With Chile, Biesla usually preferred to use defensive midfielders across the backline in his 3-3-1-3/4-2-1-3. Biesla maintained that classic centerbacks would often not have the requisite skills needed to play in his romantic attacking system. Biesla argued that a defensive midfielder would have better distribution, better anticipation, better ability in open space, and better ability in advanced positions than a centerback. As Biesla valued those qualities supremely, he would often make great use of midfielders in the backline while managing Chile (Gary Medel, Arturo Vidal, Marco Estrada, Gonzalo Jara). Since taking the role at Athletic, Biesla has almost completely reversed the style in which Los Leones play; while that direct emphasis is maintained, Biesla prefers a vastly different formation and overall gameplan from previous Athletic sides. One notable feature has been the use of starlet MC Javi Martinez at DC. Martinez is big enough to play as a DC, but his skills as a creator and passer are far more akin to his natural MC position. While he has looked a bit uncomfortable to start with, Martinez shows a lot of promise as a DC in the future for executing Biesla’s gameplan.

Pep Guardiola has quietly been building Barcelona into a side full of passing midfielders. The Tiki-Taka attempts to replicate the movement and attacking prowess as Totaalvoetbal, with the main difference being use of the ball to rapidly move instead of the player. Using the ball to rapidly move and create confusion in the defense helps to conserve energy in the attacking phase and retain possession in such a manner that is conducive to providing opportunities for the incisive break. To do so takes a total commitment to technical quality and keeping the ball using intelligent positioning and a relentless press to win the ball back from the opposition. Of course, it is easier to keep the ball if you do not lose it. All Barcelona players are required to be adept with the ball at their feet; to not have this ability in a single player could unravel the entire framework of the side. In order to accomplish these goals, Guardiola has experimented (with success at times) with using midfielders in DC positions. Sergio Busquets and Javier Mascherano, both defensive midfielders, have regularly featured in the backline for Barcelona. While both sometimes struggle as “classical” DCs, they play the game well for the position in terms of what Barca actually need from the role.

This sort of movement is not exclusive to the Spanish game. While Blackpool never did so, Liverpool could perhaps feature Charlie Adam as a DC – a position Adam has said would be a great fit for him and his game. Adam has the size to play as a traditional DC (although he could perhaps lack the aerial ability), and Adam loves to see the entire field to give him the most options in his deep-lying playmaker style. While perhaps not the same as being a libero, Adam could perhaps make an excellent ball-playing defender and give Liverpool an excellent creative weapon from deep.

Another point comes from the natural evolution of the game itself. More and more sides are building their attacks down the flanks and relying on their strikers to drop deep or pull wide. An opposition 4-6-0 lacks striker as do formations that ask for high mobility from their strikers. Perhaps you do not need a DC to counter that? It could be better to utilize the players in ways that are better suited to your side if the opposition are not playing with a standard striker.

In Part II, we will continue with a look as to how you could play with a midfielder in the backline – why and why not?

Discuss this on our forum!

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How a 4-4-2 diamond might line up in Football Manager 2011

DEFENCE
Despite the fact that there are four ways to play a diamond formation on FM, the differences between them are few and usually subtle. As a starting point, one thing each of them do have in common is a back four in defence. The defence will generally have more protection in the middle than with a flat 4-4-2, especially with the 4-1-3-2 setup. As a trade-off, in a narrow diamond the wingbacks are occasionally under more pressure, while what they offer when bombing down the flank becomes more important, too. Unlike in a flat 4-4-2 where the extent of their wideplay is more often than not to overlap a flank, in a narrow diamond, wingbacks are typically the players with the most impetus in regards to attacking the byline. For this reason, the ability to get past their man and put in a cross warrants that much more attention for a manager looking to get the best out of such a system. In contrast, a wingback in a wider diamond featuring an ML and MR will not be relied on as much to provide width and will link-up with the wide-man ahead of him in a very similar way to a wide-attack from a 4-4-2.

MIDFIELD

CLICK FOR FULL PICTURE: The midfield shuffles along to mark the opposition; but this can leave a man free on the opposite wing.

The most blatant difference between a diamond and the flat 4-4-2 is how the midfield behaves. For the sake of dispelling a myth, even when playing with a narrow diamond, the flanks are anything but surrendered in the defensive phase. There is initial space to be found there, but the MCl/MCr will move across to press an opposition winger, while they will also look to pick up the run of the wingback on that side in order to prevent a possible overlap. In doing so, MCl/MCr leaves his counterpart in the middle temporarily unmarked. If it’s a 4-1-2-1-2 and 4-3-1-2 formation, the AMC will usually track back far enough to pick them up, but with a 4-1-3-2, the MC does so instantly. Either way, there is emphasis on denying space in the middle and the formation still has numbers there even when one of the central midfielders is defending a flank. It’s still a 1 player advantage in the center against a flat 4-4-2, or 3v3 when faced with a 4-5-1. There is a drawback, however, as in both cases there is an opposition wingback free should the move end up switching to the other flank. After all, the other MCl/MCr which didn’t need to go wide is still marking their opposite. If he goes wide to prevent the overlap, that leaves an unmarked CM who a spare DMC/CM must be quick to notice, especially if the AMC of a 4-1-2-1 or 4-3-1-2 doesn’t get back in time to help. This is a weakness against 4-5-1/4-3-3, and even more so against a 4-2-3-1 since the DMC will already be busy with the opposition AMC. Fortunately for the human manager who’s utilising a diamond, however, the AI is rarely able to exploit the space on the opposite flank, and so the unmarked wingback usually doesn’t come into the equation.

When going forward, with 4 players based in central midfield, the narrow diamond variant has strength through the middle that can even enjoy numerical superiority over 4-5-1 variants, let alone a flat 4-4-2. It doesn’t always going through the middle of the pitch, however, due to the fact that the AMC/MC, MCl, MCr and both strikers of a diamond system are sometimes inclined to drift out-wide even if they aren’t necessarily being funnelled to there. The option for them to attack the flank or link-up with the wingback is made even more likely when using a more adventurous philosophy. For this reason, it is definitely advantageous to have midfielders/strikers who are capable of being a threat out-wide when playing a narrow diamond variant. The narrow diamond can and will have wingplay aside from the prolonged runs of a wingback, it’s just that it comes in the form of a midfielder or striker taking the initative in exploiting any space that’s found there. It is a particularly useful course of action when there are not yet enough players who have entered the attacking phase.

4-1-3-2, 4-1-2-1-2, 4-3-1-2?
As the bands suggest, the 4-1-3-2 allows for a sterner defensive shape geared towards crowding the middle when defending. When either the MCl or MCr goes wide, the MC swiftly moves across and picks up the opposition MC that was left behind. Even though the AMC of either of the other two variants will track back and attempt to perform a similar task, the significance of the MC’s deeper position is the ever-present numerical strength it offers in the central zone, of which is sacrificed by either the 4-1-2-1-2 and 4-3-1-2. Whereas an AMC will only offer something to the defensive phase when he has tracked back far enough, the MC of a 4-1-3-2 offers an immediate presence and defensive benefit. In short, the 4-1-3-2 results in a diamond that is the most difficult of all to break down.

The flat 4-4-2 will almost always be overwhelmed when going through the middle against the 4-1-3-2. Even a 4-5-1 variant may prefer to quickly make use of the intermittent space on the flank, of which can evade the defensive cover offered by the MCl/MCr if the move is quick enough.

Despite making things difficult through the middle for a 4-5-1 variant, the 4-1-3-2 may not necessarily be the best option for the manager looking to prevent a 4-5-1 from controlling the game. After all, the AMC of a 4-1-2-1-2 or 4-3-1-2 primarily harasses the opposition DMC, unless he is required to catch up to an unmarked MC. Even so, fielding an AMC can be an excellent means of preventing a creative DMC in a 4-5-1/4-3-3 from pulling the strings, providing the AMC is up to the task.

Similarly, the DMC of a 4-1-3-2 or 4-1-2-1-2 may be a focal point in defensive planning when the opposition’s most creative player happens to be an AMC. In this situation, playing a 4-3-1-2 may be problematic, as even though the MC will mark the AMC, he will have more space to take advantage of than if the MC occupied the deeper position from either of the other two variants.

The main difference between a 4-1-3-2 and 4-1-2-1-2 is how far the AMC needs to track back in order to help defend the center. The consequences of not having enough time to do so are forgiving against a 4-4-2, and can often even be so against a 4-5-1/4-3-3, too. In those two cases, an unmarked MC will still have your DMC to contend with, who isn’t marking anyone. Against an attacking 4-2-3-1, however, the DMC is marking the opponent’s AMC. In this situation, the team is either overlapped on a flank, or that threat is dealt with at the expense of freeing up a man in the middle. Either way, it’s a dangerous situation for the defence. The consequences are more dire than when at worst, only the DMC is left unmarked if it’s a 4-5-1/4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 that utilises 2 DMs. In both of these situations, your support striker could potentially make himself useful.

The difference between a 4-1-2-1-2 and a 4-3-1-2 is how the DMC is in a more advanced position, usually level with his two midfield partners on either side. From this position, he will offer more going forward. He may even be unmarked, unless the opposing system is a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-2-1 xmas tree. This may be appealing for the manager looking to construct as attacking a diamond system as possible. Of course, vacating the hole means that there may suddenly space should a team hit the 4-3-1-2 on the break, particularly if they have an AMC capable of escaping his marker.

UPFRONT
Despite the fact that there are 2 strikers, this isn’t quite as much of a similarity with a flat 4-4-2 in the final third as initially appears. The support striker has a choice between playing his striker into space, or an AMC if one is used. Naturally, this can lead to a different outcome where in a 4-4-2, the support striker may withdraw to the hole before deciding what to do next. With a player already there / emerging into there from the midfield, it means 2 players capable of creating a chance, of which accentuates a narrow diamond’s strength through the middle. Even against a 4-5-1, the support striker and AMC may find enough space between them to cause problems. Alternatively, the manager may wish to accommodate two strikers with an attacking duty, especially when playing against a 4-4-2, or against any formation if the team happens to have an exceptional AMC. Another notable difference between 2 strikers in a flat 4-4-2 and a diamond is how in situations where the striker would normally play-in a winger, and he can’t find one of the unmarked midfielders who are rallying in support, he will drift wide. Strikers can and will find themselves going out-wide slightly more often than in a flat 4-4-2.

