Hey guys, this FM 2015 tactics guide is designed to teach you how to create a tactic in FM 2015. I am by no means a guru or have all the right answers, you should develop your own style and there are better tacticians out there than myself. But by listening to someone else’s approach you may get new ideas.
FM15 introduced some changes that will adjust how we make and approach tactics, we have more detail in player suitability, positioning is displayed better graphically and there is a whole new focus on picking the right player for the right role. The latter is something Miles Jacobson of Sports Interactive has warned us about for years.
As mentioned, SI have thrown an even bigger emphasis on player suitability for FM15, so much so that I believe we will start setting our systems around our players.
I’ll begin with my bullet point tips, then we’ll dive into detail for each point.
FM 2015 tactics guide: my 7 top tips
- Look through your squad before thinking about what shape or style to play. Only start creating when you can grasp a general feeling for where your strengths and weakness’ lie
- Once you find the key strength(s), place the player(s) in their suitable position and pick the role that best suits them. Now create your tactic around this foundation.
- If you fancy using a particular role but don’t have a suitable player, avoid temptation, change the role to something that will suit your tactic and the players at your disposal.
- Creating a good tactic is a fine balancing act. Find the right balance between your shape and roles, having too many gaps and not enough links between positions will see your system fall apart.
- Set the formation and player roles before setting ‘team instructions’, ‘team shape’ and ‘mentality’. Its easier to set these when you can look at a shape.
- Limit individual player instructions. These will just undo the default setting for said role. Only adjust/add player instructions if you see issues with your tactic in the match engine that can be tweaked.
- Always be prepared to change system and shape. Never be too stubborn. If your best player is injured and the tactic revolves around him to create goals, chances are the backup won’t do the same job, then the whole system will fall apart.
FM 2015 tactics guide: Using your strengths
Easier said than done, placing one piece of a jigsaw is easy, but then finding the right pieces to fit around it is where the challenge begins.
Look through your squad and asses which players are key and your star assets. Once found place your main star in their best position(s) and assign the most suitable role as I have done below. For this we’ll use Roma as an example.
I have selected Ljajic, De Rossi and Pjanic as my key strengths. Ljajic is best as AML inside forward. De Rossi prefers DMC and ball winning midfielder while Pjanic is best suited to MC advanced playmaker.
FM 2015 tactics guide: finding balance
I am limited for forwards and prefer a lone striker so place Destro upfront with his preferred role of advanced forward. We already have an AML and I prefer symmetric systems, so an AMR is sensible and we have two very strong options in Gervinho and Iturbe. Gervinho prefers the winger role and that would make for a nice blend with my inside forward on the opposite wing.
I have an MC with an attacking role, so need someone to sit alongside and balance things out. All my remaining MC’s can do a bit of both, attack and defend so I pick a generic box to box midfielder with support duty.
It now feels like something is missing in midfield, somebody to really take charge of the ball and move it around. So my only option is to adjust De Rossi from his very best role of ball winning midfielder to his second best, roaming playmaker. The roaming playmaker will do everything, offer a pass to the defence, short option in midfield, break up play and also drive forward with the ball so it seems like the perfect link from defence to attack.
I am now left with no other option but a back four. I feel like my wingers need a bit of support but I’m also wary of having too many forward thinking players so I assign DR/DL full back with support duty. I always tend to pick central defenders unless player selection forces me to go limited.
Tip — Systems with little width could utilize wing backs, you’d want to get them bombing forward to offer support in the final third.
That is what I mean by finding balance, I had to do so in midfield with one attacking MC then two other players in supporting roles that are wary of their defensive duties, one of which sits in front of the defence as a shield.
You can’t have every player on the pitch in a perfect position and perfect role, it will rarely happen. You just need to know where you can make sacrifices. Piece by piece you should start to see a picture and as that begins to set you will find yourself going back and making minor tweaks to roles and duties in order to keep a balance to your system.
Below is the formation I wound up with following this structured approach.
