Pressing and other Tactical Instructions

[Saltergater]

Hi all,

I've been playing Football Manager (and formerly Championship Manager) since way back, and have found that with each PC release, I need to dedicate more and more time to it. Unfortunately, my chairman, sorry, manager, requires that I put in a full 5 day working week and that's before even my girlfriend gets a look in. All of which mean I long for the early days where I could pick up FM for half an hour - tweak my 4-4-2, scout for the odd free agent and play a couple of games.

FM Handheld should be the answer to my prayers then? Well, not really. I own both FMH 2006 and 2007, and am still not clear *exactly* how 'pressing' or 'men behind the ball' instruction is being interpreted by my team.

I'm not in the 'one wonder tactic will win everything' camp, prefering to vary my formation and tactics depending on the opposition, and typically, the players available to me on match day (lowly Chesterfield being my passion). I'm convinced that any of the formations can work depending on who you're up against, and with a bit of considerate tweaking to the player instructions. As such, I look to play a balanced 4-4-2 (5 defensive minded players and 5 attacking), and will switch to a 4-4-2 Attacking or 4-4-2 Defensive depending on the strength of the opposition and whether we're home or away.

I think it's quite easy to create an attack minded tactic - forward runs on the majority of players, run with the ball for wide players and a gifted forward, and through balls with playmaker instruction for an attack minded CM. You don't even need to switch mentality to Attacking unless you want the all-out forget defending approach...

No, it's more difficult to find a defensively sound tactic that can also win games. It's quite satisfying to play the league leaders with your team of no hopers and effectively keep them at bay until you knock in the winner in the 88th minute . This is where I need a bit of clarification with some of the team / player instructions.

Will a player with pressing instruction chase the ball all over the pitch, or if he has zonal marking instruction, just press if the ball carrier comes within his zone?

Do we guess whether a player can play man-marking, offside trap, or even pressing instruction well, or it based on the positioning or teamwork attribute? In the PC version, I'd look at a player's work rate before giving them pressing instruction, but should they have good positioning to do this effectively?

Do you need to specify 'men behind the ball' with a 4-5-1 formation or does the game engine infer that you're playing defensive? Therefore, if playing a 4-5-1 and specifying 'counter attack' would only the players with forward runs take part in the counter?

I'm hoping Marc Duffy or Marc Vaughan can help out with providing additional informaiton regarding these instructions. Many thanks.

[Saltergater]

Hi all,

I've been playing Football Manager (and formerly Championship Manager) since way back, and have found that with each PC release, I need to dedicate more and more time to it. Unfortunately, my chairman, sorry, manager, requires that I put in a full 5 day working week and that's before even my girlfriend gets a look in. All of which mean I long for the early days where I could pick up FM for half an hour - tweak my 4-4-2, scout for the odd free agent and play a couple of games.

FM Handheld should be the answer to my prayers then? Well, not really. I own both FMH 2006 and 2007, and am still not clear *exactly* how 'pressing' or 'men behind the ball' instruction is being interpreted by my team.

I'm not in the 'one wonder tactic will win everything' camp, prefering to vary my formation and tactics depending on the opposition, and typically, the players available to me on match day (lowly Chesterfield being my passion). I'm convinced that any of the formations can work depending on who you're up against, and with a bit of considerate tweaking to the player instructions. As such, I look to play a balanced 4-4-2 (5 defensive minded players and 5 attacking), and will switch to a 4-4-2 Attacking or 4-4-2 Defensive depending on the strength of the opposition and whether we're home or away.

I think it's quite easy to create an attack minded tactic - forward runs on the majority of players, run with the ball for wide players and a gifted forward, and through balls with playmaker instruction for an attack minded CM. You don't even need to switch mentality to Attacking unless you want the all-out forget defending approach...

No, it's more difficult to find a defensively sound tactic that can also win games. It's quite satisfying to play the league leaders with your team of no hopers and effectively keep them at bay until you knock in the winner in the 88th minute . This is where I need a bit of clarification with some of the team / player instructions.

Will a player with pressing instruction chase the ball all over the pitch, or if he has zonal marking instruction, just press if the ball carrier comes within his zone?

Do we guess whether a player can play man-marking, offside trap, or even pressing instruction well, or it based on the positioning or teamwork attribute? In the PC version, I'd look at a player's work rate before giving them pressing instruction, but should they have good positioning to do this effectively?

Do you need to specify 'men behind the ball' with a 4-5-1 formation or does the game engine infer that you're playing defensive? Therefore, if playing a 4-5-1 and specifying 'counter attack' would only the players with forward runs take part in the counter?

I'm hoping Marc Duffy or Marc Vaughan can help out with providing additional informaiton regarding these instructions. Many thanks.

[Ackter]

In my understanding "Pressing" is "close them down" while "Men behind the ball" is "everyone get back if you lose possession".

[Saltergater]

Obviously But in FMH does pressing mean close down all over the pitch, or in your own half... how has it been implemented? I may want to sit back but play a pressing game whenever the ball is in my final third. To achieve this, should I give my DMCs zonal marking along with pressing???

The point I'm trying to make is, I want my players to press but I don't want them to lose their defensive shape. In FMH it's not clear how to achieve this.

