The Holistic reality of football

[7Bestie7]

Before I start this guide isn't going to have any screenshots of an FM game, players or tactical screens. Instead I'm going to talk how to design a tactic and attempt to show each decision in building a team affects the rest of the system.

So say you've just got a job and you're looking at your players and trying to work out what system to play. You might have a system you always use which means you won't need any help, all you have to do is use the players who fit it, sell those who don't and buy what you need. Or you might be willing to change things around and here's where the decisions come in.

First Decision:

Where to start? What player or area of the team/tactic do you start with first. Let's say you're like me and you enjoy a good rampaging left wing back who bombs forward.

Now there's a choice. Do you use him in a 3-man+WBs system or an attacking option in a 4-man defence? Let's go with a back four. Now if my WB is surging forward, what does this mean for my left winger? Putting aside the potential choice of not having one, I now have three choices:

This one will see the wing back shooting ahead of the winger who stays deeper and the two have almost swapped the conventional positions of crossing - Wing back at the by line, winger from deep.

The second option will turn the wing back into essentially a full back by only having him move forward a little with the winger getting to the byline.

Here the wing back has total control of this side of the pitch with the winger being an inside forward/advanced playmaker who will drift inside.

The third option sounds much more up my alley.

[7Bestie7]

So we have the left side of the pitch sorted. But if the the winger is cutting in, what does this then mean for the strikers? Or will we only use one? Here is only the second independent decision we have to make (the first being to use a LWB). Looking at the imaginary squad, there's an abundance of strikers which means that two is the better choice. This immediately takes an option away from us in that the left sided striker should not be a deep-lying striker or a Trequartista. In fact he can't even be a supporting Target Man because any of these will start to fight with the IF for the same space. So what's left? A complete or advanced forward will look to score but is also able to cut into channels and does so with regularity. This means that when the left winger cuts in, the striker will then cut out:

So now comes the decision on the second striker and now the third independent choice has to be made by looking at the type of player the squad has for the right wing position. If there is an option of having another inside forward on the right then the same limitations are in place for the striker (I know it is technically possible to have a DLF or a TQ playing next to a wide IF but there can be a tendency for them to fight for the same areas if their decision making and teamwork/anticipation isn't high enough to guess the movement of their attacking partner). But let's say that there is a very good winger on the right and so we have something that looks like this:

Which allows for almost any option of striker to be used. A deep lying forward or trequartista can take up the area of the opposition DM slot and help be a provider or an advanced forward can be the main goal getter with the IF running in behind if he misses any of the crosses from the right winger. Let's go with that idea:

Now what to do about the right back slot? A wing back will create the mirrored issue we had on the left but also cause the defence to be exposed with the potential situation of both wing backs too far forward at the same time. Which means that we'll have a slightly more defensive full back here:

[7Bestie7]

Which only leaves the midfield. Except that because we have an inside forward cutting in on the left, the left central midfield has to be defensively minded (or at least neutral) because otherwise he'll be running forward and crashing straight into our left winger:

Which allows us to pick any type of player we want as the CMr. However this is the only role throughout the entire system that is interchangeable without affecting something else in the system. I also didn't touch on if there is a ball playing CB who we want to turn into a mini-Libero and how that would impact the midfield. Of course any of my choices could have been different, there are other impacts aside from just roles and I accept that the DFW/TQ-IF partnership is capable of working in certain systems. However what I've been attempting to highlight is the truly holistic nature of football and how, sometimes, the players aren't working together because you're asking them to mix in a way that is counter productive to each other.

[Seagullfan]

Enjoyed that, well done

[Steve Odom]

Great, this is what less-experienced FM players often neglect. It's all about space, and you make it easy to understand. Are you going to discuss the effect of this tactic on various opponents too? It would make it even more helpful!

[jimbobBRFC]

Excellent write up certainly putting a lot of threads up these past few weeks and all very very helpful. Ive never even thought of planning a tactic in that way, I usually plan them but not anything like that. Again top class stuff 7Bestie7

[MeesterCat]

Great thread. That was my way of thinking when making my current favourite formation (with the help of FuriousUK threads). I have a converted winger at LB and a left winger that loves to cut inside - solution, make the left back play as a WB to exploit the space created by the winger (played as an IF).

As a reaction to that, my left sided MC is played as a DLP-S so he is sat deeper to provide cover. It helps that he also has good defensive stats.

The final piece of the jigsaw that I'm trying to solve is playing a more defensively minded RB so in essence there are 3 CBs when the left back bombs forward. It never quite seems to work properly though and maybe a coding thing. I think this was something SFraser touched upon in one of his threads.

[7Bestie7]

The final piece of the jigsaw that I'm trying to solve is playing a more defensively minded RB so in essence there are 3 CBs when the left back bombs forward. It never quite seems to work properly though and maybe a coding thing. I think this was something SFraser touched upon in one of his threads.

I can say it's not a coding issue in that it's very possible to do this. I saw SFraser's posts when he was talking about this and I've been a fan of it ever since but you have to be careful in the type of full back you use. You don't need a totally defensive right back but he can't have the attacking intent that a wing back has. Or he has to have high decision making skills to make sure he understands he has to hold back.

[Kung]

nice thread

[glyndav]

Really nice thread. I'd be interested to know when setting up the formation in the "imaginary" squad if you already have the way you want to play in mind, in terms of fluid/balanced/rigid and strategy and whether that has a bearing on the formation that you use. I've done more playing with that in this version of FM than I have anything else.