Lackleicester tactics

[Fosse]

See what I did there  (The title is a touch misleading because I've yet to play any games).

I’ve never created a thread on here detailing my own tactics or my thought process behind creating one besides asking for help, mostly because I’m not brilliant at the game but I like to think I’m not Tim Sherwood either. So by documenting the process I’m hoping to keep better track of the changes and my ideas which primarily benefits me but I hope others can take even a little bit of information (learning from my mistakes!). Oh and this is the most productive form of revision procrastination.

The side I’ve chosen to take over is Leicester, the team I support, I’ve had multiple Leicester saves already and achieved reasonable success but for one reason or another I’ve given up on them probably because I get frustrated that I can’t drastically overachieve like Ö-zil, Rashidi, Herne et al or the real life Leicester from 2015-16.

I already know the players quite well and so the first transfer window will be disabled to make this even more challenging for myself because one, quite clearly I’m an idiot and secondly our squad is quite unbalanced and even the better players have annoying player traits or are lacking an important attribute or two.

[Fosse]

The style of play and the system  - Practicing pragmatism.

Pragmatism is oft overlooked particularly on these forums, for the most part we want goals, excitement, flair,  Jogo Bonito and Total Football which are all fantastic but outside of the elite clubs in world football it's difficult to implement such a style overnight without meticulous planning and transfer dealings. Perhaps eventually in this thread I'll write about overhauling a squad but for the meantime one of my intentions is about making the most of what you've got in your ranks. In other words - pragmatism.

Like in Herne's most recent thread (a common theme for this thread will be the painstaking lack of originality, apologies) this is a pretty good place to start, although I'm already familiar with the squad it doesn't hurt to take another look.

The stand out positives are the teamwork, determination, aggression and bravery attributes which will form the basis of my squad DNA but you've most likely read about that before so I'll skip over that for now. These collective attributes lend themselves very well to an aggressive system with intense pressing and a high line but...

 

 

 

 ...the attributes on the right reveal the acceleration and pace attributes for our defence and well  is about the best I can muster up. However that's nothing that I didn't know already, in a perfect world I'd elect to play a 442 or a 4411 system and replicate a similar system to what we've played under Shakespeare this season to half decent effect despite a disappointing end to the season. However I really dislike the wide player defensive positioning which is exacerbated by only having two players in the middle and strikers that are reluctant to track back mean that I'll be swerving it; that's not to say that it can't work and you shouldn't let my words deter you but I just don't fancy it on this years iteration.

A pragmatic style of management means that you absolutely have to get the best out of your players, specifically your key players. So with that it's worth looking at my best players and trying to create a system around them.

First a look at Jamie Vardy,

quite a well rounded striker who should be quite versatile however the player trait of Likes To Try To Beat Offside Trap is a nightmare because it leads to a ridiculous amount of offsides and means the player is is always pushing up high regardless of role so for that reason Vardy has to play as an attack duty forward, which suits him best anyway. So if we're playing an attack duty forward that means we need a support striker too otherwise Vardy would be too isolated.

So the picture of the system is a little bit clearer as now we've two strikers up top, a preference to avoid 442 means that retaining three central players requires either a system with three at the back or a 4132/4312. The only natural rightback in the team is Danny Simpson and you don't have to look at his attributes to know that he's the sort of player that malfunctions when he passes the halfway line so that rules out a four at the back system.  Only leaving a three which does suit the defenders at the club as they're physical brutes who lack mobility so having a spare man prevents having so much available space in the channels where my DCs could be isolated.

However this does pose a problem as our best technical player Riyad Mahrez is a wide player and obviously doesn't easily fit in a system without wingers.

 

In order to fit him in he'll be slotted in at AMC as an attacking midfielder where he's only competent but the only disadvantage to this is a very slight hit to the decisions attribute, this is already quite low so it is something to look out for when I actually start playing games.

