Opinions on changing tactics for home and away matches

[NoChance]

As a rule, I set up three tactics - one for home matches (a bit more attacking), one for away matches (a bit more solid) and one for much better opponents/closing a game out (very defensive). I do tweak the tactics depending on the opponent, and will use the "home" formation in an away match against a significantly weaker opponent, or the "away" tactic at home against a better opponent on occasion, but in general the first tactic is used at home, the second away.

Fabian Jonsson in this post: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/352864-Crisis-Point.?p=8711407&viewfull=1#post8711407 says that he sticks to the same formation home or away. Rather than hijack that thread, I thought I'd bring a discussion to a new thread. What do you do, and why?

So after that introduction, why do I change formation home and away? Truth is, I don't have a good reason for it. It's something I started doing many FMs ago, when I was winning regularly at home but struggling away, and the habit has stuck.

What do I change? I use a 5-3-2 formation as my base. At home, the SW is an attacking libero, away he's support. Similarly, at home both WBs are attacking, away one (typically the weaker of the two, or if they're similar, the more defensive) is support. Middle to front, is the same both home and away at the moment, although in the past I've had the AMC drop to MC in the away formation. The reason I stopped is simply that the AMC I have now doesn't play well at MC. I also use an attacking mentality at home, with a standard mentality away.

I was happy with my results home and away, although now I've checked them, I've only dropped points in one out of 15 home matches (a draw), while I've lost 5 (including a 6-1 vs PSG) and drawn one away from 12 matches.

[sweep17]

I change tactics for home and away matches so tending to be more attacking at home depending on opponents of course but I use the same formation home and away. I don't think there is a need to change formation besides which it takes time for the players to learn a new formation.

From your post it sounds like you keep the same formation also but change a few player roles the post in the link is talking about changing the formation completely from home and away fixtures which is different from what your doing.

[llama3]

Usually play the same system, just tweak strategy and shouts.

[Sussex Hammer]

I play classic tactics but I guess it's the same ideas. Recently gone back to a 4-4-2 because getting a single striker formation to work for that solo striker is difficult. So I play two 4-4-2's with the home one just a tad more attacking and wider. However I now play a high defensive line both home and away but a little more aggressive tackling wise away. I find in FM trying to defend deep and hit sides on the counter is suicide. I find that the high line with pressing works far better against most big teams.

[jonomagloneo]

To keep things interesting, and in reaction to my trusted 4-2-3-1 giving me a less than satisfactory start to the season, I've trained up 3 very different formations, all of which I will consider readily as a starting tactic:

1. A 4-1-2-1-2 wide diamond. Balanced/Standard, both my DM and AM(AP) on support, one attacking winger (my best player), one supporting WM and the classic DLF/AF combo. Now my go-to quite often against a flat 4-4-2, particularly where the opp's defence is stronger than their midfield (I'm looking at you, Stoke and Shawcross). Regardless of being home or away, I start standard and adapt from there depending on how things go. Will avoid using when a team plays a 5 man midfield. My best player LOVES this formation and the space he's afforded, so it's probably my favourite of the three currently.

2. A 3-1-4-2. Rigid/counter. Three CBs (2 stoppers, 1 cover), an anchorman, DLP/AP, winger/WM and DLF/AF combos. I set this tactic up to try and nullify teams like Man City and Barcelona (latter are in my CL group) with pace, but who will try and work the ball into the box/play through the middle. Beat Barca 1-0 at camp nou, nullifying their threat nicely. Basically my go-to against stronger teams (home or away) who don't play with out and out wingers.

3. My previous 4-2-3-1. Balanced/control. I play with a BWM(d)/DLP(d) combo, one W(a) and one IF(s), and an AP(a) behind an AF(a). Last season I used this formation consistently and was 2 points away from winning the league. Cracks appearing more often this season, but still my go-to for teams who fare particularly badly in scout report vs a 4-2-3-1, and against 4-4-2s where the midfield is stronger than the defence. Away, I may go standard instead of control and if I'm not getting a stranglehold on the game, will maybe change my AP from attack to a support role to try and get him into the game more (if he's not already).

To cut a long post short, in general I pay more attention to opp weaknesses than whether or not I'm home/away, and have a range of formations trained from which to select both before and during games.

[ZdlR]

Really interesting to read how different people play the game so differently. Goes to show that there isn't just one way to play the game and be successful. It is all about context. What works for one team used to work for another with some degree of reliability, but not anymore. Each team is different and must operate under a different range of parameters. The largest team in the league might only require slight tweaks in either direction to their basic strategy for home an away, to make it more dominant and more cautious, respectively. The smallest team, however, are likely to need much bigger tweaks; while still able to pose an attacking threat at home, they would need to concentrate on keeping things tight and exploiting the inevitable gaps left by an opposition preoccupied with breaking a team down. There are no hard and fast rules, though, best to just figure out how good each player in each strata is, how good each strata of the team is and then deciding what strategy to use and the sort of emphasis required both home and away.

