Let's build a tactic together. And let's see what I get wrong

[bababooey]

This is all done on FMC so there is no tactical familiarity to worry about

The team? AS Roma

The squad? No major changes, first season. Just managed to pick up GK Sergio Romero on a cheap transfer. That's it.

The goal? Champions League Qualification AT A MINIMUM

The expectation? I always set the bar high, I expect to at least be very close to a title. Knowing full well that the AI Juventus is quite strong..

Key players? Totti, Strootman, Pjanic, Gervino, De Rossi, Naiggolan, Castan.

Alright so we've got some of the main aspects identified here. I've already started the season and it's been a bit up and down. We're in late September now, but let's just imagine that I haven't done that. And that we're now working from a clean slate (tactically speaking). Remember in FMC you can change tactics as much as you like without penalty, so it doesn't matter what I've done to this point. We're starting brand spanking new.

Okay, what type of football do I want to play? Do we have the players capable of playing in that way?

I'm thinking that Roma are a team that would benefit from possession football. There's a lot of quality in the team, especially in midfield. Pjanic, De Rossi, Florenzi, and Strootman are all high quality players. In Serie A however, I expect teams will flood the midfield with players making a possession game harder to play. So perhaps we would benefit from a more cautious brand of possession play, ala Pep's Barcelona rather than, say, Luis Enrique's Barcelona.

However we also have bags of pace in wide attacking areas. Gervinho, Iturbe, Ibarbo, Ljajic, Doumbia. Ibarbo and Doumbia are really strikers, but I think both could play out wide if they had too. Either way, they're part of "pace up front" group.

BUT. What about our defense? Does it suit a possession style of play? Is it even any good? I think Roma has a decent defense, but nothing special. Manolas looks like a quality young CB, and Castan is a key player in the team. The wide defenders worry me a bit. Maicon isn't getting any younger, and neither is Ashley Cole. Neither has bags of pace at this point, but both are better options than Torosidis / Balzaretti. They have to be starters, basically. I don't think it would be wise to expect them to bomb up and down the flanks. I also don't think it would be wise to tell Ashley Cole to ever put in a cross because he's terrible at that

We don't really have any sweeper keepers either. Romero could do it, maybe, but he isn't really built for that.

So let's build...

Mentality: I view mentality as risk. I want us to be really solid and not take too many risks so, I'll go for Counter. It's not too defensive, but it seems like a reasonable enough choice for this style. One could argue that many of the top clubs in real life who play "possession" football are doing so utilizing this type of mentality..

Shape: Not going to obsess over this one. Fluid. Roma have excellent decision making, good creativity, and a lot of hard working players. I also want to emphasize supporting play, so fluid seems like a good choice. Plus, structured encourages more depth, and I don't want to create that in our shape. I want possession and players supporting each other, interchanging and all that jazz.

Formation: Picking a formation is never easy for me. I always get caught up in all the possibilities that exist. As I browse through my custom squad view I can't help but think 4-3-3. The team does not have that classic #10 who would sit in the AMC spot. I suppose you could argue Totti could do it, but asking him to be our main playmaker seems silly considering his age and fitness level at this point. I think he would be easily marked out of the game as an AMC. So I'll go for a 4-3-3. (just so there is no confusion, it consists of: FBx2 CDx2 DMx1 CMx2 AMRx1 AMLx1 STCx1)

Roles/Duties: This is another part I think I struggle with. I've read so many freaking guides and posts that I have a million different things going through my head at once. For example.. something that comes to mind now: is my midfield balanced enough? But I'm playing on a lower risk mentality, so can't I afford more attack duty players? What about having the proper screen for my defense? Is our playmaker in a proper position to cause problems for the other team? Is our mentality going to suit these roles/duties? Do we have enough avenues of attack? Is the striker supported? Is the defense exposed? Is the midfield stretched too wide? Etc. etc. etc. etc. As you can see, this is ridiculous. I digress.

