GUIDA TATTICA TT&F

The Evolution of FM and the TT&F Mindset.

As recently as 2004, FM was in the grip of a very effective tactic. It was called Diablo and its premise was very simple. The game engine could not cope with a long forward arrow on the central midfielder in a three-man midfield, leaving him consistently unmarked when in front of goal. By setting up passing instructions throughout the team to maximise balls to the central midfielder, Diablo guaranteed a succession of heavy wins and became the most successful single-flavour tactic in FM history. It was simple to understand. It won matches. It became legend! What it wasn't was realistic! Sports Interactive’s response was simple and to be expected. In the aim of realism they reworked the engine to stop such things from happening. The age of the super-tactic was dead.

Arguably they succeeded but their quest for realism was again thwarted by the development of the back-post corner routine which once more guaranteed an excessive amount of goals. User tactics that were no more than average in design became title winners due to the ridiculous number of easy chances generated from corner kicks. Equally unrealistic, equally well dealt with by SI with the release of FM07.

FM07 has polarised opinions on Football Manager like no other release. Quite simply, it is next to impossible to achieve success year-in, year-out without some degree of tactical sophistication. Yes, there are still some holes in the game engine. The problem the AI has with dealing with a lone striker target man (at least until your reputation guarantees you face a succession of massed defence tactics), the weird rebound physics when a ball hits the woodwork, defenders inexplicably touching nothing balls out for corners, world class players hitting corners directly out of play, 40-yard back headers to name but a few. However, in general terms, its engine is closer to simulating real football than any previous incarnation. It has raised the tactical bar ever higher in terms of the sophisticated thinking required to succeed season-on-season and has placed paramount importance on in-match decision making over game-engine busting tactical design. Hopefully, FM08 will raise that bar even higher.

The problem that many long-term players have had to contend with is the mind-set switch from single-flavour tactics to multi-flavour tactical packs. This transition has been long and ugly with regular battle skirmishes still taking place. The complaints generated from those struggling with the new mind-set are oft repeated. The most common is the lack of consistency, either game-by-game or season-by-season, often decried as AI-cheating. To combat that we must specify exactly what we believe the most important aspect of actually playing FM is: it is not tactical design (although that is undoubtedly important). Rather, it is decision making during a match. If you conceptualise playing FM in terms of making decisions, as you would if you viewed it as a management simulation (management is decision making) then the consistency issue fails to raise its head.

Conceptualising the game as just being about football overly attributes success to tactics or player quality. It is not just about football; it is about management and trying to simulate the management experience. Managers make decisions that change the course of matches and seasons. That is what they get paid for. That is where they stand or fall. The second most common complaint, arguing that real life football is not like this, holds no water. None of us are top-class managers, so commenting on how real top-flight football is managed is an exercise in futility. We simply don’t know. Being a semi-decent footballer does not make you any more of an expert on the ins and outs of management at a world class club than any of the rest of us. Unless you have lived it, you have no way of making a value-judgement. However, some of us do have experience about managing and decision making. Regarding those as the determiners of success in conjunction with a series of well-designed tactics and playing the game under that mind-set allowed us to achieve exceptional success in FM07. We assume this mind-set will still bring glory in FM08.

Making good decisions on a regular basis guarantees consistency, not the inherent value of any tactic or set of tactics. Good or poor decisions on a game-by-game basis will exponentially influence future results. With regards to a season-by-season basis, a tactic that works with a low reputation team and a low reputation manager will not guarantee success as reputation rises. Teams will be more defensive against you and a tactic that worked previously will have to be reworked based on the success or failure of current performance, not its historical pattern. As in financial markets, past success is not a predictor for future performance. This is not unrealism; it is the necessary reworking of a system to combat a different situation. Recognising it and making the correct decisions when combating it are vital strategies in the management armoury.

Tactical Theorems and Frameworks (TT&F), for so long my baby, now has a group of collaborators which will, with a bit of luck, make the FM08 version far superior to anything previously written. In order for us to work together, we have devised a series of assumptions to guide the testing, designing and writing process. In order to explain our exact perspective on playing Football Manager we need to make these assumptions explicit. If you do not accept the validity of these assumptions, TT&F is probably not for you.


Assumption One: Definition of Formation

A formation is the basic framework deciding the position each player generally takes on the field of play. Thus, a 4-4-2 will have four defenders, four midfielders and two attackers. Likewise, the Chelsea/Bolton formation has four defenders, one defensive midfielder, two central midfielders, two wingers and one centre forward.


Assumption Two: Definition of Tactics

Tactics, and tactical instruction, operate within the basic formation framework of a side. A 4-4-2 at home will thus differ heavily from a 4-4-2 away. In the home formation, the wingers may be asked to hug the touchline, support the attackers and be given a fair degree of freedom to be creative. In the away formation, they will be asked to tuck in, support the full-backs, and be ready for quick breaks when the reward outweighs the risk.


Assumption Three: FM Tactics

When designing tactics, one slider tweak difference alters the tactical instruction but not the formation. Thus, when talking about tactics in the rest of this thread/article, we talk about them in the context of one formation. Sir Alex Ferguson nearly always sends Man Utd onto the pitch in a 4-4-2 but individual and team instructions differ from match to match, situation to situation. When we talk of tactics, it refers to these kinds of instructions, not to changing the formation.


Assumption Four: Changing Tactics

No team, no matter how good or how poor, ever goes through a match without some switches in tactical strategy. The extent to which these tactical changes work defines the course of the match. They may not be recognisable to the casual viewer but they happen nonetheless. This applies to in-match management in FM. Playing the same tactic all game in the belief that because your players are superior you will inevitably win and/or failure to recognise and change your tactics when things are obviously going against you will not win you titles. In-game decision making is absolutely vital to TT&F tactical theory and to be successful with our theories you must learn when and how to apply each tactical change.


Assumption Five: Why Teams are Successful

Teams are successful due to a combination of four things: good tactical management, good man-management, good transfer policy and availability of funds. Failure in managing any of the above is likely to lead to a season of poor performances and disillusionment. Translating this to FM; it is easy to succeed at three and four, but one and two cause difficulties. We assume you are all capable of managing transfers and can all recognise good players relevant to level, so we will not waste time on describing how to achieve this. Suffice to say, you need to have roughly the right calibre of player for the division. If you have that our tactical theory will help you to over-achieve. If you are seriously short of the right calibre of player, you will struggle. If you make perfect decisions in most circumstances you can survive with poor players, but it will be difficult. We promise no miracles. We will focus on tactical design in this thread/article and develop a sister thread/article, Communication and Psychological Warfare ’08, to outline our approach to man-management.

heories and Falsification.

‘And thirdly, the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules. Welcome aboard the Black Pearl, Miss Turner.’ Captain Barbossa, 2003

Without trying to be too polymath in writing TT&F, having already borrowed from market theory and Pirates of the Caribbean, we must now turn to the scientific philosophy of Sir Karl Popper in order to explain the ramifications of theory writing and their application.

The TT&F theories are tentative, correctable and dynamic, in allowing for changes to be made as new data is discovered, rather than asserting certainty. Through empirical testing they have been found to work consistently well for prescribed match situations. However, there are many instances that are not ‘obvious’ when watching a game that will seem to make the theories invalid. Before outlining our theories, we would like to make clear certain conditions that will falsify the theory and may not be observable with an untrained glance. A falsification is simply a condition that makes the proposed theory at the very least uncertain, at the most invalid.


Falsification One: Player Condition

If players are being over-trained and/or are tired then the tactics will not be totally effective. If your training schedules result in players being less than 95% fit pre-match on a regular basis it is your training rather than the tactics that is causing poor performance.


Falsification Two: Team Talks

If the team is poorly motivated, overly relaxed or put under too much pre-match pressure then the tactics will not be totally effective. If your players regularly fail to perform to standard in either half then it is likely you have made a bad team talk. This can usually be rectified at half time with a swift boot up the backside. However, a poor half-time team talk will leave you little option but wait out the match with a defensive mindset.


Falsification Three: Over-Confidence

Once a team has gone on a long winning streak they will inevitable become over-confident and produce a bad half, no matter the quality of team-talk. Recognising this, adapting to a conservative rather than expansive tactic and remedying the performance with the half time team talk is vital for continued success.


Falsification Four: Squad Personality

If a squad is full of low determination douche-bags or temperamental whiners even the best-laid plans will falter. Make sure at least you have one high determination leader to maintain in-match focus.


Falsification Five: Ruined by Success

This is a somewhat personal theory, but it has held water on most previous editions of FM. If you achieve consistent success over a 5-6 year period you will need to refresh your squad. Selling and replacing some of your top players should see a renewed drive for success. If the team is getting stale you will see more last minute comebacks and low scoring games, no matter how many good tactical decisions you make.


Falsification Six: Poor Morale

If you have made a series of bad decisions and results have gone against you the team’s morale will drop. This will affect the type of tactic you should choose, partly because the players will make mistakes, partly because other teams feel they can beat you. So, on a bad run, don’t try to follow the rules. Be a little more conservative, slowly turn defeats into draws, draws into wins and then be expansive again.


Falsification Seven: Media Interaction

Poor media interaction can make players nervous. Having a plethora of worried players in the side will make expansive tactics more risky. If a lot of players have reacted negatively to your media interaction, consider being more cautious than you would normally.


