[Knap FM10 Tactics]

Killzone,

your wet dry tactics are working a treat.

I was just wondering who you have in the 2 midfield positions? With the formation being extremely attacking i'm reluctant to buy a AMC...Could you shed some light?

In my united midfield I have either anderson,carrick,hargreaves,moutinho,sandro.

Also cardozo is quality in the targetman role!!!

Anderson, Modric, Carrick, Sissoko, Sandro, Fletcher. Fletcher is very useful at Man Utd in the 2nd half of the season when there is a

lot of poor weather, with his 20 stamina.

Sissoko takes while to play to his ability, because of the language barrier and Sandro spends the first year in my reserves. Modric plays very well as the left MC and is my vice-captain in the 2nd season.

I find that a true AMC doesnt really fit this tactic as they normally cant tackle or win headers and they normally dont have a high stamina rating.

I sometimes use an player in an AMC role when I sub a striker when having a healthy lead, if I want to preserve one of my strikers for the next game

[Knap FM10 Tactics]

Another thing I do is drop the defensive line 3-4 notches, particularly if leading by one goal late in game. In 10.3 the goalies kick LONG and sometimes the ball is delivered to a fast striker who receives it 5-10 yards outside the area, behind your CB's, direct from the GK.

[Knap FM10 Tactics]

Dawdem, see post 173

ataggy, see post 139 & 140. Tactics use AML & AMR. Anything more technical, please ask knap - they are his tactics with a couple of tweaks here and there.

[Knap FM10 Tactics]

End of Season

Not too shabby, but it was a lot harder than it looks.

The tactics are good, thats pretty obvious, but teamtalks/motivation are critical to get the best out of them.

The first half of the season was a breeze apart from the away draw to Chelsea and a close game away game against Liverpool. Had good away wins against Man City and Arsenal, so I thought the 2nd half would be not too hard, as the 4 main opponents were all home games.

Not so fast, despite my best efforts complacency reared its ugly head in a major way in the 2nd half of the season. The first 16 games of the new year my defence leaked 17 goals. My team was scoring plenty, but as soon as I got a decent lead numerous players turned complacent. A 3-0 lead turned into a 4-3 heart stopper. And it was effecting the worst people, my Captains Ferdinand and Giggs and even Rooney at times, among others.

I thought I had it sorted out at one stage with a certain approach and went the next 13 games only conceding 1 goal. Then it came back again despite using the same approach. Typified by the last game of the EPL season against 17th place Burnley. Ferdinand gets injured in the first 5 mins (oh no now Rooney is captain!), then we score 3 quick goals (yay, Rooney is Captain...influence attribute means nothing). 2nd half Rooney and 3 others are complacent, they scored 3 goals while my team plays like a conference team, but win with late penalty. 2 other games were close when the pregame said it should be a cricket score.

Mainly had no problem at all with complacency against the good teams, and most of the time we won ridiculously easily.

Beat Chelsea 4-3 in the league cup after dominating almost the entire game only for them to score 2 late goals including 1 in injury time, and Rooney scores the winner about 60 secs later

Crushed Everton 6-1 in the FA Cup.

.

Champions Cup my team had a real easy path until the semifinals yet still struggled against mediocre opposition at times. Murdered Liverpool 4-0 & 4-0, and AC Milan 4-1 in the final

Summary

The tactics are good PROVIDING you can motivate your players. And that gets real hard if you go on a long winning streak.

Dzeko is the new Eddie Johnson, once he improves a bit he completely dominates in the air. (Jumping 19, Heading 17 Strength 16) Scored 49 goals 18 MOM, and won every award there was to win. Scored lots of goals from corners while standing at Far Post. Very few defenders can match him, he wins nearly every header even when challenged by 2 players. Scored a lot of goals from winger crossing in general play for the exact same reason. Players like him (Drogba) are going to be unstoppable with 10.3 and put up ridiculous ratings.

Wingers figure prominently, score plenty of goals and provide lots of assists from general play. My 4 wingers scored 42 goals and provided 90 assists. My midfield scored 17 goals and provided 45 assists. Splitting the CBs with that beauty thru-ball was a very rare occurrence.

Long shots are HORRIBLE. I can count on 1 hand the amount of goals I scored from shots outside the area. To be fair none of midfielders are longshot marksmen, but the opposition had very minimal success with them too. Most of the time they missed by miles or if on target werent hit with any power and usually right at the goalie.

