The Importance of Having a Plan B (And maybe a Plan C!)

[bababooey]

In my opinion the best managers are the ones who can adapt their tactics to any situation. Rarely do we find a team that is able to impose its will on ANY opponent, save for Barcelona of 2009-20011 (maybe) and Bayern's treble winning season with Jupp.

So a plan B becomes critically important. What good is it if you can dominate 90% of your matches, but you have no answer for the remaining 10% ? And what person honestly believes that they're so tactically astute that they can develop a tactic that never needs tweaking, and can handle literally any opposition threat?

I think where people will go wrong is they feel they need to have tactics that are vastly different. I don't believe this is true. I think the better way of approaching this is to have tactics that are different, but not radically different. You want to maintain some of your core principles within your alternate plans, save for any drastic circumstances obviously.

The fundamental question you need to answer is this... What do my tactics do? Every tactic you create should have a point to it. Maybe with one tactic you want to dominate possession. Or with another your goal is to be direct down the flanks. It should have a point. Otherwise, you might end up creating a tactic that doesn't accomplish much of anything. And you'll find it's harder to adapt on a game by game basis, OR even within a match. What's the use of switching tactics if you don't know what they're intended to do?

I'm going to use Juventus as my example here (I'm currently in my first season with them)...

Plan A Plan A is our approach that we use MOST of the time. 90% of our Serie A matches, probably 75% of our European matches, and etc. What is the point of plan A?

Simply put, Plan A's task is to dominate the opponent and take the game to them. We're trying to smash them in the face, in their own half. We're not too bothered by fancy passing statistics or complex patters of play. We just want to dominate. How does it work? Here's the (basic) plan...

Control mentality + structured shape. 4-1-2-1-2 formation. TI's: push higher, close down more, prevent GK dist, shorter passing, stay on feet, play out of defense.

Why it works: The formation packs the middle of the park. The roles/duties I've got obviously work towards the goal stated above, too. For example, I have a ball winning midfielder in the CM strata, offering a bodyguard of sorts for my DLP-D in the DM spot (generally this is Pirlo or Marchisio) The team defends aggressively high up the pitch and looks to control the game in the opponents half. This is our stated goal for plan A.

Plan B Plan B is our more ... "standard" plan. The stated goal? Simply to feel out the match. We're not going to over-commit to any one particular style of play. We want to see how the AI is going to play, and how our default plan is working. If the other team is dominating, we can probably go to plan C. If the game is boring and defensive, we can probably go to plan A. If the game is pretty well balanced and both teams are able to generate some decent play, we might not even switch from this plan.

How does it work? Standard mentality + fluid shape. 3-5-2 / 5-3-2 formation (whatever you want to call it but.. 2 wingbacks, 3 CD's, 2 CM's, 1 DM, 2 STC's.) TI's: play out of defense, stay on feet, shorter passing, prevent GK distribution.

Why it works: This formation is much more balanced than the one you see in Plan A. Why? Because in Plan A our focus is mainly on dominating the central part of the park. With this plan, we're balancing keeping the ball with keeping things compact. We're not over-committing to anything here. BUT. We still have some of our core principles in place here... we don't allow the other team to pass the ball out of the back easily (prevent GK dist), we utilize shorter passing, we stay on our feet, and we look to play the ball out of the back (because we have good BPD's and Pirlo..) So we don't deviate all that far from our core principles. In this plan we're just not going to press heavily, and we're not going to look to control the match in the opponents half. We're not pushed up, and we're not closing down more.

Plan C This is our counter attacking strategy. We use this in matches where we know we cannot impose our will on the other team without risking being seriously exposed. OR we may switch to this plan when we're comfortably ahead in a match, to act almost like... quicksand. The very nature of this plan is to sit back, remain compact, and hit the opponent on the break. It's like quicksand because IF we are already leading, and the opponent decides to become MORE aggressive and attacking, this plan can easily expose them and pile on the goals. Arsenal fell victim to this in a match I played last night.. We nicked a goal right before half time, a bit lucky from our "Plan B." But things weren't going so well overall, so I knew I'd want to change things.. At half time we switched to Plan C, and ended up banging in 4 more goals before the final whistle. A convincing 5-0 drubbing at the Emirates, to secure 1st place in the Champions League Group. Arsenal got desperate when they went down 1-0, and we took full advantage of that.

It's a simple strategy... Counter mentality + fluid shape. The idea here is to be compact, and that combination helps us. Formation is 4-1-4-1. TI's: NONE. I don't need TI's for this strategy. Why? Because it's a strategy where I'm likely to be paying SHARP attention to the match, willing to make changes as needed. And the preset from the counter mentality, fluid shape, and roles/duties is already enough of an outline. It doesn't stray too far from our core principles either. If anything it's just a much more cautious approach.

So as you can see, having an alternate plan is really important. Sometimes 2 alternate plans! I really think it's wise to play the game this way because you'll never feel like you don't know what to do. I hope this helps some people! I didn't post the tactics in detail because, this isn't a share my tactics kind of thing and honestly it would be pointless.

[Jean0987654321]

Am I going blind?? Where's the screenshots??

[shaunwwfc]

No screenshots! But lots of very relevant info!

Watch out, if Cleon sees it then it will soon be closed..

[bababooey]

I didn't post screen shots because there is no need for them. The point isn't to boast about tactics and show exactly what I'm doing, but rather to discuss a way of playing the game that (hopefully) will help others

[Rashidi]

Watch out, if Cleon sees it then it will soon be closed..

What are you trying to achieve here? Making a sweeping statement like that is inaccurate. Moderators will close threads if they flout the posting rules of the forum, and this thread does not do anything to warrant that kind of action. And accusing a moderator of behaving improperly is just asking for trouble, if you have issues with how we moderate, send SI an email.

[bababooey]

Yeah, why would Cleon close the thread? You don't need to post screen shots to have a quality thread

And like I said the point is to just share a way of playing, rather than posting detailed tactical instructions. Hopefully people create their own tactics rather than just copying someone elses, you know?

[Andre2807]

I support with what Bababooey is saying. I have two tactics.

Plan A: 4-1-2-2-1, Counter Mentality, Balanced. More expressive, stay on feet, shorter passing, push up. Midfield and attackers close down more. Also, I play with two attacking wing backs. This is for 80-90% of my matches.

Plan B: 4-2-3-1, Counter Mentality, Very Rigid. More disciplined, stay on feet, shorter passing, drop deep. Only my creative players are set on roaming and more expression. Wing backs are set on Automatic. This is for difficult opposition or teams that pose a very strong and pacey attack. 10 - 20% of my matches.

I put both tactics up during pre-season, so they can play both styles with familiarity maxed out. The tactical style remains the same in both plans.