Falsification Eight: Squad Gelling

If your squad is full of new players it will perform below expectations. It takes roughly 15 games for a squad of new players to start gelling. Check with the Assistant Manager to see how well the squad has settled. Some teams are flaky at the beginning of the game (famously West Ham in '07) which will make managing them more difficult.


Falsification Nine: Manager Reputation

Usually only a problem when starting a new game, a low reputation manager will struggle to have any influence over a top class side full of seasoned professionals. Performance will suffer until some level of reputation has been achieved.


Falsification Ten: Bad Luck

Occasionally you will lose a match you should have won despite making a series of near perfect tactical choices. Maybe the AI manager did so too, which negated your decisions, maybe the AI keeper had the game of his life, maybe two goals went in from massive deflections, maybe a misplaced back pass was intercepted for a goal, maybe their grunt midfielder scored a once-in-a-lifetime 35-yard scorcher. The key is recognising whether it is a one off lightening strike or a consistent pattern. If it is the first, don't panic into changing things. If the second, then you will need to do something and quickly. Once again, making the right decision at the right time will be key.

If all of the above are taken into consideration when choosing tactics, then the following sections will provide a rough set of guidelines to tactical design and tactical decision making for various scenarios. All of the above can detrimentally affect the success of any tactic, no matter how well designed. If you manage them well and reduce the instances of their occurrence then TT&F tactics will bring sustained success if applied to the requisite match situations.

Designing and Adjusting Tactics

Before writing this section, I’d like to tip a nod to Kristianohr and Googen who took the ’07 theories to their logical extreme. They advocated designing 14 different tactics and alternating between them until you found one that matched the situation you were in. The Rule of One mentality splits then gave you the extra advantage over the AI and you were pretty much guaranteed a good performance. A worthwhile and hugely creative contribution, but one I will not be advocating. Why? Mainly due to realism. I don’t believe that a manager could have fourteen mentality systems at his disposal. Personally, I think there are three realistic mentality systems that are used in most levels of football, which I will describe below.


Attack

A system in which the players are expected to be looking to attack more often than defend. Correspondingly, in such a system the full backs will be looking to support attacks with regularity, the team will try to exploit the width of the pitch, players will be encouraged to try the unexpected and the ball will be played into the space in front of its intended receiver.


Balanced

A system in which the players are looking to balance attacking and defensive responsibilities, carefully managing risk and reward. The full backs will support when a good chance is on but stay back if they deem it too risky to leave their position. The team will play a tighter formation than when looking to attack but not so tight that they can only go forward on the counter. Creativity will only be encouraged in the final third with most players sticking to instructions. Through balls will be rarer in order to maintain possession more comfortably.


Counter

A system in which players are looking to defend more often than attack and will rely on the counter to score. The full backs will predominantly stay back; the team will play a tight formation and stick to instructions, through balls will be rare, direct and into channels.


The above tactical systems will usually be enough to see lower division teams throughout a season with very little mishap. In '07 the Attack and Counter were enough in themselves. However, at higher levels more tactical sophistication is required and these tactics will need to be supplemented by a further couple of options.


Control

A variety of the attack system, either using the same mentality set-up or one that is slightly more conservative. It will be more patient in build up, wider and deeper than attack to exploit as much pitch space as possible, be very creative and flair-based, often utilise a playmaker and slow tempo to guarantee almost constant possession and have everyone looking to play balls into space.


Defend

A system in which the aim of the game is not to concede. Very narrow with no forward runs, no creative freedom, tight marking, a higher than average mentality defensive line to further reduce space, keep men behind the ball and only go forward when there is no defensive risk at all.


Both the above tactics will become more useful at elite divisional level. If you are a newly promoted team with few divisional-quality players you may need to resort to the Defend tactic against top sides home and away. Once you have a world-class squad at your disposal then the Control tactic will become more and more useful as teams will play very defensively against you. Adjusting the tactics that you have succeeded with at lower levels to the more sophisticated and subtle ones for top sides is extremely important for long term success.


Designing Tactics

Stage One: Choose your preferred formation and create your set piece options. Save.

Stage Two: Decide upon your three-five preferred mentality standards. Save each tactic separately (see the Frameworks section).

Stage Three: Assign/remove forward runs and farrows/sarrows/barrows to complete the frameworks.

Stage Four: Decide upon individual instructions for each framework (see the Theorems section).


Adjusting Tactics

Recognising when your three tactics need to become four or five (when being promoted or finally becoming world class) is more of an art than a science. The common discernable problem of when you should switch to Control in ’07 was the superkeeper/one-shot-one-goal AI. Once that started to happen a more patient tactic was required. When to use Defend was a lot easier to make out. If you started being dismantled on a regular basis and/or couldn’t see out matches at the highest level, then Defend was the best/only option. The more quickly you recognise the limitations the less frustration you will suffer.

Making Decisions

As I iterated earlier, quality decision-making is the absolute key to succeeding at Football Manager. Management is all about making decisions. If you consistently make good decisions you will more often than not do well. If you regularly make bad ones you are likely to fail. The following section provides some guidelines.


Pre-Match Common Sense

You are playing Arsenal away. No matter how good a squad you think you have, Arsenal away is a difficult game. Don’t be over expansive and decide to attack from the off. Arsenal are likely to rip you apart if you do that. Careful and cautious wins the race. Be happy going in level at half time. Try to frustrate them and win it once they have played themselves out.


Pre-Match Odds

The pre-match odds offer you an indication of your chances to win. If they are heavily in your favour the likelihood is that the opposition will be playing defensively from the start and Control is the best option. If they are roughly equal, home and away considerations come to the fore. Attack at home, Counter away but be prepared to change tactics (often to Balanced) if things get sticky. If they are heavily against you the best chance is to soak up pressure and try to score on the Counter or Defend for your lives from the outset if you are serious underdogs.


The AI Formation

Looking at the AI formation can often help in choosing a tactic before kick off. In a 4-4-2 the AI may be playing with long, short or no forward arrows. If they have long arrows, they are playing aggressively. You can choose to Counter if you think they are stronger than you or you are playing away, or decide to impose your own game onto them if you are much stronger or at home. Short farrows means you should be a little more aggressive. No farrows means you should look to Control the game.

In non-4-4-2 formations it is much harder to read the AI from the outset. Common sense and pre-match odds will be your only guidelines in this situation. However, once you start the game the match itself can offer vital clues.


Using the Match Stats

If you have made the right tactical decision then the passing and possession percentages will be in your favour. At home the advantage should be significant; away closer but you should still have the edge. Likewise, the AI should be struggling to break through your defensive line and thus most of its shots should be long range and/or off target. Unfortunately, the statistical variations only kick in between 10-15 minutes into a game. You might already be a goal down by then, so learning to read the match by watching the 2d is also required, both for the first 15 minutes and the last third of the match, when the AI will start to change tactics.


Reading the Match

The AI changes its system all the time. Spotting what it is doing is absolutely vital for consistent in-match performance. Is the AI playing tight and quick, heavily pressing, putting your 6-yard box under constant pressure? Is the space in front of you back-line being exploited? Are AI attackers consistently breaking through your defensive line? Are you failing to create well-worked chances, snatching at shots, losing possession too quickly? Then something is wrong tactically and you need to fix it. It might be you need to switch from Attack to Control in order to construct better-worked moves. It might be you need to change Counter to Defend to kill off a game. Hoping for the best is not an option. Making quick decisions under pressure is where you earn your virtual money.


Recognising a Bad Team Talk

On occasion, your team will look like they are playing in treacle. Players will look slow and lethargic, mistakes will creep in, possession will be lost all too easily and the opposition will create more chances than you are expecting. This is either down to complacency, poor morale or a bad team talk (or a combination of the above). You will need to abandon your tactic when this happens for a more defensive one to reduce the risk of misfortune. You can then alter the perspective during the half-time team talk and resort to your preferred tactic for the second half.

Sliders and the Ambiguity of Management.

Having leant towards the positivist theories of Sir Karl Popper earlier in the thread/article, I hope you'll forgive my taking a sharp U-turn into the realms of critical management theory. This is the area of management in which I earn my real-life living and about which I am the most qualified to comment. I hope the following section doesn't come across as self-satisfied onanism and most can read it in the manner it is intended.

I decided to steal Popper's falsification theory (and slightly misuse it) in order to illustrate how the best laid plans of mice and men may come to nothing due to an event or series of events that invalidates the previously observed data. Taking a scientific approach to tactics, if you learn to recognise the hows and whens of theory falsification you will consistently choose the 'best' tactic for any given situation and good form will logically follow. However, management does not follow the practice of positivistic science; it is at best a social science, at its most abstract an art form. Either way, it is influenced almost entirely by language usage and the human responses this usage engenders. Simply put, it contains the full spectrum of human motivations and emotions which can only be made sense of through a complex network of interrelating theory. It is impossible to determine through scientific enquiry why two seemingly similar people react differently when confronted by the same phenomena. For that you need to understand their personal histories, current motivations, future plans, chemical imbalances etc, etc.

If SI were to program FM in the positivistic pattern it would cease to be enjoyable before too long. It certainly wouldn't be a simulation of management any more. Once the best tactical algorithm has been discovered it would become little more than Player Purchaser 08, because only the quality of player would matter. The tactics would have been solved to the extent that if you knew you had the best squad you would automatically win the league. Previous versions were like this, and were fun, but didn't portray the real world managerial experience. SI simulated ambiguity in '07 and emotionally ambivalent reactions followed. Arguably, such reactions suggest SI have finally successfully simulated management.

