Assistant Manager Pre-Match Advice

[ThunderCelt]

Before every game, the assistant manager gives advice on mentality, number of attack/support/defend duties etc.  Is it worth paying attention to this, either to 'obey' his suggestions to the letter, or to use it as a general guide (like the generic tactics), or is it flawed and so ignoreable?  Or does the accuracy of his advice depend on his ability?  As I struggle with tactics I tend to take any advice I can find, whether it's on this forum or from my staff!

A second question, is does the number of duties suggested include the goalkeeper, who I always put on defend because I've never considered using a sweeper-keeper.

 

[FMunderachiever]

Im not sure it makes that much difference, but it could do.

There are games where me and the assistant manager fundamentally disagree on our approach to the game ahead. But I suppose that's not to say my approach OR his couldn't have both been effective.

I think I read on here that the managers advice is more based around HIS preferences tactically, rather than countering specific threats.

But he does sometimes deviate from this, to suggest attacking down a certain side of the field, or saying on feet/getting stuck in etc.

I tend to ignore him really. Same with the pre match briefing. I only use it if we are going to do something different in a game and I want to emphasise the point

[Experienced Defender]

I personally almost never listen to the AM's tactical advice. I may sometimes adopt 1-2 suggestions from him, but only - and literally only - if these really suit the tactical style I am looking to implement. 

5 hours ago, ThunderCelt said:

As I struggle with tactics I tend to take any advice I can find, whether it's on this forum or from my staff!

I'd recommend you look for advice on the forum here. Just post a screenshot of your tactic and a lot of us will be glad to offer some useful advice 

[ThunderCelt]

Thank you  both.  Up to now I've  generally accepted my assistant's advice but  I'll think about it  a bit more critically in future.  

[Snorks]

Yeah, I read it, but generally I don't use it.

[AlexJames]

I would be interested in more information/ context on this function as well. Are the AM suggestions based on his preferences? My team's reputation?  The opposition reputation? My players ability? The opposition players ability? Recent form? All of these?

When I first began playing I would often listen to my AM, however now it's really just white noise. The suggestions made by the AM do not seem to take into account form, previous success using specific tactics - against the opposition team or otherwise -  etc., and seem to just be based on a default preference or opposition reputation.

Perfect example, my team has a super low reputation and predicted to finish 8th of 10 in the league. I am currently in 5th place. Last night I won an away game 2-0 using a Balanced 4-5-1 with standard DL, great performance. For the following home game - against a recently relegated side (now in 8th in my league) - I was 'instructed' to play a Defensive game with a lower DL. In fact, he suggests this approach for pretty much every game we play in the league.

Understandably I kept the same tactic as the previous game - Balanced 4-5-1 with standard DL - I won the game 3-0.

To me it seems the advice is based purely on opposition reputation - i.e. we are bad, they are good, we must play defensive etc. - and nothing else.

This may also say something regarding the ability in FM to overachieve with lower reputation clubs by being more aggressive/ attacking with tactics - something which certainly seems to be true for my own team.

 

[Andros]

I decided yesterday to run an experimental save om FM18 where I made my assistant manager CA at 200, gave him really high attributes in the editor, and then would follow his advice pre-game and in-game.  My hope was to learn something about tactical decisions that would help me make choices in the future.

 

However, when I was editing his attributes, I came upon this:

 

 

I didn't know what to do, so if I was unsure I just put the attribute at 10.  My logic was that putting everything at 20 will make him want to do that more, whereas 10 was the middle road.  I turned off any preferences such as formation or tendencies.

 

I set my formation as a 4-4-2 with standard mentality and the team shape as flexible to allow for changes, and these were reset after every game.

 

I only ran 3 games as the results did not work out as planned.  Basically he gave formation advice (based upon the formation weakness in the scout report, which since his tactical flexibility was 20, he was willing to try any formation.  As the other teams only had pre-season friendlies, this was not particularly useful.) and once he gave a mentality suggestion (from standard to control for a home game).  At no time in pre-game were there any other pieces of advice.  During the game there was some advice, usually related to passing length and crossing.

 

My initial thoughts are that since I gave many tactical attributes as 10, he did not favour or hate them, he just tended to ignore them.  I would guess if I put some of those at 20 (such as width), then he would tell me to do that every time.  When I have time I guess I can check that out.

 

So, if the assistant manager had a preferred formation, mentality, and tactical preference, I would assume that would be part of most of his advice.  Again, not confirmed, just based on a quick test.