Non-League Tactics - How to take advantage of outlier physicals?

[steve.battisti]

Hi all,

I'm playing a non-league save way down in level 10 of the English system using DanFM's add-on. I have kept my tactic very basic so far. Up top I typically use two Pressing Forwards on attack. Generally, that has worked fine, as I've won the league and am heading to level 9 next season. My strikers are OK. They are all pretty average for the level, I think it's just that my direct system works well and my midfielders are very good. 

However, I now have an interesting question. I'm well aware that physical attributes trump a lot of other abilities at this level. And because budgets are tight, I often can't afford the five-star players I have scouted. However, I've managed to land two strikers through transfer that are real outliers for this level.

• Harry is a 17-yo with iffy finishing (5), but he has a 17 pace. To give you a sense of how much of an outlier that is, the next fastest player on my team has a 12. And out of all of the players I scouted in my first season down at the bottom, I never saw anyone higher than a 14. I don't pay a ton of attention to the stars, but the stars say he's a 1.5 star Pressing Forward (Attack), which is my normal attack role. His best role is Pressing Forward (Defend) at a whopping 2 stars.
• Neemo is a 25-yo with great finishing (14) and 8 pace. He's also 6'6/198 cm and has a 13 jumping range, but a pitiful 2 heading. He's  a 0.5 star in every role.

Both of these players are very different from my previous strikers, who were much more average across the board.

I don't know a huge amount about tactics and the different roles, so I guess my question is, what changes should I make to either tactics or roles to take advantage of their outlier characteristics? For example, should I play Neemo as a Target Forward, and have his strike partner be in a support role? What would I do to encourage midfielders to play Harry on through balls where he can just outrun everyone?

Also, I've never customized tactics to an individual player in this way before. Is there a way to set up FM to say "When Harry is in, play him into space, but when Neemo is in, put the ball on his head" without having to change the tactics every time I make a substitution or whatever?

Obviously, I know that at this level, I need to keep tactics as simple as possible, but it seems like I could really take advantage of their special physical abilities, and if I can, it could really help my team because they are both super-cheap, so I can invest more money elsewhere!

Thanks!

[lied90]

18 hours ago, steve.battisti said:

I don't know a huge amount about tactics and the different roles, so I guess my question is, what changes should I make to either tactics or roles to take advantage of their outlier characteristics? For example, should I play Neemo as a Target Forward, and have his strike partner be in a support role? What would I do to encourage midfielders to play Harry on through balls where he can just outrun everyone?

 

You don't really have to make any major changes to make your pacy strikers work. Physical attributes are so important in a large amount of situations in FM, so if you already have a good tactic it should just become even better with good physical players.

Certain team instructions like Pass Into Space would be mandatory imo, even if some claim it's situational. Maybe add take more risks to your midfielders/winger. Don't make them do direct passing, they will still pace into space even with shorter passing.

When it comes to strikers with high jumping reach, I wouldn't change much just to make use of their strong points. Even if you tell your team to use low crosses, they will still put in a high cross when that's clearly the best/only option. The Gk will also use him as a long ball option at times, even if you use shorter passing.

 

[steve.battisti]

4 hours ago, lied90 said:

You don't really have to make any major changes to make your pacy strikers work. Physical attributes are so important in a large amount of situations in FM, so if you already have a good tactic it should just become even better with good physical players.

Certain team instructions like Pass Into Space would be mandatory imo, even if some claim it's situational. Maybe add take more risks to your midfielders/winger. Don't make them do direct passing, they will still pace into space even with shorter passing.

When it comes to strikers with high jumping reach, I wouldn't change much just to make use of their strong points. Even if you tell your team to use low crosses, they will still put in a high cross when that's clearly the best/only option. The Gk will also use him as a long ball option at times, even if you use shorter passing.

 

Awesome, thanks very much for your feedback!