[thfc53]

Good point mate. Theres not enough room on the screen to show all stats and that means that we dont know a player well enough. The stats are too vague IMO. Maybe a 2-paged stat list for players would be a good idea for FMH08?

[Saltergater]

Cheers thfc53. It's a good idea, but I think the amount of memory (or lack of) with the PSP limits the number of player attributes.

Watching Sheff Utd practically man mark most of Man U's attacking players last night, and for the most part proving quite an effective tactic, there's no way of knowing whether your players are capable of ding this in FMH. Is man marking a hidden attribute, or not an attribute at all? If not, how does the game engine decide how well a player can man mark the opponent player?

It makes sense that "Off the ball" is how well

an attacking player can avoid the attentions of a man marker, but what is the equivalent defensive attribute?

Can anyone from SI comment on this???

[Saltergater]

I don't want to let this drop if I can help it ... Can anyone advise what attributes a player should have above average in order to be good at man marking (as opposed to zonal marking)?

Is it likely to be pace and positioning considered jointly and compared with the opponents pace and off the ball skills?

[Tacca03]

Hi Saltergater,

I'm playing FMH for exactly the same reasons of yours!

Anyway, back to your original questions. I don't man mark or play man behind ball. But I do press like man - or at least the attacking half of my team does.

And my guess is that they would press no matter where they are, as they get a lot more interceptions than my defence.

I don't think they ever get back into our own half because I'm playing mostly 4-1-3-2 (therefore forward arrows), everyone have forward run and my team's mentality is attacking.

Any response from the SI team would be great. I do miss the older desktop versions where I knew exactly what effects my instructions are having. (I'm one of those unlucky ones that don't have the time and the computer system to play the latest versions of the game......)

cheers,

Tacca03

[Saltergater]

Thanks for the response Tacca03.

4-1-3-2 is an interesting one, as the general concensus is to have DMCs with zonal marking and pressing instruction, with the understanding that the DMC will be quick to close down any player just in front of your back four. I'm not clear in FMH whether pressing means your players will close down all over the pitch however or simply within the zone they're playing (if given zonal marking instruction).

To be honest, playing as Chesterfield, I can't keep my goals against tally reasonable without using pressing instruction, but it would be nice to find that a 4-4-2 defensive mentality with 2 strikers pressing, and playing on the counter attack is an effective tactic. It may not be beautiful football, but logically thinking, it should produce results as in real life.

[Marc Vaughan]

Most of the 'common' tactical questions are covered in the hints and tip ... but a couple of good new ones have been asked so here goes:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Will a player with pressing instruction chase the ball all over the pitch, or if he has zonal marking instruction, just press if the ball carrier comes within his zone? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

If a player has a zonal marking instruction and is also told to press then he will only press players who are within that 'zone' (ie. he's not going to follow them all over the pitch).

[Marc Vaughan]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Do you need to specify 'men behind the ball' with a 4-5-1 formation or does the game engine infer that you're playing defensive? Therefore, if playing a 4-5-1 and specifying 'counter attack' would only the players with forward runs take part in the counter? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Men Behind the ball is a 'special' desperado style defense - it infers that you're packing your defense to try to avoid conceeding and is much much more defensive than say playing 'counter attack'.

Its the type of last ditch defending you might see an inferior side do towards the end of an FA Cup match when they're 1-0 up against the run of play against a higher division side ....

[Saltergater]

Appreciate the responses, Marc.

I've been having some success with a defense-minded 4-4-2, which ground out a 1-1 against Portsmouth in tha FA Cup (only to lose out on penalties). We conceded the equaliser in the 90th minute so I just know I should have put men behind the ball instruction on for the last 10 minutes . If anyone wants to try these principles against stronger opposition...

* Have emphasis set as defensive if you have a couple of strikers that can create chances for themselves (creative, pacey, or good dribbling).

* Have all players set to zonal marking and offside trap on. If your CBs are quick and aggressive consider man marking and turn offside trap off.

* Defend from the front by having your 2 forwards pressing. Bolster this by having your 2 CMs or DMCs also pressing - particularly if playing the offside trap or if the opposition are playing a short passing game.

* Don't give pressing to your 2 wide players unless up against a short passing team. By making one of your wide players the team's playmaker, they'll look to him when possession is won and he needs to be in space...

* Play Direct with quick forwards to bypass the opposition's midfield, or Long if you lack pace but have strength and heading up top.

* If playing the counter attack, choose Defensive emphasis so that your team will sit deep, but use a short passing game with a forward or DMC holding up the ball to allow your team to break.

* Normal mentality will give you a more balanced platform in which to defend or attack, with the benefit of midfield players being closer to their forwards when you win the ball back.

* Give any midfielder or forward with high Movement Forward Runs instruction, but ensure one MC or DMC is set to no, and ideally one forward who will then collect the ball from deep more (give him Run With Ball if good at Dribbling).

* Don't ask your fullbacks to make forward runs (I've found this to be the single most important instruction to keep a good defensive record).

* Use Men Behind Ball instruction with zonal marking and pressing for the last 5-10 minutes of a half/game.

* I tend not to give players hard tackling but it can be a good way of upsetting the oppositions more skillful players. Only use it with midfielders with good tackling rating. Defenders can give silly freekicks away or get themselves booked early in a game.

Hope this helps LLM in particular but anyone really. Feedback welcome!