Tactics Tactics are the hit thing with FM2006, so many people want the tactic that will dominate all scoring loads and conceding little, we all look for it, some of us create it and some just well aren't ever going to be good at it. I created a tactic with amazing feedback, i will probably add them to this later on though admittedly reading over this i have found a few flaws and bugs i can change to improve my tactic greatly.

The Tactic Settings

The Tactic Settings i am going to explain the basic principles of creating your own tactic.

Formations

Formations are the starting point in creating any tactic, personally i prefer a 4-1-2-1-2 Diamond, its not the best but its my favorite, if your trying to create an overall tactic then go for your favorite style, if your going for a specific team go over the team, look threw the who plays where i created, see who you think suits each position and if they have the right amount of players. There's no point creating a tactic for 2 defensive midfielder if you only have the one, or two even, you should always have a substitute you can use in case of an injury. A common all round formation is the 4-4-2 If anybody has to do runs make sure its either from or two their position, otherwise the will never play where they are best, if you have them running out from their position at least they play there some of the time.

In the team instructions settings there are many sliders, i will explain them and what i believe can be more useful for home or away.

Multiple Tactic System

Myself and a few others i have seen follow the multiple tactic system, this is generally 4 tactics, home, away, attacking and defend lead, so it covers all occasions. Some people use a 3 way with i do not recommend because there is a chance you will have to chance it to something you have at some point, you don't wont to sit around wasting time. With a four way base the attacking on the home tactic but give more farrows and forward runs. For the defend lead get rid of any farrows and sarrow the strikers if your using two, also for defend lead set the passing focus to down the flanks. This is a fairly balanced out system, it also prevents what a lot of people suffer called AI “cracking”. This is where in the second season the rival teams work our your tactic and counteract it, some people do not like this, personally to me it adds realism.

Mentality

Mentality has four areas, i personally leave it on 10 (default) and set them to the individual players, if individual players are changed the team instructions settings has no effect at all and is there for useless if changed.

• Ultra Defensive – Rarely will people use this mentality, it isn't accessible in the individual player instructions, the team will be looking to run back and not even slightly intend to attack this is extremely useless. Also if this is set all individual mentality's will be overrun.

• Defensive – Defensive can be good but its better set as a individual mentality instead of a team mentality, players will be looking to stay back more, this option is best with counter-attack ticked.
  

• Normal – Normal is what it is, neither defensive or attacking, if i choose a team mentality it would be between normal and attacking so two notches in, this can make it that bit more defensive but attack minded.

• Attacking – This is the more popular style moving forward more and trying to score a goal most of the passes will be to somebody in front.

• All Out Attack – Another mentality that overrides player mentality, this is just going forward for basically everybody, don't be surprised to see your goalkeeper trying to score, it leaves the back of the formation wide open so much you wouldn't even think you had defenders.

Individual Mentality's

If you wont to use individual mentality's and not a team global one you have to decide on who will be what mentality etc. I generally use the below and work it for the tactic i am using. This is a lot similar to the ROT system.

• Goalkeeper – 2 (if a sweeper is used) - 4 (if no sweeper is used)

• Sweeper - 4

• Central Defender – 6

• Defensive midfielder – 8

• Wing Back – 10 (Home) – 8 (Away) – 6 (Defend Lead)

• MR/L – 12

• AMR/L – 14

• ST – 16

The reason why the wingback is 10 at the moment is for home games, for away games the wing back would be 8 and defend lead dropped to 6. The reason for this is because in home games you wont your wingback's to go forward a bit using their crossing and trying to help, this isn't as recommended at away games because the opposition is using slightly more attacking aggressive tactic and they will exploit holes. One of the main attacks and favorite things for the opposition wingers and strikers is to go behind your wing backs when they are forward.