Tip — You can easily compare all available players for a role by clicking next to the current player in your tactic as shown below.
A screen will appear like below. I have highlighted the circular bars, the star in the middle is colour coded to indicate how comfortable each player would be in the position, vibrant green been natural, edging out to darker green for accomplished etc. How filled the bar circling this star becomes the better that particular player is in said role. So for central defender my best player is Alderweireld, this is handy if you are not familiar with the team and players.
FM 2015 tactics guide: Setting instructions, mentality and shape
Your new tactic and the players within it should already cry out for a particular set of instructions. Use these instructions to enhance your formation, roles and strengths.
For instance if you have a tight nit formation with plenty of links and a team with good technique and ability, you may want to retain possession and work ball into the box. Equally, if you have gaps and a strong target upfront you may want to use direct passing.
Your formation will effect what defensive line you want to set, if you have lots of players in the attacking third and no support for your back four you may want to push higher up to close the gap, however slow defenders with this instruction could be disastrous. All of a sudden you have to make a compromise. What I am saying is its all logic and common sense, you need to sit down and iron out all the kinks in your system until you land on the perfect balance for your team.
Every setting will cause a ripple through your tactic, these need to be positive and moving in the same direction. I personally see team instructions in two halves, there are the must choose options, these define my style of play and usually consist of picking between two instructions, see them boxed below.
So my route of attack, my style of passing and the pace at which I want to play. Once I»ve picked between these coupled instructions I then refine my style with additional instructions. I feel like the rest can be left to default, you don’t need to push up or defend deep you can just keep a standard line unless shape and players dictate otherwise. Same goes for pressing the opponent and been expressive etc. Below are the instructions I landed on for Roma, all to compliment my formation, roles and players.
For me ‘mentality’ should be changed based on opposition. How you do this will vary from system to system but with Roma I use control for easy home games and counter for away days and very tough home matches. Changing mentality throughout the match can be vital, taking the lead could warrant tightening up and been less ambitious, while falling behind or chasing the result requires a more aggressive reaction. How aggressive you go will vary on the clock. I believe setting the correct strategy and knowing when to adjust has become very, very important.
‘Shape’ used to be called ‘philosophy’ in FM14, a change I personally welcome as the new terminology makes much more sense. All this does is set how free your players are to step outside of the system. You should asses a number of variables before deciding, how unpredictable you want to be, how organised you want to be and how capable your players are mentally to think for themselves.
FM 2015 tactics guide: Player instructions
Player instructions can be your worst enemy and too many will mask potential issues, making it hard to assign blame when watching the ME.
Tip — Leave player instructions alone for the first two or three games. It won’t take long to see faults in the match engine providing you watch in comprehensive highlights mode or extended as a minimum. Fix as you go.
Here are some examples of when to use player instructions. When shooting too often from distance, tackling too hard, general positional issues and passing. You may feel like no one is attempting that killer pass or your general play is too safe. If you don’t want to go direct for the entire team then you could just select your best technicians to go direct or play more risky passes.
FM 2015 tactics guide: If nothing changes, nothing changes
One of my favourite sayings, if nothing changes, nothing changes. Just because you have won five games on the bounce and feel like Guardiola doesn’t mean it can’t go wrong. Maybe you were up against the ‘right’ opponents for your system with the ‘wrong’ one just around the corner.
Always be vigilant and check the opposition formation, try to spot patterns in your losses, mark them down in a book and try to place blame. Poor individual performances may be as a result of bad team talks, but through analysis you could spot a weakness in your system against particular teams and systems.
The most important change can be as a result of injury, suspension or fatigue. If these hit one or two of your key stars go back to square one. Remember the start of this post, we have created your system around these key stars, so if they are missing you must assess whether the tactic still works and if not create another one or tweak the existing to suit. Here’s an example from my Roma game…
After a great run, I suffered injuries to all three of my stars, Ljajic, De Rossi and Pjanic. While the central areas are fairly well covered, I also lost Iturbe and Gervinho to fatigue and injury. My system relies heavily on wide players producing the goods, my options were the likes of Emanuelson who I don’t see as a goal threat. With little option but to change my focus I had to adjust everything.