The most common complaint in the forums for FM07 was the ambiguity of the sliders. People complained that they didn't know how they worked, what they did, and the plethora of competing theories didn't help. Indeed, they argued that the competing theories 'proved' that the game was flawed. Some even argued that we shouldn't write theory unless we 'knew' we were right; that is was dangerous to do otherwise. However, does this equate to reality? Yes, there is a UEFA Pro-License for managers, but do managers really follow the same practices. Can anyone really argue that Ferguson, Wenger, Mourinho, Benitez and Eriksson share the same management style? All are successful, but all undoubtedly put into practice different theoretical approaches to the art of management.

Not knowing exactly what the sliders do allows us to approach FM in a similar manner. We have to use our intuitive experience to construct a style of play and management we are happy with. Some tactical theorists try to use a one-size fits all solution and tweak in-match, others have a home and away package, TT&F employs a five-pack and the extreme tacticians design 14 sets. All work to an extent; all are more or less useful. As in the real world of management, those who wish to manage must choose a system to follow, cherry-pick between systems, come up with one themselves, or combine all three to create a personal best practice. The frameworks and theorems we write about are no more than a series of more or less useful guidelines that the reader can choose to learn from/use/reject depending on how they 'feel' about them. It is style over and above science.

Let's look at an easy to understand slider to illustrate my point, the passing slider. Set it to short and you expect your players to look for short passes >75% of the time. Easy. No problem. But when added to mentality you have a conundrum. My mentality instructions are telling the player to look for attacking balls >75% of the time. What happens if the 'best' attacking ball is a long pass? Will he try it? Let's look at his decision stats. OK, 16, so he should look for the pass most of the time. However, would his low creative freedom setting stop him from even thinking of the pass. Would his passing stats make the longer, attacking pass feasible in the first place? Decisions, decisions!

And then we are back to the crux of the matter. Decision making. We must learn to trust our decisions and the only way we can do that is through experience, literally learning from our mistakes. We must expect to go wrong at times and learn to adjust our decision making process to minimise the chances of it happening again. As things go wrong less and less often we begin to gain in confidence and then can start to experiment in more creative ways. Eventually, management becomes easy because we can no longer be surprised and we can relax. Or does it? The management process can always throw you a curve-ball. In FM07 the curve-ball was the different tactical approach required once your team's and personal reputation reached a certain plateau. Once at that level, things that worked previously began to fail. Also concurrent with the management experience. Past success must be unlearned when its practices no longer solve the conundrums of the present. People complained of the unrealism of the game when their world-class squad suddenly failed to perform. Instead of asking why, they just cried 'the AI cheats' and stormed out of the debate. But the why is simple. The AI changed the rules by consistently playing more conservative formations that required a different tactical approach to break down. The solution was simple and logical, but people became blind to it due to not being able to throw off the yoke of past experience. Spread the play, open up the pitch, become more creative, keep the ball, remain patient. Focusing on this enabled performance levels to remain high, but failing to make that adjustment meant players became frustrated at their constant failure to put the opposition away and became vulnerable to the break. It may be the same curve-ball in '08. It may not. Only time will tell. But the fun is in not knowing.

FM needs ambiguity if it is to remain a simulation over and above an arcade game. The slider instructions must contain some ambiguity so we can't take a purely positivistic approach. We must learn to manage. And learning to manage means accepting ambiguity and ambivalence and coping with them both to the best of your ability. TT&F can help but only to a certain extent. The rest is down to you. The rest of this article/thread is our attempt to minimise the frustrations of virtual management. We hope you can find use for it. Good luck and play seriously.

Frameworks.

The framework section details the key settings for team shape. If a team has a poor shape it becomes easier to break down and less fluent in attack. Frameworks specifically deals with mentality, arrows and forward runs.


Mentality Systems

SI have explicitly stated that mentality is the most important setting in the game. Getting it wrong is likely to cause lots of grief. The following details some potential base settings and additional tweaks to gain best advantage. Please note that TT&F fundamentally believes that the individual mentality settings do not work in tandem with the team setting in conjunction with all other dual settings. Thus, if you choose to set all mentalities individually it does not matter where the team mentality slider is positioned.

The most fundamental change between FM06 and FM07 was the reworking of mentalities. Prior to that it was possible to defeat the match engine by spreading mentalities across the board so that you could launch lightening attacks and remain defensively stable. The reworking disabled such systems, most notably the Rule of Two (RoT). It was now inadvisable to have such extreme mentality splits. Thereafter, TT&F began to recommend and still recommends having no more than 6 (six) slider notches separating the most defensive-minded defender from the most attacking-minded attacker (with the exception of a rule-breaking proviso to be detailed later). The format TT&F developed was the Rule of One.

The Rule of One works very simply. Each level of the team is separated from the next level by a mentality of 1 (one). Thus, when setting up the side you would do so in the following manner:

Rule of One





Please note: Control is either equal to or slightly more conservative than Attack.

We do not believe this is the only way to set up mentalities and believe there to be various alternatives. However, in conjunction with the above set up, were you to choose a framework based on Global Mentalities we would suggest you take the mean settings as a guide:




Additional Mentality Settings

Central Midfielders

Mentality differences seem to be more acute than in previous versions. In defensive-minded tactics any kind of mentality gap between the midfield and the DCs leaves a gap that the AI will ruthlessly exploit. Thus, it is beneficial to have one MC on the same mentality setting as the DCs no matter what the tactic in order to provide defensive cover (with the possible exception of a Control based tactic). NB: This was extremely necessary in 8.0.1 but it may well be the case that this is not required in the 8.0.2 patch. Be prepared to experiment.

Equally, it is problematic if you have too big a mentality split between the midfielders and attackers. Large mentality splits in this area create a void between the two strata that effectively forces the midfield to hit direct through balls to breaking attackers. It is impossible to build up attacking play and create easy chances. All you will create are frantic one-on-one dashes or hopeful long shots. These problems will be exacerbated if the forward runs/farrows are poorly structured.


The Strong/Tall Target Man/Creative Forward

Even though they perform very different roles, the Strong/Tall Target Man and the Creative Forward require something similar in terms of mentality settings in attacking tactics. With too high a mentality setting, neither has the chance to become involved in the game as much as they should. Drop their mentality to the lower end of the team mentality split (12 in Balanced, 14 in Attack) so they can better link up play. Too high and they will only ever look for attacking balls rather than team-linking passes or cushioned back headers. Too low and they will lose their attacking effectiveness.


Playmaker

As with the Strong Target Man/Creative Forward, the Playmaker is likely to perform better with a slightly lower than team average mentality setting. It will allow him to drop into space and dictate play via a wider range of passing options rather than only looking for attacking balls. If you are using the MCd as the Playmaker, this won’t matter. If you are using the MCa, consider dropping his mentality to a similar level to the MCd.


Quick Target Man/On–the-shoulder Striker

To ensure the Quick Target Man/On-the-shoulder Striker is playing on the shoulder of the last man, it is imperative you add a few mentality notches for Defend/Counter/Balanced. We would suggest adding three-four notches for Defend and Counter, and one or two for Balanced.


Arrows

The only arrows we wish to be explicit about are the forward arrows for the most advanced wide players (ML/R in 4-4-2, WBs in a 5-3-2). For Defend there should be no forward arrows; for Counter and Possession short forward arrows, for Attack and Control long forward arrows.

Other arrows are more optional, although the side-arrows on the FCs can be useful for Defend and short diagonal backward and forward arrows for the MCd/MCa can aid the other systems.


Forward Runs

The Defensive Trio

The two DCs and the MCd should stay back at all times to protect the penalty area in the defensive tactics and to recycle possession in the attacking ones. Therefore, in all formations, they should have their forward runs set to rarely.

Wide Players

Forward runs are arguably most vital for wide players. With them set badly the full-backs won’t support attacks or the wingers won’t track back to help defensively. Forward runs for Full Backs and Wingers should, respectably, follow this pattern:

Control: Often, Often
Attack: Mixed, Often
Balanced: Mixed, Mixed
Counter: Rarely, Mixed
Defend: Rarely, Rarely


The Attacking Trio

Setting forward runs for the front three is vital in terms of getting the tactic to function but is more of an art than a science. The standard starting setting would be:

MCa: Often
FCd: Rarely
FCa: Mixed

However, they can be altered depending on player type and team requirement. A speedy FCa playing in a Counter or Defend system may be most effective with forward runs set to often, so he is always trying to break the offside trap and get behind the defensive line.

An FCd might also benefit from forward runs mixed in Defend or Counter systems, although the forward runs rarely will be vital in the more aggressive tactics. In those, his job will be to drop deep to link up play and/or pull his marker out of position so a team mate can exploit the space behind him. A lower mentality coupled with forward runs rarely should ensure that happening.

The MCa might be required to play a more defensive role for Defend or Counter systems entailing a mixed or rarely setting. Likewise, if he is a Playmaker, mixed or rarely might ensure he is in more space to receive the ball.

Getting these right for each system can be a matter of trial and error and often is related to the player type. It is pointless having a lazy playmaker making forward runs all the time whereas a hard working midfield dynamo can do it all day. If both strikers are speedy snipers and not suited for creative roles then it may be best to have them both making forward runs mixed/often. Just watch the offside count! Getting it right can turn a tactic from a semi-effective one to a world-beater so experiment as much as possible.

