2020-07-07 12:43#275756 dmcgrath82 :
As I seem to be struggling against the likes of Milans, Napoli and Juve away and home sometimes, would you tweak the (Fire and water using at the mo) to say positive mentality and reduce FBs overlap and make them defensive rather than support?
I feel when I use/create my own tactics that I tend to have a more cautious approach, which works sometimes away against biggest teams and in Europe, but tends to put team under a lot of pressure. Maybe I overt think the tactics to much?
This is my take on the situation you have described. Note that others may differ.
Mentality changes won't do too much if the players have attacking or supporting roles, they will still vacate their assigned position. A wing back attack on any mentality will still attack, he will just attack less so on a defensive mentality then on an attacking one.
With the above paragraph fresh in your mind now bear in mind that in order to have consistent tactical success in FM20 you cannot really afford to drop your team mentality any lower than Positive. The match engine is 'bent' towards the Positive and Attacking mentalities. You'll notice the vast majority of 'plug n' play' tactics have these two mentalities.
So how do we fix this.... We need to play more defensive roles on Positive or Attacking mentalities. On these mentalities the roles aren't necessarily defensive, they are more what I would call 'holding'.
I'm critical of many formations, mainly because they contain far too many support & attacking roles, particularly in the areas where you need a balance with defensive roles for positive & attacking mentalities.
Still with me? Good.... So the answer is more defensive roles for players on the more attacking mentalities where a defensive role would help with your actual situation. Your actual situation changes from game to game as you study the oppositions general strength of team/squad & their shape/formation.
You know when your assistant manager tells you pre-game it might be a good idea to lower the mentality... This is a hint that the match engine believes the oppo are a strong match for you. Ideally you should then look at their set up compared to yours & you can see where you might, the word is might, struggle.
As an example - You are playing against Liverpool who under Klopp are religiously a 4-3-3 GG press with two lethal inside forwards and two crazy attacking full backs... however their centre midfield in general sits & just helps the flow of the game. So where do you think the danger is? Yep, the flanks.
The above is where your lovely 'plug n' play' tactic comes totally unstuck. You are set up with attacking full backs on support or attack duty and wingers who are inverting. Now this will beat 90% of teams you face as the skill of your players and your mentality drowns them out of the game.... But Liverpool also play a 'plug n' play' tactic. They have the same aggressive set up you have & have similar skilled players to you. In that case in FM possibly you cannot fight this fire with fire, these are the match up's you will possibly lose or come unstuck in tactics wise.
So, we have to bite our lip, admit defeat and make enough tactically relevant changes for this game that doesn't effect our mentality or familiarity. This is the the true skill of understanding tactics in FM, making those correct changes pre-game & even during the game to positively effect the outcome.
I've gone on a fair bit here but if you want to know more then recommend a PM conversation.