Of course, with 2 striker roles, the manager has plenty of options with a goal in mind. A poacher may seem an attractive option, especially with his lack of contributions to the build-up being far less recognisable than in a flat 4-4-2. Then there’s a targetman, who can hold up the ball and find an AMC / unmarked midfielder. If fluidity is favoured and the calibre of personnel allows for it, 2 complete forwards with a creative AMC behind them might be a combination which could be a daunting proposition for even the most resolute of defences. The manager has options, arguably more so than with any other formation which plays 2 utop.

AMC / PLAYMAKER?
The AMC, if utilised, is an important consideration for a manager looking to play a diamond variant. He needs to be capable of creating, as well as proficient at finding space, especially when he has a DMC aiming to mark him out of the game. Due to the fact that he has 2 strikers ahead of him and supporting players very close-by, the AMC can be deadly with an advanced playmaker or trequartista role. As an alternative, the manager may favour the old tradition of having the DMC/MC as a deep lying playmaker. After all, if he doesn’t have an AMC pressing him, the deep lying playmaker from this position will have time, space and options, no least an easy one more often than not in the form of an unmarked midfielder nearby.

Something else that the manager may wish to be wary of is what an AMC offers defensively. After all, even if he does swiftly pick up the MC left behind by the MCl/MCr who was needed at the flank, there may still yet be a matter of defending to do. It’s rare to have a well-rounded AMC who can be creative going forward, as well as capable when defending. This can be a potential weak-link, even if a subtle one, such is the rarity of exceptional AMCs that have plenty to offer in both attacking and defensive phases.

“WIDE DIAMOND” / “4-4-2 DIAMOND” WITH AN ML AND MR?
The wider diamond is a different animal to the narrow variants. Despite resembling a 4-1-2-1-2 shape and having only two different roles, the attacking and defensive traits of such a system are different. When defending, the ML and MR mark wide players at all times. This is in blatant contrast to the narrow diamond variant where only one flank is defended at any one time. The result of this is chasms of space in the middle whenever the AMC doesn’t track back to help the DMC. If the AMC gets back in time, he is able to make it 2v2 in the center. Therefore, the consequences are dire should he fail, unlike with a narrow diamond variant where numbers in the middle are typically maintained and prioritised at all costs.

The wide diamond also behaves differently when attacking, with both the ML and MR surging down the flanks. It is they who consistently provide wide-play, thus easing what would otherwise be a burden on the wingback, as well as making it less likely for a striker or one of the other 3 midfielders to do so. The ML and MR provide width just as their equivalents do in a 4-4-2. With 2 out-wide, 2 uptop and 1 in the hole, it goes without saying that the wide diamond has a strong and varied attack, although defensive instability may arise due to the AMC’s advanced position, of which can leave the DMC outnumbered, especially on the break.

OPPOSITION INSTRUCTIONS
With the narrow diamond sometimes leaving too much space out-wide, and the wide diamond vacating space in the middle, the manager can turn to opposition instructions in an attempt to combat these weaknesses as much as possible.

For the manager looking to ensure that an MCl/MCr is quicker to help defend a flank, issuing a a Close Down: Always instruction can be instrumental in ensuring that he does so. However, the manager needs to be mindful of how in doing so, the wingback will have the same inclination. If the wingback is short of pace compared to the opposition winger, this instruction will compromise the attempts of making a flank more secure. In cases of a quick AND very technical winger, it can be difficult to press the issue of him getting early pressure from the MCl/MCr. In this case, it’s better to ensure that the wingback will perform by making sure that the winger ISN’T closed down too readily. Even if this will at times mean that the winger evades the attention of a midfielder, it’s less harmful than if both the midfielder and the wingback will play into the winger’s hands by challenging him too soon. For a manager who would rather not be so inviting of a quick and talented winger, it may be useful to merely resort to Show Onto Foot instructions instead. With its numbers in the middle, a narrow diamond can cope very well with an in-cutting winger as long as the opponent’s formation doesn’t utilise an AMC. After all, this means that there is a numbers advantage in the middle. It’s to the opposition’s detriment if a winger is forced into this crowded zone, particularly if he is capable of putting in a good cross from out-wide. It goes without saying that quick and/or skillful wingers are a thorn in the side for a narrow diamond variant. Opposition wingbacks can be a problem, too, should the MCl/MCr be bypassed by the winger, yet also be slow to pick up the opposition wingback. With this mind, a Close Down: Always can be useful, but perhaps not the Tightly Marked instruction, as if the winger gives your wingback the run-a-round, it may be important to have midfielder close enough to put in a challenge if needed, but this may be beyond him if he’s to close to the opposition wingback instead.

For the wide diamond, the ML and MR both stay wide and so the space is found in the middle instead. The distance between the DMC and AMC can be a severe problem. With this in mind, it’s vital that the DMC holds his position for as long as possible and isn’t too impetuous in closing down the middle. In being hesitant, it gives the AMC more time to get back and made it 2v2. Therefore, Close Down: Never can be a useful means of ensuring that the DMC isn’t quickly overrun before the AMC can even the odds. No two ways about it, surrendering the middle and making the worst of a 1v2 situation is a dangerous situation which may quickly pave the way for a goal scoring opportunity.

Advantages of a diamond
-A dynamic midfield shape that allows technically sound midfielders to control the game from the middle of the park.
-More space between the lines against a flat 4-4-2, particularly during periods where the AMC is unmarked.
-Narrow diamond variants maintain a numbers advantage in the central zones, both when attacking and defending
-With an initial presence out-wide on both flanks, 2 uptop and 1 in the hole, the wide diamond offer options in attack, even more so than even the most offensive of narrow diamond variants

Disadvantages of a diamond
-Can be unstable when defending against a 4-5-1 variant, especially a 4-2-3-1.
-Despite a midfielder moving across to help the wingback, there is always space down the flanks, particularly for a fast attack.
-Many AMCs can be a liability defensively, even if tight to their man.
-While a wide diamond covers both flanks at all times, it’s at the expense of a large gap in the middle
-A wide diamond is always outnumbered 2v3 in the middle of the park against any 4-5-1 variant

CONCLUSION
Although a “staggered 4-4-2″ in practice, a diamond system is flexible when defending, yet very versatile when attacking. For a squad with well-rounded players, this can allow for perks which aren’t immediately obvious. For example, if the MCl/MCr is able to close down the space quickly enough, the winger is more than likely going to be up against a player who is far better at defending than almost any winger they’d be facing at that against any other formation. Then there’s the level of freedom which intelligent or technical players will make the most of. Whether it’s starting narrow and going out-wide after all, a fancy interchange with the deep lying support striker, or a quickly exploited numbers advantage in the middle, a diamond system is capable of attacking in many different ways, subject to having the right players.

Despite its dynamism and improvisation when defending, there is no escaping the fact that a 4-4-2 will always have 1 less man in one of the zones against a 4-5-1. No team shape can mask that. Against a 4-5-1/4-3-3, the diamond eventually leaves the opposition DMC free, as well as of the wingbacks. When dealing with the latter case, this leaves an MC who will hopefully then be picked up soon enough by your DMC. With both flanks marked, as well as 2 in the middle, that then resembles the more familiar situation of a 4-4-2 vs 4-5-1, where just the DM is left unmarked. Against a 4-2-3-1, with the DMC already preoccupied, the danger is greater when faced with the prospect with either 2-1 out-wide, or an unmarked man in the center while defending the 2-1 situation.

This post was written by new Tactical Think Tank member Validicus, with feedback from the rest of the Tactical Think Tank.

Related posts:

1. How Will Jose Mourinho Manage at Real Madrid? (Part 2)
2. 3 at the back and the 4-4-2 Diamond
3. How Will Jose Mourinho Manage at Real Madrid? (Part 7)

The revival of both systems especially the success that Kenny has seen, has caused many of Football Manager gamers to test out such systems within their own game. I have even started my own game with Udinese that has been in an attempt to test out Kenny’s system.

The 3-5-1

Now it must be said that I am a little cautious to say that this 3-2-4-1 will become the norm within the Premier League, Kenny Dalglish was lucky enough to face two teams in which this system would be useful and showing his skills at reacting to the opposition in order to gain the advantage.

Against Stoke, the 3 man defence was put in place to give the Liverpool squad height and strength, the main threat from Stoke coming from set pieces and crosses into a big front man. Against Carew we were able to put up Soto in to win balls in the air, while double up on the strong débutante and give mobility and cover from a faster and mobile Agger and Skertl, it was a finely balanced defence.

While against Chelsea the 3 at the back were playing against 2 strong attackers, the one man advantage in the middle meant that Liverpool could man mark two of the Chelsea strikers while having a spare man at the back to cover. Both occasions worked well and Chelsea failed to get any decent chance on goal. While Carew did as much as he could for Stoke winning challenges in the air, but was muscled out and isolated so much that he wasn’t able to play any knock downs and his shots were of little affect. Notably Stoke did not win a single corner in that game, which is a main part of their game plan.

But don’t be deceived by the use of 5 defenders at the back, this does not mean that Liverpool have to be defensive in implementation, in fact the two games showed how Liverpool could adapt the system from being strong at the back against Chelsea, while having great fluid movement and attacking intent against Stoke.

The most important aspect of the 3-5-2 is the wingbacks. Lacking of any wingers, they will be relied upon to get up and down pitch and give attacking width while in defensive positions able to create a 5 man defence becoming a wall difficult to breakdown.

Implementing it to Football Manager

This system is based as a pretty attacking intent, fluid movement and possession football. The 4 men in the centre of the field will make it hard for any team to play through the centre of the pitch. This is something of the downfall of the 4-4-2 diamond system. That too relied very much on its wingbacks to get forward. By cutting their effectiveness Liverpool forced Chelsea to try and play through the middle where Lucas, Gerrard and Merelies performed fantastically in battling the players they had to stop.

The close proximity of the middle 4, as well as the high defensive line makes it much easier to play shorter passes amongst the side and when needed throw it wide to the wings. The two MC positions though will need to also be good defensive shield, but not so much problem in protecting the three at the back, but moving wide and defending the space left when the wingbacks bomb forward.

Where my system differs from Liverpool’s tactics is in the final third. Giving the personnel Liverpool have had a fantastic attacking midfielder in the shape of Gerrard and Merelies, who at Stoke took their turns to go up and support Kuyt who would act as supporting target man looking to hold the ball up and waiting for others to help him out.

But given the personnel that I have at Udinese Antonio Di Natale with anticipation, speed is very flexible player to lead the front, either as an advanced forward, Trequistra or poacher. I have opted for the latter in this system, feeding off the advanced playmarker while Sanchez will run on from deep to help the lone striker.

