DOOM - The 2018 version of Ultimate Doom

[Fenech]

On the face it, I think it is very difficult to create a tactics which incorporates both possession and attacking football and is successful. But as that is what the board clearly wants then why not?!?!

This is Ultimate Doom for FM18 - Enjoy!   https://www.dropbox.com/s/u8nsofbteltyedc/UD3.0.fmf?dl=0

First of all then let's have a look at the tactic itself.

I have decided that the best way to approach this is to make a Possession tactic which is very attacking. I would find it harder to make an Attacking tactic which is about possession, if that makes sense.

Therefore the Mentality I have chosen is control which for me is the mentality to do with possession football.

Here are following key points with this mentality:

Believe we are the stronger team: TICK

Wary of the opponents counter attack: TICK

Move the ball around the park: TICK

Patiently probe the final third: TICK

Find space as and when it opens up: TICK

Wing Backs overlap: TICK

Midfielders break ahead of the forwards only in relatively risk free situations: TICK

Sit back and help the midfield maintain possession until chances open up: TICK

I believe that the game of football is simple and people make it more complicated than it is. Brian Clough said the game of football is simple, you have a ball and the aim of the game is to put the ball in the back of the net.

I want to do all of the above, but I want to Attack as well. Attack for me means to frighten the hell out of the opposition by attacking them and putting the ball in the back of the net.

To combat this I have chosen a Fluid Philosophy. This is very important because we want to play the beautiful game too. My players are good enough to play a game which means that they can contribute to more than phase of play at a time, yes they can Multi Task! Especially the wages I am paying them! They had better be able to do this.

I want the players to play free flowing football and absolutely I want the creative players to shine.

Before I get into team instructions, I want to go into player roles and why I have chosen them.

Sweeper Keeper: Support Duty

My Sweeper goalkeeper will focus on simple and risk free use of the ball which is vital for a keeper; you don’t want your keeper taking too many risks. As Brian Clough would say, the keepers’ job is simple, stop the ball from going into the back of the net!

Personal Instruction: Roll it out, Distribute to Centre Backs and Fewer Risky Passes

Wing Back: Attack Duty

Remember I said the way I am doing this, is by creating a Possession Tactic that is attacking, one of the ways I am hoping to achieve this is by making the player roles more attacking.

Plays outside with no wing support: I use Inside Forwards instead of wingers so this is fine.

Fulfil attacking and defensive duties of winger and full backs: Absolutely my players can do this.

Run at his man and put in aggressive crosses: Yes I want to frighten the opposition so aggressive crosses are great and I want to run at the man, put the man on the back foot, get the man back peddling.

In Midfield to win the Possession Battle: Great because this is a possession tactic.

In Defence to close down opponents, block crosses and win back the ball when possible.

Yes I want the closing down approach in line with attacking, and of course winning back the ball will help us to regain possession as soon as possible.

Central Defender: Defend Duty

Possess the technique and composure in aggressive tactics (which this is) to help the team maintain possession and lay off simple passes to more creative players. This is perfect for a team which wants to play possession football.

Ball Playing Defender: Defend Duty

The reason I have chosen a ball playing defender in this position is because the ball playing defender thinks a lot about attacking passes, so he does everything a central defender does but also he will be encouraged to make a searching attacking ball / through ball up field if he has the vision to see it through.

Regista: Support Duty

The Regista is aggressive which is what you want in an aggression tactic. Suitable for possession orientated systems which press high up the pitch. (This is exactly what this tactic is all about)

Given complete freedom to dictate from deep positions which is perfect because he is in a deep position, the Regista offers a dynamic and unpredictable creative outlet from behind the attack.

The Regista seeks to maintain intense pressure (which is perfect in a tactic which attacks) by constantly looking for new chances as his more advanced teammates get into goal scoring positions.

Advanced Playmaker: Attack Duty

This player makes himself available for team mate’s passes, which is what you want possession wise, this player also aims to turn defence into attack in an instant which is great because it also deals with the attacking intent of this tactic. The reason he has an attack duty is because he will run at the defence from deeper positions which is great as we want to run at the opposition and frighten the life out of them! Plus the added bonus that he will craft out crossing or through ball opportunities whilst moving into the final third.

