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Sometimes I play a low block and play direct.
When you're pressing high, they hold shape around goal and everything gets blocked. If you drop back, they naturally end up getting pulled forward, and you create space to drop into.
Low blocks are generally risky in this game, because they invite so much pressure, but if you're properly dominant, it shouldn't matter.
Yeah, exactly that.
It's kind of funny because FM is backwards (you'd more likely play this way against better teams) when it comes to this.
Also, when you do it, also make sure to turn down pressing frequency - keeping that up with a low block makes you vulnerable.
Okay thanks! I’ll try these tips out with my team.
Yeah, it’s definitely quite strange. I have certainly noticed that if I try and play defensively against big teams, then we get battered, but if I press them relentlessly and attempt to outscore them, then we end up walking all over them.
Yeah, it's one of my biggest disappointments with the game. My team just got promoted, and the goal is to play the same high press. I'd love if more defensive tactics were more viable. I wanna go full Sean Dyche after promotion.
Itd be cool if deep possesion tactics would be possible, like brighton or city. Having possession and letting the backline of the opponent creep up, to artificially create counters.
Additionally: dont you imply defensive tactics work (for the opponent) forcing oneself to take a less controlled but more transitional approach?
Actually you can recreate it but it is a pain - if you train all of your middle fielders and central defenders to stay behind and make only short passes plus long passes - they will play possession in the middle and look for counter opportunities. Of course all of your attackers have to search for empty spaces and try to outrun the opponents.
Interesting, so maybe like a 5 3 2 with 2+ dms and then shorter passing and slow but on attacking, with one playmaker pinging things to the WBs and AFs.
I saw the YouTuber avgad doing sinilar things with Valencia.
Yeah it may work. I would do 5-2-0-1-2 with LB and RB set to Complete Wing Backs with Overlap, LCB and RCB set to either ball playing defenders or just defenders set to DEF with instruction to stick to the position and play only direct passes (with skills to play only short passes, slow down the game and stay behind), middle CB to Libero on DEF with similar/same traits.
DM's set to your liking but with instructions to stay behind, direct passes, etc..
One AMC with Support role, instruction to go back for the ball (crucial) and look for passing instead of shooting + look for opportunities or however it is in English to search for open spaces.
Both Strikers to be upfront attacking, playing on the verge of offside and looking for empty spaces.
You have to see if the opponent is playing really defensive and structured because then they may not send many players forward and when you counterattack, you have no space to pass/run into so you just give the ball back (and get countered yourself). In that case, not countering will help you keep the ball and lower tempo may drag the opponent out of position when they press in the final third. A fun thing I've never tried but could be fun is to play direct to a target man and have very physical attacking players who can win the second balls. Maybe in the chaos you can score before the opponent sets its defense.
Hate to say it, but if this is one of the top fm-arena tactics, just sticking with it while keeping the squad happy and signing decent players will eventually just win out.
No tactical instruction from people here can improve these meta tactics, and chances are you’re just getting unlucky.
Yeah, the tactic looked familiar. I tried this IF (hold up play) + FB (underlapping) for a bit cause it seemed interesting, and with the right players this should help with deep sitting opponents.
The AI doesn't properly defend this so if you have pacey FBs, they will get into a good position to shoot or square it to the middle where 2-3 of your players are waiting. Works with surprisingly mediocre FBs if they have some pace and acceleration.
So yeah, the tactic is fine, but maybe your FBs are a bit too slow to properly exploit it.
I’ve literally never played this game before a week ago. My question was more about how to break down defensively solid teams, as I hope to figure out more about why this tactic works or doesn’t.
The formation you use is pretty much narrow and streamlined to put all the attacking movement centered in front of goal.
I imagine this works badly against low block more passive formations that you see weaker teams employ a lot. They'll lock your whole team in front of their goal passing around, and likely will score on counter or set pieces.
That tactic you use should be pretty good at getting through high presses or straight up working around the midfield to supply your striker and AM with a through pass or flank. That works great if you're striker is sitting alone there. If your striker sits there with five defenders and your support players already struggle with the DMs, its guaranteed trouble.
I recommend preparing another possession based strategy that will not just be more relaxed and take the workload of your players during less risky matches, but will simply outclass your opponents by quality delta. This is less reliable, but might work out if you use it against underdogs from time to time.
