how about a tactics discussion? i don't wanna spew out a load of stuff if nobody is interested.

lol. Sure, but you start. I have some tactics that I apply, but I'm usually scared that I'll fuck things up beyond recognition if I fiddle too much with all the options. (same for training) Currently I'm playing in a completely normal 4-4-2 with attacking winger mids. I rarely change tactics for away matches but I should start to...I notice that I win a lot of games at home and always lose against the stronger teams away. Counter+ long ball it is

For me it's 4-4-2 with two attacking wingers too, with Ajax I played 4-3-3 off course, but with QPR my best players are best suited for 4-4-2, so I stay with that. I don't change tactics for away games either, and I don't have the idea that away matches are more difficult, I seem to win those just as often as home matches.

the differnce playing away is more noticable with a smaller side, as liverpool i had the fire power to mostly win anywhere but with wigan there are a hell of a lot of tough away games, almost eveyone is a battle.

i play 4-3-3 at home, very attacking, and change to either 4-1-3-2 or a kinda 4-1-2-2-1 (based on chelseas real life formation)away, counter attacking, maybe normal ment if its needed. at least 1 DM playing away is vital imho.

i'm messing around with a 3-5-2 at the moment, i don't like playing with just 1 up front away because you get so out numbered, might even use a sweeper. think it could be good with a high def line.also vital to win the midfield battle imo.

wish they would sort the keepers out though, with short passing on defender collect he still keeps punting the damn ball forward. thought the new patch fixed that.

EDIT: just noticed arathorn said about qpr, i'm surprised you dont need to cahnge it away, i get murdered at times.

Well, so do I, but that happens as often at home as away. It's kinda odd, the Championship has a very full schedule, but sometimes I perform better in a string of matches with only three or four resting days between them, then I do in two matches with a week preperation time between.

i know what you mean, that championship schedule is a killer, if you have a small squad with little chance of rotation your in trouble cos half way through the season half the team need a rest.

Heh...in Belgium it's easy...if you don't compete in European football you can easily use one a-team all the time. That's how I finished 7th in the top league with a total weekly wage expense of 15k.

As for tactics: yes, the defenders still fuck up awfully sometimes...I'm often thinking "you ****** ******, how hard is it to ***** stop that *****?!!!", they have serious problems dealing with counter-attacks for example. And don't get me started on keepers. the thing with keepers is that they seem absurdly much affected by morale and form. A keeper in poor form with very poor morale= guaranteed you'll take goals.

Do you guys keep in mind certain stats for certain positions, or do you buy allrounders? I have minimum requirements for every position myself. Defenders MUST have 14 or more for heading, with me. And wingers must be good at dribbling. I love to see them dribble 3-4 ppl in a row. I used to have this player who was a great winger( 15+ crossing, flair, acceleration, pace etc., 20(!) dribbling) but who was completely useless on just about every other stat.He was only useful when attacking but boy, when he attacked he destroyed the opposition's defense. I sold him halfway the season when he was leading the average ratings boards plus most dribbles/match board. (9.8!) Having said that, dribble-wingers get very easily great ratings, a flaw that needs to be taken care of imho.

well, i like good stamina, and teamwork but determination is the big must have for me, cos for instance if a player loses the ball with a high determination stat he will go to win it back, otherwise they just stand there. also good for the forwards to have because if you set them to closing down all over they will get onto the defenders and your defending will start right there.

the defenders can be a pain in the arse, although si have sorted it out somewhat, now when your striker is through on goal a defender will come out of practically nowhere and nick the ball off him. you check the acceleration stats and your striker has like 16 and the defender about 10. very dodgy though the decisions stat may affect that, as your striker wont fanny about in front of goal.

its generally good to have your 2 def on slightly staggered mentalities and closing down(so they dont go for the same ball), though i always set mine on about 1-4 (own area) otherwise they commit themselves to early. i also never set them to tight marking or they will get turned to easily. and set to man mark and give them a scecific man each when the game starts. only trouble with that is when you are facing a front free, then i give the fullbacks the wide strikers, one cb man marking with the other zonal. then you have to worry about the deep running midfielders..

another long one from me..blah..