I decided that with key players out I had to be more compact and make up for a lack of quality, three at the back would galvanize us defensively. Two wing backs pushed forward could provide the width. I then used my remaining central midfielders to form a trio and had two upfront. Destro remained an advanced forward while Totti was assigned false nine to draw defenders out and exploit the gap around AM. Below is the tactic I switched too and the relevant roles.
Notice my wing backs aren’t fully suitable for the role and position, I had no other option out wide. We exploited the middle to compensate.
This lead to a very tight performance in which we hit Chievo on the counter twice to win 2-0 away from home. I have no doubt that using second class players in my preferred tactic would have seen us picked off. The wingers would not have been good enough to take their chances and possession would have kept falling back with the opposition.
Well thats all for now, thanks for reading. I look forward to your comments and before writing please remember this is just how I go about creating tactics, I am not claiming to be a guru or know all there is to know, so no sarcastic or pointless comments please. :) If you did enjoy the post, we’d really appreciate a share or like through Facebook and Twitter!
Josh
26 октября, 2014 at 12:35
I enjoyed the read and your reasoning behind your change of tactics. I’m sure there are many FM players that would stick to their favoured tactic regardless of whether there key players are fit or not.
Darren
26 октября, 2014 at 12:43
Thanks Josh I appreciate that. I would have been one of those sticking with my system last year, but the game has moved on and I think we’ll need to adapt with it to really succeed.
Iaib
26 октября, 2014 at 12:49
Excellent analysis. Need to build myself a new desktop before I get the game. Will keep reading in the meanwhile. I’m glad hear changes have been made. Shows the importance of playing the correct player in the correct position to fit in an overall system. Wish the manager of my team understood this
Darren
26 октября, 2014 at 13:00
Thanks, keep reading up on the game and you’ll be an expert before you even get it :)
Koen
26 октября, 2014 at 13:12
Great writing. Made me realise I have been doing some things horribly wrong.
Unrelated question: Any idea where I can find the option to tutor players in this new FM version?
Darren
26 октября, 2014 at 13:33
Thanks, as for tutoring you need to go into the individuals training screen then look to the bottom where you will see suitable tutors, just click ‘request tutoring’ under the name of the tutor you want.
Koen
26 октября, 2014 at 13:43
Thanks. I have been looking all over for it.
Gaurav Chaddah
26 октября, 2014 at 14:25
A very interesting read that’s opened by eyes to what I am already doing wrong on this years version of the game.
I used ‘a tactic ;)’ with Newcastle, it worked very well and we were 2nd at Christmas, I used the same tactic with Southampton and it just wouldn’t work, it was like it was a completely different tactic, I think this post as taught me that in this years game we must make a tactic for the team we have rather than be stubborn like previous years and make the team use the tactic we want.
Would you say that say I started a game, the best way to deciding the shape of the formation would be what players you have where? For instance if you have lots of attacking midfielders use a 4-2-3-1 and build from there around them or loads of centre midfielders maybes use a 4-5-1 with 3 across the park then build around that with there preffered roles?
Thanks for this Darren, really has helped, it seems like FM 15 may see us creating different tactics for maybes every team we manage but to me it sounds more interesting rather than just using the one tactic time and time again.
Darren
26 октября, 2014 at 18:26
Thanks Gaurav, glad you liked it.
As we have discussed this year will be much tougher to find a plug and play tactic, if last year was virtually impossible this year be a no starter. But as you suggested, it may be a nice change. I will still try and break the tactics though, as always :)
Matteo Meta
27 октября, 2014 at 14:49
Nice tips but they can’t win against Idunnowhat. Everton 3-0 tottenham at 45′, 90′ 3-3.
