Note: This was written for FM09, and it worked well for me. Whilst a couple of settings may have changed, the principles remain the same. So I decided to post it anyway. I will be rewriting and adding to this in the future. This is just a quick post to get going, and will be added to in the forthcoming weeks.
Key Differences:
[1] – Mentality. This is pretty obvious, but the away tactic is not as attacking, obviously for the reason that at home teams are more likely to come at you, so we have to not push so far forwards away, whereas at home we are able to look to attack.
[2] – Passing Style. This comes down slightly to personal preference but away from home I wanted to attempt to keep the ball more, but not play it short as this would hinder our attack. So I brang the slider down to normal rather than the direct style we play at home.
[3] – Tempo + Width. We play a much quicker game at home, as the team is quite a strong one, sides usually look to stop us play, but playing a direct tempo and quite wide [see below] this allows us to pull them apart. Away from home, obviously most teams do look to attack us and as such we are unable to play so quick. We also play less wide as to not be too stretched.
[4] – Closing Down. A subtle change but an important one. At home we hassle the oppossition more by closing them down much more. You might think this pulls the defence out of positon but it does not, we rarely concede at home (proof at the end). Away from home it is more important to keep our shape so the closing down is not as much.
[5] – Defensive Line. At home as I said, teams usually sit back, and my centre backs do have pace, so we are able to play a high defensive line. Away from home obviously games are less comfortable and therefore we cannot push up as high.
[6] – Focus Passing. This probably does not make a huge difference, but at home we like to play out wide, mainly as I said to stretch opponets. However away from home we usually do not need to stretch them as much.
[7] – Target Man Supply. This is also something that you don’t always need. Away from home it is much more important to keep the ball so by attempting to pass it to feet, the target-man can then keep the ball and play it out to his 2 strike partners or back to the midfield. Note I do not use an actual TM, but I have noticed a difference.







December 4th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
This is something that is massively wrong with the community. The belief that you have “home” and “away” tactics.
It’s the wrong mentality to have.
The factor that you’re not playing in front of your own supporters is low. The key difference about away matches is that you’re playing on different style pitches each week. It stands to reason that is going to affect your results.
Each game, pre-match, you should be following the instructions outlined here: http://footballmanagerfanboys.net/index.php?record=31
December 5th, 2009 at 11:41 am
I agree only to a certain point, Wonderkid. Do you actually know how many different pitches there are?
December 8th, 2009 at 3:17 am
Up to 16 kinds of pitches iirc.
December 10th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Name them then.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Actually there is about eight. I was multiplying them by themselves but forgot to remove the mulitpiles of the lengths versus widths. Below are the pitch types.
Long
Short
Wide
Narrow
Long & Narrow
Long & Wide
Short & Narrow
Short & Wide
February 6th, 2010 at 6:43 am
Awesome post! You have a great blog, absolutely the best Ive read so far. I will be looking forward to your next entry. Thanks again.
February 8th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so! really nice post.