Theorems: Key Settings

All great teams are built first and foremost on a solid defence. Getting the defensive settings right enables you to have a solid platform from which to build and experiment. The following section outlines the key settings towards designing a working defence.


Mentality

As iterated previously, ensure that one MC is on the same mentality settings as the central defenders to provide constant defensive cover (for 8.0.1 but not necessarily correct for 8.0.2). A small backwards arrow can also aid in this respect.

Defensive Line

The defensive line links heavily with whatever mentality framework you have chosen. Defender attributes, specifically pace and positioning, will allow for some level of line adjustment but I would advise not placing the defensive line in a position that unlinks it from the framework. Simply put, the defensive line should be placed at mid-point of the framework mentality (for Attack, Balanced and Counter). Thus, if you have chosen to implement the attacking framework, with player mentalities ranging from 14-19, you would position the defensive line at midpoint between the two (16-17). If you have chosen the Counter formation (6-11), you would set the defensive line at eight or nine.

If you have quick defenders who have good positioning stats you could happily place the defensive line higher than the mid-point of the mentality framework in confidence that their pace and ability to read the game will allow them to cover any counter-attacks over the top with relative ease. However, if they are slower than average, then dropping the d-line back slightly will allow them to cover quick attackers without becoming over exposed to balls over their heads into the space behind them.

For the Control and Defend frameworks the defensive line setting requires some adjustment. As Control aims to open space and assumes the opposition will not commit many players forward, the DCs job will be mainly recycling possession rather than defensive duties. Reduce the d-line to mid-normal to ensure the DCs are in space to pick up rushed clearances and keep pressure on the opposition. For the Defend framework the d-line needs to be higher than the mentality average in order to compact space. Setting the d-line to a very low mentality invites almost constant pressure and the team is likely to give up a plethora of chances in and around the six-yard box.


Width

Just as the defensive line, width varies dependent on how aggressive you wish to be. Widening the formation opens up space and enables a greater variety of attacking balls. Equally, it allows more space for the opposition to exploit should you lose the ball. Therefore, narrow is defensive and wide is attacking. However, too narrow is not advisable as it gives up too much space on the flanks. I use roughly the following pattern:

Control: 20
Attack: 16
Balanced: 12
Counter: 8
Defend: 4

If you have a squad full of speedy, tireless workaholics you can play with slightly higher width settings as these attributes enable them to get quickly back into position once the ball has been lost. If you have a few too many work-shy plodders then play more narrowly in order to maintain shape.


Closing Down & Marking

Closing Down and Marking seem to work in conjunction. There is a logical pattern. Defensive formations require tight, man-marking to constantly maintain contact with the opposition attackers, leaving them as little space as possible in which to operate. As the players are already closely marked, closing down isn’t required. For more aggressive formations in which you expect to control the play then marking should be zonal and loose. In order to regain quick possession, preferably in the opposition’s half, closing down should be pretty high.

Defenders

In general, the defenders’ marking/closing down settings should be roughly as follows:

Control: All zonal/loose, FBs close down 14-16, DCs 10-12.
Attack: DCs man/loose, FBs zonal/loose; FBs close down 10-12, DCs 6-8
Balanced: DCs man/tight, FBs zonal/tight; reduce closing down
Counter: All man/tight; further reduce closing down
Defend: All man/tight; further reduce closing down

Midfielders

More of an art than a science. Getting the midfielders’ closing down settings correct are paramount to creating a decent tactic. As with the defenders, the marking/closing down should be looser and more heavy the more aggressive the tactic; tighter and less heavy the more defensive. However, unlike in 07, in which you could be defensively sound simply by having a low CD DMC/MCd sitting in front of your back line, in 2008 these settings are much more sensitive. Too low and you will see the opposition pass the ball uncontested around the perimeter of your 18 yard box. Too high and the midfield cover will be bypassed leaving the back four to contest with breaking midfielders and strikers as the MCs struggle to regain position. You will need to watch the 2d very carefully to decide upon your best settings. They will be player specific, depending on work rate, pace, stamina, adaptability and culture. Play around with them until you start to see the MCs break up attacking play in the areas you wish (just above the final third in Counter, much higher up the pitch in Attack).

Attackers and Wingers

Usually both wingers and one attacker need to have reasonably heavy closing down in order to stop the opposing defenders launching uncontested balls forward. This has two functions. Firstly, it reduces their time on the ball and helps your team regain possession. Secondly, it ensures the balls from defence can’t split your defensive structure as the player in possession has much less time to hit a composed ball. Deep crosses and direct through balls become more aimless and easier to defend. Play around with these settings until you are confident your attackers and wingers are providing enough defensive aid to the back six.

Tackling

Heavy attacking is more likely to win the ball, but also more likely to give away free kicks and penalties. Therefore, heavy tackling is best employed with the loose marking and high closing down of more aggressive systems, in which the aim is to win the ball high up the pitch. It doesn’t matter if you give away a free kick on the edge of the opposition’s area; it does matter on the edge of yours. A rough rule of thumb is as follows, although you can be more or less aggressive with attacking players should you wish.

Control: Heavy
Attack: Heavy except for defenders (normal)
Balanced: Normal except for defenders (Easy)
Counter: Easy
Defend: Easy

Theorems: Flavour Settings

Once you have a solid defensive platform you can begin to think about exactly how you wish your team to play when going forward. The following settings impact upon the style of football your team will play.

Passing

In general, the more counter attacking the tactic the more direct the passing. A rough rule of thumb would be as follows:

Control: Short
Attack: Normal-Short
Balanced: Normal
Counter: Direct-Normal
Defend: Direct

However, there are variations that can make the tactic more customised to your team. Firstly, and most obviously, the lower the level the longer the passing. Players simply don’t have the technique to play controlled possession football, so direct-long is the key. At the highest level teams can aim to maximise possession by playing very short passing. This is not to say that it is not possible to construct a short passing tactic for lower level teams; it is and can bring great reward. However, it is arguably much harder to do and requires a lot of patient tweaking (see Tempo section for further detail).

Although the passing can be set to global throughout the team, I have found more success in varying the passing dependent on strata. I use the MCs as a fulcrum with their passing usually being set to mixed, allowing them to pick short or long passes at will. In all the tactics the wingers and forwards play shorter passes than the MCs, simply because when the play gets to areas in which they are effective players are closer together and short passing is the most valuable option. The defenders require a little more variety, with them hitting direct balls in counter attacking tactics and shorter ones in possession focused ones. This enables them to hit quick balls to attackers in the channels with counter attacking tactics and feed the MCs in more aggressive tactics.

Defender Passing

Control: Short
Attack: Short
Balanced: Mixed-Direct (dependent on passing attribute)
Counter: Direct
Defend: Direct-Long


Focus Passing

Focus passing is also important in creating/reducing space. Spreading the play enables attacking options but increases the probability of stray passes being intercepted. Keeping the ball in the middle reduces attacking potency but reduces the risk of losing the ball in a dangerous area. Control requires you to open space so using the flanks is paramount. Defend requires you to keep it tight, so down the middle is required. For the other tactic types it will depend upon the quality of player as to which you should choose. For example, keeping it through the middle with Counter would be useful if you had two big, strong forwards, but less useful if you have speedy FCs who can exploit the gaps behind attacking-minded full backs, in which case mixed, or even down the flanks, may well be the best option. A rough guide follows, but be prepared to alter it depending on player types:

Control: Passing Focus Down Both Flanks
Attack: Passing Focus Down Both Flanks/Mixed
Balanced: Passing Focus Mixed
Counter: Passing Focus Mixed/Down the Middle
Defend: Passing Focus Down the Middle


Tempo

Tempo is culturally specific and largely dictated by weather conditions. Playing fast-tempo football in extremely hot climates will do little outside of tiring your players. Likewise, a heavy pitch will drain players of energy. Always have this in mind when selecting your tempo.

A quicker tempo tends to be the requirement for lowly-skilled players playing a counter attacking brand of football. That is not to say lower level players can't play a more possession based game; rather that to do so requires great observation of the engine and very sophisticated tactical design. Lower level players tend to panic when being pressured, so a slow tempo, short passing game can come seriously unstuck if your tactical design doesn't offer easy passing options at all times. Players dawdling on the ball is indicative of this issue and a sign you need to change tempo and/or length of passing.

For more highly skilled players it should be used subjectively, brought into play as and when your team needs it. You may wish to start fast and slow it down once you score, or play possession football for twenty minutes before upping the pace of the game for a quarter of an hour. You may wish to play an AC Milan brand of counter attacking football, slow-slow-fast, which would require a slow tempo, technically gifted players and a lot of flair and creativity up front. Clever use of the tempo slider can change things in your favour at the flick of a wrist.

Tempo is basically subjective at all levels and for different cultural brands of football. Man Utd will play fast tempo football on a cold January day at Old Trafford against Liverpool, but slow tempo away to Barca in a Champions League semi-final. Be prepared to do the same. Look at the conditions, the type of match, the quality of the opposition and decide on how best to play.


Time Wasting

Another variable slider, the amount of time wasting you choose will indicate to your players at which stage in the match they should start playing for a draw or protecting a lead. In general, keep it low in a match you think you should win and have it higher in away games. It should be almost negligible in a Control tactic, so your players are always looking to play football. It is more important for the Balanced, Counter and Defend tactics. Ideally, you should be looking to change it incrementally after you score and as you wish to protect a lead during the latter stages of a match.


