Tactic suggestions

[KyleGraham]

I am currently playing a couple of saves on Football Manager, one with Leeds and a network game with Chelsea. I found it very easy to get to the premiership with Leeds and went unbeaten in my first season up until mid December but fell into 7th place by the end of the season when I also won the League Cup. I finished in the same place next season and won the FA Cup however the next season I finished 11th with no cup victories and very inconsistent form.

With Chelsea I was doing very well, sitting top of the league and still in the Champions League and FA Cup but I am now second and my mate has a game in hand over me (he is Man City).

The issue being I can't win against the big teams on either of these saves. So I was hoping to get some hints on taking on the big teams

Here is my problem, I have used tactics uploaded tactics to great effect in the past but I want my own tactics now. I was just looking for some hints and tips on developing my own and countering my opponents tactics.

This is the way my Leeds team are playing at the minute (and the squad I have as well). Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Squad

Tactics

[KyleGraham]

Here are what my regens look like, any tips on developing the younger ones would be appreciated also

[KyleGraham]

And the older guy

[Seule]

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/292499-Tactics-Creating-your-own-tactic

Invariably, threads like this raise a lot of questions, I'm no tactical genius so I would hope one of the masters drops in, but I'll start asking some questions that will get asked anyways

Do you have any notion of why you're getting beat? ie are you getting shredded by wingers skinning your FB's, or is it coming from through balls past your D? Stuff like that. From the simple look at your tactics screen, both your DMC's aren't playing great and neither is one of your CB's. Very fluid is not something I ever use personally, but it's there for a reason, just have to find a way to make it work.

Now this is the part where I imagine I may be wrong but :

1. You've got press more, with a fairly deep defensive line, shorter passing and a slow tempo, I assume you're looking to press the opposition, win the ball back quickly and tic-tac your way through them? If so, the first thing I would do is actually move the d-line up, compact the field a bit, otherwise, when you lose the ball in attack, your opponents have a lot of room to work the ball out of defence and attack you, and your players are doing a lot of chasing.

2. Slow tempo + time-wasting rarely : could be resulting in your players dwelling on the ball, looking for that attacking ball, and due to your oppositions class defence, not finding it, getting tackled and losing the ball. I'll link lam's old thread on time wasting too it does actually make sense if you try it in game, and honestly, that thread took my fulham save from crap to top 3. http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/123088-Time-Wasting-Is-it-more-than-simply-wasting-time

3. This is personal preference : I prefer having the midfielders as CMs instead of DM's, just a preference thing, but it does mean that rodwell would be a BWM on defensive in the middle of the park, basically hounding anyone trying to come through that space, as opposed to where he is as an anchor, just cleaning up in front of the back 4. Guido Pizarro is a gem, the little bit I have played with him, he's quite versatile and can play a number of roles in midfield, you could keep him as a DLP and move him up, if you raised the D-line as well, there wouldn't be a lot of space between mid and defence so you might find the difference minor defensively, but having them further up the pitch could help in attack.

4. Ignoring three for a minute, keep the midfielders as DM's, change the fullbacks to full on attack. Santon and Silva bombing forward in support of your wingers. This can work well if you set those wingers to cut in as well, and have the FB's hug the touchline and overlap.

5. KISS : Keep it simple stupid, this is my major failing, I tinker too much. And it's really easy to read stuff on here get all excited and try and make an attacking possession based route 1 counter attacking slow build up 4 striker, 6 defender, 5 midfielder formation.

And as I said, take all of the above with a grain of salt, I'm nowhere near as good with tactics as some on here.

As for the regens, there are a number of training threads floating around on here. But the basics of it are this : once you know which categories of training affect which stats, then you can get to work. You know what roles you're going to end up putting those players in and what stats they will require, build the training so that it maximises these for your kids, whilst not neglecting their physical developement. Personally all my regens wind up on high tactic threads to get their mental abilities up, strong fitness routines, and then another category or two with a strong focus on what they need to do the job I want for them in my team.

[KyleGraham]

Will take that all on board thanks

[GIMN]

I would suggest that the Very Fluid philosophy with high Creative Freedom and Roaming settings potentially sees your players caught out of position defensively, which the "better" teams will be able to exploit easily.

I am having success with Aston Villa using the same formation and similar player roles (only differences for me is I play with DLP on Defend, IF on Attack, and my Striker as an Advanced Forward). I do have a very different strategy however, when it comes to team settings, which are as follows:

Philosophy: Balanced

Passing Style: Shorter

Creative Freedom: Default

Tackling: Default

Marking: Zonal

Roaming: Default

Obviously this is a bit more conservative than your set up, but in my first season I won the Premiership, scoring 83 (3rd in league) and conceeding only 24 (best in league). I struggled away against the BIG teams, but beat them all at home. Into second season, and I've just beaten Man Utd 4-0 You might find trying a combination (or all) of the above could help you.

Also, I regularly use the "Stay on Feet" shout.