A Twelve Step Guide towards Playing FM13 & Understanding the ME

[markyosullivan]

One main tactic set up to suit the core strengths of my team and lots of shout combos. I do have two go to tactics saved for extremes, but rarely if ever use them.

People have different approaches. I rarely change strategies and change things up with shout combos. Cleon rarely uses shout combos and changes things up with strategies. However, we both have alternates set up as options in case Plans A, B or C aren't working.

Whatever approach I take, it isn't working atm Usually I just leave things to default, pick a formation which should suit the players and just run with it. Though 4-4-2 / 4-2-2-2 / 4-5-1 seems to be the only ones that have worked for me.

Update on my save:

With the slightly tweaked tactics - Played 7 games, won 0. 4 draws, 3 losses. Tackling % has increased, shots have increased (attacking strategy), opponents shots have decreased slightly.

1-1

0-0

0-1

0-0

4-5

1-1

1-2

Really struggling to enjoy FM atm. My last save went to ****, did decent enough at Portstewart, got them to top N. Irish division and into Europa League. Joined Scunthorpe, finished same position 2 seasons in a row, sacked on 3rd season because I was in the relegation zone. Joined Bristol Rovers a year later, had about 90 days with them before I started seeing sacking rumours again.

I'm trying to learn how the Match Engine works, trying new tactics, trying shouts but it's not working for me.

[wwfan]

I'm trying to learn how the Match Engine works, trying new tactics, trying shouts but it's not working for me.

The bolded bit is the wrong focus. The ME always follows the same logic. All you have to do is understand how to input tactical ideas that would work in real life into the TC. If you focus on "how the ME works" you'll end up randomly fiddling with things hoping to uncover an ME weakness that you can take advantage of.

These are the questions you need to ask:

1: How do I think football should be played (formation, philosophy and strategy)?

2: Which positions do I need moving between the lines, holding position, creating chances and finishing chances (roles and duties)?

3: What is my team, as a whole, capable of doing (team adjustments)?

4: How can I adapt my system to take advantage of the team playing well, cope on an off day, play in good and bad conditions and deal with various formations/styles of play (shouts)?

If you can't answer those questions, you won't get anywhere.

[markyosullivan]

1. It really depends, you can play exciting attacking football against teams stronger than you. Teams stronger than you, you want to shut them out completely and hope you get a goal.

2. In my save I've got a number of roles. The 4-1-2-1-2 would have (well I thought it would have) be a pretty solid formation. My DM would be able to drop back into the defence if needed and my AM would be give support to my strikers, setting them up or scoring a goal himself. My CM support my AM and Strikers but wouldn't push that far forward to ensure there's enough players back defending.

3. Well in my save, they're capable of conceding goals and scoring the odd goal. But they're really good at not winning

4. If they're playing well I generally don't use shouts because I don't want to affect their playing style. If they're playing badly I make them retain possession and pass to feet and try to get the team to drop deeper. I'm not sure how to deal against other formations because my team is so narrow. Going against 4-2-3-1 seemed to cause problems because my midfield was outnumbered

[wwfan]

I'll try again:

1: Do you think a formation should be a) heavier at the back, b) balanced, or c) heavier up front?

2: Do you think a team should be more focused on a) scoring, b) not conceding or c) mixing risk and reward?

3: Should footballers should be a) specialists (i.e. focusing on a very specific task), b) generalists (i.e. doing a bit of everything) or c) a mix or both?

4: Which positions do you want moving between the lines in a) defence, b) midfield and c) attack?

5: How will you cover for this movement?

6: Who will pick out these players when they move?

7: What is your team good and bad at when compared to the rest of the teams in the league (look at the team report)?

8: What shouts might make a difference to a) probing attacks, b) wing-focused attacks, c) keeping the ball, d) frustrating the opposition, e) playing on the break, f) seeing out a tight match, g) going for broke, h) playing on a quagmire in a tempest, i) playing on an icerink, j) playing on a dry pitch in a scorcher, k) playing on a good pitch in wet weather?

[markyosullivan]

Does 1-3 not ultimately depend on the players you have at your disposal?

What do you mean moving between the lines? If your talking about which player would be making runs. RB/LB to support midfield and to occasionally get forward and put crosses in. DM should move back to support CBs. AM makes runs to support the attack.

Is it possible to cover the movement? As soon as 1 player moves there'll be a gap in the formation which can be exploited. If someone moves to cover that gap, there'll be another gap.

