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Te Ultimate FM Walkthrough Guide

A Complete Strategy Manual To Master Virtual Football Management. Written by Wonderkid. Copyright FootballManagerGuide.com and the individual authors, 2010.

Te Ultimate FM Walkthrough Guide is an unofcial and unauthorised source for educational purposes only. It has been composed independently by FootballManagerGuide.com. It is not endorsed by SEGA or Sports Interactive Games in any shape or form. Football Manager is a registered trademark of SEGA and Sports Interactive Games. We are not afliated with Football Manager, SEGA or Sports Interactive Games. Tis product was created solely to inform/educate players of the game Football Manager how to become a better player. Te contents of this information infringe no copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

Distributed in the English language by FootballManagerGuide.com. No English language version of this guide is to be made available by any other website without the expressed permission of the copyright owners. If you have received this guide from any other source than FootballManagerGuide.com, please notify the authors. No foreign language versions of this guide are not to be made available by any other website without the expressed permission of the copyright owners.

Translation requests should be sent to the FootballManagerGuide.com site via support@footballmanagerguide.com

- Chapter One -

An Introduction to Te Ultimate FM Walkthrough Guide

Tis one of a kind walkthrough guide has been written and constructed by FM beta testers with the aim to help anyone from an FM newbie to a hardcore fanboy understand the way the game functions. In this guide well cover every aspect of FM and will try to examine the dynamics of the game in a way that will be very easy to interpret. Te concept behind this walkthrough is to provide a library of advice for anyone who's looking for a bit of help, some insight or even a new perspective on the game. It isn't solely for tactics and formational structures, it's an attempt to concoct a full and complete view into FM and the mechanics of the game with the aim to create material which will not only pertain to the current version of the game, but will remain relevant to all future generations of the game as well. FM doesnt evolve too much, but when it does, well update the material to refect the changes (both in e-Book format and via online blogs) this will allow us to always provide a complete and up-to-date walkthrough guide to FM. Te intention with this is to create an in-depth publication which will allow you to cultivate your knowledge of the game, but at the same explain the material in a relatable way after all, theres no use telling you something that you need to read twelve times in order to understand it. What we'd like to convey the most is that this guide has been published to help expand, not only the way people approach the game, but also the mentality when playing the game. Tis efect of this guide is subjective to how you yourself play the game; you can either take on board what is said, and adapt it to your own management style using it as more of a 'hints and tips' guide, or you can rebuild your entire management mentality and attempt to play the game from a refreshed perspective. Either way, this guide is only efective if you realise that this is a game reaching to be as accurate a simulation as possible; it's not an arcade game anymore; you can no longer be successful under the old 'click, click, click and play a match' mentality. So, if you want to be good at this game and get the benefts from understanding it, you need to grasp the real concept of football management and this is what the e-Book aims to provide. Tis e-Book is not claiming to be a Cheats Guide to FM nor does it guarantee youll win every match, but it does guarantee to stimulate the way you think about this game and ofer you ideas and means as to how to go about becoming a better manager. At the very least, it will give you reasons as to why you have failed to achieve in the past and some ideas on how to improve or adapt your current methods, in a way which will stop you making those mistakes again.

With regards to reading this guide everything that is mentioned in this guide, be it tactics or training, personality tags, team talks or duties, et cetera has its own section. So please be aware that I will not mention anything in this guide which you cannot fnd information about inside the guide. Everything in this e-Book has been presented in a way which should make it easy to read it as a step-by-step walkthrough of the game. Tere will inevitably be similar topics which arent immediately next to each other (because theyre involved in diferent stages of the game), but you can always open up the menu to the side and use those links to scan the entire contents of the guide and take you to the section you wish to read.

Future Updates & Additional Reading Material As has been said, the intention with this e-Book is to provide a universal manual for every future generation of the game. In a bid to make sure anyone whos purchased this e-Book no longer has to spend money on future titles or other e-Books, we will update and cover any new theories or explanations of the game modules online. Tis gives us the ability to create an e-Book which will give you a 100% accurate guide as of FM2011 and then a 99% accurate guide for future generations with the 1% of information pertaining to new updates or new features (which could appear in FM2012 and beyond) being covered online: Via a blog on my preferred fansite www.footballmanagerfanboys.net or our own site www.footballmanagerguide.com Of course, we will continue to update our e-Books to refect any major changes in the future, but by ofering you blogs and articles to complement this e-Book, we aim to remove the issue of you having to spend any more money (unless of course, you wish to have a hard copy of the updated e-Book). We are also (as you may already be aware), updating the e-Book whenever we can add more to it. Tere's been a lot of work already done on the book, but I've been updating and rereleasing 'fresher' versions to add more into this year's edition. Obviously, with this being the frst edition released there are a few things which can be improved, some little formatting bugs have popped up but I plan on making it as comprehensive as possible over the course of the year so I will be updating and adding more into the guide (with a list of changes, so you can see what's been added or removed). Once this guide has been perfected, we'll have a fantastic base for future editions so bare in mind that this is a project which is very good at the moment, but I intend to make it far, far better for you in the future. Wed also like to extend an open ofer to anyone who feels they need more information, to simply send us an e-mail. With that wed try to cover any topics in blogs or articles (possibly a guide update) and then e-mail you to let you know the material is available.

What Id like to stress is that were ofering this as an addition to our e-Book because we want people to have something with unquestionable value. As a result, further work (blogs/articles/updates) will take time to research and produce, so please bear in mind that this is a voluntary service and as such, it is something we will provide when time allows us to do so. We dont want to disappoint anyone, so its important that you consider that even though were selling this guide, its production doesnt allow us to abandon real-life work commitments (sadly).

Author Notes Firstly, I want to thank you for purchasing my work. It's been a labour of love for a long time now and I hope that you're all very happy with what you have. I don't want to promote this as a fnal copy; I really want to update and expand upon this book over the course of the year and I will endeavour to improve what I've published so far be it visually or informationally. If anyone has any further expansion ideas, please contact me (details at the end of the e-Book) and let me know your thoughts. Secondly, I have tried to make this as interesting and concise as possible, without losing the information I wanted to convey. Ive tried to break-up the wall of text with some tables, to better explain any instructions (obviously, this isnt possible with huge amounts of text) but if you feel the guide can be improved anywhere, have any tips or suggestions for the next eBook - then please let me know. I have added crib sheets to the book (you can fnd them in the relevant folder) this is to give you the easiest possible access to the information I assume you'll want the most. I've also added a crib sheet icon to the guide so, when you see that, it will indicate that there is a crib sheet available for the area of the guide you're reading. Lastly and most importantly, I hope you enjoy reading this guide. I hope it can provide you with answers to the questions which you may have. I have gone into as much depth as I possibly could and Id like to think that every element of the game is covered in detail, but I know you may not feel that is the case so, if there is anything which you think has been missed out, overlooked or not covered in enough detail let me know and I will try to improve on that area. I will be reviewing the guide for next year (I am already thinking about other ways to format the eBook for the next edition), so any additional feedback, commentary or critique it all helps. Te aim of this guide is to produce something which can become the complete package for all FM users and with your feedback and guidance, we can improve it beyond what Ive started here. I'd not like to think of this e-Book a basic guide, I actually believe it's got some great depth, but I also know that I can add more to what's here which is what I will be trying to do as you're reading this!

- Chapter Two -

Te Philosophy of Football Management

Tis game is a simulation of a sporting reality. In order to defne yourself as one of the great virtual managers, you have to understand how the game functions in reality. Now, a lot of people will pick up the game with arrogance, because of course, they already know how the game works and they dont need to learn anything from anyone else; but even the very best managers are learning all the time. So, from here on in, well take a look at the composition of real football and the way it's played, in order to highlight some things you might not have considered about football management. In football there are some people who stand out from the crowd no, not the overweight hooligans with shirts that barely cover their guts (although Wayne Rooney is pretty impressive at times) its those managers who stand on the sidelines, orchestrating their pawns. Now, most people will look at football as nothing more than an athletic competition, they will watch the game and focus on the passion and desire to win. However, if you look beyond the passion and the hunger of the players, you will see that there is a greater dynamic at work. It is understanding this dynamic which opens the door to the kingdom of managerial heaven.

Its Chess Not Checkers If you look beyond the game as a spectator and look at it as a puzzle, you'll have a much better interpretation of the sport. As fans we're taught that this game is about passion, hunger and drive; it's about fghting for glory and never giving up and I'm not saying that isn't true, but that description of the game doesn't pertain to anything other than the required mentality of those playing the sport. In order to garner the success of those few managers who have gone to the top (and stayed there), you need to understand the true fundamental value of success in football. Firstly, you have to recognise that this game is multidimensional, it's not just about the passion and talent. Almost every footballer is passionate about the game and certainly, more often than not, the players all have enough talent to play in the roles they've been assigned to. Talent and passion are small advantages (based on the fact that everyone has both to some degree, but some people may have slightly more than others). What actually wins you games isn't just the prowess of the striker, it isn't just the raw emotion of the holding midfelder it's the intellect of the manager; how he plays those players and how he prepares those players.

Youll have seen it yourself in both the game and in reality an underdog chopping down a giant. Its not statistically possible that a player with a 20 for both Finishing and Composure will have less success in front of goal than a player with a 15 for both Finishing and Composure, but just like in the game, it happens in the real world too. How is it possible that talent and skill hasnt prevailed, when statistically everything points to that outcome? Te truth is, football is much like chess. Te player controls the pieces, decides where they go and when they make their moves; any success is due to the mental aptitude of the player reading his opponent and using what he has on the board to defeat them. In football, its practically the same, but with living game pieces. Te manager has dictatorship over everything at the club he chooses the men who will play in his team, the style of play the team will execute, who plays each match; he tells them where they play, how they should play and what they should do; he is the single catalyst which ties every element at the club together. Once you understand that, it's easy to grasp that football matches are won and lost of the pitch. You can lose a game before you've even touched the football, and like I said above, the game is multidimensional, it's not all about the players on the feld; it comes down to how you utilise those players, how they are mentally prepared before the game, how those players are positioned and instructed, how you read the opposition and how you deal with their threats. Everything in football is won and lost because of one man's decision making and his thought process. With that said, lets take a glance at football in reality and then well begin to go through the mechanics of the game...

A Dose of Reality Now, I can understand that the perspective of the manager being the real football hero may be somewhat disagreed with, so I will illustrate my point with an example based around reality. What we are about to look at is a very talented team which was completely undermined by their manager's inability to defne a tactical approach, utilise the resources he had at his disposal and his failure to adapt the team's tactical approach when facing a more astute opponent. By highlighting this, I hope to show you that even those with everything at their fngertips can fail dismally with the wrong approach. Well go back to the 2010 World Cup; England and Fabio Capello go into the tournament with one of the best collections of players to touchdown in South Africa. Tey have one of the world's strongest midfeld duos in Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, they have one of the

world's most talented and in-form strikers in Wayne Rooney, and a defence which featured the very capable John Terry, an in-from Glen Johnson and arguably the world's most revered left-back in Ashley Cole. Tis is a team with a world-class spine and plenty of talent around it; most of the players are in excellent form, the core of the team are champions at the highest European level and yet they perform in such an abysmal manner. How is it possible that this team couldnt beat the likes of Algeria? Quite simply, Fabio Capello got it horribly wrong. Not only did his 23 man squad feature surprising inclusions and omissions, but he was also tactically inept for the entire tournament. Firstly, I want us to examine the team he called up and then well go into the dynamics of his tactics and the reasons why his methods managed to lose England matches before they even hit the turf...
Positions Players Called Up

Goalkeepers

Joe Hart, David James and Robert Green (allegedly the frst choice goalkeeper although, only Fabio Capello knew if that was the case). Jamie Carragher, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Glen Johnson, Ledley King, John Terry, Matthew Upson and Stephen Warnock. Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Aaron Lennon, James Milner and Shaun Wright-Phillips. Peter Crouch, Jermaine Defoe, Emile Heskey and Wayne Rooney.

Defenders

Midfelders

Forwards

If you look at the team it's got plenty of talent, but Fabio Capello has taken big gambles on certain players. Firstly, why call up a huge ftness risk in Ledley King or the ageing and outof-form Jamie Carragher, when he had options with Phil Jagielka, Wes Brown and Joleon Lescott? Obviously, Fabio Capello wasn't to know that Rio Ferdinand would get injured, but when you pick a squad you have to assume it's a possibility. Fabio Capello didn't even select adequate cover for the right-back position; he could easily have called up Wes Brown or Micah Richards (who was a revelation at right-back for England not so long ago) both of whom can efectively play either as a right-back or centre-back, and both of whom were part of more successful teams in the Barclays Premier League that season.

Ten there are the likes of Michael Carrick, Gareth Barry and Joe Cole, who'd been out injured for a while or not played a lot of football. Carrick was out of favour at Old Traford and had been playing second fddle to the likes of Darren Fletcher; Gareth Barry went into the tournament carrying an injury and Joe Cole was out of form. As a result, England were completely lacking in the midfeld throughout the whole tournament. Now, there's no doubt that Joe Cole is the kind of player youd take a risk on and Gareth Barry had added a solid core to the England team since Owen Hargreaves got injured, but this decision making left the midfeld massively unbalanced, with Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard playing together and no holding midfeld player able to cover the gaps they left in-between the defence and midfeld. Eventually, when Gareth Barry came into the team to plug the gaps, he was exhausted and far too unft to do the job asked of him as a result, he was hugely disappointing throughout the tournament. Lastly you've got four forwards, all of whom are all completely diferent to each other. Now, variety is good, but it's pointless without the right system. Emile Heskey was called up and was frst choice even though he lacked pace and composure in front of goal. Full credit to Emile Heskey for his work ethic, but the guy had no real place being in the team (his form was poor going into the World Cup and he rarely played for Aston Villa during the season) his inclusion can only be down to his physical build which proved to be a fundamental error, because England lacked potency not strength up front and Emile Heskey ofered nothing in that department. Taking all of that into consideration and not even addressing the omission of a left winger (in the form of Ashley Young or Adam Johnson), Fabio Capello had made at least fve selection faux pas prior to the tournament. Tat was something that dramatically hindered his ability to select a solid or versatile team when he was in South Africa and that was a huge part of the team's poor performance on the pitch. If you then take a look at Fabio Capello's tactical plan, you can quite clearly see that he's taking even bigger risks in playing players out of position. Tere is no guarantee that a worldclass central midfelder will be good, decent or even efective as a winger and this is the thing you need to recognise the chain of events that occurred from Fabio Capello's frst decision to play Steven Gerrard on the left wing, so Gareth Barry could play as anchor man. Deploying Steven Gerrard out of position on the left wing nulled the team's threat on the fank. Instead of choosing to have a left footed winger (or even a right footed winger, who would at least run at the opposition's left back and thus allow his own left back, in this case, Ashley Cole to cross the ball), Fabio Capello chose to play Steven Gerrard on the wing. Steven Gerrard then (naturally) would constantly drift inside to the centre and end up out of position. When this happened a huge gap emerged on the left wing that Ashley Cole had to cover. Tat resulted in not only clogging up an already busy midfeld, but it lead to a massive

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lack of service for a highly dependent and subsequently inefective Wayne Rooney who was completely isolated and responded by dropping deep to fnd the ball. Its these events that then caused two players to be out of position, as Wayne Rooney who was the focal point of England's attack was dropping out of position and ended up taking all pressure of the opposing defence (because without Wayne Rooney high up the feld, the opponents could push up and create even less space in the middle of the pitch for England to move into). Now, England have no left winger, have no forward and are facing an opposition defence which is compacting the space in the middle of the pitch an area of the pitch where England have four players (Wayne Rooney, Steven Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry) occupying the space. Is it any wonder that Wayne Rooney didnt score at the World Cup, why teams like Algeria were able to cause England so many problems or why England had an uphill struggle to get near the penalty box of teams who weren't anywhere near as good as them? What I'm trying to convey is this Fabio Capello's decision making cost the team a good run in the tournament. I've only identifed one of his tactical mistakes, but I have highlighted the impact of the decision to play Steven Gerrard out of position. If you want more examples of Fabio Capello's ineptitude, you can look at the decision to play a tired midfelder (who was only just recovering from an injury) and not only that, but play him in one of the most important roles in the team (Gareth Barry, as the anchor man). Alternatively, you can look at the fact that Fabio Capello refused to adapt his tactics based on the way the game was being played out. He was completely ignorant to the other team's tactics; instead deciding that his own tactics and team were superior enough to thwart the low quality of the opposition. By explaining the faws in England's game plan I hope what you can ascertain is that these decisions undermined a team featuring a number of the world's foremost players and that is the measure of the efect that a manager can have on a game. On the other side you can example the likes of Valencia under the guidance of Rafael Benitez (or his frst season at Liverpool, where he won the Champions League, with a very average Liverpool side). You can also look to Carlo Ancelotti's impact with the ageing AC Milan or his impact with a failing Chelsea team which had previously failed to reproduce the magic it had under the tutelage of Jos Mourinho. Speaking of Mourinho, look at his achievements with FC Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan he's achieved three titles in separate leagues and Champions League victories with two of those clubs. As I've said previously managers win games and if you can understand that, you can start to look at how you can have an impact on the game. Its not about downloading a tactic from another manager and grabbing yourself a lazy-mans training scheme, its about taking some time to impact your own game and the rewards for doing that far outweigh the time it takes to express a little efort.

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- Chapter Tree -

Approaching Te Job
When you frst take over a new team it's often very overwhelming, unless you know the team inside out already. Tere's always a lot to get done and you nearly always forget something, so it's best to start looking at the new job as a step-by-step encounter. Take a step back from the workload and break things down into a few quick to-dos. Its very important to take a few moments to get these things done, because believe it or not, things as basic as setting up training or scouting can afect how successful your reign as manager will be after all, that's the job you're doing leading, directing and training the players to work in the way you believe will reap rewards for the club. Here are a few tips and a brief walkthrough of my own 'new club' routine I personally like to spend my frst moments looking at the team, assessing players, seeing who the best players are and how they would ft into a tactic. I like to spend thirty or forty minutes, simply trying players out in diferent roles and duties, getting a formation created and trying to fnd balance with the players I have at my disposal. From there I make a call as to who I can and cannot use in my team, then begin to move them out of the club and scout for replacements. I also use this time to setup set-pieces and get a basic framework in place for dead-ball situations often this needs adjusting later on, but it's good to get the foundations in place whilst you're already working on your tactical approach. If I'm taking over a club who have just sacked a manager, I think it's important to look at how the team played before I arrived, view their prior results and the way their formation was set out. I use that as an indication as to not only why they failed, but as a way I can avoid the same pitfalls. My next step is to get the staf to work sending the scouts out on tour and getting the coaches working on training schedules; making sure my staf team is of a high standard and making sure my training is at a high level. Tese are vital tasks because they hold an infuence over the quality of your team. If you fail to setup the training, then youre likely to encounter injuries, players being trained in general areas (which means they'll improve attributes which can be useless to them) and even worse, you'll experience players dipping in attributes which is the last thing you want to happen as a coach. If you dont setup the scouting, youre not going to gain scouting knowledge which means youre going to be solely reliant on your own player knowledge and when youre scouting for new players and youre not being shown all the talent thats on ofer, it's going to be a huge problem. Tese are two tasks which seem complex and tedious, but they don't take long to setup and if you take the time to get it right immediately, you'll not have to constantly adjust them later on.

