This article shows you just how to use the analysis screen to help hone your tactics. The information here is taken from Tactical Theorems ’10, available now for free at FM-Britain.co.uk.


New to Football Manager 2010 is the analysis page, found in the stats tab of the classic match view. It is a brilliant tool for dissecting your side’s performances and working out where the holes are in your tactical plan. A lot of the information is more subjective than the raw statistical data, and so can be more useful in pinpointing the specific areas in the side that need improvement or explaining statistical anomalies in the match stats. In conjunction with watching a game’s highlights, it is now easier than ever to fix problems that occur during the course of a game or a season.

Clicking on a “blob” in the analysis screen shows a replay of the incident – so there are plenty of opportunities to see where things have gone right, and where they’ve gone wrong.

Shots

The shots page can tell you quite a bit about why you are or aren’t scoring (and the same about the opposition). The little blobs on the screen can let you know which shots were on target, which were blocked, which went wide, which were saved and, most importantly, which went in. You can tell which individuals contributed most (and least) to your SoT count, long shot count and goal count.

It is best to try to keep shots from range to a minimum for players who are regularly missing the target. You can individually set their “try long shots” slider, or generally tell the team to work the ball into the box if it seems to be a general problem. Consider also removing players who fail to live up to these instructions, lowering their creative freedom or training them using PPMs to stop taking so many long shots.

For the opposition, using this page can help analyse your weak points with regard to conceding shots. If most are from long range then this is probably a good thing, but if too many of these long range shots are on target you may need to put more pressure on the opposition by pushing higher up and closing down certain individuals more often. If the shots are from close range, establish how the team were able to get into those positions and make tactical changes to either cut off the supply or more effectively neutralise the shooters.

Passes

Through showing the length and outcome of each pass, it can be easier to decide which players are making too many long passes or which simply are rubbish at passing. Ideally, you want lots of green blobs here. If you don’t, look at what types of pass are being missed. If there is a general problem, try changing passing systems or using shouts to make the team more cautious in possession. Using the replays, you can also see if the problem is being caused by isolation; make sure that all your players have a passing option. If they don’t, consider role, duty and formation changes to add more balance to the attacking shape of the side.

A by-product of the passing chart is that it shows player movement. A midfielder who runs from end to end will have a wide spread of blobs; a centre back holding his position will only have a few blobs concentrated in his own half. Depending on how you want your players to perform, you can adjust roles and duties to make players move around more or less: and work out which players are seeing a lot of the ball and which are not getting involved in the game enough. This is a very useful tool for showing the coverage of your players, and highlighting potential areas for improvement with regard to the balance of the side.

Similarly, you can check which areas of the field the opposition is best exploiting you in. Use opposition instructions on players who see most of the ball, and consider formation, duty or role changes to cover areas of the pitch where the opposition are getting too much space.

Tackles, Fouls and Interceptions

This shows the players on your team making a good defensive contribution. Check where the “green” and “red” tackles are being made, and adjust setting accordingly. A lot of red tackles suggests a player who is poor at making challenges or a player being caught out of position too much. Try reducing tackling intensity or making changes to stop him having to chase back and make risky tackles.

A lot of interceptions suggests good team and player positioning. A lack of them, combined with a lot of missed tackles suggests that the team needs to work harder on retaining its defensive shape. Consider playing more defensively, maybe playing with a more rigid philosophy and reducing tackling intensity and/or closing down.

As for fouls, this goes hand-in-hand with tackles. Bear in mind that the position of the foul can make a difference in the colour of card shown, as can the amount of fouls made by the player during the game. Hovering the mouse over the blob tells you the time of the foul and may enlighten the situation. In professional football, most referees will caution after the third or fourth foul – use this to try to reduce the tackling intensity of repeat offenders or pull them off the pitch before they get themselves in trouble.

Crosses and headers

These two are good for tweaking tactics. Some teams don’t like the crossing game and will get few crosses. If you are getting too many, consider reducing wing play by playing narrower or playing with fewer wide players: or change individual crossing settings to “rarely”. If you aren’t completing enough, ask whether this may be due to poor crossing or poor positioning on the part of the central forwards.

This is where heading can come in. A lot of missed attacking headers may suggest that the team needs to play more crosses and passes on the ground, or that the team needs taller and stronger players. A lot of missed defensive headers suggests an aerial weakness which will need to be addressed, either in the transfer market or by cutting off the aerial supply to the opposition target men. Tactically, you can lower the defensive line, to provide cover behind the opposition target men, or using OIs to mark less tightly the taller players. If you cannot win a direct aerial confrontation, it makes sense to make any potential flick-ons or headers less effective.

The information here is taken from Tactical Theorems ’10, available now for free at FM-Britain.co.uk.