FM-Britain - Home Nation Of Football Manager Tactics

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, […]

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 […]

Given the fact that I have players, which don’t possess the all-round skill to transition between the phases well enough, I think it’ll be more productive to stick to rigid type of players positioning and movement on the pitch. With such a formation, the separated lines should have enough cover between them just because they are in pairs and more imporatantly – […]

Editors note: Cagiva once again has produced a work of great tactical analysis of his current game. This time he manages in his home country of Bulgaria where he takes on a team with huge expectations in their domestic competitions - but in Europe are seen as the underdogs. He will show how he balances these two expectations tactically. Here is […]

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 […]

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 […]