Not sure what you mean about 6.

On my phone atm. My strikers have good pace and accelateration. Midfielders and Defenders are both good at tackling. This is what I can remember.

If I'm honest I don't think I'd know what to do for a number of them. C, D and F would be similar - retain possession and pass to feet. E and G - Get Ball Forward, Pump Ball Into Box. B - Play Wider, Exploit Flanks.

[wwfan]

1-3 is your vision. If you can't answer these questions, then we will get nowhere.

[markyosullivan]

Okay, 1b, 2b, 3c I guess.

[Guest Satchy]

Does 1-3 not ultimately depend on the players you have at your disposal?

What do you mean moving between the lines?

First, you need to really understand what each role, and each mentality is going to do. If you go to the tactics screen and bring up the player instructions you will be able to see exactly how each role works, and how all of the sliders change when you change mentalities, etc.

Second, you need to understand that the mentalities (attacking/support) put your players at certain points on the pitch, respective of their general positions. For example, in midfield, an Advanced Playmaker (A) is going to be more up top and getting in and around the box than an Advanced Playmaker (S). The AP(S) will sit deeper and look to be slightly more of a fulcrum or pivot of attack rather than a moving player.

I might be a bit of an FM nerd, but here's something I've done before when designing a tactic. Keeping in mind what I've suggested, get out some paper and draw your starting formation exactly as you see it on the screen. Then draw where you think your players should be in an attacking situation, based on what I've said about attacking and support roles and where that will position your players. Also, do this for a few types of attacks. Players tend to follow the direction of play, somewhat, so how will your formation shift when say, the LW(A) has the ball in the corner of the pitch, but is not crossing? Where will your left fullback be? Where will your center mids be? Now, if you have for example LW(A) P(A) RW(A) as your front three, you aren't going to be creating chances with those 3 players by themselves, can you see why?

I think point #2 is crucial. Do you realistically have the players to be trying to play attacking football? If not, you need to do something else, and probably play a bit uglier style of football if you are serious about getting results. Sometimes there's a trade off. Here's a blog I follow. Shrewnaldo started out with a back 3 formation, trying to play attacking football, but he also knew that there would be a sacrifice, which was defending. Now, it's up to you to decide whether you can actually account for these kinds of sacrifices with results.

Shrewnaldo's ADO Den Haag Save

Point #3 about specialists can be explained here:

The Chalkboard Diaries

At the very bottom there is a breakdown regarding which are considered specialist roles, and which are more generic.

“I consider the following to be specialist:

Target Man

Poacher

Trequartista

Advanced Playmaker

Deep Lying Playmaker

Ball Winning Midfielder

Anchor Man

Libero

These five roles can fit in either camp, depending on your interpretation.

Complete Forward

Defensive Forward

Defensive Winger

Box to Box Midfielder

Ball Playing Defender

Generic roles:

Advanced Forward

Deep Lying Forward

Attacking Midfielder

Central Midfielder

Defensive Midfielder

Inside Forward

Winger

Wide Midfielder

Wing Back

Full Back

Central Defender

Sweeper

I don’t include keepers.”

Point #4 is regarding players who are more in holding or supporting roles, compared to players who are creating movement away from the ball to make the game flow. For example, in center midfield a DLP(D) is a holding role, whereas an AP(S) is more of a movement role, certainly AP(A) is. When players move, space is created. Chances are created for any team through the exploitation of space, this is where point #5 comes into play. Someone moves during attack. How do you cover for that should you lose the ball? If you have both CM's on attacking duties and you lose the ball then you are going to be set up to be weaker against a counter attack. Now why is that? It's because both players are in 'movement' roles and when the other team gets the ball what will be left behind is acres of space in the center of the park, with your defensive line left fending for itself.

#6 is related to point #4. A DLP is a player who sits back and... makes plays. Who do they make plays for? Answer - players who are moving off the ball. So, if you set up your entire offensive strategy with everyone moving and no one picking out the plays, then you will/can be less effective in attacking, regardless of how many attacking duties you have assigned. It's all about space, triangles, and vision. Triangles create opportunities, parallel lines create sideways passes and turnovers.

Anyway.

[Svenc]

Man marking in FM13 is just a tighter form of zonal marking, according to what I've read.

