The SI Sports Centre - All You Need To Know About FM

[Cleon]

Passes

This gives you a clear picture of where your player is passing from. So you know where he is when you’re in possession of the ball. You want to see lots of green dots here as that indicates your players have passing options. It also tells you the length of the pass. That’s why this part of the analysis is really important as this is where all the moves are made. So you have to look at passing closely to see what kind of passes are been attempted.

If you see lots of red dots here check what types of passes they are and then if it’s a familiar problem game after game then try and fix it. Is a player doing long passes and missing? Is this because he has no passing options around him? Both of these are really important things to check. Once you’ve identified the issues you can try and fix them by altering passing styles of the guilty players.

If it’s a case of players not having passing options available then you’ll have to take a look at the other players in the squad and try and alter their roles and duties to give the passer more options. There is nothing worse than a player who is isolated with his passing options, it could be the difference between a championship winning side and relegation threatened one. It really is that important to make sure players have options.

You might find out it’s just a player giving possession away cheaply for no apparent reason. This could be down to his attributes and decision making. You could try using the shouts in game to try and retain possession more.

[Cleon]

Shots

Generally I have players with ‘long shots rarely’ but for this game I increased it for my front three. As I know there capable of doing a little bit of magic and scoring from 30 yards. Especially as I know the opposition are really defensive and offer very little going forward. So I need lots of options to try and break them down.

If you don’t want players making long shots then make sure they are set to rarely. If they are still shooting then take a look at their passing options from above. If a player is shooting and he’s not instructed to then it can be one of two things. He either has no passing option or his creative freedom is far too high.

It’s also worth checking out the oppositions stats on this page too. So you can see what types of shots they are having and from what kind of range. If they’re having a lot of close shots in dangerous areas then you need to sort out your defence more. It might be a case of you having to close down more heavily if there close range shots. Or try and cut the pass supply off to the players who are shooting.

[Cleon]

Scoring Chances

This goes hand in hand with shots and tells you what type of shots they were. Ideally you want the scoring chances in good places and the more green dots the better. You really should view the clips here as you’ll see why someone is shooting and be able to understand the player a lot more.

If you look at my screenshot you’ll see I didn’t have that many good shots but that was due to the opposition been really defensive and compact so I couldn’t play through them like I normally do. Normally though I have better scoring chances and there normally of a good quality.

[Cleon]

Movement

I’ve saved this one for last on purpose because I see people saying things like ‘inside forwards don’t work they always go out wide’. I want to show you that it’s not true and if a player who’s instructed to cut inside still goes out wide often then your tactic is flawed. Inside forwards will do exact as you’ve instructed to if they fit the tactic you’re playing.

A lot of red dots on this screen is bad and indicates the player isn’t capable to running with the ball or he is been outnumbered when trying to dribble past opponents. View the clips and see what the issue is.

As for my own game let’s take a look at Neymar who is the left wide striker whose set up as an inside forward.

Neymar did 8 dribbles and only 1 of them was wide, this shows that inside forwards do in fact cut inside when instructed to. Remember I play narrow and Neymar is both footed so he can cut inside easily. The player will be able to cut inside more if he is opposite footed to the side he plays on.

This screenshot is from another game;

Again cuts inside more often that he goes out wide.

Another screenshot;

If you’re inside forwards don’t cut inside as often then you’ve tactically got it wrong. You’re either too wide or the player isn’t getting the space he needs to cut inside and is been forced out wide. You’ll need to study his play and see what the players around him are doing. It could be a case that the space he would occupy if he cut inside may already be crowded with your own players. A player can’t use space if it doesn’t exist or is already occupied.

[Cleon]

PKM’s

A few people have asked to see some PKM’s from the W-M so they can see how it plays out. So I’ve decided to upload a few to give you a better insight.

The download links are;

http://www.gamefront.com/files/21079145/Santos_v_Ponte_Preta_pkm

http://www.gamefront.com/files/21079144/Oeste_v_Santos_pkm

http://www.gamefront.com/files/21079143/Corinthians_v_Santos_pkm

To view these in game download them from the above links and then place them in the C:\Users\User\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2012\matches

Then load the game up and select the option ‘View Match’ and you should be able pick which game you want to view.

Before you view them there are a few things to note. I prepare for each team individually and set out to play attacking football. I do this regardless of the opposition and if I am an underdog or not. While keeping a clean sheet is a bonus it’s not the focus of the tactic. I just wanted to play attractive attacking football and exploit space that my team create.

Hope you enjoy the games.

[Cleon]

Why does the W-M work?

To get a better picture and understand exactly why the W-M is working, we need to look at the individual and his settings. I’m going to work backwards here and talk about the attack of the tactic first. Seeing as that’s how the tactic was created by me to begin with. I worked from the front backwards; this allowed me to focus on attacking movement to begin with. After all you’re not sure how you need the defence to play until the attack is sorted out do you? This is how I create 99% of my tactics from the front first. As I wanted the attack to be fast and free flowing then it made sense to start there first.

Introducing the Attack;

The above screenshots will help you get a little insight into Ganso’s personality and understand him as a player a bit more than by just looking at his attributes.

Everybody knows Ganso is (will be) world-class and he’s no different on the game. But there is a drawback with players like this on FM and it is how the hell do you get the best out of someone who can play many roles? Well there isn’t a definite answer and for many people these are the type of players they struggle to fit into their own teams. It can be hard to pick a set position or tactical settings that bring the best out of him at times because he is so well rounded. I could have retrained him to play in any position from the midfield up. But as I was managing Santos I lacked a real quality striker. So I retrained him the first season to play as a striker. I know he makes a good player across the attacking positions but I felt for how I wanted the team to play; he could be the quality forward that all teams look for.

[Cleon]

Everybody knows Ganso is (will be) world-class and he’s no different on the game. But there is a drawback with players like this on FM and it is how the hell do you get the best out of someone who can play many roles? Well there isn’t a definite answer and for many people these are the type of players they struggle to fit into their own teams. It can be hard to pick a set position or tactical settings that bring the best out of him at times because he is so well rounded. I could have retrained him to play in any position from the midfield up. But as I was managing Santos I lacked a real quality striker. So I retrained him the first season to play as a striker. I know he makes a good player across the attacking positions but I felt for how I wanted the team to play; he could be the quality forward that all teams look for.

It also meant I saved a fortune in trying to bring someone else in. Especially on the tight budget I’ve had the last 4 seasons. None the less, I’m starting to see my investment payoff now and Ganso is creating quite a few goals as well as scoring frequent. Which is expected really but what role does he actually play in the W-M I hear you ask. Let’s take a look shall we?

Those are his tactical instructions. Now if you’ve been following the thread you’ll have seen some screenshots, pkm’s and match highlights and seen how heavily involved in play Ganso is. The next bit will try and explain firstly why I’ve set him up to play the way I have. As well as to highlight his actual role in the formation.

Many of you would presume that playing him as a Trequartista would be the easy option and you’d be correct. But the W-M is more about team play than individual brilliance. I have no doubts that he’s be perfect for the Trequartista role but I want him to be less gung-ho and selfish in his approach. If not then the attacking part of the tactic will fail badly against teams who are defensive. I need Ganso to be reserved in his approach and yet be able to unlock a defence with his passing and creativity should we need it.

Goal Scoring Movement

Movement is key for any player to gain that extra half of yard or to lose his marker. Here are a few screenshots of how Ganso’s movement works allowing him to score.

On that screenshot he is just jockeying just outside the area. This is one of the reasons I gave him the Deep Lying Forward role to ensure he wasn’t always advanced. It can pay to have players more cautious and reserved; there is no need to always be attacking. I could have achieved this with the Treq role as well but by altering the mentality individually. Something I didn’t really want to do.

That screenshot is of him making the run into the box as late as possible and losing his marker by checking back and going round the back of him. He then slots the ball home.

[Cleon]

The next screenshot is from the same game but the build up to his second goal. Again he is not that attacking in his movement but he is been clever and reading the game well.

By the time we look at the next screenshot Ganso is screaming (well I imagine with the hand gestures) for the ball and timely advancing forward ready for the pass.

Then in the last screenshot you can see his timely run into the box and he just has to tap the ball into the net. Just look at the space he has because he made the run from deep and wasn’t too deep to begin with. As did the Right sided forward but we’ll touch upon him later. By running from deep late, the player is actually unmark able for most parts as the defence has to go back to follow Neymar. So technically Neymar creates the space and Ganso exploits it.

Bringing Others into Play

Now we’ve seen what a threat he can by the type of goals he scored, I thought it be best we look at how he performs with build up play. I can and will show more varied goals that he has scored but I want to talk about what he offers the team in more detail first, other than just his goal tally.

Ganso doesn’t get as many assists as you think he would judge by his stats. But that’s only half the picture so doesn’t show the full story. Sometimes he is the start of a 10 pass move, or 5 pass move. So he doesn’t get the credit he deserves.