This is very important because with possession tactics, that just pass the ball about the park, you also want the tactic to have an end product so you need players which are moving into the final third and creating chances on the opposition goal.

Central Midfielder: Attack Duty

The central midfielder offers a link between the defence and the attack and having good links in your tactic are vital to success in this game. The central midfield will support both attacking and defensive play as needed. Whilst it is great that the central midfielder will supplement the attack, it is also good to know that should we find ourselves in a defensive situation; the central midfielder will chip in as well. Crucially though, I am a firm believer that Attack is the best form of Defence which was ably proven by Tyson Fury defeating Vladimir Klitschko very recently on-route to becoming the three belt holder heavyweight champion of the world! So this central midfield will more readily surge into the final third to support the forwards in and around the box!

False Nine: Support Duty

The reason I have chosen the false nine will become very clear. I don’t usually opt for False Nines in a tactic but this player really suits what I am trying to create here. Firstly it is a more advanced attacking midfielder/playmaker role, which is great because I want the player to be more advanced as it is in the attack position. It is a lone striker role and I am playing with a Lone Striker. I really like that this player is prepared to drop deeper into midfield because let’s face it, you don’t want a lone striker just waiting for someone to pass it to you, you want a striker who is going to go into the midfield and get the ball themselves, this reminds me of when Ian Rush was transferred to Juventus and had a horrid time scoring goals after being so prolific with Liverpool, the reason given was that he stayed in attack and wasn’t getting the right service, he didn’t go into midfield to get the ball himself.

The purpose of this is that it creates a massive problem for opposing central defenders in that they either follow him, leaving space behind them for onrushing midfielders, forwards or wingers to exploit.

This is exactly what I am hoping for, the central defenders will mark or follow my striker into midfield leaving open goals and clear cut chances for my onrushing midfield or inside forwards to exploit to devastating effect.

Alternatively they don’t do this, they then leave him the time and space he needs to dribble at the opposition or pick out a pass which is fine as well because this falls in line with attacking play, and also the pass will help to maintain the possession aspect of the tactic.

Inside Forwards: Attack Duties

The inside forward is going exploit the spaces left by the central defenders when they follow my false nine. They are going to run directly at the opposition which is great because as you know I want to frighten the life out of the opposition. Their movement will open up the spaces for my overlapping wing backs, as well as overloading a retreating defence.

It is worth mentioning at this point that I have developed Jordan Ibe into a cracking player, he is playing like maradona, zig zagging and ghosting his way through players and he has a brilliant end product as well.

Ok so now I have shown the formation and explained the reasons for the team positions I have chosen, I will now show you my team instructions and explain my reasons for choosing them.

Tempo: Normal or Low

The reason I have chosen a normal tempo is because I don’t believe in one tempo fits all, the players are intelligent as I like intelligent players like Mesut Ozil e.g. so they can choose when the time is right to play at a normal tempo, when the time is right to step up the tempo and also when the time is right to slow the tempo down. You have to consider that if this was an outright attacking tactic, then I would be going with a very fast tempo and if this was a possession tactic, id be slowing the tempo right down so the two don’t mix, the only mix is the centre ground in between so therefore I think as I want both, the only way to make it work is to leave the tempo as normal and then let the intelligent players choose when to speed it up and when to slow it down.

If you find that you are losing possession, then go with a low tempo instead as this will help you to keep hold of the ball better.

In football manager 2016 one of the differences is that it tells you how much you will be timewasting based on the tactic you choose, so this is defaulted at fairly rarely which is great because to be frank, I’m not really into wasting time.

Wide: The reason I have gone wide is because I want to attack the opposition, therefore I want to stretch the play, I have 2 wing backs and 2 inside forwards, at the end of the day, narrowing the play will just suit tactics that want to be more compact and defensive and therefore this is not a defensive tactic at all, so I don’t feel the need to do that, I want to attack and control, So I want it to be as wide as possible and stretch the play and use the full extremes of the pitch to my advantage.

Defensive Line: Slightly Higher

Remembering here the Regista who plays in possession orientated systems that press higher up the pitch. So I know my defensive line needs to be higher, also of course attacking play generally tends to have a higher defensive line which presses the opposition, I don’t like going all the way high up because remember that the control tactic is wary of the oppositions counter attack and if the defensive line is too high than you take the serious risk of opposing teams playing balls over the defence and springing a counter attack and/or breaking the offside trap.

