January 4, 2010

Episode two of the Football Manager Tactics Video is now ready to view. Having put on a few pounds with the Christmas turkey and New Year’s Eve celebrations, Millie takes a look at what can happen when the opposition plays a different formation to your team.

In the first episode we looked at defensive shape in the midfield. In it, we showed that being aware of the gaps in your shape was essential to stop the opposition overrunning you.

Similar things can happen when you play a formation dissimilar to your own. In this example (submitted by IRLManagment on the forums) the human team, Cultural, goes to the Bernabéu in search of points. He is playing a 4-4-2, while Real Madrid have plumped for a 4-2-4.

This poses two major problems:

• Real’s DMCs have loads of space playing in the hole between the human’s midfield and attack
• Real’s wingers are given too much time in the space between the human’s full backs and wingers

By making some tweaks to the formation and, of course, by using opposition instructions, you can help plug those gaps.

If you’re the dominant team, it’s often the case that you can dictate the play. For instance, Cultural can make great use of the space between Real’s wingers and full backs, or in the space between their midfield and strikers. But because Real Madrid are able to control possession of the ball, they are the ones who can exploit those spaces more.

If you use the opposition instructions and try to adjust your defensive shape, you can begin to exploit both worlds. In defence, you can harry the opposition DMCs to break up their rhythm and tight mark the wingers to give them no space in which to work. But on the attack, your players will revert to their positions, meaning you will be able to exploit those spaces that naturally you should have an advantage in.

Always be on the look out for holes in your team, especially in games where you are likely to find it hard to dictate the play (away from home, or against superior opposition). Realise where those holes might be, how the team is either creating chances or keeping possession, and look to close off those outlets.

If you have any follow up questions, or would like the Think Tank team to look over any of your match files, send your PKMs to thinktank@fm-britain.co.uk.