There are plenty of basic definitions you can grab from the ingame manual so I will avoid repeating a lot of it. Instead this will be a simplified illustration of the approach.

Step 1 – Football Terms

When you pick the game up for the first time, assuming you know nothing about football, the first thing you should do is google some of the footballing terms and vernacular. Watch a couple of games on the telly, youtube or read the English dailies, assuming you can speak English. There are plenty of good pundits on TV, none more so then on ITV. Zonalmarking.net and Santapoleta are good blogs to follow, as is Bleacher report. When you observe a football game, don’t look at the ball. If you attention is only focused on the ball, you fail to understand whats happening off the ball. How team members support a ball carrier is way more important than what the person does on the ball. So if you are at stadium watching a game, take the time out to watch how a team moves off the ball, look for wingers and players who lend support. And pay attention to when commentators talk in tactical terms. Andy Gray sucks.

In FM, you need to have some basic understanding of a tactical system. A tactic is half the puzzle. A 442 is merely numbers that denote where players stand, but within those numbers are 4 methods of playing, that becomes the system. A 442 can attack like a 424 or a 442 diamond. You can make the 442 turn into a diamond with a few instructions, it can be a defensive formation or an attacking one. The first thing you want to ask yourself is how do you want to play, and that depends entirely at what you have at your disposal.

So study your players and come up with a baseline tactic first. The easiest one on paper is probably the 442 diamond. Once you have a tactic in mind you need to start planning for the long haul, and this means looking at training, ppms and backroom staff which I will deal with later. For now lets focus on the tactic.

Now look at philosophy and strategy. Lets keep things simple, I hate the definitions, so I will keep it really simple:

Philosophy depends entirely on what you have in stock, if your players are really good, then you can consider fluid or very fluid as a philosophy since everyone can perform the same role. In most cases you will pick standard or rigid. You pick standard or rigid because you want to set up specific roles within your team because you want to win battles in key areas. The reason why people say that more specialized roles require a rigid philosophy is counter-intuitive. It’s a chicken and egg discussion. A specialized role is created with different mentality/creative freedom, pressing and individual instructions. So you can see immediately that very fluid has everyone on the same mentality, setting someone to be a trequartista and another as a deep lying playmaker will immediately not make sense, since both roles change mentality settings. I used to think the better your team the lower down the scale you go, so Barca will go rigid and Doncaster should go fluid, but even then that makes no sense. You choose your philosophy based on how you want to play. If you aren’t sure go balanced.

When it comes to strategy, it gets worse. Take the ingame settings and throw them away, use this instead:

1. All out Defense, hope and pray football ( All out defensive)
2. Defensive with little or no possession (Defensive)
3. Patient football, low risk, possession based (Counter attacking)
4. Probing football, medium risk, possession based(Balanced)
5. Attacking football, medium risk(Control)
6. Direct attacking football, high risk, non possession based
7. All out attack football, high risk attacks, featuring little emphasis on defense

Player Roles within your system and their related attributes

These are some of the roles and the attributes as listed in the game, one caveat - I will not debate the relative merits/demerits of these choices, these are key attributes only. These are the general roles you may choose for the team. Whats important to realise is that the best thing you can ever do is to train a player in multiple positions so that he can develop into the kind of player you want.

Goalkeeper : Aerial Ability, Command of area, handling, one on ones, reflexes, composure, concentration, decisions, positioning, agility

Defender (Stopper):Heading, marking, tackling, concentration, determination, jumping, aggression, bravery, composure, decisions, positioning, strength -

Used in more attacking setups to ensure we keep the ball, he will commit first to the challenge by leaving the defensive line

Defender (limited): Heading, marking,determination, tackling,positioning, jumping strength -

Stands in line with the other defender, breaks up attacks, marks player tries not to give up fouls on the edge of the box

Defender (Cover):Heading, marking, tackling, anticipation, composure,concentration, decisions, determination, positioning, acceleration, jumping strength

Used in more attacking setups he sits a bit deeper than the dline, commits just as hard with the objective of maintaining possession

Fullback Support: Crossing, marking, tackling, positioning, acceleration, anticipation, concentration, work-rate, teamwork stamina

