An attempt to understand the system

[rav1878]

At the beginning I would like to sorry for my english, which isn't quite excellent (understand a lot, but i'm still practicing a grammar) .

I played FM just as a most of the people, a style called 'plug&play'. From now on, especially after reading a wonderful Cleon's, rashidi's and wwefan's topic, I would love to learn the game and finally understand it. I'm watching football games for tactics and reading a lot about it and I'm really enjoying it, unlike my girlfriend .

So I start a few saves to create some systems, but in here I would like to share with you my Roma game. I will start from beginning, just like madminster did in his topic. I'm thinking that italian football is quite interesting from the tactical way and I will fit in present frames - the tactic with just 3 defenders.

I'm still only a beginner so I'm counting on you, hope we'll find something fresh and new and simply 'win the game' .

Firstly I will follow the 12 steps guide.

[rav1878]

Okay, so I'm admitting that I have a problem (1), because i'm really a tactic noob, although I played some football in polish lower leagues (U19 league and 7th tier). My only knowledge at this point is taken from football games i've watched in tv or at a stadium. Of course I have a experience with older FM's but i really don't understand how sliders works, so I definitely leave it alone (2).

My board in Roma wants me to play an offensive football, so I think i'll go with a control strategy (3), but it surely depends on the squad, which i'm not familiar yet. Point number 4 is really interesting, because I don't see an attack role in 3 man defence. Perhaps in this type of tactic wingers are regarded as defenders also? That's the first, and definitely not the only one, problem .

COMPARISON PAGE

From this general comparison I can assume we are terrific in making decisions (so my players are very intelligent, right?), passing and first touch which is fantastic, because I want to play a technical football. Our workrate and teamwork are also fantastic, so hopefuly we can work as a team, not depending on individuals. I don't know how I should understand a workrate - the players with high attribute will run more, fighting more or it's pairing only with their professionalism?

We are really struggling in aggresion and strength, which is abysmal. Without a looking at the other comparison page i'm assuming that we're struggling in defence. But let's see...

So as I thought, we are very bad in defending. In terms of strength and jumping we are even the worst team in the league! That is definitely a room for improvement, but in the first season we will have to prevent (don't know if it is a proper word ) it. We are abysmal in every single one defensive attribute, so we deffo won't be focusing on keeping the clean sheet and waiting for counter attacks. The only positive note is that we are quite fast, so we can try and push the defence up (i'm assuming dropping deeper would be a suicide).

So now we are looking at the stats of a heart of my team - the midfield. As I said earlier, I have very intelligent players (well, i'm only suppose really), and great shooters from distance (I don't really fancy this one, so I won't be using this as an advantage). We are also very creative, so it means my players can do something unusal. In addition with high decisions, I will definitely allow them to do what they want with the ball (I mean I will go with mixed passing). We are strugglers in terms of stamina, so we have to be balanced in both defence and attack (I will have to think how to accomodate it with high creativity. Is roaming means my players will be out of a position?) and we won't be playing fast football.

We are great finishers but we lack pace and acceleration so I think we have to bring the ball into box to our forward(s). Although it can't be a high balls, because we are struggling in the air. We have to take advantage of movement and anticipation, but i don't really know how to use it properly (through balls are not an option because of low pace and acc). I will have to work how to solve it.

[rav1878]

Before I become familiar with my squad I want to define my style of play. Here are the shouts I think i'll use to exploit our strengths and utilitise weakness.

Push higher up - we are bad tacklers and markers. The only advantage we have is acceleration and pace (but this is still an area to improve), so i would like to organise my defence far from my goal. I'll have to see how my defenders will adopt to that style and are they capable to play high (i'm assuming their mistakes will be riskier in my box than higher up the pitch).

Stay on feet - i don't want them to lost their man or position due to bad tackle, so we have stay on feet all the time.

Pass to feet - we are great passers, but we lack a pace in offensive formations so we have to build our attack patiently.

Work ball into box - although we are great shooters, I want to use great finishing we have = play as many balls into box, as we can.

Retain possesion - we are not capable to play counter but we have skills that allows to retain the ball (passing, decisions, first touch). I think that's the most important shout i'll use. I want them to create a space by passing to each other and not losing the ball often.

Stand of opponents - we lack both stamina and tackling, so we have to wait for opponent and then try to intercept the ball. I don't know how it will be interact with pushing higher, so I have to check it in a match.