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Once the basic tactic, training and scouting tasks are done and youve gotten accustomed to the team, its always a good idea to fnish of tweaking the dynamic settings at the club. I like to go and make sure I have options with feeder clubs and parent clubs theyre good resources, as they can aid scouting knowledge, give you an option for shifting a player who you want to keep (but won't be playing); you can also get good loan deals from parent clubs (which is always advisable prior to signing any players, as you might save some money by bringing in a loanee) and you have a number of scouting and recruitment benefts such as, getting around work permits, getting your youngsters experience and also getting coveted youngsters from linked clubs into your team; there's a lot of options and benefts to working closely with other clubs. Not only can you create ties with diferent clubs, but you can also setup a Youth Recruitment Network, which will really give you an edge when it comes to procuring fresh young talent it takes a bit of time to get setup, but you only have to click one button and the rest is done for you. By this point, I'm usually ready to start playing matches and so I begin to work on the Match Preparation module. I fnd it best to have one formation and work with the Team Blend Special Focus Area, as it has the most beneft for learning. Once I've setup Match Preparation, I'll make sure the workload is nicely balanced with the scheduled training workload (see the Understanding the Fundamentals of Training section of the guide for complete details) and then I'll be ready to jump into the fxtures. Te most important thing to convey about this procedure is that it's all about how much efort you are willing to put into playing the game. Setting up at a new club takes around an hour to do; if you can't be bothered to spend the time doing that and would prefer to play the fxtures that's perfectly okay, but don't expect the good results to come your way. As has been said, this isn't an arcade game; you are actually expected to manage the club, the team and the players which unfortunately requires some efort on your part.

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- Chapter Four -

Understanding the Genetics of a Footballer

Understanding players is actually very simple, but a lot of people take the wrong approach to scouting and player assessment, which is a critical mistake because the players are the key to you winning anything as a manager. Once you understand how players work inside the match engine, you'll master this game, because once you know how to read a player, you'll make the best tactics, you'll make the best judgement calls at half-time and you'll be laughing at how easy it was to do. Very simply, players in the game are created based on the following key areas: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Technical, Physical and Mental attributes. Hidden personality attributes. Current Ability/Potential Ability attributes. Preferred Player Moves. Position. Structure (age, height, weight, et cetera).

Its the way in which these key components mesh together and function with each other that defnes not only the player you have, but the type of player you can mould in the future. Lets break the core of the footballer open and take a look at what makes them tick

Current Ability & Potential Ability Firstly, we need to quickly look at CA/PA, as its this which controls the value of every visable attribute a player has (and the ability they could have in the future). Its a very easy concept to grasp, so here it is in a bit more detail Current Ability is the measure of a players Technical, Mental and Physical attributes in the current moment, whilst Potential Ability marks the level at which a player can reach in those areas, as the player grows. Now, CA/PA is hidden from the attributes screen and the only way to get a good measure of it is to obtain scout reports on players (which is why it's important to get exceptional scouts). Tis information is useful, not only when scouting for fresh talent or deciding if a player has a future at your club, but it's also useful when training players, as it can give you a good indication of when a player has hit his peak and wont improve anymore thus making him potentially useless to you in the near future.

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Understanding the CA/PA Attributes Current Ability and Potential Ability are both rated out of 200 (with 200 being the highest possible rating a player can have). Some youngsters are rated with negative PA attributes which range from -1 to -10 (-10 being the highest possible rating). Tese negative ratings assign a range which the players future PA will ft into. As a result, these players are not statically defned with a number between 1 and 200 this makes these players much more promising prospects as they have a wider span for growth. Heres a quick look at how the ratings measure up
Negative Potential Ability

-10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1

Expected Future PA (min)

170 150 130 110 90 70 50 30 10 0

Expected Future PA (max)

200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 30

As you can see from the above table, not all negative PA is good. An excellent player ebbs above the 170 CA mark and good players ebb around the 140 CA mark, so the future ingame Wonderkids would have a negative PA of either -9 or -10 (or a fxed PA around 170200). Tey wont always have big CA attributes, but thats why theyre touted as future stars, because these players are all about potential, even if they're not displaying talent currently. Please note: CA/PA can also be attributed as '0', which would make the players CA/PA completely random. Its important to understand that PA is not always a defnitive indicator of a good player. All these players need to fulfl their potential via training, tutoring and match experience. Players need good, benefcial training schedules, they need match practice and they need nurturing. If you fail to deliver a good standard of coaching to players with great PA, they'll not reach their potential and will ultimately be disappointing.

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Please note: CA can also decline as well as rise. Once players have hit their peak, you'll start seeing a gradual decline in some of their Techincal and Physical attributes although their Mental attributes do often rise as a result of their expereince. Also note: CA will decline if players are poorly trained, are being left out of the team for long periods of time, or with players getting serious injuries (thus getting no match practice). Whilst ageing players cannot recover their lost attributes, you can improve players who've lost their 'edge' because of injuries or a lack of practice, but be aware that, as time passes, players wont improve beyond certain ages.

Understanding and Interpreting Player Attributes From a numbers perspective, each attribute is rated out of 20. Tese attributes calculate into percentages, so for example: if we remove all of the Mental and Physical attributes from the equation, someone with a 10 for Heading has a 50% chance of getting the header right. However, when we factor the Physical attributes into the equation, that chance will increase with someone who has excellent Jumping. Something very important to consider is that no player is perfect. A player with 20 for everything will not be fawless there are mistakes and errors in every players game. Te key point is this the higher the attributes, the will lower the amount of mistakes that will be made. Attributes can be quite deceiving and understanding them comes down to three important factors: 1. Understanding each of the Physical, Mental and Technical attributes. 2. Understanding how attributes relate to each other. 3. Understanding the less obvious elements which function alongside those attributes. Dont worry if that sounds overly complex, its very, very easy to understand. Basically, the way it works is like this: Physical attributes dictate the players mould (i.e. whether the player is a strong player, a quick player or an agile player), Technical attributes dictate how well a player

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will do something (i.e. tackling, heading, marking) and Mental attributes dictate both the efectiveness of the other attributes (i.e. poor Composure would lower the efectiveness of a striker's Finishing) and they also control elements of the player's mentality. Let's take a look at point one understanding each of the attributes, then we'll look at how they relate to each other and then fnally, we'll look at the less obvious elements which function with attributes.

Defning and Understanding Attributes Te attributes in the game are labelled very obviously, but sometimes the interpretation is a little difcult to grasp; sometimes there are even elements which go unconsidered in certain attributes; so here well take a look at all the attributes associated with the players, we'll defne how they function and we'll look at the way they theoretically infuence each other. Technical Attributes
Attribute

Description and Efect

Corners

Tis attribute indicates how well a player will execute a corner kick. Its obviously important to get the best players taking set-pieces, because it can lead to a goal. Infuencing attributes: Composure, Technique, Decisions, Crossing.

Crossing

Tis attribute indicates how well a player can cross the ball into the box. Infuencing attributes: Composure, Decisions, Technique.

Dribbling

Tis attribute indicates how controlled a player will be with the ball, when he runs with the ball at his feet. Infuencing attributes: Balance, Agility, Acceleration, Pace.

Finishing

Tis attribute indicates how accurately a player will get a shot on target or how well placed that shot will be. Infuencing attributes: Decisions, Composure, Technique.

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First-Touch

Tis attribute indicates the rate of speed in which a player can control the ball and how closely a player can control the ball, when he receives possession. Infuencing attributes: Composure.

Free-Kick Taking

Tis attribute indicates the level of the players ability to take a freekick, be it a shot or an assist. Infuencing attributes: Technique, Passing, Long Shots, Finishing, Decisions and Composure.

Heading

Tis attribute indicates how clinical a player will be with the ball in the air. Infuencing attributes: Jumping, Strength.

Long Shots

Tis attribute indicates how dangerous a player can be shooting from distance. Infuencing attributes: Finishing, Decisions, Technique.

Long Trows

Tis attribute indicates how efcient a player will be when executing long throws. Infuencing attributes: Strength, Decisions.

Marking

Tis attribute indicates how well players can cover and null the threat of their opponents. Infuencing attributes: Strength, Composure, Concentration, Of Te Ball, Positioning, Anticipation.

Passing

Tis attribute indicates how skilled a player will be at passing the ball. Infuencing attributes: Technique, Creativity, Flair, Composure, Decisions.

Penalty Taking

Tis attribute indicates how efcient a player will be when taking this set-piece.

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Infuencing attributes: Decisions, Composure, Finishing . Tackling Tis attribute indicates how skilled a player will be at dispossessing an opponent of the ball, without giving away a foul. Infuencing attributes: Aggression, Decisions, Composure. Technique Tis attribute indicates how refned a player will be in possession and how adept a player will be at playing difcult passes, making tough crosses or playing long balls. Infuencing attributes: Decisions, Composure. Mental Attributes
Attribute

Description and Efect

Aggression

Tis attribute indicates how aggressively a player will tackle an opponent and how frequently he will get involved in match events. Tis does not indicate how physically aggressive a player may be. Infuencing attributes: none.

Anticipation

Tis attribute indicates how quickly a player can predict an event and react to a situation in the match (i.e. an interception, getting on the end of a through-ball, et cetera). Infuencing attributes: Of Te Ball, Positioning.

Bravery

Tis attribute indicates how fearless a player will be during tackles, headers or blocks in the match. Infuencing attributes: Decisions, Aggression.

Composure

Tis attribute indicates how calm and collected a player will be in pressurised situations or when hes in possession of the ball. Infuencing attributes: none.

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Concentration

Tis attribute indicates how long a player can stay focussed in a match. If this attribute is low it will lower the efectiveness of the player later in the match and will increase the chances of him making errors. Infuencing attributes: none.

Creativity

Tis attribute indicates how gifted a player is at seeing an opportunity a less creative player would not see. It doesn't stipulate how efective a player is at exploiting the vision he has. Infuencing attributes: Technique, Flair, Passing, Crossing, Finishing.

Decisions

Tis attribute indicates how astute a player is at reading a situation and then making the correct decision. Infuencing attributes: none.

Determination

Tis attribute indicates how driven and motivated a player will be to win on the pitch. Infuencing attributes: Work Rate, Aggression, Bravery.

Flair

Tis attribute indicates how skilled a player is at concocting creative and unpredictable manoeuvres to make opportunities out of nothing. Infuencing attributes: Technique, Creativity, Passing, Crossing, Finishing, Decisions.

Infuence

Tis attribute indicates how inspiring and motivating a player can be to his team-mates and how much impact he has on match events. Infuencing attributes: none.

Of Te Ball

Tis attribute indicates how clever a player is at reading the game and then fnding space which allows him to receive the ball and exploit a gap in the opposition's formation. Infuencing attributes: Anticipation, Decisions.

Positioning

Tis attribute indicates how good a player is at reading a defensive

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situation and moving into the best position to deal with that situation. Infuencing attributes: Anticipation, Decisions. Teamwork Tis attribute indicates how good a player is at working as part of a team and how good a player is at following instruction. Infuencing attributes: none. Work Rate Tis attribute indicates how willing a player is to work and how much efort he displays whilst playing. Infuencing attributes: Stamina, Determination. Physical Attributes
Attribute

Description and Efect

Acceleration

Tis attribute indicates the rate of speed in which a player can instantly move from a standing position and reach his top speed (Pace). Infuencing attributes: Agility, Balance.

Agility

Tis attribute indicates how much fexibility and range of movement a player has when moving, both with and without the ball. Infuencing attributes: Balance, Pace, Acceleration.

Balance

Tis attribute indicates how well a player can move and stay on his feet, how mobile he is in possession and how stable he remains when facing opponents or moving quickly in various directions. Infuencing attributes: Agility.

Jumping

Tis attribute indicates the distance in which a player can rise of the ground when leaping. A player's height, does not give the Jumping attribute a boost. Infuencing attributes: Agility, Balance.

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Natural Fitness

Tis attribute indicates a player's starting level of ftness, how much endurance a player will have over the course of a season and it can give some indication as to how susceptible a player may be to fatigue and injury when over-trained or over-played. Infuencing attributes: Work Rate, Stamina.

Pace

Tis attribute indicates the top speed a player will peak at when running. Infuencing attributes: Stamina, Acceleration, Agility, Balance, Dribbling.

Stamina

Tis attribute indicates how much endurance a player has in the match and how long the player can perform at his peak level throughout the game before tiring and becoming inefective. Infuencing attributes: Work Rate, Determination, Aggression, Natural Fitness.

Strength

Tis attribute indicates how adept a player is at holding of an opponent or out-muscling them in physical battles. Infuencing attributes: - none.

Goalkeeping Attributes
Attribute

Description and Efect

Aerial Ability

Tis attribute indicates how profcient a goalkeeper is at punching and catching the ball when its in the air. Infuencing attributes: Handling, Jumping, Agility.

Command of Area

Tis attribute indicates how often the goalkeeper will instruct the players in front of him and how often he will attempt to claim any crosses or passes in the box. Infuencing attributes: Aerial Ability, Handling, Communication, Jumping, Decisions, Anticipation, Positioning, Agility, Refexes.

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Communication

Tis attribute indicates how well a goalkeeper directs those around his box and how well he organises his defence. Infuencing attributes: Command Of Area.

Eccentricity

Tis attribute indicates how outlandish the goalkeeper is. With a high Eccentricity attribute, the goalkeeper will act more like an outfeld player and operate with a disregard for his duties (dwelling on the ball, dribbling out the box, rushing out to make challenges, et cetera). Infuencing attributes: none.

Handling

Tis attribute indicates how good a goalkeeper is when in possession of the ball, how good the keeper is at catching the ball or holding onto it after a shot, and how frequently he spills the ball for rebounds. Infuencing attributes: none.

Kicking

Tis attribute indicates the distance a goalkeeper can propel the ball with a kick. Infuencing attributes: Technique, Passing, Decisions.

One On Ones

Tis attribute indicates how profcient a goalkeeper is at stopping an opponent clean though on goal and how confdent they will be in stopping the opponent scoring a goal. Infuencing attributes: Acceleration, Agility, Rushing Out, Balance, Refexes, Anticipation, Decisions, Pace.

Refexes

Tis attribute indicates how agile, fexible and reactive a goalkeeper is when making diving saves. Te higher the attribute, the more likely it is that the goalkeeper will save faster and more difcult shots on goal. Infuencing attributes: Agility, Balance, Anticipation.

Rushing Out

Tis attribute indicates how well a goalkeeper will come of the goalline and claim the ball. Infuencing attributes: Acceleration, Agility, Balance, Refexes, Anticipation,

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Pace. Tendency to Punch Tis attribute indicates how frequently a goalkeeper will punch the ball, instead of catching it even when he can easily catch the ball. Infuencing attributes: none. Trowing Tis attribute indicates how accurately the goalkeeper will be able to distribute the ball via a throw. Infuencing attributes: Strength, Decisions.

Te Attribute Formula Te genetic makeup of the player looks like this: Technical attributes + Mental attributes + Physical attributes + Preferred Player Moves + personality attributes = the current ability of the player. When youre in a match its a similar equation, but you add another formula to the initial formula: (Technical attributes + Mental attributes + Physical attributes + Preferred Player Moves + personality attributes) + position + role + duty + position comfort + preferred foot + morale + match motivation = efectiveness of player's abilities in the match engine. As you can see, there are a lot of variables to attributes, but youll learn as you read through the guide, that its not as hard as it seems to be. If you can learn the meanings of the attributes, learn which attributes work together and understand how to read a player's personality, then you'll fnd this game incredibly easy.

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Attribute Logic So, you know what makes a player function, you understand the genetics of a player and you can see that a player is far more complex than a few obvious attributes. Now, you need to grasp how these attributes are linked and how you can logically tie them together yourself. Take for example: Trowing; this can be infuenced by Decisions because a player such as a goalkeeper has multiple options when distributing the ball and his Decisions attribute would question which player or direction his throw should aim towards. It's going to be a factor when it comes to a player throwing the ball because you want the goalkeeper to distribute the ball to the player in the best possible position to keep the ball or counter-attack. Tis is what I refer to as Attribute Logic the understanding that one attribute is preceded and infuenced by another attribute in the match engine. Te match engine executes the player's attributes in sequences. It's basically, one big chain of events which calculate the Mental, Technical and Physical attributes. It is these reoccurring sequences in the match engine which decide how successful a player will be in diferent aspects of the game. To make it very simple, this is how it works for a striker who is getting ready to shoot... Te match engine calculates the attributes in this order: Composure > Decisions > Technique > Finishing. 1. 2. 3. 4. Te player's Composure attribute is calculated to see how calm he is in the situation. Te player's Decision attribute is calculated to see where he should put the ball. Te player's Technique attribute is calculated to see how the player executes the shot. Te player's Finishing attribute is calculated to see how accurately he'd take the shot.

Tat's the very basic sequence before a player takes a shot. Tis should highlight the importance of the other attributes to a striker because as you can see, if the Composure is low, he'll lower the chances of making the right decision. If the Decision is low, he might aim at the wrong spot or take the shot too early. If the Technique is low, he might not be able to execute the correct fnish (a chip shot for example). Now, if the Finishing is low, he might hit the ball right at the keeper, but if the attributes which precede Finishing are poor, he might not even get the chance to execute the Finishing attribute at all.

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So, how do we (a) fnd a quality player based on the match engine sequencing formula? (b) calculate all the attributes in each sequence? Well, to use this formula for scouting and recognising quality players, you need to reverseengineer the attributes of (in this case) the striker. Te frst obvious attribute of a striker is Finishing - however, we now know that Finishing is the last attribute to be executed in the chain of events. Before Finishing is executed, you'd have Technique, Decisions and Composure. However, before all of those attributes are executed you have other attributes come into play frst. It can be very useful to be able to calculate a logic chain of attribute execution, as you'd have a much better understanding of the attributes which your players will need in their positions this can make all the diference when it comes to role and duty assignment, scouting and training. To work out the match engine sequence, you have to make a logic chain to calculate which attribute would precede the attributes you know are important to the striker. If you've read the descriptions of the attributes above, you'll know that, First Touch, Of Te Ball, Work Rate, Stamina, Acceleration and Pace will all have a role to play because the striker will be moving around and looking for the ball (or running with the ball) before he gets into a shooting position. So, what you do is get an idea of which attributes will be involved in the sequence and then rearrange them to make the sequence (and thus understand which are the most important attributes for that player)... Te above attribute chain would be: (Finishing + Composure + Technique + Decisions) + First Touch + Of Te Ball + Work Rate + Stamina + Acceleration + Pace. If you breakdown and rearrange those attributes, you can make a chain of logic and youd have the ability to see how goalscoring would work in the match engine. So, initially the player is looking for the ball to be passed to him... 1. Of Te Ball dictates where he moves and where he will be positioned when the ball comes to him. 2. Work Rate decides how hard he will endeavour to get to the ball. 3. Acceleration and Pace dictate how quickly he can get to the ball. 4. Stamina will dictate if he has enough energy to get to the ball as quickly as the Acceleration and Pace attributes will allow him to.

26

5. First Touch decides how well he will control the ball when he gets to it. Tis is that sequence of events: Of Te Ball > Work Rate > Acceleration > Pace > Stamina > First Touch. Say at this point, the player has the ball. Next you'd need to calculate the attributes which would decide how he used the ball, after collecting and controlling it. Tis would see you add Composure and Decisions to the sequence. Of Te Ball > Work Rate > Acceleration > Pace > Stamina > First Touch > Composure > Decisions. In this situation, Composure and Decisions will be triggered as the match engine will want to know how calm the player is when he has the ball and what he will do with the ball next. After the match engine has calculated the Decisions attribute, it will want to know if the player has the ability to run with the ball, pass the ball, play a complex pass with the ball, et cetera... Obviously, the amount of possible calculations are far too big to cover here not that you could predict what a player would or would not do with the ball after receiving it anyway, there are too many variables. Still, it's irrelevant; at this stage you already know the beginning and ending of the sequence, which is all you'll need to ascertain which attributes are vital. So, let's presume the player has been passed the ball and controlled it when he's in the box; that would mean he's got the opportunity to shoot. Now, we've already worked out the shooting sequence, so we'll attach that to the build-up sequence and fll in any gaps so that it makes sense. Shooting sequence: Composure > Decisions > Technique > Finishing. Build-up sequence: Of Te Ball > Work Rate > Acceleration > Pace > Stamina > First Touch > Composure > Decisions. As you can see, the sequences slot together nicely... Of Te Ball > Work Rate > Acceleration > Pace > Stamina > First Touch > Composure > Decisions > Technique > Finishing. Now, some important points to note 1. You only really need to know the last four or fve attributes in each sequence for every

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position. Tere is no way that you're going to be able to calculate all the possible outcomes, because you don't know what's going to happen in the match and you're not going to be calculating just attributes, you'd have Preferred Player Moves to take into consideration, as well as morale, the difculty of the opponent, et cetera. Work out the latter attributes and look for them in players, this will give you a far greater chance of (a) fnding the best possible players (b) creating a team which is far more clinical. 2. Tis is my own Attribute Logic. I may not have added attributes into equations that you would; I may be adding attributes which I think are important and you do not. Te beauty of this is that it's your own logic. I'm just showing you how it works. You have all the attribute descriptions to help you understand the way attributes function, you also have a solid example of how the match engine sequencing works and you know you only need to calculate the last 4-5 attributes in the sequence to fnd the best players for each position with all of that information, it will be very easy for you to reverse-engineer the sequences and put your plans for world domination into efect.
3. If you read the Combining Duties and Roles crib sheet or the attribute list above,

you'll see that there are a lot of attribute links for each position use those as a base, but still use your own Attribute Logic so you can factor your own theories against those suggestions. Also, pay attention to the in-game attribute hints because using those alongside Attribute Logic, makes this concept easy to implement into your game.