In the above screenshot that is him playing with his back to goal. Neymar passes the ball to him and immediately he is looking to turn and run into the channels (this is why forwards should have move into channels set).

As you can see he has acres and acres of space to run into and exploit. If you take a look at the goal above what Neymar provided for Ganso, this is almost the reversible happening as Ganso is turning provider this time as Neymar as cut inside.

[Cleon]

He just puts the ball across the box and Neymar lets it run across him and then fires it into the right corner.

You see this happening time and time again. Ganso offers so much upfront, he is more than just goals and assists he is almost the engine room for all attacks. I know in the examples I’ve show above it seems to favour the left side, but it doesn’t as you’ll see a little later on when we look at the right sided striker.

Hopefully this will give you a little insight into how Ganso performs. It will get more detailed about his role and look at things in even greater detail. But I want to discuss the rest of the squad first to give you a better outline of how things work.

[Cleon]

So the general outline of the next few updates is;

Finish the W-M dicussion about players and their roles

Create a new formation and highlight and discuss in depth how it was created and why

See how the formation evolves during a season

Do a general outline for all the popular formations and tell you how to counter them

[Cleon]

Reserved for W-M discussion on Neymar

[Cleon]

Reserved for W-M discussion on Marcao

[Cleon]

Reserved for W-M discussion on the midfield

[Cleon]

Reserved for W-M discussion on defence

[Cleon]

PPM’s

When looking at PPM's either learning them or unlearning them, not a lot of people take into account the players attributes. Player’s attributes are a massive part of PPM's and determine if he can actually do what you've instructed. For example if you have a right winger who is left footed and he has the 'Likes to dribble down the right' PPM, already he is more inclined to come inside due to him favouring his right foot. He also needs a good dribbling attribute and technique so the ball sticks to his feet.

The same can be said if it was the other way around a right footed player on the left.

Beat the offside trap they need good off the ball, anticipation and pace.

Place shots you need good finishing, decisions, composure.

You get the idea. You might have players who have PPM's but lack the attributes to pull them off. If that's the case then you should try and unlearn them as they cause more harm than good. Don't think of PPM's as tactical instructions modifiers but instead think of them as an extension of a players playing personality.

After a discussion in this thread http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/296536-FM12-Preferred-Moves-Defined-and-Explained?p=7526365#post7526365 I’ve decided to do a list of the attributes that I think are important for PPM’s to make it easier for people to decide if a player should have them or not.

Just a quick note - I’m doing this off the top of my head so a few may be missing and the names might differ slightly once there learnt but you get the idea. I’m also trying to restrict it to just naming a few attributes as they all should have decisions as standard to begin with.

Defensive

Marks opponent tightly – Marking, concentration, tackling, stamina, work rate

Throws self into tackles – Bravery, tackling, determination, strength, positioning, work rate

Does not dive into tackles – This is for player’s who have Low tackling, determination, Strength, Bravery, positioning.

Finishing

Shoots from distance – Long shots, technique, composure, creativity + flair

Places shots – finishing, composure, anticipation, technique

Try to round keeper – Flair, creativity, technique, composure

Try to lob keeper – Flair, creativity, technique, anticipation

Attempt overhead kicks – Flair, creativity, agility, balance

Attempt first time shots – Finishing, anticipation, technique

Try and Rifle free kicks – Strength, free kick taking, technique

Movement

Dribble down left – Dribbling, pace, technique, acceleration, left footed

Dribble down right – Same as above but right footed

Dribble through Centre – Same as above

Moves into channels – Off the ball, acceleration, pace, flair

Likes to beat offside trap – Anticipation, pace, off the ball

Comes deep for Ball – Off the ball, Flair, creativity, technique

Dictates Tempo – passing, concentration, composure, first touch, teamwork

Knock ball past opponents – Pace, acceleration, balance, determination

Cut inside – finishing, dribbling, acceleration, technique

Hug Touchline – dribbling, crossing, teamwork

Gets into opposition area – Anticipation, determination, off the ball

Arrives late in opposition area – Off the ball, work rate, determination

Passing

Plays simple passes – passing, technique, first touch

Try killer ball often – anticipation, technique, passing, teamwork, determination, first touch

Looks for pass instead of shooting – passing, teamwork, flair, creativity, composure

Tries through balls – Flair, creativity, anticipation, passing, technique, first touch

Long range free kicks – Finishing, free kick taking, technique

Likes long range passes – technique, passing, creativity, flair

Likes to switch flank – technique, passing, teamwork

Technique

Avoids using weaker foot – Self explanatory this one

Long flat bullet throw-in - Strength, long throw

[Cleon]

The Next Generation of Tactic's

Creating, Maintaining and Evolving

A lot of people are still stuck in the old days of CM03/04 etc and still think the game plays the same way. The simple answer is, it doesn’t and it’s moved on drastically. Long gone are the days where you could just select a tactic and play and dominate games and win them all. Nowadays you have to put a little bit more effort in and adapt based on who you play, your expectations and so on. If you have no interest in watching any games on full or have short attention span then this thread is not for you. As I’m going to show people how to be successful by looking at stats, adapting and general evolving of a formation.

I get a lot of PM’s and posts asking how I’m so successful with any side, a lot of people assume I cheat in some shape or form. That’s not true and if you look throughout all of the SI forums (not only the tactics section) you’ll find plenty of people who have the same if not more success than I do. We all play the game in a different way but we do have 1 important thing in common. Reacting, yes we react to situations in a game and try and take advantage. The AI is very basic even though some of you might disagree. The AI can only do the same as the human user, in fact you could argue it does less due to the AI been very static in its approach. We as the human user have the major advantage over the AI because of this. No matter what detail, style or how fast you play the game, if you react to in game situations then you should always have the advantage. Too many people these days who are struggling with the game don’t even seem to look at the statistics, analyse pages or watch games. How do they except to be consistent? You have to pay attention a little bit to these details.

Some of the regulars of the forum might remember that in January 2010 I did a thread about the ‘Brazilian Fluid System’ in the build up to the 2010 world cup. Sadly the thread no longer seems to exist for some reason. But in the thread myself, SFrazer and a few others all had a big discussion about the upcoming world cup and the future of football in terms of tactics. We pretty much got our assumptions spot on with how tactics would evolve over the coming 2-3 years. At the time we also spoke about how things were changing defensively and that the need for four defenders was becoming more obsolete as the game evolves and tries to adapt new ways of breaking opponents down. Well I say evolving but if you look at when football first started and the systems that was employed by teams, it could be classed as ‘stepping back in time’ by some quarters.

Three at the back is nothing new in itself and many teams have used three at the back for quite a while, Napoli, Chile, Liverpool (at times during this season), Parma, Inter, Udinese and many more including Ajax and Barcelona. Once Barcelona started using three at the back more people have started to notice and take a much bigger interest into it. After all, it’s normally the top sides that set the trend with what formations will be used as all the other teams tend to follow suit and find their own variation of it. This has always been the case for as far as I can remember. People copied the Germans, Brazilians, The Dutch, Milan, Madrid and now Barcelona to name but a few.

Guardiola even said this recently;

“The midfield is a crucial part of any team,” he told FIFA.com this week. “Midfielders are intelligent players who have to think about the team as a whole. They’re selfless players who understand the game better than anyone and the more midfielders you have, the easier it is to slot them into other positions. That’s how they become versatile and that helps us to have smaller squads that are still able to offer more options.”

Link to the full article - http://www.fifa.com/clubworldcup/news/newsid=1556262/index.html

For those of you who might not know what I’m on about then have a read of these;

http://jouracule.blogspot.com/2011/02/3-3-1-3-ajax-and-louis-van-gaal-love.html

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/12/18/barcelona-4-0-santos-tactics-world-club-cup-final/

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/08/18/mourinho-messi-false-nine/

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/08/29/barcelona-5-0-villarreal-tactics/

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/12/11/real-madrid-1-3-barcelona-tactics/

All the above links are relevant to this thread and are a fascinating read for anyone who enjoys the tactical side of FM. I also like to take real life tactics and put them into FM, sometimes they work sometimes they don’t. Actually I should rephrase that, sometimes I’m more successful than others. But all in all, they always work to some extent.

This thread is about the creation of a tactic and what you do once you find a formation you like. Tactic building never stops and tactics should always be maintained and evolving. Hopefully this thread will put across my approach and some of you might find this useful. This thread will be part of http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/289528-The-SI-Sports-Centre-All-You-Need-To-Know-About-FM but I thought it warrants a separate thread for now as a lot of people don’t know how to create tactics.

A lot of people are looking for a plug and play tactic but in all honesty they don’t really exist anymore. Why? Because suppose you use a plug and play tactic, yet in the game the AI switches formation or changes the way it was playing. How do you expect to counter it without changing anything? This is one of the main reasons why so many people squander a lead as they don’t adapt.

