Explain this ? (tactics on this forum)

[dannyrefc]

just to start out, i do not disagree with anything posted and i also appreciate the hours that people must of put into the posts and very kindly gone out of their way to help others.

my question,

Howcome all these guides etc state that unless you have a balanced tactic you will probably struggle and also i see this mentioned alot in threads of people asking for tactical advice.

For example : a 4-2-3-1, many state that you must have players that will sit and cover and you must select roles that translate to the tactic and fit well.

also fluidity and mentality etc , you get the point im trying to get across.

but, when i head over to the tactics sharing section or anyone else showing their successful tactics for that matter, i regurlarly see people claiming to have very successful tactics with roles and duties that contradict pretty much everything in these guides.

example: (not seen this but again along the lines of this) a 4-2-3-1 with attacking/very fluid mentalities with all sorts of specialist roles where guides would advise not to do this also roles such as BWM S and AP S in the centre mid which even to the people with limited knowledge would say that will create huge gaps and no cover at the back.

Again my examples are just my way of getting the point across and not hard facts that i have seen in the forum but are things similar to what i have seen.

and once again, im not saying anyone is wrong or discrediting anything im just curious that most the successful tactics posted are more often than not very contradicting towards the guides and advice given.

[Overmars]

Many reasons...

1. The guidelines are only guidelines. There are exceptions that can and do work.

2. Matches can still be won with so-so tactics.

3. Some people test tactics and have "success" when using Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, etc.

4. Sometimes the exceptions to the guidelines work better than the guidelines themselves, but sometimes this defies logic and may only be good under specific circumstances.

5. People can use reloading or the editor to make the game easier.

Following the guidelines helps people avoid using terrible tactics, but there are many ways beyond following guidelines to have success.

[Pedroig]

Three more:

Guidelines represent an interpretation of "real world" into the limitations of FM

Some of the tactics are more about getting "niche" players and complementing those "niches" that providing sound reasoning or method of play

Games are exploitable, take a LL club and throw on 9 attack duties with 1 Stopper, you will get quite a few upsets in Cup matches, but won't be a good consistent team.

Most the guidelines are there to not be taken as "gospel", but rather to help one get what they are looking for out of pitch performance other than "just a win"

[themadsheep2001]

As stated, they are guides. I cannot for the life of me understand why people continue to pidgeonhole guides and broad spectrum thinking as narrow rules of law. It is precisely that logic that stops people being able to take things in and enhance their playing style.

[dannyrefc]

your going on like i said oh these are laws which we must abide by how dare people go against them, as i said i know they are guides im curious why most tactics posted contradict them so i hope for the life of you you can understand that.

i myself dont really read them mabe the 12 step guide a couple of years ago

[Dr. Hook]

So understand this: the guides are primarily written for people who are struggling to get to grips with the game and the match engine. "Most tactics" posted? Wherever do you get this from? A lot that are posted in this area of the forum don't work, hence the need for the guides and the forum in general. I know there are some tactics posted that contradict the guides, but I also know that some tactics are constructed around match engine exploits, and others only work if you have a certain type of player at a world class level. Many of these you see posted in the download area of this forum. Of course you can also deviate from the guides and be successful, but this is generally after you get some knowledge of what it is that you are doing and what players you have at your disposal.

[Gramm0]

Many good comments above, but to expand further;

"Howcome all these guides etc state that unless you have a balanced tactic you will probably struggle" - This is the key to understanding the guides. If you build a balanced tactic according to the guides, the probability that you will struggle will be smaller. If you build your tactic with conventionally 'bad' roles, you will probably struggle if you do not know what you are doing. Lets say you build 100 tactics that contradict the guides. 95 of those will probably struggle, but perhaps 5 of them have hit a goldmine, an exploit or is getting the maximum out of 1-2 really good players. The last 5 will be shared in the mentioned section. The other 95 will not.

In this topic, it is important to understand one reason the guides were created in the first place; people come to forums like this, struggling with unbalanced tactics, asking how they can improve them. The natural answer to them is to make their tactics more balanced.

Edit: By the way, I would love to see some examples of posted tactics that go against the guides. It would be interesting to figure out why they are working.