Does overlaps and through balls when opportunities present themselves apart from other defensive duties

Fullback Attack: Crossing, dribbling, anticipation, off the ball, team-work, acceleration, marking, passing, concentration, positioning, work-rate, stamina

Does overlapping as often as its possible, but does not do any through balls, waits for chances to run from deep

Ball Winning Midfielder: Marking, tackling, aggression, bravery, determination, positioning, team-work, work-rate, stamina, strength

Priority is to tackle and to lay off passes to more creative players when on defend

Defensive Midfielder (defend):Heading,marking,tackling,determination, positioning, jumping, strength
Priority is to tackle and to lay off passes to more creative players when on defend
Wide Midfielder:Crossing, passing, tackling, anticipation, decisions, determination, off the ball, teamwork, workrate, stamina
Essentially more creative than defensive wingers as they are looked on for playing more intelligent passes and crosses

Defensive Winger: Crossing, dribbling, marking, tackling, technique, decisions, teamwork, workrate, pace, stamina

A great option in a flat 4 or with advanced midfielders, these players have higher closing down than regular wide midfielders and are trained to tackle higher up the pitch. Its an invaluable position to learn imho

Winger: Crossing, dribbling, technique, decisions, flair, off the ball, acceleration, agility, balance, pace

A workhorse who gets down the flanks to make crosses and occasionally cut inside.

Box to Box Midfielder: Dribbling, finishing, first touch, heading, long shots, marking, passing, technique, stamina, strength, acceleration, work-rate, positioning, off the ball, determination, decisions, bravery , anticipation

Responsible to act as another pivot, that defends/attacks and looks for chances to do long shots

Deep Lying Playmaker defend: first touch, passing, tackling, strength, composure, creativity, decisions, positioning, off the ball, teamwork

Creates chances from deep with pinpoint passing and also a competent tackler of the ball, PIVOT

Advanced Playmaker attack : Dribbling, creativity, first touch, decisions, flair, off the ball, technique, anticipation and teamwork


In attack mode he has license to roam to create chances on to drop through channels of defenders to make himself available to lay off forwards, also has license to run at opposition defensive line from deep to fashion chances for others or himself

Inside Forward attack: Crossing,dribbling,finishing,passing,acceleration, decisions,flair, off the ball, teamwork, pace

Job is to run inside and behind or through from the flanks towards goal, he's best when a left footed player is cutting in from the right and vice versa

Deep lying forward Support: Dribbling, first touch, long shots, passing, technique, creativity, decisions, off the ball, teamwork, strength

Drops deep to link up players to the attack, can switch mode of attack to other flank and also lay others off before making a run for the penalty box himself

Marking Systems

We have zonal marking and man marking in the game. Man Marking simply assigns a player to a specific opponent, and is expected to follow and cover that player during play. Zonal marking is a relatively new system where players mark designated zones and handle any player that comes into that zone.

Tight marking essentially forces the player to closely shadow another player who enters a zone or you literally stand on the shoulder of the player if you are man marking him.

Man marking is a traditional system of marking and was a feature of early W-M formations and even the earlier 424 formations, it featured strongly in the catenaccio formations from Italy and was an everpresent in the 352 and 532 formations. However, the biggest problem of this form of marking was clear as teams started to show how weak it was when players started playing multiple roles in the same formation and would typically switch around. If you have any man marking sets in your tactics, remove them. You don’t need it, no matter what anyone tells you and here is why:

Generally I would just choose zonal marking, and if you want to make sure players have less time on the ball, set tight marking up. This is especially good if you are marking players with good acceleration. If your markers defensive positioning is good, he will stand on the right side of the player, if it is bad he may get caught on the turn.

Where you want to set up specific man marking, you need to play with the knowledge that your marker will engage anyone who enters the zone. So if he is marking A and B enters the zone he will challenge B. In most cases man marking and tight means that influential AMCs may not get the time to play that telling pass.

