Contradicting tactics?

[Samuste]

When setting up my tactics I always worry about my selections contradicting with others.

Such as, if i use both "Pass into space" and "Shorter Passing" would that cause issues? The opportunities to pass into space when playing short passes would be pretty minimal surely?

Also, if I was playing a narrow formation, but then set my width to "Wide" what affect would that have?

 

Sorry if I sound daft, just a rookie trying to be the best I can be!

[herne79]

42 minutes ago, Samuste said:

Sorry if I sound daft, just a rookie trying to be the best I can be!

Not daft, they're actually good questions .

The first thing to remember with Team Instructions (and indeed Player Instructions) is that they are tendencies, not hard and fast rules.  So if, for example, you tell your team to "Pass Into Space" the instruction will encourage them to attempt to pass into space more often than normal but not all the time.

The other important thing to be aware of is what the instructions actually do - and that isn't always clear from the in game tool tips.  Shorter Passing tends to reduce passing length and Tempo (remember these are tendencies).  Tempo affects how long players may tend to dwell on the ball before deciding what to do with it.  Pass Into Space is much the same as through balls or risky passes, so your players will tend to look for opportunities to make more risky passes for other players to run onto.

You can then begin to see how all these things may tie back to your players and their attributes.  Your tactical settings can determine how you want your players to play, their attributes then determine how well (or not!) they're able to carry out those instructions.  For example, you're telling your players to Pass Into Space, so they may need good Vision and Passing to both see and make the pass, whilst your players may also need good Off the Ball movement in order to make the run into space and be on the receiving end of the pass.  I don't want to make it sound more complicated than it is (it really isn't) but spending a little time to have a quick think like that can pay dividends.

Other Team Instructions such as width settings need context and depend on the starting point which gets set by your chosen Mentality.  The Attacking mentality sets a very wide width by default, whereas the Standard mentality sets a medium width by default.  Using the Team Instruction to then alter the width will adjust the width only from the starting point.  To clarify, lets suppose for a moment there are 5 width settings (there aren't, this is just to paint a picture).  Lets say the Attacking mentality sets default width to 5 and the Standard mentality sets default width to 3.  If you then adjust the Width TI two notches down to it's narrowest setting (for example), that would reduce the Attacking mentality width from 5 to 3 and the Standard mentality width would move from 3 to 1.  There are several Team Instructions that use this principle, so always first check what the default settings are from the Mentality you use - open the Team Instructions window, have a flick through each mentality and watch how things change as you do.

[Samuste]

14 minutes ago, herne79 said:

Not daft, they're actually good questions .

The first thing to remember with Team Instructions (and indeed Player Instructions) is that they are tendencies, not hard and fast rules.  So if, for example, you tell your team to "Pass Into Space" the instruction will encourage them to attempt to pass into space more often than normal but not all the time.

The other important thing to be aware of is what the instructions actually do - and that isn't always clear from the in game tool tips.  Shorter Passing tends to reduce passing length and Tempo (remember these are tendencies).  Tempo affects how long players may tend to dwell on the ball before deciding what to do with it.  Pass Into Space is much the same as through balls or risky passes, so your players will tend to look for opportunities to make more risky passes for other players to run onto.

You can then begin to see how all these things may tie back to your players and their attributes.  Your tactical settings can determine how you want your players to play, their attributes then determine how well (or not!) they're able to carry out those instructions.  For example, you're telling your players to Pass Into Space, so they may need good Vision and Passing to both see and make the pass, whilst your players may also need good Off the Ball movement in order to make the run into space and be on the receiving end of the pass.  I don't want to make it sound more complicated than it is (it really isn't) but spending a little time to have a quick think like that can pay dividends.

Other Team Instructions such as width settings need context and depend on the starting point which gets set by your chosen Mentality.  The Attacking mentality sets a very wide width by default, whereas the Standard mentality sets a medium width by default.  Using the Team Instruction to then alter the width will adjust the width only from the starting point.  To clarify, lets suppose for a moment there are 5 width settings (there aren't, this is just to paint a picture).  Lets say the Attacking mentality sets default width to 5 and the Standard mentality sets default width to 3.  If you then adjust the Width TI two notches down to it's narrowest setting (for example), that would reduce the Attacking mentality width from 5 to 3 and the Standard mentality width would move from 3 to 1.  There are several Team Instructions that use this principle, so always first check what the default settings are from the Mentality you use - open the Team Instructions window, have a flick through each mentality and watch how things change as you do.

Thanks! I really appreciate you taking the time to write that out!

That definitely clears things up for me. I think a lot of the time I do try to implement a style/tactic without taking into account my players ability (or lack of it).

I'll be in the 'All Nighter' thread tonight, definitely trying out a few different things! Hopefully it'll be a night of enlightenment!

[juusal]

1 hour ago, Samuste said:

Thanks! I really appreciate you taking the time to write that out!

That definitely clears things up for me. I think a lot of the time I do try to implement a style/tactic without taking into account my players ability (or lack of it).

I'll be in the 'All Nighter' thread tonight, definitely trying out a few different things! Hopefully it'll be a night of enlightenment!

You can also combine different passing lengths to your tactic through roles, PIs and TIs. Let's say your defenders are not very good on the ball, but you have two playmaker types (you do not need to use them in playmaker roles, but I mean players with good passing, vision and technique for starters). You can set your defenders on shorter passing (or use play out of defence TI which shortens their passing), or shorter passing TI, but set your good passers on more direct passes. Basically, tell your players to do only what they can, and leave the difficult passes for those who are actually good enough for that.

[Samuste]

32 minutes ago, juusal said:

You can also combine different passing lengths to your tactic through roles, PIs and TIs. Let's say your defenders are not very good on the ball, but you have two playmaker types (you do not need to use them in playmaker roles, but I mean players with good passing, vision and technique for starters). You can set your defenders on shorter passing (or use play out of defence TI which shortens their passing), or shorter passing TI, but set your good passers on more direct passes. Basically, tell your players to do only what they can, and leave the difficult passes for those who are actually good enough for that.

Makes sense. I think I'm taking the instructions a bit too literally! 

Thanks for the advice! Appreciate it.