The great thing about this tactic is it’s ability to become defensive so easily, change the roles of the Wingbacks and philosophy of your team and you quickly become a 5-4-1 playing for the draw. Something that North Korea tried doing effectively, against Brazil in the World Cup until Brazil broke through. But the 3 at the back system died it’s death in the Premier League due to the introduction of the lone striker, which meant club had two spare men in the middle, this prevented them having one extra attacker and therefore adapted with the flat back 4. This system in Football Manager would be best utilised to give defensive solid games or to combat 4-4-2 formations.

4-4-2 Diamond

Much less focus has been on Chelsea’s new formation due to the lack of success. Chelsea had attempted it early on in the Ancellotti era, but with the lack of width on the right wing was a major problem and very static through the middle. But since Torres has signed, Ancellotti has been forced to think again about this new system.

Just like in the 3-2-4-1 system key to the success comes from the wingbacks. Though this has seen Chelsea in problem with their 4-3-3 too. Stop Ashley Cole and Boswinga and you severely affect Chelsea’s ability to attack. This is what happened at Liverpool new formation but the same problems. Kelly and Johnson were much better positioned to put pressure on the opposition wingbacks and hampered their ability to get forward. Chelsea therefore had to get forward through the middle of the park.

From Guardian Chalkboard

Nicholas Anelka was given a new role in the Chelsea side as a trequartista his passing ability and the areas in which he managed to get the ball shows against Sunderland he was apt at the job. But Lucas did do a job on Anelka at Stamford Bridge and against Liverpool he showed that he couldn’t cope with his tight marking.

Within Football Manager 2011 Nicholas Anelka would be a more then capable trequartista, apart from his passing being a little under rated within the game (10) he would be perfect for the role. But this could be made up for in his creativity and decision making.

Another reason why Ancellotti may want to go back to the 4-4-2 diamond is the acquisition of Ramieras, the Brazilian is a capable MC/R with energy, pace and good defensive attributes, giving more fluidity to the midfield.

The 4-4-2 diamond might make it’s return or become a stable once again at Chelsea who are trying to fit Anelka, Drogba and from the orders at the top I can’t see Torres in any form being dropped. While it looks like Ancellotti over the past season has the players now who are more then capable in playing this system.

Despite losing though the diamond can be a useful formation with the right players. Even against Liverpool, Chelsea looked fluid in their movement. You will have a 4 man battle to control the midfield and 3 players in the middle attacking the goal. Have good enough wing backs to get forward and help support the play it can be a successful tactic. This might not be the last we see this season of this tactic.

Final Note: Just to plug a new blog that Me, Cagiva and Millie have put together about real football. Why not visit and tell us what you think of Touchlineshouts

Related posts:

1. Understanding the 4-4-2 Diamond
2. Building Your Defence: From The Forwards
3. Tactical Advice: Put Fernando Torres On The Bench

There is certainly no one “right” way to do this. We could talk for hours about all the combinations of centre backs, asymmetric full backs, and the modern “centre half” dropping from midfield. But that is not the point of this article. Here, we just want to know: how do you set up a simple back four?

Most four-man defences actually revolve around six defenders. We have:

• The full backs: number 3 and number 2
• The centre backs: number 5 and number 6
• The goalkeeper: number 1
• The “holding midfielder”: number 4

Clearly, not all formations are set up in the same way. So, what follows is a general guide based around the “simple” 4-4-2.

The centre backs

In general, centre backs tend to be reasonably tall players capable of marking, tackling and getting themselves into the right position to thwart attacks. The simplest setting is to give each a centre back role with a defend duty.

However, this is not the only way to set them up. More mobile players (with higher acceleration, and perhaps more anticipation, agility and balance) may be more useful as “covering” defenders. More physical players (with higher jumping, strength and aggression) may be more useful as “stoppers”. Those with the ability to play with the ball (with better technique, passing, creativity and first touch) may take on the ball-playing defender role. While others with rather limited technical skills might be best as limited defenders. But of course, there are just guidelines. Providing you match up the key attributes with those highlighted by the tactical interface, you shouldn’t come across many problems.

How you define the roles is up to you. This guide is about setting up a simple back four, so we will concentrate on the default centre back role. On the other hand there is a lot more variety to be had with the use of the defensive duties. Some of the more common set ups are as follows:

• Defend – Defend: Both centre backs will act like “normal” defenders, closing down when they think the time is right, but covering when they do not. They will tend to stay in a line, which might be useful when playing against two centre forwards.
• Defend – Stopper: One centre back will behave as a “normal” defender, sticking with the defensive line. The other will look to close down and attack the ball when it gets to the opposition forward. This can be good to get your tall player to attack the ball in the air, or to harry a forward who is good with the ball at his feet.
• Defend – Cover: One centre back will hold the line while the other sags back behind to cover. This can be useful if the opposition is playing a very quick forward who is able to beat his man. If the forward does manage to elude the “defender”, then the “cover” can sweep in behind to mop up the damage, especially if that cover player has a bit of pace himself.
• Cover – Stopper: This mixes the duties so that one attacks the ball while the other sweeps up. The two defenders will tend to “split”, so that one might find himself ahead of the line while the other drops behind. This can be very useful against lone-forward formations, but may leave exploitable gaps as the offside trap will be difficult to pull off. For that reason, it may be useful to use a true anchor man in the midfield in order to add defensive stability.

It is not recommended that you set the centre backs as “stopper – stopper” or “cover – cover”. Doing so will lead to either a defensive line which is too aggressive (which will leave holes) or too passive (which will give the opposition too much space). But that is not to say that it would be impossible to get such a system to work.

The full backs

The primary defensive duty of the full backs is to protect the wings. For this reason, you do not want them to run forward too much and leave exploitable space behind them. When playing an attacking opponent, you may need to play defensively on the wing. If the opposition are not attacking as much, you can afford to be more aggressive. For this reason, the default setting is full back role with an automatic duty. This means the full backs will become more or less attacking based on your chosen strategy.

If your full backs are very good at attacking and have the stamina, you might make them wing backs. Bear in mind, however, that this will make the defence less stable if the opponent attacks down the wings. It will depend on the skills of the opposition and your style of play what sort of player you choose. Again, use the highlighted attributes as a guide.

If you find you are exploited down the flanks, look to give the full backs a support or even defend duty.

The goalkeeper

Setting up the keeper is a matter of personal preference and the skill of your number 1. If he has the necessary skills, he can act as a sweeper keeper, coming out of his box to pick up loose balls and feeding the ball forward to keep attacks going. On the other hand, more conventional teams may just prefer to use the keeper as a wall in front of the goal – and nothing else.

A keeper with good communication and command of his area will get the defence more organised and help keep the ball out of the net. In combination, the keeper and the defenders form the “back five” which is ultimately your last line of defence.
If you have a team with a very defensive outlook and a very deep line then it almost goes without saying that a sweeper keeper will be redundant. Sweeper keepers are usually best used in teams playing higher up the field where there is a need to recycle possession quickly when the ball is cleared up field by the opposition.

The “holding” midfielder

I have put “holding” in quotation marks because it is not necessary to play the holding midfielder as a DMC or as a ball winning midfielder. The “number 4” (the MCd as we have called it in the past) is the more defensive out of your midfield. In a simple 4-4-2, he would be the central midfielder with a defend duty.

It is important to have a less attacking midfielder so that there is someone patrolling the middle of the park. This is your first line of defence. No matter how good the defenders are at marking, if the opposition midfield is given all day to sit on the ball and pick the perfect pass eventually they will open you up. Whether this guy is a full-blown anchor man or just a more defensive midfielder, he will help to add stability to the team and increase the defence’s chances of keeping a clean sheet.

The “number 4” should, therefore, be set up in combination with the rest of the defence. If your full backs are bombing forward, he can be a proper anchor man, sitting almost as a third central defender and providing cover. If your full backs are more defensive, you may be able to afford him a little more freedom in the centre of the park as a central midfielder or even a deeper lying playmaker. The important thing is that he provides defensive cover.

Team balance

Marking systems play a part in how the team will behave. In a zonal system, the players will mark opponents as they enter their position on the pitch. For this reason, the players will not tend to hold their shape a little more. In a man marking system, each defender has responsibility for a particular opponent. In this system, the defenders will be more prone to follow an attacker even if that means that he gets pulled out of the team’s shape. When deciding on which marking system to use, be aware of the relative skills of your players and the relative needs of the team. Is it more important to ensure that all opposition players have pressure on them or that the team holds its defensive shape?
Of course, these six players do not exist in isolation. Nor are they solely defenders. While the full backs are part of the “back four” they are also important tools for attacking the wings. Similarly, while the wingers and other midfielders may have different roles and duties they still need to be able to win the ball back and retain possession in order to stop the opposition from attacking. In setting up your team defensively, you need to be aware of all of these issues.

There is a lot more to defending than I have mentioned here. But I hope this acts as a basic guide on what sort of instructions you can give to your defenders. I will leave you with a brief summary of how I would set up the six defensive players in a simple 4-4-2

1 – GK – Goalkeeper (defend)
2 – DR – Full back (automatic)
5 – DCr – Centre back (defend)
6 – DCl – Centre back (defend)
3 – DL – Full back (automatic)
4 – MC (either left or right) – Central midfielder (defend)

Related posts:

1. How Will Jose Mourinho Manage at Real Madrid? (Part 4)
2. Building Your Defence: The Defensive Line
3. How Will Jose Mourinho Manage at Real Madrid? (Part 7)




]]> http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2011/02/02/how-to-set-up-a-back-four/feed/ 0 http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2011/02/02/how-to-set-up-a-back-four/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/fmbritain/~3/FaWQEIfyT_o/ http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2010/12/28/football-manager-full-backs/#comments Tue, 28 Dec 2010 10:00:14 +0000 Thomas Levin http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/?p=2738 The modern full back is quickly becoming one of the most important players on the team sheet, infact even back in the days of Brian Clough, fat ed' argued that because of the space these players get in the final third thet players could be the most important. I have found that having great full backs in my sides have become essential to making my tactics work. You may remember my last post some time ago talking about the false nine. Much of which would have been impossible if it wasn't for having Santon and Fatic on the wings. As teams start to play narrower and narrower to boss the midfield, the full backs are becoming the main source of natural width. The...
Related posts:
1. Building Your Defence: Centre Backs
2. Building Your Defence: From The Forwards
3. Building Your Defence: The Defensive Line
]]> The modern full back is quickly becoming one of the most important players on the team sheet, infact even back in the days of Brian Clough, fat ed’ argued that because of the space these players get in the final third thet players could be the most important.

