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Editorials
How Will Jose Mourinho Manage at Real Madrid? (Part 7)
Last time around I showed you the gaping holes in my tactical plan. Against smaller teams, my players were not imposing themselves enough on the game, nor were they able to break...
Strategy
The Midfielder as Centerback
Marcelo Biesla and Josep Guardiola are both managers who play a very high line with their respective sides and who both demand that all players be technically proficient...
Management
Why Squad Gelling Is So Important For Your Football Manager Success
The following conversation between Gareth Millward (Millie) and Jordan Cooper is a transcript from Part 5 of the audio compliment for Communication and Psychological Warfare...
Formations
Understanding the 4-4-2 Diamond
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,...
Players
Building Your Defence: Full Backs
The modern full back is quickly becoming one of the most important players on the team sheet, infact even back in the days of Brian Clough, fat ed' argued that because of the space...
In-Match
From Giant to Underdog: Managing a Bulgarian Powerhouse (Part 3)
After setting the tactics for our team in the previous post, we'll look how they are going to play out in a game situation. Our first friendly will give us a chance to see how our players...
Training
Lessons From Hinckley: Training Schedules
Recent discussions on the forums about training have got me thinking. There seem to be, broadly speaking, two camps. One that likes to sort their training by position alone,...
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The Midfielder as Centerback
Marcelo Biesla and Josep Guardiola are both managers who play a very high line with their respective sides and who both demand that all players be technically proficient with the ball. Part of playing a high line means that there is a lot of space behind the defense and that the defenders have to be somewhat proficient on the ball as a mistake can be fatal. One of the recent developments in the game as of late is for managers like Biesla and Guardiola to feature a midfielder playing in the position of centerback. It has been quite common for midfielders and even strikers to be converted into fullbacks, but is there a significant difference with converting a…
Understanding the 4-4-2 Diamond
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 with the 4-1-3-2 setup. As a trade-off, in a narrow diamond the wingbacks are occasionally under more pressure, while what they offer when bombing down the flank becomes more important, too. Unlike in a flat 4-4-2 where the extent of their wideplay is more often than not to overlap a flank, in a narrow diamond, wingbacks are…
3 at the back and the 4-4-2 Diamond
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 as well as the beginning of his Premier League tenure. The revival of both systems especially the success that Kenny has seen, has caused many of Football Manager gamers to test out such systems within their own game. I have even started my own game with Udinese that has been in an attempt to test out Kenny’s system. The…
How To Set Up A Back Four
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 is certainly no one “right” way to do this. We could talk for hours about all the combinations of centre backs, asymmetric full backs, and the modern “centre half” dropping from midfield. But that is not the point of this article. Here, we just want to know: how do you set up a simple back four? Most four-man defences actually revolve around six defenders. We…