4. Tis is covered in more detail later, but remember to factor in how Preferred Player Moves will afect players. Tose PPM's can easily change the impact of a player's attributes in a match (imagine a left-footed winger, on the left wing, who has excellent crossing, yet has PPM's which dictate he cuts inside and shoots on his right foot).

Player Personalities Player personalities are often completely overlooked, with managers instead preferring to focus on a player's numerical attributes, believing they're the only basis for deciding how suitable a player is for their team. However, there are a couple of reasons as to why its not advisable to ignore personalities. Firstly, a personality tag gives you an indication of the players hidden personality attributes. Secondly, its these hidden personality attributes which can be a decisive factor on the true value of a players visible attributes. Tirdly, theyre important factors for tutoring. Below Ill cover the personality attributes and personality tags to give an indication as to what they mean and how they can afect a player.

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Hidden Personality Attributes

Attribute Description and Efect

Adaptability

Tis is the measure of a players ability to adapt to playing in a new country or their ability to learn and maintain a new position. It can afect the speed and ease of them settling into a new role. Tis is the measure of a players craving for success. It can afect his desire to remain at a club, which he doesnt feel matches his ambitions. Tis is the measure of a players ability to perform well over the course of a series of games. You will usually see how consistent a player is via his form rating (if it's erratic, then his Consistency is low). Tis is the measure of how outspoken a player will be with the media. Tis is the measure of a players willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed, on and of the pitch. Tis is the measure of a players stance on playing the game fairly. It highlights whether or not a player will break the rules to win games. Tis is the measure of a players ability to handle pressure and perform in the big games. It can afect matches against big teams or matches in the latter stages of competitions. Tis is the measure of a players ability to remain free of injury. It can afect the level of training he can endure before injury; it also afects how he responds to and recovers from bad tackles in matches. Tis is the measure of a players desire to stay at his club. It can afect

Ambition

Consistency

Controversy Determination

Dirtiness

Important Matches

Injury Proneness

Loyalty

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whether or not he remains at his club when a bigger team or a more lucrative ofer comes his way. Pressure Tis is the measure of a players mental ability to deal with difcult situations. It can afect his ability to perform during the big occasions on the pitch. Tis is the measure of a players attitude to work. It can afect his career longevity, his approach to training and his conduct on the pitch. Tis is the measure of a players mentality towards fair play. It highlights how ethical a player will be on the pitch. Tis is the measure of a players calmness when involved in specifc match events things such as tackles, fouls and bookings. Tis is the measure of a players ability to perform well in a role he's not comfortable playing in.

Professionalism

Sportsmanship

Temperament

Versatility

Now, before we get into the defnitions of the personality tags and look at how they link to their personality attributes, its important to understand how they function. Its also very useful to know which personality tags indicate the lack of another personality attribute. Te personality attributes work in the exact same way as the other attributes work. Teyre categorised into felds and ranked from 1-20 (imagine a fourth column next to Technical, Mental and Physical attributes). Te diference is that these personality attributes are so important that it would be unrealistic to show you them in great detail; this is why they are displayed as tags instead of numerical values. Now, this is the complex issue behind the personality tags there can only be one tag, so the most dominating attribute in a players personality will dictate which tag is shown. So, for example: how would you tell if a player who is Temperamental has good Pressure attributes? Well, there is no defnitive way in the game to ascertain which hidden attributes

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have which numerical values all you can do is exercise some logic. Obviously a player who is Temperamental, has such a poor Temperament value that his other attribute values must be less impressive. Terefore you can only really assess this player as a liability. Its not conclusive evidence that hes exceedingly poor in other areas, as he could have a 1 for Temperament and a 17 for Pressure (in this case, Temperament is the stronger attribute because it's closer to '0' than Pressure is to '20'). Now, because a negative attribute is the strongest personality attribute for this player (and every player gets only one personality tag), he's going to have a negative personality tag and thats the overwhelming problem with players having bad personality tags its impossible to tell how good their other personality attributes are. Fortunately, thanks to some old test research at SI Games, we can look at some indications as to which attributes are associated with each tag. Its not numerically specifc because there wasnt any conclusive evidence on the difering values, but its defnitely accurate enough to give you a clear-cut understanding of the dynamics of each personality tag (see the Personality Dynamics crib sheet). Personality Tags
Trait Description and Efect

Balanced

Tis indicates that a player has a well-rounded personality. Its essentially someone who is not excellent in any specifc personality area, but at the same time hes not a liability in any area either. Its not really the most desirable trait to have in a player because the player lacks strong Determination and Ambition attributes, but having said that, hes not going to have an adverse afect on the team. Tis indicates that a player is completely determined and leads by example. Its the kind of player every manager would want; hes highly infuential and has a strong efect on the players around him. Obviously, its one of the best tags any player can have especially a captain. Tis indicates that a player is very similar to a Born Leader, but slightly less infuential and less determined. Again, its an extremely desirable trait certainly in a captain.

Born Leader

Leader

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Model Citizen

Tis indicates that a player has an almost perfect personality, although he'd not be the best example of leadership material, due to a lacking Infuence attribute. Tis is a very determined and ambitious player who is also loyal, professional and is likely to be a very good sportsman. In my opinion, this is the most desirable trait to look for in a player. Tis indicates that a player is extremely focussed with regards to Ambition, Determination and Professionalism. He is a player much like a Leader, but without the Infuence. Tis is an extremely desirable trait to have in a player, due to their work-ethic, drive and professionalism. Players like this often work hard enough to hit their peak and stay at their peak for a lot longer than the less professional players around them. Tis indicates that a player is extremely focussed and well tempered. Tis is someone who doesnt step out of line and instead focuses entirely on their game; even though the player is lacking some Ambition and Determination, these players often have the ability to have longer and better careers due to their exemplary Professionalism attribute. Obviously, it's a trait which is most desirable for managers who want to encourage a well-behaved team. Tis indicates that a player is a much like the Model Professional, but slightly less focussed on their professionalism. Again, not a trait that signifes much Ambition or Determination, but it gives an indication as to how hard the player will work in trying to become a better player. Obviously, its a great trait to look for in a player. Tis indicates that a player is moderately focussed and well tempered. Again, its a watered-down version of the other Professional tags, but its certainly not undesirable to have players like this in the team. Even though they sound rather lackadaisical when compared to their counter-parts, theyre only slightly less professional than the others.

Perfectionist

Model Professional

Professional

Fairly Professional

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Level-Headed

Tis indicates that a player is quite balanced with regards to Sportsmanship and Professionalism. Tis player is rational and is unlikely to get into controversial situations; although it doesnt indicate much with regards to his temper. Its not a bad trait to have, its quite middle-of-the-road as far as personality tags go. Tis indicates that a player has a bad temper and is highly controversial. Hes going to be the worst kind of player you can look to have in your team on and of the pitch. Its obviously a trait to avoid. Tis indicates that a player is a lose cannon. His Temperament is extremely low and hes going to be a risk to the harmony of the team of the pitch, as well as being a ticking bomb on the pitch. Obviously, its not a trait youd want in a player Tis indicates that a player has very low Temperament and is also a bad sportsman. On the pitch, this guy is going to be a huge problem. Obviously, its not a desirable trait to have. Tis indicates that a player is a potential risk; his Temperament is pretty low and there is every chance that he will cause trouble on and of the pitch. Obviously, its not a trait to look for. Tis indicates that a player is controversial and is likely to speak his mind. Tis could unbalance the team and cause trouble in the dressing room or in the media. Its not an ideal trait to have. Tis indicates that a player is the exact opposite of the Outspoken type. Hell be quite savvy in what he says and is unlikely to cause many poor media situations. Its not the worst trait to have, although it doesn't indicate what a player will do for you on the pitch.

Short-Tempered

Temperamental

Confrontational

Volatile

Outspoken

Media-Friendly

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Reserved

Tis indicates that a player is quiet and calm. Tis player is very professional and not remotely controversial; hes unlikely to do anything but focus on his game. Its a trait which would be good in any player. Tis indicates that a player is laid-back and cheerful. Tis player is great under pressure and has a fairly balanced temperament. As it goes, its not the worst trait to have in a player, but its not the most sought after either; it can indicate that a player is a bit too relaxed to work hard, but it has its rewards on the pitch in difcult situations. Tis indicates that a player is relaxed. Tis player is great under pressure, quite determined and also a good sportsman too. Its a trait which would be good in any player, as this is a player who is good for morale. Tis indicates that a player is upbeat. Tis player will be good under pressure, very professional and wont have a bad temperament. It's a trait which would be good in any player. Tis indicates that a player is too relaxed to get the job done; hes not very professional and has poor Determination. Obviously, its a trait to avoid. Tis indicates that a player is very determined and highly professional. Tis player is very focussed on the task and will be a great addition to the team. Tis indicates a player who will stop at nothing to win; he lives, breathes and eats success. Tis player is far more determined than any other which obviously, is a very desirable trait to have in a player.

Jovial

Light-Hearted

Spirited

Casual

Resolute

Driven

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Determined

Tis indicates that a player is only slightly less focussed on succeeding at the club than a Driven player. Its a good trait to have in a player, because hell do what he can to win.

Fairly Determined Tis indicates that a player has average Determination. Not an undesirable trait to have in a player, theyre often slightly more ambitious than their other Determined counter-parts. Low Determination Tis indicates that a player is seriously lacking in Determination. Its a very undesirable trait because it shows a lack of not only the will to win, but also a lack of Ambition and Professionalism. Tis indicates that a player is completely void of Determination. Its one of the worst personality tags a player can have. Tis indicates that a player has low Determination, but is also very poor under pressure. Hes going to have no confdence and that undermine all his other attributes as a result. Its a trait youd be looking to avoid having in the team. Tis indicates that a player has low Determination and Professionalism. As a result, the player will make little to no efort to train or play. Its a trait signifcant of a very lazy individual and would be something to avoid at all costs. Tis indicates that a player has low Determination and is poor under pressure. As a result, the player will crumble on the pitch. Its another undesirable trait which will undermine a players attributes. Tis indicates that a player is extremely good with Pressure. Tis player is also very determined and mentally strong. Tis is a very good trait to have in a player, if not one of the best, as hes highly unlikely to crumble on the pitch when you most need him to deliver.

Easily Discouraged Low Self-Belief

Slack

Spineless

Iron Willed

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Unfappable

Tis indicates that a player is good under pressure and has a good temperament. Hes a mentally strong player and will be cool, calm and collected on the pitch. Tis is another fantastic trait to have in a player. Tis indicates that a player is very good with handling Pressure and is very professional. Tis player will be strong and durable on the pitch. Again, another fantastic trait to have. Tis indicates how much a player wants to play and succeed at the highest level. Its a double-edged sword, because a team with a lower reputation would struggle to hold on to this player, but the player will have a positive impact on the pitch, because hes aiming to get to the top. Te desirability of this trait often hinges on whether a club can sign the player or keep the player signed to the club. Tis indicates that a player is slightly less ambitious than those Very Ambitious players. Tese players are not very loyal to teams who dont match their ambitions. Obviously, its a trait which as mentioned above, has cons, but players with Ambition work hard to realise their objectives thus meaning its a good trait for a player to have. Tis indicates that a player is moderately ambitious, but slightly more loyal to the club. As youd expect, hes a slightly watered-down version of the ambitious players. Again, its a trait which will signal a player will work pretty hard to achieve his goals and its an attribute which is good to have in any player. Tis indicates a poorly motivated player. Hes not really someone you should look to buy even if hes willing to stay at the team as a result of his lack of Ambition. Tis trait signifes a player who is unlikely to ever have enough gumption to reach his potential. With regards to desirability, its one of the worst personality tags to have.

Evasive

Very Ambitious

Ambitious

Fairly Ambitious

Unambitious

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Resilient

Tis indicates a mentally strong player who is fairly determined and is very capable of handling pressure. Players like this are very strong characters and can be very efective on the pitch, due to their ability to not give up and not be phased by the situations they fnd themselves in. Tis is a trait which is very desirable in a player. Tis indicates a player loves his club and would never wish to leave. Its misunderstood as are the other Loyalty tags often highly valued, but when considered, its only an attribute youd want in a player who was already a star. It sacrifces Ambition and Determination in favour of Loyalty both of those traits are the driving force of the best players. Its an admirable trait, but not a trait that youd really want in a player unless you didnt wish to ever part with him. Tis indicates that a player is completely loyal to his club, although not as much as the Devoted players. Its an attribute with merit when its held by a player who you absolutely need to keep at your club. If youre a big team, this attribute is relatively useless, as its indicative of players with fairly low Ambition and Determination. Youd only want this trait in a player when youre at a club where the player could leave and you desperately need to hang on to him. Tis indicates that a player is loyal to his club. As above, its a good attribute for players at teams which need to keep the player. Tis trait has slightly less Loyalty and as a result, slightly more Ambition, which makes it more desirable than a Very Loyal trait, but still it's relatively useless to teams whod require a player to be ambitious and determined, rather than loyal. Tis indicates that a player is moderately loyal; which as above, is only a good attribute for players at teams which need to keep the player. Tis trait has less Loyalty and slightly more Ambition than the Loyal trait, which would make it slightly more desirable than both the other Loyalty personality tags.

Devoted

Very Loyal

Loyal

Fairly Loyal

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Honest

Tis indicates that a player epitomises what it is to be a sportsman. He has an exceptional Sportsmanship attribute and as such will behave with impeccable behaviour on the pitch. As far as desirability goes, its nice to have an honest player, but its not always the most rewarding trait. Tis indicates that a player is fair and will behave himself on the pitch just like the Honest players. Again, its a nice trait to have, but its not overly rewarding. Tis indicates that a player is moderately fair; he behaves himself on the pitch and is unlikely to get into trouble. As with the other Sportsmanship tags, its nice to have, but not overly rewarding. Tis indicates that a player is lacking Sportsmanship. Hes quite logical in the sense that sportsmanship isnt an overly rewarding trait to have, so he doesnt opt to have it. With regards to desirability, its a trait with no real beneft. Tis indicates that a player is completely devoid of Sportsmanship. Hes the John McEnroe of football. With regards to desirability, its obviously much like the Realist trait, but worse. Its not a trait youd want a player to have.

Sporting

Fairly Sporting

Realist

Unsporting

What you should consider is that these personality tags are only indications of the highest values of a player's hidden attributes. So, for example: if a player is tagged as Media-Friendly it suggests hes better with Controversy than any of the other hidden personality attributes. Now, Media-Friendly is not a bad personality tag, but its not really benefcial to a player, because that means that Controversy the strongest aspect of his personality ahead of things such as Ambition, Determination and Professionalism. As a result, we cant ascertain the ratings his more important personality attributes have which shows that a bad personality tag doesnt always mean that player's other attributes are low, it just means that the bad attribute is the most apparent and the levels of the player's preferred attributes are unknown.

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Now, you should note that these personality tags can change with tutoring, so utilise tutoring to get the best from a player who may be very promising, but is not showing suitable personality attributes.

Preferred Player Moves As with the personality tags, there is another frequently overlooked element to a player in this case, its Preferred Player Moves (or PPMs, for short). Tese moves either indicate a players ability to exercise a certain manoeuvre or they relate to part of their on-feld personality. Below you can see a description as to what each PPM label means.
Preferred Player Move Description and Effect

Argues with ofcials

Tis label indicates that a player is highly likely to get involved in confrontations with match ofcials - which can result in the player being issued with a card. Couple this PPM with a poor Aggression attribute and/or a poor behavioural personality tag, and youll have a highly volatile player on your hands. Tis label indicates that a player will delay his entry into the box during an attacking move. Hes going to look to hold his run and ofer another option as he enters the box behind the frst wave of players attacking the box - this can give the player more time and space on the ball in a key area. Tis label indicates that a player will attempt acrobatic manoeuvres. Tis is only going to be efective with good Agility, Technique, Flair and Finishing/Passing attributes (depending on whether the player is shooting or passing the ball). Tis PPM does not suggest a player will be able to execute the move, rather than he is willing to

Arrives late in opposition area

Attempts overhead kicks

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try the overhead kick which could easily be a bad thing, if the player doesn't have the ability to execute the trait. Avoids using weaker foot Tis label indicates that a player will do anything he can to avoid using his weak foot. Its a PPM which has both pros and cons, because the player is most likely to execute something far better with his stronger foot and therefore be more accurate and more efective. However, it equates to a lower adaptability in certain situations (i.e. a striker running into the box, with a small area of space in which he can score, but only if he uses his weak foot). Tis label indicates that a player will drop deeper than his assigned position to pick up possession. Tis can be both a pro and a con, because you might not want your lone striker dropping deep and taking pressure of the opposition defence, but its very handy for players who have a great ability to utilise possession (players with good Creativity, Of Te Ball, Technique and Passing attributes) . Tis label indicates that a player opts to curl the ball in certain situations. Tis can be very useful when players are taking shots, playing though-balls or taking set-pieces. Attributes which may infuence this PPM would be Technique and either Finishing or Passing, depending on the scenario. Tis label indicates that a player will act much like an Inside Forward and come into the middle of the pitch, instead of hugging the line and getting the ball to the by-line for a cross. Pros and cons with this should be rather obvious you either want a winger to play like Messi or Beckham. In terms of attributes, it depends on how the player is deployed; if the player is cutting inside and shooting, then obviously, Long Shots, Technique, Finishing and Dribbling attributes would be more important than the Crossing, Dribbling, Decisions and Passing attributes which are important for wingers.