Creative Freedom

Creative freedom isn't linked to creativity before people get confused, creative freedom is what you allow your players to do, for example a very high creative freedom setting for a defender, you would probably see him trying to run up the pitch and bang it in. Although this is a good thing for strikers and attacking players to much can lead to out of positioning. Another example is a 4-4-2, to use creative freedom accordingly you would have 1 striker with high and the other with low, the low creative freedom striker would stay close to his main starting point waiting for the ball, the higher to me is a lot like Rooney, running back down to help the mid get the ball and get it back up there. But if there both over creative freedom they would both be running back down there to get it, they receive the ball and thats it, no one to pass to ahead of them because they are meant to be at the front, this is why the better tacticians use it accordingly with one on high and the other a bit lower.

• Low Creative Freedom – Striking to their position not going to far out, more ideal for defenders and goal keeper.

• Normal Creative Freedom – This is more they will do it when they want type attitude for the players, but you shouldn't risk this with defenders, having a defender say to him self “o i will just run all the way up there” isn't very reassuring or realistic.

• High Creative Freedom – Moving about trying to exploit more holes and positions to gain an attack. Downside is they will move out of their set position on the formation.

Passing Style

Passing style should be different up the pitch to have a more unpredictable approach, the lesser skilled passers should be using more direct passing to the nearest unmarked man, towards the front it should move down to mixed and then shorter with the better passers, personally i never go all the way to short, just the notch above, i wont my higher up players to have some freedom in how they get the ball across the pitch.

• Mixed - Your players will attempt all styles of passing, short passing, mixed passing, direct passing and long passing. This is also what i have most of my players on but a few notches to short. I don't want my player having to risk a stupid pass because i wont him to pass a certain style.
  

• Short - Your players will just pass the ball to the closest player that isn’t marked. It is basic in a sense but hard unless your players are good passers, the shorter it gets the more one touch style football is created.
  

• Direct - Very good for a counter-attack style tactic as it gets the ball up to the front faster, personally i keep my defenders on direct and never put any other players on direct, direct means he will pass it to the guy in the next zone, for example defense to midfielders, midfielder to striker, as good as it sounds keeping possession isn't an easier task and the ball can be easily lost.
  

• Long - Possession is lost even easier here, your players will hoof it down the pitch aimlessly it may as well be over most peoples heads, i do not remember somebody using this to an effect.

Tempo

I have had many, many discussions on this, basically tempo is how fast the ball will move up the pitch and how fast the team will look to make the attack.

• Slow Tempo – Passing the ball around more to the sides creating an attack slower, this is more patient build up and works better at home with counter-attack turned off.

• Normal Tempo – Not quite fast or slow, not many people use this as it can be counter acted by high or slow tempo.

• High Tempo – Is more designed for away games, the ball will likely reach the striker with in a couple of passes, this is why it is better at away games as counter-attacking style couldn't work if you pass the ball around when there's an opening. Be warned, a lot of teams can't keep this up for the full 90 minutes.

Width

Width is how wide your team play and spread across the pitch and taking up more of the pitch or less of it. This can also depend on what formation you are playing. If you have wingers on then set this to wide so that they are well used. However, if you are using a more linear formation setting this to Narrow may be the better option.

• Narrow – Narrow is when you wont your defensive unit to stay tight, this is more for a counter-attacking style and is certainly more useful in away games.

• Normal – This is fine to use, personally i go with narrow away and home wide, some people now tend to notch it two spaces to either side so its not to wide and not to narrow so i recommend this more but slightly on either side.

• Wide – A wide formation is more for home, spreading out over the pitch taking up more space and opening more exploits, this isn't recommended much for away games because to many gaps are left open for the opposing strikers.

Closing Down

This is how much your team will “press” the opposition, trying to get the ball. While some think this is a great idea it pulls players out of their original position, that is why i recommend having a very low closing down on defenders for away and just below 10 for home games. Defensive midfielders, if used should be the highest closing down out of your team around 14/15 and cutting down opposition before it reaches your defense. Another thing i advise is a high closing down on one of your strikers if your using two, he will close down on their defenders when they have the ball and make the make quick passes which could lead to an error and you gaining the ball in their area.

• Low Closing Down – This means the players will put them selfs between the ball and the goal and stand there till they are being taken on. This is good for keeping certain players in position when defending.
  

