How to make a tactic

[SOYNEGRO]

Hello, im playing with my home team, Real Valladolid. I want to play as they do in reality, using wings, counterattacking and pressing all the pitch. I try to change the team instructions and the individual ones but i never have the results i expect, im not losing all the games, but the team dont play as i want.

I hope u can help me to take the correct instructions which make my team use the wings with a defensive and counterattacking mentality and pressing all the pitch as i told.

[Skoolblowsme]

Start off with your DC as your base for mentality and closing down.

Set his mentality pretty low and his closing down higher than normal, and then from each position upwards make the mentality and closing down a little higher. Change passing two down both flanks, and tick counter attack.

It's hard to give you exact instructions, but also check out Tactical Theorems and Frameworks stickied at the top of the page.

[SOYNEGRO]

Im tired and i think that im going to give up. I think this game is a bit stupid. I tried for three hours to make a proper tactics but none works, i tried with other ones tacticas but neither... , I didnt win a single match, but this is not the most important think, the most stupid thing is to see the players running through the field like chickens without heads, is simply stupid. I dunno what to do... but i think the game is not worth the 20 euros that i have paid. Im not having fun at all and i think i will resing and leave the game in the box forever.

[Will2061]

The problem I see here is that you are expecting 1 tactic to be used for every game, which is simply not going to happen. Realistically you will need 4-5 tactics to suit the team you are playing against and how you are expecting them to play against you.

This might not be the case for the highest level teams, but for a mid-level team like Valladolid and in my case Middlesbrough it is essential as we can't impose our style onto other teams in the way a team like Arsenal can.

In addition you have make sure your tactic suits the players you have, you can't just impose a tactic on a team that won't respond to it. Have you made changes to your team? What type of players have you brought in, how can you best utilise them.

Keep at it.

[SOYNEGRO]

The problem is that, ok an only one tactic is not always effective, but if you use four, the players seems always confused. So i used 1 or 2 tactics and try to tweak them deppending on situations, but... it never works.

I must say havent got a great squad but its enough to stay in La Liga.

[Mark Snellink]

How high is your "creative freedom"? I've found that to be a problem and set it to '0' for everyone unless I *want* a player to make up his own mind about where he's going to go. I felt similar frustration trying to fine-tune a tactic, only to watch my players just do what they want and make insane decisions that contradicted my instructions, until someone pointed out the Creative freedom.

[Will2061]

The trick is to have 4 tactics but built around the same basic structure, e.g. 442. If you're changing from 442 to 532 to 4312 then of course those changes would be slightly too much.

I use 5 different sets of 442 with different instructions for each.

Also don't forget that if you have a poor squad as you say you do then you can't expect to start every game attacking, you have to be willing to play defensive and grind out results until your team gels and becomes used to your tactic sets. Be prepared to put the work in and you'll crack it eventually.

Additionally, conflicting instructions can cause confusion. For example if you have a left winger set to try through balls often, cross often, forward runs often and cross from byline. If this was your set-up then trying through through balls often conflicts with the other 3 instructions, as try through balls often encourages him to get rid of the ball rather than run with it and deliver a cross.