FM 2013 Guide — How to create your own tactic, part 1: Formations, strategy, style

Hello and welcome to my Football Manager 2013 guide on how to create your own tactic. This is part one of a three part series, in which I hope to help enlighten and maybe even inspire you to start creating your own tactics on Football Manager 2013. For many years now I have killed brain cells staring at the green screen looking for answers and solutions to tactical issues on FM. Many gamers have used these tactics and findings to better their own in game experience, but let’s face it, making your own tactic is far more rewarding. So with this FM13 tactics guide you can finally fulfill that ambition.

We’ll begin with today’s installment, part one, which will cover formations, philosophies, strategies and general playing styles. Part two is already published in which I talk about player roles and how they can transform a formation. As is part three in that I’ll explain how to best test a tactic and tweak it. As you can see, there’s a lot to learn so we’ll dive straight in shall we? :)

Assess your players and what you’re working with

You can’t create your own tactic until you have decided a) what you want the tactic to do and b) the kind of style you want/have to play. Both these decisions are linked, so start by looking through your side to assess what sort of Football they can play. If you have the best team in your league then the world is your oyster, but if you don’t possess the best squad then attempting brilliant, amazing Football could lead to an early end.

For example, I recently started a save with Newcastle who have some great attacking players but look rather shaky in defense  So when considering my style and approach, I had to remember that the better sides could carve through my back line and even the weaker teams in the BPL may catch me on the counter. This automatically ruled out throwing a number of players forward and using ‘risky tactics’. I also enjoyed some excellent wingers, meaning I had to take advantage of their specific talents.

Before we carry on I want to clear up what I mean by attacking football. I don’t just mean using the ‘attacking’ strategy as I tend to rely on that heavily. I am actually referring to the number of players in attacking positions and also the players that are assigned attacking roles. Using three AMC’s and a striker when your side possess mediocre players isn’t wise. Those four players will only think offensively, which will put a lot of strain on your defence as better sides move forward. Sure you’ll have the odd incredible performance, but this won’t work long term on a consistent basis. Creating a successful tactic is all about balance, you must find that perfect balance between attack and defence.

Selecting your formation

I usually decide on a formation first, this could come down to your squad. If you don’t have many central midfielders then you’re probably going to struggle with three in the middle. If you have bad wingers then you may want to create a narrow formation. But most gamers will already have a preferred shape in mind and buy players to use that shape.

I obviously can’t tell you what formation to choose, but I can tell you which formation I use, a 4-5-1 including three CM’s an AMR and AML. I will now list the pros and cons of using this formation, hopefully this will lead you to understand why I select it and what you should look for in your formation.

Pros

• Three central midfielders make it easier to dominate the centre of the pitch; these three can also be used in different roles to either support the defence or move forward with attacking players.
• Two attacking wingers can be used to support the striker or provide width. They couldn’t support the striker as well if used from MR and ML position.
• Defence and full backs don’t have to attack or help with supporting the forward thinking players.
• Generally used when you want a short passing tactic.
• Keeping possession is far easier than using a 4-4-2.

Cons

• Lone striker must be very good and could be limited to certain roles.
• Full backs can be exposed at times due to AMR and AML been far advanced up the pitch.
• You need players with reasonable technique to hold the ball.
• Not really recommended for a direct style of play.

That won’t tell you what formation to use, but it should offer insight into the logic I use while selecting my formations.

Other formations you might use are a flat 4-4-2 if you have too many great strikers and want to use the target man upfront. A 4-2-3-1 may be used when you have three exceptionally talented AM’s whether they are wide or central. I’m sure you see a pattern, I am suggesting that most formations are picked around the players you have or want to exploit, so I’ll leave the formation picking up to you. All I will say is that 4-5-1 is the best I’ve ever used in terms of consistency.

Selecting your philosophy and strategy

While selecting your philosophy there is only one question you need ask. How much freedom do I want to allow my players? All the philosophy sets is how strictly your players will stick to their positions. Going too rigid will leave your players firmly stuck with the roles you assign, rendering them more predictable and your tactic transparent. Going too fluid will see lesser players drifting from their positions far too often, leading to unorganized chaos. Again it’s all about balance, so I’ll outline the key points you should consider.

• How good are your players mentally? If they lack mental attributes and a good understanding of tactics, then a rigid or balanced philosophy is best. Chances are they won’t be good enough to drift from your system without costing you dearly.
• How fit and fast are your players? If they lack fitness and pace then giving the freedom to drift from their positions is dangerous. Getting back to defend may be a problem. Whereas players with great pace and fitness may work well with a fluid philosophy as they’ll drag the opposition markers out of position and possess the power to make that ground back up if required.
• What sort of Football do you want to play? If you are after fancy football, with fluid movement then a fluid philosophy is best. This will give your players the freedom to get involved in different phases of play. If you want to keep things tight and compact then a balanced or rigid philosophy will do the trick. I personally love the fluid philosophy but only if I am managing top six players.

