. Now I know they'd still miss tackles but nowhere near the amount they would have if I left it normal or tackled hard. I managed to win the game 3-1 and was happy with how my side defended, especially the tackling side of things.

[mdbussen]

Very interesting thread SFraser - good to see that you are posting again as of late as you've always been one of my favorite reads on the forums Your threads always give me a lot to think about and challenge some of my preconceptions I have about my tactical approach. Do you have FM11 yet or are you still playing FM10?

I'd often wondered and was never really able to find an answer as to whether or not your players have the "self-awareness" of what their attributes are and how, if at all, this translates into their decisions in the game. As an easy example, lets take a striker with 20 Decisions and 20 Passing but only 5 Dribbling. He is one-on-one with a defender and can either pass the ball to his striker partner or try and take the defender on. Does his perfect decision making take into account the fact that he is a poor dribbler? Or will he decide that the "right" decision is to take on his man, regardless of his skill at doing so?

With regards to this thread - lets say you have a striker who has 20 Decisions but 5 Tackling. Will putting him on "normal" tackling cause him to attempt the same number of tackles as if he has 20 Tackling? Or will he "know" how good he is and make his decisions whether to attempt the tackle based on that?

Also, how does a Aggression of a player temper his decision-making on whether or not he should attempt the tackle?

[Cleon]

I'd often wondered and was never really able to find an answer as to whether or not your players have the "self-awareness" of what their attributes are and how, if at all, this translates into their decisions in the game. As an easy example, lets take a striker with 20 Decisions and 20 Passing but only 5 Dribbling. He is one-on-one with a defender and can either pass the ball to his striker partner or try and take the defender on. Does his perfect decision making take into account the fact that he is a poor dribbler? Or will he decide that the "right" decision is to take on his man, regardless of his skill at doing so?

It's not as straight forward as that because a player's teamwork attribute would have an impact on his decision whether to pass to his teammate. But the higher a player's decision rating the closer he'll be to making the right choice. But then how successful that action is depends on his other attributes.

The aggression thing is explained in this thread http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/238682-Explanation-of-the-Impact-of-Player-Attributes-During-Match-Play-*Updated-for-FM11* SFraser had a big input on this as we spent several weeks discussing the attributes in great detail.

[mdbussen]

It's not as straight forward as that because a player's teamwork attribute would have an impact on his decision whether to pass to his teammate. But the higher a player's decision rating the closer he'll be to making the right choice. But then how successful that action is depends on his other attributes.

I don't think you really answered my question though. Is the "right" decision dependent upon his ability to execute the action (as I would argue it is in IRL) or is the "right" decision independent of a player's actual technical ability? Your statement seems to hint that the latter is the case but I could just be putting words into your mouth (fingers)!

The aggression thing is explained in this thread http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/238682-Explanation-of-the-Impact-of-Player-Attributes-During-Match-Play-*Updated-for-FM11* SFraser had a big input on this as we spent several weeks discussing the attributes in great detail.

So a high Aggression would lead to a player going into the tackle more often, correct? Or does Aggression tie in more closely with Closing Down an attacker rather than the actual act of deciding to attempt the tackle?

[Flohrinho]

And another very informative Thread by SFraser.

That's just what I love about your threads you manage to open my eyes to some of the basic details of tactics that I often forget about and now I finally know why the opposition is always kicking the juice out of my players when ever I play those weaker teams.

So I will have a look if I can counter that with some time wasting if and standing off more in games where I tend to get a lot of fouls I usually blamed the ref for those.

[SFraser]

Very interesting thread SFraser - good to see that you are posting again as of late as you've always been one of my favorite reads on the forums Your threads always give me a lot to think about and challenge some of my preconceptions I have about my tactical approach. Do you have FM11 yet or are you still playing FM10?