My next key player that I want to get the best out of is Danny Drinkwater, he's got very well rounded attributes and could play most midfield roles but as he's got plenty of options ahead of him in theory I want him to take the mantle and creative responsibility away from my neanderthal defenders and assign him the responsibility of being a playmaker more specifically a Deep Lying Playmaker. If there's mixed ability amongst the players in a squad it makes sense to have the ball at the feet of your better players and assigning a playmaker is a sure fire way fire way for them to attract the ball - fortunately Danny has the right attributes too which compensates for my defence's lack of ball skills.

 

Now I've got who I consider my key players playing in roles that at least somewhat suit them it's time to build a system that balances out the attacking tendencies of these players by making sure the players nearby them cover for them.

(sorry about the image size, click on it to enlarge it)

Once again these role and duty choices are driven by the players and their attributes, 

Wingback Left - support: Christian Fuchs will play here, he's got brilliant technical ability and great defensive stats too, he's only a support duty though as he lacks a little bit of mobility and can't bomb both up and down otherwise he would have been an attack duty.

Wingback Right - attack: Marc Albrighton will play in this position, he's got mediocre defensive stats but a great workrate and is quite mobile so he should be able to get back in position and be a body in the way rather than a great defensive presence. Even if he doesn't;t get back well enough the three centrebacks and BWM should be able to cover.

Ball Winning Midfielder - defend: I've chosen the more aggressive BWM over a CM D here because with three central defenders behind him and a fairly conservative midfield partner I feell it suits Wilfred N'Didi to be more proactive in winning the ball back.

Deep Lying Forward - support: As previously mentioned Vardy pushes forward a lot so it's important that he has a partner that offers a deep option and provides reverse movements to Vardy which helps cause problems in the opposition defence that hopefully Riyad can take advantage of as a third man. Slimani is most likely to play this role and if I find that he's attempting too many risky passes as part of the hardcoded TI then I'll change the role to a defensive forward but it's something to look out for when watching games.

 

From the looks of it the roles and duties are seemingly well balanced although maybe a tad conservative which will be yet another potential problem I'll have to keep a keen eye on when playing matches as well as the normal structural issues posed by a 3412 or whatever you want to call it, notably:

1) The space in between the midfielders and the defenders

2) The lack of wide coverage, the premier league usually throws up opposition that push their fullbacks forward and I may be exposed to overloads in wide areas which is yet another thing I'll need to watch out for.

However at the moment it's all conjecture and it could be an absolutely amazing system perfectly suited to the players which blows the league away leading to Leicester being crowned surprise champions. It'd never happen in real life though .

[Fosse]

Of course it'e very early days yet but the game I've just played, in fact the very first competitive game (that's what it said in game anyway) I played - the community shield, was probably the most gratifying game I've ever played on FM.

I started off with the formation above on standard/flexible with no TIs but we were getting hammered by United. Going into half time we were lucky for it to be goalless as they'd had 11 shots with 8 on target whereas we'd had 4 with none testing De Gea. As United were playing 4123 they had a man advantage in the middle and their wide players were getting a lot of joy around the halfspaces. Cleon and Herne both advocate trying not to change things in your first game which is a good idea as you can let the tactic pan out and not overreact to problems that appear in one game however it was absolutely clear to me that Man U would score sooner or later. I messed about with a few things, I changed to fluid to decrease the vertical distance between the players as we couldn't really get out of our own half; let alone get a shot on target however this didn't really help as the problem wasn't the spacing of the players. After halftime I changed to this:

which is quite similar to what we were playing already but instead a body gets shifted into central midfield which I thought would prevent United overrunning us in midfield and in the channels - it did to some extent however we still couldn't build up any coherent attacks so I made one more change, we shifted from standard/fluid to control/flexible. As I was watching the game on full (too many people don't do this at least initially!) I could see there just wasn't enough support for the forward players so we needed to be more aggressive.