While I have a tactic for when its raining I only used it if the pitch was a bog. Found my team played better on a slick wet pitch with the dry tactic.

I conceded only 1 goal to corners. Averaged about 4 times as many as shots on goal as the opposition (and at least half these were long and useless) and dominated possession in EVERY game. Probably 80% of the goals conceded were when complacency appeared in the ingame team motivation window.

Had some luck, got penalties in 2 games for late wins., had minimal serious injuries apart from Owen (surprise) and had the easiest schedule Ive ever had in FM in terms of cup ties.

At no time was my team outplayed for any length of time, until complacency appeared and generally by then I had a big enough lead.

If you find a way to eradicate complacency Id love to hear about it. My best way was to mention it in every media conference, tell the team I "Expect a win" and individual "Expect a performance" to EVERYONE. If it appeared before halftime I told the player/s I was 'Disappointed" If it didnt go away quickly or appeared later when things started going pear-shaped Id sub them off if I could. Pretty annoying when your Captain gets it, seems to affect the whole team.

[Knap FM10 Tactics]

What you love to see as a manager, your strikers inspired. Both had a goal in each half and could have easily got a hat-trick with a little more luck, and both ended with 9.3 ratings

[Knap FM10 Tactics]

rotfleo, for both dry and wet I use tall and strong striker on the right up front, and fast striker on the left.

The wet tactic uses the tall, strong striker as a targetman, but I dont really see much difference using a targetman and not using a targetman.

The wingers and FBs send the ball to him on crosses when hes not the targetman (and their crossing instructions are mixed), so I dont think it makes much, if any difference.

[Knap FM10 Tactics]

Jarko, those 2nd leg of cup ties when you won the first one comfortably at home, and have the 2nd away, are a nightmare to get your team motivated and playing well. I ignore AssMan who says NOTHING, and put "Expect a peformance" on everyone and hope for the best.

Knap, I know you use the AssMan for team talks to get consistency for testing purposes, but for other readers...dont use AssMan, you can do so much better yourself, particularly at halftime. "I have faith" to a goal scorer and anyone rated 7.5 and above will really produce results. This will be the difference , in goals scored between knap and my team.

[Knap FM10 Tactics]

Id be interested in some feedback on these tactics. AS I said, these are knaps tactics with a few variations to team mentality, corners - both attacking (non exploit) and defending, throw-ins, RWB, passing, long shots and left strikers freedom.

They are NOT diablo type tactics, Crystal Palace wont beat Chelsea 6-0 away from home each time. I consider them defensively sound producing many shots on goal and dominating possession.

You still have to select the right players for them

You still have to get this tactic embedded in, play 5,6,7 friendlies with it prior to season starting

You still need to use good squad management skills

Team talks are still ultra important. In my opinion, more important than tactics. So long as you have a defensively sound tactic producing lots of scoring opportunities you SHOULD win most of your games if you motivate your players properly. Post 168 (based on 10.2) has some recommendations as to what type of team talks to try out - 10.3 has tweaked the effects of team-talks a bit I think, but its a start.

[Knap FM10 Tactics]

Are you using corner exploit?

If not, which one of the knaps tactics are you using?

Thanks for the feedback

Im using one of knaps 442 tactics with a few minor amendments, see post 168

Here is the dry day tactic

http://www.filefront.com/15750993/22010-4-Man-Utd-Oct-2009.tac/

Here is the wet tactic

http://www.filefront.com/15750997/22010-Rain-Man-Utd-Sep-2009.tac/

As at 1/1/2010 Man Utd are unbeaten, with only an away 1-1 draw against Chelsea to spoil the party

EPL Played 21 won 20 Drawn 1 Goals 83 Against 8 Rooney 23 Goals Dzeko 17 goals

I dont use the 10.3 corner bug. I have scored 12 goals from corners in 21 games, which maybe on the low side considering I average about 9-10 corners a game.

I have corners set to far post, small striker Challenge Keeper, tall striker SOFP, CB NPFO, one midfielder AFP other one to lurk, both wingers (corner takers) attack ball from deep, with the fullbacks and other CB back.

The dry tactic has this setup. The wet tactic has the CB and tall striker switched, go with this setup if you dont have a striker with good heading ability.

With these setups I get what I consider an appropriate amount of goals, and the AI doesnt get exploited, noone is free apart from the lurker (who doesnt get the ball directly and hasnt scored a goal yet) and your striker/CB is challenged by at least one defender and mostly by two. A fair

challenge IMHO.