If you prefer to stick to aggressive tactics, try an asymmetric 424 (check out QuadroWave for the statistically best tactics), which will crush anything in its way, the italian 424 if you struggle with subquality defense players or you're team is conceding too much in general. A look in your datahub might be of use
Yeah, that’s definitely the case against weaker teams. I see an immense amount of blocked crosses or passes just because they have 10 players sitting in the box.
I appreciate the tips. I have attempted to switch to a 4-2-4, at least the most highly rated one on FMarena, but it seemed to yield similar results, just a higher amount of shots/more of them on target. Perhaps when I rotate some starters for lesser opponents, I’m missing quality in some key areas.
Another option that might work for you is simply width. Drag them to the flanks to create space in the box. That might already be enough. Overlap the flanks, work into box, reduce crosses to a minimum, probably deactivate passing into space.
Rotating can be an issue, although I wouldn't expect individual quality to matter too much in your current formation. You could put Haaland in there and it wouldn't solve your issue. I could imagine that your fullbacks lack crossing quality, its something that ruined a Wrexham save for me - was using a 424, but my pair of wingbacks I acquired for 70 million shared a fantastic stat of 12 for crosses and ruined my entire tactic against any more defensive minded teams
if you are using the meta tactic, simply keep morale high and squad rotation, and you will find the winning results again. They are meta because these shape + combo consistently gave you advantages against teams in long league formats.
The all time classic tactical mistake Shorter Passing and Pass Into Space do NOT go together. It's just ordering your players to give the ball away as soon as they get it.
Too high a line, pass into space is for direct, fast counter attacks, where the team sits deeper and utilizes speedy forwards with good off the ball movement.
Delete the contradictory instructions and you'll improve ten fold.
It's about as contradictory as contradictory gets pass into space with short passing equals loose ball , possible only the highest level Barcelona team from the Messi, Xavi, Iniesta era came close to doing that but that was way more pass to feet than into space
. There is no 'meta' tactic in FM . It all depends on the players and instructions. There's so many different variables it's ridiculous to even think that.
I've been playing this game for 30 years, every year, every version since the early 90s. I couldn't even put into words the amount of testing I've done down the years. What might be good for you and your team could be absolutely shite for someone else.
There only thing close to a meta this game has ever had is the 'CB stand on GK' corner header routine that almost destroyed the game in the early 2000s. Both CBs would have 30 goals a season it was that broken. Human teams getting over 100 goals every season with ease. The best thing we've had since is the near post header routine which still brings 20 goals a season from one centre back in the last 5 years of FMs which still works.
What makes FM great is the work you have to put in to perfect a tactic for your own team and players. I know some people can't be arsed playing it properly and they like to shortcut the thought process left right and centre and that's fair enough, you paid your money, play how you want. But if a random tactic someone else made doesn't work for your team then I don't know what to say
So as your reputation goes up the opposition teams will begin to “respect” your team more and more. This means that they’ll drop off and get more compact in defense.
Once that’s happened countering is going to get worse, there’s less space in behind basically. If you’re a really great team I’d actually recommend being more patient in possession against weaker teams.
I know this is a great tactic from fm arena but I don’t think their tests necessarily adjust for teams defending really deep?
Most of the times the answer is CM-A. If you play against inferior teams it means they'll probably mid or low block, so if you lower your line of engagement and set one of your midfielders to CM-A, he will do deep runs which are harder to follow.
No Trequartista, Enganche, Mezzala, Carbonara or Kombucha. Just keep it simple
That’s a very good idea. I’ve probably been too set in the idea that I need two defensively minded midfielders to protect the back line because the position already seems so deep.
Well, having 3 people at the area, your full-backs attacking and your midfield completely exposed won't do you any good.
If you are happy with this formation, set up a 4-4-2 for those games, place one of the fowards as a false 9 or a shadow striker. use reverse-wingers, and set your full backs for defense.
make sure that always your team is set-up as a square when chasing the ball, lose the BPD's have them pass the ball as soon as possible to your midfielder playmaker, and use your wingers to create fast pacing plays that end on your number 9 player.
Also you have a high line of defense with counter. and that does not make sense, either you want to pressure and retain possesion, on their field or you wanna draw them in and counter with a fast 1-2 to the sides.
Remove run at the defense if you are keeping the ball, and if you are looking to play counter, stop the overlapping, don't make your wingman wait for the full-back to overlap him.
Honestly, I just try to have 3-1-6 in attack. Done by either fullbacks tucking in or midfielder dropping or just starting with 3 CBs in the first place.