• Normal Closing Down - This will allow the player to decide when to press, this is good if you have a player that isn't to offsenive and isn't to defensive either, but if the decision attribute is poor this will cause alot of problems.
  

• High Closing Down – Pressing the opposition running at them trying to gain the ball, this will bring players out of position and tire down players if used a lot.

Time Wasting

There are a lot of arguments here for time wasting, time wasting is how how quickly the player will attempt to get rid of the ball and in theory this has nothing to do with tempo. For example, low time wasting assumes that the player will get rid of the ball as soon as possible which may result in a poor pass or a missed opportunity. A higher time wasting makes players think about their pass and don't rush to kick the ball away. I believe for home a time wasting of 10 and away the half way notch between normal and often or the first notch of often, these have provided best results so far.

• Rarely Time Wasting – Never should it be on this, it is rushing the ball away from the player fast, he probably wont even think about the pass he is going to make.

• Normal Time Wasting – My preference for home games, this lets them time waste when they feel best and feel like it, it wont hurry them to much or make them take to long on making the pass.

• Often Time Wasting – This is recommended for away games, this gives players more time to think about the pass they are going to make which is more important when not at home and i believe 14 is a good number to use.

Defensive Line

Also called the D-Line, this is how far back or forward your defense move to, imagine moving your defenders up to the defensive mid position but everybody else staying near their true position. Its how high your defense move, higher defensive lines attempt to break the oppositions attack before it gets closer to the goal, it can cut down on the amount of decent shots the opponents take and also the user could try the offside trap. With all that positive about the high d-line, if they got fast players and your defense aren't your stuffed. A deep d-line is nicer for countering the opposition drawing them in and hitting on the break. To use a 5/5 system so 5 defense mentality and 5 attacking, put the d-line to the mentality of the most attacking midfielder.

• Deep D-Line – Draws opposition in, less chance of defenders being out run, can sometimes be asking for an attack to be made so it can be bad for you but if it works you can pull of the counter.
  

• Normal D-Line – I prefer to use this away normally, this will be a distance between defense and midfielders at an average amount.
  

• High D-Line – What most people prefer for home and away, this is what i generally use for home if i have to choose or notch 12 which is a bit higher but not exactly pushing up, good for breaking their attack early and using the offside trap.

Tackling

Tackling is a straight forward instruction, easy for friendly etc to cut down on most injury's and up it when its a normal game. It is basically the mentality of the player for tackling, for example easy means tackle if you know you got a fair chance of winning, normal if you wont the players to try and win even if they don't have great odds, and hard means go all out and rough them up a bit as well. One more thing to remember is Referees, some give out more card then others, if you click on the referee you can find him in an officials section, if he gives a lot of red cards then you can expect to get some if your using hard tackling. Pick players who have high agression and tackling stats to be on Hard. This will ensure only your best tacklers are going in hard to get the ball and will be more likely to succeed.

• Easy – For friendlies, players such as strikers etc that aren't very good tacklers or told to tackle much.

• Normal – This is for most players on the pitch and what i use for most of the time my back four or my back central defenders.

• Hard – I use this on my defensive midfielder and sometimes my wing backs, it also acts as a roughing up type job as it can hurt other players moral slightly and a good chance of injuring them.

Focus Passing

This is to choose where the ball is focused on being played, from everywhere, down the wings etc, the most common and probably best choice is mixed. This setting is similar to the width. If you have wingers on then set this to wide so that they are well used. However, if you are using a more linear formation setting this to Narrow may be the better option.

• Through The Middle – Your team will pass this down the center, this can be useful when trying a narrow approach.

• Down Both Flanks – This will be getting your ball to your wing backs and wingers a lot more, i tend to use this on a hard counter or for defending a lead.

• Down Left/Right Flank – This means down the flanks but a set flank, this is very suicidal, if you try this you may as well not play.

• Mixed – The team will mix everything up and look to pass at all places, i always use this for home and most of the time for away unless i am on a desperate counter.

Marking

This is how you mark your opposing team, whether to guy by each man individually or stay in a certain area, i choose everybody on my team with zonal.

