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HullMy Southampton attacking tactics in FM 08 - 4-3-3 TFM Quick. The best I created in Football Manager 2008
My Southampton story looks successful having the club on the way to Premier League. And actually I am very happy with the tactics I created for my team. I think it is the most good of all I created before in FM 2008. So it would be harsh if I didn't share it with you, my dear readers:
And now, for sure, I'm going to describe it and maybe give some instructions how it should be used. Positionally the tactics is classic 4-3-3 scheme with forward and side arrows for left and right halfbacks:
Team instructions are:
You see that it's of attacking mentality with full closing down and rather quick style of playing. There is also Tight Marking set up just because of need to make close pressing and leave space of opponent's attacking players.
Individual instructions
Left/Right and Central Defenders have very common individual instructions which are almost the same as standard presets in Football Manager 2008.
MLC and MRC players have some Creative Freedom - 15 (consider that 10 is average or normal value of a slider), Hard Tackling, full Forward Runs, Run With Ball and Cross Ball settings. So footballers playing on these positions must be creative central midfielders with good speed and technics who can shift on a flank, dribble opponents and make a fine cross to Penalty Area. Of course, such halfbacks should be able to play either in the center or on the flank.
MC has more defensive role. His individual distinctive instructions are: Forward Runs - Rarely, Hard Tackling, Through Balls - Often and Mentality=10. For this position the ideal variant is tough fighter who can tackle the ball and give good pass, someone of Steven Gerrard type :) I prefer to have pair of different players playing MC:
- creative midfielder who can perform smart passes - for home games;
- defensive midfielder whose struggling, tackling abilities higher than passing - for away games.
Left and Right Forwards must be quick and technical because of often Forward Runs and Runs With Ball. What's interesting these guys are also participate in full closing down having Hard Tackling turned on. Such closing down allowed my team to score several goals when forward made pressing of opponent's defender, tackled ball and created goal moment.
Central Striker has Hold The Ball turned on and rare Run With Balls. This allows him making smart and dangerous passes to other forwards. Very important: use player with good technics and very good abilities to win headers (so it's should be high values of Height, Jumping and Strength). Other important thing that central striker is the main finisher who should score a lot of goals. For that high values of Finishing and Concentration are needed.
And Goalkeeper has the standard preset of individual instructions mostly. Some differences only in long kick distribution of balls (so GK should have good kicking) to central striker.
Some tunings during match
There is not miracle tactics in FM 2008 that will work in any cases and bring victories every time. For gaining victories FM gamer has to follow match events and react correspondingly. Therefore I want to share some tunings to my Southampton tactics.
Home matches. It ideally fits when you play at home. Before a home match I don't change anything in the tactics. But later during the match there can be some changes, of course:
- if team has too low rate of accurate passing, then Short Passing is set (usually I set Passing Style=4).
- if team looses ball to often and do not perform enough attacks the I set Tempo=5. Slow tempo allows to hold the ball and be more accurate in actions on the pitch.
- if team is not winning in the end of match the Mentality can be set more attacking. And may be Tempo can be set quicker if team do not loose the ball often.
Away matches. Playing away is more tricky because it's hard to gain victory there.
- before away match I always set up Defensive Line to the lowest value.
- if opponent is strong one then Counter Attacks are to be turned on.
- when opponent's central backs are weak in air, then it's good to set central striker as Target Man and make other players giving high passes to his head.
- plus two first rules for Home matches
Hey..
the man city guy again ...
hey ..
can i know how do u draw the curve lines for the tactics ?
just like the ones on G Dernis and J Viafara ..
can teach me ?
Man city guy, just like any other lines - holding the right button of mouse.
Hmm, I've been reading your blog for some time now and I grew quite fond of it. Interesting stuff can be learned here. I try to lead AFC Telford in english blue square north league. The players are of extremly low quality, can't bring better ones, and I have no wingers. I've been trying hard to make a decent tactic, and I've been somewhat good at it so far, but since the new patch, my highest achievement was position 12 in the league. Could you try to make a tactic for that, or some other club in that league? I'm interested to see what you can come up with. Thanks...
Igneos, the easiest way to learn making tactics is trying to use some tactics from Internet. Some 5 or 6 years before I had been teaching myself in that way. Using good tactics created by some other guy, you can learn about good individual and team instructions which are very important in the game.
After I had learned the basics of tactical tuning using examples, I have been creating my own tactical schemes for already 5-6 years without any help.
So this is my advice. Learn from good examples :-)
Like vitaley's haha :)
To the man city guy, I recommend making a google account, soyou dont need to introduce yourself all the time :)
Thank you for your reply. I just figured out what the problem was. Short passing. Players in conference league don't do short passes. They have to be direct! My tactics finally works! I've uploaded it to footballmanager.co.uk if you want to take a peak...
oh, and if you could some suggestions on how to improve it, I'm all ears :D Salutations from Croatia, comrade...
How do we download the tactics? any special save places you have to save them in?
Thanks
hi my names alan.. im just a bit confused i went southampton and failed so i will give your tactics a try although i would like to ask how you managed to get all those players as i recieved on 65k and niculae doesnt want to leave his club ?? are you further in on season ? thanks
Anonymous,
there is link in the post:
Download Tactics.
Another Anonymous :),
I've been playing Southampton since the end of the first season. I was starting the game with Wigan and was sacked.
I've gone to southampton and used your same tactics, but I don't see why you didn't use Saganowski tht much. He's got 11 goals in 4 games for me, including successive hat-tricks in the league and again in friendlies.
I sold him before using this tactics when I was just starting with Southampton. He asked too much salary and was sold to Middlesbrough
hi nice tactics how did u get nicuale?
Very simply! I bought Marius Niculae from Inverness for only $700K
I'm just started with my preferite team: Padova in the third League of Italy...and it's not simple to win!!! With the last version, I arrived to manage Padova and Italy too. Very good game.
hey, i just finished my first season with the mighty supurs (tottenham hotspur) and i managed to dislodge arsenal from the top 4 places hooray. i bought garay arshavin and edu from valencia, and in jan sold lennon bt bought downing as replacement. and the tevez was unhappy at utd so i snapped him up for 6.5m BARGAIN also bought matias fernandes and giles barnes and hugo viana all on the cheap. heres to a successful secong season!
hey vitality,
I just snapped up Jack Cork (5.5M) from Chelsea, a promising DM/M, I wonder if he's good enough to be the center guy? Glad if you check him out.
sorry to say your tactics didnt work hahaha i cud do better with my own tactics anyday!
There is no tactics that will win always. Successful usage of this tactics depends on players that you use on different positions.
i'm glasgow rangers and have tried this tactic, worked well in champions league qualifier, won 5-1 against kaunas, but 1st league game lost 3-0 at inverness!!!! what can I do?
Hi im hull manager and we're in league one....
got a good squad wiv awesome wide players...
if i want 2 play with width what is my best formation?
Nice tactics....my first game was draw 5-5 :D
Ye, this tactics can produce 5:5 :)
Hi there, really impressed with your blog.
Im having a tactical problem on FM2008 - I can NEVER seem to hold a lead. Im St.Etienne and am doing ok, but in my 3rd season i keep going 2-0/3-0 up (sometimes before half time) and then either losing 3-2 or drawing, throwing away the lead CONSTANTLY.
Is this some sort of FM2008 bug (i dont have any updates) or is there a way to stop this? Its really annoying me now! Thanks, Jon