Therefore I have opted for slightly higher which is close to the half way line.

Use Offside Trap: Yes this is important because if you defence is higher, you should be playing the offside trap, especially if your central defenders are also on the same duty.

Closing Down: More

I have chosen more because if I lose the battle for possession, I want the ball back as soon as possible, I don’t want to give the opposition any time with the ball because every second the opposition has the ball, is a second I am losing in the possession stakes and so I want to win the ball back as quickly as possible. I was very tempted to choose much more, as I want to be relentless with this but at the end of the day I didn't want to have any major negative impact on my team shape as a result, so I opted for more being enough to suit the teams needs without sacrificing on team shape which is also very important. A good team shape is vital, If you look at the way the formation is spread out then you will notice that each player has space within the chosen formation and that is important, I am all for pressing the opposition but if we lose our shape then that is sacrilege because the opposition will just pick holes in you and you find yourself on the end of a bit of a thrashing!

Prevent short goalkeeper distribution:

Yes, this option means pressing the opposition goalkeeper as well, Chelsea used to this in the pre roman days, if the keeper had the ball, they used to close the keeper down at any opportunity and the reason for this is to prevent the goalkeeper from playing it short to the defence and building from the back, this forces the keeper to hit a long ball which could potentially be picked up by one of my players instead.

Use Tight Marking:

I am never sure whether to choose this option or not because I am of the thinking that if I use opposition instruction which I do, then you don’t need to do tight marking but maybe you do! However I have chosen to include this because I do want to prevent the opposition from attacking the ball and this option allows me to do this.

Tackling: Get Stuck in

I have chosen this option because I want to be aggressive, attacking should be aggressive and control is aggressive as well in my opinion. I know that this might lead to more fouls and disciplinary action but I am prepared to accept this, I have a big squad, lots of strength in depth and therefore I know that I can handle that, what I like about this is my players who are good tacklers will go for the ball, and get the ball off the opposition and this is great.

Build Up: Play out of defence. Okay so this is a possession tactic and therefore play out of the defence is required so that we can start moves in the right way. I want my defenders passing their way out of the back, rather than clearing long.

PASS INTO SPACE:

The reason for pass into space is that you do that when you are attacking and I like greasy fast players to latch onto these balls passed into space and gain clear cut chances as a result. This instruction is about making passes into open spaces. A lot of my player roles are designed to create the space, finding the spaces for my attackers to exploit so pass into space falls in line with the roles of the players and also the way I want to play. This is going to make my possession tactic; more attacking too which is the whole point of this exercise.

Passing: Shorter Passing

This is a possession tactic so I have gone with shorter passing as I feel that you need shorter passing with a tactic which looks to control the play and maintain ball possession. You might argue that attacking should be direct but not necessarily, you can attack and play the game with short passes too.

Retain Possession

Prioritise keeping hold of the ball which is essential in a possession tactic.

Attack: Look for Overlap

I chose this because my wingbacks will benefit from this tremendously, as they bomb forward and also my inside forwards will create the space which the overlapping wing backs by doing their thing and the false nine will distract the defenders, meaning the wing backs and the inside forwards will simply create total carnage in the opposition box leading to teams getting well and truly thrashed!

Attack: Work Ball into Box

I chose this because it falls in line with a possession tactic, it will mean players work their way into the box and not shoot on sight, but instead wait for clear cut opportunities to present themselves. Remaining patient and not forcing the issue is great because it means more control of the play. Retaining possession until a breakthrough appears.

Whipped Crosses

The reason for whipped crosses is because these are really hard for the opposition to deal with and they swerve as well.

Dribbling: Run at Defence

As I previously mentioned, I want to run at the defence a lot and frighten the opposition so I have included run at defence. It is also means I am dribbling with the ball more and if I have the ball then it means I also have possession, so this is not only an attacking move, but it is a possession move as well.

Creative Freedom: Leave this at default, so neither option selected.

The reason for this is my players are intelligent, and they can decide whether they need to be more disciplined, also you don’t have to tick every option in team instruction, if in doubt, leave at the default setting, I personally think that attacking is more about being more expressive and defensive tactics are about being more disciplined, however I don’t feel the need to select be more expressive as I am sure the creative players will express themselves, I still want an element of discipline as well.