• Zonal – This is where you guy sticks to his zone when not doing a task such as pressing or running with the ball.

• Man – Each man will get a player and mark him, this is not a good idea even for the defenders it is bad, if you man mark a striker of there's they change formation and swap it over so its one striker, your going to be marking what a defender?

Target Man Supply

I don't use one striker and when i do i don't use a target man as i think it takes away some of the attack capabilities.

• Run To Ball – This is for players with more good acceleration, pace, dribbling and fairly decent strength.

• Ball To Feet – This is for strikers who hold up the ball, have good strength like before fairly good dribbling with technique.

• Ball To Head – This is where the ball will be crossed in aiming to get on the strikers head, the best attributes for this are, jumping, strength, heading, off the ball and finishing.

Extra Settings

• Tight Marking – This tells your men to mark a player tightly when he is in his zone or at all times with man marking, my personal preference is everybody on zonal marking with the central defenders on tight marking.

• Play Offside – As i said before this is suited with a higher defensive line, if your back for have great team work positioning and are exceptionally fast and have been working together for quite some time try it, some teams use it to great effect if done correctly.

• Counter Attack – Counter attack should be on for away games or defending the lead, although it lowers your possession overall it gives you the chance to hit them on the break by spreading the play, this works best with faster strikers and midfielders. Turning this on will tell your team to sit back and absorb the pressure but when they get the ball they will attack with pace and try to catch the opposition out, that is why its advised for away games.

• Use Playmaker – I don't use this anymore but i did used to and it worked very well, it tells the squad to get the ball to this guy so he can make the killer or important pass. I cant fully remember the tactic but i had one guy in the middle with everybody around him evenly spaced out, he was set as the Play maker and this worked to a great effect he always made a decent pass.

• Use Target Man – Just like the Play maker your team aims to get the ball to him, this is generally a better tactic if you have a single striker, remember to use the above settings on how to get him the ball if you decide to use it.

Individual Extra Settings

• Hold Up Ball - Hold up ball will tell the player that when he gains the ball, to try and keep it longer then most. This is useful if trying to allow other players to get more involved. This is most commonly used on strikers, if a striker has got the ball if there is nobody in the area, he will attempt to dribble it around until somebody is available to receive the pass or to let them get in better position for a shot in goal. As good as this sounds this can cause a lot of problems if a lot of people in the team use this, also if you decide to allow this option on somebody, consider changing their run with the ball to often. The main attributes for using this effectively are Strength, Decisions, Passing and a lower Pace. A low Pace is not vital but the player will be more comfortable holding onto the ball.

• Free Role - In a sense this means free roaming. A free role will allow the player to decide where he goes on the pitch, this can sometimes be useful but more often then not cause problems. You create a formation for a reason, what would be the point in giving out free role's to people if you wont your formation to keep shape and position. Most people like to give this to an AMC they passes onto two strikers, a nice idea but where is the AMC when another player has the ball and needs to make a good pass to the middle? The AMC is down the flanks somewhere doing god knows what and not doing the team any favors. I do not recommend using this but a player with high stats in creativity and flair may shine in a free role.

• Defensive Midfielder Free Role - With this he will cover alot of the pitch trying to gain the ball back, if you prefer your DMC to stay in position it is best to leave this off.

• Attacking Midfielder Free Role - This will allow him to roam all over the pitch for space, as good as it sounds im not keen on this, i like my AMC doing a specific thing which i have used in my next tactic. But for other midfielders such as wingers this can help in exploiting space and cutting in more.

• Striker Free Role - This will make him drop back to midfield and use the flanks more, a little bit like a rooney effect.

• Tight Marking - Although i have explained this for team settings it is more important for individuals, tight marking works like man marking, except the player will not mark him at all times. This can be very effective for the defense of your team, a tight marking central defender will follow anybody closely he goes in his "zone" and he will be able to try and mark them out and will be better positioned if a cross is made to the opposing striker. Unfortunately, tight marking can give certain players a problem, if tight marking is used on a DL/R their is a higher chance that the winger will beat the wing back and make a good pass or run, a better explanation of this would be if a man is standing next to somebody who receives the ball theres a better chance the winger will out maneuver the wing back or side defender. If the defender is a small distance away from the winger, this will allow him to close in and try to beat him to the ball. Tight Marking is a personal preference and some people.