Next match, Man ute 3-0 Everton 45′, 3-3 90′, 4-3 94′. Can’t do anything, yesterday sassuolo 3-0 empoli 45′, 3-3 90′.
Darren
27 октября, 2014 at 15:06
And do you actually do anything when you take the lead or just sit and wait for the final whistle?
Matteo Meta
27 октября, 2014 at 15:11
First time I just sit down and watch, my fault, we take 3 nice goals. Other times I changed settings to counter on the result of 3-0. So they punished us with 3 corner (I have highlights). I didn’t mentioned Sassuolo 5-4 Milan, 4-0 after 45′. 4-4 90′, 5-4 94′, just like man ute tottenham. I didn’t liked fm2014 but, ok we have only the beta right now, but it’s many steps ahead the new game
Matteo Meta
27 октября, 2014 at 15:27
Just quit this beta after a victory for my team, 45′ everton 3-0 steaua bucarest, 67′ 3-1 corner kick, 74′ 3-2 corner kick, 89′ 3-3 og, 93′ 4-3.
It’s boring, I’m going back to 2014 for now.
Darren
27 октября, 2014 at 15:37
I’ve never had issues like that across all three saves I’ve started, all I can suggest is the tactic must be too risky and while you are attacking its great but too open at the back, its the only explanation. Regardless of settings its probably the shape and roles.
You should also try team talks on the touchline for complacency and tightening up.
Darren
27 октября, 2014 at 15:54
It depends on the game really and the opposition, but I do generally warn against complacency or ask them to tighten up a bit after scoring. However, my tactic is reasonably well covered defensively.
As mentioned I would suggest its your tactic thats the underlying issue by the amount of times it has happened to you.
MRC
29 октября, 2014 at 16:34
I’ve read guides strongly discourage use of an AF or P in a single-striker system with no AMC, because they won’t drop deep and contribute to build-up play. Do you not find Destro getting isolated and marked out of games when using this tactic?
Darren
29 октября, 2014 at 19:00
You see while there is logic behind their reasoning I have the opposite fear, if you have your one and only striker constantly dropping deep and supporting then who is running in behind, who leads the line? Makes for an easy day in the office for opposition DC’s, I have seen it happen in 14. Destro doesn’t get isolated as the winger, inside forward are active players, they are attacking and running with the ball, as is the MC advanced playmaker, even the B2B MC is instructed to make runs forward in the attacking phase of play.
Acss
29 октября, 2014 at 16:38
That’s a very good post Darren. I can’t say that the new changes to the tactics screen are a plus, in fact they seem quite on the contrary in the user’s community but either way I think your guide will help a lot to understand better the concepts behind this. Well, applying them in the beta version doesn’t mean immediate success of course but they should have appliance once the final product comes in ;)
Darren
29 октября, 2014 at 19:05
This is just a general idea of how tactics have changed and things that need to be looked at in this years game, it is easy to see that this will be the same for BETA and the full version, its just the direction the game is going in.
Acss
30 октября, 2014 at 08:26
I meant, given the match engine issues from BETA, you can’t expect your tactics to work accordingly. There are numerous issues still in the queue. As I see some complain their tactics are not working, even after following this guide. People, it’s beta. There are issues.
Darren
30 октября, 2014 at 12:03
I agree Accs.
MRC
29 октября, 2014 at 16:50
One other point, you also seem to be playing without a traditional «holding» midfielder like a DM/CM/A/DLP/HB. Are you leaking a decent amount of goals and just outscoring the opposition, or have you been defensively sound?
Darren
29 октября, 2014 at 19:03
The roaming playmaker doesn’t overlap really, he only offers himself to teammates within his own zone, so I would say he can act as a traditional holding midfielder, it depends on your outlook really. I don’t get caught out too often though and we rarely have to rely on silly scorelines, not for now anyway, we’ll see what happens as the game is made more stable.