[NoChance]

Thanks everyone for sharing, been a good read to see the different approaches.

From your post it sounds like you keep the same formation also but change a few player roles the post in the link is talking about changing the formation completely from home and away fixtures which is different from what your doing.

Yeah, in my current setup the formation is the same, but in the past the base formation was different home and away. Having looked back at some earlier seasons and going back to some FM12 saves, I think my home and away tactics are converging. In the first season in my earliest FM12 save, I had a 4-3-3 at home and a 4-1-4-1 away, while first season in my first FM13 save was a 4-4-2 at home, and 4-4-1-1 away (why 4 at the back when I now play 5? Good sweepers are hard to find - takes time to find a young player with the appropriate attributes so I can mould him into the sweeper).

Usually play the same system, just tweak strategy and shouts.

same as llama really.

... never changed formation because i play home or away, only because of opposition or my team.

To cut a long post short, in general I pay more attention to opp weaknesses than whether or not I'm home/away, and have a range of formations trained from which to select both before and during games.

It's interesting that you three basically ignore whether the match is home or away. This has me thinking that home advantage can't be massively significant, otherwise you'd have noticed problems.

So I play two 4-4-2's with the home one just a tad more attacking and wider.

Again, the fact that your home formation is substantially similar to your away formation has me thinking home advantage is not as much of a factor as I've been thinking it is.

Really interesting to read how different people play the game so differently. Goes to show that there isn't just one way to play the game and be successful. It is all about context.

I think that's the crux of the issue - with regard to having separate home & away formations, I don't think there's a right and wrong answer, it's down to peoples opinions and preferences. I'll probably carry on keeping home and away formations - old habits die hard - but my assumption that others did the same has now bitten the dust. I'm still interested to hear other people's opinions, so feel free to keep them coming.

[Sussex Hammer]

To be fair a lot of it is down to players. In my first two seasons I played a 451 or a 4141 because I didn't have the quality in midfield. For instance Kevin Nolan in a flat 442 I don't think works. I have changed my philosophy as well because in FM I find it difficult to play a defensive two banks of four. I'm sure it's possible to do so but in my experience against top sides like Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea you just get picked off with their passing ability. Therefore I push right up and I find that there seem to be fewer Clubs with quick strikers than there are Clubs with skilful strikers. I'm not sure but maybe the way the ME plays now makes it easier to push up. In FM12 it was easy on both sides to just slot through balls through to a fast striker, now it seems tougher.

It has it's risks pushing up both home and away but I think the risks outweigh just sitting deep trying for a draw and of course the deeper you are the less chances to score you will get. Since going to 442 home and away I'm unbeaten in about 13 and where my solo striker bagged maybe a goal every 3 or 4 games both are now hitting the net regularly and at least one scores each game.

Whether or not these tactics would work if I started a new game with the Hammers first squad I don't know but once I get bored with this game I may well try.

[llama3]

It's interesting that you three basically ignore whether the match is home or away. This has me thinking that home advantage can't be massively significant, otherwise you'd have noticed problems.

Thats the thing - I don't ignore it, however I do not change the system. The things I will change is that I may use Counter instead of Control, or sit more compact with shouts. However I always target the opposition weaknesses. Man City for example, I press high, sit very narrow though, and make sure the full backs getting forward for City are tracked. Works excellently. Being away from home shouldn't change that. I just know they are more likely to come at me in big waves and me more positive.

[NoChance]

For instance Kevin Nolan in a flat 442 I don't think works.

... Whether or not these tactics would work if I started a new game with the Hammers first squad I don't know but once I get bored with this game I may well try.

Oddly enough, I'm also in charge of West Ham having not started there - was sacked from Charlton first. But, I did use Nolan as a CM support in a flat midfield 4 before I switched to the 5-3-2. Subsequently, I kept him in the CMS role since I had a better trequartista (Alexey Eremenko - a snip at half a million). Nolan's had a rating over 7 for me, pass completion around 80% and 5+ tackles per match each season, but one of his PPMs ("Arrives late in opponents area") comes in very handy when he's starting in a deeper role.

[NoChance]

Thats the thing - I don't ignore it, however I do not change the system. The things I will change is that I may use Counter instead of Control, or sit more compact with shouts. However I always target the opposition weaknesses. Man City for example, I press high, sit very narrow though, and make sure the full backs getting forward for City are tracked. Works excellently. Being away from home shouldn't change that. I just know they are more likely to come at me in big waves and me more positive.