I'd often wondered and was never really able to find an answer as to whether or not your players have the "self-awareness" of what their attributes are and how, if at all, this translates into their decisions in the game. As an easy example, lets take a striker with 20 Decisions and 20 Passing but only 5 Dribbling. He is one-on-one with a defender and can either pass the ball to his striker partner or try and take the defender on. Does his perfect decision making take into account the fact that he is a poor dribbler? Or will he decide that the "right" decision is to take on his man, regardless of his skill at doing so?

With regards to this thread - lets say you have a striker who has 20 Decisions but 5 Tackling. Will putting him on "normal" tackling cause him to attempt the same number of tackles as if he has 20 Tackling? Or will he "know" how good he is and make his decisions whether to attempt the tackle based on that?

Also, how does a Aggression of a player temper his decision-making on whether or not he should attempt the tackle?

Interesting questions. I am still playing FM10 at the moment. I have a superb long term FM10 save going that I am nowhere near bored of.

The question about the player and his dribbling is quite complex. The Dribbling attribute doesn't apply to the "whole dribble" as would be played out on the match replay, it applies only to a single aspect of the "dribble move" and that is either the accuracy of his touch OR the range of moves he has to beat a player. A whole range of other attributes come into play as the "dribbling move" develops, Acceleration and Agility, Anticipation and Tackling, Strength and Balance. It's completely possible for a dribbling five player to go on a very slow and simple dribble and pass defenders because his 20 Strength and Balance means they cant get near the ball or knock him over.

I don't think the Dribbling attribute matters in the Decision to go on a run. My rightback with Dribbling 7 will run down the wing, turn towards the corner flag, turn again and play the ball infield to my CM. It's a very slow and laboured dribble, but it's the best choice if there are no sneaky short balls inside the fullback to my attacking players. What he can't do is quickly cut inside, or knock the ball from one foot to the other, or any complicated dribbling actions.

The best way to expand the issue is to take the example of Strikers with poor Finishing. They will still try to Finish moves, and you are not surprised to see them miss. The choice was good but the execution poor. It's the same for all attributes in my opinion.

And another very informative Thread by SFraser.

That's just what I love about your threads you manage to open my eyes to some of the basic details of tactics that I often forget about and now I finally know why the opposition is always kicking the juice out of my players when ever I play those weaker teams.

So I will have a look if I can counter that with some time wasting if and standing off more in games where I tend to get a lot of fouls I usually blamed the ref for those.

It is a really big part of the game. Such a simple thing as Tackling can have a major impact on the performance of your entire team.

[mdbussen]

Interesting questions. I am still playing FM10 at the moment. I have a superb long term FM10 save going that I am nowhere near bored of.

The question about the player and his dribbling is quite complex. The Dribbling attribute doesn't apply to the "whole dribble" as would be played out on the match replay, it applies only to a single aspect of the "dribble move" and that is either the accuracy of his touch OR the range of moves he has to beat a player. A whole range of other attributes come into play as the "dribbling move" develops, Acceleration and Agility, Anticipation and Tackling, Strength and Balance. It's completely possible for a dribbling five player to go on a very slow and simple dribble and pass defenders because his 20 Strength and Balance means they cant get near the ball or knock him over.

I don't think the Dribbling attribute matters in the Decision to go on a run. My rightback with Dribbling 7 will run down the wing, turn towards the corner flag, turn again and play the ball infield to my CM. It's a very slow and laboured dribble, but it's the best choice if there are no sneaky short balls inside the fullback to my attacking players. What he can't do is quickly cut inside, or knock the ball from one foot to the other, or any complicated dribbling actions.

The best way to expand the issue is to take the example of Strikers with poor Finishing. They will still try to Finish moves, and you are not surprised to see them miss. The choice was good but the execution poor. It's the same for all attributes in my opinion.

Thanks for the response. I think you proved quite conclusively that Dribbling was probably not the best example I could have given in this instance! It really serves to highlight the complexity at work behind the ME though and how many different attributes come into play even in some of the simplest moves.

