How to setup tactic I want to play in FM14 - Any advice appreciated

[alausic]

Dear friends,

I've been playing FM for years but nevertheless I can't call myself an FM expert. Therefore I would like to discuss with you how to setup a few things in latest FM release. So any help, advice, comment, guide, remark, critics is more than welcomed.

So, I'm playing with Arsenal and I'll try to explain what I would like to setup as a tactic:

Formation 4-2-3-1 wide (I call it wide because I'm playing with AML and AMR instead of having 3 AMs). I would like my team to play attacking possesion football. My goal is to have possesion of the ball more than 50% of time in every match and to constantly attack the oponent (similar to what was Barca doing under Pep and Tito for the last couple of years). I believe that current Arsenal team has enough talented and skillful players to be able to play possesion football.

On the other hand, when my team doesn't have possesion I would like them to press opponent in following way:

• immediately after losing the ball team should press and try to get it back.
  
• if the ball is on opponent's half of the pitch then I would like my team to continuosly press opponents and not to give them breathing space, but if the ball is on our half of the pitch then players should pull back behind the ball and collectively defend until the possesion is won again
  
• during the match I would like to be able to stop pressing and to start it again.
  
• Also I would like my players to be close to the opponent players so that opponent players don't have much time and/or space
  

I would also like my team to use offside traps and that defensive line is on 30-40 meters from the goal to shorten space.

For the moment my current setup is as follows:

Formation 4-2-3-1

GK(D)-WB(L; Automatic)-DC(D)-DC(D)-WB(R; Automatic)-MC(AP; S)-MC(DLP; S)-AML(IF; A)-AMC(EG; A)-AMR(W; A)-STC(AF; A)

Mentality: attacking

Style: Fluid

Team instructions:Retain Possession; Shorter Passing; Pass Into Space; Work Ball Into Box; Play Out Of Defence; Look For Overlap; Roam From Positions; Hassle Opponents; Stay On Feet; Use Offside Trap; Lower Tempo; Be More Expressive.

With this setup I manage to get lot of possesion and play attacking football but what I just can't achieve is pressing and defending. So if any of you have some ideas how to make pressing and defending to work I would be very thankful.

[Mattp1980]

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/366111-How-to-Play-FM14-A-Twelve-Step-Guide

If you have two monitors have FM open in one and this open on the other and keep referring to it.

In regards to how you're playing try to think of team instructions as tweaks, when all said and done how you setup your 11 players is going to dictate how you play. You can tick all the boxes in the world to play short passing but if you stick a big target man upfront then he's going to get long balls pinged at him. What this means to you is try to think how each role you pick will effect the next one, read the descriptions find the best role for your best player and then think the type of player roles that would best work with that.

[peleJunior]

I don't that kind of pressing is achievable in the match engine at the moment. Mark tighter instruction if you want to your players closer the the opposition. Your central midfield set up for this formation is a bit "iffy". There is little cover for your rampaging wingbacks. You will get murdered on counter attacks. I personally would play two defensive roles in there. If you want to play neat passing football in the opposition's half then I wouldn't play an attacking strategy either, passing tends to be more direct in the forward roles with this strategy. Again if you want really high fullbacks, fluid probably wouldn't be the best choice, in fact, the balanced philosophy gives you really high fullbacks when they are on attacking duty.

[alausic]

I don't that kind of pressing is achievable in the match engine at the moment. Mark tighter instruction if you want to your players closer the the opposition. Your central midfield set up for this formation is a bit "iffy". There is little cover for your rampaging wingbacks. You will get murdered on counter attacks. I personally would play two defensive roles in there. If you want to play neat passing football in the opposition's half then I wouldn't play an attacking strategy either, passing tends to be more direct in the forward roles with this strategy. Again if you want really high fullbacks, fluid probably wouldn't be the best choice, in fact, the balanced philosophy gives you really high fullbacks when they are on attacking duty.

Ok, I understand that such pressing is not possible. But how can I achieve that all of my players get behind the ball and defend collectively when opponent has a ball? In current setup my 4 forward players (AML, AMC, AMR and STC) are not crossing the centre and helping defence but they are rather staying high in attacking position waiting for the rest of team to win ball back and start offensive move.

Should I change their duties to Support? Or should I change Mentality setting to more defensive (Control, Standard, Counter...)?

[peleJunior]

Ok, I understand that such pressing is not possible. But how can I achieve that all of my players get behind the ball and defend collectively when opponent has a ball? In current setup my 4 forward players (AML, AMC, AMR and STC) are not crossing the centre and helping defence but they are rather staying high in attacking position waiting for the rest of team to win ball back and start offensive move.

Should I change their duties to Support? Or should I change Mentality setting to more defensive (Control, Standard, Counter...)?

If you stick to the fluid philosophies and use a more cautious strategy (anything from Standard and below) then they will help out more. This creates other problems though, like finding it harder to get out of your half when you do win the ball back, especially when the AI team is attacking you hard.