Help understanding Mentality and Team Shape for new player

[DavidSE]

Hello guys im new to FM series i have started playing when FM15 came out and now im playing in FM16 beta

the new tactic screen in FM16 is really easy to understand for new players but since the first time ive played FM im strugling to understand the concept of "Mentality" and "Team Shape"

as i noticed that the Description for each "Mentality" and "Team Shape" isnt really happens on the field

I would like you guys to help me understand this concept.

Thanks,David.

[herne79]

In a nutshell:

Mentality governs the amount of risk your team will play with.

A Defensive mentality is low risk, so your defenders will stand off more, drop deeper, hit longer passes to clear the ball and act in a more passive manner. When in possession, your team will play a low tempo, patient build up game waiting for good quality chances to open up.

As you progress through mentalities up to Attacking, you gradually increase risk. Your defensive line gets higher and higher, tempo increases, your team will press more (close down more), passing becomes more direct and so on.

Note that counter attacking can occur at any time, regardless of mentality. The game will automatically pick the pace up temporarily and become more attacking when it thinks a counter attack is on. Counter attacks become more likely when using either Defensive, Counter or Attacking mentalities.

Team Shape essentially just changes individual player creativity. More fluid systems increase player creativity, more structured systems decrease it. This is why you may hear about reducing the number of specialist roles (such as playmakers) as you increase "fluidity". More fluid systems increase creativity, thus you don't need to define so many creative roles. And vice versa. It's not a hard and fast rule though. (Note - I've noticed some changes in the beta, so I don't yet know how true that will remain in FM16. Perhaps it's just my eyes playing tricks on me).

As you have the FM16 beta, play around with the team instructions, and see how they all change as you alter mentality, shape and individual team instructions. Note how more than one TI can change as you make adjustments, so you can see how they all relate to each other.

For lots more detail, read through the stickies at the top of this forum .

[DavidSE]

The problem with reading articles is that ther are so many diffrent opinions

Some aritcles say that "Control" for example wont promise your team playing possesion football and the next article will try to Simulate possesion based game with "control" mentality because he Believe that mentality will give him that.

[Dr. Hook]

You'll find that there are different ways to play, just as their are different ways to setup a real-life soccer side. None of the articles that are stickied disagree in the fundamental things that Herne outlined above. You mention control. If you take standard as the medium or neutral setting then control does the following things:

1) plays with a medium high d-line

2) uses a medium high tempo

3) Attacker passing becomes more direct, defense passing shorter

4) Team will close down a little higher on the pitch

You can set up different styles based around these principles. Some use it to play possession, some use it for fast attacking football. Think of the mentality as a basic play template. Then you add in roles, duties, team and player instructions to create the specific style you want. You can build a possession style of play using any of the mentalities. I made one with a defensive mentality in FM15.

I hope this helps, but definitely take a look at the stickies. If you are looking to get started, try the basic 12 step guide by WWFan. Then LLama's Pairs and Combinations. Then once you have a handle on how the game works tactically, move on to the more complex stuff.

[herne79]

The problem with reading articles is that ther are so many diffrent opinions

Some aritcles say that "Control" for example wont promise your team playing possesion football and the next article will try to Simulate possesion based game with "control" mentality because he Believe that mentality will give him that.

This goes beyond your initial question asking what mentality and team shape means, and now getting into the area of systems of play.

As Dr Hook mentions, there are different ways of setting up systems. Think about Barcelona and Bayern Munich - they both play possession football but the way in which they do it is different. You can apply the same to FM - it's all about how you want to set up and play .