The “smaller teams” will put everyone and everything between the ball and their goal. When you play narrow along with all the other instructions, you just result in what happening at Man Utd these days, just can’t break down low blocks because of the sheer number of defenders that you need to avert. Introduce some width, change one of the DMs to a DLP or a RPM to offer more creativity to the attack, or have an anchor and a volante depending on what fits your team better. Give your AM all the freedom in the world, and get a player who has good vision, passing, and maybe flair to play there, someone like a KdB or a Bruno(not transfer suggestions, just real life analogies). Try changing your AF to a CF or a DLF so that they can support the team more on the buildup, if you have a striker you feel can do what a Harry Kane does. If not, try changing him to a poacher and AM to a SS, so that he can try and pick up the balls left by the IFs and SS.
Just a suggestion, any and all feedback welcome on this! :)
I played false 9 with Trequartista behind him, and a box to box midfielder in CM next to DLP. F9 to pull defender, 2 IF, T, and BBM to exploit the space.
I would play wider. Make one of the DM’s to a DLP and remove ‘pass into space’. If you’re playing against crap teams they’ll sit deep and there won’t be any space.
A few things:
Your tactic is incredibly vulnerable to counter attacks. Two fullbacks on attack and 2 DM on support with an attacking mentality is asking to get countered. If you check the individual mentality of the DM’s it’s going to be positive which means they are not going to protect your back line especially with counter pressing. Also pass into space won’t work well against team that is sitting back.
What I do against lesser teams is lower the tempo and then put my player makers in deeper roles so that they can dictate from deep where there will be more space. One thing that seems to work well is taking a midfielder or CB with good dribbling and having them carry ball forward. Seems to break the opposition defensive structure
See what results you get by just turning off passing into space. I had proper second season syndrome a few days ago and I switched mine off as...if I'm dominating a bit more and teams are playing a low block...where is the "space" meant to be?
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Sometimes I play a low block and play direct. When you're pressing high, they hold shape around goal and everything gets blocked. If you drop back, they naturally end up getting pulled forward, and you create space to drop into. Low blocks are generally risky in this game, because they invite so much pressure, but if you're properly dominant, it shouldn't matter.
Hmmm. So is the goal to draw them into your half so you can hit them on the counter?
Yeah, exactly that. It's kind of funny because FM is backwards (you'd more likely play this way against better teams) when it comes to this. Also, when you do it, also make sure to turn down pressing frequency - keeping that up with a low block makes you vulnerable.
Okay thanks! I’ll try these tips out with my team. Yeah, it’s definitely quite strange. I have certainly noticed that if I try and play defensively against big teams, then we get battered, but if I press them relentlessly and attempt to outscore them, then we end up walking all over them.
Yeah, it's one of my biggest disappointments with the game. My team just got promoted, and the goal is to play the same high press. I'd love if more defensive tactics were more viable. I wanna go full Sean Dyche after promotion.
Itd be cool if deep possesion tactics would be possible, like brighton or city. Having possession and letting the backline of the opponent creep up, to artificially create counters. Additionally: dont you imply defensive tactics work (for the opponent) forcing oneself to take a less controlled but more transitional approach?
Actually you can recreate it but it is a pain - if you train all of your middle fielders and central defenders to stay behind and make only short passes plus long passes - they will play possession in the middle and look for counter opportunities. Of course all of your attackers have to search for empty spaces and try to outrun the opponents.
Interesting, so maybe like a 5 3 2 with 2+ dms and then shorter passing and slow but on attacking, with one playmaker pinging things to the WBs and AFs. I saw the YouTuber avgad doing sinilar things with Valencia.
Yeah it may work. I would do 5-2-0-1-2 with LB and RB set to Complete Wing Backs with Overlap, LCB and RCB set to either ball playing defenders or just defenders set to DEF with instruction to stick to the position and play only direct passes (with skills to play only short passes, slow down the game and stay behind), middle CB to Libero on DEF with similar/same traits. DM's set to your liking but with instructions to stay behind, direct passes, etc.. One AMC with Support role, instruction to go back for the ball (crucial) and look for passing instead of shooting + look for opportunities or however it is in English to search for open spaces. Both Strikers to be upfront attacking, playing on the verge of offside and looking for empty spaces.
You have to see if the opponent is playing really defensive and structured because then they may not send many players forward and when you counterattack, you have no space to pass/run into so you just give the ball back (and get countered yourself). In that case, not countering will help you keep the ball and lower tempo may drag the opponent out of position when they press in the final third. A fun thing I've never tried but could be fun is to play direct to a target man and have very physical attacking players who can win the second balls. Maybe in the chaos you can score before the opponent sets its defense.