Perhaps a simpler example would be the case of a player who is Very Strong with both his left and right foot versus a player who is Right Footed Only. Assuming all other attributes being equal, is the decision-making of the Right Footed Only player being tempered by the fact that he can't execute passes nearly as well with his left foot? I would guess that it is, but then a player's "footedness" may be a special case when it comes to the decision making process.

[yoyoimthebest]

I think you've got to think about players PPM's because some players like to tackle on feet and some players like to jump in.

You said in the opening post about players falling over when they get touched, could this be ever put into FM?

Thanks .

[jim morrow]

And do you think it can be useful to hard tackle opponent player with low bravery ??? For every match, I hard tackle all player who have <5 in bravery attributes. And when the match come to its end, I remove hard tackle due to low condition of my player to avoid

any injuries and error.

[SFraser]

Perhaps a simpler example would be the case of a player who is Very Strong with both his left and right foot versus a player who is Right Footed Only. Assuming all other attributes being equal, is the decision-making of the Right Footed Only player being tempered by the fact that he can't execute passes nearly as well with his left foot? I would guess that it is, but then a player's "footedness" may be a special case when it comes to the decision making process.

Another interesting question. I am convinced Footedness has a significant impact on behaviour but here is the kicker, I am not sure Footedness relates to accuracy because a player with a really weak foot will never choose to use it. Footedness in my opinion defines how likely a player is to use a particular foot, and in using a particular foot for certain moves certain things happen. My answer to this question is that a Preferred Foot has no impact on Decisions, it has an impact on which is foot is used the most which has an impact on which way a player turns, dribbles, or the kind of swerve he can get on passes and shots and crosses.

To deal with your real question, are players "aware" of their attributes and does this influence their Decision making? My answer is that for the Physical and Technical attributes the answer is no. The Mental attributes however are by the far most constantly utilised, constantly involved, constantly acting attributes in the game and these define Decision making. Because the Mental attributes define awareness a player must necessarily be "aware" of these attributes.

My point is that each time a player does something, anything, on the pitch is an event that is made up of a large number of Mental attribute calculations and a few technical and physical. The overwhelming majority of the game is "Decision Making" and Decision making is a hugely complex process involving many Mental attributes. I don't believe that players make Decisions based on their "knowledge" of a level of a Technical attribute, but these are only a very minor part of every event anyway.

I have plenty of highly intelligent players in my team, a few with 17+ for Decisions, that still attempt things they are not very accurate at. The majority of the time their superior intelligence makes them superior footballers, but sometimes a lack of Tackling or Crossing or Strength makes them ineffective and fail at certain events. The most striking thing is that weaknesses stand out. If players considered only what they were good at, weaknesses would be a much more difficult thing to spot ingame.

[mdbussen]

Another interesting question. I am convinced Footedness has a significant impact on behaviour but here is the kicker, I am not sure Footedness relates to accuracy because a player with a really weak foot will never choose to use it. Footedness in my opinion defines how likely a player is to use a particular foot, and in using a particular foot for certain moves certain things happen. My answer to this question is that a Preferred Foot has no impact on Decisions, it has an impact on which is foot is used the most which has an impact on which way a player turns, dribbles, or the kind of swerve he can get on passes and shots and crosses.

Very interesting response and I think you're mostly correct. I have a hard time accepting that footedness doesn't impact the accuracy of some technical skills though (such as Finishing, Passing, Long Shots, Crossing, etc.) when using the weaker foot. Just from personal experience, as a mostly right-footed player my ability to pass and shoot with my left foot is passable but not nearly as accurate as with my right. I realize that real life doesn't necessarily bear any correlation to what is going on in the ME but we see it every weekend where a player is set up for the shot on their weaker foot and they either (1) scuff a shot or (2) try and cut back to their stronger foot and get the ball poked away. You admittedly have more experience studying and watching the ME in action than I do so I will cede to your judgement on this issue but I would be surprised if this was not the case.

Sorry for taking your thread a bit off topic here!