Quickfire Questions and Answers Thread (Tactic and Training Questions Only)

[herne79]

18 minutes ago, Fritz13 said:

WB-S and. W-A playing down the same wing and expected to overlap - should I only be giving one of them the stay wide PI?

and if so which role? 

How do you expect a support duty wingback to overlap an attack duty winger?  Both are designed to stay wide by default. 

The winger has an attack duty and will therefore be high up the pitch whereas the wingback support will be starting from deep and not be quite as forward thinking as the winger.  The wingback will probably get up in support of the winger and offer a passing option behind but I wouldn't expect overlaps to be that common.

[Continum]

Not necessarily a stupid question, but didn't know any other thread to post it:

Which resources do you guys use when trying to replicate tactics?
Both things like formation and deeper into how the tactic works.

[mernild]

When would you apply a mezalla instead of an Mc(a) and vica versa 

[Dr. Hook]

On ‎11‎/‎14‎/‎2017 at 01:12, Fritz13 said:

Thanks - wasn’t sure how drastic the reduction was

Just to add (because we always have to muddy the waters a bit :D) how drastic it is will also depend on how you setup your attack, so if you end up with a wide option and a cross being your only play too often, you will see more crosses than you would want. But yeah, generally speaking, it isn't super drastic if the crossing game wasn't your primary means of attack.

[Pro Patria]

Can anyone point me to a guide to reading opposition stats? I know that more experienced players can adjust their tactics based upon opposition passing and positional data, but I'm not in a position to make full use of it as a relative noob. I'm not as good with tactics in general as I'd like.

 

Thanks in advance. 

[Joey Numbaz]

For training purposes, does it matter if a coach, say the one you have assigned to 'attacking' speaks the same language as the players? I know intuitively it should, but do we know for a fact this impacts training and player development?

Example, in England, I can sign a Model Professional U18 Coach, who is a 4-star attacking coach. But he only speaks Spanish and Italian. He's definitely the best available, other than the language barrier. There are numerous 3.5-star coaches as another option. Which would be better?

[Armistice]

What's the difference between a BMW-S and a Carillero (additionally with Close Down More + Tackle Harder PIs)?

[Dr. Hook]

24 minutes ago, Joey Numbaz said:

For training purposes, does it matter if a coach, say the one you have assigned to 'attacking' speaks the same language as the players? I know intuitively it should, but do we know for a fact this impacts training and player development?

Example, in England, I can sign a Model Professional U18 Coach, who is a 4-star attacking coach. But he only speaks Spanish and Italian. He's definitely the best available, other than the language barrier. There are numerous 3.5-star coaches as another option. Which would be better?

I always hire them regardless of language- football is a universal language is it not? Seriously, to answer you, I don't know if it does matter. If it does, it isn't clear, and I can tell you that I have never experienced a visible issue with it.

[Joey Numbaz]

Thanks! It gives you an option to send them to a language class too, so eventually they do learn the language anyway. But your reply helps!

Edited November 15, 2017 by Joey Numbaz

[Cleon]

24 minutes ago, Armistice said:

What's the difference between a BMW-S and a Carillero (additionally with Close Down More + Tackle Harder PIs)?

If you look at them both in game you can see the settings both roles use. In addition to this, the Carillero has hardcoded behaviours that cannot be replicated via settings like playing wider than normal and moves horizontally.

[Dr. Hook]

10 minutes ago, Joey Numbaz said:

Thanks! It gives you an option to send them to a language class too, so eventually they do learn the language anyway. But your reply helps!

I always send them on the course too, so I assume it matters in some way else why have it (but it could be merely cosmetic fluff). But, if you do figure something out about it please report back

[JEinchy]

Less a stupid question, more a general advice question. 

I just came up against a team playing 5-2DM-2-1-0 and really struggled to make good chances. My team started on Standard/Very Fluid, but I dropped it to Standard/Fluid and stopped closing down to try and draw them out and create more verticality. Didn't really work. I tried using maximum width as well, but if anything it made us less dangerous.

So how would you go about breaking down such a set-up?

FWIW, this is a diagram of the shape:

 

GK

RB - CB - CB - CB - LB

DM - DM

RM ----------------- LM

AM

0

[Fritz13]

13 hours ago, herne79 said:

How do you expect a support duty wingback to overlap an attack duty winger?  Both are designed to stay wide by default. 