Freedom of Movement: Leave this at default, so neither option selected.

The reason for this is because I want the players to decide as sometimes they may need to roam and sometimes ill want them to be stick to position, e.g. If they are passing the ball around, then its good if they are in the right positions to get the pass, if they are not in possession, how are they going to be there when the pass is made? Also e.g. I will want them to roam, so that the can get to the passes made into open spaces too so its best just to leave this a default and trust my players to decide when the right time is to roam and when the right time is to stick to position, also the players will know their own limitations, I don’t want a player roaming if the player does not feeling very comfortable doing so.

Thank you for taking the time to read this so far and feel free to post any comments or give advice or just to ask some questions, there is no such thing as a stupid question, no right or wrong, this is just a work in progress and I look forward to your questions.  

[Jorgen]

I had great success with your ultimate doom tactics for FM2016 with Barcelona. Thanks for creating it again for FM18. I see there is only one tactic now. No defensive/hard opponent version, or 10 man version this year?

[MAECK]

want to try with chelsea. What about training?

[MAECK]

[jw1598]

Really like this, is there any alternative to the CM on attack duty however ? 

[gazzahutc]

what is the general match training any OIs used this in fm16 nice to see it again

[Fenech]

12 hours ago, Jorgen said:

I had great success with your ultimate doom tactics for FM2016 with Barcelona. Thanks for creating it again for FM18. I see there is only one tactic now. No defensive/hard opponent version, or 10 man version this year?

No, What I am doing at the moment is having this tactic in all 3 tactical slots but in the first copy of doom change the mentality to attacking and in the copy of copy of doom slot change the mentality to standard. But you always play the control and fluid one. However because your training up the attacking and standard mentalities too, when the team need to attack more or they need to sit back more and hold on to a lead, they will be more adept and comfortable with this. plus you learn the tactics quicker. which i think is very clever, if you go down to 10 men, either sacrifice the striker or regista but whatever you do try to make sure the shape is still good. sometimes you can pull the inside forwards back for more solidarity if down to 10 men and just give them inside forward moves manually... which is effectively all the 10 man tactic was. 

[Fenech]

1 hour ago, MAECK said:

want to try with chelsea. What about training?

General Training : I just leave this to my assistant. However If i was to do it, and you like to spend the time on it. Keep it on High or Average - do a different training every week. I prefer the balanced approach. but to be fair you train them in whatever areas you prefer. there is no right or wrong, but my general rule would be, if 3 games in the week, low intensity, if 2 games in the week average, if one game in the week, then high intensity and if no games very high... i would check it every monday as games in the week can change instantly so put a reminder to check training for every monday because its easy to forget. I

Individual training you should do yourself. thats the first team and the youth teams too.

Just keep checking every month. train them up only in the addition focus area suggested for them.  Unless your retraining them in a new position in which case dont give them any additional focus.

[Fenech]

1 hour ago, MAECK said:

Nice result 

[Fenech]

50 minutes ago, jw1598 said:

Really like this, is there any alternative to the CM on attack duty however ? 

There are alternatives however it would be a case of trial it and see because I always like one central midfielder in a central midfield role as its good for fluidity in the center of the park. Also the attack duty is all part of the plan, if the opposition starts following the false nine up the pitch, he will bomb forward along with the amc and inside forwards leaving the opposition defence overwhelmed by the spaces created and thats how the goals are scored from every position. the goals are spread throughout the team and the players really enjoy this style of play... if they dont mark the f9 and leave him , the f9 can do as he pleases, but they do so at their peril! 

[Fenech]

37 minutes ago, gazzahutc said:

what is the general match training any OIs used this in fm16 nice to see it again

opposition instructions

get a staff member to do it, you're looking for someone with good judging player ability and good tactical knowledge. determination and lvl of discipline is helpful too.

[jw1598]

13 minutes ago, Fenech said:

There are alternatives however it would be a case of trial it and see because I always like one central midfielder in a central midfield role as its good for fluidity in the center of the park. Also the attack duty is all part of the plan, if the opposition starts following the false nine up the pitch, he will bomb forward along with the amc and inside forwards leaving the opposition defence overwhelmed by the spaces created and thats how the goals are scored from every position. the goals are spread throughout the team and the players really enjoy this style of play... if they dont mark the f9 and leave him , the f9 can do as he pleases, but they do so at their peril! 

