Alright than, lets get this started, there is not that many dramatic changes ( but that is nothing new ). I see that the slider is more sensative in this version, one notch up or down could be your downfall...or it could be the thing you need to do to win. I see that the defence is harder to manage in this versions game, I am having some trouble with that right now and if anyone has a decent thing going in defence than please do share. I am playing a slow temp short passing 4-2-3-1. The passing is amazing to watch but the defence is having trouble with the toher team. No matter what the opposing palyer somehow manages to get behind my defender and that is a real issue for me. Even playing with 2 DM's I have trouble with counterattacks. I notice that playing with 1 striker and crowding the midfield really works ( 4-5-1, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 ). 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 has been bad for me so far. So basically like FM 06 I can attack the other team with good succes but the defence is still doing doing well for me. If anyone has any hints or tips or just wants to post thier opinons of the tactical side of the game than feel free to do so.

Has anyone played around with training? I am getting a good amount of injures at the moment ( 6 players out :( ). Is anyone else seeing too many players get injured? Add to that there is too many cards in this game, it really sucks to have 6 plays injured and 2-3 more out because of suspension.

Anyway, feel free to post about the tatics and training side of the game.

Same case here, the defence is hard to be good...I got too many goals conceded now.
But I keep changing my tactics to see the result. When the full version is out I'm going to use the best one.

As for training, what do you think about the coach system? there are too many youth coaches and only a few fitst team ones. I have to renew their contract and ask them to be a "coach" instead of a "youth coach".

Same case here, the defence is hard to be good...I got too many goals conceded now.
But I keep changing my tactics to see the result. When the full version is out I'm going to use the best one.

As for training, what do you think about the coach system? there are too many youth coaches and only a few fitst team ones. I have to renew their contract and ask them to be a "coach" instead of a "youth coach".

Yep, I keep changing my tactic aswell.

I dont play with training that much or how many coaches I have, I just want a balanced one that does not case too many injures to my squad.

Weird. I have 4-3-3 (into 4-5-1 in defensive), my favourite tactic since a long time. It is working wonders with Sporting CP. Already in November, and I have no loss right now, even in the Champions League (2 wins and 2 draws in a group with Inter, PSV and Anderlecht is great).

Now, the training...the players ain't growing, dunno.

Weird. I have 4-3-3 (into 4-5-1 in defensive), my favourite tactic since a long time. It is working wonders with Sporting CP. Already in November, and I have no loss right now, even in the Champions League (2 wins and 2 draws in a group with Inter, PSV and Anderlecht is great).

Now, the training...the players ain't growing, dunno.

Interesting, mind sharing what you do for instructions on your defenders?

I have players growing but getting injured at the same time.

Now the injuries are striking, I had my first loss against Inter at their home, 3-1 was the final score, but I held a 2-1 until the last minute, and I had a couple of injuries.

My defenders instructions?

Right-back and left-back: Everything team. Forward runs often, run with ball mixed, long range mixed, through balls mixed, crossing often. One of these has to be more defensive than the other not to ruin the defensive. Against hard teams (like Inter), they are more defensive minded, don't go forward so often, and cross from the 3/4 part of the field. If they don't cross well, then put crossing mixed or low.
Central Defenders: Ultra-defensive, no creative freedom and everything on rarely. If they have good tackling, put hard tackling, but don't overdue it against harder teams. They should always go up in set pieces, they really help.

Don't forget to have a defensive midfielder to help them a bit. (6)

Now the injuries are striking, I had my first loss against Inter at their home, 3-1 was the final score, but I held a 2-1 until the last minute, and I had a couple of injuries.

My defenders instructions?

Right-back and left-back: Everything team. Forward runs often, run with ball mixed, long range mixed, through balls mixed, crossing often. One of these has to be more defensive than the other not to ruin the defensive. Against hard teams (like Inter), they are more defensive minded, don't go forward so often, and cross from the 3/4 part of the field. If they don't cross well, then put crossing mixed or low.
Central Defenders: Ultra-defensive, no creative freedom and everything on rarely. If they have good tackling, put hard tackling, but don't overdue it against harder teams. They should always go up in set pieces, they really help.

Don't forget to have a defensive midfielder to help them a bit. (6)

I see, interesting that you give the CB ultra-defensive, I usually put it to the first tick of normal ( worked wonders in FM 06 ), and I usually have both FB's be balanced which means forward runs to mixed. How high do you set the closing down? I have it to the first click of rarely for my CB's.