The winger has an attack duty and will therefore be high up the pitch whereas the wingback support will be starting from deep and not be quite as forward thinking as the winger.  The wingback will probably get up in support of the winger and offer a passing option behind but I wouldn't expect overlaps to be that common.

Sorry meant the other way round - WB-A & W-S 

is there a need to add width at all or will it simply be natural ... depending on PPMs obviously 

Edited November 15, 2017 by Fritz13

[BadAss88]

Don't know where to ask, but can someone explain the new scouting system? How does these packages work? And is my scouting-budget on a yearly or monthly base?

[herne79]

1 hour ago, BadAss88 said:

Don't know where to ask, but can someone explain the new scouting system? How does these packages work? And is my scouting-budget on a yearly or monthly base?

The thread title says Tactic and Training questions only .

You're better off asking in the General Discussion forum.

[MoxeysTheName]

If you have look for the underlap selected, does this mean wingers will be less inclined to hit the byline and will instead look to hold up the ball and look for the inside run of the fullback @herne79?

Edited November 19, 2017 by MoxeysTheName

[DownTheFrank]

On 11/15/2017 at 19:01, Armistice said:

What's the difference between a BMW-S and a Carillero (additionally with Close Down More + Tackle Harder PIs)?

The BMW probably goes from 0-60 much faster 

[Armistice]

1 hour ago, DownTheFrank said:

The BMW probably goes from 0-60 much faster 

Lol  I always make this typo.

Edited November 17, 2017 by Armistice

[eye-switcher]

Barcelona, Narrow or wide? narurally looking at them play they plade as wide as possible but seen a few youtubers using Narrow?

Also, have both fullbacks on overlap but they seldom do (alba, Semedo), how can i correct that if possible?

Edited November 17, 2017 by eye-switcher

[Michael Osmann]

How do you make tactic lines/arrows? 

[BlueAnderson]

Please delete.

Edited November 18, 2017 by BlueAnderson

[nomar]

Need some help with this tactic, I really don't want to change anything besides the MCR, I wonder if with this role (AP Attack) he will not 'overlap' the mezzala or BWM guy when attacking, I enjoy tactics where every player has a unique role (obviously counting both wingers, defenders and fullbacks as one)

Edited November 18, 2017 by nomar

[Peanut Butter Prince]

Does anybody have any recommendations with regards to specific instructions or tactical advice on how to defend a long ball over the top? 

Just for a bit of context, I've just started a game with Lincoln, I'm 10 games in. My first tactic was to try and emulated Sheffield United (alla play football in order to go through the leagues), it wasn't working, so I decided to go to a more compact system - this has been fantastic so far, and I like what I see. I'm playing a 442 narrow diamond, full backs are getting a lot of joy, as is the AMC (normally a position I dislike having) - although I'm happy in possession and to be fair, defending, for the most part, I seem to come unstuck with a ball from the half way line, or just behind that goes straight over my CB's and the striker sticks it away.

I was wondering if there was anything that you'd recommend to try and prevent this happening? I'm going to drop the defensive line back ever so slightly in my next game to see if that has a bearing without breaking the lines that effects us when we've got the ball (don't imagine it should as that is one of the main benefits from playing a narrow diamond). But any other little tweaks you could recommend would be great, potentially stopping it at the supply and having my CM's close down quicker on their CM's?!

[Aksi92]

What do you do when your team is playing good but missing a lot of chances? Do you hope that things will change and your players will start to score some goals?

[Wavelberry]

Has training and training focus changed? I only ask because it is my understanding that 'fitness training' isn't about getting the team's fitness levels up etc but improves physical attributes related to fitness over time however I am getting suggestions to do fitness training during pre-season which suggests that it improves the fitness and conditioning?

What is the truth here?

[bosque]

I have a player who just dropped his acceleration from 16 to 13 after a 2 weeks injury. Is that normal? [FM17]

[DownTheFrank]

On 11/18/2017 at 08:49, Peanut Butter Prince said:

Does anybody have any recommendations with regards to specific instructions or tactical advice on how to defend a long ball over the top? 

Just for a bit of context, I've just started a game with Lincoln, I'm 10 games in. My first tactic was to try and emulated Sheffield United (alla play football in order to go through the leagues), it wasn't working, so I decided to go to a more compact system - this has been fantastic so far, and I like what I see. I'm playing a 442 narrow diamond, full backs are getting a lot of joy, as is the AMC (normally a position I dislike having) - although I'm happy in possession and to be fair, defending, for the most part, I seem to come unstuck with a ball from the half way line, or just behind that goes straight over my CB's and the striker sticks it away.