I will stick with the CMa. Thanks, looks like a great tactic. 

[Sloken]

Early days, but so far very good for me with Liverpool. Only one signing, Julian Brandt.

[Fenech]

3 minutes ago, Sloken said:

Early days, but so far very good for me with Liverpool. Only one signing, Julian Brandt.

Not surprised, when i made the tactic in FM16, it was a tactic i built specifically for Liverpool and the players there at the time.

[Hellyeah]

Nice. Thanks. 

[Fenech]

46 minutes ago, Hellyeah said:

Nice. Thanks. 

As you go on, the possession will be between 65% - 70% on average, which pleases the board and also the attacking pleases the board too because there are wide variety of goalscorers. so try to get your philosophies as plays possession football and plays attacking football as this will make you untouchable with the board after a while. 

[gazzahutc]

1 hour ago, Sloken said:

Early days, but so far very good for me with Liverpool. Only one signing, Julian Brandt.

what is your typical starting eleven Sloken as playing with Liverpool myself

[Sloken]

22 minutes ago, gazzahutc said:

what is your typical starting eleven Sloken as playing with Liverpool myself

 

Mignolet, TAA, van Dijk, Matip, Robertson, Can - Hendo - Wijnaldum, Salah - Mane - Firmino

[gazzahutc]

1 hour ago, Sloken said:

 

Mignolet, TAA, van Dijk, Matip, Robertson, Can - Hendo - Wijnaldum, Salah - Mane - Firmino

do you change the mentality as really struggling to score goals

[Sloken]

9 hours ago, gazzahutc said:

do you change the mentality as really struggling to score goals

No im to lazy 😂

[UltrA80]

I will post my results with Amiens in Ligue 1, but i can say, its amazing !

 

I will continue to test this tactic for a full season

[Fenech]

1 hour ago, UltrA80 said:

I will post my results with Amiens in Ligue 1, but i can say, its amazing !

 

I will continue to test this tactic for a full season

Great. I look forward to your results. 

[UltrA80]

End of my season with your tactic

6 games - 5 wins - 1 draw

[Hellyeah]

Now like this. Very fun and crazy football. What can you try to do to build the game on the defensive? From Newcastle, I missed four goals in 20 minutes, from Everton 3 in 10 minutes. At what you see at home I miss a few goals.
Sorry for my english, use google translate.

[Fenech]

43 minutes ago, UltrA80 said:

End of my season with your tactic

6 games - 5 wins - 1 draw

Well Done  That's impressive 

[Fenech]

14 minutes ago, Hellyeah said:

Now like this. Very fun and crazy football. What can you try to do to build the game on the defensive? From Newcastle, I missed four goals in 20 minutes, from Everton 3 in 10 minutes. At what you see at home I miss a few goals.
Sorry for my english, use google translate.

OK so here is a few things you can do, buy fast central defenders and buy good defenders, buy a good regista. try to inject as much pace in the defense as you can. In terms of the tactic, whatever you increase, there is always a decrease. so you have a coin, on one side a head and on the other a tail. If you make tactic little more defensive, the tactic then becomes a little less attacking, and this tactic is about being in possession but with a very attacking intent! so leave it just the way it is because as you can see its winning and remember that's what counts. You are going to concede a few because your very attacking, this is natural. but concentrate on improving the players in the defense from the goalie to the regista.. and this will in time increase the amount of clean sheets you keep.

[Jorgen]

On 28-1-2018 at 15:32, Fenech said:

No, What I am doing at the moment is having this tactic in all 3 tactical slots but in the first copy of doom change the mentality to attacking and in the copy of copy of doom slot change the mentality to standard. But you always play the control and fluid one. However because your training up the attacking and standard mentalities too, when the team need to attack more or they need to sit back more and hold on to a lead, they will be more adept and comfortable with this. plus you learn the tactics quicker. which i think is very clever, if you go down to 10 men, either sacrifice the striker or regista but whatever you do try to make sure the shape is still good. sometimes you can pull the inside forwards back for more solidarity if down to 10 men and just give them inside forward moves manually... which is effectively all the 10 man tactic was. 