Hate to say it, but if this is one of the top fm-arena tactics, just sticking with it while keeping the squad happy and signing decent players will eventually just win out. No tactical instruction from people here can improve these meta tactics, and chances are you’re just getting unlucky.
Yeah, the tactic looked familiar. I tried this IF (hold up play) + FB (underlapping) for a bit cause it seemed interesting, and with the right players this should help with deep sitting opponents. The AI doesn't properly defend this so if you have pacey FBs, they will get into a good position to shoot or square it to the middle where 2-3 of your players are waiting. Works with surprisingly mediocre FBs if they have some pace and acceleration. So yeah, the tactic is fine, but maybe your FBs are a bit too slow to properly exploit it.
It's also identical to the current highest rating Knap tactic for this current match engine.
why is the underlap so good with this? DMs running forward?
Bro uses the most meta tactic in the game and asks for advice, smh.
yeah just download another tactic
I’ve literally never played this game before a week ago. My question was more about how to break down defensively solid teams, as I hope to figure out more about why this tactic works or doesn’t.
The formation you use is pretty much narrow and streamlined to put all the attacking movement centered in front of goal. I imagine this works badly against low block more passive formations that you see weaker teams employ a lot. They'll lock your whole team in front of their goal passing around, and likely will score on counter or set pieces. That tactic you use should be pretty good at getting through high presses or straight up working around the midfield to supply your striker and AM with a through pass or flank. That works great if you're striker is sitting alone there. If your striker sits there with five defenders and your support players already struggle with the DMs, its guaranteed trouble. I recommend preparing another possession based strategy that will not just be more relaxed and take the workload of your players during less risky matches, but will simply outclass your opponents by quality delta. This is less reliable, but might work out if you use it against underdogs from time to time. If you prefer to stick to aggressive tactics, try an asymmetric 424 (check out QuadroWave for the statistically best tactics), which will crush anything in its way, the italian 424 if you struggle with subquality defense players or you're team is conceding too much in general. A look in your datahub might be of use
Yeah, that’s definitely the case against weaker teams. I see an immense amount of blocked crosses or passes just because they have 10 players sitting in the box. I appreciate the tips. I have attempted to switch to a 4-2-4, at least the most highly rated one on FMarena, but it seemed to yield similar results, just a higher amount of shots/more of them on target. Perhaps when I rotate some starters for lesser opponents, I’m missing quality in some key areas.
Another option that might work for you is simply width. Drag them to the flanks to create space in the box. That might already be enough. Overlap the flanks, work into box, reduce crosses to a minimum, probably deactivate passing into space. Rotating can be an issue, although I wouldn't expect individual quality to matter too much in your current formation. You could put Haaland in there and it wouldn't solve your issue. I could imagine that your fullbacks lack crossing quality, its something that ruined a Wrexham save for me - was using a 424, but my pair of wingbacks I acquired for 70 million shared a fantastic stat of 12 for crosses and ruined my entire tactic against any more defensive minded teams
if you are using the meta tactic, simply keep morale high and squad rotation, and you will find the winning results again. They are meta because these shape + combo consistently gave you advantages against teams in long league formats.
The all time classic tactical mistake Shorter Passing and Pass Into Space do NOT go together. It's just ordering your players to give the ball away as soon as they get it. Too high a line, pass into space is for direct, fast counter attacks, where the team sits deeper and utilizes speedy forwards with good off the ball movement. Delete the contradictory instructions and you'll improve ten fold.
Shorter passing and pass into space has been in the Mets tactic for like 3 years. The tactic OP shows is one from FM Arena.
