do you tend to have a better defence or attack?

[llama3]

after noticing i went on a run of conceding only 1 goal in 12 games, and then in another game conceding about 2 in the first6 or 7 games, wondered how you tend to build your sides and tactics? do you go for a cautious approach or do you simply try scoring as many as possible?

[llama3]

after noticing i went on a run of conceding only 1 goal in 12 games, and then in another game conceding about 2 in the first6 or 7 games, wondered how you tend to build your sides and tactics? do you go for a cautious approach or do you simply try scoring as many as possible?

[Nomis07]

I tend to go for defence first and then once that's sorted I start to look at the front line etc. I'm more likely to score 1 goal than 2 IMO so if I have a solid defence 1 should be enough to win it.

[glamdring]

Most of my teams can't defend for toffee. Sampdoria were quite decent defensively, but they couldn't score and they sacked me 13 games into my second season

They still had a way better defence than my Fiorentina team though despite Samp being ~18th and Fiorentina sitting 3rd with one of the worst defences in the whole of Serie A.

My Werder Bremen team are hopeless defensively too when faced with vaguely decent opposition. We drew 5-5 at CSKA Moscow once last season, we also won 3-2 twice against Milan and eventually lost 5-2 away to Real Madrid to the Champions League semis having both scored and conceded more goals than any other team. Dunno quite why we are quite so bad - I just don't trust the whole defensive module of the game so I rarely set my team up to play defensively, but nor do I play a reckless attacking formation either.

[liam_everton89]

Most of my teams go around attack, I like to think the best form of defence is attack, obviously you need decent defenders but if your passing the ball around shooting etc, youre sorted.

[wardog]

i tend to have attacking tactics but almost always try and sign a good defence before i by a striker. I feel that having the ability to stop goals leaking saves spending £30M+ on three stikers that can scored 4 in a game so you win 4-3.

[Abs_UK]

I always build a solid deffence firt, if you dont let in goals you dont loose a game..

Then i focus on attacking

[Hershie]

I generally have a defensive team, with very good attacking stats.

Wing backs rather than fullbacks, and well-rounded centrebacks, as well as attacking DMs.

Can turn a defensive 4-4-2 into a very powerful attacking team.

[Pricey85]

On previous games i used to build my team around my defence and to an extent my wingers (loved counter attacking football), seems to have changed on 08 however. I noticed that i was conceding loads on my recent saves but i countered this by scoring more than the opposition.

The shift in my tactics is a bit weird as i realised the other day that keeping a clean sheet is now more of a novelty than having a player in the goal of the month category. I also tend to dole out a lot of praise to my keeper when he has a good spell as well.

[turn it upto 11]

every team i seem to manage have a poor defence and great attack, i dont do it purposey eiither , even if i try be defensive i seem to slip back into trying to play sexy football. 70 ercent of the time it works and im up at the top with about 10 more goals than everyone around me but 10 goals more conceded too, 30 percent of the time i end up in the bottom few still refusing to stop playing the beautiful game.

[NepentheZ]

Attack. But thats largely due to my tactics.

[Mike7077]

I find that the more attacking my approach is, the less likely I am to concede. It's the old adage that attack is the best form of defence.

[Des Tiny]

I play attacking football, but my teams are generally based around 4 good defenders, and If I can get one a good goalie, but I have found it is way better to stop shots getting to goal than having the goalie stop them. But I always build my Defense 2 deep, efore I even look at strength up front, probably why my low lleauge teams take til 12-13 games in to start scoring reguarly, thoiugh still getting 12 clean sheets in a row was a celebration

[llama3]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Pricey85:

The shift in my tactics is a bit weird as i realised the other day that keeping a clean sheet is now more of a novelty than having a player in the goal of the month category. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

are clean sheets that rare? i tend to have more clean sheets than games where i concede! i had a run last season where i conceded only 1 goal in 12 games, 11 clean sheets in 12 - phenomenol record.

[Sidnv]

I play very attacking tactics.

Generally i only keep a back 3 in a 3-2-3-2 formation. I concede only 1 goal every 2 games at average and score 3 goals a game on average.

I play on 8.0.0 btw.

[The Internet]

It really depends on the squad and the game. In FM07, I took Thun to the group stages of the Champions League four years in a row with a 3-2-3-2 and some horizontal shifting with the back rows that allowed the front rows to get into a lot of space. I won the Swiss league for the first time on goal difference - a 20-goal difference, to be precise.

In FM08, I've found that my defences are water-tight. I've played games with Rudar Ugljevik and QPR and I've yet to have a team not in the lowest 3 conceders. I play with a 4-3-2-1, though, and my wings haven't got much pace, so my striker will spend a lot of time without seeing much action.

[B. Stinson]

I always go defence-first.

...Goalkeeping > Defence > then finally, Attack

[rancer890]

ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK! The teams that I've managed can't defend at all. My squad gives up more goals if I try defending. I signed my first-team goalkeeper to a contract with a low appearance fee but high clean sheet bonus, so essentially I have to have a great attack and terrible defense.