It paid off almost immediately as we got a penalty from a wide free kick* - it wasn't a direct consequence of the change but as we now spent more time giving United problems we invariably had the ball more in their half and that pressure lead to a foul. We then created a lot more from open play too as we went from 4 shots with none on target to 12 shots with 4 on target reaching the fabled 50% SOT ratio. After we went ahead Mourinho went attacking like the AI usually does and this is something that I've never really done but before but @Rashidi is a big fan of, I switched to counter/very fluid which meant collectively the whole team was deeper and more compact which made it difficult for United's more attacking approach to achieve anything. We killed the game off with two goals from quick transitions which was great after we'd struggled so much.

Shoutout to Leo Ulloa too who had quite the game, scoring the penalty with our first SOT, blasting in the second from 20 yards, putting in a rabona cross before giving the penalty away at the end .

*Mourinho went mental after the game about this saying that I always get lucky decisions, it was my first game!

[Fosse]

Next up was a league game against Middlesborough who were playing a 42211 (the defensive 4231) which can be quite stubborn and immediately we faced problems:

Here Boro have numerical and positional superiority, we have three players forward with none in a great deal of space and if any of them were to receive the ball they'd be closed down quickly so this obviously isn't good. 

I made two changes in response to to this, first I changed from flexible to fluid. I did this because my strikers and attacking midfielder are too isolated. I could have just changed the AM A to a support duty and he'd have been more available for a pass to link play but it would have meant that Vardy and Ulloa are still completely surrounded high up the pitch. So by changing to fluid the strikers will be a little bit deeper because fluid makes players prioritise the team's mentality (standard) a little bit more so they're deeper and more avaiable for a pass. Secondly I changes to fluid to get the wing backs more involved as fluid increases the mentalities of defenders slightly. Albrighton the WB A in the good yellow circle isn't really advanced enough for my liking, he's supposed to be playing like a winger in possession but he's playing too conservatively here. 

The other change I made is changing Drinkwater from a DLP s to a CM s, which is something I said I'd be keeping an eye on in the opening post.  The reason for this change was there midfield wasn't;t really being challenge enough, my attacking triumvirate couldn't get the ball and because of the DLP s' hardcoded PI of hold position meant that he would remain deep but in this instance I needed a runner to cause their deep midfield more problems.

Once again my changes paid off almost immediately (I'd rather not have to keep making changes!) as this our first goal:

This was particularly pleasing as both wingbacks were involved, Mahrez who is a bit deeper because the front two are deeper picks the ball closer towards our own players now as a result of the change to fluid and plays the ball wide to Chillwell who is further forward because of the change in shape and crosses it for Albrighton to score who most likely wouldn't have been there if we were still on flexible. You can also see that Drinkwater is more advanced (next to Mahrez) and he's now occupying a Boro midfielder creating a bit of space.

Our other goal was a cut back to Vardy after some nice play whilst Boro scored from Benalouane being a complete bin liner and 'clearing' the ball by deftly flicking it towards Stuani in his own box, probably because his concentration stat is 8 .

I outlined the flanks as being a weak point in the beginning and after changing to fluid in game twice already I'll be making this change permanently. Our shape is quite structured naturally as there are big gaps between defence and midfield already so bring everybody's mentalities closer together makes sense as previously the strikers were isolated and the wingbacks weren't involved enough so that one change makes us a lot more coherent in attack.

[Fosse]

Reserved

[herne79]

Slippery slope this writing thing .

Pay attention to @Fosse.  He doesn't always say very much, but when he does it's worth reading.

[Fosse]

31 minutes ago, herne79 said:

Slippery slope this writing thing .

Pay attention to @Fosse.  He doesn't always say very much, but when he does it's worth reading.

We'll see about that

 

The hardest thing about this thread is avoiding following the exact same writing template of your start at Ceara

[Armistice]

Looking forward to see this develop.

[Fosse]

Small update in the second post

[Fosse]

Updated the second post fully now.

[Armistice]

Good read. 

[Fosse]

Brief update in #2

[LCFCEaves31]

Awesome, a fellow Leicester fan trying to play the game with the team they watch week in, week out... something I have been awful at in previous FM's, because I always want to set up and play like real life LCFC, rather than treat it like a game! 

Good start by the way, and thanks to your detail (the part about going to counter and very fluid and how that effects the team structure/plan) I have learnt something already!

