FM Tactics and More

I know I don’t advocate downloading tactics anymore, don’t get me wrong, I did use to flood the forums back in the 90s with super tactics, but those days have long gone, replaced by my obsession with a super-system. You see, I believe that the more easily you make the game beatable the more you force SI into a corner where they have no choice but to scale up the engines’s adaptability to the human brain.

The engine is still no match for people. We use our imagination and we come up with novel ways to beat the engine, even now, we can use a good dose of common sense to beat the game, and you don’t need to do much. All you need is a sound knowledge of what you want to achieve tactically, have a clear vision of how you want your team to translate that on the pitch and then select the roles accordingly. Far too often, for some players this is akin to asking them to find the Holy Grail that you say is the Moon, some moon somewhere. To them its impossible.

The objective of this blog, and now my youtube channel BusttheNet, is to make things easy, with that in mind, I have already begun work on a series of videos that detail the way I do tactics, and its a lot simpler than how we make it sound in the tomes that are written on the SI forums or on blogs. At times I may even sound bored, I am attempting to sound interested, doing my best. My wife says I need to perk up, in fact she went as far as to say that she’d probably get bored. Damn, that was harsh.

Bustthenet has already got videos on some player roles and a few videos on how I adapt in games.  This blog also has templates…, ok they are downloads for some tactics, these include the 442, 41221. 343. 4132  and the 4312. Now some tactics have seen me trial them for more than a season, others I have put together and tried them for a few games. When I used to offer up super tactics. like ahem “Scramjet” (still love how that sounds), they would be rigorously tested for 5 seasons on “holiday” mode, in other words, I set the tactic up ran the game for a whole season and kept that going for 5. Nowadays I am older, and more conscious of the passage of time, and as these whiskers on my face grey out, I find that there aren’t enough hours left to do such a regime of testing. Instead I offer these up as TEMPLATES, which means that they have the right settings for roles, you may want to tweak them a bit, its not hard. The basics have been done. You will probably win more than you lose, and you definitely will need to fit your team to the tactic. I will endeavour to help where I can and if there are any queries, I will whip up an FMC game to do some quick videos on different tactical systems on youtube.

Naturally my hair is gone, that greying out was on me whiskers, I have no more hair, so before I lose any more grey cells, I do hope that people are patient and can help and guide me in the direction where I can focus my efforts to help as many of you as possible. Naturally I may not be right all the time, but I aim to be right most of the time with tactics, and where I fail I am sure there are others on the SI forums who are always glad to help.

Oh yeah before I forget…you can find those tactics I am talking about here on one of my pages on the blog

Till next week 🙂

FM15 – Part 3 Flipping Systems

Being adaptable is an important aspect of over performing at Football Manager, One thing I’ve noticed with the AI manager is a distinct lack of complementary systems. Usually you will find the AI manager go from a 41221 to a 424 or a 442 to a 424 if it wants to get a goal, and usually if you play well, the AI manager will fall flat.

I tend to prefer to create systems in game, the penalty isn’t high, if you flip a system you are using already. The systems need to be complementary. For example you could flip a 532 to a 343, or a 4132 to a 4312. These are slightly advanced ways of playing the game, I have been doing these for ages, and its actually very easy to do. There are times you can do these and there are times you shouldn’t.

Flipping a system essentially maintains most of the tactical shape you currently have and enhances another aspect of your game. A 4132 can be a defensive system or it can be offensive, but it can’t be very offensive. To be offensive you literally need your players to have a lot of technical skill to hold onto the ball. If you are a poor side, you will usually score off the counter or if you are lucky and the offense fumbles around the penalty box. The best you can do with a 4132 is make your fullbacks attacking in orientation and get them to play more direct passes to your frontline who will either score on the break or bring others into play.

What if you are faced with a side that’s parked the bus, a 4132 will find it hard to break them down simply because you need to be camped further up the pitch and during moments like this you will be wishing your central MC was further up the pitch making late runs into the box or stringing passes near the edge. Its times like this that I flip the 4132 into a 4312, What are the advantages and disadvantages of flipping?

Advantages

a. Increases the potency of a system, and gives you an added dimension whether you are attacking or defending.

b, Gives you more options for player development. A 4132 has no AMC, but a 4312 has, so you could use this chance to develop an AMC

Disadvantages

a. Leaves you open, if you were using a 4132 and you flip to a 4312, you need to accept certain things have changed. If its a halfback role you are removing then you need to understand what it does. It means certain lines of defensive cover are gone, and these will need to be replaced.

b. Failure to understand where the gaps will happen can create problems in managing space

Know what you want to achieve

When I make a 4132 my principal line of attack will ALWAYs be the flanks, thats my personal choice for a 4132, hence the use of a halfback freeing up my fullbacks. My secondary pivot will be one of the strikers or even both, using them as fulcrums to drop back and bring others into play. This way I can either have a counter attacking direct style via my fullbacks and defense or a more patient possession orientated passing style created whenever my strikers drop deep. It can play narrow or wide, but since I am a side thats not the best in England, I elect to go narrow to compress available space.

If I choose to flip it to a 4312, I will have to compensate for the loss of my halfback if i want to maintain defensive shape, in such a situation, i have 2 options. I could choose to go with a Ball Winning midfielder in my Central Midfielder slot or I could use a DLP. This all depends on what i have in my AMC slot. If i have the player available for my TQ, then I will set up as a BWM. Flanking the central midfielder will always be 2 Box to Box Midfielders. By far my favourite class, or I will use a central midfielder in support duty, but with some slightly modified PIs. This system will be played more through the middle and my TQ will be playing alongside a F9 and an advanced forward. Since the F9 will always drop deep this gives space for the TQ to attack, and he will always have passing options with an advanced forward or he could come in late and go it alone.

Since we have 2 B2BMCs they will come in late to support and if we are camping so will the two fullbacks.

The only position I would have flipped from my 4132 would be the MC to a TQ and my halfback to a BWM. Its that easy. The fullbacks get a change from Attack to Support or defend depending on the quality of the threat on the flanks.

You can flip any system during a game, if you don’t change roles outright or mentality outright the effect to your systems cohesion is minimal. I would recommend doing this in preseason and when you are doing well, to experiment. Making yourself a bit more adaptable to changes in a game isn’t hard it just needs a bit of practice.