I had that as well on the other FM. Still, I have been letting them use the team pressure...which is 2 clicks of often. Risky, but is working so far. Never used the rarely option I used in other FM.

I always prefer having one flank with great activity, so one of FB's is on often forward runs. Only against harden teams they are quite balanced.

Is anyone else finding their defenders out of position constantly.

I've tried dropping them deep, due to lack of pace against the players they are supposed to be marking, but all they do push forward. So, I whacked 'closing down' to its lowest level and now my players get into a mess when the ball gets knocked over the top.

Also the man-marking system is seriously fcuked up. You select a player to man-mark and then computer changes it automatically. Despite the formation and system you are playing.

Its really annoying.

Now the injuries are striking, I had my first loss against Inter at their home, 3-1 was the final score, but I held a 2-1 until the last minute, and I had a couple of injuries.

My defenders instructions?

Right-back and left-back: Everything team. Forward runs often, run with ball mixed, long range mixed, through balls mixed, crossing often. One of these has to be more defensive than the other not to ruin the defensive. Against hard teams (like Inter), they are more defensive minded, don't go forward so often, and cross from the 3/4 part of the field. If they don't cross well, then put crossing mixed or low.
Central Defenders: Ultra-defensive, no creative freedom and everything on rarely. If they have good tackling, put hard tackling, but don't overdue it against harder teams. They should always go up in set pieces, they really help.

Don't forget to have a defensive midfielder to help them a bit. (6)

If you have a competent defender on the ball, then i suggest you give him some short-passing and/or a bit of creative freedom. Normally, I would keep it on normal and keep the passing style, similar to that of the team. If you stick it on the low, he'll tend to play more route 1 and lump it up the field. This of course is no good if you want to build from the back and keep possession. And if you have zero strength and aerial threat upfront, you will find you are going to be in trouble, because its just going to lose you possession.

I should also add that full-back's can be pretty good, but you have to be aware of their limitations. If you play someone like Coloccini as a right back, which is what I did to stop Liverpool getting any crosses in, it makes no sense to have him bomb forward. But on the other side, you can get Cole and Bridge going forward. I would also add, if your players are good at crossing but don't have any pace or dribbling skill, then its quite a good tactic to set crossing to 'deep.' But again, this works well against a very good target man.

Anyone know how to lower the work-load on training?

I put the slider down, and it just goes back up to what i had it on, when I go back to the screen.

Okay, this is really annoying - I've put one down and now it won't go back up. :kader:

Wtf is going on?

edit: that's gay. The moment, I moved one of the values and adjusted the regime, it stayed.

Good posts so far(Y), I dont use the man-makring system as I think its also pretty ****ed up. I know what you mean about defenders getting out of place aswell. Oh and if set short passing to your CB's than be sure he is very good at passing because otherwise you will have him do a weak backpass to the GK which the striker from the other team will pick up and score on your GK...yes like Samuel Kuffor at the WC vs Italy. Thats a pretty high closing down there Johnny, does your defence either get out of position because of it? That is quite risky though. Thanks for the help(Y)

I noticed that if you set passing long and through balls often for a defender who has 15 or higher for passing(like Helguera in my case) he drops in beautiful balls over the top and behind the opponents' defence to your strikers. Really got me alot of chances. This didn't really work in earlier FM versions.

Socrates: So far, nothing. But I will have to try the rarely closing down. I will also try giving more freedom to my defenders. But I notice than when I do this ultra defensive and no freedom "tactic", they tend to do less mistakes.

Yep, man-marking system doesn't work.

Computer won't allow you to specifically set a target to mark - rendering the whole system useless.

Good job - SI.

Do you all use "Tight Marking"?
and should I set 1 of my 2 DC to do closing up often, and the other rarely?

and what is the meaning of "Show Onto Foot" in Opposition Intructions?

Yeah, I would also like to know the show onto foot.

Has anyone been using the Opposition Intructions feature?

After reading everyone posts here I decided to make a tactic that everyone has the same mentality, CF, closing down, and etc. I will report back on how that goes.

Yep, man-marking system doesn't work.

Computer won't allow you to specifically set a target to mark - rendering the whole system useless.

Good job - SI.

When it comes to matchday you can pick specific players/positions to mark, at least you could in 06.

And quite whinging.

When it comes to matchday you can pick specific players/positions to mark, at least you could in 06.