Often said, but when further questioned, nobody could really say much of anything. Even Tactical Theorems '10 opted out of explanation, arguing it to be a more strict form of zonal, promised to readers this would be covered in further documents, which as we all know, never came. And personally I just don't see it myself. Never ever have. Players on man duty aren't any more "prone" to sticking to their man until an attack is over, they're just as likely to drop off when he drifts out of their zone as when instructed "zonal", and they don't mark any closer on man than on zonal either. That'd be a hell of a lot of anally micro-specific instructions anyway if there'd be *four* different marking instructions (from lose zonal to tight man), each of them solely meant to micro-tweak space between marker and man, four baby steps ranging from very lose to "I can tell you had garlic for dinner".

Seems to be one of these badly documented SI instructions that players either leave on default, or apply based on gut feeling – I know that several of the most prominent posters of FM's by far biggest (rather only) German community apply gut feeling anyways, they admitted outright, and arguably the majority of them didn't know that both options were zonal on tops until fairly recently. You can tell from discussions dating at most a year back. It's been published very differently in the only German language fan made guide available for years now (and obviously wrong), and this is still made a sticky. Given that FM hasn't been published in Germany for years, and that there's barely any current documentation available, this is recipe for error. In the case of marking not so much, see above. But still. Bit troublesome that considering FM is gaining in momentum each year through word of mouth alone, moreso than when it was still made available by Sega on the shelves.

[Guest Satchy]

Hmm, well I will definitely give it some more attention then. Surely it would be noticeable in the game if it were doing anything? I'll play a few matches and pay closer attention. I've generally assigned it logically to a more attacking tactic where I aim to keep constant pressure on the opposition higher up the pitch. I don't recall ever being noticeably disappointed with the results.

[markyosullivan]

*snip*

Thanks for your detailed post, I appreciate it. The thing is, when I look at my tactic, it looks like it should work, but it doesn't. I've tweaked my tactic just there now after reading all of that.

Just played a match with it. 2-0 (W). They had only 1 shot the entire game, we had 10 shots, 3 on target with all 3 coming from clear cut chances. 77% passes completed, 84% tackles won, 69% headers won. We seem to always have headers won percentage around the 60s which isn't great some I'm thinking I'll need to get CB's that are better in the air.

Looking at the average positions on the analysis, all the players are roughly where I want them to be. CBs are the furthest back, RB/LB pushing up a bit to support, DM in-line with RB/LB and looks like he'd be able to drop deeper to help out the defence if needed. CM's playing alongside each other with the AM just slightly ahead of them. My AF is higher up the pitch than my DLF.

Looking at the passing, one CB is 66% accurate the other 69% accurate and I can see that the majority of the misplaced passes are long passes. Should I try to help avoid this by using the 'Play out of Defence' shout? Or should I use player instructions for these 2 CBs to tell them to play it short?

During the friendlies I noticed my GK was constantly kicking the ball forward, but nobody was winning it so change his player instructions so that he passed it out to one of the defenders.

The majority of my shots were coming from just outside the box and this is maybe why my shot accuracy wasn't that high. If I wanted to make it higher, would I have to use the 'Work Ball Into Box' shout? Or should I instruct my main offenders to not take long shots in Player Instructions?

Oddly enough I noticed that one of my CB didn't make one tackle, my DM on the other hand had more success winning 5/5 challenges.

Judging from my oppositions heat map, it looks like they weren't in my box that often and I also noticed that they didn't have any passes while inside my box. They had one shot the entire game and that came from one of their substitutes and it was from outside of the box.

Is there any other things I need to consider after watching a match?

[BiggusD]

I've seen a couple of posts on this where you talk about the simulation of the half of play. What is your opinion then on the use of shouts and/or changing strategies during the half? Are you suggesting that watching the matches is pointless because the outcome has already been decided?

It is not pointless to watch the games because you can spot a tactical shortcoming that you can address, thus putting more desirable variables into the match engine, which then hopefully recalculates the match in your favour.

[BiggusD]

Thanks for your detailed post, I appreciate it. The thing is, when I look at my tactic, it looks like it should work, but it doesn't. I've tweaked my tactic just there now after reading all of that.

Just played a match with it. 2-0 (W). They had only 1 shot the entire game, we had 10 shots, 3 on target with all 3 coming from clear cut chances. 77% passes completed, 84% tackles won, 69% headers won. We seem to always have headers won percentage around the 60s which isn't great some I'm thinking I'll need to get CB's that are better in the air.