Goalkeeper - Defend simple enough really. Don't have a sweeper keeper.

(right) Full Back - Support I don't want him to be too aggressive, but I do need him to offer support to my midfield.

(left) Full Back - Support Same as the right back. Ashley Cole is perfect for this.

Center Back - Defend We don't have any BPD's. A shame really. Astori could do it but he isn't a starter anyway.

Center Back - Defend Not trying to reinvent the wheel here.

Okay so the back 4 is built. I'm already concerned I don't have enough variation (ala, a full back on attack or something). But it wouldn't suit my team. I simply do not have a player I trust to get forward on a consistent basis like that and overlap. Plus, the wide men we have in attack are WAY faster than our wide defenders. It doesn't make sense to ask my defenders to overlap them, in my opinion.

Regista - Support Strootman is a perfect Regista. Seriously, look at his mental stats. He's insane. But so the idea here is I want that classic playmaker who is sitting deep and is allowed to roam about and dictate the play. I want that unpredictability that he brings to the game. So, Regista is a solid choice.

Central Midfielder - Defend I hate the ball winning midfielder in 3 man midfield's. So a natural alternative is the CM-D. I need someone who is going to hold position, but also be a bit of an enforcer. De Rossi fits the bill. As does Nainggolan.

Central Midfielder - Attack I love the CM-A. A player who gets forward a lot and can score tons of goals. Pjanic may be better off as a playmaker, but I like his chances as a CM-A. He's got great ability in long shots, and first touch. I like his dribbling and he makes good decisions. I expect him to score goals.

Okay so there's my midfield triangle. I've got a holder, a supporter, and an attacker. It feels very well balanced. However I am a bit worried about how the Regista works with the CM-D to screen the back 4. But I'm just following the guides I've read, and my common sense knowledge of how things tend to work in this game. I hope I'm not wrong!

(right) Winger - Attack Gervinho. This guy has bags of pace and the ability to score goals. I want him to be aggressively getting into dangerous positions and causing problems for the defense. Seems a logical choice here...

(left) Inside Forward - Attack Ljajic is a quality player here. Lots of dribbling skills, loves to run at players, and he can really be a creative force. I was thinking AP-A, but the IF-A will act as a wide striker, a #9 player who can score goals for us. That really helps considering we're now down to the lone striker..

False Nine / Advanced Forward This is tough. Totti and Doumbia are the best we've got, but they're VERY different players. Totti is a false nine by necessity, and Doumbia is a fast striker. I think both of these roles can work, however I am worried that Doumbia would be a bit isolated as AF. Also, I've already got a #9 on the left (IF-A) so when Doumbia plays as an AF, that gives us 2 #9's and then we're REALLY relying on the CM-A to be our #10 and link play with the midfield to the forwards.. So as you can see, this is a problem. I do however, expect Totti's role to work out just fine. The False 9 will drop in the hole and act as a #10 which fits nicely with the IF-A on the left, while Gervinho can attack from wide right.

Player Instructions: I've set the GK to distribute to playmaker. So this means the balls will go to our Regista. Exactly what I want.

Team Instructions: - Prevent short GK Dist. This is supposed to tell your forwards to aggressively close down the AI from building at the back. Exactly what I want.

- play out of defense. In my opinion a staple of any solid possession based, lower mentality tactic. I don't want defenders making long clearances.

- shorter passing. I want the team to play shorter passes to each other, and do a good job of holding possession. This feels like common sense.

- use tighter marking. I want the team to be in good position to make interceptions and break up plays. I do not necessarily want them closing down like maniacs. I think this can be effective especially in italy where teams have loads of guys in midfield. If we tight mark, we can better defend that space. I think.