For every tactic I create I like to get a little inspiration from zonal marking or other sources on the internet. I was on zonal marking and wasn’t really looking to make a new tactic I was just generally reading. Then I came across this http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/12/18/barcelona-4-0-santos-tactics-world-club-cup-final and thought why not create it. I’ve been following Barcelona a lot this season as I like how they are evolving tactically. Guardiola is trying to use more and more midfielders due to the importance of them. I’ve heard him mention a few times over the last few weeks that the midfield is vital. Which makes sense with the creative quality he has, it must be a nightmare trying to fit them all into the side.

So how would we implement this into FM? Well I’m not going for a carbon copy of it; I’m just using the ideas and going to play my own way. I hope to play the way described in the link but that takes time as I don’t have the funding or players available currently to implement the described system. It takes quite a bit of time and needs a lot of effort put into the game to be able to play a certain way. It requires you to watch games on full and fully understand exactly what the formation you use does. Understanding how anything works is always the key. That’s why plug and play tactics fail on this level as all the tactical work is already done, no matter how flawed it is.

My immediate goals are to gain back to back promotions to the Premier League. But to achieve this I will need to play different both seasons. You’ll see what I mean as the thread develops past the first season. First season I’m favourites to win the league. Next year I doubt I’ll be anywhere near those odds to win the league, I’ll be classed as a ‘decent’ mid table side.

Remember that to play the style I want to and envisage I first need to create something stable. Then over time I can slowly evolve the tactic and get it playing like I see. So to start with you need to open up the ‘Tactics Creator’ and make the shape you wish to play. This is the shape I have chosen;

For the way I am building this tactic it doesn’t matter what roles or duties I choose because I will change everything based on what I see happening in a game. Visuals are very important and the only way that you can create a consistent stable formation. If you don’t watch games or portions of games then how are you supposed to know if it’s working or not? What I’ve done is just choose roles and duties that I think would be good for a starting base. I find it best to start conservative and work from that.

Once you’ve done the shape and general roles and duties of the players then it’s time to see what your players are actually capable of. Even though friendlies are pretty pointless other than for the purpose of match fitness, I still like to see how my players play during these. Although by no means is this any indication of how the players and formation will work once the competitive games start. But it can give you a general idea of strengths and weaknesses in your formation.

For this experiment I decided to go with Sheffield United. I accidentally saved over my 4^th season as Santos so got a little frustrated and decided to go with the team I support. Although I’m also using the same system with Santos as I replay the season. So I’ll be updating the thread with both teams at some point.

[Cleon]

Season one might seem a bit of a letdown for you tactically but bear with it, things pick up for season two I promise you. When been favourites and actually playing that way you don’t find many faults because the players I have are strong enough to carry me even with a flawed tactic. However the first season will be more about my amazing FA Cup run rather than the league. Due to me playing a lot stronger teams, so you’ll learn a lot more. But season two will pick up from the league again as I adjust to play at a higher level and standard. There’s no doubt that it will be a lot harder and we’ll see a lot more changes tactically.

Now you’ve seen the actual shape that I am attempting to play it’s time to fine tune it for the season and make it a solid base. There are many ways to do this but I’m going to do it in real time during games. For help with how to create a tactic by looking at a players profile then I highly recommend you read this thread;

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/296778-Let-your-players-choose-your-tactic-a-theoretical-discussion

Before we actually get onto the settings and how I changed them in game I think I should point out that this saved game was actually started a while back but I’d hardly played it due to playing the Santos save. In fact for the first 17 games (including cup games) I was actually using a 4-3-3/4-5-1 but I just wasn’t getting the enjoyment out of the game. This wasn’t because the tactic wasn’t working, far from it. I just needed more a challenge and was trying to make the game more difficult for myself. These were the results while I was playing the 4-3-3/4-5-1 hybrid;

As you can see I was comfortably winning games and was clear at the top of the league by around 8 points. But after reading the articles I linked a bit further up the thread I began to want to try the ideas in my own games. So I decided ‘what if and went for it.

Due to the season already have started it becomes more difficult to change things during the season especially to a brand new formation and a play style that the players need to adapt to. This was the challenge I craved and was looking forward to. You already know what shape I’ve decided and left the roles basic for now, so that’s the easy bit.

The first game I used this formation was away to Oldham. I had to watch the game on full due to me wanting to change a lot of things throughout the game and been able to react. The only way to do that is watch the whole game. I found out quite a lot about the tactic and how it was playing in this game. I decided against changing the majority of roles just yet as I wanted to see it throughout several games to get a better general idea of if it was working. What I did though was write down all the negative things I saw and they were;

The goalkeeper could be doing a lot more he could easily mop up some of the long balls. So after about 5 minute’s in-game time I changed him to a sweeper keeper.

The Fullbacks are not helping out deep enough defensively. There great going forward and do enough interceptions higher up the pitch which is great. But I’m vulnerable to quick wingers are balls over the top.

The central defender just doesn’t feel right for some reason. I actually can’t put my finger on what just yet. But from aerial challenges he was rock solid. It’s more of his general movement what’s the issue I think. It just feels a bit static at the moment so this is something to keep an eye on.

The defensive midfielder was seeing a lot of the ball and seemed an integral part of attacks. That’s great but I want him more reserved and need him to act more like a defender. He was actually very solid defensively but didn’t act nothing like a DC. For this game luckily this didn’t seem to matter all that much as I retained possession. But in other games this could be a real problem as I’ll get caught out at the back a lot. Especially if the fullbacks are attacking like they did.

The two central midfielders were just too similar, it wasn’t working. They saw a lot of the ball especially the defensive minded one. But the play just seemed negative and while they had a lot of possession all of it was in their own half. That isn’t going to hurt anyone, all the play was in the middle and served no threat to the opposition.

My central attacking midfielder just didn’t see the ball. He wasn’t involved but that was due to the central midfielders been to negative. If the AMC doesn’t get the ball or support he can’t do much as he’s isolated.

The wide players were a lot more involved and everything they did was good. They weren’t fantastic but they showed some good play and caused the opposition quite a few problems.

As for my striker he was far too advanced for where play was actually happening. Again making him isolated. The AMC not been involved didn’t help him much either as this is the player who’s supposed to link up with him and play balls through for him. In fact the AMC is the striker’s main source really.

As you can see I learnt quite a bit and not all good. The only role I changed was that of the keeper to make him a sweeper keeper. The rest I felt I needed to see them over the full 90 minutes or even the next match. You have to remember that I’ve completely changed shape and settings for this match. So the disruption the players have seen is quite huge. So they need time to adapt and get used to the new style and shape.

However despite all that I managed to win the game 0-2.

Overall I didn’t create much but what I did create was good and I scored from them. So that was a plus. I was happy with the possession and overall passes completed. The headers I won and tackling though both need improving if I’m to make this formation work

[Cleon]

For the second game I kept the goalkeeper as a sweeper keeper and I made one of the central midfielders into a ball winning midfielder. I also decided to give my fullbacks a defensive duty to help out and be more defensive during a game rather than always bombing forward. I decided all this due to the feedback I got and wrote above about the first game. I don’t want to change to much in one go as you don’t know if something is working if you do that. You should change things a bit at a time in my opinion so you can keep a track and analyse how the changes you’ve made are working or not.

So the problems I saw in this game where;

Keeper – While he was better at sweeping balls up and helping out a lot more compared to the first game, I’m not happy with his distribution of the ball. He gives it away needlessly and costing me quite a bit of possession. Not in dangerous areas but I’d rather he passed to someone on my team rather than hit it and hope for the best.

Fullbacks – They tended to play same as in the first game which is good but less effective going forward which is what I was trying to achieve. They stayed back more and in position a lot better which helped out defensively.

Centre-back – I’m thinking of changing him to a limited defender due to him having only average composure, concentration and decisions. Which means I should try to limit the time he spends on the ball to avoid him been forced into making a mistake. By making him a limited defender it should mean he wins a challenge and will look to clear the ball instant. It means the teams overall possession will go down but I’d rather that than forcing him to have the ball at his feet while he’s not comfortable with it. If the opposition’s attacker were pressing him high up the pitch then they could easily force a mistake due to him only having an attribute of 12 for both concentration and composure.

Defensive Midfielder – Still the same problems as in the first game really which means I need to change him slightly for the next game. As his current settings just aren’t working. He saw less of the ball compared to the game before. But in this game he wasn’t in as much space compared to the previous game.

Central Midfielder – Even though he saw nowhere near as much of the ball as he did in the first game I was still happy with his contribution. Why? Well Stevenage caused more of a threat going forward compared to Oldham. So my team had more defending to do meaning the midfield needed to track back a lot more.

Ball Winning Midfielder – This change seemed to be a really good one. The midfield seemed to be more solid overall due to them picking different players up to mark due to playing in different space.