To get this more clear for me: You always start with the tactic in slot one. When in a match, and you are goals behind, change mentality in the first tactic? Or switch to second tactic? Or do nothing and hope the team understand this by themselfs? And when to use the 3rd? I have Doom now in all my slots. So Doom, copy of Doom and copy of copy of Doom. What do I do now exactly?

[Fenech]

On 2/8/2018 at 23:27, Jorgen said:

To get this more clear for me: You always start with the tactic in slot one. When in a match, and you are goals behind, change mentality in the first tactic? Or switch to second tactic? Or do nothing and hope the team understand this by themselfs? And when to use the 3rd? I have Doom now in all my slots. So Doom, copy of Doom and copy of copy of Doom. What do I do now exactly?

Its important to have three different tactics, but slight variations on mentality. but its your preference. I never change from Doom. But I know that the players can change mentality if they choose to and are given the creative freedom to make those choices, because they are fully trained in the different mentalities. so they are comfortable in using creative freedom to go attacking if they need a goal or more defensive or hold onto a lead. So you have three different tactics, An Attacking one. The main control one and a defensive one, but no need to change from the control one as the players will automatically switch to a different mentality depending on how the game is going because they have the creative freedom and trust to make those choices themselves and because the game is a reflection/obsession on reality, so any actual change is frowned upon, just like in reality people are reluctant to change as well... every wants change but very few people are prepared to change. the game fears change, so no need to change. just train the different tactics and mentalities and let the players change themselves. you dont have to call them copy of doom and copy of copy of doom, i just didn't bother renaming them.

[Jorgen]

12 hours ago, Fenech said:

Its important to have three different tactics, but slight variations on mentality. but its your preference. I never change from Doom. But I know that the players can change mentality if they choose to and are given the creative freedom to make those choices, because they are fully trained in the different mentalities. so they are comfortable in using creative freedom to go attacking if they need a goal or more defensive or hold onto a lead. So you have three different tactics, An Attacking one. The main control one and a defensive one, but no need to change from the control one as the players will automatically switch to a different mentality depending on how the game is going because they have the creative freedom and trust to make those choices themselves and because the game is a reflection/obsession on reality, so any actual change is frowned upon, just like in reality people are reluctant to change as well... every wants change but very few people are prepared to change. the game fears change, so no need to change. just train the different tactics and mentalities and let the players change themselves. you dont have to call them copy of doom and copy of copy of doom, i just didn't bother renaming them.

Aha, so I always use the first one and never change to tactic 2 or 3 and evenmore, never change mentality in tactic one, as the players do it themselfs already?

So this would me the easiest and most plug and play tactic ever. I hope it works just as good as your previous one. I had so much succes with that in FM16 and some in 17 too (but I did not play that much, due to other obligations)

thanks for explaining @Fenech

[Jorgen]

I am playing with Lillestrøm and signing quality players is quite hard.

What should I look for in a player for my team?

[Jorgen]

Finished my 1st season in Norway's Eliteserien with Lillestrøm. Pre-season predictions where 11th - 16th in the league. I finished 6th! Board demanded me to get to the cups 4th round. In the end we were victorious in the final.  Next year I will be allowed to start in the 1st qualification round of the Europa League!  Hope that will be a nice adventure too.

[Fenech]

On 3/10/2018 at 23:54, Jorgen said:

I am playing with Lillestrøm and signing quality players is quite hard.

What should I look for in a player for my team?

Speed. Greasy fast speed!
Determination to Succeed

Mentality is good too

And look for players who will perform best in the selected roles.

[Fenech]

On 3/12/2018 at 02:43, Jorgen said:

Finished my 1st season in Norway's Eliteserien with Lillestrøm. Pre-season predictions where 11th - 16th in the league. I finished 6th! Board demanded me to get to the cups 4th round. In the end we were victorious in the final.  Next year I will be allowed to start in the 1st qualification round of the Europa League!  Hope that will be a nice adventure too.

That's Great News! Hopefully next season will improve for you

[Fenech]

Hey Guys,

I have updated the Tactic in the OP

Here is the link.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/wcdyy27w76eatev/UD3.0.fmf

Enjoy!