Player Instructions

The below settings should follow the before premise of premiership should use 15+ of these attributes etc and so forth. With hold up ball settings, note its not always a good idea to have more then one player in that area using that command.

• Wing Back – Pace, Positioning, Stamina – Forwards Runs Often

• Wing Back - Dribbling, Positioning, Stamina, Crossing – Run With Ball Often

• Defensive Midfielder - Strength, Decisions, Passing – Hold Up Ball Winger – Forward Runs Often

• Winger - Dribbling, Pace – Run With Ball Often Midfielder - Strength, Decisions, Passing - Hold Up Ball

• Midfielder - Stamina, Decisions - Forward Runs Midfielder - Dribbling, Pace - Run With Ball

• Attacker - Strength, Jumping - Run With Ball Attacker - Dribbling, Pace – Hold Up Ball

Settings Explanation

• Forward Runs - Forward runs means how often the player should run forward up the pitch, this is fairly easy to decide and i have put the basics above. Pick players carefully, players with high Anticipation, Positioning as well as Pace, Acceleration and Natural Fitness will be suited to this role.

• Run With the Ball - This is how often the ball will run with the ball instead of attempting to make a pass, this is generally a setting for wingers and strikers and useful if hold up ball is also turned on. Players with high pace and dribbling stats are the obvious choices.

• Long Shots - How often your players will attempt a shot on goal from distance, i recommend only the odd player with these on mixed, and everybody else on rarely, possession can be lost and poor balls will often be made if a lot of players have this on.

• Through Balls - This is how often a player will attempt to pass the ball down the middle, the best example of this position would be an AMC, when he gets the ball he passes it through to both of the strikers, he doesn't run out of the area and decide to try and cross it in. Players down the center of the pitch should use this more often. The main stats to look out for in a player to be set onto Often would be passing and creativity.

• Cross Ball - How often a player will attempt to cross the ball in, this is an important settings for wingers and wing backs and shouldn't be used on players down the center of the pitch. To succesfully play a cross field ball they will require high stats in passing, crossing and composure.

Crossing From Settings

Some people have different opinions about this i tend to generally follow mixed everything, but some people seem to prefer:

• Wing Backs - Cross From Deep

• Wingers - Cross From Byline

• Strikers - Cross From Byline

• Everybody Else - Cross From Mixed

• Deep - Deep means he will not attempt to run around the oposing player before he attempts to make a cross.

• Byline - This means he will aim to move around the oposing players & full backs before attempting the cross.

Crossing from deep will prevent your player needing to get past the opposition full backs but crosses from the byline are often harder for the opposition goalkeeper to collect. As i said, i prefer to keep everything on mixed, this way if a better opportunity arises the player can take it.

Cross Aim Settings

This is to tell the player (likely a winger or wing back) where to cross the ball to.

• Mixed - This is the best option, this will allow the player to cross the ball where he feels necessary.

• Far Post - This is good if you plan on somebody going into the goal area to recieve the ball, this probably wont ever help.

• Near Post - This is good if you plan on somebody going into the goal area to recieve the ball, this probably wont ever help.

• Center - This is good if you have a few players in the middle of the pitch and their goal, do not try this if your midfield and attacking area is lacking a good amount of people.

Goalkeeper Distribution

This setting will tell your goalkeeper how to play the ball back into play. Long Kick is a good option to select if your midfielders are particularly good at heading/jumping and are also determined. If you would rather build up play from your defense, quick throw and defender collect would be wiser choices.

• Mixed - A mix of everything below (tends to choose long kick).

• Quick Throw - A quick throw to the nearest un marked player.

• Long Kick - This is a kick straight up to the midfield area, this is not very wise.

• Defender Collect - A roll to a defender or to stay back and allow the defender to collect the ball.