Looking at the average positions on the analysis, all the players are roughly where I want them to be. CBs are the furthest back, RB/LB pushing up a bit to support, DM in-line with RB/LB and looks like he'd be able to drop deeper to help out the defence if needed. CM's playing alongside each other with the AM just slightly ahead of them. My AF is higher up the pitch than my DLF.

Looking at the passing, one CB is 66% accurate the other 69% accurate and I can see that the majority of the misplaced passes are long passes. Should I try to help avoid this by using the 'Play out of Defence' shout? Or should I use player instructions for these 2 CBs to tell them to play it short?

During the friendlies I noticed my GK was constantly kicking the ball forward, but nobody was winning it so change his player instructions so that he passed it out to one of the defenders.

The majority of my shots were coming from just outside the box and this is maybe why my shot accuracy wasn't that high. If I wanted to make it higher, would I have to use the 'Work Ball Into Box' shout? Or should I instruct my main offenders to not take long shots in Player Instructions?

Oddly enough I noticed that one of my CB didn't make one tackle, my DM on the other hand had more success winning 5/5 challenges.

Judging from my oppositions heat map, it looks like they weren't in my box that often and I also noticed that they didn't have any passes while inside my box. They had one shot the entire game and that came from one of their substitutes and it was from outside of the box.

Is there any other things I need to consider after watching a match?

You seem to have the basics right when observing, so why not try to go into more detail next time? For instance, you have one striker set do Support duty and two midfielders set to attack duty (one automatic). How do your AMC get space - how central is he to how you build up attacks? Is there any point to having him there at all? If the right striker drops deep that is into his space, and if the two midfielders push up that is also into his space.

There is also this issue that is quite obvious when looking at your statistics from that match. You're standing off more, keeping things tight by having players behind the ball. That pretty much ruined the attacking play of your opponent, which is good. However, you don't create much and that could be because you let them keep the ball until they get into your half for the most part. Looking at the team instruction sliders, they seem fairly balanced so I suppose the individual player instructions are equally moderate.

I think that if you abandon that Attack strategy and go to Control for instance, there would be no need for the Stand Off instruction. You can find this out by looking at the team and individual instructions after changing those two tactical instructions.

I would also consider either dropping the AMC into the central MC position and rather give him an Attack duty, or move him forward to the central striker position and give him a Trequartista or DLF-S role. In both cases I believe he would operate in the desired space more efficiently than he does now.

Edit: You could also give him more space by going to DLF-A and MC-S x2 but didn't I say this before?

In either case you need to specifically observe how your AMC moves and how he contributes to your team defensively and offensively.

Edit 2: After having tried your tactic I too struggled to create big chances, but that all changed when I set everything to Default except Passing set to More Direct, and the Style to Very Fluid. For the record, it became even better when I moved the AMC to Striker position and set him to Trequartista... But that is not perhaps the style of football you want to play.

[markyosullivan]

I've only watched two games. The game I won 2-0 and the game I just lost which was 2-0. It seems to me that my AM is probably the most important part of my teams attacking moves, he's the one linking up with the strikers and plays the through ball to them. Occasionally I've seem him run ahead of the DLF who passes the ball to him and then he can either pass to the AF or go on and have a shot himself. He offers basically nothing in terms of defending.

I need a AMC in my formation, my team has far too many of them and not enough of them can play CM.

[Blancos]

Thank you for your input Blancos

My pleasure, bro .

Can someone give me some advice over my tactic? This formation suits my side. I've got a quite a good number of central players and hardly any wide players, had to sign a RB and retrain one of the players on loan to play LB.

I've went for a 4-1-2-1-2. My DM has great creativity and so I think he would be probably be better off in a DLP role however I think that using that role causes him to push a lot higher than I want, causing there to be quite a space between the midfield and the defence, though I haven't tried this when operating a defensive strategy. When first starting out with this tactic, I went for a balance approach, only to notice that all 4 of my midfielders pushed up too high, causing there to be little space to move the ball about and probably susceptible to a fast team on the counter.

Since then I've approached a defensive approach which has kept my 2 CMs and DM a bit further back but at times I still found there to be a lack of space, probably causing some problems. To try and avoid these problems I've put the width to Wide, hoping my team would be a bit wider, creating more space but it didn't help that much.