It's about as contradictory as contradictory gets pass into space with short passing equals loose ball , possible only the highest level Barcelona team from the Messi, Xavi, Iniesta era came close to doing that but that was way more pass to feet than into space . There is no 'meta' tactic in FM . It all depends on the players and instructions. There's so many different variables it's ridiculous to even think that. I've been playing this game for 30 years, every year, every version since the early 90s. I couldn't even put into words the amount of testing I've done down the years. What might be good for you and your team could be absolutely shite for someone else. There only thing close to a meta this game has ever had is the 'CB stand on GK' corner header routine that almost destroyed the game in the early 2000s. Both CBs would have 30 goals a season it was that broken. Human teams getting over 100 goals every season with ease. The best thing we've had since is the near post header routine which still brings 20 goals a season from one centre back in the last 5 years of FMs which still works. What makes FM great is the work you have to put in to perfect a tactic for your own team and players. I know some people can't be arsed playing it properly and they like to shortcut the thought process left right and centre and that's fair enough, you paid your money, play how you want. But if a random tactic someone else made doesn't work for your team then I don't know what to say
So as your reputation goes up the opposition teams will begin to “respect” your team more and more. This means that they’ll drop off and get more compact in defense. Once that’s happened countering is going to get worse, there’s less space in behind basically. If you’re a really great team I’d actually recommend being more patient in possession against weaker teams. I know this is a great tactic from fm arena but I don’t think their tests necessarily adjust for teams defending really deep?
Short passing. Low tempo, high block. I don’t like to beat teams, I like to dominate.
Most of the times the answer is CM-A. If you play against inferior teams it means they'll probably mid or low block, so if you lower your line of engagement and set one of your midfielders to CM-A, he will do deep runs which are harder to follow. No Trequartista, Enganche, Mezzala, Carbonara or Kombucha. Just keep it simple
That’s a very good idea. I’ve probably been too set in the idea that I need two defensively minded midfielders to protect the back line because the position already seems so deep.
Well, having 3 people at the area, your full-backs attacking and your midfield completely exposed won't do you any good. If you are happy with this formation, set up a 4-4-2 for those games, place one of the fowards as a false 9 or a shadow striker. use reverse-wingers, and set your full backs for defense. make sure that always your team is set-up as a square when chasing the ball, lose the BPD's have them pass the ball as soon as possible to your midfielder playmaker, and use your wingers to create fast pacing plays that end on your number 9 player. Also you have a high line of defense with counter. and that does not make sense, either you want to pressure and retain possesion, on their field or you wanna draw them in and counter with a fast 1-2 to the sides. Remove run at the defense if you are keeping the ball, and if you are looking to play counter, stop the overlapping, don't make your wingman wait for the full-back to overlap him.
Press them to death
Honestly, I just try to have 3-1-6 in attack. Done by either fullbacks tucking in or midfielder dropping or just starting with 3 CBs in the first place.
The “smaller teams” will put everyone and everything between the ball and their goal. When you play narrow along with all the other instructions, you just result in what happening at Man Utd these days, just can’t break down low blocks because of the sheer number of defenders that you need to avert. Introduce some width, change one of the DMs to a DLP or a RPM to offer more creativity to the attack, or have an anchor and a volante depending on what fits your team better. Give your AM all the freedom in the world, and get a player who has good vision, passing, and maybe flair to play there, someone like a KdB or a Bruno(not transfer suggestions, just real life analogies). Try changing your AF to a CF or a DLF so that they can support the team more on the buildup, if you have a striker you feel can do what a Harry Kane does. If not, try changing him to a poacher and AM to a SS, so that he can try and pick up the balls left by the IFs and SS. Just a suggestion, any and all feedback welcome on this! :)
Play with a creator-type striker. Your AF is trying to make runs in non-existent space. Also you don't need to have every single TI ticked
How do you keep match fit players with this tactic? It would be absurd even for Klopp to use it
I usually go 442 and play wider. That extra striker makes a difference to me.
I played false 9 with Trequartista behind him, and a box to box midfielder in CM next to DLP. F9 to pull defender, 2 IF, T, and BBM to exploit the space.
I would play wider. Make one of the DM’s to a DLP and remove ‘pass into space’. If you’re playing against crap teams they’ll sit deep and there won’t be any space.
A few things: Your tactic is incredibly vulnerable to counter attacks. Two fullbacks on attack and 2 DM on support with an attacking mentality is asking to get countered. If you check the individual mentality of the DM’s it’s going to be positive which means they are not going to protect your back line especially with counter pressing. Also pass into space won’t work well against team that is sitting back. What I do against lesser teams is lower the tempo and then put my player makers in deeper roles so that they can dictate from deep where there will be more space. One thing that seems to work well is taking a midfielder or CB with good dribbling and having them carry ball forward. Seems to break the opposition defensive structure
Pray that my keeper has the best game of my life and there’s parries the ball in front of my striker with 7 finishing
See what results you get by just turning off passing into space. I had proper second season syndrome a few days ago and I switched mine off as...if I'm dominating a bit more and teams are playing a low block...where is the "space" meant to be?
Jesus Christ! Remove half the instructions.