I have found that having great full backs in my sides have become essential to making my tactics work. You may remember my last post some time ago talking about the false nine. Much of which would have been impossible if it wasn’t for having Santon and Fatic on the wings.

As teams start to play narrower and narrower to boss the midfield, the full backs are becoming the main source of natural width. The popularity of the 4-2-3-1 or the 4-3-3/4-5-1 system has also seen the winger die off in favour of the inverted winger, or as you would most probably see it in Football Manager, the inside forward.

The attributes that make up a Full Back

Crossing

The full back has essentially taken over the classic winger roles, it will be his job to add width to the side and a release for the central players. As the inside forwards come inside and offer an attack and creative threat, the full backs will be expected to be able to offer the crossing option.

Tackling

It’s obvious but you want your defenders to be able to defend. Tackling being an important attribute for defensive players, able to take the ball without give away a foul. Do be aware a successful tackler does need concentration, composure and good decision-making.

Passing



As you can see from the chalkboard the full backs are expected to get up and down the pitch and provide a passing option to players all over the pitch. But he will also have to be able to put a pass in many areas himself recycling possession well.

Dribbling

Not essential but you want your full back to be able to play well once on the ball. He may not always have the ability to pass the ball in the middle and may need to get forward and bringing the ball with him into attacking zones. You don’t want to see him taking the ball forward only for his dribbling to let him down and get caught out of position and vulnerable to the counter attacks.

Anticipation, Concentration, Positioning & Decisions

Always take a high premium on mental attributes. Whenever I have spent time in analysing others pkm files, a common problem is often apparent. Managers will encourage their full backs to get forward but poor positioning and decision making when to go forward or lack of concentration can prove lethal and often a main source of goals for the opposition.

I have seen so many goals lost on the wings as the rest of the team look to compensate for a full back being caught to far up the pitch as they haven’t anticipated the rest of the play well enough.

Acceleration & Pace

The speed in which these players can beat people to the ball, run back on the counter but also to beat their men. For an attacking full back you want them to receive the ball, probably beat a man and swing the ball in to create chances. If he is possessed with speed he will therefore have a great chance of being able to move into space.

Stamina

You expect your full back to get up and down the wing, just think of him as a sort of box-to-box player. These players will run more then most and you want them to be some of the fittest men on the pitch, able to last out the 90 minutes of a game. Stamina will allow them to keep performing at the top of their game for the length of the match.

How to play your full-backs

Full backs in the modern game are expected to more more of box-to-box players, able to attack as well as defend. But the talent to be able to do both well is limited to only the best in the world.

Therefore you will need very much an element of team work to fully utilise the full backs.

The Barcelona way

Barcelona have full utilised one of the best full backs in the world. Dani Alves plays more like an attacking winger then he does a full back. On the opposite side you have the more defensive minded Maxwell who still enjoys to get forward.

Playing so far up the pitch means that your two centre backs become exposed, to solve this problem Basquets has developed into one of the best defensive midfielders in the world. Playing a modern day sweeper role by slotting into the middle of the two central defenders allowing Pique and Puyol to move wider.

In Football Manager this would probably be represented by having Basquets as a defensive midfielder (defend role) looking to offer protection as Dani Alves is allowed to take an attacking role and Maxwell a more supportive role on the wing offering width an another man to contend to for opposition defenders

The Liverpool way

Roy Hodgson is a classic English man, playing a conventional 4-4-2 formation. Two banks of four keeping a good shape to defend. This doesn’t really suit an attacking minded Johnson too well and all too often we have seen Liverpool and Glenn suffer with the lack of other player around him being able to offer him support while he attacks.

But even in a classic 4-4-2 you want to see your wingers getting forward and putting the ball into the box. Your wingers become creators in attack. While the full backs will drift along behind them offering a supportive option to either pick the ball up bouncing outside the box or to give a free man to float a pass into the box just like the goal below.

My Huddersfield 4-4-2 utilises the full backs to great affect especially when looking to break down the opposition. Often more formations will drift from 4-4-2 to 4-2-4 to 2-4-4 as attacks develop and the ball moves forward.

The Tottenham Way

Spurs have two types of full back within their ranks. Corluka, the traditional full back, has decent defensive attributes but going forward I wouldn’t trust him. While Assou-Ekotto with his pace and ability on the ball favours getting forward. Albeit he is still along way from being a decent defensive player. But allowing him to go forward while the rest of the defensive three stay back is another way to ensuring your balance the attacking abilities of your full-back with the need not to be caught on the counter attack.

Corluka would have a support/defend role while Ekotto would be more support/attack role.

It may only be coincidence that World Cup winners over the past couple of years have included great attacking full backs but one thing is certain they could also be one of the most under-valued members of your squad. Get your full backs right and the rest of your side could fall into place nicely.

What do you think makes a good full back? How important do you feel their role is?

Related posts:

1. Building Your Defence: Centre Backs
2. Building Your Defence: From The Forwards
3. Building Your Defence: The Defensive Line




]]> http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2010/12/28/football-manager-full-backs/feed/ 0 http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2010/12/28/football-manager-full-backs/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/fmbritain/~3/PIK_p9oW0JM/ http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2010/09/21/false-nine-tactics/#comments Tue, 21 Sep 2010 09:00:36 +0000 Thomas Levin http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/?p=2140 When we think about modern football trends, we think about the fall of the 4-4-2, the introduction of inverted wingers and the rise of the 4-5-1. But there is one other tactical rise that seems to have been used with caution with by a few of the top managers, many abandoned just as quickly. Roma have executed the 4-6-0 brilliantly, Manchester United successfully and Barcelona with much grace. Manchester City seem to be the latest to opt for the false nine, but will these systems ever take off? The false nine is essentially a position in which the lone striker drops deep, often as deep as the midfield line. Strikers dropping deep is not something new, in fact this is...
Related posts:
1. Can You Really Emulate Barcelona Tactics in Football Manager?
2. How Will Jose Mourinho Manage at Real Madrid? (Part 4)
3. How Will Jose Mourinho Manage at Real Madrid? (Part 2)
]]> When we think about modern football trends, we think about the fall of the 4-4-2, the introduction of inverted wingers and the rise of the 4-5-1. But there is one other tactical rise that seems to have been used with caution with by a few of the top managers, many abandoned just as quickly. Roma have executed the 4-6-0 brilliantly, Manchester United successfully and Barcelona with much grace. Manchester City seem to be the latest to opt for the false nine, but will these systems ever take off?

The false nine is essentially a position in which the lone striker drops deep, often as deep as the midfield line. Strikers dropping deep is not something new, in fact this is what you would expect from the number 10 in a partnership with the number 9. As you can see from Millie’s simple 4-4-2 the British staple is built upon this sort of partnership. But a conventional defence knows how to deal with this problem as each defender will follow one of the strike partners, safe in the knowledge that the attacking threat behind is being covered by his partner.

When playing a lone striker system, one of the central defenders can choose to follow him deep, but this then will leaving his partner exposed with plenty of space around him for other attacking players to exploit, such as the inside forwards or on rushing AMC’s. Against the likes of the 4-4-2 it allows that striker to also have space between the lines to trouble the defenders, hold up the ball to put in dangerous pass or build up pace at the defence.

But what makes a successful false nine is not that player himself but it relies heavily on all 10 players in the system. A 4-6-0 system can only work if the players around have the ability to work together well. It took Manchester United and Roma plenty of poor performances before they had the connections between their team mates to be confident were each player was going to be. Where they needed to move not to allow the system to be torn apart. This is why I worry that Manchester City won’t be winning the league anytime soon playing the current false nine system if they continue to overhaul their squad each transfer window.

Implementing this into Football Manager

I have been attempting to find a bit of variety in my tactics with my 2016 Liverpool side. In my system which uses Hulk as a false 9 player by giving him a DLF support role. This allows him to stick between the lines of a 4-4-2. Looking for passes from the midfield who will either be rushing past him or online running into the box to allow him passing options. Or creating space and havoc in and around the box which will help create space to shoot himself. The DLF option looks for goals from the false nine player as much as his involvement in the build up. My preferred XI looks a little like this:

Pos.	Player	Role	Duty
GK	Pepe Reina	Sweeper Keeper	Defender
DL	Ivan Fatic	Full Back	Support
DR	Davide Santon	Full Back	Support
DC	Daniel Agger	Ball Playing Defender	Cover
DC	Martin Skrtel	Central Defender	Defend
MC	Javier Mascherano	Ball Winning Midfielder	Defend
MC	Steven Gerrard	Deep-Lying playmaker	Support
AMR	Alexis Sanchez	Inside Forward	Attack
AML	Ashley Young	Inside Forward	Attack
AMC	Diego Buonanotte	Trequartista	Attack
FC	Hulk	Deep-Lying Forward	Support

Philosophy	Balanced
Passing	Shorter
Creative Freedom	Default
Closing Down	Pressing More
Tackling	Default
Marking	Default
Crossing	Default
Roaming	Default

A 4-0 victory to Wigan shows a successful day for the false nine tactic. Diego Buonanotte is the main creative hub who will dictate the passing, moving all around the pitch in search of the ball. This leaves Hulk free to just sit just in front of the two centre backs to get involved with play while adding alot of attacking intent with 3 players coming from deep.





As you can see here, Hulk is in space, with his back to goal allowing Mascherano pass to him. Buonanotte is on hand to take the pass if needed. When Hulk gets the ball he drag one of the DC’s out of position to deal with him. Both Young and Sanchez are also on hand to offer a passing option, Sanchez already on goal side of the full back. In the end the ball was played to Young in the air which caused havoc in the box, taking it with his head the ball deflected from the keeper and Hulk had an open goal to put the ball away for his first goal in Red colours.

In this situation Buonanotte comes looking for the ball and gets the pass from Mascherano. Hulk again is between the two lines with plenty of space on the same level as the AMR/L’s who both again are running towards goal. Hulk gets the ball in midfield. The DC has only one option to come and close him down. Hulk uses the opportunity to turn the man closing him down, leaving him with plenty of space and a route to score the goal. Hulk’s positioning caused problems for Wigan throughout the game, as he got involved in 3 of the 4 goals in some way.

This game shows the tactic at its best, as Hulk was able to find space to exploit or hold up the ball to put into on coming players. Its all about getting the ball, passing it well and creating space in the final third.