MRC
29 октября, 2014 at 19:55
Thanks for the responses. I guess I just don’t fully understand the difference yet between deep-lying and roaming playmakers. It kind of sounds like the roaming playmaker is a lot like what I thought the regista was, but there must be some subtle differences.
Darren
29 октября, 2014 at 20:09
The roaming playmaker will carry the ball forward, he will look to offer a passing option at every opportunity and even at times get nearer the oppositon box to take up long shot opportunities. However, he does defend and in the defensive phase of play will be back in front of the back four.
The deep lying playmaker is much more strict he won’t travel with the ball, he will just look to orchestrate play from the hole between defence and midfield.
The Regista is a more aggressive version of the DLP, he will be more creative in a word and ambitious in a word.
redfm
31 октября, 2014 at 16:48
hi,
What should be the alternative tactical instructions?
http://cdn.footballmanagerstory.com/wp-content/uploads/imgs/2014/10/FM-2015-tactics-guide-roma-formation-2.png
Darren Smith
31 октября, 2014 at 18:51
I think you’re missing the point of the post, this isn’t a tactic to be used, I am not sharing this, it was a one off change I made to the shape due to injuries. This post is to help you make your own tactics and adjustments and the section you’re referring to was purely an example of when shape may need to change.
Darren
31 октября, 2014 at 18:53
I think you’re missing the point of the post, this isn’t a tactic to be used, I am not sharing this, it was a one off change I made to the shape due to injuries. This post is to help you make your own tactics and adjustments and the section you’re referring to was purely an example of when shape may need to change.
redfm
31 октября, 2014 at 18:57
Well, what would you recommend for this tactic?
Darren
31 октября, 2014 at 19:10
That is exactly my point, you are just looking for easy answers, if this tactic worked and I had a copy that everyone could benefit from I’d have published it already.
It was used as a one off and while I remember the shape I can’t remember the instructions but there was a good lesson to be learnt by it. This post is meant for you to be able to make your own decisions and judgement, not for me to give you easy answers.
Those may come eventually, but its far too early for me to be telling you what will and won’t work, all I can do for now is guide you in the right direction which I’ve tried with the post. Its still the BETA we haven’t ironed out all the flaws yet so advising on what exactly to do is not wise until the ME is sorted and we all know precisely what we are working with.
Hope you understand and don’t think I’m been awkward but there is no point in me offering people exact answers when they will just be guess’ as the BETA is very fragile.
Redfm
31 октября, 2014 at 20:00
Thank you..
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Matt
13 ноября, 2014 at 15:01
Very good advice Darren.
To be honest over the last couple of iterations (FM12 onward) I have been using predominantly plug in tactics. Even dropping to the depths of the GRID formation and winning pretty much every game in FM12.
But this year it really does seem that you have to follow your approach to tactics and ensure your players are not square pegs in round holes.
This year I have been trying a few plug tactics but it doesn’t really work. Will be starting my southampton save again (hopefully get balanta again without problems!) and forming a tactic with my best players attributes in mind.
until you break the game that is ;-)
Darren
13 ноября, 2014 at 19:06
Thanks Matt, I’m glad you enjoyed it. I like your analogy also, square pegs in round holes.
I am currently working on a rather generic tactic, one that is made purposely to suit varying teams but it is still specific in what it requires. I will publish at the weekend and hopefully have enough detail within the post to demonstrate whether it will or won’t work with everyones teams.
Vigo
22 декабря, 2014 at 21:58
I have never been good at FM, i always read and try to improve but it never seems to work. But after reading this i got my confidence back. Made a Liverpool tactic and i finished 2nd which i was very happy with as i wasn’t expecting anything from me. I won the FA cup too. Got to the Quater Finals of the Champions league as well! Lets hope this continues! I learned alot from this, thank you.
Darren
23 декабря, 2014 at 18:39
Thanks Vigo, people are usually sharp to leave negative feedback but not positive so I appreciate that. Hope you continue enjoying the game.