As I mentioned previously, winning headers scores very highly in this patch...very like FM 2007 (remember Eddie Johnson)

Dzeko has just won the European Footballer of the year, European Striker of the year, World Footballer of the Year, World Player of the Year because his average ratings were so high and he scored less goals than Rooney and Aguero(not at Man Utd), who came 2nd & 3rd. His ratings are so high because he wins lots of headers in general play, Rooney actually plays much better but his ratings suffer comparatively because he doesnt win headers.

And Dzeko can win 5-6 headers from corners and send them way over the goal and still his rating climbs. And your corner taker gets a stat boost from getting a successful cross in, even if no goals come from them.

The wet tactic has the right striker (Dzeko) set as a Target Man, I couldnt honestly say having a Targetman is a benefit from what Ive seen so far.

DONT use counterattacking, it causes your defenders to back off and they never seem to win the ball. The tactics have an attacking mentality that causes the team to counterattack naturally, when given the opportunity.

Team talks are important again, I havent really cracked them yet, but Ive found "You can win this" (yes, even though Im on huge unbeaten streak, this works) and a few 'carryon' individual ones to strikers, works extremely well against bitter rivals for away games. Just beat Arsenal 5-1 at their place. I avoid 'For the fans' like the plague, my team doesnt seem to fully gel with this talk.

[Knap FM10 Tactics]

Well, 10.3 patch changes the way the tactic plays but its still ultra effective.

Long shots have been toned down alot so set everyone to rare.

CCC are alot fewer but are converted at a much higher rate than 10.2.

Winger play is vastly improved and they cut in a fair bit and dribble, good crossing.

Might be a small sample size, but I seem to get an awful lot of corners. Theres a big corner exploit, but if you dont use it gameplay is fine.

Heading has too much impact on ratings...very like FM 2007. If your small striker doesnt win many headers his ratings go way down unless he scores. Conversely your central defender can win lots of non-key headers and get very high rating. Assists seem to rate higher.

Penalties are better, I missed 2 out of the first 3.

Goalies kick LONG, but overall they look way more realistic.

Overall, 10.3 seems to play much better, or look much better.

Breakdown of my season so far

3-0 v Chelsea 17 shots 2 CCC 11 corners

4-0 v Birmingham 30 shots 6 CCC 13 corners

3-0 v Man City 19 shots 4 CCC 9 corners

7-0 v Wolves 27 shots 3 CCC 7 corners

3-1 v Arsenal 18 shots 4 CCC 11 corners

5-1 v Sunderland 18 shots 4 CCC 7 corners

5-2 v Anderlecht 21 shots 6 CCC 21 corners

5-0 v Stoke 22 shots 5 CCC 7 corners

3-0 v Millwall 27 shots 3 CCC 10 corners

3-0 v Wigan 36 shots 2 CCC 10 corners

Averaging 23 shots, 4 CCC, 10 corners per game

2-1 v Liverpool (A) Penalty in 93rd min, but 27 shots 4 CCC 8 corners to Liverpools 7 - 2 - 2

[Knap FM10 Tactics]

Knap,

Have now completed 2 full seasons with Man Utd

1st Season EPL Won 35 Drew 2 Lost 1 For 127 Against 18 Rooney 39 goals Dzeko 20 goals

Also won

Community Shield 0-0, penalties 14-13 !!!!! v Chelsea

League Cup 1-0 v Everton

FA Cup 3-2 v Villa

Champions Cup 3-1 v Barcelona

2nd Season EPL Won 36 Drew 1 Lost 1 For 121 Against 18, Rooney 46 goals Dzeko 28 goals

Also won

Community Shield 4-1 v Chelsea

Euro Super Cup 3-1 v Roma

Club world Champ 5-1 v Flamingo

League Cup 1-0 v Liverpool

Champions Cup 4-0 v Barcelona

FA Cup 4-2 v Man City

Total wins 121 Draws 7 Lost 3 goals 423 Against 83 , 2214 shots on goal or 17 per game. 20/20 penalties converted.

Overall an excellent tactic, but as always, you have to use the right teams talks. Very very few games were close. 2,3,4 goal winning margins most of the time. Might be just a small sample size, but European teams were easily brushed aside.

I did use 2 variants of the 4-4-2P99F96A254222P102F95A21 _Chelsea

For dry games, team mentality increased 3 notches. Rooney as left striker, with creativity increased 3 notches and long shots set to average.

