The transition from Underdog to Topdog: Adapting Tactics

[Deego619]

Hi all,

I thought I'd document my interesting journey with FM19 so far tactically. Feel free to copy or whatever (god knows I've done that before), but I hope the underlying philosophy of it helps. I'm always the type of manager who prefers creating a legacy with a club who doesn't really have one. I don't really feel an accomplishment when I beat the game with teams that are already set up for success. 

Meet My Original System

Ever since FM16, I've been playing a Sacchi-inspired system. One of the best threads of all time on this forum is Ozil to the arsenal's thread on it.
I wanted 3 bands of players to work hard together in a very fluid system. Working hard for the team whist blitzing teams with lightening quick attacks. 

It was devastating. I had a great start to FM19.  Like most people, I bought into the new tactics layout and the preset tactics, especially the gegen press. Some people consider it OP, some don't. Whatever your opinion of it, it helped me to tremendous over achievement with QPR. A Championship title, followed by a 2nd place Premier League finish with the lowest salary in the league, to the Champions League title in consecutive seasons. 

In my St. Patricks Athletic save in Ireland. I won the league at a canter in my first season, followed by an incredible over achievement in Europe the following season.

However, both saves ran into the same problem. I had expanded too quickly, and teams were suddenly FM'ing me with incredible regularity. Teams were now giving my high tempo football no space at all to be effective, as I was now a major player in my saves. My players did not have the quality to break teams down by repeatedly hammering on the door with heavy metal football. Even in my QPR save, the season of my success in Europe I stumbled over the line in the Premier League in 6th place, a huge fall from the 2nd the season before.

Here are six games from my 2nd season with St. Patricks Athletic that highlight the issue. Notice the trends with all of these disappointing results.

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

These are the type of games which make you want to throw your laptop out your window. Shot after shot, save after save, only to be thwarted by the oppositions only shot on target. I persisted with my tactic, because with the success it brought me, why would I not?

This result broke the straw off the camel's back. Getting trounced by Bray at home, who picked up a valuable three points for their relegation battle. I was now 6 points behind Dundalk in the league, things just couldn't go on like this if I wanted to retain my title. There's only so many goals you can concede like this

before you just have enough. A long ball from the Keeper, striker flicks on and my high line is exposed (yeah I'm not sure what my #2 was up to either). Grant slots it by my keeper easily.

Although goals like this can occur from time to time against underdog sides, I should be scoring 2/3/4 goals and making it obsolete (DELETE). I need to change something and change my side in order to break these teams down.

Meet the top dog system

I needed new avenues of attack, especially from deep, in order to break these sides down. I'll detail my changes.

RB: FB/S to FB/A. Penetration from deep was needed, and an overlapping full back arriving late into attacks to unsettle the defence was the order of the day. 

LM: W/S to IW/A. I needed more bodies in the middle of the pitch in order to drag defenders out and attempt to find space for my strikers. 

RM: W/S to WM/S. I felt winger support is more aggressive than the WM counterpart, I wanted a David Beckham-esque player here. Someone who could ping a ball from deep and link up with my onrushing right back. I almost want a third CM-type player here.

RCM: CM/S to BWM/D. I wanted defensive cover and BWM despite it being an aggressive role would allow me to cover more areas of the pitch horizontally than a three man midfield would provide.

RS: DLF/S to TQ/A. Someone to drop between the lines and unsettle the defence. He can link up with any of my players making penetrating runs, the IW, RB or the AF to break open the defence. 

Team Instructions

I wanted to keep the high press aspect of my tactic. I understand that this may cause some long ball goals from a packed defence, but as I said above, I want to be scoring 2/3/4 goals a game so that doesn't matter. We are now a top team in this division, and if you are not expecting to score at least 2 goals a game with my aggressive setup, then I'm not going to win many games. However, I keep an eye on this depending on the speed of the opposition's striker. If there's somebody exceptionally quick (15+ in Irish league is Abaumeyang) I will drop it a notch.

A TI that I thought sounded cool was the Counter-Press, however after some studying of Rashidi's youtube channel (which is great, check it out), I found that it was probably causing me more problems than it was worth now that I was a top side. If I'm already setup to press hard, I'm not going to accelerate this by encouraging suicidal pressing on a player that's likely to punt it long anyway. Taking two/three/four of my players out of the game wasn't worth it.

Shorter Passing and a notch below of tempo were required to stop my team's furious heavy metal banging on the bus door. This is another TI I may make a small adjustment to during the game depending on how the match is going.

I'm not a big believer in PIs due to the vast selection of roles available in the game now, so unless I want to stop a player getting sent off I don't use them. That's a personal philosophy.

In Action

My AF Hale lays it off to my TQ Dunne, who has laid himself into an acre of space and immediately pinged it to my rampaging RB McDermott, who takes 2 attempts but ultimately beats the goalkeeper. This goes back to when I said I needed players running from deep in order to break up and confuse the defence. There's nothing more satisfying than when a plan works out.

On a side note, look at the other end of the pitch when the goal is scored. There is my two center backs, BWM and LB who are held back in case of a counter attack, 4 vs 1.

After the Bray game I made these changes, I went on an 8 game run before my tired squad (also in CL group stages) began to falter at the end of the season with the title won thanks to our 4-1 victory away to Dundalk. We cut it close, but ultimately my decision to change things up was the difference between us holding onto the league and surrendering it to Dundalk.

Season 2021

During the winter off season in Ireland, I began targeting players who fit the system better. I wanted a RB who's traits encouraged them to go forward, an IW who's traits wanted to cut inside and beat a man for example.

Barring any crazy capitulation, we should be on course for 3 in a row after the first round of games in the league. We suffocate teams (such in the Sacchi/Ozil mould) but also offer variation in attack, whilst limiting opportunities for the counter.

I hope this thread didn't come off as too much of a humble brag, but I see a lot of people struggling with taking mid table teams to the top. So I hope this insight into how to change things and offer variation may help.

[pq]

Thank you for sharing your story. 
I'm currently in exactly the same situation, where 16/20 teams suddenly just park the bus against me - and as you said, it needs ALOT of individual performances from the attacking players.
But you have some really interesting points here, especially the "counter-press"-setting, which I've ultimately just assumed is required together with "counter" e.g.

Are there things you will be doing during the game, if you just can't create chances or enough chances of quality?  

[Deego619]

1 hour ago, pq said:

Thank you for sharing your story. 
I'm currently in exactly the same situation, where 16/20 teams suddenly just park the bus against me - and as you said, it needs ALOT of individual performances from the attacking players.
But you have some really interesting points here, especially the "counter-press"-setting, which I've ultimately just assumed is required together with "counter" e.g.

Are there things you will be doing during the game, if you just can't create chances or enough chances of quality?  

I think it's a very common problem around the forum. We gain success using a tactic and expect it to keep working, but now instead of over achieving you have to match expectations. Your Watford/Crystal Palace now need to play like Manchester City when your players are more suited to counter attacking football. It can take some serious adjustment.

I like keeping my tactic as-is for the first 30 mins of the game. If we're taking a lot of shots of no substance I'll lower the tempo one notch. If a team is chasing a goal, i'll go lower tempo and more direct passing + pass into space. That's all really, maybe adjust the D-Line if there's an Abaumeyang-type striker.