Great post BJ, good points about the defense. The options in this game are sheer infinite eh.

You're right about the defenders being very dodgy at times...what I hate most is when the enemy launches a long ball, and instead of running towards it to clear it with a header, they run back in order to be able to meet the attacker who's chasing that ball. Know what i mean?

But because I like my defenders big, strong and with good positioning/anticipation I don't have too much problems at the back. My ever-attacking team constantly plays high on the flanks so the opponents use long balls often, which are a piece of cake for my sort of defenders, they just head them back towards the central mids who lay it broad again for the wing players. Works perfectly unless you're playing a team that really puts the pressure on you, in that case my 4 bulky-but-not very agily do get into trouble. If they play through the middle that is, if they put in a lot of crosses they usually head away wave after wave. I love my defense.

As you can see, I play very old-fashioned: classic 4-4-2, classic type of defenders. For me they don't need to be able to dribble anyone, just have to be efficient. If that means a players with crap stats except the ones I think important then so be it. Other players I had made me realize that it works well enough, without paying expensive stars.

Minor note tho: my (attacking) right and left midfielders need to be Giggs-ian. They need to be able to dribble with the best of them, have good acceleration and pace and crossing. Currently Gervinho (left) and Wilhelmsson (right) are a terror for enemy defenses...they can really rip upen flanks and allow the rest of my team to move forward. My two central mids are, by contrast, defensive mids. They do the initial dirty work (professional fouls, ball recuperation) in defense, and when my wingers cut inside they move up for long shots. (something I select them on, too) The two forwards are often nothing but distraction to keep the enemy busy. They usually only score goals on counter-attacks or on crosses from the wing when the central midfielders haven't moved up yet. Oh, and I always make sure to have one striker with great heading and jumping up front, usually complementing a more technical, faster striker. (I never actively use a targetman, however) I call it the Koller-Radzinski syndrom. Does wonders on counter-attacks.

So, my team comes in second this season (which I thought is a major succes), and this is what the Belgian team of the year looks like. (Olympic Charleroi being my team, of course)


Can you say: a tad over the top? Especially since I did finish 10 points behind the champion (Club Brugge) who have only one player on the bench in the team. Bizarro.

I'm having a very weird urge to buy this game.

do it. you like the fantasy football thing so you'll love it.

ox, if youre wingers are the main threat then why not try giving bringing back one striker to the hole , so its a 4-4-1-1 and arrowing the wingers up to the forward positions? (to a 4-2-1-3?) or giving the strikers some funky diagonal runs to pull the defenders out of position for your wingers?

Yeah Suga, buy it! You'll be sucked into it, the detail of this game is absurd. :O You find yourself saying 'just one more game..' everytime you need to to to bed, to work, work on a paper, well do anything really. lol.

And good call BJ...I might pull back one of my strikers then. One has 18 heading (see my previous post) so i'll keep him up front for the crosses, and the more technical one in his back. That should work, theoretically speaking. Meanwhile I'm doing great. Charlton beat me 1-0 in the UEFA cup groups but bleh...need to win home matches anyway.

My young promising youth product Philip Van Tongelen did get injured for 8(!) months, however. Broke his leg.

in my wigan game currently 16 points clear with 12 games to go, scored about 52, conceded just 13.

this with a 4-1-3-2 at home and a 4-2-3-1 away.

at work. i'll post some screen shots later.

oh, and spent a grand total of £618,000 out of the £4.8m budget to get here.

hows your game going ox?

lol, Wigan is busting up the premiership apparently. My game is standing still atm...FM saves your savegames in My Documents, and since they're huge (700mb for mine, hehe) I was having a few HD space issues on my windows-HD. (it's only 8 gig). But all will change when I insert the 120gig one after I finish this paper. Speaking of which, I should get back to it. Later.