This isn’t a guide about how to perform at the top of the league with a relegation battler or how to play a specific or even beautiful style of football, but this is a way to build a simple tactic that works around your team. It also allows other aspects of the game that drive results, such as squad-building, morale management, and player rotation, to be your primary focus. There are great posts on here that go into further depth about manipulating aspects of the game to get certain patterns of play or specific formations to replicate real-life tactical success, but this is more about generalizing tactic creation to fit any team or scenario, from non-league to Champions League. So buckle in, create a new tactic with a clean slate option, and let’s begin.
A Winning Mentality: Where do we begin when creating a tactic? Choosing one player to build around and working from there or pick the formation, roles and instructions and shoehorn your players into it? I say none, and where I usually begin is mentality. Though there are many ways to harness mentalities, in true role-playing form, I like to use the option how it is recommended. At the start of the season, you want to set your mentality you plan on using in most matches, as it is a large part of tactical familiarity. I propose these starting mentalities, to be based on where you’d expect your current squad to finish if you weren’t managing, not where you want to finish. Be honest with yourself, check the media prediction and don’t overestimate, it’s how you lose games.
Positive: Choose only as a base mentality if your team is considered to be battling for the Champions League places in top European leagues, or promotion in your lower leagues
Cautious: Choose only as base mentality if your team is considered to be battling for relegation in your league
Balanced: The ultimate mentality, allows for easy switches with minimal loss of tactical familiarity and flexibility within your tactic. Choose if you are any other team.
Attacking or defensive mentalities are great weapons in game when you are chasing or protecting a lead, but for your entire season, they are too aggressive or passive to use with any team in and out of a given match.
Identifying a defensive style: After the mentality is picked, you should move to identify the way you want to play on defense. To win, you likely want to allow the least amount of goals possible, so build from there. We will start at the defensive instructions tab.
Note:
Defensive Line: Check your central defenders’ pace, acceleration, marking, and anticipation. If they are decent-to-high relative to your league push the line up one, if they are poor, push it down one, if they are average, keep it at standard. A higher line is more aggressive but if your team can’t track the defenders running in behind it’s useless. Likewise, the lower line is rarely used by players, but can be a decent way to make up for slow defenders. Remember that mentality affects DL accordingly, so if you are on cautious or positive with only slightly slow or fast defenders, respectively, keep it on standard.
Line of Engagement: Check your attacking players’ work rate, pace, acceleration, aggression, and bravery. If they are good relative to your league, then push up, and if they are poor push back. Pressing high is a useful tool if you have the players to do it, but if you don’t it will be an ineffective waste of energy for your key attackers, so in that case, a lower LOE can open the door to quicker, more incisive breaks for those players.
Pressing Intensity: This represents the frequency and distance your whole team’s pressing. Here, look at your team’s general ability to make quick, strong challenges. Only raise or lower this if your full team can handle it. If your DM and central defenders aren’t quick, but they still are being told to press a lot, they could get pulled out of position often and exposed.
These three instructions identify your basic defending style, and are all that need to be touched for now. It is important to remember that you don’t have to touch any of these. If your squad is bang average all around, don’t try something you’re not capable of doing.
Getting in Shape: Formation is your defensive shape in Football Manager. This is well-documented and I maintain it. Because of this, for a basic tactic it is not ideal to have an asymmetrical shape. This is not to say that they don’t work, as we’ve all seen numerous examples of excellent ones, but in a simple formation you want no glaring weaknesses.
Back 3 or 4: This is the place to start when deciding your team shape.
To make this distinction, check your central defenders’ abilities. If you have a squad where 3 of them are among your best players (3.5 stars or above), it only makes sense to utilize all three and play to your strengths with a back 3. However, you also must have sufficient depth in your squad (ideally 5 or 6 quality CBs).
If you have 2 quality defenders, you don’t want to be forcing a weak link into the team for the sake of the system, so stick with the back 4.
Constructing the Flanks: Once the back is sorted, the next stop is the flanks. Here, you must make the call on deploying wingers (meaning any player in M/AM(LR) positions) or not. Formations without wingers in a back 4 can be successful but they tend to be more situational.
Generally, teams in a back 4 use wingers, and you should too if possible, since width is important and formations with fullbacks (meaning any player in the D(LR) positions) and wingers allow for dangerous and multi-dimensional movement out wide.
Unless you have no quality players to play or no depth out wide, where a wingerless system makes sense. However, even in this case, if your fullbacks can’t effectively get up and down the flanks quickly, your play will be obsolete, so tread carefully.
In a back 3, you can use WCBs or AMs that drift wide to supplement width, so a wingerless formation (like the 5-3-2) can actually be a quality option, just make sure to place the wide players at the WB(LR) strata. This is because they will get back in a 5 when defending, something characteristic of real back 3 systems, but also get forward to be part of the front line when attacking.
Where do my Wingers go: If you’ve decided to play with wingers, do you want to place them in the M(LR) or AM(LR) strata?