What about pressing or closing down? By default your choice of philosophy and strategy will define the closing down instructions. Attacking strategies employ higher closing down than defensive ones. You can if you want choose to set maximum closing down for your strikers and your attacking players. This however runs the risk of players getting injured so your training regime is important and so is your substitution strategy. You can conceivably play with a high pressing setup with loose closing down at the back. The rationale is logical. You want your attackers to press all the time, but you want the defensive third to hold their shape. Nothing wrong there. If you are unsure go very rigid in your choice, and then look at the closing down instructions for your players.

The quality of your defending is directly related to work-rate, determination, concentration, composure, anticipation or positioning. Understanding how each attribute relates to defending allows you to spot when something is going wrong. Concentration and composure are important for me, and that’s open to debate, but my reasons are simple. A defender needs concentration to avoid making mistakes and he needs the composure to deal with attacking teams pressing high. Teams like Barcelona thrive on a high pressing game because they know most other teams don’t have the technical skills to play their way out of trouble nor the composure to make those kinds of decisions.

Once you have determined what kind of football you want to play its time to fit your players in. Now a common misconception is that you need to stick to one strategy. That’s entirely wrong, you can switch from control to defensive in one game. Strategy change is part of the game, it allows you to breath or lock down. Teams typically do this in real life.

Strategy and philosophy have already set up the main parameters for your team. Assuming you have started balanced for philosophy then there are plenty of options for roles. If your team is an average team, then chances are, you want to survive, hence you might have at least 3 roles in your team. Its easier to set up specialized roles if you are on rigid or balanced.

What you do with the team when they are on the pitch is adapt to the game. Adapting includes various things, and like a doctor you need to look for symptoms:

How attacking is the opponent?

How far away from the 50 yard line are the defenders? If they are very close to the line, it’s the first clue that its attacking, if your defenders hardly have any time on the ball when your keeper plays the ball from the back, they are pressing high. If the keeper kicks a ball and you see the defenders track back to receive the ball then its playing a high defensive line, in line with an attacking formation

This is vital because of the way the tactical creators shouts are set up. You have exploit the middle and looking for overlaps. When the AI is coming down the flanks, typically the fullbacks and the wingers will be driving most of the attacks, and sometimes it may even be down one flank. So look for these signs, it affects how you play. If the AI is coming down the middle, its usually locked down its flanks with players who won’t be moving out to go up. So if you are attacking down the flanks then you will see yourself snuffed out. This is where you start looking at your tactical system.

This is why I always recommend making systems that have multiple attack fronts you can choose. So if you have a 442 diamond you immediately have 4, left flank, right flank, both flanks and middle. When you use the shout “exploit the middle” runs from deep get set for your central midfielders, and removed for your wingers. This is so important to understand because using this shout wrongly will unbalance your tactic. If you intend to go through the middle against Man City playing a 4231 then you need to make sure your players are way better than theirs, and chances are it won’t work.

So understanding, how the attack flows allows you to adapt. You do have the option to change things around in a game, that’s why the game has sliders, that’s why the game has shouts. These are tools that you use to change the flow of a game.

Match Ratings?

Before we begin, lets clear something up. This is a computer game, we aren’t playing a person, we are playing a long complicated equation. It lumps all the attributes, tactics, conditions and then depicts your players performances as match ratings. It doesn’t make subjective assessments. Essentially if the computer is doing well, its going to rank how well its players did in following raw instructions and spits these out. Even partnerships don’t get adequately recognized, it only spots the key passes, not the move by the DLF where he drops deep within your half to start the move, nor the 300 passes your midfielder strung in the match. If a player makes a mistake he needs to score a goal to get his average back up to 7 and he needs to be on the winning side.

Match ratings don’t give the whole picture, if you are transfixed with the need to see your Trequartista getting 9 a game, you have a long wait in front of your PC. You should instead, use match ratings to assess how your players are doing with your tactic . This is what I do:

The best way to explain it is via expectations. Throughout the game you should be looking at ratings to understand how your team is doing. Some ratings mean that you are tactically screwed; others indicate that a player/players may be underperforming. Then you need to make changes

<6 Ratings range from the high 5.9 to the low 4s. Some are down to errors, but if one player has less than 6 after you kick off then its time to be concerned. If a majority of the team is lower than 6 then major tactical shifts are needed since you are being beaten in all areas of the pitch.