Comes deep to get ball

Curls ball

Cuts inside

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Dictates Tempo

Tis label indicates that a player will control the game. Tis PPM is most useful on players who have exceptional midfeld skills (Passing, Technique, Decisions, Creativity, Of Te Ball, Anticipation). Te immediate con would be that this PPM is useless (and even detrimental) in a player who does not possess the ability to execute it efectively. Tis label indicates that a player has a gung-ho mentality to winning the ball. Its much like the Argues with ofcials PPM, with regards to it being a very negative trait on the wrong player. A player would need good Anticipation, Aggression and Tackling attributes to balance out this Preferred Player Move. Tis label indicates that a player has a more logical approach to winning the ball. Hes most likely to stand of his rival and wait for a good tackling opportunity to present itself. Its obviously a PPM with more positives than its opposite. Tis label indicates that a player will be very comfortable in possession and will keep the ball for as long as he can. Its only going to be benefcial on players who have good Creativity, Composure, Decision and Passing attributes, which allow them to successfully hold the ball and release it without losing it. In terms of it being a con if a player has this trait and youre playing a quick, direct tempo in your tactical instruction, then its going to confict with that mentality, as the player is slowing the fow of the attack and holding on to possession more than you'd want him to. Tis label indicates that a player has a certain infuence over the crowd. Tis player will get the crowd pumped and will give the atmosphere a big boost (in your teams favour) when hes on the ball. Its obviously a big pro, if you consider the efect the crowd will have on the team. Tis label indicates that a player has a penchant for getting into

Dives into tackles

Does not dive into tackles

Dwells on ball

Gets crowd going

Gets forward

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whenever possible

attacking positions whenever he can. Obviously this can have a negative afect on players who are supposed to be defensively positioned at all times, but its certainly positive for players who youd want to get forward and get involved in the attacking game as often as possible. Tis label indicates that a player will endeavour to get into the oppositions box when he can. Again, like the Get forward whenever possible PPM, the merit of this hinges on the position of the player who has the trait. Tis label indicates that a player will strike a free-kick with power, rather than with fnesse. Whether its more of a pro or a con is up for debate, but you'd still want a player to have good Finishing, Long Shots, Free-Kick Taking, Technique, Decisions and Composure attributes, when they're taking your free-kicks. Tis label indicates that a player will stay out wide on the touchline instead of coming inside with the ball. Its the exact opposite of the Cuts inside PPM. Tis label indicates that a player will put the ball past his opponent as he takes him on. With this PPM, its important to consider the players Dribbling, Pace and Acceleration attributes, as hes going to need good attributes to execute this PPM efciently. Tis label indicates a players preference to how he receives the ball. Tis PPM signals that a player prefers to keep possession, rather than chase passes or deal with aerial threats around him, which can be a plus with regards to keeping the ball, but it can be a negative if this player is a key part of your team and you want to play a diferent style of football around him. Tis PPM is much more efective with players who have good First Touch attributes.

Gets into opposition area

Hits free-kicks with power

Hugs line

Knocks ball past opponent

Likes ball played into feet

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Likes to beat man repeatedly

Tis label indicates that a player has a penchant for taking players on when hes in possession. Again, like some other PPM's its efectiveness hinges on the Technical attributes of the player things such as Dribbling, Acceleration, Pace, Agility and Balance. Also, you should consider where this player is positioned and how he is instructed, because this PPM may not be ideal in a player youd preferred passed the ball rather than dribbled the ball. Tis label indicates that a player has a penchant for lifting the ball over the goalkeeper, rather than slotting it to the side of him. With this PPM, its important to have a player with good Finishing, Technique, Decisions and Composure attributes. Given that its efectiveness comes down to the situation in which its executed, it's hard to say if it's a pro or a con, although in one-on-one situations this PPM could be very efective, if the player had the ability to successfully execute the PPM. Tis label indicates that a player has a penchant for going around the goalkeeper with the ball, instead of shooting frst-time. Again, like the Likes to lob keeper PPM, the success rate of this trait would depend on the players Technical attributes, in this case Agility, Composure and Dribbling. As above, its success hinges on the scenario in which the PPM is executed, but it would be most likely to increase goal-scoring efciency in one-on-one situations. Tis label indicates that a player has a penchant for keeping possession by moving the ball across the pitch when the opposition become too tight on his side of the pitch. As outlined, its a very useful PPM, but only efective when found in players with good Passing, Technique and Creativity attributes. Tis label indicates that a player has a penchant for anticipating and exploiting an attacking opportunity by timing his runs against the last defender. Its obviously a magnifcent PPM to have in an attacking player, who has the ability to execute the PPM correctly. Players with this PPM would require good Anticipation, Of Te Ball, Acceleration and Pace attributes.

Likes to lob keeper

Likes to round keeper

Likes to switch ball to other fank

Likes to try to beat ofside trap

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Looks for pass rather than attempting to score

Tis label indicates that a player will opt to play the ball to another player rather than shoot. Whilst this PPM seems negative, it can have a big plus when it comes to getting the ball past the goalkeeper or last defender. Obviously a player's Passing attribute would need to be good, but Composure, Creativity and Decisions would also be very benefcial in any player with this PPM. Tis label indicates that a player stays close to his opponent when marking him. Tis is a much debated PPM, with regards to its status as a positive or negative trait. Ideally, players with this PPM will need good Marking, Tackling, Heading and Strength attributes, but beware, these players can be duped by highly skilled opponents who have an excellent First Touch attribute, a good Anticipation attribute and a good Acceleration attribute. Tis label indicates that a player prefers to dribble on his left foot. Its not an advantageous PPM, its more of a technical quirk which can be exploited by the Show Player onto x foot trait. Tis label indicates that a player prefers to dribble on his right foot. As above, its not advantageous, its the mirror opposite to the Moves ball to left foot before dribble attempt PPM. Tis label indicates that a player likes to look for and exploit the space between the Full-back and the Central Defender. With this PPM, youre going to want players to have good Of Te Ball, Anticipation and First Touch attributes. Tis label indicates that a player prefers to take shots in a more refned manner than simply hitting the ball with power. With this PPM, youre likely to see an increase in accuracy, but attributes such as Finishing, Technique, Decisions and Composure will still afect the outcome of the shot.

Marks opponent tightly

Moves ball to left foot before dribble attempt Moves ball to right foot before dribble attempt Moves into channels

Places shots

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Plays no throughballs

Tis label indicates that a player opts not to play passes into spaces, instead preferring to play the ball directly to the player. Tis PPM can be both advantageous (with regards to keeping possession) but it sacrifces creative manoeuvres as a result. Tis label indicates that a player has a penchant for performing quick passing manoeuvres with players around him. Its a very positive PPM to have in a player, as it will be very difcult for defenders to win the ball in these situations. Attributes which would beneft this PPM would be First-Touch, Composure, Passing, Of Te Ball, Anticipation, Acceleration, Decisions and Creativity. Tis label indicates that a player has a penchant for performing simple passes to players near him. Its a highly benefcial attribute for players who are instructed to play short passes, but its obviously going to be more of an issue if your team plays a more direct or long passing game. With this PPM, the key attributes would be Passing and Decisions. Tis label indicates a players preference to play facing his teammates. Tis PPM would suggest players would be more aware with regards to whats going on around them and would be better at receiving the ball as a result. Te downside is that they then have to turn around with the ball (if they receive it). Attributes linked to this PPM would be First Touch and Of Te Ball. Tis label indicates a players habitual running pattern. With this PPM, players will look to get down the fank and run at players. Tis PPM can defne the type of player you have for example: a right-footed player who likes to run down the left, would typically prefer to come inside and shoot, rather than reach the by-line and cross the ball. Attributes which help to support this PPM would be Dribbling, Agility, Acceleration, Pace and Decisions Long Shots,

Plays one twos

Plays short simple passes

Plays with back to goal

Runs with ball down left

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Shooting/Crossing and Technique attributes would need to be considered depending on the footed-ness of the player and the position he was occupying. Runs with ball down right Runs with ball through centre Tis label indicates a players habitual running pattern. As above, it is the same style of PPM, except on the opposite side of the pitch. Tis label indicates a players habitual running pattern. Unlike the above wider running patterns, the central pattern is slightly diferent. Tis PPM would indicate a player tries to run though the most occupied area of the pitch, and as such, this means that a player will need good Decisions, Creativity, Passing, Composure, Dribbling, Agility, Technique and Balance attributes. Tis label indicates that a player likes to hit the ball with power, rather than with fnesse. With this PPM, a player sacrifces accuracy for power. However, with good Finishing, Decisions and Technique attributes, this PPM could ofer both accuracy and power. Its particularly efcient alongside a good Long Shots attribute. Tis label indicates that a player likes to shoot from outside the box. Tis PPM can be highly efective in midfeld players, certainly those with good Finishing, Long Shots, Technique and Decisions attributes. Tis label indicates that a player is never going to go forward and support the attack. With this PPM, the defence remains stronger, but in instances such as corners, its often advantageous to have a big, strong aerial presence in the box which could be sacrifced with this PPM, as its mostly defensive players who have it. Tere are no specifc attributes tied to this PPM, but Concentration, Decisions and Positioning would be good in a player whos sitting back; good Physical attributes would also be a plus.

Shoots with power

Shoots from distance

Stays back at all times

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Stops play

Tis label indicates that a player will hold the ball up when he needs to (i.e. in situations when his opponents are outnumbering his team-mates). Tis PPM requires good Decisions, Composure, Strength and Passing attributes, as youll want the player to not only hold the ball, but also keep it and use it well. Tis label indicates that a player will attempt quick shots in a bid to catch the goalkeeper of-guard. Te pro to this PPM would be that players have an attacking edge, but the con would be that the shot may be rushed and inefective as a result. Attributes that would aid this PPM would be Finishing, Decisions, Composure and Technique. Tis label indicates that a player will frequently attempt to catch the opposition of-guard with difcult and adventurous passes. As above with the Tries frst time shots PPM, the success of this trait would hinge on the Technique, Passing, Decisions, and Creativity attributes of the player.

Tries frst time shots

Tries killer balls often

Tries long range free- Tis label indicates that a player will attempt to score from freekicks kicks at distance. Te pros of this PPM would depend on the ability of the set-piece takers Long Shots, Finishing, Decisions and Composure attributes. If the player has poor attributes, hed just waste the opportunity. Tries long range passes Tis label indicates that a player will attempt to pass the ball at range. As with the Tries killer balls often PPM, this trait would require exceptional skills to be successful. Attributes which would aid this PPM would be Technique, Passing, Decisions and Creativity. Tis label indicates that a player uses his ball skills as a way to get past players. With this PPM, a player will need to be highly gifted with his Flair and Creativity attributes to successfully make use of

Tries tricks

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this PPM. Other attributes such as Dribbling, Agility and Balance could be advantageous. Tries to play way out of trouble Tis label indicates that a player will attempt to get out of tricky situations using his abilities. As a result, players may require attributes such as, Dribbling, Acceleration, Technique, Flair, Creativity, Balance, Agility, Strength and Composure, to execute the PPM successfully. If the player lacks good attributes, its very likely that hell lose the ball. Tis label indicates that a player will utilise the outside of his foot when passing or shooting. Tis PPM can ofer the player another option when on the ball, so its obviously useful, but its efectiveness hinges on whether the player has a good Technique attribute or not. Tis label indicates that a player will aggravate his opponents. Tis PPM can force the opposition to react negatively towards the player, thus resulting in them committing a foul or being carded.

Uses outside of foot

Winds up opponents

Give some thought to the Preferred Player Moves label a player has and then compare it to the attributes you think would pertain to the label for example: the frst PPM in the table highlights the dynamics of the Argues with ofcials PPM and how it would be afected by the Aggression attribute or the players Personality attributes obviously, it's a toxic mixture. Just like all of these other bonus traits, you need to exercise logic when youre training or scouting players with these PPMs, because PPM's, attributes and personalities they're all intertwined and can be unstable or problematic when used together (if they're not suited to each other). Look for balance, use logic and you'll get the best results from them.

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Teaching Preferred Player Moves Tese Preferred Player Moves can be taught and un-taught, but you dont have the ability to train your players to adopt all of them. Its very, very important to cull Preferred Player Moves which arent suited to your players abilities doing this can radically change their ability to perform on the pitch. At the same time, consider teaching players with good attributes, Preferred Player Moves which complement their abilities this can allow you to develop a better player. Consider the combination of Preferred Player Moves and how theyd work with each other (i.e. teaching a right-footed winger, with very good Physical attributes, good Finishing, Technique and Long Shots attributes, the Cuts inside, Runs with ball down left and Tries frst time shots PPM traits). Tats just an example of one extra dynamic you can add to a player. Tink of Preferred Player Moves as skill moves and begin educating your players on the art of executing them. Teaching Preferred Player Moves to players is no diferent to working on a training schedule or the Match Preparation module, its all relative to player growth and its an invaluable outlet of training and player improvement for a manager. Its also worth noting that some of these traits should only be taught to certain positions; for example: its a shocking idea to teach a central defender the Tries to play way out of trouble Preferred Player Moves hed massively increase the risk of losing the ball in a vital area and conceding a goal although, generally speaking, if you follow the outline above, central defenders wouldnt have the attributes needed for that specifc PPM anyway.

Teres a lot more to cover, but its not all relevant to this section of the guide, so see the Player Tutoring section to read how you can teach the unlockable Preferred Player Moves and also how you can teach them without having to take up time in a players training routine.

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- Chapter Five -

Understanding the Fundamental Elements of Tactics

With a multitude of options, the tactical creation side of the game is quite overwhelming, but once you learn the meaning behind certain settings, you can easily get to grips with creating your own efective tactics. With that in mind, we'll take a look at the fundamental elements of tactics and how you'd go about piecing your own tactic together. Tactics in FM are broken up into separate methods of instruction: formation, team instructions, player duties, player roles, player instructions and touchline shouts. When building a tactic, the immediate issues to deal with are your players. You need to decide how they're going to ft into your tactic or if you're going to build a tactic around what you have at the club. Sometimes, this decision is made for you, so it's best to review the squad fully, see which attributes your players have and how efective they'd be in a specifc role; then begin to piece your tactical shape together and if you need to, hit the transfer market for some players.

Formations Te starting point of any tactic requires you to assess your players to see who and what you're working with. After you've done that, you should have some idea of what kind of formation you're going to play. Most people tend to opt for a balanced 4-4-2, a more attacking 4-3-3 or a more defensive 4-5-1 these three tactics are the more popular shapes, but none of them have to dictate the way you choose to play the game. You could, for example: go with the 451 which ofers strong defensive numbers and overcrowds the middle of the pitch (at the expense of the attacking threat of two strikers); with that you could opt to be overly attacking and push high up the pitch you don't necessarily need to sit back and counter-attack or play defensively just because your formation suggests it should be a more defensive tactic. Te overall thing to remember when selecting a formation is that you should take into account who you have in your team and the strength of those players; for example: if you don't have strong wingers, it's better to deploy your team to work through the middle of the pitch, solidify the midfeld and look to get the stronger players involved in the game (although, not at the expense of playing players out of position) it's highly inadvisable to play weaker players just because they ft your preferred formation. If you can't replace the weak players, look to create a shape which has balance, but also potency; dont give the weaker players a role which theyll struggle to impress in, give them minimal duties and instead get the better players involved.

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You should also remember not to be scared of getting creative or being less orthodox with your tactics (certainly if something doesn't work for you), you can always change it. When building your tactic, consider that you need to create a realistic shape; it's important to ponder how easily your defence could be exploited, how well your players can get the ball from defence to attack and how efective the shape of the attacking line could be during an attack. Te best formations have balance between the shape of the formation and the players in the formation.

Philosophy Philosophy is a hugely important aspect of the tactical setup, as it defnes the behaviour of the players. Basically, a more Fluid style of play would have the entire team operating in a similar manner attacking and defending as a unit. A more Rigid style of play would be the complete opposite to the Fluid style, forcing the players to do exactly what you've told them (this can have an efect on their creativity and improvisation); this would see the team would split based on their duties and roles with defenders staying back and attackers pushing up. Tese settings however, operate within the parameters of a player's personality, so don't expect someone like Berbatov to start defending of the line during an opposition counter-attack (if you're set to a Very Fluid style), their Mental attributes and personalities still come into play. With that said, lets take a look at the settings in more detail Balanced Tis is your best option if you're looking for a middle ground between a Fluid and Rigid mentality. With this you'll divide the team into attacking, supporting and defending roles; defenders will sit back, midfelders will sit in the middle to support and attackers will push up to pressure the opposition (depending on their duties) this will give you the ability to set the entire team up in a manner that will allow them to be much more dynamic in their attacking and defending without restricting them from being occasionally creative (like either of the Rigid philosophies can do) and it will also keep them from being as exploited as they might be with a Fluid philosophy. It's important to note that this mentality will put more emphasis on the duties and roles your players are set to, as they'll be using those as instructions for their positions on the pitch. If you've got a lack of balance in the duties or roles which the players are set to, it will afect the team movement.

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Fluid With this setting, you give the players more freedom in their position to express themselves. Tey will start to play out of their position, preferring to move around the parameter of their area, rather than stay at their defned point in the formation. With this philosophy the players will dismiss instruction a little more, as they'll look to use your duty and role settings as a guideline of how they should play, rather than as strict instruction as to how you demand they play. With this you're likely to see more attacking verve and a more unifed team in attack and defence; the attacking players will be moving around to make space for each other and the defenders will be coming out of position a little more. Tis is a great setting for those teams with players who are good Of Te Ball and have good Anticipation but realise you are opting to play a less predictable game by using fuid movement and creativity, which does have side-efects that will weaken the team's solidarity defensively, as you're moving the team as an entire unit when you're attacking and defending. Very Fluid Obviously, this setting is a more aggressive variation of the Fluid setting, with this encouraging the team to play more in a 'light framework' of their positions. With this philosophy, you're going to get the team to abandon all structure from the formation in order to employ creativity and unpredictability in it's most extreme form. If you have players with exceptional skills in movement and positioning, you're likely to see this setting be very efective with those players; but the big side-efect with this style of play is that the team could fall apart, if their attacking prowess is inefective against the oppositions style of play. Also, with players not in the best position to deal with a situation, you'd be easily opened up for exploitation because whilst they're trying to create an opportunity at one end, you could lose the ball and get caught out on the counter-attack. Rigid Tis setting is not demanding players adopt a robotic mentality, they'll just be more cautious in what they do for example: when a player attacks, another player will be more inclined to stay back and hold the space he's left unoccupied. With this setting you're more likely to see the team play a less attractive style of football, but players will keep their shape which will give you more strength as a unit when put under pressure. Te issue with this setting is that you're sacrifcing an adventurous, creative and unpredictable style of play for the sake of a more structured and solid unit. Tat's not to say you can't have the best of both worlds, you can have stability and be tough to break down, whilst at the same time be creative at the other end of the pitch but that comes down to the quality of your players and the roles you give them. With this philosophy you'll be cautiously creative, but that doesn't mean you're going to be radically handicapped in attack; it just means that you will be less adventurous when going forward, to make sure that you're not easily exploited.

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Very Rigid Obviously, this setting is a more aggressive variation of the Fluid setting, which stipulates that the players have absolutely no room to play the game any other way than they are directed; they have no creative freedom and they have to maintain their positions as much as possible. With this setting you're getting the beneft of the players sticking to their defned position and you're keeping the shape of the formation which will be very difcult for an opponent to break down and it won't leave players out of position if you're counter-attacked. Te side-efect of this philosophy is that players won't go out of their 'zone' very often and they will rarely make overlapping runs or unpredictable manoeuvres which is very efective in defence, but not at all in attack which means you're going to be predictable in what you do in the build-up play. Tis setting is perfect for making weaker teams harder to break down and ofers the manager the ability to keep an 'underdog team' in a game a lot better than any other setting would; however, it makes things harder when it comes to the team attacking, as you're giving the opposition the advantage of knowing the kind of attacking moves you'll make before you've made them which obviously gives them a higher chance of stopping your moves as you're developing them.

Strategy As said above, Philosophy dictates the spacing between each player, the amount of freedom the players have to move out of their positions and the dynamic of the team's movement as a unit (i.e. players split between defence and attack or players defending and attacking as one entity) whilst Strategy dictates the behaviour and mentality of the team. It's this element of the tactics module which stipulates how the team will approach and handle the opposition

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players. Strategy ties into a team's Philosophy as it's controlling how the team operate within the parameters of their Philosophy settings for example: will they attack the opposition or will they try to contain the threat of the opposition, whilst following the positional settings the Philosophy dictates. You should be aware that it's important to have the right balance between the Philosophy and the Strategy, because you'd not want them negatively afecting each other. A good example of the impact Philosophy and Strategy can have together would be the Very Fluid setting combined with the Overload setting. Yes, it would be incredible as an attacking style of play (if it was efective against the opposition and you had players who never lost possession) but, if you didn't have those perks, it would be tactical suicide, as you'd be completely disregarding the defensive aspect of the game in favour of attacking aggressively and being overly creative. So, let's take a look at the diferent Strategy settings and identify, not only how they function, but how they also afect your tactical settings... Attacking - Te Attacking strategy does what it says; it's intended to attack the opposition and create goal-scoring opportunities. With this setting designed to create as many attacking opportunities as possible, you'd be pushing the defensive line higher up the pitch and raising the creativity allowances of the team. Tis strategy also stretches the opposition wide by employing more width and a quicker tempo, thus creating gaps in their formation, which are exploited with direct passing and snappy movement. Obviously, as you'll be widening and stretching your team shape, be aware that your players will come out of their positions a bit more and you will lose the structure of your formation as you push forward; because of that, this strategy is best suited when you are playing a weaker opponent, an overly defensive team or when you need a goal, but don't want to be too 'gung-ho' with your approach. Contain - Te Contain strategy is efective when you need to throw everyone back into defence and hold on to your result at all costs. With this setting youre revoking any attacking mentality for the sake of creating an ultra defensive barricade in front of your own goal. Tis strategy encourages the team to sit deep and cushion the blow of a heavy attack on the defence, forsaking any attacking mentality and thus releasing your pressure on the opposition. Its ideal when you look like conceding a goal or when you just want to see out a result in the dying embers of a game; but be aware: the Contain strategy is only efective when used sporadically, as its very intensive on your team and will have an adverse afect if executed for too long (because you're neglecting getting the ball, keeping possession and then moving further up the pitch which continuously puts your team under defensive pressure).