Let's go slow if you don't mind. Firstly, I don't recommend using Balance philosophy when we're still in the process of learning FM. Balance philosophy spread the mentality structure based on positions and roles, so it heavily depended on your great understanding of roles balancing across your players. For the start, I suggest you use Rigid philosophy first so the mentality structure spreads in a relative solid structure automatically, then tweak it later when you have more understanding of the formation you really wanna use.

The bolded bit is the wrong focus. The ME always follows the same logic. All you have to do is understand how to input tactical ideas that would work in real life into the TC. If you focus on "how the ME works" you'll end up randomly fiddling with things hoping to uncover an ME weakness that you can take advantage of.

Wwfan,

I think what Markyosullivan really mean to ask by "How the ME works" doesn't mean "How the ME works so I can exploit the Opp weakness", but something more like "How the ME works, so I can put my tactical vision in the game exactly like what I visualized?". He was just asking for a help to understand the instructions better. Let's face the fact that there are still many people who don't understand the game enough, yet.

[Blancos]

Can someone give me some advice over my tactic? This formation suits my side. I've got a quite a good number of central players and hardly any wide players, had to sign a RB and retrain one of the players on loan to play LB.

I've went for a 4-1-2-1-2. My DM has great creativity and so I think he would be probably be better off in a DLP role however I think that using that role causes him to push a lot higher than I want, causing there to be quite a space between the midfield and the defence, though I haven't tried this when operating a defensive strategy. When first starting out with this tactic, I went for a balance approach, only to notice that all 4 of my midfielders pushed up too high, causing there to be little space to move the ball about and probably susceptible to a fast team on the counter.

Since then I've approached a defensive approach which has kept my 2 CMs and DM a bit further back but at times I still found there to be a lack of space, probably causing some problems. To try and avoid these problems I've put the width to Wide, hoping my team would be a bit wider, creating more space but it didn't help that much.

Another thing I've found when I concede goals is that there's a lot of players back trying to help out, but it seems like there's too many back and its stopping someone from putting in a challenge and winning the ball. Perhaps my defenders just aren't the best at tackling

Atm, I've tried using a couple of shouts against the opposition - Play out of Defence and Pass to Feet have helped my side become more accurate with their passes I think, though I don't have the figures to prove that because sometimes I switch my shouts about. Retain Posssession and Drop deeper is used with the first two when I'm against better opposition. Push Higher, Get Stuck In and Hassle Opponents are used when my team needs to win possession.

I'm not sure what Style would suit my formation, so haven't altered that.

Could someone give me advice on my tactics and tell me if my logic behind it is correct? Maybe you could tell me how I could improve it?

Secondly, beware of the inter-connecting subjects in tactic building. You set passing style on SHORTER (than default defensive strategy's passing), and you take RETAIN POSSESSION further. It means you play an extremely short passing in a defensive manner. Is that really what you want from your team?

IMO, your formation is great at vertical depth, but lack of horizontal width. In that understanding, I think short passing style won't match your strength in depth, because shorter passing tends to pass to a nearer player, whereas you have more players upfront.

Third, your Stand-Off More Closing Down and More Cautious Tackling, I assumed, you are the manager who deliberately likes to invite the opposition to attack you. Is my assumption correct?

If so, then my second analysis about passing weighted more, since usually we're better at countering when using more direct fast passing play, and not short slow one. If you don't like inviting the opposition's attack, then maybe you should change your Closing Down to Default (or even more), and your Tackling to Default.

Fourth, you set you Defensive Line extremely deep. My logic says it means your players stand very far from opp's goal. With your shorter passing style, it means your team should do many many intricate passes before they finally can endangered opp's goal. Is it really what you want in your vision?

[wwfan]

Wwfan,

I think what Markyosullivan really mean to ask by "How the ME works" doesn't mean "How the ME works so I can exploit the Opp weakness", but something more like "How the ME works, so I can put my tactical vision in the game exactly like what I visualized?". He was just asking for a help to understand the instructions better. Let's face the fact that there are still many people who don't understand the game enough, yet.

I'm sure he did. However, it is still the wrong question. How the ME works is an irrelevancy in terms of actually playing FM. How to get my team performing well by understanding real life tactical theory and knowing how to interpret that into the TC is the right question. If you are overly focusing on "not understanding" the ME, then you'll be underly-focusing on working out a tactical strategy. You'll end up randomly tweaking and changing, which, as we saw, is what he was doing.

