Tactic Tweaking III
Helpful tweaks for fine-tuning tactics

The tweaking articles are simple collections of bite-sized topics that cover several settings and ideas that may help you to fine tune your tactics. These little ideas can be very helpful and, if implemented correctly, boost the success of your tactics immensely.

Contents
Long shot efficiency
Full playmakers
Player Swapping

Long shot efficiency
Having everyone on low long shots means they only take a long shot when there’s a) no other option or b) it’s a dead-cert to go in. That definitely helps, though the downside is that quite a few of the long shots appear to be out of desperation rather than inspiration.

If you have a midfielder who is very good at long shots, it may be worth keeping him on mixed long shots. Many player prefer to have the central midfielders on mixed setting when e.g. playing a 4-4-2.

However, these setting should be reviewed in connection to the team and individual settings. If you are playing on the counter or defensively, higher long shot settings may encourage the players to look for a hasty go on the goal instead of playing a good pass, low time wasting may increase this even more.

If you are using high creative freedom or even free roles for a player, you should restrict long shots to rarely for an attacker or AMC since the player has your permission to make his own decisions anyway. If this is combined with an extra invitation to score screamers at any occasion, you will see a large number of wasted shots off target from hopeless positions.

Defensive midfielders/MCds with decent long shots often seem to be ideally suited to score screamers when playing with HUB instructions. This can occur quite often in attacking situations if the DM holds up until most of the team is in a good position and eventually opening some space in the defence. Also good playmakers often seem to make a surprising decision and go for a good long shot, much more often then without playmaker instructions. But this should not be an argument to install a playmaker system if you are not aware of the pros and cons.

Important attributes for effective long shot takers:

Long shots
Technique
Finishing
Decisions
First touch
Flair
Composure

Additional supported by according PPM’s
Shoots from distance
Curls balls
Dictates tempo

This is a routine suggested by garyh to create more longshots from midfield:

First:

I make sure the players that i would like to take longshoots mainly my MC set to RWB mixed or rarely.
Setting your players up like this will mean they will be running on to the ball to strike the shoot and is much more affective than someone that dribbles then shoots.

Second:

I will make both MC FWR set to mixed, this way they are behind the play, so when it breaks down they should be outside the box and ready to run on to the ball to try the long shot,

Third:

If my players are not shooting on goal enough, I will lessen the things they have to think about (especially if they have low decisions). This may result in always picking the wrong option, so I will set them up to have maximal 1-2 things to choose from. Example: crossball mixed, longshots mixed, RWB rarely, TTB rarely, making him make less decisions when he has the ball. This should result in making more long shots when around the area.

Fourth:

High creative freedom even on longshots rarely will result in attempting 3-4 shoots a game (as well as free roles).

Fifth:

Try semi-playmaker or playmaker roles for these players. The team mates will look to cut the ball back to him more often on mixed or often forward runs.

Final:

HUB. I think this aids players at times and I have seen some thunderbolts score from players with low long shots (Mainly TM, AMC & DM) - so if all fails try HUB

Full playmakers

While it is obvious that playmakers can be implemented into any tactic and do not need to play a classical AMC position, the effects on the play can differ strongly depending on the formation you are using. The classic 4-4-2 does offer a very well balanced distribution of the ball compared to many other formations like diamonds or multi-strata formations like 4-3-3/4-5-1s or wide and narrow 4-2-3-1s.

This does have severe impacts on the player roles. In many of these formations e.g. the defensive midfielder or the MC/a can be very dominating players and achieve fantastic numbers of passes without acting as a full- or even semi-playmaker. Acting as a semi-playmaker, these numbers of passes may go through the roof, and it needs to be monitored if your team really does take profit from this role (most likely if it is an extraordinary player) or your whole play is focussed and narrowed at one spot of the game, even more so if the team is forced to play through the middle in away games and loses possession there while neglecting important options on the wings.

If you are using such a formation, you should think twice before using a full playmaker, which can even increase the effect.On the other hand, as already stated in long shots, such a player often can create something special and add real value to your team.

If playing a 4-4-2, the decision is slightly easier. The more balanced passing options of a 4-4-2 will not cause the same impacts like other formations will. However, using a playmaker or not is a very important decision and will only offer profit if you are having the best players available.

For the 4-4-2, there are two possible choices: the MC/a and the MC/d. While selecting the MC/a as playmaker will offer more attacking options, selecting the MC/d is more suited for defensive games as he will tend to control the game from a deep role and often slow down the play.

Player Swapping

Player swapping can be a very powerful measure to increase the attack efficiency, especially if playing at home against weaker opposition. Very often dangerous moves are initiated just after player swapped their position. A defender may have been facing a winger who needed to outside him all the time. After the change it may be the case that the player now facing him will cut inside much more often. This can cause some confusion in the defence for a while.

It can be very handy if you are using a target man who has been marked tightly by a very good defender and suddenly does not see much of the ball or looses every header when used as strong target man. Very often a swap instruction suddenly gets him back into play, which can result in a revived attacking power for the whole team.

Swapping wingers often seems to have a very disastrous effect on the opposition, whereas swapping central midfielders can lead to a great variety of the build up play.

If you have two players who can play in central midfield (in an attacking manner) and as a forward/striker that having them swap position can leave a gaping hole in the centre of defence if the player swapped was being tightly man-marked as the AI seems to take a while to realise that a player who was playing striker has dropped into midfield and taken his marker with him.
The same method can be applied with great success if you are having two very equal players that are e.g. great natural AMCs but only auxiliary wingers. While one obviously has to play on the wings, both could swap roles and spend enough time in their best position while confusing the opposition with switching their roles. As a result you also may find out easily who is more prolific in several roles.

Unfortunately, the swapping commands still can make problems if the tactics are switched or subs are made later in the game. You can try to retake the swapping commands and close the player screen before proceeding. This does help sometimes, but unfortunately not always. Also, the player swapping instructions should be checked carefully when downloading tactics, since they often seem to be flawed after downloading.

Tactical Bible Credits
JP, Millie, crazy gra, garyh, wwfan, The next Diaby. Edited by TND and Millie