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Control - Te Control strategy is the best way to keep possession and slowly breakdown a team. It encourages your team to draw the opponent out of position by holding on to possession and frustrating them; then as they come to close you down, you'd exploit the space they leave behind them with a decisive pass. It's best suited to those who need to lure a team out of their defensive strategy, when you simply want to keep the ball (but don't want to be overly defensive and invite pressure on to yourself ) or when you feel you need more control and patience to take the lead. Tis strategy sits the team slightly deeper, giving them more time and space to move the ball around, it also drops the passing tempo in order to retain possession of the ball (by not rushing passes or being too direct and thus not giving away possession) , as you wait to draw the opponent out of their position. Counter - Te Counter strategy is the best way to deal with a team who are overly attacking. It allows the opposition to overwhelm you, whilst you wait to win the ball back and then hit them with a very quick, very aggressive attack. It's best suited to those who need to defend, but don't want to be over-run for the whole game, or for coaxing a defending team out of their own position to come on to you, before you then hit them on the break. Tis strategy keeps the team moderately defensive by dropping the defensive line deeper and narrowing the width of the team to make the team harder to break down. Tis allows the team to stay solid at the back, invite pressure onto the team (without being too susceptible to being exploited) and gives you the ability to wait for an opportunity to get possession of the ball. Once the team has possession, the team immediately switches into a more attacking style by employing direct passing and a quick tempo, as players make runs at the opposition goal. Defensive - Te Defensive strategy does what it says; it's intended to be the best defensive instruction for holding on to a lead or for a more cautious style of play. It's more suited to teams playing away from home (against fairly strong opponents), when playing someone who's much stronger than you or when playing someone whos overly aggressive with you. Tis strategy keeps the team nice and compact by dropping the defensive line closer to the goal and narrowing the width to make the team harder to break down. However, the team will only attack after a long build-up of possession, because they will play with a much lower attacking mentality and a slower tempo. Te main aim is to keep opponents under wraps and away from the goal.

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Overload - Te Overload strategy is the exact opposite of the Contain strategy, as it looks to completely overwhelm the opposition with constant pressure and attack. Tis strategy encourages the team to sit higher up the pitch and disregard any defensive mentality for the sake of attacking the opposition. Its ideal for teams clamouring for a goal or against teams who are constantly defending. It's the epitome of Kevin Keegans Newcastle and their We'll score one more than you mentality which is great when it's going well, but has obvious side-efects when it goes wrong; which is why the Overload strategy is only efective when used sporadically; its very intensive and will have an adverse afect if executed for too long, because you'll be extremely vulnerable to exploitation on the counter-attack or exploitation via quick, direct balls to forwards hanging on the end of your high defensive line. Standard - Te Standard strategy looks for balance in attack and defence; it encourages the team to maintain its shape and demands they pick their attacking moments carefully, rather than go gung-ho. It's best suited to teams who are playing against a similar opponent, or applied when going into a game you're unsure of (by waiting to see how things develop around you before making a decision on how to approach the opponent). Tis strategy aims to provide defensive cover and attacking prowess in equal measure; as a result, all the team settings are all set to the default balanced value.

Playing Style Defning the way your team plays is something you shouldnt overlook. Tese settings are afected by the other tactical options such as duties, roles, team instructions and touchline shouts, but realise that the Playing Style options allow managers to fne-tune their tactical approach and very easily correct any little issues which may be popping up in the match. Passing Style Tis dictates the way the team is instructed to pass the ball. A direct passing style would give the team a more attacking, faster mode of transporting the ball, whilst a shorter pass is more advisable to keep possession. Default will allow you to have a balance between being quick to the goal and retaining control of the possession. Something to note: Passing Style and Tempo are linked together. If you play a short passing game, take your time on the ball. If you want to be direct, then play the game with some speed. Direct passing is intended for swift counter-attacking styles of play and short passing is intended for those who want to maintain possession and control the game.

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Creative Freedom Tis is much like the Philosophy setting it defnes how much you trust your players to use their instincts and creativity with the ball. If you are concerned that they're not capable of being productive without following your instructions to the letter (i.e. they have weak creative attributes), then make them play a more disciplined game. Again, selecting the Default option will allow you to strike a balance. Closing Down Tis allows you to defne the way the team will attempt to reclaim the ball; pressing more would bring your players out of position to go and make a tackle, whilst standing-of more would encourage the players to maintain their shape and wait for the right opportunity to win the ball back. Utilising the Default setting would allow a manager to have a varied style of closing the ball down. Be aware, both of these settings have side-efects. If you close down, you're putting pressure on the opponent, but at the same time you're abandoning your position and creating space for another opponent to exploit. If you stand-of more, you're allowing the opponent to get closer to the goal and you're giving them the time to pick out a pass and retain possession. Tackling Tis allows you to dictate the manner in which the team will attempt to recover possession. Being More Aggressive instructs a player to go for the ball as soon as he has the opportunity - he will rough up the opposition. Being More Cautious will tell the players to hold their positions and not dive into a tackle this makes these players tougher to break down or get past. Tere are side-efect to both settings though. If you're overly aggressive (especially with players who have a high Aggression attribute), you're going to get cards in the match. If you're overly passive, you risk not committing to tackles and not getting the ball. If you go with the Default setting, youll get a balance of being both aggressive and cautious, but you can still get slight side-efects of either option as a result of sitting on the fence. Marking Tis defnes the style in which you're going to keep the opposition under wraps. Man Marking keeps your players tracking their man, whilst Zonal Marking will have your players picking up a player who comes into their zone. Side-efects with this setting would see Zonal markers having to mark more than one opponent obviously, this can result in players being unmarked. Whilst Man markers would get dragged out of position whilst trying to pick up their man. Again, the Default option would allow you to strike a balance between both marking strategies but it will also leave you susceptible to the occasional side-efects of both Man and Zonal marking.

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Crossing Tis specifes how the man playing the ball into the box will attempt to cross the ball. Floated Crosses will be expected to arrive at the back post for a header, whilst Drilled Crosses will look for a man running to the front post. You can also select to play Default crossing, which will attempt to balance between the two options. Roaming Tis gives the manager the ability to tell the players to stick to their exact position or make some movements to fnd space around their zone. More Roaming is best suited to those teams who have good Of the Ball attributes. Stick to Position is advised for managers who want players to keep the shape of the formation. Selecting Default will allow a manager to have players staying mostly in their positions, but sometimes venturing out to fnd more space.

Specifc Instructions Defensive Line Tis gives the manager the ability to dictate how high or deep the defence will sit when the team is in possession of the ball. Te higher up the team plays, the more compacted the team will be in midfeld and the less space for the opposition to operate within. Te deeper the line, the less risk of being caught out with long balls over the top of the defence and thus, less chance of giving players one-on-one situations (whilst at the same time providing better cover for the goalkeeper). Width Tis allows the manager to compact the team or expand the space between players. Te wider formations allow more space for players to operate in, as the full width of the pitch is used and opposition formations become stretched; the more compacted formations make for a tighter defence, as there is less space for players to move into near the centre of the goal. Tempo Tis can raise or lower the speed at which the players pass the ball. A quick tempo can force the opposition to chase the ball harder, thus making them tire quickly. It can also catch the opposition out (with them susceptible to being found out of position). A slower tempo can create better possession, as the team will make less mistakes by rushing and instead controlling their passing game. Time Wasting Tis allows the manager to set the urgency of the team's mentality. Te higher the slider is, the more the team tries to play down the clock and stop the game fowing; the lower the slider is, the more the team will focus on their tactical instructions and try to keep the game fowing. Wasting time is useful in the dying stages of the game, when trying to hold on to a result. Although beware that too much Time Wasting (or triggering the setting too early) can cause your team to be too lax and could result in fatal mistakes being made.

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Focus Passing Tis allows the manager to set the areas in which the ball will be played by the team. If youre particularly strong in one area or the opposition is particularly weak in one area, this setting can be very useful for exploiting their formation. Counter-Attack Tis gives the manager the ability to have the team sit back and soak up pressure before springing a quick attack on the opposition. Te main danger is that youd be allowing your defence to be put under pressure in order to create attacking opportunities, so youd need to be very well drilled at the back to make this an efective match strategy. Play Ofside Trap Tis gives the manager the ability to order the defence into a uniformed line, which will aim to step up and catch the opposition attackers ofside.

Player Roles Goalkeeper Tis role will see the goalkeeper act within parameters that encourage simplicity and low risk distribution of the ball. Te goalkeeper will look to get possession and dispatch it away from goal to an unmarked player. If hes unable to dispatch possession to an unmarked player, he will simply play a long ball away from his goal. Sweeper Keeper Tis role will see the goalkeeper act with a dual mentality; when defending, he will aim to perform both as a Goalkeeper, but also as a Sweeper ofering more security to the defence by sweeping up loose balls around the penalty box; when attacking, he will look to trigger counter-attacking moves with balls directly to players on the break. Sweeper Tis role will see the defender sit behind the defensive line and aim to sweep up loose balls. Tis role will allow more cover at the back as the Sweeper is able to pick up advanced or breaking attackers and has more time to ponder his tackles and interceptions. Libero Tis role is much like that of the Sweeper, but the Libero also ventures forward to support the midfeld, when the team is in possession of the ball. Tis defender has to be exceptional, as hes not only the last line of defence, but hes also an extra attacking-minded midfelder at times. Limited Defender Tis role will see the defender take up a very basic job; he aims to simply win the ball, without committing a foul and then get the ball cleared out of danger. Central Defender Tis role will see the defender get more involved with the ball, as he not only aims to stop attacking players, but he also aims to keep the team in possession. If hes unable to fnd an open team-mate, he will clear the ball up feld.

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Ball-Playing Defender Tis role will see the defender act with a dual mentality; when defending, he will aim to perform all the tasks of the Central Defender, looking to win the ball and keep possession; when attacking, he will attempt to act similarly to a Deep-Lying Playmaker triggering counter-attacking moves from the heart of the defence. Full-back Tis role will see the defender get involved in both defending and also attacking moves. When defending, he will aim to cover the oppositions winger and keep the player out wide. When attacking, he will aim to perform overlapping runs and help the players in front of him overload the oppositions defence. Wing-back Tis role is much like that of the Full-back, but the Wing-back is also expected to play like a Winger. Tis defender usually plays on the fank alone, so he has to be extremely adept at not only performing as a winger, but also a defender. When defending, he will aim to close down his opponents and win back the ball (in both the defence and the midfeld areas). When attacking, he will aim to get into the fnal third and deliver crosses. Defensive Midfelder Tis role will see the midfelder perform much like an advanced Central Defender; he aims to not only protect the defensive line by closing players down quickly, but he also aims to win possession and then hold onto it until the players around him can get into space. Deep-Lying Playmaker Tis role will see the midfelder act with a dual mentality; when defending, he will aim to perform similar duties as the Defensive Midfelder, looking to win the ball and regain possession; when attacking, he will aim to perform similar duties as the Advanced Playmaker, but he will instead initiate attacking moves from deep. Anchor Man Tis role will see the midfelder perform much like an advanced Limited Defender; he aims to sit between the defence and the midfeld, making challenges and halting opposition attacks; he will only play simple passes to the players around him and he will rarely leave his position to either close players down or support the players in attack. Central Midfelder Tis role will see the midfelder in a position where hes able to get involved in attacking, defending and supporting moves though not simultaneously, as he isnt able to perform such an enduring role. Ball-Winning Midfelder Tis role will see the midfelder act with a dual mentality; when defending, he will aim to perform similar duties as the Defensive Midfelder, looking to close down and win the ball; when attacking, he will aim to perform similar duties to the Advanced Playmaker, looking to keep possession and create opportunities for players in advanced roles.

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Box-To-Box Midfelder Tis role will see the midfelder act with a dual mentality; when defending, he will aim to perform similar duties as the Defensive Midfelder, looking to protect the defensive line, close down opponents and win the ball; when attacking, he will aim to perform similar duties to the Attacking Midfelder, looking to get up front to support the forwards with a late run into the box or by hovering deep to make room to receive a pass. Advanced Playmaker Tis role will see the midfelder or wide forward get into spaces between the opposition players and try to, not only create space for his team-mates to pass him the ball (in a bid to keep possession), but he will also fashion chances for his team-mates, as he looks to quickly exploit weaknesses in the opponents formation. Wide Midfelder Tis role will see the midfelder sit on the fank and aim to support everyone around him, as Wide Midfelders are required to perform defensive and attacking duties out-wide. Generally speaking, these players arent your archetypal Wingers, theyre more like Central Midfelders playing on the fank unlikely to be quick and dangerous, often relying on their Mental attributes to make up for a lack of Physical profciency. Winger Tis role will see the midfelder hover out-wide and utilise his Physical abilities to beat his opponent and to get to the by-line (in an attempt to concoct a crossing opportunity). Not to be confused with the Wide Midfelder, the Winger is much more like a wide-playing forward with speed and Technical profciency. Defensive Winger Tis role is much like that of the Winger, but this role will also see the midfelder pressuring the opposition's wide defender and midfelder, with the aim to regain possession in a vital area of the pitch and then hit the opposition on the break. Inside Forward Tis role is much like that of the Winger, but this role sees the Inside Forward, drive into the box instead of to the by-line. Te Inside Forward aims run directly at the centre of the oppositions defence and open up space for overlapping Full-backs who will then have space to cross; this can overload a defence, but beware, it can also end up with a player running into tight situations he cant get out of (and thus end up losing possession). Te Inside Forward is best playing on the opposite fank of his strongest foot, as he will shoot more often than cross the ball. Tat's not to say an Inside Forward won't cross the ball, if they're set to a Support duty they will look to exercise their Crossing attribute more than their Finishing attribute. Attacking Midfelder Tis role will see the midfelder sitting higher up the pitch than an attacking-minded Central Midfelder. As a result, the Attacking Midfelder will not attack from deep and will require exceptional Technical and Mental skills to adapt to the lack of space around him. Tis player's job is to create chances both for himself and his team-mates, before the opposition close him down and remove him as a threat on the ball.

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Trequartista Tis role is much like that of the Advanced Playmaker, but this role will see the midfelder or forward operate with a complete disregard for defending. When attacking, the Trequartista will drop into holes and drift around looking for space. When defending, the rest of the team need to work harder to cover for his lack of defensive responsibility. Poacher Tis role will see the forward sit on the shoulder of the last defender, waiting for the opportunity to break free of the last man and get onto the end of through-balls from the midfeld. Te Poacher generally aims to score as many goals as he can, and as a result, hes rarely helpful when it comes to building attacking team moves (as he's far more focussed on getting into a scoring position or exploiting a gap, rather than the build-up play) . Defensive Forward Tis role will see the forward put pressure on the defensive line and chase down loose balls or defenders in possession of the ball. When defending, his aim is to stop the opposing defence having any time on the ball. When attacking, his goal is to keep things simple and to bring other players into the game (rather than create his own chances, which means that he can be very reliant on his team-mates) . Complete Forward Tis role will see the forward act in three ways: like that of a DeepLying Forward, a Poacher and a Target Man. Te Complete Forward is technically gifted, as well as strong and powerful, which means he will not only score goals, but hes also looking to setup his team-mates and get into the right areas to fnish of team moves. Te Complete Forward should not be tied down to strict instructions and would be most efective when given the Creative Freedom to play the game in his own way, following his own instinct. Deep-Lying Forward Tis role will see the forward link the midfeld with the attackers; he aims to drop back into gaps in the opposition's formation, collect the ball, hold-up play and then supply the ball back into the midfeld or wide to the fanks. Essentially, hes a hold-up player, who will buy time for others to get into positions to support him and keep possession. Advanced Forward Tis role will see the forward as the focal point of the attack; he aims to stay high up the pitch and lead the line. When attacking, he will be required to both score and create goals. When defending, he will aim to chase clearances or loose balls, as well as win possession and keep the ball by passing to a team-mate or by creating a crossing opportunity. Target Man Tis role will see the forward use his Physical attributes to gain an advantage over the opposition defenders. He aims to be a strong presence in the air and also on the ground, as he looks to create space and opportunities for those around him.

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Duties Duties set the mentality of the players and how they will behave within their assigned position and role. Tey come in four diferent settings: Attack, Defend, Support and (in some wider roles) Automatic.
Duty Description and Efect

Attack

Tis will increase the amount of attacking manoeuvres a player will look to make. So expect more runs, more running with the ball and an increase of pressure on the ball from the players position. Tis will minimise the amount of attacking moves a player makes for example: players will not run with the ball and will not make so many forward runs. Tis encourages a player to stay back and keep in formation, making sure that they focus more on defending than anything else. Tis will encourage players to hold their positions behind the more attacking players and ofer them assistance ahead of the defensive players. Tey wont be as attacking as the Attack duty players, instead they will look to be more decisive, trying to break teams down with timed passes and through-balls. Tis will trigger the most appropriate duty depending on the Strategy youve evoked. When the team attacks, the Automatic duty will adopt the Attack duty; when the team defends, the Automatic duty will adopt the Defend duty, et cetera.

Defend

Support

Automatic

Combining Duties and Roles Tis is quite a tricky department because youre mixing more elements into a players instructions, but its vital that you make the right decisions with these assignments, because it allows you to dictate how the players focus on their roles. Most importantly, you need to fnd a balance between the role youve asked the player to undertake and the duties you expect the player to fulfl in that role because the choices you make can have a big diference as to how successful that player is in occupying that role and exacting those duty instructions.

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Goalkeeper When set to a Defend duty and cautious tactical settings, the Goalkeeper will aim to clear the ball high up the pitch and out of danger. With more aggressive tactics, he will play the ball out to his nearest defender, in a bid to keep possession and work the ball forward. Sweeper Keeper When set to a Defend duty, the Sweeper Keeper will be extremely cautious and will only play counter-attacking balls when theyre possible. When set to a Support duty the Sweeper Keeper will venture just outside of his box and look to initiate counter-attacking passes more often. When set to an Attack duty the Sweeper Keeper will travel a considerable distance from his penalty box, dribbling the ball out into the defence, looking to execute that deadly pass. Sweeper When set to a Defend duty, the Sweeper will look to stay back and hold his position, secure possession and remove any danger that comes his way. Libero When set to a Support duty, the Libero will step into midfeld where his team-mates have possession, will look to get the ball and then move it on to attacking team-mates. When set to an Attack duty, the Libero ventures higher up the pitch, aiming to provide a scoring threat from deep, as well as looking to create opportunities for his team-mates. Limited Defender/Central Defender/Ball-Playing Defender When set to a Defend duty, the defender will stay in line which his defensive partner, mark his opponent and simply look to stop the ball getting into the box. When set to a Stopper duty, the defender will break free of the defensive line and will attempt to close down players more often. When set to a Covering duty, the defender will drop a little deeper and act somewhat like a Sweeper. Full-back When set to a Defend duty, the Full-back will stay back with the rest of the defence and will make simple passes into space (rather than move with the ball down the fank). When set to a Support duty, the Full-back will support the midfeld by getting more involved in the play and will look to cross or execute a through-ball. When set to an Attack duty, the Full-back will be overlapping the midfelders and attempting to provide frst time crosses into the box. When set to an Automatic duty, the Full-back will switch between Attack, Support and Defend depending on the strategy employed. Wing-back When set to a Defend duty, the Wing-back will often stay in defence, but will still try to make crossing opportunities when hes not under defensive pressure. When set to a Support duty, the Wing-back aims to provide through-balls from out wide, as well as provide a good crossing service. When set to an Attack duty the Wing-back aims to overlap down the fank, run at opponents and create an opportunity to cross from the by-line. When set to an Automatic duty, the Wing-back will switch between Attack, Support and Defend depending on the strategy employed.