Very often your strategy will follow on from your philosophy. So if you have a fluid philosophy that indicates you want to play some swift football and therefore an attacking strategy would make sense. Whereas setting a rigid philosophy would suggest you want your side to remain organised at all times, so a counter or standard strategy would be best to maintain that.

However, I have a completely different outlook when selecting my own strategy. First of all I only ever use the attacking and counter strategy. I use the attacking strategy for games I fully expect to win and win with ease, but if I have any doubts at all I will switch to counter. Which strategy you select will depend on your formation and philosophy though, at the end of the day all these little sliders do are effect a lot of other slider settings in the tactics screen. So always go to the tactics screen and click ‘team’ in the top right. Then check your defensive line, you may have accidentally created a tactic with too higher a defensive line (this is how I approach games I truly expect to win.) But obviously this may cause you problems with very slow defenders.

However, I can change this by switching the strategy from attack to counter. All of a sudden my defensive line is way deeper and the team set out more compact. I never touch those sliders, I just change the strategy to achieve the effect I want.

Setting your style

There are so many variations on what sort of style you could play, so I’m going to keep this very simple. If you are a beginner and not too familiar with the effect of giving players creative freedom or drilling your crosses into the box, then set the following bullet points to ‘default’. Doing anything else will just complicate things and risk ruining your tactic.

• Creative freedom
• Tackling
• Marking
• Crossing
• Roaming

Sometimes simple is better, trust me. :) Now we can talk about the ‘key’ settings as I call them.

First off we have passing, very, very important and one that will underline your teams style. Do you want to play short or direct football? I always play short, but that’s because I prefer such a style and have never been a fan of the direct game. Below are the pros and cons of using both settings.

Short passing — This setting will give your side more possession of the ball. Used well with a balanced or fluid philosophy and for technically gifted sides that benefit from sharp passes and struggle in the air. The downside comes against the lesser sides, they can stick ten men behind the ball and you could get frustrated with only moving side to side and struggling to break through.

Direct passing — Generally used if you prefer getting the ball from defence to attack quickly, or if you possess a great target man and strong team. Playing direct can catch the opposition but will NOT work if you don’t posses powerful players to enforce it. The downside is you could spend all match smashing the ball back to the opposition.

Now we move onto ‘closing down’. This is a very important setting, it will decide whether you win or lose matches and can go either way depending on your formation and other settings. I will list both closing down options below and explain why you should use them and which systems they work best in.

Press more — My favorite setting as I love to press the opposition the second they gain possession. By selecting ‘press more’ your attacking players run after the ball all over the pitch and your more defensive players will come from their own box to regain possession. This works best with fit and fast players, also excellent to close down dangerous players. The downsides are getting skinned too easily and slow players marking too tightly.

Stand off more — Good for a side lacking pace and acceleration, as each player will leave distance between himself and the man he closes down. Only when the opposition reach his zone will he put a foot in. This can frustrate and restrict the opposition but also leave them with time to pick a pass or score from distance.

Selecting your playmaker and target man

Your playmaker should make everyone tick, when he gets the ball the crowd should go silent in anticipation. My suggestion is to use someone in the centre of midfield, preferably an attacking minded player who will look to run at the defence or play through balls. However, if you have an exceptionally talented winger, then use him to your advantage. For instance, I have Ben Arfa who enjoys crazy dribbling and balance, so he can run for days. All selecting a playmaker does, is put a big ‘x’ above their head for your other players to see and pass too. Obviously if he’s going to see more of the ball than anyone else, he needs to be your most dangerous asset.

The target man should usually be your best striker. If you are playing a short passing game, then its best to get the ball to a technically gifted forward, either aim to his feet or ‘run onto ball’ if he is very quick. But if you are playing a more direct passing game and have a strong aerially dominate forward, then make him your target man with aim set ‘to head’.

Use focus passing to your advantage

This should be discussed alongside the style settings section, but I have gained so much from using this feature that it deserves a special mention. Majority of the time I’d suggest leaving the ‘focus passing’ at default, but this year I decided to focus all my passes down the right flank. Due to Ben Arfa’s extreme dribbling skills, he has terrorized the opposition. I set him to pick the ball up deep, use him as my playmaker and also make sure he sees lots of the ball with this setting. Now most of my attacks start with Ben Arfa making a mazy run at the back four. So if you have a very talented winger/wingers that can twist a defence into a pretzel, then focus all your passing down the specific flank/flanks.

OK, I have probably overloaded you with information in part one so we’ll stop there. I hope this gives you a better understanding of how I think about tactics and if there are any questions please don’t hesitate to ask. Part two will focus on player roles, not every specific role available, but more how roles can effect your teams shape and which combination of roles are best. I hope you’ll join me then, thanks for reading. You can now read part two part clicking below…

FM 2013 Guide — How to create your own tactic, part 2: Player roles

FM 2013 Guide — How to create your own tactic, part 3: Testing tactics