Football Manager 2011 my best tactic 4-5-1

Hey guys, today I want to share a tactic that has followed me around on Football Manager. We all try many different formations and tactics in the hope of finding the FM 2011 best tactic. Well my 4-5-1 has proven effective in last years game and Football Manager 2011, to date anyway. I have only tested it on the demo so far, but this tactic seems to work just fine. The beauty of it is, you can customize this to your own liking. Its very simple and should suit a variety of different players in different positions. My only warning would be that there are more attacking minded tactics out there, however this FM11 best tactic aims to get the best result out of the game (even if it is scrappy at times.) Anyway I have provided you with a FM 2011 tactics guide to my 4-5-1. The set piece guide will follow later after I have finished testing it.

4-5-1 Formation

I send my players out in a very simple 4-5-1 formation. Using my wingers as more attacking players rather than wide midfielders offers great support for the lone striker. Plus this helps get more bodies forward on the counter. I tend to keep a flat three in central midfield rather than pulling one into defensive midfield or attacking midfield. I find this helps my FM 2011 tactic flow better, my side can also dominate the centre more like this.

Team instructions, playmaker and target man.

Lets start with the team instructions. I always use the ‘balanced’ philosophy while managing a Premier League side. My strategy tends to change slightly depending on the opponents and whether we are home or away. A ‘standard’ starting strategy is applied if I think we can win the game. However, I use a ‘counter’ strategy if there are any doubts. I like to see my players make an effort and pressure the ball, so setting the closing down to ‘press opponents’ is very important. I find zonal marking a disaster, therefore only ever use ‘man marking’. Playing more ‘direct’ is also quite important, however this may depend on your team selection. I would suggest considering if your side are more like Arsenal (if so play short) or like Stoke (in which you need to be more direct.) Basically if they can pass the ball around well you may need to change this. A lot of Premier League pitches are huge and therefore benefit a more direct passing game to get in behind the defence. The defensive line, width and tempo below are my default settings. I only change these if coming up against a fast side or if my assistant recommends something the contrary.

Your playmaker and target man are very important to this tactic, they both make the team tick. In FM 2011 I would suggest carefully selecting you playmaker. Decide who can make the magic happen and only select a winger or attacking minded central midfielder for this tactic. I opted for Ben Arfa as he is my most technically gifted player and has been set to cut inside. There are two different options for a target man in my FM11 best tactic. Either a big strong striker with great heading ability and strength or a poacher with great finishing and pace. I have used the poacher option more recently because Kadlec is on fire. However aiming the ball to your target mans head can take advantage of a small side and bring other players into the game. I use this if my first option is failing to make an impact. The main rule is to set ‘target man supply’ to ‘run onto ball’ for a poacher and ‘to head’ for a proper target man.

Player instructions

This part is probably the most flexible section of my FM 2011 best tactics guide. It really is down to trial and error, however I will share with you what has worked best for me so far. Both the right and left defender should be set to ‘full back’. I find having one as ‘automatic’ or ‘defend’ and the other as ‘support’ provides a good mixture and doesn’t leave the defence too short staffed when going forward. The most important roles are in central midfield, two players should be set to a role of ‘central midfield’. The third midfielder can be the same or set a role of ‘advanced playmaker’. However I would recommend setting three different duties to this central midfield trio. One should have a duty of ‘defend’, a more versatile player should be set to ‘support’, while your most attacking player should have a duty of ‘attack’. With these duties your central midfielders should blend quite well and everything that needs doing in the centre is covered. I always set one winger a role of ‘winger’ and the other a role as ‘inside forward’. This way the lone striker gets more support. While we’re on the lone striker I only ever use two roles, these are ‘target man’ or ‘poacher’. The reason being because other roles don’t get the most out of my strikers in this formation. Obviously you should only set the role accoring to your players strengths.

As you can see I do not have a great side with Newcastle, such a small budget left me with two new signings. However using my Football Manager 2011 4-5-1 tactic, we have enjoyed an incredible start to the season. Obviously this tactic will work differently with other sides, but if it leads to results like these with Newcastle, I can’t wait to see what happens as my team improves.

Well that is it for today’s post, there will be lots more guides to follow in the future. I plan to look at set pieces, training and much more. Subscribe to this sites email subscription and don’t miss a thing. Please feel free to comment and I look forward to answering everyones questions. Thanks for reading guys.