K.I.S.S - My Lesson Learned.

[ashlfcowen]

If you didn't know, KISS stands for “keep it simple, stupid”.
 

Something that works particularly well on FM22 would you believe.
 

Long story short. 
 

After 7-years at Wrexham and 1.5 at Tottenham, I decided to take the RB Leipzig job.
 

To be honest, the only reason I left Wrexham was that RR and RM left lol.
 

Anyway, with a pretty average squad, and a board who wanted attacking, high tempo, pressing football I opted for a 4-3-2-1 Vertical Tiki-Taka.
 

I left everything as was, and although we started well with a 3-0 win in the DFB-Pokal we lost our next 7 games.
 

We were fighting relegation and my position was ‘Very Insecure’.

 

Clearly, the presets were not working for me so I decided to start from scratch.

 

Before even touching the team instructions, I downloaded the Pairs & Combinations PDF as seen here

 

Without blowing my own trumpet, I *think* I created balanced, well-thought-out roles and duties.

 

 

Some of these roles are not just based on the guide above but was also based on the players preferred moves.

 

For example, my left back Angelo Bruckner has no PPMs yet in this tactic I wanted him to drive forward hence why he’s a WB and my right-back is a FB (who doesn’t need to be as adventurous as my winger on that side is providing the width and driving runs).

 

Likewise, the reason I opted for a CM(S) over a BBM(S) is that the player here has the PPMs (Runs with Ball Often & Gets Further Forward) so with a positive mentality, I didn’t want this to be a dynamic runner - that's the job of the AM(A).

 

Next, on to the TI’s.

 

I simply followed the defensive principles in this thread.

 

I knew I needed to play either Positive or Attacking to keep the board happy.

 

The ‘In Possession’ instructions are often the ones I struggle with. I just decided I wanted my team to retain the ball hence the ‘POD & Shorter Passing’ shouts. The shorter passing shout is questionable, I don't think my performance on the pitch would suffer without it. 

 

I wanted to encourage more driving runs down the left and because my AF(A) lacks ability in the air I asked for lower crosses.

 

Really simple, right? Not difficult and I know exactly what everything does.

 

 

We didn’t work things out quick enough and I joined with the club at 15th, so we didn’t do enough to finish higher than 6th but we did win the Europa League which means we’ve started this season in the CL.

 

After a summer of investment – a few player improvements and we’ve started off this season really well.

 

 

People play the game differently,

 

But I always enjoy it more when I’m controlling what I can – tactics included.

 

It was really nice to strip things back, slow things down and build from a ‘skeleton’.

 

If you’re frustrated with the game right now because things aren’t going your way, I suggest you do the same - I almost quit after that 4-0 loss to Bayern, I then almost download a meta tactic before deciding to take time to figure out what I wanted from my team. 

[bosque]

I love this kind of threads! I'm playing in Bundesliga too. What are your treshold for atributes?

[ashlfcowen]

18 hours ago, bosque said:

I love this kind of threads! I'm playing in Bundesliga too. What are your treshold for atributes?

Thanks. I've been guilty of getting overwhelmed with tactics (instructions and player roles) in the past so it was really nice to just figure things out myself and to see the rewards for it.

13-15 for attributes, but to be honest, I looked at them loosely. For example, my main striker only had 11 finishing, yet finished the season as top scorer.

But it's kind of difficult to even get that close because my scouting network isn't that great.

I finished the season 1st, breaking the Bayern dominance.

 

We also won the Pokal.

 

 

So a great season overall.

 

 

[bosque]

Nice! I'm struggling a lot. Teams destroy me. So I will take this path.

[ashlfcowen]

I did 1.5 seasons at RB - Barcelona knocked on my door and I decided to start my 12th season at the Nou Camp.

 

They have the 2nd best XI in the league and they basically wanted me to:

 

– Play attacking football

– Play possession football

– Play entertaining football

 

Now I’m not sure who needs to read the following, because there’s one thing for certain: I am average at this game.