[bigmaxrowley]

im going to sound very big headed but i have a great balance between attack and defence and i think i had a perfect squad, with winning the premier league with 105 points in my second season in charge of arsenal scoring 148 goals and conceding a mere 22 it was my finest achievment in my cm/fm career. then i came in drunk and left for ipswich in the championship which ive set up a very defensive 4-5-1 with counter attack and im top with winning my first 13 games all 1-0

[Quacky]

I always try to get myself a really solid set of defenders, defensive midfielder and solid centre midfielder, almost all the tactics I've developed use this at the back. This should hopefully give me a foundation to not concede many goals which always gives me a chance.

Then I use the remaining 4 players on the pitch in creative and often very unsymmetrical bizarre formations designed to get the most out of the one or two guys that might have some talent. A solid defence and all my attackers overloading part of the opposition with good pace should get me some goals and stop them at the other end. All starts with stopping them going in at your end though for me.

[glamdring]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Abs_UK:

I always build a solid deffence firt, if you dont let in goals you dont loose a game..

Then i focus on attacking </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

True, but if you don't score goals you definitely can't win whereas you can still win if you concede goals

[VonBlade]

I'm a Spurs fan, and that is duplicated in my playing style. The best orm of defense is attack. Doesn't matter if we concede 12 a game as long as we score 13.

And then gradually I can plough my money into D and end up thrashing teams because I've always got the ball and the two or three times they can attack, my D will hold.

[Mike7077]

I find that if my centre-backs are Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, picking them on a regular basis is the only defensive 'tactic' I require!

[madog308]

keep the defence that the team i have taken over already had and go for attack-attack-counter attack-attack. seems to work lol

[FestyF]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by bigmaxrowley:

im going to sound very big headed but i have a great balance between attack and defence and i think i had a perfect squad, with winning the premier league with 105 points in my second season in charge of arsenal scoring 148 goals and conceding a mere 22 it was my finest achievment in my cm/fm career. then i came in drunk then i came in drunk then i came in drunk and left for ipswich in the championship which ive set up a very defensive 4-5-1 with counter attack and im top with winning my first 13 games all 1-0 </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I think you are drunk now.

[backpackant]

With bigger teams I find it terribly easy to win 2-0 with a short, attacking game. That's my most common scoreline.

[Crayons]

Attacking, In a season I can be the highest scoring and one of the highest conceding.

I did go defensive one though, clean sheets but I was scoring a thing.

[Small Print]

My old Wigan team was defensively great. I usually had the third or forth best defensive record in the league. I could just never score that many goals, even the one season when I finished fifth with them, I conceded about 25 goals but only scored about 40. Majority of my wins were 1-0, with the occasional 2-0 or 2-1.

My Blackburn team after that were pretty defensive too. However, I did have a decent attack, which meant that when I when, I would often win 2-0 or 2-1, rather than boring 1-0 results all the time. My Villa team were very attack minded, and the second season that I won the Premier League with them, I had a goal difference of 45+. I did have a great defence aswell, but my team was very attack minded and I had plenty of players who could score from midfield, aswell as good strikers.

On my current game with Gretna, my team is attack minded. I'm half way through my second season with them, and I'm three points clear at the top of the Second Division, scored 56 goals and a goal difference of +38. Much thanks to Kenny Deuchar, who has scored 23 in 17.

[earmack]

Attack, because if I'm watching dots they damn well better entertain me. It actually took me a while to sort out attack in FM 2008, whereas getting a sdefence working solidly was a reasonably quick process.

[Pricey85]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by llama3:

are clean sheets that rare? i tend to have more clean sheets than games where i concede! i had a run last season where i conceded only 1 goal in 12 games, 11 clean sheets in 12 - phenomenol record. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Afraid so, got a bit better in my second season, i'm gonna put some of it down to me throwing my faith behind a young keeper, he's picked up a bit now. in the first season i was conceding three or four goals regularly but still winning, craziness!

[Gauvner]

With me, normally its my midfield which out-perform my attack & defence.

Set peices is a nightmare for me no matter what my tactics are or who my players are.

Also my Strikers are pittyful when it comes to one-on-ones, even with a high composure.

[turnip]

I've found that at the lower levels it's easier to find good attackers than it is to find good defenders.

That said, I'd rather win 1-0 than 4-3 so maybe it's just lack of opportunity preventing my team being dull and dreary.

[Kain]

I usually try to have a better defence, however I'm currently at Raith and we only have semi-pro status. As a result, no goalkeeper even worth considering signing with consider any deal I offer.

[creature_from_ottawa]

i have a better midfield to be honest

but i keep on changing the squad,so it keeps on fluctuating

[dexta200]

yep im with cfo midfield all the way from DM up to AMLR great players

[wyrley_saddler]

I have a solid defence, the last few seasons with Spurs Ive conceded less than 25 goals, which I think it pretty good. Upfront I score 90+ goals per season. I tend to spend my transfer budget on quality strikers. For example, Huntelaar (24.5mill), Aguero (30.5mill) and Bojan (36.3mill) and all of them have done pretty well scoring goals. Last season all my strikers had atleasat 20 goals in all competitions.