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Defensive Midfelder/Deep-Lying Playmaker When set to a Defend duty, the player will look to hold his position and keep possession, although he wont attempt to get forward. When set to a Support duty, the player will then go forward and support attacking moves; he will look for both long shot and through-ball situations which he can exploit as he moves the ball out of his half. Anchor Man When set to a Defend duty, the Anchor Man will sit in front of the defence and will act like an slightly advanced defender; he will not support attacking moves nor will he join attacks; he will rarely venture from his position, as he completely focusses on guarding the defence. Central Midfelder When set to a Defend duty, the Central Midfelder will sit in front of the defence and simply support his team from that position. When set to a Support duty the midfelder will look to sit in the middle of the pitch and get the ball to players in front of him. When set to an Attack duty, the player will get forward and into the box to support the forwards; he will also drift out wide to support the wingers and will generally look to generate opportunities for players in front of him. Ball-Winning Midfelder When set to a Defend duty, the Ball-Winning Midfelder will simply win the ball and give it to a team-mate. When set to a Support duty, the player will try to win the ball higher up the pitch and will get more involved in counter-attacking situations. Box-To-Box Midfelder When set to a Support duty, the Box-To-Box Midfelder will not only support the forwards, get into the box late (in a bid to ofer assistance and options to players in more advanced positions) but he will also get back to protect the defence. Advanced Playmaker When set to a Support duty, the Advanced Playmaker will look to move into the hole and support the midfelders and forwards. When set to an Attack duty, the Advanced Playmaker will run at the opposition from deeper positions, with the intention of crossing or creating a through-ball situation. Wide Midfelder When set to a Defend duty, the Wide Midfelder will drop deeper and will cross from that position. When set to a Support duty, the Wide Midfelder will stay deeper and attempt to play through-balls or a cross into the box from a wide position. When set to an Attack duty, the Wide Midfelder will look to play quick crosses from higher up the pitch. When set to an Automatic duty, the Wide Midfelder will switch between Attack, Support and Defend depending on the strategy employed. Winger When set to a Support duty, the Winger will attempt to beat the players in front of him and get into a crossing position. When set to an Attack duty, the Winger will look to destabilise the opposition defence by running directly at them, with the objective of executing a cross, a shot or a through-ball.

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Defensive Winger When set to a Support duty, the Defensive Winger will close down the players in front of him and will try to recover possession; once he has possession, he will attempt to get past players and get in an early cross for the forwards. When set to an Attack duty, the Defensive Winger will look to destabilise the opposition defence by running directly at them, with the objective of executing a cross, a shot or a through-ball. Inside Forward When set to a Support duty, the Inside Forward will cut inside, behind the defence and will look to create through-ball opportunities or take a shot from distance. When set to an Attack duty, the Inside Forward will run directly at the defence, looking to either shoot, cross or open up passing options as he moves towards the defence. Attacking Midfelder When set to a Support duty, the Attacking Midfelder will help out with defending by sitting deeper, rather than getting into the box to support the attacking players. When set to an Attack duty, the Attacking Midfelder looks to create opportunities and get in the box to bolster the attacking options. Trequartista When set to an Attack duty, the Trequartista is far less defensive than his team-mates and will be the focus of attacking moves; he will drop into the holes between midfeld and defence, trying to fnd space when hes not in possession. Poacher When set to an Attack duty, the Poacher will sit on the last man, waiting for through-balls to be played to him. He will always look to get into a central position for a goalscoring opportunity, will run at defenders and will sometimes even cross the ball mostly though, he plays little to no part in the creation of attacking moves. Defensive Forward When set to a Support duty, the Defensive Forward will drop a little deeper into the midfeld to put pressure on the oppositions Defensive Midfelder. When set to an Attack duty, he will press the defence instead of the Defensive Midfelder and will try to pressure the defenders into making mistakes. Complete Forward When set to a Support duty, the Complete Forward will look for space, run at the defenders, take shots from distance, drive out wide into the Wingers position and play passes through the defensive line. When set to an Attack duty, the Complete Forward will lead the line, looking to initiate attacking moves and create chances for both himself and his team-mates. Deep-Lying Forward When set to a Support duty, the Deep-Lying Forward will aim to bring team-mates into play before attacking the box from deep. When set to an Attack duty, the player will look to create chances for himself and the others around him.

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Advanced Forward When set to an Attack duty, the Advanced Forward will look to score and create goals, as well as chase down misplaced passes, win possession and pass or cross the ball for his team-mates. Target Man When set to a Support duty, the Target Man will look to win any fick-ons and will play basic passes to his team-mates to bring them into play. When set to an Attack duty, the Target Man will lead the line, draw the defenders to him and thus create space for his team-mates to exploit.

Positioning Positioning is a very straight-forward area of tactics, but sometimes you need to put a player in a position that he is uncomfortable playing in. So, here are a few quick indications as to what the positioning indicators mean and how they will afect the player in each role
Comfort Description and Efect

Natural

Tis indicator represents the players best position on the feld. Any player occupying his natural role will be able to perform at his very best each time he plays in this role.

Accomplished Tis tag represents the players second best position on the feld. Any player occupying this role will be able to perform in a strong manner and

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will generally put in very good performances. Competent Tis indicator represents the players most average position on the feld. Any player occupying this role will be able to perform moderately well in this area, but its not suited to any player whod need to occupy this role long-term.

Unconvincing Tis indicator represents a player out of his position. Any player occupying this role will be able to perform at a decent level, but only for a very short period of time. Awkward Tis indicator represents a player out of his comfort zone. Any player occupying this role will be able to cover in desperate circumstances, but he will be struggling to perform anywhere near his abilities. Tis indicator represents a player completely out of his depth. Any player occupying this role will be unable to perform and wont have anything but a negative efect on the team whilst operating under these conditions.

Inefectual

Set-Pieces When you fnd that youre struggling to be clinical in front of goal, the importance of setpieces becomes blindingly apparent. Dont waste opportunities by ignoring the setup of what could be a breakthrough moment in a match. Te frst objective is to identify the best players at taking each set-piece: corners, throw-ins, penalties and free-kicks A good corner taker will obviously require good Crossing ability, as would a good freekick taker (indirect free-kicks). You need to consider which foot a player would be using when taking the corner or free-kick, as it would impact on the trajectory of the cross depending on which area of the pitch the set-piece was.

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If you are looking for a free-kick taker who would be taking direct free-kicks, hed require good Long Shots, Finishing and Technique, as well as Composure, Decisions and Concentration. Trow-in takers should have a good Long Trows attribute, as well as Strength and Decisions to execute with precision. Long Trows are most efective in and around the penalty area. Penalty takers should have a high Penalty Taking attribute, good Finishing, and most importantly: Composure and Concentration. Te latter attributes are important to consider in situations where you dont appear to have a technically gifted penalty taker. Something to note with regards to set-pieces: good execution is not only reliant on the Technical attributes of players; Mental attributes such as Decisions, Concentration and Composure will play a part in all set-pieces to some degree. After all, its useless a player being able to hit the ball well, if he opts to hit it in the wrong direction, is unable to focus or cannot adequately control his nerves.

Captaincy Selecting the right captain for your team can be the diference between having a strong team unit or not. Whilst youre the leader of the pitch, the captain is the leader on the pitch. As such, youre going to need the right representative to delegate instruction and responsibility to when youre not in full control of whats happening out on the feld. When considering your captain, the main thing to look for is a high Infuence attribute. Anyone with a 17 or above here should be short-listed as a candidate (as your captain should be mentally strong enough to infuence his team-mates) . You can narrow down your candidates by viewing a players personality a Born Leader is obviously the kind of man youre looking for, whilst Determined and Model Professional personalities are also solid choices (personalities should coincide with their Infuence attributes). If you refer to the Player Personalities section of this guide, you will be able to see how each personality would afect captaincy and which attributes would be best avoided when selecting a captain.

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Your choice of captain will not just afect the team in terms of them having a leader on the pitch, but it can also afect their morale, their motivation and can trigger psychological efects in players. Some players will not enjoy playing for a particular player, so its important that you ascertain which personalities you have in you team and how the captain will function alongside those personalities. Te best idea would be to workout which is the most frequent personality type in the squad and try to fnd a captain to match this way youve got a better chance of creating a team unit, rather than a team of individuals. Other important considerations could be how the players at the club view the captain; is your choice of captain popular amongst his team-mates, does he have enemies within the squad? Would you be upsetting the team by removing the current captain or vice-captain? How long has the potential captain been at the club? Will your captain have a long future in the team or is he close to hanging up his boots? Dont forget to consider the players age and experience, it can make all the diference to install a seasoned captain rather than a rookie captain. However, it's important to consider how long this player will be captain for; you do not want to upset the balance and harmony of the team by repeatedly appointing new leadership.

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- Chapter Six -

Understanding the Fundamental Elements of Scouting

Scouting is a relatively simple process, but it's also very important. From day dot, your team is on a ticking clock which will eventually render your players useless, so you have to make sure you're one step ahead when it comes to replacing your players. You have a number of avenues to explore, so take time to make use of the options at hand for example: its imperative that you assign your scouts to search other regions, as this will boost your Scouting Knowledge and will give you a far bigger pool of players to review in the transfer market or player search areas.

Scouting Tips Firstly, you have a scouting section which allows you to assign your scouts to do some research in diferent areas of the world. Tis gives you a fantastically easy way to gather information on players and to possibly stumble upon a star, without having to do anything but set the area in which you want the scout to search. Tis is something you have got to do in order to boost your global scouting knowledge which is vital to the amount of player data you will be given in areas such as the transfer market; with this you could scout your entire home nation by assigning multiple scouts to look for players in specifc age groups and competitions, or you could look for global stars by searching for age groups on diferent continents. Its always advisable to have as many scouts as youre allowed to employ and then have all but one of them working on scouting (with the spare scout checking out your next opponent). Secondly, you have the ability to look at any club and assign one of your scouts to review the player. Tis is a less efective way of fnding talent initially, because it takes time to go through the whole process (and of course, youre fnding the talent yourself, the scout is just assessing the level of the player), but it allows you to determine more about a player before you make an approach which is something you should absolutely do; there is nothing worse than buying a player who is going to let you down. Tirdly, you have a player comparison feature which allows you to view the attributes of two players and see the contrast between them. Tis is something you should look to utilise frequently, as it gives you a better idea of which player will make the bigger impact on your team and it will also take emphasis of the attribute digits which can deceive anyone into thinking that a player is better than he actually is.

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Fourthly, you have the transfer market. Tis is probably the easiest way to fnd players who are available for your team to purchase. Not only can you flter the players, but theyre listed in a way which makes it very easy for a manager to compare the players general details. Lastly, you have the ability to flter the transfer market via positional attributes and roles (like the option immediately above, although slightly diferent). Tis is the best way to detect the talent that any club have and to fnd a player to fll any positions that you're looking for. If you combine the attribute data for the role or duty you want to occupy and flter it via the transfer market, you have a very easy way to discover the best players in each role (obviously, as said previously, you'd need good scouting knowledge to best make use of this feature) . If you couple the player search flters with the tick-box showing your own players in the search results, youll get a good idea of how potential acquisitions compare to those at your club, which is very helpful.

Building a Squad People often struggle to know who to buy and what positions to cater for; now its even more confusing for people since the introduction of the new tactics creator and the more detailed positions and roles. What you need to do is give it some thought think about who your strongest players are and how much time they will be spending on the pitch; think about which positions will need to be substituted more often during the game; think about the Natural Fitness attributes of your players and how likely they are to tire over the season (and with training) what you'll see is that you're looking to buy variety and versatility; you're looking to have a strong frst-team and a strong bench, so you can make adjustments to the team or the structure of your tactic and still be as strong as you were under the tactic which you built your team around. You want to buy a mixture of players who can ofer you something diferent in each position this gives you versatility theres nothing worse than the transfer window closing and you suddenly fnd that your formation isnt working very well and you dont have the right players for the new roles you want to employ. So, give it some serious thought as to what kind of roles youre looking for in each position and try to create a diverse team, with players who ofer you diferent options. If you need to, train a player in a new position this can also add versatility to the ranks. Also, dont forget to consider the three attribute categories for each position: Mental, Technical and Physical. Players who look weak in one of those departments could be strong in another this often gives that player something totally diferent to ofer you. Tis also extends to Preferred Player Moves, which can be learned or forgotten (if you wish) with Tutoring.

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Below is a brief outline of what you should be looking for in your team Goalkeeper you're going to want at least three Goalkeepers in your team. You should look to have players who are capable of ofering you versatility in their positions and this position is no diferent; so try to look for a general Goalkeeper or two, and someone who can play as a Sweeper Keeper (or vice-versa, whatever you prefer to do). Defenders (centre) you're going to need at least fve Central Defenders. Obviously there are diferent kinds of centrally placed defenders available: Sweepers, Ball-Playing Defenders, Central Defenders, Limited Defenders and the Libero. So remember to mix things up and buy players who will give you options at the back. You dont need to radically change your shape to alter the efectiveness of a specifc position; just ponder what kind of versatility youre looking for. Defenders (wide) you're going to want to pick up four players who can play in these areas. Ideally, you will want two Wing-backs for each fank and two Full-backs for each side as well. If you opt for backup wide defenders you should try and get a versatile player for each fank (i.e. a player who can play both as a Wing-back and as a Full-back). Defensive Midfelders you're going to need at least two Defensive Midfelders (three, if you're planning on playing more than one Defensive Midfelder in your tactic) . Defensive Midfelders, Deep-Lying Playmakers and Anchor Men are the kind of players you might want to vary between. You may feel youd rather have an extra back-up Deep-Lying Playmaker, rather than an Anchor Man that's perfectly fne, if thats what works best for your team; just consider the importance of variety in this pivotal position. Midfelders (centre) youre going to need four Central Midfeld players (if you play with two in the middle) or three (if you play with one in the middle). If youre playing with more than two, obviously youll need more cover so look for around fve or six players. Te roles you will want to consider are the Central Midfelder, the Ball-Winning Midfelder, the BoxTo-Box Midfelder and the Advanced Playmaker. Most people look for Technical attributes in this area of the feld, but remember that Mental attributes are vital as well. Depending on your tactical shape, give some thought as to how you want these players to move around the park and the impact you want from them then factor that into the type of midfelder youre looking for. Midfelders (wide) youre probably going to need around four Wide Midfelders (if you use them in your formation). Make note of the diference in playing Wingers, Defensive Wingers and Inside Forwards, in comparison to the Wide Midfelder; each role ofers something diferent in wide players, so keep an eye on which role and duty would be most efective in your team and try to add variety, as well as balance to your wing-play.

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Attacking Midfelders again, the required number depends on how many youre playing in your tactic. You have two options in this position: the Attacking Midfelder or the Trequartista. Te benefts of the latter is that a Trequartista can play up front too, so you have some extra cover for that position; but remember that these roles ofer diferent things, so check the positional descriptions to see what each role would ofer to your tactic. Wingers just as stated with the Wide Midfelders, you'll want four wide men in total; either two Wingers, Defensive Wingers, Inside Forwards or two Wide Midfelders, for each fank (depending on your tactics). As with the other wide positions, try and fnd versatility where you can (i.e. a player who can play in both wide positions and players who are comfortable on either fank). Forwards again, its a fexible position, so youll want to consider which variation of forward you need. You have several options: Target Man, Trequartista, Poacher, Defensive Forward, Complete Forward, Deep-Lying Forward and Advanced Forward. Youre only going to need around four forwards (depending on your tactical shape); three up front would require around fve forwards, whilst one up front would require three forwards. Before settling on a player, consider their diferent roles and how that kind of forward would work alongside another forward (as well as what each forward role will ofer you in your tactic.) If you follow those numbers, youll end up with a complete squad. Obviously, any extra players should be relegated to the reserve team or loaned out to get some frst-team action.

Something very important to consider is the art of developing players; this is described in detail in the Understanding the Fundamental Elements of Training section below, but to basically surmise the point you dont need to buy players for each position. You have the ability to train your players and make them learn new positions, new Preferred Player Moves and you can develop their attributes; so, consider that when youre looking at buying variety for your team; you may not have to buy players, if you have potential in your side which you can cultivate yourself.

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- Chapter Eight -

Understanding the Fundamental Elements of Training

Training is one of those things that most people dismiss as unimportant, after all you can just download a training schedule, right? Well to be frank, downloading a training schedule is like downloading a tactic it might promise the world, it might even have been superb for its creator, but its not tailor-made to your team and thats why its always best to spend a few moments working on your own thing. Training is not simply assigning players to training schedules and then going to play a match. It comes down to a number of elements which tie player development together:
Current Ability & Potential Ability

Te Backroom Staf Training Schedules Tutoring Preferred Player Moves Individual Training Focus Positional Training Match Preparation

As you can see, it's important to spend some time assessing your team, seeing who needs to improve in each area and then focussing on improving players as individuals rather than as a group. So, let's look at the variables involved and how to understand player development, then we'll put the diferent training aspects under inspection and see how it all ties together.

Understanding Player Development As we now know, training is divided into several sectors, all of which combine to make the training module. Tese sectors allow you to develop players in specifc areas and give you the ability to mould a player into the type of player you want. Tere are a number of things which afect training though, things such as age limitaions, Current and Potential Ability and more importantly the way you opt to sculpt your players. Firstly, we'll take a look at the impacting factors related to player development and we'll breakdown the training module so that it's easy to understand how players are developing under your guidance then we'll go into the ways in which you can develop the talent you have.

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Te Dynamics and Functionality of Training Tis is probably one of the most confusing elements of the whole training module, because whilst you can setup training schedules and see progress when training individual attributes, a lot of people struggle to understand how training actually works or how a schedule actually works. It's important to know that training is basically a way to focus your players on improving in specifc areas. Players will always improve to some degree (unless you rest them from training and don't play them), so ignoring training completely and leaving the default schedules in place will always give you some results. However, the problem with leaving the players on default schedules and ignoring their needs as individuals is that the results would not beneft your players they'd be lacking focus in the areas you'd want them to be improving in, with the player instead improving in all areas. Now, whilst that sounds good, what it means is a player is diluting his training to improve in an all-around fashion rather than solely focussing on the attributes he needs for his position (think of a Poacher training his Defending attributes as much as he's training his Attacking attributes) this is something which is a big setback when you consider that Current and Potential Ability afect the amount of training a player can beneft from. Te best way to describe the efects of Current and Potential Ability on training would be to think of a glass half flled with water. Now, think of the water as Current Ability and the glass as Potential Ability, with the distance between the top of the water and the top of the glass as the maximum amount of room for expansion that the water could reach before the glass is flled. What this should make you realise is that there is a limit to how much improvement a player can make. Now, if you couple that piece of information with the fact that a player is always improving, then you should suddenly see how important it is to have your players training in the areas which are most important for their positions; because if you fail to do that, you're wasting the room for growth that the player has because as time goes on and they're improving in the wrong areas, you're left with much less room to improve that player in the areas you need him to be improving in. Once you understand those dynamics, it shows how vital it is for you to focus on improving players as individuals and not training players in groups based on their positions. Te most ideal method of training is to train players based on their roles and duties, complementing custom-created training schedules (tailored to improve as many of attributes required for the player's role/duty as possible) with Individual Training Focus (to improve any attributes required for a player's role/duty which the training schedule is neglecting). Tis does of course mean that you'd have to set up a lot of training schedules, but it's the only way to maximise results. You can alternatively create more generalised training schedules (for multiple players to operate under one schedule), but try to make sure you're beneftting your players more than being lazy.