 

And when you play as a manager of the team who is previewed to finish 2nd, then it’s kind of hard to mess it up, right?... 

 

But following the same principles as I did for RB Leipzig, I have done even better than I imagined. 

 

In fact… we have won 13 out of 13 in the league scoring 48 and conceding 5.

 

And in the Champions League, we have won 4/4 scoring 14 and conceding 1.

 

That’s 62 goals scored in 17 games and only 6 conceded.

 

The board are happy.

 

 

So, how have I achieved this? By keeping it simple.

 

I am absolutely not saying that you cannot achieve the same results by having a tonne of instructions or by using the presets.

 

My point is, as it was in the first post – I struggle to understand what TIs contradict and compliment the player roles and duties (and the instructions themselves)

 

So I like to start with a clean slate and then add based on what I think is the right thing to do.

 

The first thing I did was to tick some of the boxes my board wanted me to.

 

Mentality: Attacking.

 

In Transition: Distribute to CBs & Counter-Press.

 

Out of Possession: Higher DL & Use Tighter Marking.

 

These are literally the same principles that are recommended in this thread:

https://community.sigames.com/forums/topic/474720-basic-principles-of-defending-an-unofficial-guide-for-tactical-beginners/
 

From what I understand, being on the Attacking mentality already ticks a lot of boxes in terms of the way I want to play so the only ‘In Possession’ instruction I have is to focus the play down the middle as my roles and duties almost pack the middle of the field so why not try and make that the focal point? 

 

Anyway… this is how it’s all come together.

 

 

A few ‘reasonings’...

 

I don’t really want any players on an attacking mentality because I believe the set-up, with their PPMs is enough to achieve what I want.

 

For example, my left-back has the PPM ‘Gets Forward Whenever Possible’.

 

If I had him on an attacking duty, I believe I’d need to compromise a central midfielder to basically defend for him. 

 

However, he is more adventurous than my right back so I need to utilise that – so for me, a CWB on support makes total sense. 

 

And because of his traits, his role, duty plus my mentality, I think it needs some cover hence the Carrilero role.

 

You could argue the same for the CM(A), who is Pedri. He has some really intense PPMs such as ‘Run with the ball through centre’ &  ‘gets forward whenever possible’.

 

However, the job I expect of my widemen isn’t to score, it is to create space and opportunities for the CM(A) and AF(A).

 

So I don’t mind Pedri being gungho at all,

 

And that’s also the reason I have settled for a simple DLP next to him.

 

Again, there probably isn’t much to learn from this post. 

 

BUT, it’s an opportunity to see how a guy - who is typically bang average at the game is thinking analytically about the formation & shape of the team based on the mentality and PPMs.

 

And as a result, this is probably the save I have enjoyed most in the FM series.

 

 

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by ashlfcowen

[Tsuru]

Maybe it wasn´t your intention, but this topic helped me thinking more simple when building my tactic, I was complicating it too much and I noticed a great improvement when thinking on the KISS mentality. So thank you!

[HanziZoloman]

Same here, had the same experience in Kaiserslautern and turning things around by keeping it more simple. Also I noticed how you implement your player ppms, that’s a point I am puzzling right now. But maybe it isn’t that hard to figure out

[ashlfcowen]

4 hours ago, Tsuru said:

Maybe it wasn´t your intention, but this topic helped me thinking more simple when building my tactic, I was complicating it too much and I noticed a great improvement when thinking on the KISS mentality. So thank you!

Thank you.

It definitely wasn't my intention but I'm glad I could help.

[ashlfcowen]

2 hours ago, HanziZoloman said:

Same here, had the same experience in Kaiserslautern and turning things around by keeping it more simple. Also I noticed how you implement your player ppms, that’s a point I am puzzling right now. But maybe it isn’t that hard to figure out

I think, for me at least what the ppm's influence are the mentalities of the roles.

