FM-Britain - Home Nation Of Football Manager Tactics

DEFENCE Despite the fact that there are four ways to play a diamond formation on FM, the differences between them are few and usually subtle. As a starting point, one thing each of them do have in common is a back four in defence. The defence will generally have more protection in the middle than with a flat 4-4-2, especially […]

Last week Chelsea v Liverpool became the biggest tactical talking point of the season. Liverpool revived the the 3 man defence that Kenny debuted against Stoke. While with the introduction of Torres for £50m Ancellotti was forced to crowbar in El Nino into the side and returned back to his 4-4-2 Diamond which seemed to define his time at AC Milan […]

Last year, I wrote a guide about how to play a simple 4-4-2. One of the major components of that is the back four. In fact, most modern formations build upon four defenders; two full backs and two centre backs. It’s clearly very important to know how to set them up. So - how do you set them up? There […]

When we think about modern football trends, we think about the fall of the 4-4-2, the introduction of inverted wingers and the rise of the 4-5-1. But there is one other tactical rise that seems to have been used with caution with by a few of the top managers, many abandoned just as quickly. Roma have executed the 4-6-0 brilliantly, […]

So much has been said over the past 6 weeks about the death of the 4-4-2, the rise of the 4-2-3-1 and that England would be better to get rid of a formation that has been a stable of its footballing culture for over 30 years. It is also a discussion that even in modern football at the top it […]

The previous article looking into the Lazio system, we laid down the theory of the tactical setup, what each players role was to do in the team and how that would work for the tactics on a whole. We were looking for a good defensive standing with players that could attack quickly on the counter, moving the ball from each […]

The defensive line dictates the starting position of your defence. Some teams will play with high lines looking for the defence join the attack or get the ball high up the pitch. Others will play with a deep line looking to act as a wall between the goal and giving the attack less room behind them to beat them. I […]