Bad Tactics?

I am managing Malaga on a FM12 Save and lost to Nurnberg in a friendly cup, i know its only friendlies but on previous saves this bad run carried onto competitive matches. I used fairly decent teams like Southampton and Wolves ;), and also Crawley who are a good team for their standard. I have used 4-2-3-1 or the 4-2-4 formation, with Direct passing (sometimes Short), Man Marking, a deep defensive line, wide width, and a quick tempo with counter attack. All the teams I have used have been performing below standards, any tips for tactics, team talks, strategies and playing styles.

Help someone please, preferably a sucessful manager!

well you seem to keep playing your own philosophy, which isnt bad. but you need to make sure you put more time on personal instructions and make them according to the players.

some players will be better of passing another way/marking another way etc. also you need to be able to pick your team to what your looking for. like certain type of players that you know will fit into your team/tactics. its mostly about getting to know the team and knowing how to get the most out of them. so u use the friendlies to make sure you experiment with your tactics. in the end you will be able to find instructions for your players etc. HTH

Thanks, how would you find out what tactics to do for certain players, im a noob on the computer haha! I have Van Nisterooy and Sanogo, big target man players, im into the season now so i cant!

its a long list on looking for the pros and cons.

but certain simple things like passing if higher than 15 then they get a more mixed style passing and more through balls.

if they are between 12-15 they get maybe slightly short or direct(depending on what u have chosen in the team instructions. with mixed through balls.

lower than 10-12 mixed through balls(if attacking players or attacking fullbacks) with short or direct passing(some players might find it better with short and some better with direct.))

lower than 10 its fully short and no through balls.

obviously things like that can change depending on quality of league and players.

there should be hints tips/guides all around the site just search and look for them.

thanks for the help, much appreciated!

If anyone else wants to help that would be very helpful!

try playing a simple short passing game . instead of direct becaue it gives time for players to get into position instead of just racing up the field .

try a high defensive line to put pressure on oppositon players and try regain possession faster but make sure you tinker with the player instructions aswell

I started a game with southampton playin a 4-5-1 attacking formation. I got Yves MaKalambay on a free, bought Giorgos Samaras for 300k, Clint Hill for 500k, Paulo Nagamura for 140k, Eric Lichaj for 450k, Ermin Bicakcic on Loan, Holmar Eyolfsson on Loan and Ravel Morrison on loan. From playin my friendlies i went on to have a 21 game unbeaten streak winning 17 games. after a good few blips in my 1st season i managed to win 25 games in the championship drawing 10 and losing 11. I was knocked out of league cup in the semis and went on to winning the FA cup and the championship.