Making a General Tactic

Making a General TacticPeople often talk about super-tactics within Football Manager as a method of garenteed sucess. Fact is that there is no such thing as a 'super-tactic' and different tactics work for different teams as in real life. The aim of this short guide is to help create a basic 4-4-2 formation which is very flexible and can in turn be adapted to suit other teams. Its not a method of guarenteed sucess but a good starting point...



Begin by setting up a basic 4-4-2 formation, with the two wingers running forward. Now lets get into the details, player instructions and such.

Start with team instuctions. I set my team instructions to general contol all the attacking players within my team, advantages of this is you can then adjust how attacking or defensive your team is mid match very quickly. Below is how I generally lay out my attacking unit...
Attacking...15
Creative Freedom... 15 (for a less technically gifted side reduce this to 10)
Passing...5
Tempo...5 (again for a less technically gifted side I would probably increase this, but keep passing & tempo in unison)
Width...15 (no wingers in your team? obviously play with less width...)
Closing Down...15
Time Wasting...5 (can be increased as a match wears on)
Defensive Line...Push Up
Tackling...10

For a good side, like my favourite team Man Utd lol, this will mean your team will pass the ball around amongst themselves, using the width of the pitch and generally dominating possession. When they do lose possession however your attacking players will close down from the front and your defenders will push up from the back looking to break down any attacks early. I also find that the push up option leaves your team suitably compact with few spaces between midfield and defence.

The rest depends entirely on your team...whether to base play around your wingers, a playmaker or a targetman depends on the individual abilities within your team. If you have quick defenders you may wish to play the offside trap. If unsure the safe bet is to keep focus passing mixed, marking zonal and tick none of the boxes.

Now you have set up the general theme for your team slight modifications can be made to your attacking player instructions. Keep all their inboxes unticked, as you have already dealt with these areas in your team instructions, and just adjust the sliders to suit their position. If unsure you can follow this general guide...
Wingers...forward runs-often,run with ball-often,long shots-mixed,through balls-mixed,cross ball-often,cross from-byline,cross aim-centre
AM...forward runs-often,run with ball-mixed,long shots-mixed,through balls-often,cross ball-rarely,cross from-mixed,cross aim-mixed
ST...forward runs-often,run with ball-often,long shots-mixed,through balls-rarely,cross ball-rarely,cross from-mixed,cross aim-mixed
TM...forward runs-mixed,run with ball-rarely,long shots-mixed,through balls-mixed,cross ball-rarely,cross from-mixed,cross aim-mixed

I also usually give my strikers closing down-20, and tick the hold up ball bo for the target man.

That's your attacking unit set up, now for your defensive unit. For this you need to adjust player instructions individually. Generally you just want to keep give these players less license to go forward, less creative freedom and hope they hold their positions to allow your more attack minded players to do what they do best...score goals. Below are the instructions I tend to use.
GK...the 'set to...goalkeeper' option is fine, though you may want to change distribution if he is a particurly good kicker or perhaps to defender collect if you are going for a slow, passing tactic.
FB...mentality-6,creative freedom-3,passing-team,closing down-3,tackling-team,forward runs-often,run with ball-mixed,long shots-rarely,through balls-rarely,cross from-byline,cross aim-centre
CB...mentality-3,creative freedom-3,passing-team,closing down-3,tackling-team,forward runs-rarely,run with ball-rarely,long shots-rarely,through balls-rarely,cross from-deep,cross aim-mixed
DM...mentality-5,creative freedom-5,passing-team,closing down-5,tackling-hard,forward runs-mixed,run with ball-mixed,long shots-mixed,through balls-mixed,cross from-deerp,cross aim-mixed

I also tend to tick the tight marking for these players. Now you have a defensive unit that will stay back, stick to your tactics, not lose position through closing down...in general just a solid base to your formation. By choosing forward runs often and coss ball from byline for your full backs you have also ensured if the oppurtunity rises they will not be afraid to overlap your wingers. This also avoids them wasting posession from launching long balls from deep positions.

The only other adjustments to your tactic are minor, checking your set play instructions. For corners just ensure your best header of the ball is attacking the ball wherever your corner taker is sending it to.

And there you have it a general tactic explained in a hopefully simple manner, even if did take more words than I intended!! You chould find that your team is a very balanced, flexible unit but the most important thing is to remember that this tactic is versatile. If you change formation e.g to 4-4-1-1 or 4-3-3, all is needed is a few adjustments to the odd player instruction. Don't be afraid to tinker, like wise in-match you can adjust mentality, tempo etc very quickly and effectively depending how the game is going for you!!

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