Is it Possible in a Football Manager Game? 1974. To some football enthusiasts (and Ajax fans), this was the year when football reached its apotheosis as a sport. The highest point in the development of the beautiful game, when it was the closest it would ever be to an art-form. Some would even argue that the game has been on the downturn ever since, as the sport gets more and more violent and mechanical and VAR discussions dominate the media….
Whether you call it Hoofball, Longball, Kick and Rush or Route One, as a tactical approach it has had a long history in Football. Sticking it in the mixer might be something you would expect to see more in the lower leagues than in the Premiership or the Champions League but teams like Bolton, Stoke and Wimbledon all claimed plenty of scalps. There’s no reason you can’t play like Big Sam and Pulisball your way to the top in…
Recreating Bielsa’s 3-3-1-3 tactic has always been my football manager dream. I had some success in previous years but the tactics never worked exactly as planned. Halfbacks not working, wingbacks not advancing enough, too many crosses. In short, I could not recreate Bielsa’s ideas to my satisfaction. With FM20 and an improved match engine, I’m hoping to finally do it in my Man Utd project.
This article is dedicated to that amazing team from 2004 which was able to take Czech Republic national football to heights it never experienced since. I believe that modern managers can learn something from the Czechs tactic. Recreating this 4-1-3-2 Velvet Blitzkrieg Tactic, as I like to call it, will be the focus of this article. It will be my last tactical experiment in Football Manager 2019. It is also my attempt to get back to the essence of what…
Football Manager 19 introduced a huge range of match stats and analysis for us to use, and with FM20 soon upon us it’s probably safe to say that the new features will add even more to our experience. Despite all the improvements, the player pathways, development hub and even the club vision there are certain details that are probably yet to make an appearance even in FM20. Match statistics like shots on target might be our FM bread and butter…
What a surprise, huh? I’m used to describing my possession tactics every week; now I’ll tell you about counter-attacking slickly in FM19. Strangely, my WBA side is still set up to control possession patiently. However, there are a few alterations, which have made the passing style slightly more mixed. Obviously, I will explain this in the article below! Hamburg 1-5 West Bromwich Albion I did not expect to concede 56% of the ball in this game. I also didn’t expect…
My last post discussed how you can use data to improve my save. The eagle eyed among you may have noticed I was using a Vertical Tiki Taka tactic, one I have been tweaking for a while now. In this post I will explain what the tactic is designed to do, how effective it is, and where it’s shortcomings are.
Part of Great Sides of Football Manager Series We finally did it! Roma has won its 3rd Serie A title after a long 20 year drought. The fairy-tale run we had in my 2nd season, solidified my belief in Roma as the most fun club to play on FM. Luckily the club’s talented core remained unchanged in real life. So it should be another great year with AS Roma in FM20. Here are some of the reason why I love my FM19…
Defensive width in FM19 is supposed to be self-explanatory. In the FM19 tactics creator, you only get an explanation for the option you pick; you get nothing about what defensive width means in itself. That said, you get a helpful interactive graph:
Just as Roma was not built in a day, you cannot create a successful tactic in one season. Especially not without taking into account the input of the innovations that came before. My 4-2-3-1 tactic is no different. It took me a few months of experimenting with various tactical setups and teams to arrive to its current form. In my second season as AS Roma manager I am about to take a brave new step into the future. But first…