Tsuru

One of the most interesting things about football is that you can win using many different ways and strategies. You see, I also read Cleon´s guide and I did try to use his method, but it never worked well for me. So I did try other ways...until I found the suggestion of playing with different strategies depending on match expectations/opponents. I have three ready tactics and I switch among them - it is that simple. Normally it is one "attack", one "counter" and one "park the bus". Is the opponent weaker/almost same level than me? I start with "attack" and change to counter if things are not going well, if I score a goal etc. If I got a really good lead I change to park the bus. Is the opponent stronger than me? I start with "counter" and see how things are going. Is the opponent much stronger than me? I start with "park the bus" and I pray for a draw. If the game is still on a draw at the end of the match I change to "attack" and try a "smash and grab" victory. Normally all three tactics have the same formation and kind of similar roles/duties, so the change is simple and easy. For me that is much, much more simple than trying to play the same way against very different opponents.

You see, I don´t see any glaring issues with the roles/duties and I like the Balanced mentality. I also think the 4-4-2 is very good as a formation. It happened with me many times before - although my tactics were good, overall balanced and I had players for it, something was never working completely. We always used to start the seasons very well but finish them with lots of difficulties. What I was doing wrong? I really think that FM has evolved a lot on the strategical side but we still fail to see it. I really believe we need to be more strategical and less tactical managers. Not every opponent will play the same way, no match will be the same and we need to create ways to adapt, even if it is a simple one. This topic helped me a lot developing a tactical system and adapting my strategy and I cannot play with just one simple tactic anymore. Read it carefully and maybe it can inspire you too:

Yeah, you were right about the CMs/DMs. Moving them up or down the field adds a complexity layer that, although can be manageable, can make things more complicated. Sometimes we have players that do well both positions, but sometimes we don´t. I also felt that the 4-2-3-1 was too risky and the 4-4-1-1 was not being good enough on counter attacks. In fact, the 4-4-1-1 is a complicated formation because it lacks a lot of power on the flanks on the last third. So I thought that, if I really want to change the strategies and become more flexible, I should stick with the same formation. Then I decided to go with a 4-4-2: simple, easy and very flexible. I used some tactics from Rashidi´s YouTube channel as templates for the more attacking formation, which is this one... ...and for the counter 4-4-2, which is the one below. For the most defensive strategy - used on games against very hard opponents and to hold on comfortable leads/end of matches - I decided to give it a chance to FM´s 4-4-2 Park the Bus template. I saw a video on YouTube in which the tactic worked very well and I thought that on some circumstances it could be useful. The first tests with this system went very well, including good matches using Park the Bus when necessary, but then I decided to stop playing FM. I came back recently with a new save and I have been playing pre-season, now using this system from the very starting point. Despite the tactics itself, I think that being flexible is key here. If we always adapt our strategy we have much more winning chances than trying to insist on playing always the same way.