Creative Freedom

The most pertinent piece of information for creative freedom is to keep it low for most players until you have a world class side. At any level below world class it is an absolute requirement for players to keep it simple. Once you have a great team and an excellent reputation, creative freedom becomes vital. You will need to get the best out of your flair players in order to break down the ‘parked bus’ tactics the AI will employ against you. At the very highest levels, three-four players (usually wingers, AMC, FCd) will have high creative freedom instructions for Control and Attack based tactics.


Free Roles

As with creative freedom, pretty useless, even dangerous, at lower levels. However, once you have the requisite team and reputation you could employ the following free role settings (again, usually wingers, AMC, FCd as first choices):

Control: Three-Four Free Roles
Attack: Two-Three Free Roles
Balanced: One-Two Free Roles
Counter: Zero-One Free Roles
Defend: No Free Roles


Hold-Up Ball

Hold-Up Ball is a little talked about, yet vital, setting. Most people simply set their DMC and FCd to hold up the ball and leave it at that. To a certain extent this works, but it also contributes to many people’s downfall at the highest level.

From Attack through to Defend, the DMC/MCd and FCd holding up the ball is often enough. Using the full-backs to hold up the ball is also extremely effective. However, when you begin to come up against the ‘parked bus’ AI it becomes necessary to overload their defence. To do that you need to hold the ball up front long enough to have the FBs overlap and the MCs get into position to support the attack. Thus, a Control based tactic requires both wingers and forwards to hold up the ball. Likewise, the DMC/MCd’s job is more aggressive, so he needn’t hold it up any longer. This won’t create many one-on-ones, but it will help quality build up play. At the higher levels the Attack framework could also benefit from having both wingers and one FC hold up the ball.


Through Balls

Another slightly misunderstood setting, the Through Balls instruction tells players to hit the ball into space in front of a team mate, rather than to feet. It is not just about breaking through the d-line but about constucting attacks in which players are always running onto balls. This is obviously risky for defensive tactics but essential for aggressive ones. In general the midfield, wingers and deep lying forward should be the main Through Ball providers, but other players can also benefit form having through balls as an instruction. A rough guide is as follows:

Control: All outfield players Often
Attack: Five Often, Five Mixed
Balanced: All outfield players Mixed
Counter: Five Rarely, Five Mixed
Defend: All outfield players Rarely

These are just rough guidelines and you may well decide your defenders lose possession too often with Through Balls on Often, especially if they have poor passing or technique. Look at the match stats and see if they are giving the ball away and change the settings for those who are.

Theorems: Other Settings

Some of these sections have specific threads supporting them which offer extremely far reaching advice. Please click on the links to access these threads.


Use Target Man

This setting works exceedingly well and can create a plethora of chances if used correctly. The archetypal target man, tall, big and strong, can be devastating when set to no forward runs and balls played to head, to feet, or mixed. Obviously, if you want him to run onto ball forward runs are required.


Use Playmaker

A playmaker needs to be in position to pick up easy balls, so giving him high forward runs into attacking zones will lessen his effectiveness. Low or mixed forward runs, low closing down, loose, zonal marking and possibly free role will enable you to get the most out of an AMC playmaker. However, a deeper lying playmaker can have his forward runs set to Often.


Play Offside

Use it in conjunction with a high defensive line, so if the offside trap is beaten your defenders will have time to get back and cover. Thus, it is ideal for aggressive frameworks, but less effective for conservative ones. Obviously, there is a greater risk in employing it if all your defenders are slow.


Counter Attack

Counter attack is, somewhat ironically, counter intuitive. It does not mean that your players will sprint forward into attacking positions once you get the ball, but rather your players will only launch attacks that are definitely ‘on’. Thus, it is a defensive measure. It is a very useful tool and can be used in two ways. Firstly, it ensures your players remain in defensively effective positions until an attack is on. Secondly, it can force a ‘parked bus’ AI out of its own half by drawing them forwards until your team suddenly pounces. It does mean you won’t see a lot of big wins, but it also guarantees a level of defensive stability that allows your side to grind out one or two nil victories.


Run With Ball, Long Shots, and Cross Ball

All of the above often give the ball away but also create chances. Therefore, they should be used in conjunction with a risk analysis of the frameworks. The more attacking the framework, the more settings should be set to often (with players' attributes taken into consideration). The more defensive the framework, the more settings should be set to rarerly.

Run With Ball: Vital for wingers in Attack and Control, less useful for more conservative tactics

Long Shots: Useful for Attackers in Counter and Defend, Central Midfielders for the other frameworks

Cross Ball: Used mainly with wingers and full backs. A rough guide is as follows:

Control: Both Often
Attack: Wingers Often, FBs Mixed
Balanced: Both Mixed
Counter: Wingers Mixed, FBs Rarely
Defend: Both Rarely


Cross From

Control: Wingers cross from byline, full-backs from mixed/byline (depending on dribbling).
Attack: Wingers cross from byline, full-backs from mixed.
Balanced: Wingers cross from mixed, full-backs from mixed.
Counter: Wingers cross from mixed, full-backs from deep.
Defend: Wingers cross from deep, full-backs from deep.


Cross Aim

This depends considerably on your tactical set up. If you have a tall, strong target man it can be more than worthwhile aiming to target man. If both strikers are good in the air then mixed is the best option. If one striker is considerably faster than his opponent, aim for him at near post. If both strikers will get constantly beaten to the ball, aim for far post and hope your winger out jumps the opposing full back.


Swap Position

Best used with MCs or FCs. If you have a playmaker MC, the swap position roles will keep him as a playmaker, but sometimes drop him deeper and sometimes play him higher up the pitch. This can pull the opposition around very effectively. Likewise, a target man striker who is also fast can switch between the rare forward runs and mixed forward runs roles and, with supply balls at mixed, can run riot.


Further Settings

Player Prefered Moves

Player Prefered Moves can be used to considerably enhance your tactics. Please access the link for further infomation.

Opposition Instructions

Opposition Instructions can be used to considerably enhance your tactics. Please access the link for further information.

Keeper Settings

Decent keeper settings will considerably improve your overall play. Please access the link for further information.

Throwing Caution to the Winds

On occasion, you may have to abandon all tactical plans and go for the jugular in a deperate attempt to grab a goal. Please access the link for more information.


Testing

As there are some formations that can still unbalance the engine, all the above has been tested with a standard four-four-two. Other formations have advantages over the AI that the four-four-two doesn’t offer and can thus bias results.


How to set up a modern, playing keeper.

Until today, the FM engine seems to know eleven football players, and there is by bad luck or destiny one very unfortunate guy who does do strange things like almost never leaving his own penalty area and catch the ball with his hands. This is probably why still his rating is based on pass completion as if he would be a playmaker, his missing runs with ball and lousy number of crosses do not help to increase it either. If he is lucky, he can occasionally make some interceptions, win a key tackle or a key header to justify his poor existence on the pitch. There are no such things as key saves or a ratio of kept chances, stats that you will easily get while watching TV or buying a football magazine. Unfortunately all these factors have not been acknowledged by the game developers until now, and this leads to the large majority of players neglecting almost any other keeper settings then the game default ones.

However, modern keeper play requires a sweeping keeper, if not a playing keeper who gets more involved into defensive play, and sometimes with his commands even into the build-up and attacking play. His quick distribution and quick throws often initiate a fast attack or counter. Especially for teams playing high lines and offside trap, these kind of keepers are instrumental players acting as the backbone of the defence and as an additional defensive player.

Fortunately the game does allow us to implement the sweeping keeper, coming at least somehow close to a real playing keeper. So this last topic of the TB 07 - or first topic of TB 08 - will look at the tactical and player requirements to add a sweeping keeper in order to support your defence. While the concept has been made based on FM 07, the article is finished after the release of the FM 08 demo, and so far every evidence is strong that the settings can be transferred without any loss to FM 08.

Setting up the sweeping keeper (base version)

(IMG:http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/3353/keeper1bf0.th.jpg)

The mentality and closing down (both 11) are marked since these are the only needed basic settings. If you are lazy, you can keep these settings for any tactic, no matter if defensive or attacking and it should work right away from the start.
However you can refine these settings and adjust them to increase the teamwork between keeper, defence and even attack.

Sweeping keeper supporting a Control tactic

The team playing a rather high line, offside trap and uses attacking fullbacks while the opposition will sit very deep and only test your defence occasionally while avoiding any risk:


The mentality is increased to 14, closing down to 15 to reflect that the team is playing very offensively and with offside trap, as well as mixed FWR and mixed through balls, which could be increased to often.

Sweeping keeper supporting a shut-up-shop/kill game tactic

There will be less interceptions and rushing out needed, since the complete team will play deeper and try to hold the pressure, but hoofed up balls and through balls always are a danger



Mentality is reduced to defensive (5), closing down to first notch of mixed (7). Passing is direct (15) and distribution long kick. FWR and TTB rarely. This reflects the defensive and deeper setup of the team, but the settings are still enough to sweep out occasional through balls that might reach the final third.

Alternate examples and methods

If you are adjusting the attackingness of your tactics by the width or tempo, you can adjust the keeper closing down in a parallel move. E.g. width 18 for a very attacking tactic results in closing down 16 for the keeper.