In part 2 I will explore the more traditional 4-6-0 false nine tactic, but also the problem with the 4-6-0 and why it is always a risk everytime you you plug it into the tactics creator.

Have you ever tried the false nine or a 4-6-0 tactic? I’d be interested to hear the thoughts of you all about one of the most interesting tactical developments in the past 10 years.

Related posts:

1. Can You Really Emulate Barcelona Tactics in Football Manager?
2. How Will Jose Mourinho Manage at Real Madrid? (Part 4)
3. How Will Jose Mourinho Manage at Real Madrid? (Part 2)




]]> http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2010/09/21/false-nine-tactics/feed/ 0 http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2010/09/21/false-nine-tactics/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/fmbritain/~3/O1Emq66mP9U/ http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2010/09/13/football-manager-community-open-letter/#comments Mon, 13 Sep 2010 18:11:37 +0000 Gareth Millward http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/?p=2125 To view Sports Interactive's response, click here FM-Britain will no longer be producing regular content. Sports Interactive have objected to our content model of charging for annual strategy guides, and have threatened to remove all FM-Britain staff members from the beta testing process if we continued. They also threatened to put us under legal review despite our absolute conviction that nothing that we have done violates copyright law. The absolute priority of FM-Britain has been to improve the quality of the Football Manager community. We felt it most important that Richard Claydon (wwfan) was able to continue to beta test the game and develop the tactics...
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1. Football Manager Community Roundup: A New Player Emerges
2. Football Manager Community Roundup: Are You an FM Fanboy?
3. Football Manager Community Roundup: FM Punditry
]]> To view Sports Interactive’s response, click here

FM-Britain will no longer be producing regular content. Sports Interactive have objected to our content model of charging for annual strategy guides, and have threatened to remove all FM-Britain staff members from the beta testing process if we continued. They also threatened to put us under legal review despite our absolute conviction that nothing that we have done violates copyright law.

The absolute priority of FM-Britain has been to improve the quality of the Football Manager community. We felt it most important that Richard Claydon (wwfan) was able to continue to beta test the game and develop the tactics creator into which he and Oliver Collyer have put so much work. The only solution left open to us by Sports Interactive (SI) was for Richard to resign from making premium content – and without his input we no longer physically have the time or the manpower to continue.

Therefore, we have proposed that Richard continue to test the game as an independent fan of Football Manager, while the rest of the FM-Britain staff will remain separate from SI and from the newly proposed Sports Interactive Affiliate Scheme.

The biggest casualty of all this is that there will be no Tactical Theorems and Frameworks 11 as originally planned.

The site, however, would like to clear up some myths and misunderstandings that our activities over the past twelve months have and are likely to generate.

The Business Model

First, we will explain our business model. In the 2008/2009 Football Manager (FM) season, FM-Britain (FMB) produced one piece of content: Tactical Theorems and Frameworks 2009 (TT&F09). For the rest of the year, we wrote and produced nothing. The only reason we were able to continue was down to the business model we put in place for the twelve months running from October 2009.

This should be stated again, to be clear. The site would literally have gone off line, and all of our content would have been inaccessible without this business plan. That is not an exaggeration. The site’s domain name came up for renewal, and we seriously considered letting this lapse.

In order to allow us to produce regular, quality content over the lifespan of FM2010, we planned to release Communication and Psychological Warfare (CPW) as a premium guide. This would provide some small financial remuneration at the end of the 2009/2010 FM season, and allow us to build a platform from which we could launch even more content for 2010/2011. The work leading up to CPW was, in effect, “paid for” by its release as a premium guide.

We are no longer teenagers or undergraduate students. As much as we love the game and as much as we have enjoyed putting in our own time for free, there comes a point where schedules become too crowded. Staff members move on and are unable to do what they once did. Under the system we had in place, Jordan Cooper was able to divert some of his business time towards the marketing and administration of FMB’s servers. Richard Claydon was able to continue to work directly with Sports Interactive on match engine feedback. Gareth Millward (Millie) was able to produce regular content for the main site and act as the editor of our content. Matt vom Brocke (The next Diaby) was able to spend small pockets of time working on guides, while we were able to offer compensation to Jon Pearson (JP) and Keith Matthews who run our excellent LLaMa section and administrate the forums. We were also able to enlist the help of Thomas Levin from FM-Pundit in producing content and editing the main site. He has been similarly frustrated with the company’s attitude, apparently excluded from the SIAS without a single word of correspondence from SI or SEGA.

Without the business plan, this was simply not possible. Perhaps this is something that people don’t like to admit, but when you know that your work is building towards a particular goal it is much easier to dedicate time to finishing tasks. This is the basic advantage to a more entrepreneurial model. It fosters a more professional attitude to content production which ensures its quantity and quality.

It is absolutely clear that this could not be an entirely selfish enterprise for many reasons. That is not the community spirit. The community should be about helping people with FM, discussing the game and having open discussions with people. Above all, it should be about having fun.

However, we did not feel that it would be helping the community in any way were we to simply shut down the site. We found a way to help the community without any input from Sports Interactive while at the same time allowing the site’s staff team to continue their work.

FM-Britain has directly helped a number of fan sites through our affiliate sales program. As of 26 August 2010, the community has earned £749.49 in sales commission. This goes a long way to helping sites, large and small, cover their hosting costs. The potential amount to be gained from this form of content production is far in excess of proposals we have seen from Sports Interactive’s bursary scheme. Importantly, it directly rewards the community for the work they put into their sites rather than making them dependent on the grace and favour of the parent company. It is also, historically, a much more appropriate income source than selling copies of the latest FM – because most people who visit fan sites have already purchased the game.

FM-Britain has also given away almost £200 worth of prizes through competitions. That is not copies of our own products. That is copies of Sports Interactive’s games’ series such as Football Manager, Football Manager Live and Football Manager Handheld for the iPhone. We purchased all of these products ourselves. Therefore we not only helped the company sell more copies of its games, we also directly gave a proportion of our income straight back into the community. We have also donated money to charitable causes such as UNICEF, Sheffield Children’s Hospital and Clic Sargent.

Much of the money was re-invested back into our site (for things such as hosting, software, marketing, etc.) or went directly to the authors of the guides and the administrators of the site. This worked not only as compensation for our time but was also an incentive to make sure that we took enough pride in our work to make sure we could justify its costs.

ONE guide a year was designated as premium. This means that per-iteration of Football Manager, the site would, at maximum, ask for around £10-£15 per year. This was designed as a thank-you – so that our members, if they enjoyed what we did, could help support the community, the site and its authors. If you never wanted to pay for a guide, then nobody was forcing you to. If you fundamentally disagreed with the concept of premium guides, nobody was expecting you to change your mind.

The premium model forced us to produce regular and quality content. Without it, we would be cheating you, the community, out of your money. Without it, new members would not join the site and become potential customers. Without it, people would not discover us via Google, see us as trustworthy and part with their cash. Our entire operation had to be concerned with promoting Football Manager, promoting the community and producing the highest possible quality of content that we could.

This is why the FMB- Twitter and Facebook feeds have been so committed to making everyone aware of the fantastic amount of effort and quality work that the entire community creates. So many sites produce some quite extraordinary work that FMB simply doesn’t have the expertise to offer. For example, many sites produce better graphics and downloadables than we do. We will show you precisely where they are and how you can get more. We were, are, and had to be, committed to the entire community and the maintenance of the community. And this is why we set up our affiliate sales links so that everyone could benefit in the premium content we were producing.

Why we are stopping

One thing should be made abundantly clear. We are not stopping because we did not sell enough guides. As we have already shown, we have paid out over £900 worth to the community through affiliate sales and through competition giveaways. We actually sold more than we expected. We do not wish, for obvious reasons, to give out our full financial statements, but we sold over 1,000 copies of CPW.

Many of these sales were to people who would never visit forums, never comment on posts and never e-mail us. Yet we have, to date, not had a single request for a refund due to the quality of our work. We stand by this. We produce professional quality work, and we have helped many people who are new to the game get to grips with it.

We should also make it absolutely clear that nothing that FM-Britain did was illegal. There were no violations of copyright or of trademarks. We used no screenshots and made very clear that our guides were unofficial. We are adamant that any legal challenge from SI or SEGA would have failed as has happened in similar disputes in the communities of other video games.

There is a more valid moral argument, which was debated rather maturely and fairly by the community – for this we are grateful. Many of the established community argue, as do SI, that everything in the community should be “free”. This, however, is a romantic notion of the community past. It is becoming more and more evident that high-quality writing in the FM community comes in fits and spurts. So far, no site (including our own) has found a way to produce quality content over a long, sustained period of time. The premium model solved this issue and gave the opportunity for people to continue to use our site 100% free of charge if they did not want to buy our guides.

We are stopping because we physically no longer have the manpower to continue this premium model. We are also stopping because it is clear that Sports Interactive will not offer its community the support that it needs to survive in the modern arena. By refusing to sanction a self-financing and mutually beneficial entrepreneurial approach to content production, SI are effectively taking the stance that they would rather have control over a weaker community than allow a stronger, more prosperous community to grow organically.

We were put in an impossible situation. Continue to produce guides and be accused of putting ourselves before the community. Or stop producing guides and be forced to effectively shut down large parts of what we do. We have chosen the latter, despite the fact that we will be sacrificing a good income stream and we believe this will harm the community in the long term.

The future

The only way that content in the community can continue to improve in quality and quantity is if we all take a more professional approach. The people who write quality guides, the people who write applications to view and edit data, the people who create graphics and do research for data updates – you all have skills that any business should jump at the chance to utilise.

SI would have you believe that they have given you the privilege of being able to use these skills. This is not the case. They should be privileged that you take so much of your time to make their product better. When you consider how many of SI’s current staff started out in the community, it becomes even more frustrating that they feel like they have a monopoly of expertise on their product. The game has historically always benefited by the resourcefulness and invention of its community. SI, this year, have taken active steps to quash that spirit.

We made an attempt to equalise the terms of this relationship. With absolutely no financial input, SI could have fostered a self-financing community which produced regular, quality content from experts all over the community – all for the purposes of advertising their brand and their product. Both sides could have profited. Most importantly, the content consumers – the community – would benefit most by being able to access an incredible amount of high-quality content. The vast, vast majority of which would have been for free.

Our proposals did not rip off the community – they allowed the community to invest in itself. We feel that at no point did Sports Interactive take us seriously. Our e-mails appear to show that very little, if any of it, was actually read, and even less of that was seriously digested. The initial aversion to any form of charging in the community has blinkered them from seeing the larger picture.