- Push higher up. I want us to engage the opposition a little further up the pitch than the counter mentality would have us doing normally. So instead of a medium-low block, I expect we'll have a medium block. I could be wrong here, so feel free to jump in and let me know. But yeah. We've got some pacey CB's and I think we'll benefit from pushing up and being a bit more compact. I do worry about the Regista though. Will he get squeezed out? I don't know. We'll see.

That's it!

So that is the tactic. First match is against Juventus, away from home. I expect that we'll get our butts kicked, but I'm just a pessimist. We'll see...

I don't want to make too many changes in match because I want to see how the system plays out. However, winning is also important.

Please, feel free to jump in and post anything you see here that is incorrect, or perhaps misguided. I am looking for problems with this tactic and hopefully we can spot them together. And I have added plenty of screens from our first match with this tactic in the following post!

[bababooey]

Right so here come some images in match. This is against Juventus away from home.

First screen shot: This comes right after kick off. Juve want to drive forward, but our midfield triangle creates an effective screen. Llorente turns it over to De Rossi (eventually). He had nowhere to go. Good stuff so far.

Second screen shot: This is what we look like starting our attacks from the back. Our buildup. The GK will distribute to the Regista who comes deep to get the ball. I like how this looks so far. Lots of passing options.

Third screen shot: This is what we look like while transitioning from defense to attack. A few notes... Notice how many players are in the black box? The midfield is LOADED. However, we have a nice outlet option in Gervinho (Winger-attack). We are able to pass the ball easily through this space, and then out of it to the flanks. Tons of space is available out there for us to start an attack.

Fourth screen shot: So here we are camped in the AI's half. In this situation we have just knocked down a clearance and kept the ball in their half. Cole knocked it down and passed it back in to the midfield. I like our positioning here. We're not too high up, and we have enough guys back in case they counter us. Our midfield triangle seems well spaced and positioned, and the forwards are aiming to get into goal scoring positions. I like what I see.

Beyond thrilled to show this next one. We scored first! Basically. Gervinho picks up the ball wide, heads toward the box. Ljajic cuts inside to support the move, with Doumbia occupying CB's. Gervinho plays a neat pass to Ljajic, who shoots. The ball is parried away by Buffon right into the on-rushing feet of Gervinho. Nails it home. 1-0 Roma.

Here's the match stats from the Juventus match:

I've highlighted some areas of concern. The passing from our defense was horrific. We were pressed by Juve's trident in the middle, and I accidentally instructed the GK to "distribute to flanks" rather than to our fullbacks. His kicks were awful. Anyway. Also... Juve's pass completion in the midfield was staggeringly high. Ideally we could have done better to break that up. But perhaps we would have been pulled out of shape if we tried to do that.

I changed Doumbia from AF to CF-S. This allowed him to drop deeper into space and link up better with our midfield. Our attackers passing percentage improved as a result. We also were able to create a great goal because of this.

Towards the end of the match while leading 2-1 I had to sub out Ljajic. I brought on Iturbe, but decided to swap his position with Gervinho, and make him an IF-A. So we had 2 IF-A's now, with the CF-S in the middle. This led to our 3rd goal. That was it for changes.

Really really pleased with this result. Looking forward to seeing how this tactic does in our next game home to Inter Milan.

images upload

[seb_lesnar]

Kinda weird seeing Strootman pushing up in the first picture. Might have something to do with the Tighter Marking TI you used. Could get problematic if you play against a team with an AMC coming deep and Striker/Wingers occupying the space in front of your defence.

Also, regarding to your passing percentage in defense, keep in mind that the ME counts clearences as failed passes.

Great result against Juve! Will keep visiting this thread

[alinp]

I tend to try to reduce the number of TI's/PI's I have active and I can't help but wondering whether you actually need Shorter Passing? As I understand it, your Counter mentality by default will have more direct passing in defence and shorter passing in attack (compared to Standard settings). You've dealt with the directness of the defences passing by adding Play Out of Defence, so do you actually still need shorter passing.... just a thought

However, in the specific of the Juve game, perhaps turning off POoD may have helped negate their pressing + I often find some stiff tackling can help break up opposition tika-taka. It also looks from the screenshots that they played a diamond/4312 type formation - could Exploit the Flanks have been advantageous here?