AI changes it. It was a nightmare to get Makelele to man-mark Gerrard out of the game - it kept going back to Alonso for some reason. The whole system alters, meaning that you can't get your natural right back to man-mark the left-winger. Even when the computer scrambles the formation in such a way that the right back chooses to man-mark the CF or DMC instead.

The whole system of specific man-marking is redundant if you can't actually choose who you want to mark'

Do you all use "Tight Marking"?
and should I set 1 of my 2 DC to do closing up often, and the other rarely?


Hmmmm. It depends, they'll need good work-rate and stamina. If your defender is hunk of lumbering crap and can't move pretty well, its best to keep him to not rush into challenges. If your player is quick, strong and has a good work-rate then by all means get him to close down your man. I think Gallas is a good exponent of this.

If you overplay closing down - then you'll find that other players will have more free-space and if the marked player in question has good dribbling and pace, he will destroy your centre-back.

I would use tight-marking if you want to close down the opposition and deny better players at the expense of your defenders having space to build the attack or intercept anything.

As a rule of thumb, I wouldn't set one of my defenders to closing down. Mainly because I like to have them as intertwined as possible. However it can be useful to negate one of them to a player who can be over-ran by a good defender closing them down.

I often think a sweeper/liberio system is quite useful for this... Especially if you push them forward and get them hitting balls into the midfield.

After a really ****ty start to the season I switched to a 4-3-3 and I've been unbeaten with Liverpool throughout September and October. I didn't even really play around with individual settings too much.

I'm playing a fairly stereotypical 4-4-2 at the moment and it's working out - won all 8 of my first 8 league games, and I've scored 15/conceded 0. Not played against any of the bigger teams yet (except Marseille, who I beat 1-0) so I'll give it a while and then look at it again.

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/2866/6ot8.jpg

I'm playing a fairly stereotypical 4-4-2 at the moment and it's working out - won all 8 of my first 8 league games, and I've scored 15/conceded 0. Not played against any of the bigger teams yet (except Marseille, who I beat 1-0) so I'll give it a while and then look at it again.

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/2866/6ot8.jpg
*little bit off topic*
I got no David Bellion in my game when I start with large db...
should we select many more leagues in order to have more players?

*little bit off topic*
I got no David Bellion in my game when I start with large db...
should we select many more leagues in order to have more players?

Up to you- he's not really a great loss to you. (he would be to me though, cracking player) I selected French, English, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Swedish and Finnish leagues on Medium database.

and what is the meaning of "Show Onto Foot" in Opposition Intructions?

"Show onto foot" means you try and force a player to use a specific foot. Like if you were playing against John Arne Riise, show him onto his right foot as it's no way near as strong as his left.

I'm determined to get a 3-5-2 formation to work in this game - well i've adapted it to be more of a 3-3-1-2-1. And so far it doesnt seem to be that bad at all, beat Chelsea 3-1 with it, but also lost 1-0 to Olympiakos at home :/

To start with i had Rooney upfront with Toni, but i found that there was this huge gap between the midfield and the strikers, so pulling him back into AM with CR has done wonders to link the play.

My initial problem was that would CR really be as effective in the middle as on the wing, but he seems to be doing fantastic so far. Disappointed with Toni though; doesn't seem to be performing as the target man id've liked.

http://www.soccergaming.tv/attachment.php?attachmentid=129748&stc=1

Comments?

The computer changes player positions frequently like every couple of minutes so theres no point man marking because players will come out of there positions.

A team like Man Utd will have players swapping positions frequently.

Man-marking is really only best left to the lower leagues, where the rigour is 4-4-2.

If you play 3-5-2, then the system pratically requires zonal marking. Something like a flat-back four could do well to stop a front four with some man-marking. The problem I've found with this though, is that its very hard to negate an attacking full-back. In theory its a great little system whereby you can exploit this space, however you give your opposition too much time on the ball, and allow him to attack you in different ways.

I often use man-marking within a zonal system to negate a key player in their side. So for instance if I played against that above Manure formation, I would look to shut down Rooney and Ronaldo with two DMC's and have their wing-backs closed down by my fullbacks. I think a 4-2-2-2 would be quite a effective with some creative wide players on the flanks and a pacey front duo dropping deep.

I'm bored of having a go at the lower leagues, I think I'm going to go and manage Celtic and see what the state of play is over there.

I actually am so tempted to take charge of PSG as well, however I don't think I could rise to that particualr challenge just yet.

Btw: Has anyone managed to sign Palacio yet? Boca keep rejected my bids.