Tactic Familiarity

[tifflez]

Just wondering what affects tactic familiarity, i play as woking in the BSS and only have 1 tactic loaded, match prep set very high no specific focus and by late october the familiarity bars are only half way across and mentality still on awkward..

Seems awfully slow.

[Marsupian]

Just wondering what affects tactic familiarity, i play as woking in the BSS and only have 1 tactic loaded, match prep set very high no specific focus and by late october the familiarity bars are only half way across and mentality still on awkward..

Seems awfully slow.

It's probably because of the poor facilities and overall training workload being very low (as everyone has a part-time contract). I wouldn't be worried about it as your opponents will be just as unfamiliar as you are. Apart from playing matches (I presume) match prep workload and focus area you can't influence how quickly your team gets familiar with the tactic so in your case there is no way to speed it up any further.

I would personally put a little less focus on match prep (high or average) to not take too much time away from normal training. I personally don't think it's a big deal if my team is not familiar with the tactic I play.

[furiousuk]

I've heard it said that a high match prep takes away from learning tactical familiarity (as well as time away from normal training) but personally I don't believe it.

If my tactical familiarity drops during the off season then I always whack match prep up (high or average, I normally have it on low or very low) as that sounds logical.

As Marsupian says it is more likely poor facilities, part-time contracts and possibly staffing. I have a smal personal theory that staff preferred formation and coaching style helps to gain familiarity in a particular tactic i.e. a coach whose preferred style is defensive would help gain familiarity of d-line, tackling and closing down for example - a coach whose preferred formation is 433 would help learn a 433. I have no specific evidence for this but it wouldn't surprise me if this level of depth was in the game, this depth certainly exists in other areas of the game.

The other thing is that the familiarity bars aren't totally representative of how familiar your team are with your tactic. Are there any signs in the ME that they are unfamiliar with either the tactic or each other? (Some things to look out for are 'silly' errors such as odd defensive positioning, passing into the back of other players or having too many/too few players challenging for a loose ball or the dreaded 'spinny-move-of-doom')

[tifflez]

Yes there are signs of what you described in the last paragraph (spinny-move-of-doom) and the team is pretty much all new to each other,i got rid of most of the original team.

Ah well i'm still getting results but i thought the team would play even better with fluid familiarity but as marsupian pointed out to me very high match prep is taking away from training so i will reduce the workload and just get on with it.

Thanks for the replies guys.

[phnompenhandy]

I may have mis-remembered this but I thought that if you set match prep to 'teamwork' that gradually gets the squad to gel and increases tactical familiarity. It's the only one that is cumulative. The others like defending set-pieces attacking movement are for one match only and detracts from long-term squad familiarity. So, basically, keep match prep on teamwork and see the bars increase.

[Marsupian]

I may have mis-remembered this but I thought that if you set match prep to 'teamwork' that gradually gets the squad to gel and increases tactical familiarity. It's the only one that is cumulative. The others like defending set-pieces attacking movement are for one match only and detracts from long-term squad familiarity. So, basically, keep match prep on teamwork and see the bars increase.

Teamwork does get your squad to gel and is the only cumulative one but it doesn't speed up how fast your team learns the tactic. The focus area takes workload away from purely learning the tactic so if you select no focus area the full workload goes to learning the tactic. If you select a focus area part of the workload goes into the preparation for the next match or team building depending on what you choose.

[5uare2]

It also depends on what the team are used to playing, and how much that differs from what you are asking from them; to apply a real-life example, see how long Chelsea are taking to adapt to Villas-Boas' methods, which in many ways are the exact opposite of how they've played from Mourinho onwards.

If you're taking over a team, it might be worth checking the profile of the manager you've replaced, and looking at his preferred formation, mentality, passing style, etc. If this is very different from yours, chances are that the squad will take longer to get used to your tactics (and also be poorly suited for them). Perhaps that's the case here?

[5uare2]

It also depends on what the team are used to playing, and how much that differs from what you are asking from them; to apply a real-life example, see how long Chelsea are taking to adapt to Villas-Boas' methods, which in many ways are the exact opposite of how they've played from Mourinho onwards.

If you're taking over a team, it might be worth checking the profile of the manager you've replaced, and looking at his preferred formation, mentality, passing style, etc. If this is very different from yours, chances are that the squad will take longer to get used to your tactics (and also be poorly suited for them). Perhaps that's the case here?