Sometimes these come in pairs, and its especially indicative of attacking focus, for example if both players on one flank are getting the same rating then chances are that flank is being overrun. If your defenders are getting low ratings, they need support.

<7 This rating simply means your players are meeting expectations. This implies they are doing ok, not especially brilliant, and it needs just a creative managerial spark to get things going. It’s a rating you typically expect to see at the start of a game, if players are hovering around 6.5 to 7 these players aren’t doing exceptional things, its time for you to start paying attentions to certain areas of the pitch where you can get an advantage. It may involve changes as minor as removing hold up ball on one player to changing one players role to support.

<8 This is one rating you should be aiming for any rating between 7-8 is good, it means your players are usually playing well, and out of their skins, you have an advantage in most areas of the pitch and you can afford to bide your time. Paying attention to ebbs and flows of the game is vital here. If most of the TV highlights feature your team attacking then it’s a good sign.

<10 any rating between 8 and 10 indicates exceptional play and doesn’t need explanation.

I have on many occasions lost a match and had players rating 7 on average across the team. That meant I couldn't do anything more, I was beaten by a better team, but we gave as good as we got.

Several factors affect ratings:

Defending and Midfield support roles: Concentration, Anticipation, and Composure. A defender needs all three if you want to see him get 7-10 in ratings, assuming of course you’ve done the right tactical stuff.

Concentration and Composure affect how well they do under pressure, and anticipation helps them defend. These are my picks for vital attributes

Attacking pivot roles: These include players upon whom you depend to create chances, and these could include fullbacks if you are inclined. These roles demand decisions, passing, composure, flair. You will rely on these players to carve out your chances, so they need to make the right decisions and be able to pass the ball when they do. And if they find themselves under pressure they should have the composure to hold the ball and pick out someone with a good pass. Some roles even need flair because these players need to do the unexpected like a no look pass.

Strikers: Determination, Finishing and Composure are attributes that allow them to play to their full potential

These attributes in isolation aren’t enough, Understanding what’s needed in your formation is equally important. Flat formations like the 442, 441, 451, 433 require physical presence. The 442 formation is notorious for needing hardworking central midfielders who are physically strong and tactically capable. They need to dictate the tempo of the game, and break up opposition plays and on top of that they need to carve out chances for their team, should the flanks fail at putting in the cross. The reason why so many football teams struggled in the past was down to one dimensionality in their tactics more than anything else.

Formations that play with a DMC or an AMC, remove one player from either attack or defense to give a certain part of the pitch more insurance. If you opt to use a DMC then you can get away from less physical players in front since you have placed someone in front of your back four.

Opting to make these kind of decisions when choosing a tactic affect how your team handles space around them. Remember this when you choose to specifically man mark another opponent on the pitch. Specific man marking can work in the game, but its finicky. The biggest issue I have with SMM is how unbalanced it is. Traditionally when we assign someone SMM duties, we expect the marker to stay on the shoulder of the target and in between the ball carrier. That way the marker is the first to intercept the ball or close enough to put in the challenge. The engine tends to go zonal when a player enters the markers zone, so what happens is the man on SMM tends to zonally mark others who enter his zone as well.

This can be very annoying if all you want to do is shut someone out. Without knowing it you could inadvertently give them room. My suggestion is always to opt for a formation change to man mark dangerous opposing players instead of going for SMM. So if you are faced with Man Citys narrow 4231 and you opt to play a 442, those wingers you have should be automatically on the fullbacks when they come in. They will also pressure them in the opponents half. The Man City formation plays through the middle, so countering this will naturally lock your fullbacks down, and the only way to get around that formation is to get behind it while your players play narrow and squeeze the gap between the defensive line and midfield, (Pushing up Dline does this). You could opt to use SMM, but you need to be aware of how players behave. This will continue to happen till SI fix man marking.

On paper those fixes should work if your players are good at their task, but what if the opposing team is way better? Their pace and because they are using an AMC will see them go rampant down the middle. Your two central midfielders will not be enough. This is when I go to my 41221 formation, or you could use any formation that offers security down the middle like a 442 diamond. The goal here is to control space.