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Monitoring and Assessing Player Development You can see how players are improving via the training tab in their profle. Inside this section you can see how the player is responding to training, how happy a player is with his training workload, how suited to the training schedule a player is and you also get an overview of the areas the player is training in. It's important to not only monitor this every 2-3 months, but it's important to understand what you're actually looking at, because this is key to maximising the results you'll get from your training methods. Firstly, you want to focus on the player's training graph. Tis is a representation of how well a player is developing under his current training schedule, with each bar on the graph representing the aspect of training a player will be able to work on (Defending, Attacking, et cetera). You should be using this as a guideline to, not only show you how well a player is training under his schedule, but also as a way to improve a player's training schedule until it's perfect for that player (by adjusting the a player's training schedule focus, you will be able to lower the less relevant bars in order to raise the more relevant bars). Tis is why it's best to have individual training schedules for each player, because you're going to get better results by adjusting one schedule for each player, knowing it won't afect another player's routine or his training results. Secondly, you will want to focus on the individual attributes, which you can monitor by using the tick-box in the top right-hand corner. Tis allows you to see results of how a player's attributes have been afected by his training schedule and Individual Training Focus. Using this alongside the training graph can give you an excellent insight as to how a player is developing and can give you an indication as to what you need to focus on to improve both his suitability to a role or duty, or what you need to adjust in his training schedule to make it more efcient for him. Age Limitations Age can have a big impact on a players growth, with players hitting their peaks at specifc points in time. Typically, once a player has hit the age of 26 years old, youre not likely to see a big increase in his abilities. Training schedules, Positional Training, Individual Training Focus and Preferred Player Moves will all help maintain and slightly improve whats already there, but youre never going to see a decent 26 year-old turn into a world-class player. Also, worth noting are the age ranges when a player will hit his peak. Goalkeepers hit their peaks between 31 and 34 years old; Defenders and Midfelders both hit their peaks between

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27 and 32 years old; whilst Forwards hit their peaks between 26 and 31 years old. Tis is a great bit of information for consideration when scouting or pondering who to play; after all, if your star goalkeeper is about to fnish his career, it might be worth trying to get your future 'number one' between the sticks for some essential experience. Generally speaking, when a player has past their peak youll start to notice a decline in their Physical attributes, but with age comes experience, so their Mental attributes should rise to balance the loss of movement. Tis is what can give a player longevity and it's something that a quality manager will take advantage of, because if you can see that an ageing winger (for example) is losing his pace, but he's improving his Mental attributes, you could change his training to make him focus less on the Physical side of the game (taking care not to neglect it, but instead trying to maintain his attributes rather than improve them) and then have him train in a more central position where his lack of movement won't be a hinderance. Club Limitations Something to consider would be the quality of your coaching staf and the standard of your facilities. Its vitally important that you provide the best resources to your players, as without them you wouldnt get the level of training that you could get via a strong facility and a superb coaching team. Now it's not always possible to build such facilities at your club, nor is it always possible to bring in the best staf, but you should still try to get the best people available to you and also look to encourage the board to allow you more staf or improve your current facilities. Try and work on these areas rather than repeatedly bringing new players into your club; try and save transfer money for investment into these areas of development and youll soon be producing talent instead of buying it. It can be a risk at times, but if you're confdent in a player's potential, you can really beneft from nurturing talent and creating strong facilities.

Te Backroom Staf Once you understand player development, it's important to understand the dynamics of your backroom setup. Every manager is surrounded by a team of staf who should compensate for what he cannot do ideally, with the same ability the manager possesses in his areas of expertise. Tere will come a point when you must delegate responsibilities and you will want to trust that your staf will do a good job with something you cannot do yourself; this is why your staf team is so vital to your success and this is why you must take care when you're

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recruiting and pruning your assistants. Right now we'll take a look at the backroom staf, their attributes and their impact on the team. Once we've broken those areas down, we'll cover some quick tips and pointers, before we look at how staf roles function within the training module and the training module itself.

Staf Attributes
Attribute Description and Efect

Attacking

Tis indicates how skilled a staf member is at coaching attacking attributes. Tis is not an indication as to how attacking their training methods or style of play may be.

Coaching Goalkeepers Tis indicates how skilled a staf member is at coaching goalkeeping attributes. Defending Tis indicates how skilled a staf member is at coaching defensive attributes. Tis is not an indication as to how defensive their training methods or style of play may be. Tis indicates how skilled a staf member is at coaching physical attributes and maintaining a players ftness level. Tis indicates how skilled a staf member is at co-ordinating the team around him and keeping players, not only on their best behaviour, but also keeping player's happy with their training. Tis indicates how skilled a staf member is at understanding a players mental state of mind. Tis indicates how skilled a staf member is at understanding the

Fitness

Man Management

Mental

Tactical

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dynamics of tactics (useful for feedback) and how well they can coach the tactical aspects of training. Technical Tis indicates how skilled a staf member is at coaching technical attributes and the technical aspects of training, such as set-pieces and shooting. Tis indicates how skilled a staf member is at coaching and developing young players. Tis indicates how skilled a staf member is at settling into a new role or a diferent country. Its an indication to how fast they will pick up their new job and perform it at the standard you expect. Tis indicates how driven a staf member is to succeed in his role. Tis is an indication of how well the staf member will perform his duties and how focussed he is to do a good job. Tis indicates how skilled a staf member is at scouting a player and then drawing a conclusion on his overall abilities as a player. Tis indicates how skilled a staf member is at scouting a player and then drawing a conclusion on their future abilities as a player. Tis indicates how strict a staf member will be when coaching the team and the level of focus he will expect from players when training them. Tis indicates how skilled a staf member is at encouraging the players to perform and train well, and how infuential he is at keeping players focussed on their goals.

Working with Youngsters Adaptability

Determination

Judging Player Ability

Judging Player Potential Level of Discipline

Motivating

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Physiotherapy

Tis indicates how skilled a staf member is at rehabilitating injuries and also keeping squad injuries at a low rate. Tis indicates how skilled a staf member is at grasping and employing tactical concepts. It indicates an ability to concoct diferent tactical ideas which other staf members may not be able to think of.

Tactical Knowledge

Just as the importance of scouting was highlighted earlier, the compiling of the backroom staf team is something which will require you taking some time to setup, but its absolutely worth the efort in the long term. After all, why spend hours examining where everything is going wrong, when you can spend ten minutes recruiting a staf team whod tell you in an instant?

Coaching Assignments Below you can see an outline of the diferent staf positions at your club and where these stafers can be assigned in scheduled training. Tis should give you some idea of who you'd be better of recruiting for your staf team.
Position Training Category Assigment

Coach

You can assign Coaches to both the First-Team and Youth team. Coaches can also be assigned to work on all the other areas of training: Strength, Aerobic, Goalkeeper Shot-Stopping, Goalkeeper Handling, Tactics, Ball Control, Defending, Attacking and Shooting.

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First-Team Coach

You can assign First-Team coaches to only the First-Team; these coaches cannot train the Youth team. First-Team coaches can also be assigned to work on all the other areas of training: Strength, Aerobic, Goalkeeper Shot-Stopping, Goalkeeper Handling, Tactics, Ball Control, Defending, Attacking and Shooting. You can assign Youth coaches to only the Youth team; these coaches cannot train the First-Team. Youth coaches can also be assigned to work on all the other areas of training: Strength, Aerobic, Goalkeeper Shot-Stopping, Goalkeeper Handling, Tactics, Ball Control, Defending, Attacking and Shooting. Goalkeeping Coaches can be assigned to work on both Goalkeeper Shot-Stopping and Goalkeeper Handling training. Fitness Coaches can be assigned to work on both Strength and Aerobic training.

Youth Coach

Goalkeeping Coach Fitness Coach

Assistant Manager Assistant Managers can be assigned to work on all areas of training: Strength, Aerobic, Goalkeeper Shot-Stopping, Goalkeeper Handling, Tactics, Ball Control, Defending, Attacking and Shooting. Something worth noting is that coaches with good Determination, Level of Discipline and Motivating attributes will help improve a coachs star rating in all training categories.

Training Schedules A lot of people get confused when discussing training because it's not something that's ever needed much attention. It still doesn't really require a lot of efort, but let me explain why you should work on your schedules and what happens if you don't. Training schedules are very simple; they're a direction for how you want your players to

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improve and how hard you expect them to work on those designated areas. Players will improve with or without a training schedule that's why ignoring the setup doesn't result in players losing their attributes player improvement comes from match experience and training workload; training schedules are only there to direct the players in which areas you want the player to be improving on as they're fulflling their Potential Ability. Note: the only way to stop a player's growth would be to stop them from playing and keep them resting instead of training. Tat's why player attributes decline when they're injured or not playing. At the start of your tenure at the club your players will be assigned to the default training schedule. Many managers leave scheduled training as it is or they'll make small adjustments to the sliders and never touch them again. Its important that you spend some time working on the training setup so that you can, not only improve your players, but so you can also easily understand the mechanics of your own system and how your players are being trained. What's usually best is to get to know your players, decide on which role/duty you will be assigning your players to and then making a schedule for each player (making the settings relative to the attributes the player will need most for their role/duty). I know this seems extreme, but this allows you to tailor schedules to every player and it gives you a massive advantage in terms of development because you'll be able to tweak a player's schedule to suit that player perfectly, avoiding the issue of having to worry about the changes afecting other players. It doesn't take long to get things setup this way and it's much, much easier to manage a player's training because you're able to see exactly how well the player is learning from his schedule (by using the training graph) and then tweak his training schedule, knowing that it won't afect any other player.

Schedule Dynamics With each schedule you have a variation of workload settings which range from Light Training to Intensive. Tese workloads are adjusted by sliders, which span from 1 to 26 notches. Its recommended that you look to fnd balance in the training schedules, as you can have a negative efect on your players if youre too gung-ho with the overall training intensity. Te point about balance is the most vital. You should lower anything which is unimportant to a player's role/duty and look to maximise the areas which are most important (covering any attributes vital to a role/duty which schedules aren't covering by using Individual Training Focus). Do not go overboard with the intensity though, as workloads which are too high can result in injuries, which will force the player to stop training. Something very important to note is that it can take a couple of months before a training

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schedule can become efective, so set your schedules up with caution in mind, then every couple of months, make adjustments checking the training graph in a player's profle to see how the player's schedule is working on him and if he's happy with it .

Assigning Coaches To Schedules Dont spread the coaching staf thin; you want to keep the training ratings as high as possible and having coaches occupy too many roles or take on too many responsibilities can make their input on training inefective this will make their star rating fall. Te aim is to keep the star rating as high as possible, yet at the same time make sure youre not putting all the workload on one coach. Te ideal setup would be to have a minimum of two coaches per training category, using coaches who are not exceptional at anything as 'foaters' by placing them in several categories and using them to lighten the workload on the skilled coaches (who'd only be assigned to one category). I often use the Assistant Manager as the 'foater', but in some cases the Assistant Manager is exceptional in one area of training, so make sure you experiment with coaching assignments and try moving coaches around until you have your optimal ratings on each training area. Now, its not always possible to have so many coaches at your club you may not have the wages or the board may not allow it so its important to fnd a balance between a star rating and a coachs workload. Its better for small clubs to only recruit staf theyd desperately need for example: dont hire coaches who are only able to work with the frst-team or youth team; get coaches who can cover the entire span of the training groups. Youre not going to get close to having maximum star ratings at most clubs, so its best to try and work with what you have; try to get their coaching to a decent standard and then speak to the board on a semiregular basis, to see if you can get more staf into the club or to try and improve your facilities. Attributes Improved via Scheduled Training
Area Description and Efect

Strength

Tis area of training will focus on coaching players to improve their Natural Fitness, Stamina, Strength and Work Rate attributes. For the best impact on these attributes you will want coaches with a high Fitness attribute to handle the training.

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Aerobic

Tis area of training will focus on coaching players to improve their Acceleration, Agility, Balance, Jumping and Pace attributes. For the best impact on these attributes you will want coaches with a high Fitness attribute to handle the training. Tis area of training will focus on coaching players to improve their Goalkeeping attributes. For the best impact on these attributes you will want coaches with a high Coaching Goalkeepers attribute to handle the training. Tis area of training will focus on coaching players to improve their Anticipation, Decisions, Of Te Ball, Positioning and Team Work attributes. For the best impact on these attributes you will want coaches with a high Tactical attribute to handle the training. Tis area of training will focus on coaching players to improve their Dribbling, First Touch, Flair, Heading and Technique attributes. For the best impact on these attributes you will want coaches with high Defending and Tactical attributes to handle the training. Tis area of training will focus on coaching players to improve their Concentration, Marking and Tackling attributes. For the best impact on these attributes you will want coaches with high Mental and Technical attributes to handle the training. Tis area of training will focus on coaching players to improve their Passing and Creativity attributes. For the best impact on these attributes, you will want coaches with high Attacking and Tactical attributes to handle the training. Tis area of training will focus on coaching players to improve their Composure, Finishing and Long Shots attributes. For the best impact on these attributes, you will want coaches with high Attacking and

Goalkeeping

Tactics

Defending

Ball Control

Attacking

Shooting

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Technical attributes to handle the training.

Scheduled Training Tips On occasion you will have players who aren't happy with their training schedule. In order to change their happiness level you will want to frstly ask the player to try harder in training (you can do this via the interaction feature). Secondly, you might want to consider lowering their workload if you can see (via their training tab) that they're over-worked. You should be aware that players will react from interaction situations based on their personality type, so beware that you can upset some players when speaking to them; but it's certainly worth speaking to players about this because when they accept what you say they will improve their training as a result. Youngsters are very delicate and will require much more sensitivity when training. It's very easy to tire and injure young players, so be very aware of this when giving them training schedules. You will want to keep things much lighter with young players than the more experienced players in your team because if you're overworking your youngsters, you'll stunt their development and progress by injuring them and keeping them out of training. In pre-season you won't be playing a lot of fxtures, so it's the perfect time to give players more intensive physical training schedules and get them prepped for the season ahead. During the season however, you're not only training, but you're also playing a lot of matches too both of which will tire the players so keep that in mind when setting the physicality of the schedules. When players are not training, their attributes will naturally decline. A good way to get the attributes to raise would be to give the players more intensive training and keep them out of the team for a few fxtures. Once the attributes are back up, lower the intensity and get them playing some games.

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Individual Training Focus

Individual Training Focus allows you to work with a player and focus directly on certain attributes. Tis is a fantastic way to encourage growth in specifc areas especially if the player is held back because of a lacking in an attribute. When youre looking to improve players in particular areas, you should note the attributes required for their role or duty and assess which attributes youll need to improve the most to improve the player's profciency in his role or duty. If you combine Individual Training Focus with scheduled training and positional training, you have a very good way to help players improve in their roles or duties (or even reposition them into a more suited role). Tere are some important things to consider with Individual Training Focus. Firstly, make sure this part of the training module is used only when necessary. If you're using Individual Training Focus, you're going to be using a percentage of the player's workload a percentage which detracts from their scheduled training, so be sure that the single attribute you're trying to raise is worth the distraction from other areas. Secondly, you should make sure that any attributes required for a player's role or duty (which is not being covered in their scheduled training) is not neglected by using Individual Training Focus to boost those attributes.

Positional Training Positional Training is a brilliant way to re-train a player to play in another position. Tis part of the training module gives you the ability to add versatility to your team and it can give you additional cover and depth without having to spend money on bringing in a new signing. You can use Positional Training when looking to redeploy an ageing player who has become inefective in his position (but you feel he still has the attributes to perform in another position) or when looking to reposition a player to better use the attributes he has. When developing players via Positional Training, their Versatility attribute will be the basis for the training being either a success or a failure. Now, Versatility is a hidden attribute, so youll never know (without cheating) whether a player will respond well to the training or not. Tats not to say you shouldnt attempt to do this, its just an explanation as to why this type of training wont always work on players. More often that not though, players will learn their new position (theyll vary in speed depending on their Versatility attribute), but successful learning comes down to how often youre going to keep players in their new position because players with low Versatility will lose their new position if theyre not playing in it regularly.

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Here are a few little tips to make the transition of Positional Training a little bit easier: Firstly, only have one player learning a new position at any one time. Youll need to play a player out of his natural position whilst he learns the new position, which means he could have a negative impact on the team whilst taking the time to learn his role. Obviously, you dont want that to be happening with more than one player at one time. Secondly, its a far better idea to train someone who at least has some experience in the role you want them to adopt. Its going to be a very arduous task trying to convert someone to a new position that is radically diferent to their natural position.
Lastly, try to make sure the new position and role you want the player to adopt is best

suited to his attributes and Preferred Player Moves. You may have to train or re-train Preferred Player Moves on some players after theyve been re-positioned, but its completely impossible to re-train attributes to a competent degree in a player who is not at all suited to his new role (i.e. a goalkeeper into a striker).

Player Tutoring Player Tutoring is a fantastic way to fast-track a players training and abilities. With this feature, youre able to introduce two players and get the more experienced player to teach his young protg what he knows. Te youngster not only increases his numerical attributes, but hes often able to pick up Preferred Player Moves and also adopt new personality attributes as a result of the interaction. Tutoring lasts around 180 days to complete, but the great thing about it is that you can have your players tutored and get them learning without afecting their training regimen. Normally when you want to teach a player a specifc Preferred Player Move, youd have to add it to his training schedule, but this way you do not afect his normal routine. Tere is also another beneft of learning Preferred Player Moves via tutoring, because with tutoring you can get access to Preferred Player Moves which aren't available via conventional training. Assigning Tutors When assigning youngsters to their tutors, its not always clear on who you should pair together. Often people assign a youngster to a player they want them to emulate, but there are personality clashes and the tutoring breaks down.

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You will need to consider a number of things when looking to pair players together:
Firstly, youre going to need to fnd players who have similar personalities (you can fnd

information pertaining to this in the Understanding the Genetics of a Footballer section).

Secondly, youre going to need to consider that the tutor has to be better than the tutee otherwise, its an exercise in futility. Te tutor must hold an attribute advantage over his protg, must be older than the tutee and must hold a higher ranking within the club (Captain, Key Player, First-Team player, et cetera). Tirdly, youre going to want to have players paired by their positions (i.e. both players at least being competent Attacking Midfelders). If you fail to follow these guidelines, youre likely to cause the tutoring to fail or possibly upset one of the players when trying to pair them with the other player. Te Dynamics of Tutoring You have four options when setting up a tutoring relationship between two players: i. "As a senior member of the squad, I'd like you to tutor <player> as I feel he can beneft from your experience." ii. "I'd like you to start turoting <player> as I think he can learn a lot from you." iii. "<player> needs a bit of help in his development and I'd like you to tutor him as he looks up to you as a player and as a person." iv. "Can you help tutor <player> as his development has stalled a little and I feel you could really help kick-start his career." When picking one of these options, you just need to think about what you'd say to the player in reality; basically, don't pick an option which isn't accurate to the situation.