The rest of the players worked pretty much same as they did in the first game.

These are the match stats;

And the player stats;

I won the game but overall it was a poor match but I still learned quite a bit from the things I listed above. So going into the next game I’ll try and implement some of the changes to see how it goes.

[Cleon]

The next game I had to win at all costs due to it been a derby. I had to win yet at the same time try and fit the rest of the changes needed into the tactic. It’s not an easy task to do when you have to win a game. What I decided to do was I’d use a ‘control’ strategy for this game as I believe I have the better side man for man than Sheffield Wednesday. But I do consider them to be a threat from counter attacks, that’s why I choose the ‘control’ strategy.

For this game I made the following tactical changes;

I made the centre-back a limited defender.

I reduced the mentality of the defensive midfielder by 3 notches so he’d be a lot more restrained and stay positioned exactly where I want him to.

They are the immediate changes that I made before the game started.

Match Stats;

Player stats;

I have no complaints with how this game went. Okay I didn’t create that many chances but what I did create was quality chances and my team took them. I dominated possession in every single area of the pitch which was pleasing. I retained the ball well and stopped Sheffield Wednesday from playing their game due to not allowing them to have the ball.

[Cleon]

I think the general tactic is taking shape now and over the next few games hope to make it more stable and get it a bit more settled. In the league the tactic is working great with all the changes I’ve done and documented so I’m going to talk a bit about the cup games now. The reason for this is I am a big club in League One and have a very good side. So even if the tactic is flawed it won’t really get exposed until I face a team who has higher quality of players than I do. But I won’t find that in league games with me having the best squad by far.

First up is the league Cup;

As you can see it wasn’t the best result and if I’m honest I’m a bit gutted. I thought I could go on a decent cup run in the League Cup and get a bit of extra income. That wasn’t to be the case but I did learn a few things tactically. So what did I learn here?

I shouldn’t have let players condition get as low as it did for some of them. I don’t know what I was thinking; I guess I took my eye off the ball.

I really need to sort the keeper’s distribution out. I’ve mentioned it a few times but not done anything about it. Now it’s cost me this game as West Ham scored from a ball that was hoofed up field from my keeper.

The striker needs to get more involved. He’s involved now but I believe I can get more out of him if I change him to a target man and have the ball played to his feet. He’s not winning headers if you look at his stats; he loses more than he wins. Plus it would mean he held the ball up and the left sided attacking midfielder and central attacking midfielder would benefit from someone holding play up for them.

I’m creating good chances I just need to put more of them away and try and implement the above changes into the tactic.

[Cleon]

The FA cup draw was kind to me to begin with. In the 1^st round I got Yeovil at home and won comfortably 4-0. In the 2^nd round I got Brentford at home and won 1-0. Then in the third round I got Aldershot at home and won 4-0. Then things got interesting in the 4^th round when I got drawn at home to Aston Villa. This would be the first real test of the tactic since I implemented all the things listed in this thread. So let’s take a look at how I approached this game;

This is the formation they used;

As you can see the shape isn’t that different to mine. In fact going forward it’s the same its only defensively it’s different. And this is where I believe I gain the edge. Because I use a defensive midfielder I should be able to stop the attacking midfielder of Aston Villa a lot easier than they can mine. Why? Well due to the positioning of the defensive midfielder he’ll be able to man mark him easier without been pulled out of position.

I’m going to use specific man marking for this game so I can force player’s to track back and case them to push Villa’s player’s back and not allow them to much attacking space. How do I do that? Take a look;

Dobbie will man mark Hutton and Flynn will man mark Warnock. The idea behind getting my attacking wide player’s to mark the opposition’s fullback is simple really. If I don’t do it then Villa’s fullbacks will just advance and help with attacks. But if I apply my own pressure on them and try and push them back it takes away from their attacking play and makes them focus on a more defensive role. They’ll still get forward but just not as much. Well in hindsight they shouldn’t.

Morrison will man mark Jenas. I choose this as Jenas is the more attacking of the two Villa midfielders so he’s more of a threat.

Doyle will man mark Albrighton and Quinn will man mark Yarmole. Hopefully this won’t drag me too wide.

And lastly Frimpong will man mark Ireland.

For this game I decided to start with the standard strategy as I don’t know much about Villa and the way they play. Plus it gives me a chance to see how the game progresses and alter the strategy in game based on certain scenarios.

And this was the end result;

Out passed them, out tackled them and out crossed them.

I was unlucky with 2 of the goals I conceded but I was playing a side two divisions above me and I was the underdog. It was an easy game in the end even if the score line is quite flattering but I never really looked like I’d lose it.

[Cleon]

A lot of people have been asking to see PKM's of the 3-1-2-3-1 so I've decided to upload a few for people to look at. Please remember though that most of these are against far superior sides. Most of them are from the cup run in season one. However there are a few from the Europa League in the 2nd season. Again I'm still only a Championship side and don't have quality player's really.

http://www.gamefront.com/files/21308957/Arsenal+v+Sheff+Utd.pkm

http://www.gamefront.com/files/21308962/Blackburn+v+Sheff+Utd.pkm

http://www.gamefront.com/files/21308959/Sheff+Utd+v+Nottm+Forest.pkm

http://www.gamefront.com/files/21308964/Sheff+Utd+v+Standard.pkm

http://www.gamefront.com/files/21308956/Ajax+v+Sheff+Utd.pkm

[Cleon]

As I’m taking a break from my Sheffield United game and playing the Santos save I’ve posted about in this thread. I thought now would be a good time to update you on a few of the players training progress throughout the last 5 or so seasons.

So this is one of the prospects I had at 15 years old and his initial custom schedule;

One year later;

His determination dropped due to been tutored by someone with a lesser determination. But I still thought he’d benefit more overall from the tutor.

One year later;

[Cleon]

Another year later;

Another year later;

As you can see he is developing quite nice. I’ll be changing his schedule when he hits 22 to focus on different areas. I’ll go into details about them once I make those chances in just over a seasons time.

[Cleon]

Another of my players and his schedule;

At 15;

At 17;

At 18;

[Cleon]

At 19;

These are the only 2 player's I've kept. I have got some other's that I have had for 2 seasons and I'll post them in a season or so

[Cleon]

I wouldn’t have posted about this just yet but seeing as something happened in one of the games that I want to discuss I thought it be best to explain how I play first so it all makes sense.

As I is talking about my Santos save I thought it might be a good idea to tell you how the formation has evolved in the last 2 seasons or so. I’m still going to update on the Sheffield United but in my Santos save that formation has now evolved. In 2014 the world cup was on and I had 27 players all away on international duty. Now in most leagues this wouldn’t be an issue really. But in Brazil it is bang in the middle of the season and games still go ahead. The 3-1-2-3-1 what is posted above is what was been used. But once the players were called up for international duty I had to change the formation as my 7 attacking midfielders were all called. So I took drastic action as I had to play a lot of 16 year olds who aren’t developed yet for about a month of fixtures, which in Brazil are about 12 games.

I have a lot of defensive midfielders in the under 23’s and under 20’s so I decided to use this to my advantage. I decided to drop the attacking midfielder from the 3-1-2-3-1 back to the defensive midfield position so the formation would now be a 3-2-2-2-1. There was another reason for deciding to make this change; as I was playing a lot of youths I expected them to get over run at times so I wanted to stabilise the defence and make it more solid and hard to break down.

So the shape I’ve ended up with is;

It’s important that I play high to keep everyone as a unit. I know I’m very attacking and normally you’d play a high pressing game to match. But I don’t see the need for this as it’s more important I play high up and stay in position than get stretched and allow gaps to appear for the opposition to exploit. That’s the reason why closing down is set to normal.

I also need to play slightly wider to stretch the opposition a little bit more than normal. Not by a lot as that would cause problems for me and leave big gaps. But a lot of sides I play have a similar set up in the middle as I do. So I like a little bit of width to help with the trying to create space to exploit.

As you can see the formation is a hybrid of the W-M and the 3-1-2-3-1. It has all the attacking capabilities of the 3-1-2-3-1 but has the defensive stability of the W-M with the use of the defensive midfielders to help the centre back out.

[Cleon]

Going Down In a Game

It happens to us all at some stage of our careers but exactly how do you come back from going a few goals down? Well that actually depends on the way you are actually playing. You can be playing well and still be 2-0 down due to set pieces, mistakes or a well worked goal. You might deserve to be losing due to playing poor. So first you need to establish how you are playing despite been behind and then you figure out how to comeback from that.

I’m now going to talk to you about an extraordinary game I had quite recently. I was using the tactic which is posted above.

Here are the results I’ve had up until this game;

You can see my form as been good up until this point. I’ve let in a few more goals than I would have liked but considering every single player from my starting 11 as been missing for large parts due to international call-ups it’s not bad. I’ve scored a few goals and kept a few clean sheets which are always good. So you can see I’m in good form.