[rav1878]

The Squad

Goalkeepers:

I don't have idea if I have to use standard goalkeeper or maybe a sweeper due to defence pushing up. I will have just to wait and see how it's going in the game. Stekelenburg is my no.1 and he is a very good keeper at his peak (i'm supposing!). I will try to increase his agility, but I don't know if it's possible.

Lobont is a decent backup, but he is struggling in one on ones, he's not very good in making decisions and positioning which can be important in my style of play. He'll stay in club, but I have to look for a young keeper who will replace Stekelenburg in few seasons and suits my style of play.

[Cleon]

Before I become familiar with my squad I want to define my style of play. Here are the shouts I think i'll use to exploit our strengths and utilitise weakness.

Push higher up - we are bad tacklers and markers. The only advantage we have is acceleration and pace (but this is still an area to improve), so i would like to organise my defence far from my goal. I'll have to see how my defenders will adopt to that style and are they capable to play high (i'm assuming their mistakes will be riskier in my box than higher up the pitch).

Stay on feet - i don't want them to lost their man or position due to bad tackle, so we have stay on feet all the time.

Pass to feet - we are great passers, but we lack a pace in offensive formations so we have to build our attack patiently.

Work ball into box - although we are great shooters, I want to use great finishing we have = play as many balls into box, as we can.

Retain possesion - we are not capable to play counter but we have skills that allows to retain the ball (passing, decisions, first touch). I think that's the most important shout i'll use. I want them to create a space by passing to each other and not losing the ball often.

Stand of opponents - we lack both stamina and tackling, so we have to wait for opponent and then try to intercept the ball. I don't know how it will be interact with pushing higher, so I have to check it in a match.

Are you going to be using these shouts from the start? or rather based on how the game is going?

Pass to feet reduces throughballs, so against teams who are aggressive at tackling and tight mark you, pass into space might be better even if you lack pace because it will just tell the player to attempt more through balls.

[rav1878]

Central defenders:

Leandro is a decent defender, but nothing more. He's not good in air and also not the best runner. His teamwork is also a let down, but at least he can find his position. Plus he is the only left footed defender at the club. He has balanced personality and his PPM's are shoots with power and tries a long range free kicks which will be useless. How can i get rid of his PPM's?

Burdisso is my best defender. He's great in marking and anticipation, although his positioning, tackling and air ability are letting me down. He is slow, which can be a big issue due to my style. He is resolute, marks opponents tightly (great) and don't dive into tackles (great also!).

He's my third best defender which is quite... scary. He's still young but I don't think he has a bag of potential. He lacks in concentrations, decisions, positioning and strength. I will try to increase his heading, marking and tackling on 2 months regime, but i don't think he'll become any good. I have to strengthen my defence, but I don't know how to do it with just 2 milions in my pocket

Rest of a players (Marquinhos and Romagnoli) I consider as a prospects and will introduce them later. If I don't raise my transfer budget, they will be playing a lot this season for sure

[rav1878]

Are you going to be using these shouts from the start? or rather based on how the game is going?

Pass to feet reduces throughballs, so against teams who are aggressive at tackling and tight mark you, pass into space might be better even if you lack pace because it will just tell the player to attempt more through balls.

I think it will depend on weather conditions, opponent's formation and of course how the game will be going, especially in first 15-20 minutes - just like you said in your threads . I just picked the shouts which, in my opinion (although I could be completely wrong), can be used by this squad and suits the type of play i would like to achieve.

So how pass into space will interact with mixed passing? With short passing style I assumed it's telling my players to try more through balls, but by default (and most of a time) they will be playing short. With mixed passing they'll have to decide which pass is better, right? So this shout won't encourage them to play through balls all the time (or maybe little bit too much)? This point about aggresive opponents is very useful, thank you Cleon!

I hope you'll understand what i'm trying to say. I'm ashamed about my english...

[furiousuk]

Passing length and amount of through balls are different. You can play a long passing game but minimise through balls if you want.

A through ball is a ball for someone to run onto, usually it is a very aggressive pass that, if successful, should move you closer towards scoring, very often, a move will finish with a through ball followed directly by the shot for the goal ( through ball - shot - goal). The downside is that it has a much lower chance of succeeding, risk/reward. Unsuccessful and you'll lose the ball.