If I’m running a high pressing system (defined through our defensive instructions) or I am planning on using a winger as my main scoring option (roles will be addressed later), use them in the AM(LR) strata, so that they will be further up the pitch, located in the positions they are needed.
If running a mid-to-low block, push them back to the M(LR) strata, as they offer more defensive stability. This will not drastically change the way the same role plays at different positions, but will complement your defensive style better.
(Added Note 5/5): I forgot to mention that if you are running a back 3 and using wingbacks as well as wide attackers, it is best to place the wide attackers in the AM(LR) strata, as they will be too close to the wingbacks otherwise.
Perfect Partnership or Solo Striker: The final dilemma takes place at the top of the pitch, and it’s deciding whether you want to operate with one or two strikers.
Modern football has almost been exclusively defined by single striker systems, but it’s important to remember when using these your striker has to be good enough to occupy two central defenders focusing on him. Know that if you try and play with one that can’t handle it (physically and technically), it could severely blunt the attack.
Two striker systems have their advantages as well, as they can cover up noticeable weaknesses in one or both of your strikers and allow you to have two central players to play off of each other in tandem. Even further, if two of your best players can only play striker, you have to fit them in somehow!
Fill in The Middle: Finally, now that every other position is accounted for in your team, you can address the midfield. You will be left with a 2, 3, or 4 man midfield decided for you by the other choices you’ve made.
4-man midfield: You have to resort to a box, which should be decided if you have 2 limited AM types and 2 limited DM types, or a diamond, which would have would fit one limited AM and DM, as well as two fairly versatile runners.
2 man midfield: I’d recommend keeping it simple and flat, in the CM strata.
3 man midfield, place them flat at first, then choose to adjust if necessary.
Shift to a single-pivot (DM-CM-CM) if you have a player that suits sitting deeper, along with two versatile midfielders that could make forward runs with more offensive presence.
Shift to a double pivot (CM-CM-AM) shape if you have an attacking midfielder that has little to no defensive skills, so that you can free him up to attack, by sitting two defensive minded players behind him.
Once you’ve settled on your team shape, let’s move to roles and duties!
This is where I’ll stop for now. I know this seems self-explanatory but I find that applying simple logic makes tactic creation a much smoother process. I’ll follow up with a post on choosing roles and duties, along with simple combos to implement, as well as choosing the rest of the team instructions in the near future. After that post will be a quick follow up with an example tactic and season using these methods, so stay tuned and I hope you’ve enjoyed!
This isn’t a guide about how to perform at the top of the league with a relegation battler or how to play a specific or even beautiful style of football, but this is a way to build a simple tactic that works around your team. It also allows other aspects of the game that drive results, such as squad-building, morale management, and player rotation, to be your primary focus. There are great posts on here that go into further depth about manipulating aspects of the game to get certain patterns of play or specific formations to replicate real-life tactical success, but this is more about generalizing tactic creation to fit any team or scenario, from non-league to Champions League. So buckle in, create a new tactic with a clean slate option, and let’s begin. A Winning Mentality: Where do we begin when creating a tactic? Choosing one player to build around and working from there or pick the formation, roles and instructions and shoehorn your players into it? I say none, and where I usually begin is mentality. Though there are many ways to harness mentalities, in true role-playing form, I like to use the option how it is recommended. At the start of the season, you want to set your mentality you plan on using in most matches, as it is a large part of tactical familiarity. I propose these starting mentalities, to be based on where you’d expect your current squad to finish if you weren’t managing, not where you want to finish. Be honest with yourself, check the media prediction and don’t overestimate, it’s how you lose games. Positive: Choose only as a base mentality if your team is considered to be battling for the Champions League places in top European leagues, or promotion in your lower leagues Cautious: Choose only as base mentality if your team is considered to be battling for relegation in your league Balanced: The ultimate mentality, allows for easy switches with minimal loss of tactical familiarity and flexibility within your tactic. Choose if you are any other team. Attacking or defensive mentalities are great weapons in game when you are chasing or protecting a lead, but for your entire season, they are too aggressive or passive to use with any team in and out of a given match. Identifying a defensive style: After the mentality is picked, you should move to identify the way you want to play on defense. To win, you likely want to allow the least amount of goals possible, so build from there. We will start at the defensive instructions tab. Note: Defensive Line: Check your central defenders’ pace, acceleration, marking, and anticipation. If they are decent-to-high relative to your league push the line up one, if they are poor, push it down one, if they are average, keep it at standard. A higher line is more aggressive but if your team can’t track the defenders running in behind it’s useless. Likewise, the lower line is rarely used by players, but can be a decent way to make up for slow defenders. Remember that mentality affects DL accordingly, so if you are on cautious or positive with only slightly slow or fast defenders, respectively, keep it on standard. Line of Engagement: Check your attacking players’ work