[Fosse]

First league game analysis done

[jc577]

Good work, glad to see your changes are working, keep it up! 

[Armistice]

Good stuff, completely hate Boro's 4-2DM-2-1-1, it is so hard to break (especially when I use a 4-2-3-1). But the question is, wouldn't fluid affect transitions only? I mean, more players are involved in transitions, but when the attack phase becomes stabilised, that means the transition phase is over so maybe Shape doesn't have that much impact anymore? 

[Fosse]

3 hours ago, nightwalker22 said:

Good stuff, completely hate Boro's 4-2DM-2-1-1, it is so hard to break (especially when I use a 4-2-3-1). But the question is, wouldn't fluid affect transitions only? I mean, more players are involved in transitions, but when the attack phase becomes stabilised, that means the transition phase is over so maybe Shape doesn't have that much impact anymore? 

Nope, players still have lower mentalities as forward so they'll be slightly deeper. Mentality affects all sorts like how often players will make forward runs, positioning, risky passes, pass selection etc so in that instance I benefitted from more attacking wing backs even though we'd consolidated that attack and we were out of of the transition phase.

[Rashidi]

Its good to see more and more people leave the horrible template which is using one tactic without reacting to in game events. 

On 06/06/2017 at 19:53, Fosse said:

made two changes in response to to this, first I changed from flexible to fluid.

Its this phrase that grabbed my attention. At its fundamental level the game isn't hard, and using a good dose of common sense works. Your decision to adapt with the use of shape, shows an inclination of playing it the way the game was meant to be played at the highest level. Shape is more than just transitions as you have rightly pointed out, and I foresee you having even more fun in the future. You will probably even have as much fun as me playing on Contain very fluid to **** managers like Mourinho off :-)

[NabsKebabs]

Hi Fosse

How is this coming along? I was following quite closely as like Herne I think you have some very valuable things to say. Having become more interested in trying to replicate real tactics myself lately, I just thought I'd try and start a Leicester save.

Now I started my save very late in preseason, only because I forgot to change it from the last save I did where I couldn't be bothered with all the pre season. But that's fine I've had one friendly and the community shield to figure things out.

In the first friendly I tried to go for a lineup really similar to last years. 

 

Often I would see Okazaki behind in Vardy in apps/sites showing Leicester's formation in 15/16. I think it is more accurate than a flat 442 and I won't at all have to worry about him tracking back in the AM strata. It helps with compactness aswell.

Counter mentality is quite self explanatory for Leicester last season although particularly at the start of the season I would say they were more attacking then counter attacking (as you can see in the screenshot above I'm working on attacking 442 aswell as the counter tactic).

Team shape is quite tricky I think. You definitely want compactness but you also don't want to lower the mentality of Vardy and Mahrez too much by going too fluid. I'm starting on flexible as a compromise but definitely something to keep an eye on. 

For the shouts, highter tempo is easy. Leicester moved the ball about a lot faster than the default counter tempo. Stay on feet because they were all about blocking passing lanes. Pass into space to help trigger counters and get the electric combo of Mahrez and Vardy firing. Whipped crosses simply because there is no one tall up front.

The friendly was played against Levante and didn't go too well.

I didn't actually manage the game but I wouldn't have changed anything in the first game anyway so all I needed to do was watch highlights/random moments to see how the tactic played out with and without the ball. Levante were not very adventerous at all, perhaps on a structured shape with full backs only offering a bit of support despite the fact they spent a lot of the game in our half. So it was not the best game for our tactic as we want teams to commit to us more. The goal they score was a bit concerning for me, a short through ball to a striker with nothing more than decent/average pace/acceleration while we were sitting quite deep.

The next game was the community shield I decided on some changes. 

Lineup - I decided to go without Okazaki and brought in Gray. The 2 main reasons behind this are that I want more more pace up front and I think a winger on the right would be better as Simpson is very conservative (has PPM stays back at all times). I'm not trying to perfectly replicate Ranieri anyway, I'm trying to compromise between making it as similar as his system as I can and making it work as best as I can. What this move did is free Mahrez up the pitch to to the AM strata. I gave him an AP role as I want him to an outlet in attracting the ball, attack will encourage to attack space and run at the defence more instead of sitting in the hole. I think he could be very explosive here just like IRL.