Failing to tactically handle a match can also see your side slump in match ratings. You can have the best players in the world, but if you don’t do enough to handle the space and observe what’s going on, then your top players will get low ratings.

SI have provided us with a variety of tools that can be used to adapt to changes, but before you go blindly choosing any shout, understand what they shouts do, then pay attention to whats happening on the pitch. Match ratings help you identify weak spots. And your response may be

a. Opposition Instructions
b. Specific Tactical Changes such as specific man marking
c. Shouts
d. Strategy changes
e. Substitution Strategies

Building a tactic is one thing, making it work for the long haul isn't hard to do. There are some fundamental things you need to do before you begin:

Getting feedback

You need your screens to talk to you, the default screens are fine, but there are so many ways to customize them you get caught up making nice tables for yourself. What you need to do is to go to Custom Screen section, create a copy of the existing screen, rename it, then edit the elements that you want feedback on. I like to divide my team into three basic roles, the defending group, attacking pivots and my strikeforce. You can create more and I suggest you make one separate for the newgens.

On each screen I like to choose key attributes, topmost on my list is always, composure, anticipation, pace, tackling marking for my defending group. Then I will have their training performance levels, ppms and matches played. During the course of a season I track how players do based on these screens and I make quick notes of how they are doing for ppms. Its relatively easy to set these up, the return you get is fantastic. You can even make screens for how you want to select your starters and remove attributes and just focus on important match data, like key passes, key tackles, interceptions. Information like this is vital especially if you want to set up partnerships. I was on a really bad run once, couldn't figure out why, but when i set the screens up to compare anticipation and key headers, i realized that even though my players were good tacklers, neither was quick off the mark. I looked at my subs bench and a defender there had higher key header % per game then the ones on the pitch. He started the next game, and even though he was far younger, he's now an everpresent in the side. These custom screens are going to be more important than the match stat screens in a match. These will give you a far better understanding of your team. If people want me to go into this in detail in the future, let me know.

The training feedback screen now duly set up should be one of your go-to screens throughout the season. The next step is tight integration.

Every player between the ages of 15-27 can learn player preferred moves or ppms. These ppms form an important component of how your tactic plays out. I had this MC who joined my side as an 18 year old, he had all the right attributes to make dangerous passes and runs into the box, or so i thought. After 3 games I noticed he wasn't as adventurous as I'd like, so I began focusing on his ppms.

Get forward whenever possible
Plays killer ball
Likes to switch play to other flank
Plays one twos to set tempo

These were some of the ppms he started to learn, and then a change came over him. The gameplay difference was huge. In his second season with the club, he won the PFA Young players award and was instrumental in us finishing in the top half. His ability to link others and drive to go single handedly won us quite a few games.

PPMs need to be taught by the right people, so make sure your coaches are qualified (pro continental license do it faster if I am not mistaken). Attacking coaches teach attacking ppms and defensive coaches teach defensive ppms. Speaking of defensive ppms, I have also managed to create a "John Terry" defender. This player Guisio, is his name, has occasionally charged all the way to the opponents box with the ball and even taken a pot shot. The first time he did it, I was just staring at my monitor. And then he started doing this at least once every few matches, in one game he did it twice. I don't expect him to do this regularly, in fact i rather he not. Looking at his ppms, i released when he was younger I had wanted to train him to be a defensive midfielder, and one of the ppms he learnt was "Get forward".

If you want your tactic to play a certain way you absolutely need to make sure those opportunities come for your players. My charging defender could only do that because I modified the default settings of the MCd. You can only do that once you have come to grips with the game. I do plan on doing a more advanced tutorial for how to customize tactical creator settings to create unique positions like the "engache' which is a uniquely argentinian playmaker thats very different from the traditional defensive midfielder that we have come to know.

For now consider your tactic and whats important, then choose the ppms that will play a role in your side. If you play to use a DLF then back to goal is an important ppm, if you plan to go down the flanks, then run with ball down the line is important. PPMs should be incorporated into your training because there is now a direct knock on effect.