For wet games, same as dry with passing increased 4 notches for everyone, goal keeper kicks to long, FB RWB set to average. This tactic is not only for effectiveness in the wet, it preserves stamina.

Overall, F2010 plays well IMHO. Converted CCC's are low, but I think that its makes scoring realistic otherwise you would get alot of 7-4 games or worse. About the only thing I think is bad is the converting of penalties. Almost 100% conversion rate with anyone.

Team talks.

Before game

At the start of every season you have to be gentle. "You can win this" for away games, or home games against class opponents. After about 5-7 game I mainly use "Expect a win" for nearly everything. Individually, use "expect a performance" on your captain and anyone reported as complacent by the AssMan. A few "I have faith" or "carry-on as you left-off" but never more than 4-5 total.

Halftime

Behind by one or level against non-class opponent, team "disappointing" maybe a couple of individual "disappointed" but only on Captain, midfielders and wingers, NEVER on strikers or super aggressive defenders.

Behind by one or level against class opponent, team "encourage" maybe a couple of individual "disappointed" but only on Captain, midfielders and wingers, NEVER on strikers or super aggressive defenders. "you can make the difference" on strikers and midfield playmaker.

Behind by 2 goals, don't know - never happened

Lead by one, encourage team and with "i have faith" to goals scorers and anyone rated 7.4 or above.

Lead by two or more, nothing to team with no complacency showing, " I have faith" to goals scorers and anyone rated 7.4 or above

or "dont let performance drop" for team if complacency showing and " I have faith" to goals scorers and anyone rated 7.4 or above

I very rarely use 'for the supporters", I find it fires up people which usually means they aren't playing well and tend to commit a lot of fouls and shoot wildly.

Media

Never get into mind games, it always backfires. Mention complacency whenever given the opportunity. (Sometimes 3 times in one meeting)

Injuries/Subbing

Anyone gets an injury with a "+", get them off IMMEDIATELY. Then the player has better than 50% chance of having NO injury after the game.

Sub anyone who gets under 70 condition, under 70 players commit a lot of fouls, give away penalties, get injured easily and can barely function

Sub a yellow carded defender in the last 10-15 mins of a close game, the AI will send play his way, guarantee it.

Sub anyone who commits an error leading to a goal, his rating wont recover and hes a real liability, worse than having 10 men.

[Knap FM10 Tactics]

Im not sure how you run your tests, but with 2010 team-talks are just as ridiculous as 2009.

Saying "I have faith" to a player who has a rating of 7.5 or higher at halftime can produce miraculous results, particularly strikers who have scored. And the Ass-Man NEVER says that at halftime.

Saying "Pleased" to a player rated 7.5 or higher SHOULD in theory be what you use, and very occasionally it does have a inspiring effect. But more often than not your striker will be meh in the 2nd half and blaze shots over open goals.

In fact, I'd go say far as saying that F2010 is more about correctly triggering your players motivation than tactics (same as F2009). You should win nearly every game handsomely with any basically sound tactic, so long as you know and use these triggers.

[Knap FM10 Tactics]

Knap, I have taken mufcchampmanfan's method with Man Utd, and having similar results.

4-4-2P99F96A254222P102F95A21 _Chelsea with team mentality increased 3 notches.

Rooney as left striker, with creativity increased 3 notches and long shots set to average.

Corners setup as per post 3 in this thread:-

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=188074&highlight=corner

2 games before end of 2009, and won every game apart from away draw to Chelsea in EPL

EPL - Played 16, won 15, drawn 1, Goals 55 - Against 6 - Rooney 25 goals in 17(4) games, with some of them spectacular long shots.

The only other change I do is increase passing 3 notches on everyone apart from GK when its heavy pitch.

Absolutely rapt with this tactic, first time Ive ever had Rooney scoring for fun consistantly with any version of the game. Normally his preferred moves use to degrade his performance, now they actually help.

Dzeko, Snra and Vargas as the only 1st team additions. Rio as Captain. Dzeko as Rooneys partner has 14 goals in 17(1) games. Dzeko and Vargas (played as both DL and AML) have been lights out. Rafael has actually played better than Snra, and if I restarted I probably would get someone else.

Only problem is DFK's, none scored so far in EPL - anyone had any success with any particular setup/FK taker?

[Funny Screenshots Thread]

I might read my scouts reports a bit more thoroughly after this gem:-