Passing length is more general. As an example: if you're playing on a very wide pitch, and you're playing wide and deep so your players are very spread out then playing a short passing game isn't usually a great idea as each player won't have many options (if they follow your instructions ). An FB with the ball may only have the DC or maybe the winger close enough to pass to, if they are both marked then he's stuffed. With a longer passing length your FB might also be able to pass to an MC, a DM or maybe even an STR giving him more options. Even a long raking pass to an STR moving into channels may not be a through ball, even though it is a long pass.

With your pace (and more importantly, acceleration) I'd have thought getting your creative players to thread through balls for your quick attackers (who can beat the opposition to the ball) would be a good option. Given your lack of strength you don't really want your guys having to hold the ball up, they need to be making decisions (and playing) quickly to keep away from physical contests. Not an easy thing to get right, but absolutely stunning when done right. I've never been wholly convinced that this is viable for a whole season but Barcelona seem to do rather well

[rav1878]

I'll keep posting more on weekend :-)

[rav1878]

So... as you can see I left my Roma save quite early Now I'm playing with Anderlecht and although I progress in terms of tactic (and improve my english a little), still can't play my team right.

I started the season with 4-1-2-2-1 formation inspired by Cleon, but I really don't like the Treq role, I'm a big fan of poachers and advance forwards, so I basically want my forwards to bang goals. I changed to 4-2-3-1 and I'm struggling (well, with previous formation it wasn't a lot better to be honest) in creating goalscoring chances. In my first game after change, I lost with Brugge 0-2 so it hurts a lot. I'm thinking I should dominate the league with my squad and maybe have some nice adventure in Europa League. Hope you'll help me fix it and create the system which will work for years :-).

So here's my idea.

Here you can see how I set up my team. I want my team to win the ball high up to the pitch (it can change when I will play some better teams) and counter them. I have a good pace in my team so I want them to roam and play many through balls (mainly by Praet). In fact I'm still changing (maybe that's a reason we are not playing well) player roles and checking it in action. But that's the latest idea and we played this way against Brugge. Maybe I should think about playing wingbacks to add some width, but I think my defenders are better when playing as fullbacks.

I changed to more direct approach after the game because I think I have to use the pace of my wingers and striker. I also want Praet to shine - he's a great passer, but he doesn't have ability to run with ball (I'm working on his strength because it's only 4, same as his balance!). So I want him to distribute the balls to wingers and forward.

Biglia is the brain of my team, his role is to feed Praet and wingers and stay on the back. Second DM is on support because I want him to take part of our attack and cover the gap between DMs and AMC. I want my fullbacks to overlap, especially left one who should cover the gap when IF cuts inside. Central defenders should focus only on defence, but I want to use Nuytnick abilities to distribute the ball out of defence, that's why he is BPD.

So this is my idea, I want a simple but effective football. Want my forward to score with assists from Praet or wingers, but I can't create any good chances for anybody. I won 3 games in the league, but I wasn't happy and I want to create something from the beggining and master this bloody game ;-).

I will post analyse tab from game v Brugge in a few minutes.

PS and sorry for my english :-)

[rav1878]

GOALS

I will start from the two goals Brugge scored because I think I could do something to prevent them.

The first goal came from the long shot. Tchite dropped deep and escaped from my defenders. I think it was due to shout I used (stay on feet), so my CD didn't put the tackle. ALso I was wrong in OI, because I thought the second striker from their starting line up will be the one that drops deeper. My mistake I didn't notice that and Tchite run the show because I let him.

Second goal is also perfect example of Tchite's role. Again he dropped deep, take my players with him (maybe we press too much?) and open up space for Bacca. Then simple pass and goal.

STATS

Here are the stats from the game. As you can see I have only one half chance in a whole game (so did they, but they scored two!). We had only 3 shots on target, so we didn't really test their keeper. As you can see we lost this game also in the air, having only 56% headers won - I have no idea how to solve this problem, every cross we made it's always defenders ball.

I don't know what I can learn from the individual stats. I noticed only my right back (Odoi) has a really quiet 45 minutes, didn't put any cross and lost one tackle. His replacement wasn't any better (Vanden Borre) because he missed 3 tackles. The weird thing is that my left back made 75 passes, the most from the team apart from Biglia!!

Below I will post analyse tabs, but I don't know how to proper read them unfortunately.