Pre-season and familiarity of tactics.

[ademac]

I always do a 6 week pre-season. I also have tactics on match training with the bar as high as it can go, and tactics on general training set to high.

Last season my team were around 98% familiar at the start of the season. This season it's now October and they are still only around 80% familiar. Whilst it's like this I'm not able to reduce and change. This was a bugbear of mine in FM13, how players go on holiday for a few weeks and when they come back ( I've not changed the tactic whatsoever, not signed anyone new, not sold anyone, completely how they finished last season etc ), they have completely forgotten how to play the tactic.

Further, how come some years it takes only a few weeks to become familiar and then in other years, like 3 out of the 4 years I've been playing so far, come mid Oct- start of Nov, the team is still struggling.

Btw coaches haven't changed, and all their responsibilities are the same. Nothing has changed other than they have been on holiday for a month and they completely forget how to play a certain tactic.

I know we all think footballers are thick, but really?

[ckaracay]

well i get my familiarity to fluid except for tempo after 35 games played ( 20 of them friendlies - but if u consider getting your familiarity to higher levels just by season matches it should take upto 5-6 months). but after youth intake it dropped down again so the problem is "my tactics" of course not the game.

[RBKalle]

It's just another way the game is screwing with the human player...

There's no real reason for the familiarity level to drop so much after one short month of vacation, especially when there are 5 new key players to slot into the first team and the same tactic has been in use for years already.

Besides, how f'n difficult can a the most ordinary and essential 4-4-2 to handle?

As I said in similar topics in the past, basic tactics shouldn't take months to digest, especially when the roles are consistent and fit the players' skills. Of course trying to get Messi play as traditional Target Man in an old fashioned 4-5-1 should fail spectacularly, no matter how long you try. But FFS, a plain 4-4-2 diamond isn't rocket science with the right players in the right place.

[treble_yell_:-)]

I thought it was utterly bizarre that the same players playing the same formation can almost lose all their familiarity during the pre season.