TI's I decided to drop slightly deeper. Now the counter default d line is pretty deep but as Leicester with the defenders we have I think dropping even deeper could help stop goals like the one conceded against Levante. I also decided to add some closing down PI's to players more advanced up the pitch as I still want pressing to make life hard for the opposition, not just completely sit back and give them too much time and space. 

Vardy - close down much more, tackle harder (risky given aggression 17)

Mahrez - close down more

Albrighton - close down more

Gray - close down more

and of course the BWD - default close down much more. I think this is the most accurate representation of the Kante role.

This way we still press in certain areas but our defence in particular holds shape. 

I then put that to the test in the community shield.

Satisfying to say the least. I absolutely hate going down 1-0 while playing on the counter but we managed to get reply quickly. It was great to watch. What I do to get a good idea of 'good chances' is I use both clear cut and half chances. I add them up and use it as a rough guide  for 'good chances' as we know CCC by themselves are not a good indicator at all. It's safe to say the game plan was executed perfectly, they dominated possession but we had better chances and more on target, Mahrez and Vardy were both menacing.

 

   

[Mitja]

Counter mentality? no EPL team ever tried to play such outdated football. try Attacking/Overload+direct or pass into space.  or and 442.

[NabsKebabs]

16 minutes ago, Mitja said:

Counter mentality? no EPL team ever tried to play such outdated football. try Attacking/Overload+direct or pass into space.  or and 442.

What?? Sorry but you must have absolutely no idea about the EPL then. Tony Pulis and Big Sam Allardyce definitely set up old school.

And as I said, Leicester were very attacking particularly early in the season. But even then you have to be careful on FM, setting the base mentality as attacking for every player will make things tricky as you will need to nail the duties and shape to make it work.  

[Mitja]

I firmly stand behind my words that no EPL team in history tried to play football like the Counter mentality produces in FM. even Control mentality is not sufficient if you want to replicate real EPL football. forget about descriptions and watch the games. there is slight issue in ME imo with players being a little too unwilling to pass back on agressive mentalities and centre backs should play bigger part in build up, that's why you all use Counter

try overload+direct for example if you want to be danger from counter attacks.

[Mitja]

Counter Mentality= Slow Possesional Football

 

[NabsKebabs]

2 minutes ago, Mitja said:

I firmly stand behind my words that no EPL team in history tried to play football like the Counter mentality produces in FM. even Control mentality is not sufficient if you want to replicate real EPL football. forget about descriptions and watch the games. there is slight issue in ME imo with players being a little too unwilling to pass back on agressive mentalities and centre backs should play bigger part in build up, that's why you all use Counter

try overload+direct for example if you want to be danger from counter attacks.

Yeah, I understand what you are saying. I still think that the likes of Pulis and Allardyce would definitely play as low mentality on FM. This is because the game triggers counters when they are on anyway. 

If I set up attacking/overload with a low block for Leicester I think it could replicate they're early season play style last season. The problem is in order to achieve compactness with a 442 or 4411, fluid or very fluid shape is probably required. The problem then with that is the whole team will have such an an attacking mentality that it won't really replicate leicester. If I go structured, I can distribute the mentalites to be more focused on certain players but there will be no compactness which is extremely important. 

[NabsKebabs]

Just now, Mitja said:

Counter Mentality= Possesional Football

 

I strongly disagree there. I know why you are saying it though. 2-3 days ago I was thinking along the same lines. But lower risk can almost mean a lot of direct passes from defence. The default passing directness on counter is more direct than standard and counter for example. 

[Mitja]

well go Flexible then..

you are wrong about Counter Mentality though, it's a well known fact it producess slow possesional play. on Overload every attack is like counter...EPL?

