Tactical Strength and Weaknesses

[-Ironhide-]

I was wondering - what is it in a tactic that makes it unsuccessful. Because I've created loads of saves with very good teams, for the tactic to suddenly only permit me to drawing with Everton 2-2. I'm not going to provide my tactic because as I said before, I've used different ones. But what makes a tactic a super tactic or just a weak one? And also how to spot weaknesses?

Thanks in advance,

Ironhide

[summatsupeer]

12 minutes ago, -Ironhide- said:

I was wondering - what is it in a tactic that makes it unsuccessful. Because I've created loads of saves with very good teams, for the tactic to suddenly only permit me to drawing with Everton 2-2. I'm not going to provide my tactic because as I said before, I've used different ones. But what makes a tactic a super tactic or just a weak one? And also how to spot weaknesses?

Thanks in advance,

Ironhide

A tactic doesn't just suddenly permit you anything.  You might of let them get over confident if on a good run, it sounds like your over confident yourself if you think your run should just continue because you haven't changed anything.  Teams might start to respect you more and adjust how they play. You might of had a dip in form in key players/roles in your tactic and not replaced them with an adequate backup who fits your tactic.  You might of just come up against a team/player who's in great form and didn't do anything to stop them.  

[herne79]

1 hour ago, -Ironhide- said:

what is it in a tactic that makes it unsuccessful

That's a very generalised question, and typically speaking I'd discourage such questions as each and every tactical system is individual, and so answers would need to be tailored specifically as well.

However, as you don't want to share any tactics I'll generalise an answer which may or may not be applicable.

Generally speaking, an unsuccessful tactic may either be:  Unbalanced; use tactical settings that the Manager doesn't fully understand; gets wildly (and erroneously) tweaked before and/or during matches when the Manager doesn't really understand what's going on; is unsuitable for the team the Manager is playing as or the players he/she has available.

Then there are other external factors such as summat mentions above.

There are of course exceptions to this (I know some good Managers have just been left a little perplexed with this year's ME), but generally speaking most issues we see will fall into one (or more) of the above.

RTH used to have a mantra - if you don't know what something does, don't use it.

[tyler16]

The idea that a single result changes your confidence in a tactic is silly. Such a small sample.

[-Ironhide-]

2 hours ago, tyler16 said:

The idea that a single result changes your confidence in a tactic is silly. Such a small sample.

I don't mean it like that. Loads of negative results change my confidence. I guess I should persevere more with my tactics though 

[AFCBeer]

I know a lot of people on here say it's always your tactics but I'm convinced there is some underlying factors in the game which randomly cause you or the AI to play a blinder or have a mare. 

Its just like real life. Teams have a bad day at the office for no reason. Last night Accrington played out of their skins. Burnley didn't do an awful lot wrong and I doubt Sean Dyche will question his tactics. 

I can't provide any proof something similar in FM exists. But once or twice a season you get those games which are tougher than expected for no real reason. If it's rare enough then there is no need to panic. 

[peterbolam78]

In the longer term, I find and I may be being paranoid that like real life use of same tactic for every match leads the AI to adjust as a manager would, so if you create all your goals from one wing then the AI sets up a plan to deal with that...hence why I use two tactics that are similar in shape, maybe a slight change to positions but enough that we can switch things round to help keep the AI guessing.

 

That's my tuppence worth, but please take into account I may be overly paranoid or just plain wrong

[herne79]

Lets no get into there is something hard coded into the game to make you lose or the AI figures out your tactics. It doesn't happen.

[AFCBeer]

1 hour ago, herne79 said:

Lets no get into there is something hard coded into the game to make you lose or the AI figures out your tactics. It doesn't happen.

Just to be clear (in case this was aimed at me) that is not what I'm saying at all. 

FM is a numbers game. Results are based on probabilities in the background. This means anything is possible. 

Personally I have benefited from when the AI has a mare. That's nothing to do with the game being hard coded to make me win any more than AI being hard coded to make me lose. 

Its just a fact of real life football that is reflected in the game which, on a one off basis, can't purely be dismissed as your tactics. 

[Rashidi]

At its core the game is a numbers game. How good a side you can create depends on more than just the tactic. Any balanced tactic can do well in the game, its up to you as the manager to adapt your system to your team. Finally during the course of a match, winning becomes a matter of how you can react to ingame events to influence the outcome. That is why it's vital to become a master at finding out what the story is in each highlight. It gets hard if you watch the game on comprehensive, because of the sheer number of highlights, I favour either key or extended. Within that window, I need to ascertain how my system is performing. I can't count the number of times I have started off with defensive mentality and switched to attacking and gone back attacking again. My tactic doesn't change, and even if it does thats a very rare occurrence. 

To narrow success down to a tactic is oversimplification.  Just enjoy the game, treat shouts as a chance for you to influence your team. And do your best not to overanalyse everything.

[shirajzl]

On 8/26/2016 at 06:31, Rashidi said:

At its core the game is a numbers game. How good a side you can create depends on more than just the tactic. Any balanced tactic can do well in the game, its up to you as the manager to adapt your system to your team. Finally during the course of a match, winning becomes a matter of how you can react to ingame events to influence the outcome. That is why it's vital to become a master at finding out what the story is in each highlight. It gets hard if you watch the game on comprehensive, because of the sheer number of highlights, I favour either key or extended. Within that window, I need to ascertain how my system is performing. I can't count the number of times I have started off with defensive mentality and switched to attacking and gone back attacking again. My tactic doesn't change, and even if it does thats a very rare occurrence. 

To narrow success down to a tactic is oversimplification.  Just enjoy the game, treat shouts as a chance for you to influence your team. And do your best not to overanalyse everything.

The fact you make changes based on watching key highlights and match/player stats (in Torino diaries) is quite impressive, especially since it's been an ongoing mantra here that you can't really see anything from them, let alone tweak tactics. I guess it takes a special level of ME knowledge, though.