[Jorgen]

On 18-3-2018 at 10:47, Fenech said:

Hey Guys,

I have updated the Tactic in the OP

Here is the link.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/wcdyy27w76eatev/UD3.0.fmf

Enjoy!

What is different, Fenech?

[Fenech]

4 minutes ago, Jorgen said:

What is different, Fenech?

Nothing is different as it is perfect as it is, but I have updated the set pieces. As a lot of changes were made to the set pieces this year, so it was important to do them properly.

[Jorgen]

OK.

 

Perhaps my players are stupid or so, but almost every corner they take is an indirect one.  

[MAECK]

[Banks_87]

This tactic is unreal, plugged it first season with my Marseille side, we were sitting about 7th and Champions League looked a distant dream with over half the season gone, however we ended up finishing 2nd and winning the French Cup thanks to this tactic. Roll on second season we went unbeaten in the league until March, won the title with 107 goals, 24 conceded, a record 31 wins and a record 97 points, a great achievement because PSG only finished 2 points behind me for some perspective. Not only did we wrap the title up, we won the French Cup again and lost in the Champions League final to United 1-0, memorable for beating Madrid and Barca en route.

The third year started well, beating PSG 5-1 in the French community shield but all in all it has been a little difficult keeping up with PSG, but I sit 2 points behind with around 15 to play!

So I can only thank you Fenech, best tactic i've used this year

[Fenech]

On 3/26/2018 at 13:25, Banks_87 said:

This tactic is unreal, plugged it first season with my Marseille side, we were sitting about 7th and Champions League looked a distant dream with over half the season gone, however we ended up finishing 2nd and winning the French Cup thanks to this tactic. Roll on second season we went unbeaten in the league until March, won the title with 107 goals, 24 conceded, a record 31 wins and a record 97 points, a great achievement because PSG only finished 2 points behind me for some perspective. Not only did we wrap the title up, we won the French Cup again and lost in the Champions League final to United 1-0, memorable for beating Madrid and Barca en route.

The third year started well, beating PSG 5-1 in the French community shield but all in all it has been a little difficult keeping up with PSG, but I sit 2 points behind with around 15 to play!

So I can only thank you Fenech, best tactic i've used this year

You're welcome mate. I am glad your enjoying it and it is working well for you. the best thing is the players really enjoy the teams style of play so you have a happy ship too. One of the other big differences with this tactic is it's not a one version of FM tactic. it seems to perform just as good in each edition of FM so its stands the test of time. Also some tactics only work with top clubs but this tactic works in the lower leagues as well and the top leagues... so even if your Marseilles, Barcelona or Fleetwood Town, you are going to have an enjoyable season. When this tactic is in full flow, it is really enjoyable to watch too. The other tip is that to tell the board your philosophies are Play Attacking Football and Play possession football, because this tactic ticks both those boxes so expect a lot of possession and some very attacking moves. Players from all over the squad will score with this tactic too. So goals are spread throughout the team which really makes a difference with morale. so you might not get the top scorer each season but you will probably get the most goals... that shows that goals come from anywhere and that's a more dangerous proposition to the opposition because they can't just mark one player out of the game and expect a good result.

[Fenech]

On 3/25/2018 at 12:05, MAECK said:

Nice! Perfect Stats against a top club too. Made Chelsea look very average in this game. 

[Banks_87]

3 hours ago, Fenech said:

You're welcome mate. I am glad your enjoying it and it is working well for you. the best thing is the players really enjoy the teams style of play so you have a happy ship too. One of the other big differences with this tactic is it's not a one version of FM tactic. it seems to perform just as good in each edition of FM so its stands the test of time. Also some tactics only work with top clubs but this tactic works in the lower leagues as well and the top leagues... so even if your Marseilles, Barcelona or Fleetwood Town, you are going to have an enjoyable season. When this tactic is in full flow, it is really enjoyable to watch too. The other tip is that to tell the board your philosophies are Play Attacking Football and Play possession football, because this tactic ticks both those boxes so expect a lot of possession and some very attacking moves. Players from all over the squad will score with this tactic too. So goals are spread throughout the team which really makes a difference with morale. so you might not get the top scorer each season but you will probably get the most goals... that shows that goals come from anywhere and that's a more dangerous proposition to the opposition because they can't just mark one player out of the game and expect a good result.