But the biggest mistake I made for this game was change the way I play. I always watch the first 15 minutes of a match to see how my team are playing and to understand how the opposition have lined up. I then make changes based on what happens in game. But due to me paying lack of attention and showing disrespect to the opposition I decided to just watch highlights. After all I’m unbeaten, top of the league and playing the bottom side. What could go wrong?

Well fast forward 28 minutes into the game and I’m behind 3-0.

[video=youtube;8tKCFnT-Y8o]

As you can see from that video the goals I had scored against me were bad ones where I was out played. And the goals I scored were scrappy but none the less I pulled it back and won the game like you can see. So exactly how did I pull the result back?

[Cleon]

The first thing I did was change to the full match and rewind the first 28 minutes and try and figure out why I was behind and try and find a way to pull it back.

Goal One

This actually happened from a corner that I had. I was hit with a clearance that started a counter attack as is highlighted in the screenshot below.

As you can see when the ball is cleared they have acres of space to run into. Now I have 2 players back but the opposition has plenty of men breaking quick. If you look at the above screenshot you’ll see that my players are the wrong side of the players who will be breaking, so tracking back will be hard. In fact they’ve no chance of been back in time and providing cover. So I made a note of this as it’s a major problem. The 2 players I have back on set pieces play a similar position so when the ball is cleared and I’m hit on the counter attack it’s an issue as the players are not spread enough to deal with the threat.

The next screenshot highlights what happens when you get exposed at the back and when the defensive midfielders get too advanced.

You see how exposed I am? Totally shocking this and no excuse for it, my defensive midfielders shouldn’t have been that high for set pieces. They need to stay back and defend in case anything like this happens. If Bah players a clever ball across to the runner from midfield then he takes 2 defenders out. My centre back is caught in two minds, should he go across and help or stay central for the threat of the runner. He actually makes the right choice and stays central jockeying back to the edge of the area as he’s seen the runner.

However as you see he has a lapse in concentration and allows the runner to go behind him and a simple pass across goal leaves him with an easy tap in.

So from the first goal I’ve learnt that I need to make sure I instruct the defensive midfielders to stay back at all times for set pieces. This is to help with quick counter attacks. Plus it’s clear I committed too many men forward. This was the first change I made before I viewed the next goals.

[Cleon]

Goal Two

This shows that my defensive midfielders who should be helping out the centre back with defensive duties aren’t doing their jobs.

Way too advanced they should be deeper. But due to losing the ball further up the field again the opposition play a direct ball over the top for the striker to run onto. Given my fullback is not a starter yet and young but he should be better than this screenshot indicates. But he gets out muscled off the ball. This is what happens in these situations when your fullback has 8 for strength and the opposition has a higher attribute. The lack of positioning is further highlighted too.

I feel the keeper could do more here so I decide to change him to a sweeper keeper. I felt he could have maybe started to come off his line sooner than he did rather than just be static. But instead he backs off.

This goal proves that I’m playing a risky game by having the defensive line too advanced. I decide that I’m going to reduce it to the last notch of ‘normal’. This is so I play deeper and try and cover the weaknesses of my fullback who is clearly out of his depth. Due to the defensive line change I also decide to turn off ‘offside’ due to playing deeper.

[Cleon]

Goal Three

This goal was again down to my left back. He tracked the player and the ball but didn’t make a tackle.

He didn’t make a tackle as he is instructed to stand off. I’ve got to change that as he is standing off too much. This screenshot also shows again that the defensive line pushed up is causing the two defensive midfielders to be too advanced yet again. They are supposed to act more like centre backs than offensive midfielders. Them been attacking only causes me problems.

In that screenshot you can see the ball is played to Xaves who then does a ball over the top to the space in front of the striker and in between the fullback. No-one can get across and cover and it’s a straight run onto goal to make it 3-0.

[Cleon]

Lessons Learned

So from going 3-0 down I learned a lot of important lessons. This is what happens when you suddenly change the way you play and don’t take notice of the opposition. If I’d been watching the game like I always do to begin with I would have noticed these problems a lot earlier and made the changes before going 3-0 down. I made this game a lot harder than it should have been but the blame for that is all down to me no doubt about that.

The changes I did to try and turn the game around were;

I dropped the defensive line to the last notch of normal.

Due to changing the defensive line I also turned offside off as there was no use using it when playing deeper.

I asked both my defensive midfielders to stay back always for attacking set pieces so it’s more balanced if the opposition counter attack.

The goalkeeper was made into a sweeper keeper to encourage him to come out for the ball earlier and mop up and balls over the top.

As the left back was a problem I changed him tackling from easy to normal and asked him to tight mark. It was a risky change as the opposition kept getting the better of him. But I wanted him to get closer to the opposition and attempt a tackle sooner rather than standing off.

Gaps between the centre back and full backs is quite large so I reduced the width of the team ever so slightly to try and reduce it. I didn’t need to do major change to it though as half of the problem was created due to the defensive midfielders been advanced.

Honestly this is all I changed and did to turn the result around. The key to changing a result into your favour is to identify the issues and find out exactly why you go behind. Don’t be afraid to rewind live play after pausing the game to watch incidents and see player’s positions.

If you don’t understand how you’ve gone behind then you won’t know how to turn it around. So identifying issues is the most important element.

[Cleon]

Introducing

I thought I’d introduce you all to the latest player to roll off the conveyor belt at Santos in the 7^th season. I have high hopes for the player especially as I was told by my staff that he is one of the best players of his generation.

Meet Michel;

As you can see he has great technicals and some very good mental attributes already. But his physical side of the game is poor in comparison. So I need to focus on his weak areas as soon as possible to give him the best chance of making my first team.

I’ve decided to hold off having him tutored just yet as my best tutors are already tutoring someone. I’ve also put him in the under 23 squad so I can leave him on a fulltime schedule because once he turns 16 in a few months time he will be a bit part player in the first team to aide his development.

That is the schedule I’ve decided to give him for now. It focuses heavily on the physical aspects of his game as I feel that’s what he needs at this time. I will be following his development very closely and having regular fortnightly checks on him just to make sure everything is going to plan.

You’ll also notice that I have put him on individual focus for stamina and made it heavy. Again for me this is the area he is the most weakest in. As he’ll end up been a central midfielder for me he won’t actually need pace for the role he’ll play but I’m confident I can get that to a respectable standard at a later point through individual focusing. But stamina is an issue if I don’t raise that as soon as I can.

I’m excited by this player so we will be tracking his development over the next few seasons and see if we can make him reach his potential.

[Cleon]

Playing the Swansea Way

As I’ve already pointed out in the discussion thread this is likely to be my last update for FM12 due to me not having much time at all in the next few weeks and months. I’ll still be around to answer questions but as far as updates go I don’t plan on doing anymore at this point in time (never say never though).

I was having a chat in the Good Player and Team Guide forum last month with Tomtuck and he was talking about his Swansea save and after reading his career thread I decided to give them a go. The main reason I started a new game was to do some training test. I didn’t plan on playing more than the one season and still unsure if I will carry the game on. But it is a lot of fun so I decided to talk about what tactic I used as they seem to be a popular choice amongst the SI forums but a lot of people seem to be having issues with getting consistent results. So hopefully this will go a long way in solving a lot of them for people.

This post will be split into two different areas. The first will focus on my achievements and the tactic itself, discussing why it worked and having a look at some screenshots and stats more closely to see what we can learn. The second part will be about how I prepare and adjust the tactic based on the first 15 minutes of the game and take it from there. I had planned on making the second bit a video with description and caption in the video. However at the minute this is proving difficult, the video is done but adding captions and other graphics to the video is a harder task than I had originally imagined so I’ll do the write up first and try and complete the video at a later date for now. If not I’ll never get this finished.

Firstly, if anyone wants to download the save game and have a look in more depth at the tactic and stats from every single game then they can find the download like here;

http://tinyurl.com/7h6jpt3

Feel free to have a look around it and I’ll be happy to answer any questions than any of you have about the game.

[Cleon]

The Achievements

A lot of people will read this thread and be like ‘yeah he cheats’ well if you think that then please jog on this thread isn’t for you. I don’t and never have cheated. I just pay attention to detail and always react to in game situations. The game posted a few posts up where I go 3-0 down after 29 minutes is testament to this. If something isn’t going right you have to be able to change things and know how to turn a bad result into a positive one. I’m very confident in my approach to games and always believe I can get a result.

The good thing about playing as Swansea is they have a decent squad to begin with and playing as underdogs is brilliant. It allows you to actually attack the opposition as they set up against you as they would normally play rather than go defensive and make you try and break them down. Due to this it allows you to find lots of space and gaps in the opposition and you get a feeling that you can play ‘freely’ against these sides as you’re expected to lose the games to begin with.

So let’s work backwards and take a look at what I achieved in the first season.

