Introduction
Written by StamIt’s a great feeling when your team is doing great with a tactic you created on your own. However, a lot of people reside on using tactics created by others because they either don’t really understand that aspect of the game all too well and don’t bother messing with it, or they find it hard to come up with a tactic that actually works for their team and give up trying.
But what makes a tactic successful? Which factors can we fine-tune until we get ourselves a tactic that works? What steps to take? This is what you’ll learn in this guide.
To begin with you need to make a choice. You can either base your tactic on the strengths of the players you already have at your disposal, or you can base your tactic on the playing style you want your team to have (and buy/sell players that fit into that). At any case, it’s vital for your tactic to be “compatible” with your players and their skills.
This guide consists of quite a few chapters and I recommend reading through them all. We tried to keep our text simple and the paragraphs bite-sized, to make it easier for everyone to read through and understand.
This is a collaborative piece written by members of our community and we aim to update it from time to time to reflect changes in FM and to add new tips based on feedback we receive here.
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Our guide has been featured on the official Facebook page of the game!
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February 2014
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Our guide has surpassed 500,000 views.
August 2016
![]()
Our guide has surpassed 1000,000 views.
But what makes a tactic successful? Which factors can we fine-tune until we get ourselves a tactic that works? What steps to take? This is what you’ll learn in this guide.
To begin with you need to make a choice. You can either base your tactic on the strengths of the players you already have at your disposal, or you can base your tactic on the playing style you want your team to have (and buy/sell players that fit into that). At any case, it’s vital for your tactic to be “compatible” with your players and their skills.
This guide consists of quite a few chapters and I recommend reading through them all. We tried to keep our text simple and the paragraphs bite-sized, to make it easier for everyone to read through and understand.
This is a collaborative piece written by members of our community and we aim to update it from time to time to reflect changes in FM and to add new tips based on feedback we receive here.
Landmark Milestones
November 2013
Our guide has been featured on the official Facebook page of the game! 
February 2014
Our guide has surpassed 500,000 views.August 2016
Our guide has surpassed 1000,000 views.Your content on FM Scout
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Discussion: How to create a successful tactic on Football Manager
19 comments have been posted so far.
Change Log 27/05/2017
5. Team Instructions - Completely revamped to reflect recent changes in FM
14. Sideline Shouts - Page added to reflect importance of sideline shouts
but anyway, I still confuse. about attack near post and near post flick on,what kindof player should be suite? I mean, if we have good header,then why we ask him to flick instead of attack directly to the goal?and if we have player at far post who great header,why we didnt give the ball to him,but flick from near post instead?
and what about stand on far post? I quite didnt understand. so this just distraction? not the goal scorer?
how about attack from deep?
Freekicks:
I'm afraid that you're unable to have two free kick takers for the time being ( at least, to my knowledge), so you would have to suffice with having one of Ronaldo / Bale taking both free kicks around the box, as well as further up field.
Aiming a free kick towards the best header is normally used when a shooting opportunity is not on - so, for example, if a free-kick is from a wider position, the free-kick will be aimed towards the player who has the best heading attributes.
Taking a long free-kick means that if you have the ball deep in your opponents half, the ball will be passed up field in a more direct manner, instead of passing the ball short, and keeping hold possession. Choosing a long freekick is best if you're playing a more direct tactic, where as a short free kick is best if you have players that can play with a fast tempo and small passes.
Corners:
A near post flick would require a player to essentially 'flick' the ball backwards towards either the center of the box, or towards the far post - a good example of this in real life could be seen with Manchester City. Often during matches Demichelis flicks the ball backwards for someone else to score. If you were to use this, then make sure to have players placed both centrally and attacking the back post.
Attacking near post is where the player attack the ball at the near post in an attempt to score. This differs to the near post flick on as the near post flick on does not try to score - simply move the ball on in order to allow someone else to score. If you're going to use this, then make sure the player who's attacking the near post has good attributes in the following areas: Heading, Jumping reach and strength. Other attributes that can be included are Balance and Bravery.
I hope this cleared things up for you! :-)
I don't think that there is a way of setting different players to take long and short range free kicks. Usually, the players that are good at free kicks tend to be
corner kicks too. Also, long will play a long ball into the box as far as they can, whereas best header will go higher, for the best header of the ball to jump up and head it as no one else can reach,
The difference between each of these is actually quite big. Attack near post will make your player run to the near post and attempt to head the ball in. On the other hand, near post flick on will make the player at the near post head the ball to the far post over the defenders instead of shooting himself. Attack far post is similar to attack near post, as the players will try to head the ball in at the far post, and I think Stand on far post will attempt to distract other team defenders and create space in the area.
Free Kick
my problem on this set piece ,is , FM is sometime unreasonable. for the free kick from very long distance,where player would pass it to another team mate instead of shot on goal, they put my free kick taker here,which is not effetive. I mean,if you see real madrid , they would put cristiano ronaldo or gareth bale as free kick taker ,from reasonable range to shot on goal. if the free kick place is too far to be shooted, then xabi would take instead ,so he could aim the ball better. but in fm, this doesnt happen. all free kick would taken by ronaldo ,except the free kick from touchline..
any souliton?
I also didnt understand,what is "long" option on free kick aim optin mean?
couldnt it become "long and to best header"?
corner kick
any explanation about the different between "near post flick on" and attach near post?
how about "atack from deep and lurk outside area'?
and "attack far post" with "stand on far post"?
I didnt know which is the right time to chose them.
Kudos!
@Bert: Thank you for contributing. We have some new guides in the works, I'll ask you for more contributions soon
Thanks for this fantastic guide.
Just one thing I would like to mention... earlier, according to my experience it is not the best option to mark tightly a pacey opponent as they will be able to lose your defender who is not that fast...
what do you think?
Good read for the other sectors, and really good help in the parts that I'm not as comfortable with.
Nice guide all round!