There is nothing inherently wrong with them wanting more control over the community. However, it is not a rational business decision. It is a romantic decision based on the way the community used to be. Many will agree with this stance, and we’re not here to try and change your mind. But look at the past few years of the community and you will see that SI’s “hands-off” approach has actually produced a much more innovative community. The sites which could innovate, have survived. Those who have not been able to properly organise have fallen by the wayside. Now, even the bigger sites are having issues with finance and with finding the time and energy to keep their momentum going. We will watch with interest and see if the SIAS does indeed reinvigorate the community.

FM-Britain will not join the SIAS while SI continues to oppose premium content. We believe it is the best way to ensure the community’s long term survival and to provide even MORE free content available to all. It also ensures the community’s independence from SI, who have clearly shown that they are willing to crush any site which does not adhere to their ideal of respectability. As this decision means that Richard Claydon must stop work on premium content, the site can no longer continue with its business model, and therefore cannot continue to produce regular content.

A massive thank you to all our readers

The only reason we were able to succeed this year was due to our readers valuing our work so much so that they were happy to support it. By paying for the small 1% that we offered for sale we were able to justify the work we had put in for the past 12 months. TT10 was downloaded over 60,000 times this year and our past guides have reached a total of nearly 800,000 downloads in over 12 different languages. Every week for the past year we receive e-mails thanking us for committing the time and energy to produce quality content for the benefit of the entire FM playing world. We sincerely and very humbly appreciate it.

Our biggest regret in ceasing production of TT&F ’11 is letting you, the readers, down. We expected backlash from the general, traditional community, and were it possible for us to continue then SI’s opposition would not have been an issue either. However, we are eternally grateful that our core readership not only gave their blessing but actively supported us so well. Given the stance of SI and given our own personal commitments we are very sorry that we cannot continue in the way that we have managed over the past year.

The site will not be completely dead. We will update from time to time, and we will keep our discussion forums open. Using what is left of the community’s investment in us we will upgrade our forum software and main site. In the future, when our schedules allow, we will be able to return and prove to the community how beneficial our proposals could have been.

With the greatest respect to our readers,

The FM-Britain staff


Sports Interactive were given right of reply. This is their response.

Gareth recently sent this letter to SI to give us right to reply – the reply below is from Paul & Ov Collyer and Miles Jacobson.

“Our position on the charging for guides, whether official or unofficial is clear – we turn down proposed deals regularly for these kinds of guides, as we believe that it’s a key part of why the community around our games exist. For more than 15 years, members of the community have been providing help, advice and downloads for the rest of the community to enjoy at no cost, including many of the team members who are now at Sports Interactive.

We also provide unrivalled tools and access to people at the studio for the people who work on this content, and help wherever possible.

So, despite the gains we could make financially out of having guides, both official and unofficial, we reject them in favour of this content remaining part of the community, which continues to thrive.

Sports Interactive were not, at any point, contacted by FM-Britain to discuss the change from a fansite charging for a guide. The first anyone at SI knew about it was when the advert for it was put up on the FM-Britain website, and it was shown to Miles by Marc Duffy during the recording of a podcast, with Miles thinking it was a joke at first, and not a funny one at that.

Anyway, we aren’t planning to come back on every point in the open letter, but suffice to say the version of events there is quite different to what we believe them to be. There are, however, a couple of points which we feel we need to clarify.

Firstly, we have not threatened anyone with legal action. In fact, we’ve made it clear that we at Sports Interactive have consulted with no lawyers at all regarding the guides. What we have said is that when FM-Britain decided to charge for it’s guide, they became a business in our eyes, not a fan-site. We also pointed out that any businesses would need to ensure that they are not infringing any trademarks or IP that is owned by either ourselves or SEGA if they decided to go down this route. It was meant as friendly advice.

Secondly, it is stated that we threatened to remove some of FM-Britain’s staff from the beta test if they continued charging for the guides. This is also not true – by being the only one of the previously affiliated websites to not sign up to the SI affiliate scheme (detailed below) – their staff members had already been removed from the beta test. What we did do is email 2 of the FM-Britain staff members to say that we’d still love to have them on the beta test team as we very much value their feedback, but that they could not re-join it if they were still going to be part of the team behind the paid guides because, simply, we cannot give the access that beta testers have to the game or the team at SI to people who were making and charging for unofficial guides against our will. One of the two people that we emailed is coming back to being a beta tester, and we’re delighted to have him back. The other has decided to not come back, which is his choice, and is a big shame for both he and we.

Below are the terms of the affiliate scheme for you to all see, including the questions and answers that came from a workshop that was arranged to discuss the new scheme. As mentioned above, there was only one site which said no to the new terms, which was FM-Britain and we’re delighted that 35 other websites have signed up to be part of it. The new affiliate scheme was being worked on well before the guide was released, and a lot of feedback from various affiliate sites was taken into account whilst it was being worked on, which includes helping the websites with revenue both via a bursary scheme and affiliate marketing for selling of merchandise (and, hopefully, copies of the game) and providing competition prizes so that sites like FM-Britain, and the multitude of other sites that were offering games as competition prizes in the past, are not paying for those out of their own pockets.

SPORTS INTERACTIVE AFFILIATE SCHEME WORKSHOP

We truly appreciate the passion, knowledge and loyalty of the FM community. This is why we’ve re-visited our affiliate scheme to review how best we can re-structure the scheme and ensure our fansites are receiving the full support of Sports Interactive and SEGA.

The affiliate workshop took place on Saturday 3rd July. For those that were not able to attend, you can watch the broadcast again here (running time: 1 hr 45 minutes): http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8047536

THE NEW STRUCTURE

We are proposing a new 3 tier approach with the criteria and benefits outlined below.

Level 1 – Fansite: Open to anyone who wishes to begin an FM fansite.

Benefits:

* Football Manager fansite badge
* Fan site kits access to FM assets and resources
* Mention in the community round-up and links posted on relevant FM related web-space
* Listed on FM.com affiliates section
* Invite to FM affiliates Fantasy Football League

Level 2 – Affiliate: Established for six months and have generated their own content during this time. Recommended by current FM Gold Affiliates.

Benefits:

* Affiliate badge
* The ability to sell games / merchandise through our new affiliate shop
* Eligible for bursary scheme
* 150-word synopsis of the site on FM.com
* Listed on in-game fansite list
* Direct access to the FM Community Team through a dedicated forum
* Monthly live online chats with FM community team
* Invitations to our community days and workshops
* Receive limited edition merchandise for use as competition prizes
* Yearly Football Manager Live subscriptions – 1 per site
* Invite to FM affiliates Fantasy Football League

Level 3 – FM Gold Affiliate: Established for two years with a large user base and regular weekly content.

Benefits:

* Gold Affiliate badge
* The ability to sell games / merchandise through our new affiliate shop
* Eligible for bursary scheme
* Access to preview code / BETA testing
* Listed on in-game fansite list
* 300-word synopsis of the site on FM.com
* Monthly round-up of new content posted as a news story on FM.com
* Direct access to the FM community team through affiliates forum
* Monthly live online chats with FM community team
* Invitations to our community days and workshops
* Receive limited edition merchandise for use as competition prizes
* Christmas gift!
* Invite to FM affiliates Fantasy Football League

BURSARY SCHEME

We’ve been looking into various ways in which we can provide you with some financial aid towards your running costs. Our first proposal is a new bursary scheme whereby we reward outstanding acts of community contribution with a cash reward for any activity we deem have proved of incredible value to the community over the course of each year. Here’s how it’ll work:

* We’ll keep a monthly ‘log’ of content from around the community
* Content can include anything from articles to tactic guides and challenges to downloads
* Best monthly content will also be featured on FM.com / Facebook / Twitter
* We’ll review the ‘log’ at the end of the year and decide which sites receive the bursary grants

How many bursaries will be available and to what value?

Exact details are to be confirmed but we expect to be offering around 20 bursaries, with 4 or 5 ‘top’ bursaries for the best performing sites. Amounts will be somewhere in the region of £100-250.

Are non-UK sites eligible for the affiliate scheme?

Yes. We should have territory community managers in Spain, Italy and France again so these guys will be able to help us monitor sites in those countries. Any affiliates outside of these countries will need to submit a round-up of their monthly content to us, ideally with a summary in English, to be considered.

How can you spend the money?

We leave this decision entirely up to you. You may use the money to help cover your bandwidth costs or to reward your site members for their contributions. It’s your choice.

AFFILIATES SHOP

We are currently exploring the possibilities of setting up a new ‘affiliates shop’ that will allow you guys to earn revenue from selling official FM merchandise and games through your site.

We appreciate that some of you may already be utilising other forms of ads/affiliate networks (e.g. Zavvi, Amazon) on your site and you are of course free to continue to using these if you wish to do so.

We are providing the affiliates shop as an extra revenue generating tool for you to utilise, it is up to you whether or not you want to take this option up.

We are still in ongoing talks but as soon as we are able to finalise details we will get these out to you.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

All our affiliate sites will be required to adhere to the following terms and conditions. We think they’re very reasonable, consider them more as guidelines that should help promote a friendlier, more harmonious community.

1. The content found on the site must concentrate solely on the Football Manager and Football Manager Live titles and speak about the Football Manager game series.

2. Sites must be updated on a regular basis.

We realise that for any site there are busy times and downtimes. We just want to see sites active on a regular basis; this can be in the form of mainsite articles, provision of downloads or forum activity.

3. The site cannot contain or link to content which violates or encourages violating the terms of use of any of the titles in the Football Manager series.

This line is a legal requirement. It’s not something we expect to be a problem but it is our obligation to be make these things clear. It absolutely does not refer to the ‘bad mouthing’ of SEGA or SI.

Violating the terms of use would include hosting any pirated content or links that promote piracy. It also includes any content or links to content that violates the conditions of Non Disclosure Agreements. Violating these terms would have serious consequences.

4. Do not host articles or content produced by other Football Manager fansites without the prior consent of the original content owner. Where consent is given, you must provide full accreditation and links back to the original content owner. Failure to do so could lead to legal action being taken against you.

5. You are not allowed to copy whole pages from the Football Manager website verbatim, although reasonable use of material from the site with clear reference to the copyright being held by SEGA / Sports Interactive is acceptable.

You can of course still post the latest news on patches, new game, features etc. Just please make sure to reference where the info was taken from.

6. The site must not charge users for ANY of its content. You are permitted to accept donations from users but this must be entirely at the individuals own discretion.