Here are the results;

As you can see I had some great results and scored a fair few goals. I let in a few more than I’d have liked but I still had a very good defensive record. The amount of goals I scored was a little surprising as I didn’t expect to score that many. I thought I’d be winning 1-0 or 2-0. But I had a fair few games where I scored 3 goals.

The first 2 months was the hardest as the tactic still wasn’t fluid in all areas which meant I was doing a lot of changes and paying a bit more attention to the games. Until a tactic is fluid in all areas your side make little mistakes so I wanted to be able to be in a position to react if I saw something was having a negative effect on my side’s style of play.

I ran out comfy winners in the league in the end but it wasn’t as comfortable or as easy as the table suggest. It took a lot of work and effort to stay up there.

I also managed to win the FA Cup due to quite an easy draw really looking back. It could have been a lot worse than it really was.

[Cleon]

The Tactic

As I’ve already highlighted further up the thread at how I create a tactic I’m just going to list the base I created. Remember that for how I play I just create a steady solid base and tweak that game by game based on what I see happening. So these are the settings I’ve come up with and start every game with;

I choose fluid philosophy as it’s easier to keep possession as a unit if when we move from defence to attack and so on.

Control strategy means I will look to retain the ball and the full backs will look to get involved when they deem the move risk free. Control allows the players to knock the ball around and probe the final third until space appears for them to use. It’s a great way to keep possession even though I’m not a world class side.

Shorter passing is used again to help with keeping possession and will help the midfield keep the ball between them.

The reason for closing down more is even though I want to retain shape and the ball when I don’t have possession I want to try and win the ball back as soon as possible but without losing the initial shape of the formation.

The only thing I’ve manually changed is the time wasting of the team. I change this based on the game and scenario I face. I like to start with it on that setting as it means when I do get the ball I will still look to go forward often and don’t limit the amount of times that I attempt to go forward. After all I need to find the correct balance of retaining possession and going forward.

As for the target man I just wanted to get the best out of Danny Graham so he would be an outlet for the AML rather than be the main goal scorer. I could have used him as a deep lying forward with support but I wanted him not to drop deep but to push up and force the defence to mark him, this allows space for the AML/AMR to exploit and makes it easier for them to break through the defence. That’s why his distribution is set to run onto the ball so he makes the defence commit and mark him.

As for the shouts I use in game I’ve already posted about them in the thread a lot further up. However a few tips is if you find yourself struggling to break down the opposition because they are playing too defensive you should use the shout ‘pass to space’. Basically this and the other shouts I posted about are the only ones I really use. I do use the others too but these are the ones I mainly use in every game at some point.

Now you know the tactic and the reasoning’s behind it I feel I should show you the season’s stats for the players to give you a better idea of how it worked. Then we’ll focus on them a bit more and look at why they worked in a game scenario.

So here are the season’s stats;

As you can see the striker didn’t score that many goals but that wasn’t his job. My main scorer was supposed to be Scott Sinclair as he can hurt defences from coming from deep and running at the defence. He actually scored more than I thought he would which is a nice bonus. The others players all chipped in with goals as well.

Everyone contributed to the team in some way or another, whether it is with goals or assists. It was a real team collective for such a small squad. I mainly used the same 11 players all season as you can tell which at times was hard especially when I was over achieving. But none the less I was ecstatic with the overall results and performances of the team.

[Cleon]

Why the Tactic Works

The tactic works so well due to the shape of it and how I try to retain shape when attacking and defending. As I highlighted and mentioned earlier the focus was to keep possession but at the same time still be an attacking threat when going forward. I believe you can over concentrate on possession and you begin to take things away from the attacking game your team plays.

The striker

Here we take a look at how the striker functions and see what his actual role is.

As you can see in this screenshot Danny Graham is leading the line and making sure at least 1 defender is marking him. He’s got his back to the goal so if he was to receive the ball he’d he have players around him who would be playing off him and look for the pass.

Now in the above screen you see Sinclair received the ball and passes it to Joe Allen. Once Allen gets the ball he will play it between the fullback and defender meaning Danny Graham has lots of space to run into.

Then when he does make the run and gets the ball he has an easy chance to slot the ball home at the near post. If you look at the keeper’s position he is actually favouring the left side of his goal as his body is making that angle hard for Danny Graham to hit the target with. Although at a glance it looks like the easy option but it’s not.

He ends up scoring and that is a really well worked move. Simple yet effective use of space which makes this goal happens.

This is just one example and one type of goal he scores but as you can see he leads the line well.

[Cleon]

This is Danny Graham linking up with Scott Sinclair and becoming provider;

Sinclair wins the ball and passes it to Graham who holds it up until Scott Sinclair begins to make his run.

As you can see Danny Graham has made his marker commit and step out of the back line to attempts to win the ball from him. This means there is a huge gap and a simple pass into the run of Scott Sinclair allows him a 1 on 1 situation with the keeper which allows him to slot the ball home.

The space only appears because the defender is forced to mark Danny Graham and as you can see this causes a huge amount of space to be exploited. As Scott Sinclair runs inside he is hard to pick up and on this occasion he gets in front of his marker so if a challenge is made the chances are it would be a penalty.

As you can see in the above posts Danny Grahams role is vital for the formation as it allows attacks to build from him and allows runners off him to exploit and gaps that appear.

[Cleon]

Attacking Midfielder Left and Right – Scott Sinclair and Nathan Dyer

Before we look at the types of goals Scott Sinclair scores here is an example of how he works for the team and that his game play is more than just goals.

His marker comes across to attempt a challenge but he skins him and then just runs into acres of space.

As you can see Sinclair has caused all sorts of problems by running from deep. Joe Allen my central midfielder is the player marked closest to him. The other player making a late run from deep is Nathan Dyer my right winger.

Sinclair passed to Allen who shot but the keeper parried it away but it fell in the path of Dyer who was making a late run into the box from deep. This allowed him to slot the ball home and score.

[Cleon]

The players circled in this shot are Joe Allen, Nathan Dyer on the right and Scott Sinclair on the left.

As I’ve just won possession from Man Utd as they attacked me it’s time for a quick counter seeing as they committed so many men forward and not the fullback is out of position. You can see Dyer is already making his run forward and my striker Danny Graham is making sure one of the central defenders stay and mark him. So no-one can get across to Dyer.

Now you can see how Man Utd has been stretched and struggling to get back into position.

Dyer puts a simple cross across the goal and takes the whole of the back 4 out in one go. Sinclair has run all the way from deep in his own half to get into the oppositions box. He manages to time him run at the back post and just taps the ball into the net. An excellent move.

[Cleon]

As you can see the attacking play is vary varied and what makes this tactic work. The defensive side of the tactic is just your standard set up that everyone uses. There isn’t really much to discuss about that as its set up to just be solid. The attacking play is what makes this set up interesting especially the deep runs the players make.

I’ll maybe expand on the players and their roles a little later.

I’m not sure how many people will be interested in this but I have another save (taken from the same game) where at the half way stage of the season I am top with Swansea. So I’m going to upload it so people can have a crack at seeing how they do for the 2^nd half of the season as see if they can continue the momentum.

It’s the exact same game it’s just the half way point that’s all I made sure to create a half way point so I could do something like this. So if you are interested in seeing how you fair and want to test your own tactical knowledge after the ground work has been done for you, then use this download link;

http://www.gamefront.com/files/21462643/1st+half+of+season.fm

Hope you enjoy the game. Be sure to post any feedback or questions in the discussion thread

[Cleon]

The first 15 Minutes

For me one of the most important aspects of the game is the first fifteen minutes as this is the time I change the tactic and decide how I’ll play. Most of the changes I do are actually done in this period of time, I still change things throughout the game if I feel its need but the actual way I’ll set up and play is done in the first fifteen minutes.

Why?

Well why not? It’s no good doing all the prep for a game before the actual kick off as all your preparation could be all for nothing as the opposition might not play how you envisaged. Or other factors might play a part. The only way you can tell how you need to play and set up is from viewing the game itself. Anyone who says different is simply wrong in my opinion. If you don’t watch games then how the hell do you know what’s going on?

Hopefully this part of the thread will give you a little insight into how I approach the game and change stuff based on what I see happening. A lot of people might be a little disappointed in my approach as it’s probably not as extreme as some of you may be expecting. While this approach seems daunting and a lot of fiddling about, this isn’t really the case it’s not as hard as you think.

So here goes.

This is how the screen looks (It’s nothing special though);

I know it looks a bit messy but I can still see all the important play that happens on the field. The things I have selected are my own side’s motivation widget, detailed match stats and the assistant feedback widgets.

It’s important that I know how my players feel during the game at all times. If you don’t play close attention to this widget then it can prove costly or you might not understand why a certain player made a mistake etc.

The detailed stats widget is also used so I can track all the little tedious stats and know exactly what’s going on in the game.