[NabsKebabs]

1 minute ago, Mitja said:

well go Flexible then..

you are wrong about Counter Mentality though, it's a well known fact it producess slow possesional play. on Overload every attack is like counter...EPL?

Flexible wouldn't be near enough compact for 442 like what you suggested earlier. 4411 possibly like my tactic above, one thing I need to check is if I play on attacking mentality instead of counter, will it be less compact? I think it will but will need to check it out.

No, I know exactly what you mean and you are correct in that attack/overload will look to counter as soon as you get the ball every time. But I think if you set counter with higher tempo and pass into space you can still have a fairly aggressive system. Especially when you consider that you should be setting up for the game to trigger counter anyway.

[herne79]

14 minutes ago, Mitja said:

Counter Mentality= Slow Possesional Football

 

 

7 minutes ago, Mitja said:

well go Flexible then..

you are wrong about Counter Mentality though, it's a well known fact it producess slow possesional play. on Overload every attack is like counter...EPL?

Counter mentality = low risk football.  Mentality is simply about risk, nothing else.

Can it help with possession?  Yes, but then so can pretty much any mentality.

Remember, with a Counter mentality your defenders are more likely to look to clear the ball long, your team drops deep and plays passively in defence with not much in the way of pressing - all of which can count against possession football.  Even the low Tempo setting can work against you if you come across a heavy pressing team. 

So Counter mentality can = slow possession football as long you counteract the downsides.  But then the same applies to any mentality.

[NabsKebabs]

1 minute ago, herne79 said:

 

Counter mentality = low risk football.  Mentality is simply about risk, nothing else.

Can it help with possession?  Yes, but then so can pretty much any mentality.

Remember, with a Counter mentality your defenders are more likely to look to clear the ball long, your team drops deep and plays passively in defence with not much in the way of pressing - all of which can count against possession football.  Even the low Tempo setting can work against you if you come across a heavy pressing team. 

So Counter mentality can = slow possession football as long you counteract the downsides.  But then the same applies to any mentality.

Yeah this is basically a much better explanation of what I was trying to say. If you use TI's and PI's you can definitely get lower mentality playing much more possession orientated than the higher ones. Definitely agree about that. But if you just player counter flexible with no TI's even with all support duties outfield, you are looking at below 50% possession most of the time. 

At the end of the day, they need to completely overhaul how they present and explain mentality and shape imo. You have to really read up to understand them.   

[Mitja]

you need to watch games and try things, nothing more. but my point was something alse, EPL football = attacking, free flowing football. counter mentality football = Serie A, 1990's..

no top level league or team plays football like Counter Mentality produces in FM. in a league where ALL teams play on Attacking Mentality, I consider using Counter as cheat..

[NabsKebabs]

Just now, Mitja said:

you need to watch games and try things, nothing more. but my point was something alse, EPL football = attacking, free flowing football. counter mentality football = Serie A, 1990's..

no top level league or team plays football like Counter Mentality produces in FM. in a league where ALL teams play on Attacking Mentality, I consider using Counter as cheat..

How much of Burnley/Middlesbrough did you watch last season? Or Pulis/Allardyce who have managed multiple epl teams. Attacking and free flowing are hardly words to describe the football they play. 

[NabsKebabs]

5 minutes ago, Mitja said:

you need to watch games and try things, nothing more. but my point was something alse, EPL football = attacking, free flowing football. counter mentality football = Serie A, 1990's..

no top level league or team plays football like Counter Mentality produces in FM. in a league where ALL teams play on Attacking Mentality, I consider using Counter as cheat..

You also have to think relatively. Why don't all the AI EPL teams always use attacking mentality? Is the AI "cheating?"

If you put everyone on a base of attacking mentality, even with the right formation and shape it will be very challenging to get players back behind the ball in a compact manner like Pulis and Allardyce do. 

[Fosse]

I'd actually completely forgotten about this, I've started playing FM less and less because I'm not really enjoying it anymore - sorry everyone for my lack of will power!

