Rule of One/Two for Dummies
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One of the most prevalent theories in Football Manager over the past couple of seasons has been wwfan’s Rule of One (RoO) and its predecessor Rule of Two (RoT). Originally, it was designed to space out the players on the park so that they had enough room to breathe, whilst at the same time keeping the team compact as a unit. In FM06, this was acheived by keeping each player roughly within two mentality “notches” of at least one other player (RoT), but match engine developments mean that FM07 tactics tend to keep this gap down to one “notch” (RoO).

Using this system, the user can create a number of mentality frameworks, and these are the building blocks of most TT&F tactics. In short, each position should be within one notch of another. For the most defensive 4-4-2 with a basic RoO setup, therefore, we should end up something like this:

GK: 1
DC: 2
FB: 3
MCd: 4
ML/R: 5
MCa: 6
FC: 7

Note that for the purposes of a RoO 4-4-2, the central midfield is split between a more defensive holding midfielder and a more attacking one to give both flexibility and solidity to the formation. The wingers are given mentalities in between these two to give more of a “diamond” kind of shape to the formation, whilst still keeping a flat midfield (at least on the formations screen).

From this most defensive set up, we can scale up to become slightly more attacking each time until our goalkeeper reaches 14:

GK: 14
DC: 15
FB: 16
MCd: 17
ML/R: 18
MCa: 19
FC: 20

To put it most simply of all, RoO was originally designed to use this most attacking framework (14) at home and the most defensive framework (1) away. By creating other frameworks in between, and using the other instructions we have discussed in other articles, you can create a range of tactics suited to any situation and with any team. RoO offers all the options of a slider, and yet has an advantage over the AI because it is staggered, and therefore keeps the best of both worlds - tight formation and flexible positioning.

Of course, these are not hard and fast rules that must be obeyed, and clearly this is only an outline for a 4-4-2. Some choose to play with split FCs (particularly if playing the classic “little and large” striker combo), some choose to split their DCs. It’s really up to the individual player, but these frameworks offer a solid guide upon which to build.

In RoO, DL and DR are usually on the same mentality, and the same is true of WBL/R, ML/MR, AML/R and FL/R, depending on your system. Splitting the central players is up to the individual, though MCd and MCa are almost always used since they offer the most flexibility. A lot of the Tactical Bible guides are also written with this distinction in mind.

But I’m not playing 4-4-2!
RoO was designed for 4-4-2, but can be used in other systems to great effect. Providing a player has options available, he should fit into the system. Try, at all times, to keep at least one player within one notch of another. For example, a 4-1-2-3 system may look like this:

GK: 1
DC: 2
FB: 3
DM: 4
MC: 5
AML/R: 6
FC: 7

Note that in this system, it is not necessary to split the MCs into MCa/d if you don’t want to because the DM fulfills this role. Of course, there’s nothing to stop you from having this split, but the beauty of having a true holding player is that your MCs are free to concentrate on attacking.

Further Considerations
The Tactical Bible has outlined many of the approaches which go with these systems, but it is important to mention, in brief, a few settings which are closely tied to your chosen mentality framework.

Defensive Line - Defensive line is usually taken at the average point of the framework - i.e., on the away framework (1-7) you set the d. line at the median value (4), and increase it as you increase the framework. Of course, you may want to lower or raise this value based on your style of play, speed of your DCs etc. etc. However, once you are facing very defensive formations you will need to break this link and lower the d-line in attacking systems to open more space on the pitch.

Width - Width is often linked to mentality as well, but not always. However, it is usually considered to be the same as the defensive line (in the away example this would be 4 again). This guideline is now regularly broken by most tacticians as it doesn’t give much tactical flexibility, but it is a good guide as a starting point for you to modify as you see fit.

Time Wasting - This usually mirrors width and defensive line. In the away framework this would be 16, since this is the opposite of the width (4 notches from the right, rather than 4 notches from the left).

Team Mentality - RoO assumes that individual mentality is not affected by team mentality. Therefore, leave the team mentality slider on 10, unless going all out attack (22) or ultra-defensive (1).

Tactical Bible Credits
wwfan, The next Diaby. Written by Millie