The assistant’s feedback is also shown on the screen although it’s minimized for now. That’s because the assistant only offers feedback in 15 minute intervals. So he’ll update what he’s saying every 15 mins iirc. That’s the reason it’s minimized for now. It’s also worth pointing out I don’t always listen to him or do any of the changes he recommends. I just like to see what he thinks even if I don’t react to what he says.

That’s really it for how I set up the widgets for the opening 15 minutes. If I was watching the full game then this would differ and I’d also track the opposition’s motivation widget so I could just keep an eye on things. Then if someone is playing nervous I might target them through opposition instructions if it’s an important defensive player or attacker. But I don’t find this useful for me in the opening minutes. Although some will dispute that and I guess that’s fair enough. But I don’t want to deviate away from my own game plan this early on as it could have a negative effect for me.

Once the game starts I keep randomly pausing the game in different scenarios to have a look at the player’s positions and to check the opposition’s positions as well.

In the above screenshot you can see my right back as lost the ball so this is something to keep an eye on and see if it is a regular occurrence. If it is then it could be useful to restrict him running with the ball as often. But I won’t change that yet as it could just be a one off.

The yellow line for me represents a dangerous area of the pitch. From the position of where the ball currently is there is no immediate danger but there could be as the play unfolds.

The plus side is my defence are all in a line and Aston Villa don’t have many people making any kind of runs. My side seem to be positioned well and should be able to deal with this situation with ease.

In the end Villa knock the ball backwards as there is nowhere for them to go forward really. I’m pleased with how the defence kept its shape for this particular move although it is still only 33 seconds into the game.

That screenshot shows me after winning the ball back and beginning to start an attacking move. The circled players are all in space and could be classed as potential passing options. But due to how the player is facing a certain way and is already moving then his only real genuine passing options are those represented by arrows. He has 3 genuine passing options available to him.

That is a positive sign as it shows that my players are finding space already and I have good options available for trying to retain the ball. Due to this I decide to time waste a little bit more. Why? Well I’m already having quite a bit of time on the ball so if I can slow the play down even more then I believe this will be an advantage for me. It will also mean the Aston Villa players will be chasing the ball more and could get tired a lot quicker than normal.

The next screenshot shows Aston Villa clearing the ball up front. It’s important that I paused the game when this happened so I could check how many people Villa had high up and I could also check my player’s positions again in a defensive situation. My players are positioned well enough to deal with this situation especially as I have the numbers back too. Even if by some fluke the Villa player wins the header he doesn’t have anyone advanced over the line I drew meaning my players should be able to pick up any lose balls.

[Cleon]

Don’t be scared to pause the game and rewind clips to get a better understanding of things. I do this often as you don’t always notice things the first time around. I’ll watch the same clip ten times if I feel something isn’t right or working. You don’t lose anything by rewinding and making sure you have everything covered.

After 5 minutes it’s always worthwhile getting the assistants feedback on how you are passing etc. He’ll not mention the tactical side of the game until around 15 minutes but he’ll give you some kind of feedback about other areas early on.

On that screenshot he tells me we are comfortable in possession and showing we want it more than Aston Villa and dominating the tackling department. I got this feeling anyway while watching the game but it’s always good to hear it from someone else.

He also says our short passes are connecting well and I should encourage the team to play a short passing game. Well I’m already set up to play a short passing game and I don’t want to go any shorter really. So I’ll stick to how I’ve set up for now.

It’s important that I track the individual stats still so I always pause and go and check them out. In the screenshot you can see what the assistant meant when he said we were dominating tackling the department and out passes were connecting. The screenshot also shows that my right back Angel is doing most of the tackling so Villa’s play must be coming down the left. It also shows that his condition is getting low already after just 5 minutes game time played.

I’m quite happy with the way the game is going and those stats. The average ratings seem reasonable too and no-one is under performing as of yet.

My striker is circled here over on the right wing. Normally I’d be happy that he is dragging out wide but for this game I think he’d be more effective staying central and playing in the areas where the yellow circle is. So what I do is go into the tactic and change his settings. I change the wide play individual instruction for him from moves into channels to just normal. This way he’ll become the outlet up top and allow players to play off him.

Eight minutes into the game and its clear I’m dominating early on. I am seeing a lot of possession and just probing around the Villa defence looking for any gaps to appear and then possibly try to exploit them. I’ve only had 1 shot up to now but I don’t mind as the tactic is playing exactly how I want it to.

[Cleon]

I decide to pause the game yet again and just watch back a few more incidents from what’s happened so far. There’s no real reason for doing this other than just to check I’ve not missed anything.

Set pieces are vital especially attacking corners. It’s always a good idea to stop the game and have a look around at your players positioned who have stayed back. You need to make sure you have numbers back and that the opposition don’t outnumber you. I noticed in the above screenshot that I only have 2 players back. While this is enough to mark the lone striker of Aston Villa, it’s not really suitable for quick counter attacks. The two players back are my fullback’s so I decide to ask my defensive midfielder to stay back at all times as well. Just so I can be prepared for quick counter attacks. Some might deem this to be cautious but it happens often. If you don’t have numbers back it’s not unusual for the opposition to break from a corner you had and score.

Basically this is all I do during the first 15 minutes. I know it’s probably a letdown for some of you as you were expecting something a little more. But I honestly don’t do any more than this. Sure I might have different issues from time to time but all the basics of what I look out for are all highlighted in the above posts. Game to game I just rinse and repeat.

I managed to win this game as you are aware

The approach I use is quite simplistic really when you think about it. It’s just common sense and not as much messing around or as complicated as people first assume when you mention you watch the opening 15 minutes. People think ‘whoa that must take a lot of time’, but in all honesty it takes a few minutes more maximum.

Just keep an eye out for anything that you consider to be a fault. Keep an eye of the players passing, if someone is missing a lot of passes just look at why it’s happening and see what you can do to fix it.

I don’t know what else to put in all honesty or expand on as I don’t do anything different than I’ve already highlighted

[Cleon]

The other 75 Minutes

People seem to get the idea that after the first 15 minutes that I don’t change anything else tactically, this isn’t true at all. It’s just that in the first 15 minutes I change and major flaws I might see. In other words I assess my strengths and weaknesses against the team I am currently playing. This is why I watch the first 15 minutes on full. But once those 15 minutes have finished it doesn’t mean I neglect the rest of the 75 minutes, far from it.

It’s just after the initial 15 minutes I only use shouts to alter the tactic while keeping a very close eye on the stats of the match along with the individual player stats. I’ll only adjust things with the use of Touchline Shouts. Unless I spot a massive flaw but if you do the preparation right when you watch the opening of the match this should be very rare, unless the opposition makes a major change to the way it plays i.e. changes actual shape.

From what I can see around the forums on here not a lot of you actually create a group of shouts or use any of them. If you use the TC and don’t use shouts then you are only using 50% of what’s intended for you to use and you are missing a massive part of the game. The use of shouts can change those defeats into wins. So hopefully here I’ll be able to talk about the shouts a bit more and show you that they aren’t as daunting or as complicated to understand as you might think they are.

As you can see you can make a combination of shouts from this screen. It also tells you what category the shouts come under.

So let’s take a look at what each shout does;

Defensive Distribution

Play Out of Defence – It will instruct any player with a defensive duty (midfield and defence) to play shorter passes. So it reduces passing. It’s worth using this if you find that these players are just hoofing the ball forward and giving possession away cheaply.

Pump Ball Into Box – This is great to use when you are chasing a goal late in a game. It instructs players to pass longer and play through the middle. It tells your defenders (and defensive midfielders) to try less through balls. If you use wide players it will ask them (and fullbacks) to hold up the ball rather than trying to play down the channels and instruct fullbacks to cross more (so make sure they are set to cross from deep). Your strikers will be told to run from deep more often.

It’s also great to use this is you have big target men type forwards who tower over the defenders and are good in the air. You can score quite a few goals by using this shout I’ve found out.

Clear Ball to Flanks - This shout instructs players to pass long, to play wider and focus play down the wings. It also tells defenders (and defensive midfielders) to play less through balls. I generally use this if teams play narrower (the narrow Man City 4231) than me. It’s also good for counter attacking if the opposition are playing through the middle.

Defensive Line

Push Higher Up - Self explanatory this one. You instruct the defence to move high up the pitch and increases closing down. Ideal for using if you are facing slow strikers (you need intelligent defenders though), a team who are very defensive or if you want to reduce the space that the opposition is playing in.

Drop Deeper – Again explains itself but it tells the players to drop back deeper and reduces closing down. Times to use this are if you play against a team who pushes high up themselves and you are struggling to find any kind of space. Dropping deeper could see you create a bit more space. It’s also good to employ against fast strikers.