Sweeping keeper supporting attacking tactic

(IMG:http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/5968/keeper4ut5.th.jpg)

High closing down and Through Balls Often will support the attack and also make the keeper look for a quick pass up front. The passing style is rather short to encourage distribution to the own defence in order to keep possession, if there is no through ball option available. Surprisingly these settings can work with a medium to high creative freedom level (as team default), giving the keeper more options to look for the best pass or distribution, if he is a good football player as well. However, you should carefully check if he able to handle this setting.

Sweeping keeper supporting defensive tactic

(IMG:http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/3596/keeper5ix4.th.jpg)

The keeper now does less closing down since his defence will set deeper, no through balls and direct passing, to keep his defence away from picking up short passes while the opposition attack may put them under heavy pressure.

More options

These examples may have illustrated several different options to set up both a very basic and even highly refined sweeping keeper, based on your own tactical approach. There will certainly be many more options available to set up this keeper and while you may see some mistakes caused by wrong decisions, many more goals will be prevented by a keeper who actively sweeps out through balls behind an attacking minded defence or who tries to get out his box to narrow the angle in a one-on-one situation.

Which kind of keeper do I need?

Not every keeper is suited to play this contemporary style (just like in real life). As you may have noted, many older keepers do have problems with this approach, while a huge number of young keepers is trying to learn this style nowadays.

Rushing out seems to be obviously required, acceleration and pace would be a fine bonus (but should not be overrated). But most of all, the key stats will be: decisions, anticipation, concentration and positioning. Good or excellent stats in these areas could make up for any other bad stat.

Additionally a good outfield player rating can be very helpful and indicate that your keeper may adapt to this role easily.

Overview:

Decisions
Anticipation
Concentration
Positioning
Rushing Out
Acceleration
Pace

It may seem more difficult to find such a player, but you may notice that you would not want to miss a sweeping keeper again, once you have tried it.
Player Preferred Moves - PPMs
Helpful and disliked moves regarding tactical aspects


Looking at the preferred moves of your players or players that you want to purchase may give you an idea of the kind of play they prefer and if they are ideally suited or less suited for your tactical system. Also, PPMs may be a help for assigning the right roles in your team and a hint for tweaking tactics to accommodate your players better.

Since releasing the articles about tutoring and player requirements there have been many requests to write something about PPMs. Garyh provided a complete list of PPMs which you will find below, but since this is the tactical bible, we have a different approach. We are not trying to say this PPM will do that, we are trying to look at the possible PPMs you may want to have when playing a certain style of football.

One of the best improvements of FM has been the huge variety of playing styles and philosophies that are possible today, but this also makes it more and more important to look at the right PPMs to find players that will really help you to assemble a squad which is able to create good football from your ideas and theoretical concepts.

Finally, there are some suggestions how to adjust your tactics according to PPMs to get the maximum effect of an existing squad. You should not overdo this and give up your original concept completely, but especially in the first years of a manager career it may be worth spending some time on this, at least until you have built your 'perfect' squad.


Player preferred moves by position


Keeper not much to select there. Maybe:

Gets crowd going. - Will stir up the audience, and if your team plays well, he may have much time to do that. So, why not?
Winds up opponent, Argues with officials - It can be helpful to have some of those dislikeable roughnecks in your squad. Why not the keeper?



Centre Back

Wanted

Likes to play his way out of trouble. Very fine for a technical defender. As long as you do not prefer hoofing up balls.
Marks opponent tightly. Must be what we want usually from a decent defender.
Tries long range passes Sometimes very useful, since it does not seem to mean 'hoofs up the ball on any occasion'. It rather seems to mean that this player as a good vision for playing dangerous long range passes which can be very clinical and surprising.
Stays back at all times May be helpful if you have one of them in the team.

Unsure
Dwells on ball: He will often slow down the game. This might be useful, but it can pose problems as well.


Attacking Fullback:

Wanted for a quick counter attacking style:

Cuts inside - A very fine and often dangerous move (for ALL wing players)
Hugs line - Hints at a dynamic, technical style
Runs down L/R - As above
Tries tricks - Trying to fool his opponent and beating him in one-on-one situations
Gets forward whenever possible - Exactly what you may want when using attacking fullbacks.
Likes to switch ball to other flank: Increasing the versatility of your attack, indicating great vision.
Tries to play out of trouble: Ideal if you want to control the game out of the defence

Unwanted:
Plays no through balls - Not very suited for a counter attacking style using fast strikers. But you may want it if you play a strictly possession oriented, defensive style.
Stays back at all times - as above



Defensive Midfielder


Stops play, Dwells on ball - Ideal for players who will hold up the ball
Plays short simple passes - A good move for a ball winner who will tend to pass the ball to the MC/a or the next creative player, often resulting in a very high pass completion ratio.
Dictates tempo - Indicates that you have a candidate for a very deep lying playmaker who will actively orchestrate the game from his position
Tries long range passes - Can be clinical in orchestrating counter attacks and playing defence splitting passes to the strikers
Stays back at all times - 'Restrictive PPM', only helpful if you want a pure holding midfielder
Gets forward whenever possible - If you want the opposite of the above and a more active playing DM
Marks opponent tightly - Ideal for an 'anchorman'
Comes deep to get ball - Helpful if playing the holding role as MC/d instead of DM. He will drop deep to receive the ball from the defenders.


Mental attributes:
Gets crowd going, Winds up opponent, Argues with officials - Except for 'Crowd going' all slightly dubious attributes, but many players prefer to have at least one player with these attributes, remembering the highly entertaining battles between Roy Keane and Stefan Effenberg. wink.gif The defensive midfielder can be an ideal candidate for this role.

Unwanted attributes:
Plays no through balls - at least if you want to play counter attacking football or have dangerous quick strikers. May be helpful only for a very slow, possession oriented approach.



MC/a and central attacking midfielder:

Wanted moves

Dictates tempo - The best players for a playmaker role and/or high creative freedom. THE key PPM.
Tries killer balls often - Maybe the second best PPM for any playmaking role.
Curls ball - An ideal candidate to convert long range screamers
Tries long range passes, Likes to switch ball to other flank Especially if combined with dictating tempo and high composure, this player will be running the midfield with dangerous passes.
Plays one-twos, Runs with ball through centre - Candidates for defence splitting moves, especially if combined with decent pace.
Uses outside of foot - Indicates fine technique and the ability to play quick, surprising passes.
Gets into opposition area, shoots with power - The ideal candidate for a 2nd striker role.
Shoots from distance - Especially if combined with powerful shots, this play will be a danger from almost any position.
Places shots - Usually a very good and calm finisher
Comes deep to get ball - will make this player often play as 'box to box' player, helping out the team with building up the play from deep.


Slightly restrictive moves

Arrives late in opposition area - a little bit dubious at first sight, but often these players have a very good timing when going forward and hence a good conversions rate. Better suited for a deeper role.
Looks for pass rather than attempting to score - Somehow 'restrictive' if you are looking for a player to play as 2nd striker, but also will almost guarantee a high number of assists.


Winger

Likes to beat man repeatedly - Maybe THE move for any flamboyant winger and this is what we want to see if we think about great wingers. Downside: if you do not want much run with ball in your play or if you are playing under muddy pitch conditions, these players will not reach their full potential.
Knocks ball past opponent - If combined with high pace useful to get past the defenders.

Cuts inside - A very fine and often dangerous move
Hugs line - hints at a dynamic, technical style
Runs down L/R - as above
Tries tricks - Trying to fool his opponent and beating him in one-on-one situations
Gets forward whenever possible - exactly what I want when I play attacking fullbacks
Likes to switch ball to other flank - Increasing the versatility of your attack, indicating great vision.

Tries killer balls often - Maybe the second best PPM for any playmaking role.
Curls ball - An ideal candidate to convert long range screamers
Tries long range passes, Likes to switch ball to other flank Especially if combined with dictating tempo and high composure, this player will be running the midfield with dangerous passes.
Plays one-twos, Runs with ball right/left - Candidates for defence splitting moves, especially if combined with decent pace.
Uses outside of foot - Indicates fine technique and the ability to play quick, surprising passes.
Gets into opposition area, Shoots with power, Shoots from distance - Especially if combined with powerful shots, this play will be a danger from almost any position.
Places shots - Usually a very good and calm finisher
Likes to beat man repeatedly - Maybe THE move for any flamboyant winger and this is what we want to see if we think about great wingers. Downside: if you do not want much run with ball in your play or if you are playing under muddy pitch conditions, these players will not reach their full potential.

Dwells on ball - Ideal for wingers with hold up ball instructions.


As you can see, there are many attributes shared with attacking fullbacks, central attacking midfielders and even forwards.


Quick striker

Places shots - THE key move for fast strikers, indicating that they have very high composure and will convert many one-on-one situations by calm finishing.
Tries tricks - Trying to fool his opponent and beating him in one-on-one situations.
Knocks ball past opponent - Useful to get past the defenders.
Comes deep to get ball - The player will drop into space between defence and midfield and actively get involved into the build up play or run with the ball through the defence.
Moves into channels - Supporting free roles and lone striker roles, especially if combined with
Cuts inside - As for wingers and fullbacks
Tries to beat the offside trap - for an out-and-out quick striker lurking for through balls, especially helpful if defending a lead or playing under high pressure.
Tries first time shots - trying to finish quickly without spending time on controlling the ball first. If combined with good long shots, this can be a very clinical finishing.