[markyosullivan]

Been finding a lot more success recently. The 2-0 victory over Metalac was the first game since I tweaked my tactics. The team is playing a lot more like how I want them to play so it's great to see that. We seem to score quite a lot of goals and my team seem very good at converting chances up front. Defensively they're not the best, I've seen a couple of times we've been in positions where we've nearly conceded, only for us to get lucky and the opposition miss the target. The 2 defeats were against the only 2 teams above us in the league. One of the draws was sadly against a team towards the bottom.

This is the new system. Blancos you commenting on how I made my team stand off and asked if I was a counter attacking team, it's mainly to avoid my defence being pull out of position, don't want my LB/RB closing down a player coming through the middle of the pitch only for the opposition to pass it to the player my RB/LB should have been marking, leaving him a lot of space to run down and shoot/ cross.

During the games against teams trying to keep the position, I use the shouts to Hassle the Opponents and to Get Stuck In and Push Forward, these shouts have worked well. Usually my team plays well but if they're not completing their passing I switch to Pass to Feet and Play out of Defence.

[Blancos]

I'm sure he did. However, it is still the wrong question. How the ME works is an irrelevancy in terms of actually playing FM. How to get my team performing well by understanding real life tactical theory and knowing how to interpret that into the TC is the right question. If you are overly focusing on "not understanding" the ME, then you'll be underly-focusing on working out a tactical strategy. You'll end up randomly tweaking and changing, which, as we saw, is what he was doing.

Pardon me who don't come from the english spoken country, and naive to the terms of programming things. In my humble understanding, "knowing how to interpret real life tactical theory into the TC" is no different than "knowing how the understand the machine works (machine "language"), so I can interpret my real life vision (human language) to the FM field (machine "language") " .

It's just a humble input from a fellow player. I really don't mean any offense. Keep on your good work .

Btw, maybe it's too late, but it's better to be late than never. Since still there are many player confuse about how to interpret their vision to the game, is there any chance that you and the team publish any newer version of TT&F? Those TT&Fs are definitely the most comprehensive guide ever in my FM history. I believe I'm not the only one hoping on this .

This is the new system. Blancos you commenting on how I made my team stand off and asked if I was a counter attacking team, it's mainly to avoid my defence being pull out of position, don't want my LB/RB closing down a player coming through the middle of the pitch only for the opposition to pass it to the player my RB/LB should have been marking, leaving him a lot of space to run down and shoot/ cross.

During the games against teams trying to keep the position, I use the shouts to Hassle the Opponents and to Get Stuck In and Push Forward, these shouts have worked well. Usually my team plays well but if they're not completing their passing I switch to Pass to Feet and Play out of Defence.

Oh I see... Then keep going on what you saw best for the team. All I wanna say is that being TOO defensive oftenly sacrificed our offensive postures, vice versa. To know where's the balance is our holy grail to find times to times. Have a good luck, bro

[ivoke]

One quick question i have for a couple of months allready.

When there is a goalkick and the keeper kicks the ball forward, 70% of the time the attacker can control the ball without the defender putting a little bit of pressure on him. Even if I have 3 players around the opponent, he can still control the ball without being challenged.

It isn't that it only happens to the opponent, also to my goalkicks, so you can say that it is balanced. But I still don't think it should be like this in the game.

Is this a little bug in the ME, or am I doing something wrong with my tactics? Are my pressing settings to low (Eventhough I think with the pressingslider on zero, a player should still try to win a header).

[Blancos]

One quick question i have for a couple of months allready.

When there is a goalkick and the keeper kicks the ball forward, 70% of the time the attacker can control the ball without the defender putting a little bit of pressure on him. Even if I have 3 players around the opponent, he can still control the ball without being challenged.

It isn't that it only happens to the opponent, also to my goalkicks, so you can say that it is balanced. But I still don't think it should be like this in the game.

Is this a little bug in the ME, or am I doing something wrong with my tactics? Are my pressing settings to low (Eventhough I think with the pressingslider on zero, a player should still try to win a header).

Lucky you, bro. My Casillas will deliver his long goalkick straight to the opposition 90% of the time

[markyosullivan]

Lucky you, bro. My Casillas will deliver his long goalkick straight to the opposition 90% of the time

That's why I changed my distribution to short for my GK

[markyosullivan]

Probably one of my best results on FM. My AM scored 4 goals and also had 1 assist! My CM/A set up 4 goals.