rate, pace, acceleration, aggression, and bravery. If they are good relative to your league, then push up, and if they are poor push back. Pressing high is a useful tool if you have the players to do it, but if you don’t it will be an ineffective waste of energy for your key attackers, so in that case, a lower LOE can open the door to quicker, more incisive breaks for those players. Pressing Intensity: This represents the frequency and distance your whole team’s pressing. Here, look at your team’s general ability to make quick, strong challenges. Only raise or lower this if your full team can handle it. If your DM and central defenders aren’t quick, but they still are being told to press a lot, they could get pulled out of position often and exposed. These three instructions identify your basic defending style, and are all that need to be touched for now. It is important to remember that you don’t have to touch any of these. If your squad is bang average all around, don’t try something you’re not capable of doing. Getting in Shape: Formation is your defensive shape in Football Manager. This is well-documented and I maintain it. Because of this, for a basic tactic it is not ideal to have an asymmetrical shape. This is not to say that they don’t work, as we’ve all seen numerous examples of excellent ones, but in a simple formation you want no glaring weaknesses. Back 3 or 4: This is the place to start when deciding your team shape. To make this distinction, check your central defenders’ abilities. If you have a squad where 3 of them are among your best players (3.5 stars or above), it only makes sense to utilize all three and play to your strengths with a back 3. However, you also must have sufficient depth in your squad (ideally 5 or 6 quality CBs). If you have 2 quality defenders, you don’t want to be forcing a weak link into the team for the sake of the system, so stick with the back 4. Constructing the Flanks: Once the back is sorted, the next stop is the flanks. Here, you must make the call on deploying wingers (meaning any player in M/AM(LR) positions) or not. Formations without wingers in a back 4 can be successful but they tend to be more situational. Generally, teams in a back 4 use wingers, and you should too if possible, since width is important and formations with fullbacks (meaning any player in the D(LR) positions) and wingers allow for dangerous and multi-dimensional movement out wide. Unless you have no quality players to play or no depth out wide, where a wingerless system makes sense. However, even in this case, if your fullbacks can’t effectively get up and down the flanks quickly, your play will be obsolete, so tread carefully. In a back 3, you can use WCBs or AMs that drift wide to supplement width, so a wingerless formation (like the 5-3-2) can actually be a quality option, just make sure to place the wide players at the WB(LR) strata. This is because they will get back in a 5 when defending, something characteristic of real back 3 systems, but also get forward to be part of the front line when attacking. Where do my Wingers go: If you’ve decided to play with wingers, do you want to place them in the M(LR) or AM(LR) strata? If I’m running a high pressing system (defined through our defensive instructions) or I am planning on using a winger as my main scoring option (roles will be addressed later), use them in the AM(LR) strata, so that they will be further up the pitch, located in the positions they are needed. If running a mid-to-low block, push them back to the M(LR) strata, as they offer more defensive stability. This will not drastically change the way the same role plays at different positions, but will complement your defensive style better. (Added Note 5/5): I forgot to mention that if you are running a back 3 and using wingbacks as well as wide attackers, it is best to place the wide attackers in the AM(LR) strata, as they will be too close to the wingbacks otherwise. Perfect Partnership or Solo Striker: The final dilemma takes place at the top of the pitch, and it’s deciding whether you want to operate with one or two strikers. Modern football has almost been exclusively defined by single striker systems, but it’s important to remember when using these your striker has to be good enough to occupy two central defenders focusing on him. Know that if you try and play with one that can’t handle it (physically and technically), it could severely blunt the attack. Two striker systems have their advantages as well, as they can cover up noticeable weaknesses in one or both of your strikers and allow you to have two central players to play off of each other in tandem. Even further, if two of your best players can only play striker, you have to fit them in somehow! Fill in The Middle: Finally, now that every other position is accounted for in your team, you can address the midfield. You will be left with a 2, 3, or 4 man midfield decided for you by the other choices you’ve made. 4-man midfield: You have to resort to a box, which should be decided if you have 2 limited AM types and 2 limited DM types, or a diamond, which would have would fit one limited AM and DM, as well as two fairly versatile runners. 2 man midfield: I’d recommend keeping it simple and flat, in the CM strata. 3 man midfield, place them flat at first, then choose to adjust if necessary. Shift to a single-pivot (DM-CM-CM) if you have a player that suits sitting deeper, along with two versatile midfielders that could make forward runs with more offensive presence. Shift to a double pivot (CM-CM-AM) shape if you have an attacking midfielder that has little to no defensive skills, so that you can free him up to attack, by sitting two defensive minded players behind him. Once you’ve settled on your team shape, let’s move to roles and duties! This is where I’ll stop for now. I know this seems self-explanatory but I find that applying simple logic makes tactic creation a much smoother process. I’ll follow up with a post on choosing roles and duties, along with simple combos to implement, as well as choosing the rest of the team instructions in the near future. After that post will be a quick follow up with an example tactic and season using these methods, so stay tuned and I hope you’ve enjoyed!