I am really very new to Championship Manager and am still a little green when it comes to tactics, having no manual to work with, if indeed the manual even contains any tactical insights. I have been using downloaded tactics mostly, but wish to start building my own. Given this I was wondering what advice the more experienced players may have to offer on things such as 'with the ball' and 'without the ball' positioning, differences between passing types such as 'direct Vs mixed,' formation types and so on. Any thoughts would me most welcome. :mrpimp:

CM 01/02 is a good place to start building yoyr tactics. As the Coputer AI is ****e the other Mangers very rarely suss out your tactics if they are well made. First of all look at the areas which need strengthening. Wen you've bought and sold then look at creating your first tactic. On CM, 2 and 3 defenders work just aswell as 4. So, if youn have two solid world class defenders you should be fine. I play with 3 at the back just incase. This only works well if your playing against two strikers. A third added into the eqaution can be a nightmare. If you have good wingers use them. They can be essential and create far more goals (even though i dont use them). If you have problems scoring goals add one or two more strikers. Since you can play with two defenders, use the empty positions to give some extra wallop to your strike force.

Hope you get some use off this.

Originally posted by briggzy
CM 01/02 is a good place to start building yoyr tactics. As the Coputer AI is ****e the other Mangers very rarely suss out your tactics if they are well made. First of all look at the areas which need strengthening. Wen you've bought and sold then look at creating your first tactic. On CM, 2 and 3 defenders work just aswell as 4. So, if youn have two solid world class defenders you should be fine. I play with 3 at the back just incase. This only works well if your playing against two strikers. A third added into the eqaution can be a nightmare. If you have good wingers use them. They can be essential and create far more goals (even though i dont use them). If you have problems scoring goals add one or two more strikers. Since you can play with two defenders, use the empty positions to give some extra wallop to your strike force.

Hope you get some use off this.

Thankyou, I will indeed get some use out of that. So, given what you have said about the AI being crap, is it then possible to use a good tactic year after year with the same kind of results or does the tactic become less and less effective with time? Also, regarding squad rotation: Is it better to always start with the same eleven (if their condition form etc. is o.k) or better to rotate players?

Originally posted by The Kop Kid
Thankyou, I will indeed get some use out of that. So, given what you have said about the AI being crap, is it then possible to use a good tactic yresults or does the tactic become less and less effective wear after year with the same kind of ith time? Also, regarding squad rotation: Is it better to always start with the same eleven (if their condition form etc. is o.k) or better to rotate players?

Tactics will eventually get 'cracked' by the AI. After a couple of seasons it will work out the weaknesses in the tactic and you will start to lose a lot of goals from set pieces, near the end of the match etc. The best thing to do probably is rotate 2 tactics- this way they will almost never get cracked.

As for rotating players- it all really depends on the player. If they have under 85% fitness I usually try to not play them until they recover fully. It is also not really a good idea to play young players 40 games a season as they will get tired and it will raise their injury proneness. Having said that I have never really had any problems with young players and I do play them in almost every match unless they have low fitness. But I don't usually play a game for more than 7 seasons so I don't know if I'm seeing the full effects. As for form, if they are constantly playing sixes then you should probably do something about it ie. changing their position in the team or leaving them out completly. If they are playing well however I see no reason to change things.

:)