Fair point - sorry, I missed the word strategy from your first post. A switch from control to counter is a pretty significant switch, in my opinion.

[QWERTYOP]

I don't change anything. I don't think home & away matches are any different - it's the opposition that matters.

[RTHerringbone]

Thats the thing - I don't ignore it, however I do not change the system. The things I will change is that I may use Counter instead of Control, or sit more compact with shouts. However I always target the opposition weaknesses. Man City for example, I press high, sit very narrow though, and make sure the full backs getting forward for City are tracked. Works excellently. Being away from home shouldn't change that. I just know they are more likely to come at me in big waves and me more positive.

This is on the money for me. Just adapt your system to the opposition to minimise their strengths and maximise their weaknesses.

Critically, you then need to react in game. As I can't read the game terribly well, I tend to just keep an eye on their shape, substitutions and any players swapping position.

[Cleon]

Fair point - sorry, I missed the word strategy from your first post. A switch from control to counter is a pretty significant switch, in my opinion.

So is switching to a completely different tactic

I also do what llama3 does though as is illustrated in the Chalkboard Diaries thread.

[cyborgscouse]

I always thought it would be better to keep one tactic but swap it from attacking to control or counter depending on how you're team were playing as opposed to changing formation from match to match

[llama3]

My reasoning is that I have the system set up to play to the team's strengths and minimize weaknesses, therefore I am already playing in the style that suits, I just need to adapt aspects to cater for individual opposition and expectations. Occasionally I will play more conservatively at home and more aggressively away, depends on opponents, game etc. I.e. In 2-legged games I am much more conservative and patient. Sometimes being defensive away from home does not work because I cannot get a foothold in the game, and need to get out of my half and get on the ball more to relieve pressure and create chances.

[jcafcwbb]

I play a 4-4-1-1 against a 4-4-2. With a centre midfield attacking and one defending and the wide midfielders supporting.

I play a 4-4-2 against a three man midfield with the centre midfielders defenders, the team playing narrow and the wide midfielders attacking as necessary.

It seems to work and as this is L2 I haven't seen a 4-2-3-1 yet. So I haven't decided how to play against that. But in games how attacking I set my midfielders depends on the strength of the team.

[Luizinho]

If playing a top team away; would starting defensive be the best option? or does it result in too much pressure?

[Gee_Simpson]

I do the same as llama really, stick with the same formation but change strategy/shouts depending on opponents/how the game is panning out.

[mibsweden]

I would prefer to not use a different formation. I play a 4-4-2, and while it is a very balanced formation, it has a hard time against 4-2-3-1 (a little) and 4-5-1 (a lot).

So against these two formations I play 4-1 (DM)-3 (MR, MC, ML)-2. It has been working quite well so far.

I also tend to play more attacking in away games. I have probably top 5 team in the world though.

[yo_diamond]

No time to read everybody's posts here.

But it's clear in the modern game that, unless you are battering everyone, you may want to make the odd adjustment away from home. Certainly not too many though.

I'm at FC Twente right now and probably the one change I look at is maybe losing one of my goalscoring midfielders for a passing one. Luuk de Jong is very poor in front of goal for me but he's a brilliant number 10 with great vision. Trouble is that our dominance at home is such that his passing is not what I need - I need guys that can shoot long and score. Away from home, de Jong is amazing because he helps me assert control on the other team and gives me that possession control which helps me dominate away.

[AnarchyAnt]

I always use the same formation 4-1-2-2-1, watch the first few minutes of the match and make any changes using shouts. With injuries and match fit problems on my team I would rather play someone out of position in my regular formation then change it. So far it is working well. I'm on track to get promoted out of the BSS so I might try using 2 different formations should that happen.

I also run a counter strategy and don't ever change it. For some reason it seems like if I park the bus I always let in a goal and going all out attack (overload?) it never gets me a goal. So no changes for me between home and away.

I also really want to try a back 3 formation, but not sure if I will do it with this team. Weston-super-mare doesn't really have multi-talented players.

[NoChance]

So it's pretty clear the consensus is that most people do make small changes up to and including strategy changes, while small minorities either change a lot, or change nothing. Thanks all for contributing, I've enjoyed reading all the responses.

On a similar theme, I did see this newspaper article about referees favouring home teams after starting this thread: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/apr/28/referees-home-team-sean-ingle

If playing a top team away; would starting defensive be the best option? or does it result in too much pressure?

I think your question kind of got lost in the other comments, but my preference is counter over defence. That way, if you find yourself being overwhelmed, or nicking a goal, you have a further defensive option to switch to (I consider overload or contain as desperation tactics, so don't plan to use them. I do use them, of course, but only when desperate).