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Category: Tactics

Total Football Journeyman: The English Way

Total Football Journeyman: The English Way

What is the English Way? A rather wholesome moniker, suggestive of hot tea and delicious hobnobs on a chilly autumn morning. It’s also a good name to encompass the bygone football style of the time and place that was 1970s England. It is not as poetic a term as “Total Football”, mainly because some might easily confuse it with the Hoofball “anti-football” that predominated the latter period of 1980s and 90s. But to me the “English Way”, evokes the great…

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The Art of Defence

The Art of Defence

Offence wins matches, defence wins titles. OK, so that isnt verbatim, but we’ve all heard it. I see so many tactics that focus heavily on attack; wing backs with an attack duty, a playmaker, a mezzala on attack, inside forwards and a pressing forward. And watching those 11 dots all plough forward, hell bent on attacking, looks fantastic, doesn’t it? And if it works, great. But wouldn’t you like to understand defensive tactics and become a master in the art…

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Total Football Journeyman: Back To Where It All Started

Total Football Journeyman: Back To Where It All Started

I could have called this piece, “Total Overloads Take 3.0” before settling on a more catchy title. Some might remember my old article exploring Pep Guardiola’s tactics and overloads. It’s okay if you do not, I don’t mind. There’s been so much change in my writing and tactics since FM19 that I don’t even remember everything myself. It has been an educative journey into football history and learning the intricacies of FM games. I prefer to think of my series…

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Roles: Do they matter?

Roles: Do they matter?

Roles in Football Manager play a large part in the formation of your tactic. Whether you downloaded a tactic on a forum to use with your team, or you’ve spent hours upon hours tweaking around the game mechanics to find that all important tactic. Setting up your formation is already something that can be quite tricky. Some choose a formation based on what they like – have a clear preference. Others base their formation purely on what’s best for the…

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Total Football Journeyman: Sir Alex’s Strikerless Masterclass

Total Football Journeyman: Sir Alex’s Strikerless Masterclass

In a series about Total Football, you might wonder why I am writing about Sir Ferguson’s Manchester United? While Ferguson’s Man United achieved amazing success between 2006-2009, they were not known for playing Possession-style, associated with Total Football. Or for that matter one cannot really pin point a specific style of play or formation to that legendary team. However, one constant that contributed to Ferguson’s success was his masterful management of his players. Sir Alex Ferguson was a people manager…

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Total Football Journeyman: How To Break Stubborn Defences

Total Football Journeyman: How To Break Stubborn Defences

I pick up where I left off last time. Searching for the central striker role to complete my 3-4-3 Diamond formation. For this I will take a step back and look at the original inspiration for Louis van Gaal’s 3-4-3 formation. That is, Johan Cruyff and the Barcelona team of late 1980s and early 1990s. Also I will take a somewhat unorthodox approach to constructing my 3-4-3 Diamond Tactic. We will deconstruct the attacking formation by looking at defensive positioning….

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Total Football Journeyman: Bossing the Ball like 1995 Ajax

Total Football Journeyman: Bossing the Ball like 1995 Ajax

Part 2 of Building a Total Football Club in FM20 It is not about how long you have the ball, it is what you do with it. When playing possession football, you should always have this mantra in mind. Although I am not one to obsess over getting high possession numbers. Of course it is always nice to see your team getting the higher possession %. I see it as proof that my players are imposing themselves on the opposition…

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Unsung Heroes: Regista

Unsung Heroes: Regista

Regista is a term often employed in Italian football, which directly translates to “director”. Firstly, role of a Regista was to direct the field of play from a deep midfield position, allowing the player playing there to defend when the opposition was attacking, but quickly pivoting and turning defence into attack. Similar to a Deep Lying Playmaker, which we covered here, a Regista needs to have the strength of a defender to recuperate lost balls and tackle their attacking counter…

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Unsung Heroes: False Nine

Unsung Heroes: False Nine

False Nine’s in football have become one of the most mainstream striker roles in history. Ever since Vincente Del Bosque used the role in the 2012 World Cup to win the competition, more and more teams have been using this role in their team; some to no avail, and some have toppled giants. But what is a False Nine and where did it come from? Who is considered the best False Nine? How can it be implemented correctly into Football…

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4-3-3 Role Guide: The Back Four

4-3-3 Role Guide: The Back Four

This articles continues my guided series on crafting the ultimate 4-3-3 Possession Tactic. I have been enamoured with this formation in FM20. I believe it offers the perfect balance of attack and defence while maintaining high possession. Possession has always been important for me when creating tactics although I have never been a fan of possession just for the sake of possession. Thus the main of this series is to find ways to optimize possession with intent within the limits…

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