Closing Down & Creative Freedom

Logic suggests that if you wont an even balance down the pitch you must give this out accordingly, for example every creative player should have somebody on the pitch less creative with more closing down, for every attacking player, a defending one, and this is how you should give out the above settings. It follows this pattern. Defensive Midfielder: Closing Down to First Notch of Often Attacking Midfielder: Creative Freedom to First Notch of Often

Overlapping Idea

An idea used in football a lot is the overlapping runs. These can be fairly easy to achieve in the game and good work very well, but your team must have wingers and wing backs with high positioning etc. If they do not this will not work and you won't pull it off. The easiest way to try this is to set your wingback's runs to often and drop your wingers to either mixed or maybe even rarely, this will allow the winger to get the ball and while the wingback runs past him and past the opposing wingback's the ball will be passed to him. A wingback must have forward runs often and have a fairly high mentality for a defender to get it to work.

Home & Away Difference

The reason why there are different tactics for home and away is because the game effects it like in real life, for example in an away game the home team will have the crowd behind them etc. This is why the away game is more defensive with a narrow high time wasting approach, because the crowd are pumping there team to attack more and you generally cant fight a scoring war away.

Swap position

This will ask the players to swap position and take over each others role. There isn't a huge variety of things avaliable to do here.

Team Talk

Team talks are very important and there are a few simple rules if you wont to keep things simple but quite correct. One thing to note is never say i expect this from you every week, this will lower team morale quite a lot and this can cost you. Also, don't put delighted at a players performance or overall team performance if the team you are facing and nowhere near as good as you, for a start it makes them a bit big headed, it also makes them play poorly in the following games against good teams.

Half Time

• Any Match Status – Above 7 - Good Mood - Pleased

• Any Match Status – Above 7 - Poor Mood – Delighted – Cheer them up by the performance

• Any Match Status – Below 7 - Any Mood - Encourage Playing Better

• Played Better, not winning – Sympathize With The Team

Full Time

• Any Match Status – Above 7 - Good Mood - Pleased

• Any Match Status – Above 9 – Any Mood - Delighted

• Any Match Status – Below 7 - Any Mood – Disappointed

• Any Match Status – Below 5 - Any Mood – Angry

• Played Better, Didn't Win – Sympathize With The Team

Don't forget your commenting on the teams player rating, not the overall score, if the player rating is good it means the team is doing well regardless of the score, so don't jump to angry or disappointed team talks. Please note if you do to many individual talks, which ever talk prevails for example most of the players are on pleased the odd player disappointed the overall team will get more pleased then bad.

Facing 10 Men

If somebody has been set off, don't let this opportunity get away from you, if your wining then change to a more defensive form, slowing the tempo, counter attacking and maybe focusing your passing down the flanks. If your winning go wider in your formation, especially if they are now using 3 at the back like Manchester United does, then use this by making it wider, this will bring the defenders more out of position, push your wingback's up slightly, this will give them a better chance of escaping the oppositions midfield area. Also consider passing down the flanks again with home, although this tactic is meant for away games or when trying to defend a lead, with the width and being past the midfield area this can come to a huge advantage. Along with playing wider you can play deeper which spreads out the area even more in which the game is played thus stretches the 10 opposition players even more creating more gaps for your players to exploit.

During Match Tactics

The most obvious tactics you can employ is a higher attack or a defending a lead style tactics, this is all good and well but the opposition might be playing you into that. Watch the game in full if your losing and not key, this will give a better understanding of whats going on and where the problem lies. If for example the oppositions defense is staying put and are really tight consider making the formation wider, this will allow you to pull them out of position. If strikers keep making quick breaks threw your defense consider lowing the defensive line and changing the marking style to tight marking. Tight marking is practically the same as man marking, it will stick close to a guy like he does in man marking, but the same problems wont arise such as marking the wrong man.

In game commentary

This is also a good way to see who is doing what etc. If you get a comment such as ... is winning the ball in the air and other comments, this will give you an idea of whats happening. If you get a comment like that but of the opposing team, consider dropping your striker a little or even turning of ball to head if the target man option has been chosen.