Yes mate, one thing I have noticed is the morale remains sky high all season! Goals are spread out and the False 9 does a great job of bringing others in to play. You're right - the football is enjoyable to watch and for such an attacking tactic its solid at the back.

Anyway, I've started a new save with Leeds, so we will see how it goes - so far so good I'm top of the league!

[Fenech]

2 hours ago, Banks_87 said:

Yes mate, one thing I have noticed is the morale remains sky high all season! Goals are spread out and the False 9 does a great job of bringing others in to play. You're right - the football is enjoyable to watch and for such an attacking tactic its solid at the back.

Anyway, I've started a new save with Leeds, so we will see how it goes - so far so good I'm top of the league!

Yes the False 9 does do a great job of bringing others into play, what he does at the same time, is bring opposition players following him / marking him, and this allows your attacking players to bomb forward unopposed. or they don't follow/mark him and this allows the false 9 to pick out a pass unobstructed instead, so either way the opposition is in big trouble when the false 9 has the ball. Great, Bring the glory days back to Leeds! 

[ednab]

Very good tactic for my Valencia team.

Does taking hard tackling off have a huge impact cause my players seem to like collecting yellow cards.

[Jorgen]

I'm using this tactic for the 3rd season now with Lillestrøm in the Norwegian Eliteserien. Every season my team performs better than the last, so I am quite happy with that.  

One thing that is bothering me: I score lots of goals, but concede lots too. I cannot buy worldclass defenders, but for the Eliteserien, they are really quite ok. So what to do next, to improve this?

[Fenech]

On 4/9/2018 at 20:30, ednab said:

Very good tactic for my Valencia team.

Does taking hard tackling off have a huge impact cause my players seem to like collecting yellow cards.

I think it does. It's a small price to pay but its important to be aggressive in the tackle, you really want to be winning those 50/50 balls. otherwise your giving the opposition more of the ball. if it comes up in the press about your aggressive style just calmly say no comment. Don Revie used to be accused of this alot by Cloughie and the press but he didn't care. He knew his players supported him and you didn't mess with the leeds team of the seventies. so you just need to get players with good aggression and the yellow cards isn't really down to hard tackling, there is a hidden stat called dirtyness which every player has that affects this more... a good hard tackle is part of the game and as long as its a clean tackle its fair play. If a player is 'dirty' like vinny jones was e.g. he is just going to collect yellow cards, even if you had it on medium to soft tackling... in fact if you told vinny jones to go soft in the tackle he would probably just ignore you. 

[Fenech]

On 4/10/2018 at 00:25, Jorgen said:

I'm using this tactic for the 3rd season now with Lillestrøm in the Norwegian Eliteserien. Every season my team performs better than the last, so I am quite happy with that.  

One thing that is bothering me: I score lots of goals, but concede lots too. I cannot buy worldclass defenders, but for the Eliteserien, they are really quite ok. So what to do next, to improve this?

Pace - Get Pacey defenders... pace and acceleration is important across the defense in particular mate. Because look your pressing them and they are going to try and catch you offside, so your defenders and the register wanders, they need get back in time, so they need pace and then you need good mental and off the ball skills, taking up the right positions is important, you need someone with good stamina and i like strong players too. ok if you can't get all these attributes but focus on pace, you can always get that. and yes you will concede but when this tactic is at its best it concedes very little and still scores the same amount. so its just about getting the best players possible for each of the roles. 

[Fribbe]

1 hour ago, Fenech said:

Pace - Get Pacey defenders... pace and acceleration is important across the defense in particular mate. Because look your pressing them and they are going to try and catch you offside, so your defenders and the register wanders, they need get back in time, so they need pace and then you need good mental and off the ball skills, taking up the right positions is important, you need someone with good stamina and i like strong players too. ok if you can't get all these attributes but focus on pace, you can always get that. and yes you will concede but when this tactic is at its best it concedes very little and still scores the same amount. so its just about getting the best players possible for each of the roles. 

What would you define as a pacey defender, 14+?

[Fenech]

Just now, Fribbe said:

What would you define as a pacey defender, 14+?

15+ would be ideal - the higher the better

[Fribbe]

Just now, Fenech said:

15+ would be ideal - the higher the better

And pace is more important than jumping reach, positioning, marking, tackling etc?