[Shrewnaldo]

I think point #2 is crucial. Do you realistically have the players to be trying to play attacking football? If not, you need to do something else, and probably play a bit uglier style of football if you are serious about getting results. Sometimes there's a trade off. Here's a blog I follow. Shrewnaldo started out with a back 3 formation, trying to play attacking football, but he also knew that there would be a sacrifice, which was defending. Now, it's up to you to decide whether you can actually account for these kinds of sacrifices with results.

Shrewnaldo's ADO Den Haag Save

Thank you for referencing my blog. Much appreciated and I've had quite a high volume of traffic relayed from this link. For small blogs like mine, plugs like this can be invaluable so thank you not only for reading but for advertising (and understanding the point of my ramblings, not all do!!)

[James9]

I've seen a few people query point 4, so I'll try to clarify in some detail.

If you have a back four, a good rule of thumb is to have the following setup:

DR (Attack) DC (Defend/Cover/Stopper), DC (Defend/Cover/Stopper), DL (Support)

This ensures that the defence is linked to the midfield and the attack, as it encourages the FBs/WBs to move between the lines. In general, it shouldn't lead to your being hurt on the counter, because you will have one midfielder on a Defend duty to cover the breaking Attack duty FB.

There are, as always, exceptions to the rule. If you want to build a defensive counter system, you might want to have both FBs on an Attack duty, as having them break forward quickly will be vital to having successful counter attacks. If you play a very aggressive system, you might want to have both FBs on Support duties, so they provide a platform behind the five players in attacking positions (in fact, I'd recommend it). Likewise, as point eleven suggests, an AP in an Attacking strategy is a waste of time, as he gets too far ahead of play to pull any strings. If you want a playmaker, employ a DLP, as he'll tend to sit a little deeper and dictate the game. If your FBs are on Support duties, he'll interact with them behind the five players looking for space in and around the box, whereas if they are on Attack duties, they'll often be too far forward for him to use and he'll be isolated.

To answer Matt's specific question, it doesn't matter exactly who you put on which duty in a 4-2-3-1. This decision is all about where you want to create space.

Option One: MCL (Defend), MCR (Support), AMC (Attack)

The MCL and MCR provide a supporting base for the AMC to break into attack. Main creative responsibility is the MC strata, as the AMC is more of a goalscoring threat.

Option Two: MCL (Defend), MCR (Attack), AMC (Support)

The three players interact a little more, with all having some creative responsibility. However, at times, the MCR will break from deep ahead of the AMC.

WWfan this thread is really useful for novice managers like me. Could you confirm if I am playing a 451 formation with the following midfield set up Defensive Midfielder - Defend, Deep Lying Playmaker - Support and Advance Playmaker - Attack would I need to put the full backs on support duties. The reason I for my question is becuase you mentioned in the above post that if you are playing a DLP then it would be best to have the full backs on support duty so that the DLP does not become isolated. How true is that in a 451 system. I am playing a Balance and Counter as my main strategy. Also would you recommend using the press more option on the team instructions when using a counter strategy. I am a little unsure if I should leave it has default and use the push higher up shout to press the other team.

[wwfan]

I'd only put them both on support duties if you are employing the attack or overload strategies. Otherwise, I'd have at least one on an attack duty.

[James9]

I'd only put them both on support duties if you are employing the attack or overload strategies. Otherwise, I'd have at least one on an attack duty.

Thanks for the reply. How would you deal with the issue of using press more within team instructions when employing a counter attack strategy. Would you leave as default and then use the push higher up shout to press the other team. Also what are your thoughs on a complete forward attack as the lone forward. I will be using my right winger on a support duty so that my front three is not isolated.Would you suggest any changes to my midfield trio of DMC - Defend DLP -Support and Advance Playmaker Attack

[wwfan]

Thanks for the reply. How would you deal with the issue of using press more within team instructions when employing a counter attack strategy. Would you leave as default and then use the push higher up shout to press the other team. Also what are your thoughs on a complete forward attack as the lone forward. I will be using my right winger on a support duty so that my front three is not isolated.Would you suggest any changes to my midfield trio of DMC - Defend DLP -Support and Advance Playmaker Attack

Depends how high I want my line to play. If I want them very high, I'd use the press more adjustment and the push up shout in the right conditions and against certain teams.

COmplete Forward Attack may work as a lone forward. It almost certainly will if he has an AMC behind him, but might have some isolation if not. If he is struggling to get the ball, try to make the passes more direct or give him a Support duty.