Tackling

Get Stuck In - This tells the team to tackle hard. Useful if the motivation widget tells you if the opposition are playing nervous or if a team has low bravery. Use this if you get the sense of your team been to0 soft and you think they could be winning the ball back quicker. Note though that you need the correct attributes from your own players to time the challenge right or you could pick up extra bookings and sending off’s.

Stay On Feet – Everyone (unless you use a BWM) will be instructed to easy tackle. This is useful if you feel challenges are been miss-timed or if you are just been reckless. Also good to use if your players are lack the tackling attribute. Using this also helps the team keep its defensive shape, especially against technically fast sides.

[Cleon]

Passing

Pass Into Space - This is one of my favourite shouts to use especially if I am struggling to break down the opposition. It increases through balls so the players pass the ball in front of the receiver so he can run onto the ball. It’s great for creating space and forcing the opposition’s players to try and make a tackle.

Pass Into Feet – Reduces through ball’s for the players. This is good to use if you feel too many passes are been intercepted by the opposition or you feel too many passes are been misplaced. If you have slow players this is the type of passing you want rather than the pass into space one above.

Width

Play Wider – Instructs the players to play wider and to focus passing down both flanks. If the opposition are playing narrow it can be used to try and stretch them wider. Extremely useful if the midfield is cramped and you are outnumbered.

Play Narrower - You focus passing through the centre and decrease width. I find it best used when the opposition are outnumbered and leaving holes through the centre. It’s also useful if you want to pack the midfield and become more solid to get through.

Attacking

Run At Defence - Instructs all attacking players to run with the ball often. This does not include MC’s on attacking duty, only attacking midfielders. This is best used when the opposition allows your attacking players time on the ball .i.e. not closing you down. It can be a great shout to use if the opposition is standing off you. It can be equally effective if the oppositions defence are bad at tackling as well.

Play Through Defence – Tells the players to run with the ball rarely. This only works for attacking midfielders (AML/AMR too) and strikers. The rest of the players will still be as you’ve instructed them to play; this includes MC’s who have an attacking duty. This can be a great shout to use if you feel the opposition are defending well and winning the ball too much from your attacking players. So use this when you are struggling to break down the oppositions defence.

Shooting

Shoot On Sight – Increases the long shots for your team. Can be used against sides that are deemed to park the bus in front of the goal. Advisable to use if your attacking players have a good long shot attribute.

Work Ball Into Box – This tells players to use long shots rarely. This is useful if you think your players are shooting too often. Or if you find you want to keep possession and be more probing.

[Cleon]

Wing Play

Hit Early Crosses – Tells fullback, wingbacks, wide midfielders and wingers to cross the ball early. It puts run with ball on rarely and cross from on mixed. This can be used against sides that play with a high defensive line. This can also be used if you have a fast striker who can break defences with his pace and acceleration.

Look For Overlap – Your fullbacks or wingbacks will be given a more attacking mentality, run from deep often, cross ball often and be asked to cross from byline. While your wingers will be given a more defensive mentality, run from deep rarely and hold up the ball. It’s great to use against defensive sides who don’t really pose an attacking threat. Can also be used against narrow formations that lack wide players.

Take A Breather - Decreases forward runs and tempo. You should use this is you don’t have players with good stamina or if condition is getting a bit low. It’s useful to use in games where you might have a few close games in succession. Can also be used to help maintain a good lead.

Possession

Retain Possession – Shortens passing length and slows the tempo down for your players. I use this shout a lot, it helps pass the ball around and not give possession away easily. Some people enjoy dominating possession as they believe if the opposition don’t have the ball they can’t score. Which is true but it’s also a good tool to use when you want to close a game out and hold onto the current result. Rather than go defensive and invite un-needed pressure I believe this to be a lot less risky and just as effective;

Get Ball Forward – Increases both passing length and tempo for the side. If you feel you are having a lot of possession but not really doing anything with it, then you’ll want to use this touchline shout. Also good to use this if you are chasing a game.

Pressing

Stand-Off Opponents – Changes marking to loose zonal, reduces closing down drastically and decreases tempo. When you play a technically superior side and don’t want players to get skinned you’d use this shout to ensure you keep your defensive shape and don’t allow gaps to appear which the opposition could exploit.

Hassle Opponents – Increases the tempo, tells the team to tight man mark and also increases the closing down for your side. Use this if you want to reduce space and time that you allow the opposition to have. Works good with a very attacking strategy and against teams who are a lot weaker than yours.

Midfield Distribution

Exploit The Flanks – It gives the fullback/wingbacks and wingers more attacking and focuses the play down both flanks. It also tells them to run from deep and cross the ball more often. If you use central midfielders then it’ll tell them to hold up the ball. You should use this if you find the middle over crowded or if you have good wide players who can cross.

Exploit The Middle – None defensive players will have their run from deep increased too often. Tells your team to focus their passing through the middle and any defenders and defensive midfielders will have their mentality changed to a more attacking one and be told to do through balls often. If you don’t use wide players then you should use this shout. It’s also great against teams who leave big gaping holes through the centre. I find it really effective against the 4231 (the CM one and not the DM) as the gap in the middle is huge.

I’m not sure how many of you are aware of this but there are actually two more shouts that can only be used when you use either contain or overload strategy. They are;

Play Even Safer - This shout is for the contain strategy only. It decreases all (except for strikers) run from deep and through balls to rarely. It also tells all the players except wingers to run with the ball rarely. You should use this if you don’t want your players to be adventurous and get pulled out of position. This is ideal for late in the game and protecting a lead.

Take More Risks – This shout if for the overload strategy only. Sets run from deep to often for all players on a support duty. Increases through balls to often and run with the ball for all players. Best used when you want to grab that equaliser or score that eluding goal at all costs.

[Cleon]

Let’s have a look at some scenarios and talk about how I use a combination of shouts to work with my formations. Remember there is more combinations you can use but these are just the ones I make and use. So they will probably vary compared to what someone else uses.

You can make all these from the ‘shouts’ tab in the ‘Tactic’ overview screen.

Possession Shout’s

Winning Possession

We all have games where the opposition is having a lot of possession and you can’t get a hold of the ball. So if you face this scenario then the shouts I would use are;

Push higher up; get stuck in, Hassle opponents.

By pushing higher up you would be reducing the space available to the opposition in which they can pass around in. The get stuck in shout will help be more aggressive and can unsettle the calmness of the opposition players on the ball, in instructs them to tackle harder. And by using hassle opponents shout you’ll be changing to man marking and instructing players to closedown higher up

Retaining Possession

Some people enjoy dominating possession as they believe if the opposition don’t have the ball they can’t score. Which is true but it’s also a good tool to use when you want to close a game out and hold onto the current result. Rather than go defensive and invite un-needed pressure I believe this to be a lot less risky and just as effective;

Retain possession, pass to feet and drop deeper.

By using these shouts you’ll be asking the players to drop deeper and close down less. This will help retain the natural shape of the formation you use. Plus you’ll be using shorter passes and playing at a slower tempo while doing more through balls.

The above 2 shouts are what I end up using the most of from the various game’s I’ve got on the go.

Taking Advantage of Positional Weakness

The next shout might surprise a few of you as I’ve not seen many users post about this combination of shouts.

Sometimes we face formations that are vulnerable in the middle of the pitch. Yet our own formation might have good wingers and good central midfielders. So when I want to stretch the opponent I use these;

Exploit the middle and play wider.

This allows my players to play wider than normal but due to me normally outnumbering the opposition’s midfield it allows my central players more space on the ball. The opposition’s central players will also be stretched and this can create bit gaps to exploit. Obviously using this shout will depend on your own formation and how capable you are of actually playing through the middle. I like using this against 4231’s, 442’s and any other formation with just 2 central midfielders and no defensive midfielders.

You can also do the opposite and use;

Exploit the Flanks and play narrower.

I find this useful sometimes when the opposition out number me in the middle and I want to stay as compact as I can. Yet at the same time cause them problems down the wings. This is great to use against teams who don’t use wide players. I know this is a rare occurrence but sometimes you will face a team who don’t use wingers or wide attacking midfielders. This isn’t a shout I use often but I’ve used it a few times throughout the season.

Then we also have the normal approach many of you will no-doubt use at times.

Exploit the middle and play narrower.

I like using this combination if you yourself lack wide players and have a much stronger central midfield compared to the opposition. Plus if you don’t have wide players then all your play will be centrally, so makes sense to use this.

You might also find yourself;

Play wider and exploit the flanks.

This is useful for when you have stronger wide play than the opposition. Also useful if the opposition is all in the middle and you want to stretch them and don’t mind been wider in your own play.

Basically these are the only ones I really use often and it’s not a complete list, just a list of the shouts I happen to use currently.

[Cleon]

I'm going to update the thread so I thought the new stuff would be better suited to a new page. So for that reason I'll reserve this and the next reply just so I can start a fresh on page 2. I'll probs end up using these replies for some misbits at some stage anyway

[Cleon]

Reserved