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How to create a successful tactic on Football Manager

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. Updated for FM17.

By Updated on May 27, 2017   2259220 views   19 comments
Football Manager Guides - How to create a successful tactic on Football Manager

Match Training

Written by Arvind

Contrary to what many people think, training is actually a crucial part of helping a tactic work as well as it possibly can.

To ensure that your players get familiar with your tactics as fast as they possibly can, it is advisable to set your General Training focus to Tactics, and to set the intensity to High or Very High until just before the season starts. After the season begins though, setting your training intensity to Medium would be preferable to ensure that your players do not get injured frequently and are able to be match fit for the majority of your fixtures.

Moving on, Match Preparation or Match Training can give your team the edge you need for the upcoming match. For example, if you are up against Stoke, it would be wise to prepare your team for the match by training in Defensive Set Pieces as they specialise in scoring from set-pieces, and physical play. Defensive Positioning match preparation will definitely help when you are facing opponents like Manchester United who have very good attacking players and move the ball around very well.

When facing an opponent that is much better than you and you intend to shut up shop to not concede goals, scheduling maximum match training will give you an extra day to prepare your team for the game.

If your club is in a continental competition, you will find many occasions in the season where you have two or three matches in a single week. While regular training is certainly important, allowing your players to have a rest day before and after the match will help them recover and enable them to play as much as they can.



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Discussion: How to create a successful tactic on Football Manager

19 comments have been posted so far.

  • alrocd01's avatar
    Awesome. In FM18 the "assimetrical formation" works incredible
  • AdamSwen's avatar
    Obrigado pelo guia, excelente trabalho!!!!
  • Stam's avatar
    Great work Justice! Thanks :)
  • Justice's avatar
    *UPDATED FOR FM17*

    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
  • ARSENAL_ruleZ's avatar
    Still can't beat the big teams :/
  • Rumblefish1312's avatar
    thank you very much stam!GREAT guide!
    1
  • adsuperjenius's avatar
    thanks for your answer..

    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?
  • Nick's avatar
    @adsuperjenius:

    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! :-)
  • Louis O.'s avatar
    @adsuperjenius:
    adsuperjenius:
    "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"?
    "

    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,

    adsuperjenius:
    "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."
    "

    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.
  • adsuperjenius's avatar
    well,I have several confusion on set pieces that i didnt found the solutin on the article

    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.
  • juniovalerio's avatar
    You guys should definitely make a PDF downloadable version of this or at least a printer-friendly version!

    Kudos!
  • ARSENAL_ruleZ's avatar
    This guide helped me so much, Thank you!
  • LeedsUnitedForLife's avatar
    a pdf version pleae!!!
    1
  • SirAlexFerguson's avatar
    Great guide! Is there a pdf version to download or just online? Cheers
  • Stam's avatar
    @Siskebab: Thanks for your comment. That is correct. I'd swear I asked from Pauker (responsible for the Opposition Instructions part) to mention this bit about facing pacey players, and yet he seems to have forgotten about it. No worries though, we'll be updating the guide from time to time to make sure it's as good as it can be.

    @Bert: Thank you for contributing. We have some new guides in the works, I'll ask you for more contributions soon :)
  • Siskebab's avatar
    Hello Stam!

    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?
  • Bert's avatar
    Thanks for letting me contribute to this Stam :)

    Good read for the other sectors, and really good help in the parts that I'm not as comfortable with.

    Nice guide all round!
    1
  • Stam's avatar
    @gmi004: Thank you for reading and for the kind words. I'm glad the guide has become so popular so fast, and we just want to keep producing more of these.
  • gmi004's avatar
    A great guide, thank you so much.
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