7. All sites should carry the following disclaimer:

This site is not endorsed by Sports Interactive or SEGA and is intended for entertainment purposes only. The views expressed on this site are the views of the individual contributors and not those of Sports Interactive or SEGA. The official Football Manager site can be found at www.footballmanager.com, the official Football Manager Live site at www.footballmanagerlive.com and the official forums can be found athttp://community.sigames.com/.

Sports Interactive, the Sports Interactive logo, in-game generated images and any other Football Manager related items are registered trademarks and/or copyright material owned by Sports Interactive, or their respective trademark and copyright holders.

SEGA and the SEGA logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of SEGA Corporation. Football Manager, Football Manager Live, Sports Interactive and the Sports Interactive logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Sports Interactive Limited. All rights reserved.

WORKSHOP Q & A:

There were plenty of questions from all those that tuned in to the broadcast. Some of them have been covered off in the sections above but here is a round-up of the rest:

Q. Currently, there are lots of areas of the SI forums that are not viewable unless you are signed in to your SEGA pass account. Can you ‘unlock’ all areas so that we can link to threads from our site and make them viewable for all, even non-SEGA Pass members?

A. We have spoken to our online team and will let you know the outcome of that one.

Q. Can we be given early notification/access to the latest patches when they are released?

A. Unfortunately, this is not something we can do. We can’t share any links or give people prior notice as we ourselves have to wait for the patches to be released on STEAM before we can take any action. This is why everyone receives news of the latest patch at the same time, i.e. when it’s been released.

Q. Can we please be given notice of any FM events that are taking place?

A. Most definitely. Any events we can invite you to we will glad to have you there. We will also be looking at hosting some FM pub style quizzes and more regular community get togethers.

Q. Can we still charge a fee for a premium membership that allows members quicker access to downloading files, ad free pages?

A. Yes. As long as the actual content is still free for all to access you can continue to do so.

Q. How can I become involved in the research process?

A. The best thing to do is post in the research area of the SI forums and express your interest. We do have many long term relationships in place with our head researchers but there are sometimes new opportunities that arise. Keep an eye in this forum for any news.

Q. Is there anything you can do to better promote and acknowledge the contributions of individuals and not just websites within the community?

A. Certainly. We will be posting regular community round-ups on the FM website as well as community member profiles and a list of their greatest works.

Q. Can you provide unique ID’s from within the game to help us with our game updates, downloads etc?

A. Unfortunately not. Due to legal reasons, this is something we absolutely cannot provide you with.

Q. If I have an idea for a piece of merchandise, can I submit it to you to be considered?

Of course! We can’t make any promises but we can certainly take them into consideration.

(Please note that some of the benefits for affiliates have been removed for the publishing of this document, but the terms and conditions are not changed)

Cheers

Miles, Ov & Paul”

Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts on this forum thread.

Related posts:

1. Football Manager Community Roundup: A New Player Emerges
2. Football Manager Community Roundup: Are You an FM Fanboy?
3. Football Manager Community Roundup: FM Punditry




]]> http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2010/09/13/football-manager-community-open-letter/feed/ 0 http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2010/09/13/football-manager-community-open-letter/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/fmbritain/~3/1-xr2WYPBIk/ http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2010/09/06/real-madrid-tactics-7/#comments Mon, 06 Sep 2010 09:00:05 +0000 Gareth Millward http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/?p=2118 Last time around I showed you the gaping holes in my tactical plan. Against smaller teams, my players were not imposing themselves enough on the game, nor were they able to break through more disciplined defences. What was the solution? Pressure – and lots of it. Tactical Plan v. 3.0 I wanted to stick to the “4-3-3” principal of my original tactic but allow it to be flexible enough to cope with different situations. The solution was a slightly modified version of the “dominate” tactic – the “withdrawn” formation, with the left winger encouraged to run from deep into the attack. The thinking behind this was that a quick winger such as Drenthe or Marcelo...
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1. How Will Jose Mourinho Manage at Real Madrid? (Part 2)
2. How Will Jose Mourinho Manage at Real Madrid? (Part 4)
3. How Will Jose Mourinho Manage at Real Madrid? (Part 6)
]]> Last time around I showed you the gaping holes in my tactical plan. Against smaller teams, my players were not imposing themselves enough on the game, nor were they able to break through more disciplined defences. What was the solution? Pressure – and lots of it.

Tactical Plan v. 3.0

I wanted to stick to the “4-3-3” principal of my original tactic but allow it to be flexible enough to cope with different situations. The solution was a slightly modified version of the “dominate” tactic – the “withdrawn” formation, with the left winger encouraged to run from deep into the attack. The thinking behind this was that a quick winger such as Drenthe or Marcelo would have more joy taking a run up at the opposing full back rather than sitting on his shoulder and waiting for space to become available. Thus, the AML became a ML defensive winger with an attack duty.

The second part of the change came in the centre of the midfield. Putting pressure on deeper lying midfielders was key, but it was also important that my midfielders did some creative work as well. So I put them both on support duties as ball winning midfielders. They would heavily press the central midfield, but also be in a position to join attacking moves and play some good balls through when needed.

Finally, to give some width and some more men in support of the attackers I made both of my full backs wing backs with an automatic duty.

The Short Story



By making these changes, the team did indeed regain control of the centre of the field. By using Diarra and Alonso as ball-winning midfielders on support duty, the opposition’s midfield were unable to exploit spaces. Both players would track forward or backwards depending on where the opposition were. This was a huge defensive benefit and meant that when playing counter attacking teams we could effectively break up any possession before it built up momentum.

Ronaldo and Kaka continued to cause problems at the front, and the centre forward continued to score goals. Drenthe, from a more reserved position, offered not only defensive stability but a deeper attacking option. Both Ramos and Marcelo got their fair share of crosses in as well. All looked good.

This solved the problem when I played against deeper lying teams. But there was one type of team which were still causing me problems. Those playing 4-2-1-3. This system does not match up against a 2-1 midfield. Versus 4-1-2-3 sides, such as Barcelona from chapter 3, my midfield matched up exactly. The MCs take on the opposition’s MCs, and my AMC can hassle the DMC. That’s fine. But against the 4-2-1-3, the opposition’s playmaking “number 10” can play in between my MCs, while my AMC is left with two central midfielders to close down.

While partly we can try to blame the flawed marking logic in FM10, there is an inherent weakness here which needed to be addressed.





As you can see, the 2-1 midfield I had set up naturally marked the 1-2 midfield of the traditional 4-3-3. Against a 4-4-2, it also had a man spare. Where it fell down was when it came up against a similar shaped midfield.

In these circumstances, the players have two options. Either they can follow the red arrows (where my AMC tracks to the one MC and one of my MCs tracks back to their MC) or they can follow the orange arrows (where my AMC matches up against their AMC).

Unfortunately, the logic in the FM2010 ME favours the orange solution. This is doubly disadvantageous. First, it means Kaka, my creative outlet, spends most of his time running away from his hole to cover the defence; and second Kaka is not fit enough or defensively minded enough to perform well in this role. The entire of the team’s shape is ruined.

The second solution, then, was to play the same system but with three MCs. Kaka dropped back into the midfield as an advanced playmaker in the MCc slot. This reduced the amount of distance he had to track back whilst protecting him in a little “hole”, flanked as he was on both sides by ball-winning midfielders.

Success?

In very brief terms, it solved my problem short-term. We went on to put together the wins which eventually saw us win the league title (with 89 points – four more than Barca). I used these systems in the second season, resorting only to the “counter” strategy when playing against sides who I expected to cause me problems. Again, we retained the league, getting 97 points in the process (12 more than Barca).

Cristiano Ronaldo was played in a way which perfectly suited him. His 39-goal tally from season one was followed by 52 goals in the second season. Kaka made the most assists in the league in both seasons with 17 and 14 (20 and 21 in all competitions). For a 38-game league campaign, I now had all the tools to win the league comfortably with the talent at my disposal.

In the Champions League, however, I still came up short. A quarter final defeat to Porto on away goals was followed a season later by a semi final defeat to Internazionale. Mourinho defeats Mourinho.

I will follow up by writing a bit about these defeats in the next article, and try to analyse where my system did well and where it fell apart.

The Benefit of Hindsight

For those of you following these articles on the forums, you’ll know that I played this save many weeks ago. As such, a World Cup has been and gone and a new football season has started. This has given me a number of fresh ideas for how I might have approached this differently.

As SFraser has pointed out to me, player attributes are an important part of the tactical set up. In many cases, it was clear that I had developed the system from the formation to the players rather than taking the players and making the formation. Without doubt, Kaka, Ronaldo, Higuain/Benzema and the two centre backs were ideally suited to this style of football. However, the midfield needed some work on it.

I have since taken up the save again in season 3 and am working on a slightly different system. This is based more around the players I have and the players I can hire. I will begin to show you this in a few weeks’ time.

Conclusions

This new system did a job. Arguably, it did more than that; two league titles are not to be sniffed at, and victories at Stamford Bridge, the San Siro and Camp Nou suggest that the general pattern of play worked. However, there were still holes which meant that in Europe especially the team could be found wanting. It is those problems I hope to address now.

Related posts:

1. How Will Jose Mourinho Manage at Real Madrid? (Part 2)
2. How Will Jose Mourinho Manage at Real Madrid? (Part 4)
3. How Will Jose Mourinho Manage at Real Madrid? (Part 6)




]]> http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2010/09/06/real-madrid-tactics-7/feed/ 0 http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2010/09/06/real-madrid-tactics-7/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/fmbritain/~3/i29rdH8eOxA/ http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2010/08/23/managing-cska-sofia-in-football-manager-3/#comments Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:00:39 +0000 Mihail Vladimirov http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/?p=2110 After setting the tactics for our team in the previous post, we'll look how they are going to play out in a game situation. Our first friendly will give us a chance to see how our players will handle the tactics. The First Friendly Firstly, In this video we can see our main attacking weakness, at least in terms of formation and players positioning in phase attack. When the team is splitting and every player takes his position, according to how the team is shaped in phase attack, there is huge space between our main playmaker and the front four. The negative of this is that our attacks becomes one-dimensional, at least in terms of vertical and...
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2. From Giant to Underdog: Managing a Bulgarian Powerhouse (Part 1)
3. The Lazio 3-5-2/5-2-3: An Analysis of The Games
]]> After setting the tactics for our team in the previous post, we’ll look how they are going to play out in a game situation. Our first friendly will give us a chance to see how our players will handle the tactics.

