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 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 […]

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 through more disciplined defences. What was the solution? Pressure – and lots of it. Tactical Plan v. 3.0 I wanted to stick to the “4-3-3” principal of my […]

I mentioned in the last article that we had some issues with smaller sides; the ones content to sit back and make us break them down. Counter-attacking doesn’t work if the opposition never attack, and so earlier I had created a new system to try and beat the opposition by putting ourselves on the front foot. It didn’t work so […]

If you’ve been following these articles so far, I have set up a counter attacking tactic inspired by José Mourinho and it has beaten Barcelona at home. Not a bad start. However, beating Barcelona requires very different tools to beating Sporting Gijon. If you’ve ever wondered why one week you can beat the best teams and then fail miserably the […]

In the first article I discussed the nuts and bolts of the tactical plan I had set up. Essentially it is a 4-2-3-1 with the left winger withdrawn slightly. It is designed to prevent the opposition from using their possession to any effect, and then when we finally regain the ball we will be in a good position to launch […]

Mihail takes a look at re-creating the Lazio 3-5-2 shape within Football Manager an interesting look at how to create a system that moves from defence to attack quickly and how the players reposition themselves in each phase. The first place to start with any tactical decision building is what football you want to play and the aims of the […]