I was wondering if there was anything that you'd recommend to try and prevent this happening? I'm going to drop the defensive line back ever so slightly in my next game to see if that has a bearing without breaking the lines that effects us when we've got the ball (don't imagine it should as that is one of the main benefits from playing a narrow diamond). But any other little tweaks you could recommend would be great, potentially stopping it at the supply and having my CM's close down quicker on their CM's?!

Playing Lincoln as well, opted for a bog standard 4-4-2 instead. Curious to see what the response to your question is as i've been on the wrong end of a few balls over the top myself. 

[Peanut Butter Prince]

1 hour ago, DownTheFrank said:

Playing Lincoln as well, opted for a bog standard 4-4-2 instead. Curious to see what the response to your question is as i've been on the wrong end of a few balls over the top myself. 

To be fair, since I changed it (just dropped my defensive line to slightly deeper) I've played 6 won 5 on the bounce and just lost my last game. I've not noticed it happening as much (if ever), thought I'd need to stop it at the source as in have my CM's closing down their CM's quicker, but it's worked well. 

[Argonaut]

21 hours ago, Wavelberry said:

Has training and training focus changed? I only ask because it is my understanding that 'fitness training' isn't about getting the team's fitness levels up etc but improves physical attributes related to fitness over time however I am getting suggestions to do fitness training during pre-season which suggests that it improves the fitness and conditioning?

What is the truth here?

Fitness training does have at least one additional affect: it helps your players that aren’t playing as much stay more match sharp. With fitness focus, my backups hover around ~80% match sharpness, but with another setting it’ll drop to ~60% or lower. I run fitness training from July to December, and tactical training from January to June. I could also see the argument for year-round fitness training. It also improves relevant stats for all positions (same with tactical).

Edited November 19, 2017 by Argonaut

[Cleon]

19 minutes ago, Argonaut said:

Fitness training does have at least one additional affect: it helps your players that aren’t playing as much stay more match sharp. With fitness focus, my backups hover around ~80% match sharpness, but with another setting it’ll drop to ~60% or lower. I run fitness training from July to December, and tactical training from January to June. I could also see the argument for year-round fitness training. It also improves relevant stats for all positions (same with tactical).

This isn't true, match fitness/sharpness can only come from playing games nothing else. Hence why its called match sharpness. 

[Argonaut]

1 minute ago, Cleon said:

This isn't true, match fitness/sharpness can only come from playing games nothing else. Hence why its called match sharpness. 

Yeah, a lot of the documentation around the net says this but I can only go by what I see in the game. When I switch to tactical training, match sharpness levels for my backups will be much lower than with fitness training.

[Jessan]

Training a player in a new position costs PA, does training a player in a new role which he is ineffective at in a position he is competent in also cost PA?

[Cleon]

2 minutes ago, Argonaut said:

Yeah, a lot of the documentation around the net says this but I can only go by what I see in the game. When I switch to tactical training, match sharpness levels for my backups will be much lower than with fitness training.

The documentation is correct and you are wrong 100%

All the general training (apart from team cohesion) all they do is train attributes and some tactical familiarity areas. They have nothing to do with match sharpness at all. If you think they do that's great but you cannot be more wrong. 

[Argonaut]

3 hours ago, Cleon said:

The documentation is correct and you are wrong 100%

All the general training (apart from team cohesion) all they do is train attributes and some tactical familiarity areas. They have nothing to do with match sharpness at all. If you think they do that's great but you cannot be more wrong. 

I've tested this by running a pre-season training only Fitness, then that same pre-season training only Tactical. You're right, in both cases all players ended up with about the same level of match sharpness, including backups. Perhaps it was a placebo effect for me, or because I was rotating more in the fall/winter with a congested fixture list. In any case, I will continue running fitness training for the first half of the year because it feels right!

[Dr. Hook]

13 hours ago, bosque said:

I have a player who just dropped his acceleration from 16 to 13 after a 2 weeks injury. Is that normal? [FM17]

I wouldn't say it was normal, no. What was the injury type and the age of the player? If it isn't something that seems plausible, it's probably worth reporting in the bugs forum, but always good to check the situation thoroughly first. 

