Often, those who build tactics and fail to see their ideas transformed onto the pitch are falling down to to a misunderstanding of what a player does in certain roles. Also, people pinpoint certain players as underperforming and are quick to point the finger at that one player, instead of looking for a solution in fixing the problems of his support players.
Because of this, I just thought I’d do a brief right up on the classic “partnerships” that can be used when building your own tactics in FM10 using the tactic creator.
The ‘keeper is often blamed for bad positioning and failing to come for crosses etc. However, the ‘keepers performance on the pitch is closely related to how his defence is configured.
Common Problems:
PROBLEM:The goalkeeper being exposed by a fast striker breaking his defenders high line.
If you have a problem where a fast striker finds himself in behind your defence and bearing down on the ‘keeper, this can be due to several reasons.
If you play a high defensive line as part of your tactics, then quality players may be able to break your offside trap.
SOLUTION 1: Either set one of your defenders to the “Cover” mentality, or perhaps play a “Sweeper Keeper” to race out and beat the striker to the pass.
SOLUTION 2: Your marking system may not be the suitable one for your players. Consider setting your defenders to “man marking” so they track the runs of incisive strikers.
PROBLEM: The Goalkeeper is under constant pressure from crosses, sometimes resulting in fumbling or bad positioning.
Crosses into the box are part and parcel of football and they offer the offensive team an effective way of attacking. Dealing with them is a key part of defensive football.
SOLUTION 1: Have your Full Backs show the opposition wide players onto their weaker feet using the Opposition Instructions.
SOLUTION 2: Have your Full Backs press the opposition wide players, allowing them less time to get in a quality delivery.
SOLUTION 3: Tall Central Defenders with good marking abilities limit the danger of the opposition strikers from aerial deliveries.
In the modern era, both the Full Back and the Winger are expected to contribute to several phases of play. They interchange frequently – achieving this is often a key desire of tacticians.
PROBLEM: The Full Back stays behind the Wide Midfielder and will not overlap.
SOLUTION 1: Set the Full Back to an Attacking mentality and perhaps switch him to a Wing Back role.
PROBLEM: The opposition are finding too much space down my flanks.
SOLUTION 1: Set the Full Back to an Automatic or Defensive duty, or set your Wide Midfielder to a Support duty. Alternatively, create a formation that utilises a Defensive Midfielder to cover when your Full Backs venture forward.
PROBLEM: I want my Wing Backs to run down the line and my Wingers to cut inside – how do I do this?
SOLUTION 1: Set the Full Back to an Attacking mentality, instructed to cross from the Byline. Your Wide Midfielder should be set to Attacking or Support mentality and instructed to cross the ball sometimes and from Deep.
The Central Midfielders form the spine of most tactics, and the setup of these players is critical.
PROBLEM: Teams find a lot of space in the gap between my Midfield and Defence.
SOLUTION 1: The Defensive Midfielder position is designed to combat this problem. You can either use an Anchor Man, who sits in that position permanently and recycles possession, or you can use a Defensive Midfielder who is slightly more adventurous.
You can also set one of your Central Midfielders to act as a Ball Winning Midfielder with a Defensive mentality – he will then drop into this space when the team is not in possession.
Alternatively, you can have a Central Defender with a Stopper mentality who will step forward to tackle players who run into the gap from midfield.
All of the above are potential solutions and the correct one is determined by the managers gaming style and tactics. Try them out for yourself!
PROBLEM: My Central Midfielders are too far apart/they aren’t passing to other players properly.
SOLUTION 1: This could be tactical. Usually, at least two players inhabit the “middle” of your formation. If there’s too large a gap tactically between your players, then you may struggle to “link up” your play.
If passing link up is the problem, this may be because your passing style does not relate neatly to your tactical positions. If you are playing two DMC’s with AMR/AML, and a short passing style, it will be hard for your Central Midfielders to find them. Tinker around with passing style and tempo to find a match for your formations.
Furthermore, if you want a Central Midfielder to spray around Carrick-like passes, consider the Deep Lying Playmaker option. A midfielder usually won’t do this if he’s asked to defend!
PROBLEM: I can’t get an Attacking Midfielder into the game.
SOLUTION 1: There’s a myriad of settings for the AMC and he usually acts as a focal point for your formation. As such, you need to ensure he’s receiving support. There’s no definitive way of doing this; but with the Trequartista setting he is usually set as the teams main playmaker. Ensure that this is the case in your tactical screen, and makes sure he has players around him who can supply him with a pass to feet.
I’m going to do this bit in a slightly different manner, by describing the common partnerships up front when trying to create a two-man strikeforce, and detailing how to use a single striker too. It isn’t definitive, just a guideline.
TARGET MAN/POACHER:
This is the classic “Big Man/Little Man” partnership – think Crouch/Defoe, Campbell/Jeffers etc.
The Target Man is the big, meaty striker who will win the aerial battle, while the Poacher sniffs up the chances that come as a result. It is a tried and tested partnership, and is still effective especially at lower levels of the game.
DEEP LYING FORWARD/ADVANCED FORWARD:
Similar to the above, but for the more technically proficient teams. The Deep Lying Forward is the striker that drops deep, plays with his back to goal and plays in his partner and the onrushing midfield support. Basically, he’s a target man who gets the ball to his feet instead of his head.
The Advanced Forward offers more than the Poacher to the overall tactic in that he will willingly chase down defenders and intelligently look for runs from deep.
This is the tactic of choice for most 4-4-2 formations in Europe’s top divisions.
INSIDE FORWARD (AML/AMR)/ADVANCED FORWARD (CF):
This can be a three-man partnership if both wide players play the Inside Forward role, or a two-man if only one does.
Despite looking like the Advanced Forward is playing on his own, he is actually supported by a wide player or two cutting inside and acting as an attacking partner. He will look to cause the primary danger in the box, whilst the Inside Forward cuts in and exploits the space the Advanced Forward has created.
Classically, this is what Berbatov and Ronaldo did at United, or Messi and Eto’o at Barcelona.
This set up is usually complimented by an Advanced Playmaker in midfield or a Trequartista at AMC.
COMPLETE FORWARD:
Standardly used in a 4-5-1; however the Complete Forward can be found in a two-man partnership.
In a solo role, he is expected to lead the line using his formidable talents. Therefore, you have to have a very dominant and technically good striker for him to be effective. Furthermore, you have to ensure that he is ably supported by runs from deep in midfield, or from exploiting runs from Wingers.
Hope this helps people who are looking at solving some problems tactically. If you want to add anything, please do so!
Tubey
March 8th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Many thanks for your boost!