From time to time my readers will ask me one particular question. Or a variation of it. Basically it goes like this. What is the absolute essence of Total Football? If I want my team to play Total Football, where do I start? How do I build it into a Total Football powerhouse? What foundation stones, in tactics, training and personnel, do I implement? The following article will hopefully answer some of these questions. To do so we might as…
From Barcelona to Bayern Munich to Manchester City, Pep Guardiola’s tactic have evolved football over the past decade. His key principles are rooted in ‘The Barcelona Way” possession, fluidity, and numerical advantages. His teams let the ball do the hard work and this has provided much success over the years, winning numerous Champions Leagues, League Titles and Domestic Cups. Today we will make an attempt at recreating Guardiola’s tactics in FM21.
It’s not a stretch to say that every FM player is, to some degree, a football fan. But even as we all share the love of the beautiful game, everyone has their favourite style. Be it a possession heavy style or a deadly countering team, we all want our side playing a certain way. When the time comes to take inspiration from our favourite real-life managers, however, the job can get tricky. Fear not, for help is on the way,…
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…
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…
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….
Last time in the lab, we worked out the attributes that formed the DNA of my hoofball side. In this post, we’ll be comparing FM19 tactics. To do that, we’ll compare that hoofball tactic against a range of others from Dictate the Game in a tactical showdown. We discovered, as a result of the analysis, that for my angry hoofballing side the (common sense) attribute of aggression was not the only key for success. So were surprise attributes like positioning…
In Football Manager 2019, I’ve predominantly focused on creating guides, instead of a story or tactical recreations. However, this article will be a combination of guides and tactics; a guide on tactics. Finding the right tactic in FM19. Now in my previous article on training (that can be found here:) FOOTBALL MANAGER 2019 GUIDES | TRAINING THE NEXT GENERATION In Step 1, I talk about building your tactic first, and then your training. I decided to link a few articles from…
I’m going to start by making a bold claim that Luka Jovic is the best striker in the world now. There is a lot of buzz around him lately. The likes of Barcelona, Chelsea and Man City linked with his name. This has as much to do with his scoring ability as the promise of future potential in this 20 year old. His wonderkid status in Football Manager 2019 is greatly merited. Simply put no other forward has the same…
Club DNA The first question you might ask is what sort of player you will need to recreate Lobanovsky’s system? Or indeed in any kind of “gegenpressing” tactic. Primarily you want players with as much Stamina, Workrate and Determination as possible. I’m looking for something in 14-16 range ideally. Players with high values there should run their hearts out for you. It helps if you use fitting team instructions and roles to get the best out them.