[wixxi]

What is the best way to use the pass combinations tab under analysis? A bit confused as to what I should be taking from it when looking at my opposition's last game

[bosque]

2 hours ago, Dr. Hook said:

I wouldn't say it was normal, no. What was the injury type and the age of the player? If it isn't something that seems plausible, it's probably worth reporting in the bugs forum, but always good to check the situation thoroughly first. 

It was a "pulled hamstring" with 2 weeks of time out. The player has 23 years and 17 of natural fitness

[Dr. Hook]

3 hours ago, bosque said:

It was a "pulled hamstring" with 2 weeks of time out. The player has 23 years and 17 of natural fitness

Well, pulled hammy is not real good for speed, but this is probably not right- I would definitely raise it in the bugs forum and let SI have a look at it.

[Fritz13]

I appear to have gone mad and forgotten how pre-game I can advise a player to swap with another one.

in-game I get the options just not before.

having done this pre-game in the beta I know it’s possible

erm....... help 

Edit - just found the answer on Patreon 

Edited November 20, 2017 by Fritz13

[samwilzrhcp]

Question regarding counter mentality, I am using 4-4-1-1 formation with Barnsley.   Do the build up instructions get over ruled when a chance to counter is on?  For example, I like to play a patient short passing game when in possession as my players aren't technically very good to play more direct, so obviously if I'm playing counter attack will my short passing instruction dictate this?  Does this also affect tempo?  The higher the tempo the better players need to be at passing?   

[Squire]

Training questions.

 

I'm setting my club up to be a player development factory. So obviously I want my players to get as much and as high quality training as possible. I'm comtemplating doing away with youth coaches eventually (except my model citizen to help influence newgens), and have all youth players train with the seniors or the 2nd team (seniors and 2nd team share training). This is because I struggle to get good enough coaches for the youth positions.

Is there any downside to this? What I'm thinking regarding training time, is that since my first team plays a lot of matches, a lot of training time goes away with rest days after matches (and sometimes match preparation). However, my 2nd team has less matches. Would it then make sense to put my young'uns in the 2nd team, as that would presumably give them more training time? I'm a bit confused by this. The option for scheduling rest days before/after matches doesn't show up in the 2nd team training overview, so I'm thinking maybe they follow first team rest times as well. But in the 'calendar' view, there are lots of 'light blue days' (general focus), even when the first team have match prep or rest. And I can schedule one-off rest days when I click in the 'calendar' for 2nd team training. And obviously the 2nd team match prep is shown here, and can be adjusted. So which screen actually indicates when my players train or not?

Also, when does the player train his individual focus? Is that when there are proper 'training days' (i.e. a light blue day for general focus) in the calendar, and not during match prep/rest?

Lastly, regarding the attributes 'man management' and 'working with youth'. As far as I know, they increase the quality of training (for 23+ and u23 players, respectively, regardless of which team they're set to). How does this work? Is there for example an overall 'average man management' number for the coaching team which decides how much effect this has? Or does this attribute only increase training quality for the areas that each coach actually works with (fitness, tactical, ball control etc.). If I put my youth players in senior training, and let's say I have a great coach with a 'working with youth' attribute of 1? How detrimental is this?

[Cleon]

22 hours ago, samwilzrhcp said:

Question regarding counter mentality, I am using 4-4-1-1 formation with Barnsley.   Do the build up instructions get over ruled when a chance to counter is on?  For example, I like to play a patient short passing game when in possession as my players aren't technically very good to play more direct, so obviously if I'm playing counter attack will my short passing instruction dictate this?  Does this also affect tempo?  The higher the tempo the better players need to be at passing?   

During a counter attacking phase then all settings will be overwrote for those involved in that phase of play. So ideally you set up your tactic for how you want to play when you aren't counter attacking. Also worth noting that counter attacking tactics basically become possession ones naturally when an attack isn't on if you've set up correctly. 

[Cleon]

Quote

I'm setting my club up to be a player development factory. So obviously I want my players to get as much and as high quality training as possible. I'm comtemplating doing away with youth coaches eventually (except my model citizen to help influence newgens), and have all youth players train with the seniors or the 2nd team (seniors and 2nd team share training). This is because I struggle to get good enough coaches for the youth positions.

Even for players in the first team, if they are below 24 you still need coaches with high work with youngsters stats. You can't really bypass the mechanics just because you've promoted them. It's age dependant. 

[Squire]

5 minutes ago, Cleon said:

Even for players in the first team, if they are below 24 you still need coaches with high work with youngsters stats. You can't really bypass the mechanics just because you've promoted them. It's age dependant. 