Converting: Alongside 'Places shots' there are two very helpful moves for converting one-on-one situations:
Likes to round keeper and Likes to lob keeper. These three moves often give the cutting edge in one-on-one situations which most fast strikers see quite often.

Rare combination: only very few players have both, 'shoots with power' and 'places shots', but this seems to be a very clinical package.


Strong striker and Poacher


Plays with back to goal - Ideal if playing as classical strong target man as described in the TM article. Combined with less forward runs, the player will be able to head the ball back to his rushing up team mates or flick it on to the wingers or fast striker.
Gets into opposition area - Fox-in-the-box move
Runs with ball through centre Powerful poacher move. If combined with good technique and strength, these players often will simple leave their opponents standing and find their way through any defence.
Moves into channels and Cuts inside: Supporting a mobile target man role as well as playing as strong loan striker




Controversial PPM's

These preferred moves could pose problems or they are moves which caused controversial opinions in the tactical bible team.

Long range free kicks, Long shots, Shooting with Power

Tries long range free kicks - Hits free kicks with power - In combination great, but often ending in the wall. Most likely only for freekicks and long shots 15+ and players who take long range free kicks. If you are having players like these in your team, it can be very ineffective to let them take every free kick, but often they have a good chance to score from long range efforts. An idea may be NOT to assign free kick takers in the tactical menu.

Slightly similar to Shoots from distance/Shoots with power. Certainly brilliant to have such a player in the team to break up sturdy defences, but as well it may be a guarantee for many shots off target.


Shoots with Power Seems to cause problems for many strikers since it can produce a large number of shots off target. On the other hand, some of the most prolific strikers do have this move. But there is no doubt that 'Places shots' is the most prolific PPM for any decent striker while it is doubtful if 'Shoots with Power' will make a striker more prolific. Certainly it should be combined with good finishing and especially long shot attributes, hopefully with good technique as well.

Dubious PPMs

Dives/does not dive into tackles Not really clear. More fouls/less fouls, more won or less won tackles? Dubious moves.

Arrives late in opposition area - Will he ever arrive? Will he arrive just in time to score from the penalty spot? Who knows.

Moves ball to left/right foot before attempts to dribble: Whatever, be pleased he can dribble.




Tweaking examples

Carlos Tevez

His PPM's are:

Likes to try to beat offside trap
Plays with back to goal
Come deep to get ball
Plays one two's
Knocks ball past opponent

I will try to explain and match my team instruction up with his preferred moves:

Free role + run with ball often - Knocks ball past opponent he will try both this way look for space and knock the ball past people and create havoc with his dribbling.

Mixed forward runs (like to try to beat offside trap) even on mixed forward runs he will make more forward runs than a player who does not have this PM

Mentality of 14 in the RoO system (comes deep to get ball)

Cross balls mixed, through balls mixed (Plays one two's). He will be more likely to play the one two when left on mixed, he should select his PM first before attempting the other two.

With his attributes and moves he is well suited to play as semi- or full target man and team supply to feet or run to ball. Since he does play very deep, he also can hold up the ball and he can be used as a semi-playmaker, especially if you intend to link him up with a strong target man.

Special thanks to garyh for giving this example.


More suggestions

These are just some little hints what you may look for if taking over a new squad and looking for the right players. There will be many more examples, so this is just a suggestion what to look for when taking over a new squad or if you try to adapt your tactics slightly.

Tight marking: If a player has 'Marks opponents tightly' in his PM, you should not think twice about giving him this instruction.

Moves into channels, cuts inside: candidate free role for strikers, at least some creative freedom and cross ball mixed or often, which will allow this player to drift out wide.

Dictates tempo: Playmaker candidate. 'Dictates tempo' needs creative freedom if used as MC/a to make own passing decisions, as well as TTB often. Supported by 'tries killer balls' move.

Likes to beat man repeatedly: RWB often

Marks man tightly: If you have a DM/MC with this move, he is clearly a candidate for the holding role.

Dwells on ball: if you have wingers with this PM, e.g. C. Ronaldo, HUB always could be helpful.





Complete List of PPMs

Argues with officials
Arrives late in opposition area
Attempts overhead kicks
Avoids using weaker foot
Comes deep to get ball
Curls ball
Cuts inside
Dictates tempo
Dives into tackles
Does not dive in to tackles
Dwells on ball
Gets crowd going
Gets forward whenever possible
Gets into opposition area
Hits free kicks with power
Hugs line
Knocks ball past opponent
Likes ball played in to feet
Likes to beat man repeatedly
Likes to lob keeper
Likes to round keeper
Likes to switch ball to other flank
Likes to try to beat offside trap
Looks for pass rather than attempting to score
Marks opponent tightly
Moves ball to left foot before dribble attempt
Moves ball to right foot before dribble attempt
Moves in to channels
Places shots
Plays no through balls
Plays one twos
Plays short simple passes
Plays with back to goal
Runs with ball down left
Runs with ball down right
Runs with ball through centre
Shoots from distance
Shoots with power
Stays back at all times
Stops play
Tries first time shoots
Tries killer balls often
Tries long range free kicks
Tries long range passes
Tries tricks
Tries to play out of trouble
Uses outside of foot
Winds up opponents





Tactical Bible Credits
Garyh, Crazy Gra, wwfan, Millie.
Written by The next Diaby, edited by Millie.

Opposition Instructions

Opposition instructions are one of the new features introduced for FM 07 and the subject of many questions. They can be a very powerful instrument of supporting your defensive success, and can be the key to winning many games, especially tight games and games with odds against you.

If you watch a game in extended highlight mode, or even in full mode, you will notice that your opposition instructions will force the whole team to watch out for individual opposing players and try to handle them according to your instructions - as soon as these players enter the zone of any of your players. This teamwork can almost take opposition players ‘out of the game’ and may be one reason why opposition instructions are useful with any marking system; but they can be almost crucial if combined with zonal marking.

Using a huge number of opposition instructions for every attacking and midfield player can eventually result in dramatically reducing the SOT rate of the opposition, often restricting them to a few shots on goal per game.

These are a few recommended and tested opposition instructions:

Forwards: Tight marking for any half decent striker always, closing down always/never for slow strikers/explosive strikers, hard tackling for towering strikers and heading monsters (if they get fouled all day, turn off). Sometimes show on weaker foot for technical strikers.

Closing down should be related to the player’s pace. If you only have one player with pace 6 or 8 in your back-line (especially the CBs) and the opposition player has a pace of 16, you should choose close down never. If you are playing explosive strikers but your CBs have a pace of 14 to 16, consider closing down neutral (no specific) or even often. Closing down often seems to work a charm as long as there are no large gaps in speed and the defenders are matching the opposition quality in rough terms. It would certainly fail if there is a gap of two divisions in quality though.

Wingers: Tight marking/closing down always for wingers, show on weaker foot if their strong foot matches their side.

Hard tackling for wingers is recommended frequently. However, with using hard tackling you should monitor the amount of unnecessary fouls in crucial areas. It's a case of personal preference and how much you trust the tackling ability of your players.

Midfield: Closing down for every player in midfield who tries to make good long shots. Tight marking/closing down always for every AMC and dominant deeper MC playmaker.

These instructions really can make the difference. Especially if you achieve to take out the opposition's AMC, since this will be a blow for many team’s build up play.

Centre backs and keepers: Closing down often on the goalkeeper and centre backs. The benefits of this can be that any team that likes to build from the back (with the goalkeeper making short passes, or a team that likes to play many back passes) will be put under a lot of pressure and either have to change its game plan or lose possession in key areas. If nothing else, it can pressurise the opposition into making mistakes, perhaps giving your team a few key throw-ins, corners or even key interceptions. The down side would obviously be the great physical effort required in constantly chasing down the ball. However, in games where you wanted to kill off a tight match or need to regain possession to score it could be a useful tool.

If you use this at home against ultra defensive teams, your players will be pushed further up the pitch, so they won't be as tired or out of position as much.

Ultra defensive opposition:
Lone FCs in defensive systems: close down, tight marking and maybe hard tackling.
FC and AMC in 3-3-2-1-1: close down, tight marking and hard tackling.
This can also be applied against two forwards in e.g. ultra-defensive 4-4-2s.

These instruction can be helpful to intercept any attack very early and regain possession. Watch out though if your defenders are turned by quality forwards or commit too many fouls.


Quality Opposition: If you are facing overwhelming opponents, it can be worth singling out their WHOLE midfield! Additional measure: closing down the fullbacks, plus showing on their weaker foot as well if it matches their side (preventing crosses). This can be very effective against superior attacking teams and protect your penalty area from being bombed by deep crosses or fullbacks going riot on your wings. But you should keep this in reserve for strong teams and attacking teams in tight games. Otherwise it would be a waste of stamina.

Bravery: Some players recommend watching out for the oppositions bravery and pick out players with low bravery for closing down always and hard tackling. But again you should monitor if this leads to a huge number of crucial fouls.

Danger man: It can be worth the effort to think about your scout's feedback. If the danger man is e.g. a strong striker, he could be tackled hard and the wingers should be treated specially as well to prevent crosses to his head. A dominating playmaker might need tight marking and/or hard tackling and closing down.


