Emulating real life tactics

[mjk46]

For several years of FM I usually plug-n-play and then tweak to my liking but for the first time I want to start making my own tactics. The thing is I want to emulate as much as I can to real life managers of what they use. So here is my question.. What would be the best resources to use to help me create these tactics emulating the real thing?? For example if I wanted to copy Blanc's tactics at PSG from a few years back, what would  resources would I need to properly build it?

[Falahk]

Watching games (as many as possible) is by far the easiest way to do it, to get a feel of what type of players you need and how to set it up in the ME 

This along with a basic understanding of how the ME function is all you need really 

[FMSD0]

Hello, mjk46!

What helped me achieving something like this is WhoScored's database.

WhoScored's data representation includes comprehensive historic data about club performances. But it's important to know how to interpret this data. Last summer I did something similar (I compared and standardised data of more than 130 seasons of well-known managers to get an idea of their playing styles) and came to the conclusion that Blanc's PSG 15/16 had following characteristics:

• much less urgent pressure
• attacking width very narrow
• default defensive line
• a strong probability for a very low line of engagement (because the system wasn't pressure-oriented; instead Blanc relied on vertical compactness)
• Work ball into the box, because only 30 % of all shots were executed from outside the box
• focus play through the middle, because they had an amount of 32 % possession in the middle of the pitch which is rather pretty high; the average was about 26 % that season
• these data suggest that Blanc's system also had a strong emphasis on short passing since the horizontal and vertical distances between the players were pretty short; therefore I'd use much shorter passing; they also had more than 63 % possession on average which is huge
• the extremely high amount of times their opponent's got trapped offside suggests there were playing with an offside trap (more than twice the average size), but be careful: football has changed much within the last six years and offsides are much rarer than before
• default defensive width
• the amount of fouls, if not in possession, suggests that Blanc's PSG rather used get stuck in, but not always
• the overall playing style indicates that, when Blanc's PSG won possession, they were looking to hold shape, and rather regrouped when they lost the ball

That's basically everything I get out of the data (based on the averages of every Ligue 1 club of the 15/16 season). But don't forget that these stats vary from opponent to opponent, and it's also important to consider that teams often play a different, very often a more cautious, brand of football when they play away from home.

However, it's not completely possible to transfer real life statistics into a video game because even the best programmers fail to replicate real life, because they have their own ideas about it. You might come close with this kind of data though.

Edited January 4, 2020 by FMSD0

[mjk46]

You guys are so awesome with the advise, thanks for the tips so far

[mjk46]

1 hour ago, gonefading said:

Hello, mjk46!

What helped me achieving something like this is WhoScored's database.

WhoScored's data representation includes comprehensive historic data about club performances. But it's important to know how to interpret this data. Last summer I did something similar (I compared and standardised data of more than 130 seasons of well-known managers to get an idea of their playing styles) and came to the conclusion that Blanc's PSG 15/16 had following characteristics:

• much less urgent pressure
• attacking width very narrow
• default defensive line
• a strong probability for a very low line of engagement (because the system wasn't pressure-oriented; instead Blanc relied on vertical compactness)
• Work ball into the box, because only 30 % of all shots were executed from outside the box
• focus play through the middle, because they had an amount of 32 % possession in the middle of the pitch rather which is pretty high; the average was about 26 % that season
• these data suggest that Blanc's system also had a strong emphasis on short passing since the horizontal and vertical distances between the players were pretty short; therefore I'd use very much shorter passing; they also had more than 63 % possession on average which is huge
• the extremely high amount of times their opponent's got trapped offside suggests there were playing with an offside trap (more than twice the average size), but be careful: football has changed much within the last six years and offsides are much rarer than before
• default defensive width
• the amount of fouls, if not in possession, suggests they Blanc's PSG rather used get stuck in
• the overall playing style indicates that, when Blanc's PSG won possession, they were looking to hold shape, and rather regrouped when they lost the ball

That's basically everything I get out of the data (based on the averages of every Ligue 1 club of the 15/16 season). But don't forget that these stats vary from opponent to opponent, and it's also important to consider that teams often play a different, very often a more cautious, brand of football when they play away from home.

However, it's not completely possible to transfer real life statistics into a video game because even the best programmers fail to replicate real life, because they have their own ideas about it. You might come close with this kind of data though.

As long as I can get close to that feeling, I will be happy even if not I will just enjoy learning the tactics system better. 

[FMSD0]

I just took a look at Blanc's most used players that season to see which roles and duties might fit in this certain system. 

This was the main starting XI (4123 / 433), below how I'd approach the system based on player types off the top of my head: 

Ibrahimovic

Cavani - Di Maria

Matuidi - Verratti

Motta (Rabiot)

Maxwell - David Luiz - Thiago Silva - Aurier

Trapp

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

CFat

WTMat - IWsu/Wsu

[Di Maria used rabona crosses very often]

CAR - MEZsu/DLPsu

DLPde/su

FBsu - BPDde - CDde - WBsu

SKde

Edited January 5, 2020 by FMSD0