I think your midfield roles are fine, but with 2.5 specialised players already, you are pushing into Balanced-Rigid philosophies.

Very Rigid: Each player is given a job and is supposed to stick to it (usually 5+ different roles across a team) (4+ specialist roles)

Rigid: Players are assigned a role that contributes to a specific element of play (Defence, defence & transition, transition & attack, attack) (3-4 specialist roles)

Balanced: Players focus on their duty (Defend, Support, Attack) (2-3 specialist roles)

Fluid: Players are given instructions to focus on defence or attack (1-2 specialist roles)

Very Fluid: Players contribute to all aspects of play (0-1 specialist roles)

I consider the following to be specialist roles:

Target Man

Poacher

Trequartista

Advanced Playmaker

Deep Lying Playmaker

Ball Winning Midfielder

Anchor Man

Libero

These five roles can fit in either camp, depending on your interpretation.

Complete Forward

Defensive Forward

Defensive Winger

Box to Box Midfielder

Ball Playing Defender

Generic roles:

Advanced Forward

Deep Lying Forward

Attacking Midfielder

Central Midfielder

Defensive Midfielder

Inside Forward

Winger

Wide Midfielder

Wing Back

Full Back

Central Defender

Sweeper

I don’t include keepers.

Specialist roles explain what the player does, i.e (playmaking, anchoring, poaching). Generic roles focus only on the players’ position.

Now the above are only guidelines and you can work outside of those parameters. But ideally if you are not comfortable with how the game works or find yourself struggling then you should take the above into consideration.

[James9]

Depends how high I want my line to play. If I want them very high, I'd use the press more adjustment and the push up shout in the right conditions and against certain teams.

COmplete Forward Attack may work as a lone forward. It almost certainly will if he has an AMC behind him, but might have some isolation if not. If he is struggling to get the ball, try to make the passes more direct or give him a Support duty.

I think your midfield roles are fine, but with 2.5 specialised players already, you are pushing into Balanced-Rigid philosophies.

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WWfan thanks for the reply. Would you use the press more and push higher up team instructions and shout against a team with slow strikers. Against technically good sides with fast strikers and wingers would selecting stand off more as the closing down instructions and stay on feet shout be better. I wm playing with a Counter Attack Strategy. I am not too sure about how and when to use the right closing down settings. Also what are your thoughts on Hassle Opponent shout and Get Stuck In Shout and when would yo recommend using both shouts.

[wwfan]

Obviously, the more speed advantage you have, the less risky a high press is. It's up to you to make the judgment call.

Hassle is an ultra high line and max pressing, so again it's a judgment call based on your players pace advantage and stamina. Get Stuck In is fine when your defensive shape is solid, but very risky when you are stretched and chasing tackles. Once more, a judgment call.

[James9]

WWfan when yoh say speed advantage do you mean pace and acceleration across the whole team or does it only applies to my defensive unit. I am playing with Arsenal and I need to check in the team comparison details to find out their average pace and acceleration within the team. Is this what you mean by checking the speed advantage. So I am guessing the lower the team ranks the less they should close down and press more. Would using the stand off more within the team instructions be useful for a team with low pace and acceleration.

I am a little confuse and need some help with this area

[wwfan]

Again, it's the manager's call in relation to the whole team or defensive unit. Stand off would help a slower team do well

[SpartanUTD]

On 25/11/2012 at 21:44, wwfan said:

6: Use the shouts to develop and save a favoured playing style, which should also suit your team strengths / weaknesses. For example, a highly technical team can sit deep and counter at pace, so using retain possession, pass into space, run at defence with a counter strategy may be worthwhile. A less technical but more physical team might want to impose themselves in a different way, so consider using get ball forwards, hit early crosses, get stuck in with an attack strategy.

I recently had another conversation about FM2013 Team instructions and its sliders, Match instructions and Player Instructions.

It has never been clear what overwrites one another.

Example 1:

I might set in the TI an aggressive mentality with zonal marking, to avoid my team's shape getting torn apart during counter attacks and in the game I will set "hassle opponents", which seems to automatically set marking to man-to-man. In real life, it would not make sense to tell players one thing and a different when as a manager, we'd speak t the team.

Example 2:

I could set a player to play short pass but in the TI I set "direct pass", which is rather long pass. What will the player do? What is set in the TI or its own instructions?

 

I never really understood why I need a "shout", as far I can manipulate my MI during the game and depending on how the match goes?