Direct Passing Seems More Effective Than Short

[Clem]

Hi,

Hope somebody can help out. I have a number of things that I would like somebody to explain.

It seems that the last three Football Manager games (2011, 12 & 13) that I have played favor a more direct style of passing. Short passing seems to create a lot less chances with plenty of long shots and for that reason appears to be more of a defensive tactic. In real life more attacking teams or at least the better teams tend to play a shorter passing style so I'm assuming that on FM it would be the same for teams that should be finishing in the top 6 for example but it seems that a more direct tactic works best from my experience. I've tried a number of different teams with different types of players and formations however I always play in the English leagues so not sure if direct has an advantage in this country as the weather is always cold and suits a faster tempo. Has anybody else noticed this? I'm trying to perfect my tactics so that no matter which team I choose to manage I can adapt my tactics to suit them.

It makes sense to me to use the following for defensive tactics.

Style: Very Rigid or Rigid

Strategy: Defensive or Counter

Passing: More Direct

Creative Freedom: More disciplined or default

Closing Down: Stand off or default

Tackling: Cautious or default

Marking: Doesn't matter but I usually go for zonal

Crossing: Float or drill depending on the height of strikers

Roaming: Stick to position or default

Counter attacking ticked

For more attacking tactics the following makes sense to me.

Style: Standard or Fluid

Strategy: Control or Attacking

Passing: Shorter

Creative Freedom: Default (More expressive seems to allow for more wasteful long shots)

Closing Down: Press more

Tackling: Default or Harder

Marking: Doesn't matter but I usually go for zonal

Crossing: Float or drill depending on the height of strikers

Roaming: Default or More roaming

I usually create a third tactic that is somewhere in the middle of the above settings and use my more attacking tactic against weaker teams, standard tactic for close odds games and counter against stronger teams.

I started my current save with Stoke City using a 4-4-2 as I wanted to test if wingers worked in this version alongside a big strong target man which I have found to work very well. I assumed for this style of play a counter or standard mentality would work best but I decided to create a tactic with control mentality as well just in case. As I was using a big target man I kept a more direct style of passing for all three tactics but all the other settings were the same as above. It seems to work well switching between these tactics depending on how strong the opposition is and changing between them during a game depending on if I need a goal or need to defend a lead etc. I have played this way for a number of seasons and have now managed to build a very skillful squad of players so I decided to switch from using a target man and try with a more skillful good off the ball striker for a change. I have set my passing to direct with a fast striker running onto the ball for my counter tactic, default passing for my standard tactic and shorter for my control tactic. As I am one of the strongest teams in the league I am starting to use my control tactic more often. I have noticed that I dominate the play sometimes 65% possession in a game but I am not winning games that I should be and have slid right down the table. I decided to switch back to using more direct passing without using a big target man for my control tactic and have instantly started performing better. It seems that as the tempo is raised for a more direct game it helps as players release the ball quicker before they are closed down.

I remember having a narrow diamond formation on FM2011 and short passing was the same then. I expected a short passing game to work well with that tactic alongside an attacking strategy but it wasn't until I switched to direct until my team started performing. It seems that direct isn't long ball football as expected, it is just a faster tempo more attacking style of play. The only way to make your team hump balls forward is to set your defenders passing to the far right (long) or tick the target man and set pass to head. The only other time I have seen them hump it forward is as a clearance when defenders are under pressure.

I'm thinking that I might have it the wrong way around and that direct passing should be for more attacking tactics and that short passing should be for more defensive teams. Counter attacking teams may need to play short safe passes during normal build up play and then if they win the ball and there are a number of opposition players in their half then they will suddenly switch to counter attack mode and go all out attacking and direct so would not need direct passing to be set in the main passing options. All of the official hints and tips say things like you shouldn't be using a more direct passing style with a more attacking tactic as you will be launching longer balls from higher up the pitch which may prove wasteful but if you check the passing settings only have a big effect on defenders. Attackers stay on a similar passing range no matter what you set in the team settings. I sometimes like to use shouts and I like to keep the game fairly simple so would prefer not to set individual player instructions and I don't want to mess about with the tempo sliders etc so I usually use team settings and player roles to adjust the sliders + on occasions I use shouts if I'm losing and always use work ball into box.

Could somebody please confirm if they have found short passing to work a lot better than direct and in which types of formations and using what types of players against what types of teams? I understand that short passing can at times destroy teams but more often than not I found my teams not creating enough chances or creating half chances.

Thanks in advance.

[Clem]

I've re-posted this in the correct lobby. Not sure how to delete this one.