The First Friendly

Firstly, In this video we can see our main attacking weakness, at least in terms of formation and players positioning in phase attack. When the team is splitting and every player takes his position, according to how the team is shaped in phase attack, there is huge space between our main playmaker and the front four.


The negative of this is that our attacks becomes one-dimensional, at least in terms of vertical and horizontal angles and zones my player can occupy, not able to  interplay and comunicate between our attacking players and the players behind them, and most importantly – our main playmaker.

In the video we can see that when the ball reached our main playmaker, and he is in his favourite position to dictate the play, ( ie little bit ahead of the centre circle and behind the our four attacking players, they is too are far away for him. There is no player playing in the hole, which is the natural task of our attacking midfielder. Instead of dropping deeper to create the 3-1 (AML,AMC,AMR,FC ) attacking shape, he push forward and is acting as second striker, or even as spearheading striker. This is due to his freedom to push forward everytime our team is with the ball. The reason behind such as behaviour is that opposition is playing with three central defenders in one line and two wing-backs.

In that particular video we can see that our inside forward is completely unmarked on the flank and it’s easy passing outlet for our main playmaker. Instead of this the playmaker decides to pass the ball to our right back.

In conclusion – our main weakness in our attacking shape is actually our strenghth, at least in that particular match, because the on-rushing attacking midfielders distracts the opposition to mark all four attacking players. The problem was that our main playmaker took the wrong decision where and when to continue our attack.

In that video the focus is on how badly positioned our inside-forward is. This is due to his lack of proper anticapation and off the ball movement in that situation. When our forward on the ball our inside-forward continued to hugging the line,  instead of trying to bypass his personal marker and cuts inside to offera a different passing outlet and additional danger for the opposition’s defenders. Not doing this he completely burned my tactical ideas and approach for using him, because he is not doing the job I wanted from him.

In the next case we can see how good our attacking shape can be, moreso when the playmaker is behind our front four player and the attacking midfielder is little bit deeper than the others, offering another passing angle. But instead to combine with the attacking midfielder the playmaker choose to shoot from distance (he has such as PPM ) which completely destroy that decent chance for something really dangerous. In that case he can pass to the attacking midfielder, who, can try and search the channel ahead of him to unleash a killer ball towards the striker ; or just to recycle the possession passing to our right back or exchange passess with his defensive midfielder partner and change the direction/flank of our attack, waiting for another chance for something more dangerous.

In that case the playmaker again choose to try his luck from that distance instead of trying to recycle the possession becaue it’s obviously that all of our attacking players are marked well.

That video is proof/visualisation of my idea behind the specific tactical demanding from my fullbacks to cross from deep position. When the ball reached our right fullback the opposition’s defence is not so well positioned and our attacking midfielder managed to run away from his marker and go into the perfect channel where he can receive the ball via crossing. Unfortanely his lack of first touch skill prevented him to strike the ball immediately and forced him to try and control the ball with more touches and, logical, the whole situation passed away. That was the negative in this situation. But the positive is that the right back did want is required from him.

next, we can see proof for weakness of my whole tactical approach – we were outnumbered, easily, just because we are attacking with less number and less fluid movement. The only real possability was to stretch the ball into the wide areas and then crossed it, but my players are not so good in the air.

Here we can see the perfect proof of the positive to have deep-lying playmaker behind the front players. Yes, we were outnumbered, again, in that situation but the movement was not so bad from our front four players who managed to create a gap where our striker was trying to work his place, waiting for the pass from our main playmaker, who is in perfect place to spot it and pass to him. The problem was that the keeper anticipated very well the situation and prevent our striker to have a chance to shoot the ball clearly/easily.

And finally – the silly mistake of our whole defence that let the opposition to score the only goal, which won them the match. No matter the fact that we were in our defensive shape and we outnumbered them completely, the opposition player managed to score a goal via the most logical way they can do – by using the gap between our central defenders. The problem here is personal, not tactical, just because our team was in it’s defensive shape and there were not surprising movement from the opposition. The problem was that our central defender, who marked their goal-scorer, was slow, not agile and completely lacking anticapation and positioning sense. But that is, in fact, his main weakness as a player.

Here is proof for how deadly our team is in attacking sense, moreso when the ball is passing with speed and intelligence. We took away the ball, then with good short and one-touching passes exchanged the ball, giving time for our attacking players to take their usual attacking shape, waiting the perfect moment when one of our players, this time our defensive midfielder, to give a through ball to a player, who is pushing forward from deep position.

That situation was also a proof for my tactical idea behind the specific instructions to my defensive winger – ie to act as inside-forward when he is not with the ball and the attack is not coming through his flank.

Conclusions

Despite the fact we lost our first friendly match I’m equal satisfied and dissatisfied. We made some mistakes – both personal and tactical – but also we made some good things, both in terms of movements, timing of our passes, attacks and etc. With the time, and the fact that my players will start to understand with each other, the things will become even more brightly.

For more insight, follow the discussion with Cagiva and his tactics in our forums.

Related posts:

1. From Giant to Underdog: Managing a Bulgarian Powerhouse (Part 2)
2. From Giant to Underdog: Managing a Bulgarian Powerhouse (Part 1)
3. The Lazio 3-5-2/5-2-3: An Analysis of The Games




]]> http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2010/08/23/managing-cska-sofia-in-football-manager-3/feed/ 0 http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2010/08/23/managing-cska-sofia-in-football-manager-3/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/fmbritain/~3/WEL0R188j9o/ http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/2010/08/18/managing-cska-sofia-in-football-manager-2/#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:00:18 +0000 Mihail Vladimirov http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/?p=2092 Given the fact that I have players, which don’t possess the all-round skill to transition between the phases well enough, I think it’ll be more productive to stick to rigid type of players positioning and movement on the pitch. With such a formation, the separated lines should have enough cover between them just because they are in pairs and more imporatantly – they are near enough between each other. With such conservative setup my players will stick to their base position and will position themselves, in each phase, only due to their specific role, duty and tactical instructions. With the team yet blended, lacking key aspect of football skill, such a...
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2. From Giant to Underdog: Managing a Bulgarian Powerhouse (Part 1)
3. The Lazio 3-5-2/5-2-3: An Analysis of The Games
]]> Given the fact that I have players, which don’t possess the all-round skill to transition between the phases well enough, I think it’ll be more productive to stick to rigid type of players positioning and movement on the pitch.

With such a formation, the separated lines should have enough cover between them just because they are in pairs and more imporatantly – they are near enough between each other. With such conservative setup my players will stick to their base position and will position themselves, in each phase, only due to their specific role, duty and tactical instructions.

With the team yet blended, lacking key aspect of football skill, such a setup will give the team more stability and cover in phase defence.  The negative thing will be that we will attack with less numbers, movement and unpredictability.



From my players I’ll demand some crucial things, which will help both our defence and our attack – to keep the possession in our favaour, most of the time. To achieve that they should learn to pass the ball with short passes, even sideways or backwards, but the main aim is to keep the possession. This is a safety approach, which will complement our rigid movement between the two phases and in each phase. Adding furtner more to this safety approach I’ll limit my players creative freedom – their focus should be to do the “simple” things well. I prefer to recycle the possession, starting our attacks, over and over again, but to not lose the ball, just because one of them tries something, he can’t execute properly with his limited skills, or risk to lose the ball just because he will think that :  “oh, I think that pass may do the job”, and then just unleash killer pass when there is less than minimal chance the ball to get to the other player.

The defence includes a flat four with two limited central defenders, aiming to break the oppositions attacks with physical presence. The fullbacks given an attacking duty, but not so attacking as if they were pure wing-backs. They join our attack only when they can going forward without the ball when there is an no obvious chance that the opposition could break and attack us via counter-attacks. But the fullbacks will have one major aim – to cross the ball from deep. My aim behind this is to add some surprise and, hopefully, to catch the opposition’s defence out of position. I prefer such as crossing style from my fullbacks, rather than to ask from them to dribble down the whole flank and then just cross the ball when the whole opposition team have all the time to re-shape and cover all of my attacking players.

Ahead of our defence will act the double pivot.  One of that pair will be the much needed pressing-type defensive midfielder and the other – our main playmaker, who will act from deep position aiming to dictate our attacks from this zone, helping his partner in covering the righ-hand part of the pitch when we are defending, while his partner covers the left side.

His partners job is to cover our left-hand side, covering the space behind our left inside-forward, giving him freedom to roam all over the last third, starting wide and then cutting inside with or without the ball.

When the team is facing huge pressure from the opposition the defensive midfielder will drop deeper and act as shield for our defensive line (ie more like anchor man than pure destroyer) while his partner will act as the pressing-type defensive midfielder ahead of him.

Our front three includes three different types of players as roles and tactical instructions. The left winger will act as inside-forward, aiming to start wide and then cut inside,with or without the ball. His main task is to roam all over the left-hand side of our attack, often taking central position, acting as second-central-striker. His defensive task will be to put pressure on every player that is near to him.

The player on the right side of our attack is having “balancing” role – acting as pure winger, but with more defensive mind. In attack his job is to give the team width from that side, running and crossing , having freedom to pop-up from deep position running from deep, when the attack is started away from him and he is not with the ball. In phase defence he acts as our “work horse” – pressing and tackling his near opponent, balancing our front three, participating in our transition between attacking-to-defending.

The player behind the lone striker will act as pure classic attacking midfielder, with a role, which is something between second striker and advanced playmaker. He will have the movement freedom with and without the ball to go forward and moves between the channels ; and will have the freedom to pull all the strings from the zone he is – ie the last third. In phase defence this player will have huge task – to close down early and high on the pitch every player that wants to receive the ball in that zone and thinks he is having easy time to control it and pick out a pass.

The lone striker is the player, who spearheads our attacks. Always aiming to  play on the shoulder of the  defenders, always trying to occupy the spaces between the two central defenders or between a fullback and a central defender. He will move often move wider and deeper with the aim to open space for the players behind him – mostly the inside forward and the attacking midfielder, forming somekind of attacking trio with them. In phase defence this player will have the aim to close down the central defenders and/or fullback (depending on his moment position) and preventing him to distribute the ball forward.

In a few days time we will see how this tactic plays out in a friendly as we prepare for the new season. Using videos we should be able to capture a full analysis of the game.

Related posts:

1. From Giant to Underdog: Managing a Bulgarian Powerhouse (Part 3)
2. From Giant to Underdog: Managing a Bulgarian Powerhouse (Part 1)
3. The Lazio 3-5-2/5-2-3: An Analysis of The Games




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