Thanks for answering, but that was not really my question. As I stated, I'm aware that 'working with youth' kicks in regardless of whether the coach is a first team or youth coach, depending only on the age of the player. My reason for wanting to let my youth players train with the seniors is that very few decent coaches want to work for my youth team. So I want the youth players to benefit from the 4/5 star coaches in the first team (where as many coaches as possible also have a good 'working with youth' attribute). But I do wonder how much of an issue it is if a few coaches don't have good 'working with youth'. And of course the training time question I detailed in my first post is a big part of my decision once I find out how that works.

[Cleon]

20 minutes ago, Squire said:

Thanks for answering, but that was not really my question. As I stated, I'm aware that 'working with youth' kicks in regardless of whether the coach is a first team or youth coach, depending only on the age of the player. My reason for wanting to let my youth players train with the seniors is that very few decent coaches want to work for my youth team. So I want the youth players to benefit from the 4/5 star coaches in the first team (where as many coaches as possible also have a good 'working with youth' attribute). But I do wonder how much of an issue it is if a few coaches don't have good 'working with youth'. And of course the training time question I detailed in my first post is a big part of my decision once I find out how that works.

Individual focus is a constant and additional training not a replacement one. So it's added to the training he has.

Quote

 Or does this attribute only increase training quality for the areas that each coach actually works with (fitness, tactical, ball control etc.). If I put my youth players in senior training, and let's say I have a great coach with a 'working with youth' attribute of 1? How detrimental is this?

Coaches only impact the area they train. Also in your last part of the question, if he had WWY of 1 and you had lots of players in that schedule who are under 24 then it's very detrimental as the coach isn't the best to be training them, hence why it's 1 and not 20. The higher the better always, if not it's all pointless and there'd be no need for a range of 1-20  They'd not progress as much as being in a schedule with someone with a higher attribute. 

[Squire]

19 minutes ago, Cleon said:

Individual focus is a constant and additional training not a replacement one. So it's added to the training he has.

So it's trained constantly, and not affected by rest days or match prep? If that's the case, it's great, because then I can pump it up to heavy and not care that much about my players skipping training to rest after matches etc.

As for the WWY, it turns out most of my first team staff have very good attributes here, so it's not an issue. And obviously the higher the better. But for the sake of prioritizing future coach signings; is the WWY so important that I should sacrifice a coaching star/half star for great WWY capabilities? I would just like to know more about the game mechanics. If the WWY indicated how big of a 'percentage' of the coachs ability a player would enjoy, it would obviously be more important than if it was just a nice added bonus to have a high WWY rating.

[Cleon]

You should focus more on the workloads than the actual days, you're over complicating the game for no reason at all. It's great that you want to learn the mechanics but knowing exact percentages won't really help. Plus the actual figures aren't really known only by a handful. SI don't really make the formulas readily available for obvious reason. As then you try and find the perfect formulas rather than playing the game.

If you have a lot of players under 24 in the categories with coaches with low WWY then obviously you need someone more capable so if you can get someone with all the stats you need to try and find the balance between a decent WWY stat and the others needed. It's all about the balance really. 

[Squire]

Point taken.   I think my approach has been subconciously carried over from the only other computer game I play, one called Europa Universalis II, where everything is about formulas and mechanics and calculating optimal ways of going about things.

My approach to coach signings are basically: Getting as many coaching stars as possible, and preferrably have the 'star coaches' have as high WWY and MM as possible. Then for the coaches who coach across the board to get the coach workload down, I only look at WWY and MM (and for youth coaches, personality instead of MM). From what I know, I feel that's a sensible approach. If I have a five star coach with, say, 10 WWY, I'm thinking that his bad ways with youngsters is offset by the 2-3 'making-up-the-numbers' coaches with 16-20 WWY.

[Wavelberry]

Why would I be suggested to have fitness coaching focus in pre-season to improve players fitness if the fitness coaching only works on improving the physical attributes of the players over time?

 

[Cleon]

9 minutes ago, Wavelberry said:

Why would I be suggested to have fitness coaching focus in pre-season to improve players fitness if the fitness coaching only works on improving the physical attributes of the players over time?

 

All the categories apart from team cohesion also focus on some parts of tactical familiarity. So that is likely why as the one fitness does (can't remember off top of my head) is the one your players will be lacking.