Tactical Bible Credits:
Millie, Crazy Gra, wwfan, The next Diaby. Editor: Millie
The contributors:
garyh, Justified, GaryWHUFC, thegooner, Crazy Gra, Millie, wwfan(editor), The next Diaby (coordinator)


Target Men

Introduction

When you think of the archetypal target man, players like James Beattie, Duncan Ferguson, or for those of us with longer memories, Paul Mariner, spring to mind. Tall and strong with a good touch for a big man (Mariner possibly excepted) whose job it is to win flick ons, hold up the ball and generally bring others in to play. In a good year they can be top scorers, but their all round contribution is more important than their goal ratio.

Yet, in the real world, as in FM, there are different types of target men. Alan Shearer was not the tallest of players and despite being good in the air preferred to have the ball played to his feet so he could use his excellent first touch and physical strength to hold up the ball and lay it off to breaking wingers. Mark Hughes was of similar ilk. Finally, you have the lightening fast finishers who, although able to hold up the ball, are more concerned with running on to through balls and using their pace to best effect. Michael Owen best personifies this type of player.

FM07 is arguably the first version of Football Manager that allows users to design tactics around such various types of target men. In previous versions the Target Man option just seemed to limit play. Now, if set up correctly, it can offer the user team a massive advantage and constantly delivers results. The following article is a guide for best setting up the various types of target men.

The Strong Target Man

The most important attributes for the strong target man are height, strength, jumping, heading, and bravery.

When using a strong target man the two supply options are ‘mixed’ or ‘to head’. The ‘mixed’ option is largely ‘to head’ dominant, with circa 80% of balls played high. However, enough balls are played in to feet or in front of the target man to make pace and skill important. Ideal players at higher levels are poachers or strong strikers with a decent amount of pace, flair, creativity, and composure such as Drogba, Klose, Toni, Fred, or Gillardino. At lower levels height remains important, but some pace, decision making ability and a decent first touch should still be required. If your target man option is tall, strong but less than skilful then ‘to head’ becomes the best option.

Best Settings

TM settings (if strong striker is TM)
Preferred supply: To head/mixed
Mentality: Lower than team average (e.g. 14 instead of 20 in RoO)
Forward run settings: rarely
HUB: Yes
Creative freedom: Low
Crosses from byline, cross aim mixed
All other settings: Mixed
Team crosses set to: Wingers and full backs closest to the TM cross to mixed as the TM isn't always up with play due to winning the flick on to the wide player. The winger/full back on the other side of the pitch should cross to far post as the target man is either up with play because it wasn't his flick on or will arrive late in the box, yet still in time to meet the header, as the ball has further to travel

Mobile Target Man
(A good goal-poacher is required for this role)
Target Man Supply: Mixed
Mentality: Lower than team average (e.g. -5 to 6)
HUB: No
CF: 4 - 10 (depending on away-home matches and the quality of the TM)
Long Shots: Rarely/mixed
All other settings: Mixed

If you choose to play a tall, strong player supporting a quick, mobile target man, the following settings are best advised.

Strong Striker Supporting a Quick TM
As above, except for:
Mentality: attacking (e.g. 20 in attacking RoO)
HUB: no
FWR: mixed (if pacey and frequently caught offside), often (if slow or pacey with good anticipation etc.)
Long shots: rarely
Team crosses set to: side of the strong striker. (E.g. near post from right + far post from left)

Reasoning

Setting Target Man Supply to head/mixed is much more possession friendly than run to ball which often loses out against deep lying defensive lines. The lower mentality setting will get the Target Man to play deep which offers two advantages. Firstly, his headers, rather than being constantly attacking flick ons, will often be cushioned backwards to the midfielders or sprayed out to the wings which allows for quality build up play. Secondly, his lower mentality and deep position drags his marking defender out of the defensive line, opening up space behind it for a quick strike partner to exploit should the header be a flick on.

Tests have suggested that ideal players in the strong Target Man role will make more key passes and assists then the MC/a, especially in home games.

In home games against ultra-defensive opposition, two strong strikers can be used occasionally. It is even better if one of those two has a fair amount of pace. Two tall strong strikers can be amazing in combo as they dominate everything in the air. If the ball to TM is played badly the other striker is equally likely to win his header so you can constantly win possession and counter.


The Quick Target Man

The most important attributes for the quick target man are first touch, pace, dribbling, strength, off the ball, finishing, and composure.

The two best supply settings for a quick target man are ‘run to ball’ or ‘to feet’. ‘Run to ball’ produces a fair number of high balls over the defence with lots of quick direct through balls whereas ‘to feet’ pretty much guarantees the ball being played on the floor and a lot less through balls. Ideal players at higher levels are Henry, Eto'o, Robinho, van Persie and Tevez.


Best Settings

Lone TM Settings
Preferred Supply: Run to ball
Mentality: Lower than team average (e.g. 14 instead of 20 in RoO)
FWR: Mixed
HUB: No
Creative freedom: High
Close down: Rarely
Crosses mixed, cross aim mixed, cross from mixed
Long shots: Mixed
TTB: Often
Team crosses set to: Mixed

For a quick Target Man in a two-man strike force the best settings are as follows.

Quick Striker TM
Target Man Supply: Run to ball (away or defensive play), to feet (home or attacking play)
As above, except for:
FWR: Rarely
HUB: Often
CF: High
CB: Often, cross aim far post
CD: Mixed/rarely
Cross from byline
Long shots: Rarely
TTB: Often
Team crosses set to: Side of the strong striker. (E.g. near post from right + far post from left)

If you choose to play a quick, mobile striker supporting a tall, strong Target Man the following settings are advised.

Quick Striker Supporting Strong TM
Fast striker mentality highest possible (e.g. 20 in attacking mindset)
FWR: often/mixed if constantly offside
RWB: often
Long shots; rarely
Rest mixed
Closing down heavy
Creative freedom: higher then strong striker
Team crosses: mixed, TM, TM side


Reasoning

The quick target man is best employed with supply set to ‘run to ball’ or ‘to feet’. The ‘run to ball’ instruction seems to be especially effective for quick lone strikers or for away tactics that work with two strikers.

When playing at home with two strikers, the supply option should be ‘to feet’ as ‘run to ball’ leads to many scrappy one-on-one situations that most keepers handle easily. The team gives away possession quite frequently by trying to play too many through balls past a well-prepared defence.

A lone quick target man can be used at home and will often get on the end of a few crucial key passes and grab a goal or two. However, an ultra-defensive opposition can reduce the effectiveness of the lone striker target man dramatically.

If you are playing an ultra-attacking formation that is trying to overload the opposition’s defence, ‘run to ball’ still can work well if your quick target man always has options to pass the ball on to several other players.


Lower League Settings

In LLM scenarios, quick target men can be even more valuable, since many defenders who are less skilled are simply outplayed by the sheer pace.


Setting up an AMC as TM behind two strikers drifting out wide

An experimental guide and results for employing an AMC as a Target Man.

Mid TM (AMC) Settings
Mentality: 12-14
CF: 4-6
Passing: 4-6
CD: 4-6
Tackling: Easy
FRuns: Mixed
RWB: Rarely
TTB: Mixed
Long Shots: Rarely
Cross Ball: Rarely
HUB: Ticked.

FCL With SArrow
Mentality: 14-16
CF: 4-6
Passing: 4-6
CD: 16-20
Tackling: Easy
FRuns: Often
RWB: Often
TTB: Rarely
Long Shots: Rarely
Cross Ball: Mixed
Cross From: Byline
Cross Aim: Centre (As MidTM should be getting into the area by now)

FCR With SArrow
Mentality: 18-20
CF: 10-15
Passing: 4-6
CD: 10
Tackling: Easy
FRuns: Mixed
RWB: Mixed
TTB: Rarely
Long Shots: Rarely
Cross Ball: Rarely.

Target Man Supply To Head

The results were outstanding as the MidTM supplied 18 from an attempted 21 passes with only 2 fouls (although one produced a yellow card), 5 runs and winning 28 of 29 headers!! He also scored 2 and had 2 assists. His rating at half time was 8 and morale was very good. He finished with a 10 rating superb morale and got MoM in a 4-2 victory.

Although the Target Man supply in the above match was set ‘to head’ a Target Man AMC with good decision making skills should be able to dominate with a ‘mixed’ setting. Even with poor decision making skills, giving the team specific instructions as to his supply makes a massive difference. Although only employed as an AMC/TM in away games he plays a massive role in the attack. His first goal came from him flicking the ball left to the SC who ran to the byline and crossed into the penalty area before my AMC/TM out-jumped the keeper and DC and buried the header in the right corner.

Decisions will play a role in specified settings. The higher the rating the more varied you can set team supply.

Advantages: high number of flick ons to the strikers, effective use of an AMC with less flair but good heading. Well suited for less technical teams.

Disadvantages: Less slow passing and less patient build up play through the midfield.

Additional Midfield Target Men: (AMLR)

Useful in multi-strata formations like a 4-2-3-1. If your wingers have similar attributes as your target man, it can help to include them into to the target man list. No further tweaks needed here.


Addendum

However effective a target man is when man-marked, it seems a zonal defence with opposition instructions focused on the target man can limit his worth to the side. If you see a low won headers percentage for a target man who should be dominating in the air it may be worthwhile unchecking the target man option and allowing some balls to be played to his strike partner.

The Target Man Supply option 'to feet' can work exceedingly well with a strong player with no forward runs. He will hold up the ball and spread the play to the wings with some effect. It can be a useful second option if your tall yet strong target man is being beaten to the ball in the air.

Posted on behalf of the team by TND