[alinp]

PS - I love a CF(S)

[bababooey]

I tend to try to reduce the number of TI's/PI's I have active and I can't help but wondering whether you actually need Shorter Passing? As I understand it, your Counter mentality by default will have more direct passing in defence and shorter passing in attack (compared to Standard settings). You've dealt with the directness of the defences passing by adding Play Out of Defence, so do you actually still need shorter passing.... just a thought

However, in the specific of the Juve game, perhaps turning off POoD may have helped negate their pressing + I often find some stiff tackling can help break up opposition tika-taka. It also looks from the screenshots that they played a diamond/4312 type formation - could Exploit the Flanks have been advantageous here?

Yeah I had a few issues with GK distribution because I accidentally chose the wrong option lol. We really did great to hit them on a few breaks. Definitely exploit the flanks could have been advantageous, and we did in fact use it (eventually).

In terms of play out of defense and shorter passing, to my knowledge POOD reduces passing length from defenders, while shorter passing reduces length from everyone. I want my defenders passing as short as possible so this seems a decent way to achieve that.

But I may take off shorter passing from time to time if I see we can hit people with a more direct pass.

[bababooey]

Update

So with this tactic we've made a few tweaks and played a total of 4 matches.

Juventus: 3-1 victory

Inter: 1-1 draw

Fiorentina: 2-2 draw

Liverpool: 3-0 victory

What we've done is change the midfield triangle to DM-D/CM-S/AP-S. The regista was a bit crowded out and just wasn't doing what I thought he could. The advanced playmaker in CM is quite effective anyway, so no big deal here. Plus, De Rossi and Nainggolan are quality defensive midfield options.

I've changed the central striker to CF-S. In the match against Liverpool, we had to use Ibarbo there due to injury, and he was phenomenal scoring twice. I'm very happy with how the attackers are linking up now.

We also now close down more. I'm still working things out, but so far it's going very well.

[Jambo98]

If you dont mind some constructive feedback.......

1) You say "lets build together", then you lay out a pretty basic / common tactic, and its not at all clear what type of input you think others should give? Where is the "together" - Do you just want the generic comments / feedback as with most threads? If you genuinely want people to build together, at very least you will need to upload some pkm files and ask people to share thoughts and ideas, maybe even upload the save so people can look at the squad to comment on instructions suitability.

2) You talk about building a tactic, but really this is just pretty much the same one you use most of the time? (it is mentioned in a few of your threads?) and it is also probably by far the most common tactic on the forums. It will be hard to get people to interested in something so generic.

I am hardly one to talk, given i started a thread to do a detailed tactic and thus far have failed to updated it much (down to having zero playing time this last week), but feels like the thread is a bit lacking.

[bababooey]

If you dont mind some constructive feedback.......

1) You say "lets build together", then you lay out a pretty basic / common tactic, and its not at all clear what type of input you think others should give? Where is the "together" - Do you just want the generic comments / feedback as with most threads? If you genuinely want people to build together, at very least you will need to upload some pkm files and ask people to share thoughts and ideas, maybe even upload the save so people can look at the squad to comment on instructions suitability.

2) You talk about building a tactic, but really this is just pretty much the same one you use most of the time? (it is mentioned in a few of your threads?) and it is also probably by far the most common tactic on the forums. It will be hard to get people to interested in something so generic.

I am hardly one to talk, given i started a thread to do a detailed tactic and thus far have failed to updated it much (down to having zero playing time this last week), but feels like the thread is a bit lacking.

I got a bit lazy on the forum posts, ended up finishing the season quite quickly.. Easily won Serie A with this tactic after a few tweaks.

But yeah I think it probably didn't work out the way I wanted it to in terms of "building together."