For example,

If I was starting a new career with LFC, and I was settled with this front 3 (obviously)

The logic behind having Mane as an IF on support is because if you look at his PPMs, he already has the trait 'Gets into Opposition Area', so having him on attack, with a positive or attacking team mentality would almost definitely cause issues for my overall shape.

Salah, on the other hand, doesn't have any trait such as 'Gets into Opposition Area' or 'Gets Further Forward' so it makes sense to have him on Attack plus the fact he's a great goal throat. 

To me, it's simple, but logical and definitely makes a huge difference in my results.

[kepz]

Love a good tactic that avoids what I like to call team-instructions gore. Great post.

[Skywalk3r83]

Great stuff to read. I need to apply this for my Dortmund save. Starting off with a 4231 or 433 and look at their ppm’s. 

[thewire147]

Yeah this is great, be interesting to see if you could make this approach work in the lower leagues. Don't see why it wouldn't!

[jdubsnz]

This is great. I’ve just been promoted to La Liga with Real Valladolid. Had used a possession based tactic based on something @Cult of Football Manager had put together but not sure if it’s going to be the right thing as a massive underdog this season. Wanted to switch to a 4-2-3-1 that is nice and simple and this thread has got me thinking. Maybe 2 versions, one with standard CMs for home and one with deeper CMs for away. Need to really look at the individuals strengths when building my next tactic, have managed to bring in some interesting players in the transfer market so will build something from a clean slate

[HanziZoloman]

How do you think about ppms like Switches ball to other side / arrives late in opp. Area and plays long range passes.

I have very good experience with brings ball out of defence in Defense midfield position 

[ashlfcowen]

On 28/01/2022 at 21:39, kepz said:

Love a good tactic that avoids what I like to call team-instructions gore. Great post.

Haha, me too. More to do with my OCD though...

On 29/01/2022 at 06:38, Skywalk3r83 said:

Great stuff to read. I need to apply this for my Dortmund save. Starting off with a 4231 or 433 and look at their ppm’s. 

Thanks, let me know how you get on. 

On 29/01/2022 at 08:29, thewire147 said:

Yeah this is great, be interesting to see if you could make this approach work in the lower leagues. Don't see why it wouldn't!

I managed to get Wrexham all the way up to the PL in consecutive seasons and in our first two seasons there we finished 13th and then 7th.

On 29/01/2022 at 11:05, jdubsnz said:

This is great. I’ve just been promoted to La Liga with Real Valladolid. Had used a possession based tactic based on something @Cult of Football Manager had put together but not sure if it’s going to be the right thing as a massive underdog this season. Wanted to switch to a 4-2-3-1 that is nice and simple and this thread has got me thinking. Maybe 2 versions, one with standard CMs for home and one with deeper CMs for away. Need to really look at the individuals strengths when building my next tactic, have managed to bring in some interesting players in the transfer market so will build something from a clean slate

I like to use the Comparison screen as well.

That will summarise whether you'll get away with a possession style of football. 

On 29/01/2022 at 13:18, HanziZoloman said:

How do you think about ppms like Switches ball to other side / arrives late in opp. Area and plays long range passes.

I have very good experience with brings ball out of defence in Defense midfield position 

If anything, for me, these will just dictate the mentality they are on (defend, automatic, support or attack)

[ashlfcowen]

Appreciate this is with Liverpool, so similar with the Barcelona save take this with a pinch of salt. But then I do see a lot of failed tactics with the Attacking mentality so worth sharing I suppose!

Following the same principles as all of the other saves in this thread: 

TIs used to simply set the defensive focus, and then trusting the 'Attacking' team mentality and the players PPMs to do the rest.

So far, so good with plenty of goals from the two players I want goals from and as you can see from the 2nd screenshot, plenty of assists from the whole team.

[icidamien]

Hello,

Any chance you can share / reupload the first pictures?

THanks