[summatsupeer]

2 hours ago, Mitja said:

you need to watch games and try things, nothing more. but my point was something alse, EPL football = attacking, free flowing football. counter mentality football = Serie A, 1990's..

no top level league or team plays football like Counter Mentality produces in FM. in a league where ALL teams play on Attacking Mentality, I consider using Counter as cheat..

It takes more than a team mentality to create a style nevermind generalizing that every team plays that same style is clearly incorrect.

[Armistice]

1 hour ago, Fosse said:

I'd actually completely forgotten about this, I've started playing FM less and less because I'm not really enjoying it anymore - sorry everyone for my lack of will power!

Why is that mate?

[Mitja]

1 hour ago, summatsupeer said:

It takes more than a team mentality to create a style nevermind generalizing that every team plays that same style is clearly incorrect.

I would say all PL teams play Attacking footy, as a metter of fact all football is about quick transition if you want to score today. except Barca. 

Attacking, Direct, Close down more, Push Up, Narrow, Tight marking, Offside. with target man and AF.   

 

 

[Fosse]

12 minutes ago, Mitja said:

I would say all PL teams play Attacking footy, as a metter of fact all football is about quick transition if you want to score today. except Barca. 

Attacking, Direct, Close down more, Push Up, Narrow, Tight marking, Offside. with target man and AF.   

 

 

This isn't really true, United for example certainly wouldn't play with an attacking mentality as they're not moving the ball aggresively forwards. Another example would be WBA, they defend deeply and in numbers with a lot of players behind the ball and inherently it's a less risky way of playing. 

I agree the PL is more transition focussed than Serie A or La Liga but most teams don't play with a risky mentality. I think the issue is that the ME rarely replicates quick counters irrespective of mentality or tempo.

[Fosse]

1 hour ago, nightwalker22 said:

Why is that mate?

In part because I'm a bit bored with the game, partly because of the limitations and mostly because I can get into a save anymore.

[NabsKebabs]

36 minutes ago, Fosse said:

In part because I'm a bit bored with the game, partly because of the limitations and mostly because I can get into a save anymore.

Very understandable.

Getting into a save can be very tricky, particularly when you play the first few games and they don't go too well. And often when I do get into a save, I just completely lose interest suddenly. For example, I had started a Wolves save, got promoted straight away then managed a mid table finish. Arund halfway through the third season again around mid table and haven't touched the save for a week despite having plenty of time to do so.

The limitations are very annoying. For example I was looking at trying to replicate Monaco but I believe it's impossible. They defend very narrow but use the whole pitch when attacking. Why there isn't a width setting for defence completely beats me. 

 

[Armistice]

15 minutes ago, NabsKebabs said:

Very understandable.

Getting into a save can be very tricky, particularly when you play the first few games and they don't go too well. And often when I do get into a save, I just completely lose interest suddenly. For example, I had started a Wolves save, got promoted straight away then managed a mid table finish. Arund halfway through the third season again around mid table and haven't touched the save for a week despite having plenty of time to do so.

The limitations are very annoying. For example I was looking at trying to replicate Monaco but I believe it's impossible. They defend very narrow but use the whole pitch when attacking. Why there isn't a width setting for defence completely beats me. 

I think lower Mentality + Team Shape can help you with a narrow defence.

[Fosse]

46 minutes ago, nightwalker22 said:

I think lower Mentality + Team Shape can help you with a narrow defence.

Defences all retreat in to the same width but mentality just affects how quickly the defensive narrows.

[herne79]

4 hours ago, Fosse said:

In part because I'm a bit bored with the game, partly because of the limitations and mostly because I can get into a save anymore.

Shame, but understandable.  Maybe revisit it in the future .

[Armistice]

3 hours ago, Fosse said:

Defences all retreat in to the same width but mentality just affects how quickly the defensive narrows.

Mind expanding this?

[Mitja]

more defensive the mentality, lower the block by default. D Line = defensive 'width'.  

[Fosse]

2 hours ago, nightwalker22 said:

Mind expanding this?

So on Contain defenders will still retreat to the same 'width' defensively as Overload but it just happens a lot more auickly on lower mentalities.