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Te Additional Variables & Elements of Tutoring Something very important to highlight is that players can also decrease their abilities when undergoing tutoring. Tat comes down to the ability of the tutor and what kind of efect hell have on his protg. If the tutor is a bad infuence or has attributes which are lower than the tutee, then hell lower the same attributes in his tutee and he will also negatively afect the tutees personality as the youngster copies the tutors approach to the game. Also, be wary of Preferred Player Moves in tutors which you dont want the tutee to pick up. If your tutor has traits you dont want the protg to have, youll have to un-teach them via training later on. Sometimes you will fnd that even following the guidelines aforementioned yield negative results, its impossible to accurately predict how players will interact because their hidden personality attribtues can be vastly diferent (even in cases where a player shares the same Personality Tag as another). Whilst its not always an option, you may fnd a way around this with other infuences such tutoring players who are friends or suggesting tutoring to players who have you listed as their favourite staf. Tis can have enough infuence over that player to pursuade him that the tutoring is the right thing for him, regardless of his personality tags. Also, consider a players Current and Potential Ability levels. Now, you cannot see these attributes in-game (although speaking to a scout or coach to give a vague idea of the players level of ability), but bare in mind that tutoring does not raise a players Potential Ability value, so you cannot tutor a player beyond a certain point. You may be able to add Preferred Player Moves to a players repetoire but youll not be able to incur attribute increases. Remember, tutoring begins afecting the players immediately; therefore, if the tutoring stops, the players will keep the gains that they made in that period. You also have to realise that selling or loaning a tutee will terminate their bond with their tutor and the tutoring will cease. After the 180 days of tutoring, you will get a message stating whether or not the tutoring has been a success. You should be aware that the tutoring feedback is mostly based around what are considered signifcant gains for example: if the tutee is learning Preferred Player Moves or getting huge increases in one or two attribtues, hed most likely get a successful message; but your player could make signifcant gains (in terms of more attributes being risen by a few points, instead of a few attributes being risen by a lot of points) and get a negative message. Essentially, gains arent always refected in the tutoring feedback so dont get too discourged, unless the player completely fails, he might have gained more than the feedback suggests.

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Te fnal point to make would be that you can (and should) repeatedly tutor your young players. Consider yourself on the clock with only enough time to improve the player before he hits 26 years old (28 for goalkeepers). If you work on nurturing the Wonderkids and the rising stars with big potential, you can certainly help them reach their Potential Ability attribute level. Please note: most players who are over the age of 26 cannot be tutored (28 years old for goalkeepers), whilst tutors must be over the age of 22.

Cultivating A Youth Team Okay, so this can be a burden especially when you can just poach talent from other clubs but its far more rewarding mentally (and to the bank balance) to create your own stars. Not only that, its always useful later in the game when regenerated players begin to show their faces that you have good talent from your own nation in your team as sometimes regenerated players from your own nation are pretty shocking later on in the game so its good to create young talent and work on building a solid future for your team. So, where to start? Well frstly you need to decide whether or not you want to create a melting-pot of international superstars or a team of home-grown gems. Once youve opted for the route you want to take, youre going to need to do some scouting. Tats all outlined in the Understanding the Fundamentals of Scouting section, but a quick tip would be to search for young players in the nations youve selected for example: if you want only English players, youd have all your scouts assigned to looking for English players at diferent age brackets (e.g. under 16, under 17, under 18, under 19, under 20, under 21, et cetera) this will allow you to get a far wider span of useful and more relevant player reviews, as each scout is focussing on a specifc age bracket and one nationality. If you wanted to go international, then youd do the same as above, but youd search via one age bracket (e.g. under 21) and then nationality or continent brackets (e.g. England, Spain, Argentina, Brasil or Asia, Europe, Americas, Africa, et cetera). Utilising this strategy can fnd you the kind of talent you want the club to be built around and give you the ability to import then nurture home-grown stars for your club. Next up, its important to pay some attention to the setup of the club and youth system (if you havent done so already). Check your Youth team coaches are they good enough? Check the facilities can you upgrade them? Its a tad time-consuming, but it can make a big diference to the quality of the player youre getting though the youth system. As covered previously, your coaching staf are going to require good Working with Youngsters attributes and anyone reviewing the youngsters abilities are going to need to have good Judging Player Potential and Judging Player Ability attributes.

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Once youve done the basic ground work, its important to work through what you have already. Remove any of the players you dont believe will make the cut sell them if you can, if not, just release them. If there is anyone whos promising, but not great grab a scout report and loan the kid out. If they return from loan unimproved, sell them. Essentially, you need to consider how a promising player will improve. Are you willing to oversee the youth team games or would you rather assemble a youth team and then loan all the players out to clubs that will give them match experience? Te most important thing is that the players are given the opportunity to play. You can have the best training scheme in the world, you can have exceptional coaches, but without match experience the players wont develop in the way you want them to. Tips for Youth Development Your youth team should ideally be playing the same tactics as the frst-team, as this helps them know the formation and settle into the team for when you actually want them to play in a frst-team game. Also worth noting is that loaned out players wont train with you, so if youre working on a Youth Team training regimen then its going to be useless unless the players are in your team and working under your training conditions. Something else to consider is tutoring. Its massively beneftial for young players to have a good tutor and to have youngsters learning Preferred Player Moves and attributes from better players. Find the most gifted players in your team and spend some time working on them; it can (with some efort) reap rewards. Make sure this is repeated as often as possible! Lastly and maybe most importantly, you should know that each team in the game has unique settings. Some teams have exceptional youth facilities (Barcelona, Ajax, Arsenal, et cetera), but your team most likely will not. Tis means that you will have to work to improve your facilities and your setup, because youre very likely to be at a disadvantage compared to the more skilled youth production lines. What is good about this is that you can keep an eye on clubs who have a real-life reputation for producing great talent and then you can fnd yourself players who you can import into your club's own academy.

Match Preparation Match Preparation allows you to not only work on your pre-match setup, but it gives you the ability to train your team with regards to their tactical profciency. Its not an obvious training

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module, but it should be looked at as if it was part of the training system. Training covers only Technical, Mental and Physical attributes, whilst its Match Preparation that focuses on the players tactical abilities as a team. In order to create a rewarding training routine via Match Preparation, you have to repeatedly work on the same tactical setup. If you work on improving a single formation you will see the familiarity bar rise as a result of the team becoming more comfortable with that system. Tis is why its important not to chop and change your tactics too radically when theyre not working very well for you, because your progress will stutter as you make alterations. Aside from the training aspect of Match Preparation, you should note that the Special Focus Areas setting is excellent for exploiting the oppositions formation or setup. You should look to do your pre-match scouting (more below) and then utilise this module to make your team focus on one method of exploiting the oppositions weaknesses. Its important to remember that selecting a Special Focus Area will distract the team from other areas of their game, but if you get the Special Focus Area setup to correctly exploit an opponent who are for example: weak at corners, then you might fnd the result is far more positive than simply opting to operate within your own style of play. Remember, setting the Match Preparation workload will have an efect on the training workload, so try to fnd a balance for your team. Its all about considering if you want to work on the team as a unit or on players as individuals then setting the sliders to the levels you want. Id personally work on the team more than the players, then when the team is at a good level, lower the Special Focus Area workload and focus on improving individuals. Obviously, fnding a balance is still vital, so bare that in mind.
Focus Area Description and Efect

Team Blend

Tis allows you to focus your players on better understanding how their team-mates work with the ball. By using this Special Focus Area, youre able to build a team unit, rather than have 11 strangers playing in your side. Tis allows you to drill your team in the art of defence. Te best teams are always the hardest to exploit in defence and by focussing on this area, youre able to lower the risk of players being in the wrong position when under pressure at the back and give them direction on how to function as a defensive unit, rather than relying on the defenders to do all the defensive work.

Defensive Positioning

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Attacking Positioning

Tis allows you to run plays with the team. With this Special Focus Area, youre able to infuence the players into attacking in numbers (rather than attacking as individuals). Tis allows you to have players in better attacking positions when crosses enter the box or when counter-attacks are being executed. With this youre able to have your team working in-tune when theyre attacking. Tis allows you to train the team to be more profcient when defending corners or free-kicks. Having a team who know exactly what needs to be done and how the players around them will be reacting when the ball comes at them is something you will really beneft from when they utilise this Special Focus Area. Tis allows you to train the team to be more clinical when taking attacking corners or taking free-kicks. Having a team who know where players are going to run or where the ball is going to be placed can make the diference when it comes to taking advantage of an attacking set-piece.

Defending Set-Pieces

Attacking Set-Pieces

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- Chapter Nine -

Match Day Preparation, Information and Analysis

Te frst thing you should look to do is examine the oppositions formation. If you really want to be thorough, have a look at their previous opponents; look at which formations have been successful against them and then check to see which formations have worked best on the pitch youre playing on. Next, take a look the weather reports for that day and then see if you can grab any information about the match ofcials temperament. After all the scouting is done, youre going to need to decide on your tactics and players, as well as do your pre-match team talk. Tis is why Im not really a fan of downloadable tactics or Home and Away tactics theyre always going to based on luck, because theyre not tailor-made to your players abilities, your opposition or any of the match day factors. So, lets go through the whole process piece by piece and see what makes match day preparation so vital

Pre-Match Scouting Analysis & Interpretation When considering your pre-match preparation, its very important to look at diferent variables which will impact on the match; things such as pitch size, weather, the mentality of the referee, et cetera. As far as pitch types go, they can make a big diference to the success of your tactics. Below are a few key notes to get you thinking about the ways to adjust your tactical approach with regards to pitch sizes; but remember, you have to consider that the pitch size hints will need to be factored against the oppositions tactical shape too, because as you can imagine the oppositions formation and the pitch dimensions will dictate what kind of formation youll be able to efectively play on that pitch. I dont recommend radical changes to the formation, but your tactics are the only thing you can adjust to afect the game, so try to fnd a balance between making necessary changes and keeping continuity in your formation and shape.

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Pitch Types So, once youve examined the oppositions shape and have an idea of how they like to play, you will then need to assess the type of pitch youll be playing on and decide how to setup the team to be efective within the parameters of both the opposition formation and the dimensions of the pitch. Here's some insight to pitch sizes... Shorter pitches Tis pitch obviously lacks length, so certain types of passing, such as the long ball would be inefective. If you imagine the goalkeeper or a defender hitting a long ball on a short pitch, its going to go deep into the heart of the opposition defence and youre highly unlikely to beneft from it (long balls are only ever efective when youve got an incredible Target Man and enough players around him to capitalise on any lose balls) . From a positional stance, you have to consider that a short pitch will also mean that there is less space for midfelders to play in, so your midfeld shape should be positioned in a manner which would space them out a little more (but not overly spaced so that the midfeld is taken over by the opposition). Lastly, there is the defensive angle, which would indicate that you could play slightly higher up than normal because there is less space for the defence to cover. Longer pitches Tis pitch provides you with more space to run into, but also more space for you to cover before you can reach the goal. Depending on your oppositions formation, there aren't really any passing stipulations with regards to the pitch. As the exact opposite of the shorter pitch, the long ball will be more efective, but that hinges on how high the defence play and how fast your attacking players may be. From a defensive perspective, youll have to play slightly deeper to cover yourself from fast players or long balls you can play high up the pitch to pressure a team, but on a long pitch youre much more easily exploited with a long ball, if youre not cautious with your back-line. Obviously, a long pitch gives you more space to position the team, so youd be foolish not to try and exploit that with the opposition, but beware of the space you leave between your defence and the goalkeeper. Wider pitches Tis pitch ofers more space across the width of the surface. You should look to utilise the fanks and make use of the extra space when attacking. If you cant play with wingers, be extremely cautious with your full-backs and recognise that youll be attacked in those areas more often than not. Wider pitches are more troublesome in defence, with your back-line being stretched out-wide and holes being created in-between the defensive players. Try to be more compacted in defence and don't let the defensive line get dragged out to the touchline. Narrower pitches Tis pitch provides the exact opposite issues as the wider pitches. Youre going to have less width and space to play a wing-game and its going to be difcult to stretch a team out, so youll have to factor that in when you look at the tactics. Te obvious plus to this pitch is that its also providing you with the defensive benefts the opposition have, such as less space for you to cover defensively and a stronger back-line.

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Something very important to highlight with this and the Match Preparation module is that you do not have to radically change your formational shape for each pitch type. You can operate on a narrow or wide pitch by changing the teams width via Touchline Shouts. You can, of course, alter the shape if you feel it would be best to stop an opponent dominating a game, but I personally dont feel you should change the shape for each pitch type as you can see, there are better ways around doing that without disrupting your Match Preparation training or your tactical familiarity. Weather Conditions A lot of this is obvious stuf, but hardly anyone bothers to take the time to actually look at the conditions in which their team is playing. Even if you disregard everything up until this point, the most important thing to consider about being tactically superior is that you have to factor all the elements and conditions of the match against your own tactical approach. Its all well and good playing a 4-5-1 with superbly gifted midfelders, but its not going to be efective on a pitch where they have no space to operate in is it? Ten of course, comes the weather. Its not the most complex of conditions to consider, but it should be integrated into your tactical approach nonetheless. Take for example: a lot of virtual rain falls upon your muddy virtual pitch and youre opting to play a short, slow passing game... What transpires is not an Arsenal style of play, but a superb plot for a Snickers advert, with passes not reaching their recipients, defenders sliding past their opponents and Mr. T rolling up in a tank, throwing chocolate bars at you and demanding that you get some nuts. So, how can the weather afect your tactics? Well, let's take a look...
Weather Condition Description and Efect

Rain

When rain falls onto the pitch it will coat the grass with water. Tis water lubricates the surface, so when the ball travels across it there is less friction. Now, because there is less friction the ball will move faster and will take longer to stop moving so if your players are passing the ball at speed, think about how difcult it will be to control the passing as the ball skids across the surface. When sleet or snow falls onto the pitch it will make the surface soggy and muddy. It's far more difcult to pass the ball along the surface on a muddy pitch because the ball is travelling against a lot of friction (as the mud is very thick and the ball is very light). A

Sleet/Snow

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muddy pitch can also cause problems with players, as it's going to require more efort to travel on a surface which has no solid foundation (as the mud will move when pressure is put on it). Sunny/Normal When the sun is out and the rain is not in sight, the pitch will be dry and frm. A dry pitch will be fairly solid, so when a ball bounces on the surface, it's likely to bounce hard and fast; this requires players to have good ball control and good passing, as the pitch can be very unforgiving. When the wind is abrasive it will begin to afect the quality of passing during the game. If you're playing a long passing game and the wind is strong, you'll see that the ball's trajectory will be infuenced by the direction of the wind. Tis weather condition will afect not only the long ball passes, but it can afect any situation where the ball is in the air situations such as long shots, crosses, set-pieces and goal-kicks.

Wind

Give some thought to how conditions will afect players for example: on a cold day, players who aren't used to those conditions will need good Determination to get through the game; when players are running on wet or muddy pitches, they're going to fnd it difcult to gain traction (as the surface isn't easy to travel over). Also think about extreme conditions for example: whilst snow can be wet and make a pitch soggy, if the weather is frosty, the pitch will be hard and much more similar to a dry pitch than a wet one. Preparation Summary Tis is the moment that now defnes who you are as a manager. Youre either thinking that you cant be bothered to do all of that each game and are thus condemning yourself to a life of downloading tactics or youre thinking: Hmm, Ive not really focussed on that before; maybe if I take a few minutes before hitting continue on match day, Ill not have to go onto the forums and complain about the new patch being rigged to death. Okay, that was a very long and specifc sentence; chances are, youve not said anything remotely close to that, but you get the point invest some time and you'll get the results you want; this game wasn't mean't to be played and conquered in a day.

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Opposition Instructions Whether its setting specifc marking instructions or directing players away from goal, Opposition Instructions are a key part of your tactical setup. Teyre arguably one of the most skimmed over elements in the game, which is understandable why bother to take fve minutes out from your busy schedule of button clicking and beer sipping to fnalise your approach to stopping the efect of the opponent? Yeah, I couldnt come up with a good reason either. Tis is the last and fnal part of your pre-match tactical setup. At this juncture youve gathered all the information youre going to need to know about the opposition and you should be looking to null their best players and their way of playing the game. If you can successfully stop your opponents, then youre going to have a huge advantage when it comes to kick-of. Teres not really a huge amount to detail with regards to Opposition Instructions, given that 99.9% of the time you're actually told exactly what you should do by your Assistant Manager. Te best thing I can advise you to do when it comes to the match, is to repeatedly check the Assistant Managers feedback. All throughout the game youll get an indication as to how the formation is working, which players are doing a good job and which are not. Youll also get feedback on where the team instructions are working (or failing), recommendations as to what to do and what to change and a lot more. Basically, its so helpful to you that it feels like youre cheating. Also, make use of this, not only before the game or when watching the game, but also at half-time before your Team Talks and before your full-time Team Talks. Tere are a lot of helpful observations made by the Assistant Manager that will help you best handle the players an give you priceless hints and tips on what to do in the majority of the situations you fnd yourself in. Not only is this a good way to thwart specifc players, it's also a good way to stop specifc team manoeuvres for example: if the team like to attack down the fanks, you should show their wingers onto their opposite foot, as this forces them inside and out of their comfort zone. If a player has a penchant for cutting inside (check their Preferred Player Moves), show him onto the fank and force him into a situation he doesn't feel happy being in. Ideally youll want to limit how many Opposition Instructions you assign to your players because they will afect your tactical settings. Too many instructions will alter your tactical approach and could end up changing the way in which players following these instructions are asked to play.

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Team Talks Team Talks are part of the FM trifecta of man management, tactics and training. Team Talks are a vital part of man management and as such they require some thought and logic in order to fully utilise their power because when theyre used accurately they have the ability to unhinge even the best of teams. Its a pretty simple science: Players react to what you say based on their Personalities, their Morale and their Motivation. During the match there are other small factors such as the prematch odds, the strength of the opponent, whether youre playing away from home or not, the scoreline and of course, what youve said in the pre-match press conference. Still, when making a comment to a player remember, its mostly about judging the player, their personality and the situation at hand rather than overcomplicating the moment by trying to factor every possible variable against each other. Obviously, as a result of their impact on the game, its important to know what to tell players; so, lets take a look at Team Talks... Te Basic Elements of Team Talks Generally speaking, the strongest players in the team (personality-wise) will react more to challenges, whilst the weaker minds will need nurturing (refer to the Personality Tags section of the guide to better understand this dynamic) . Youre looking to give those with a strong mentality (and good morale) some level of expectancy, whilst you will want to go about removing pressure from those who have low morale or those who are concerned about the match. Something very important to consider when giving Team Talks is the amount of talks you give to individual players. If you're giving each individual a Team Talk, it's going to null the general Team Talk you've selected and it's going to set an uneven tone in your talks. You need to focus on a handful of the most noticeable players (good or bad) and speak to them, leaving the rest of the players on the global Team Talk setting. As a general rule, don't stray over 5 individual talks; it's best to talk to the main players and keep the team on the same wavelength, as confusing Team Talks will be either useless or negative which is not good!

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Pre-Match Team Talks So, how do we approach pre-match Team Talks? Well, we need to remember that the success and the nature of the pre-match talk hinges on morale, prior match ratings, match mentalities and also player personalities (see Positive and Negative Personalities crib sheet; this makes it easier to ascertain how diferent personality types could react diferently to the Team Talk options). By this point you should have already taken a look at all the Backroom Advice, setup your tactical strategy and checked your Assistant Managers pre-match feedback to see how mentally prepared your team appear to be. Its important that you ascertain the players moods before you give a talk because its going to have an impact on what you should say to them. Te overall Team Talk should be as is said above based on the pre-match odds. Te individual talks should be based on morale and confdence issues. Below is a brief guide to dealing with players... Firstly, don't underestimate the problems complacency can cause you. Players who are complacent will require a good dose of reality before kick-of; thankfully the Assistant Manager feedback will tell you who is too confdent. In these situations you will want to let the player know that you "expect a performance" and that he's got a job to do. Secondly, don't underestimate the problems morale can cause you. Players who are struggling for morale and confdence will need to know that you support them or that there is no pressure on them to perform. Sometimes this is not ideal, sometimes you need the team to be focussed on winning and 'Lucas Low-Morale' comes in and forces you to make a hard decision do you tell him that you need a performance from him or do you try to ease his tension? Tere's no sure-fre way to answer that; every player is diferent. Te best thing you can do is, make a choice, keep an eye on the player and then assess him again at half-time. Tirdly, recognise that new players or young players will need to be handled in a delicate manner. Even when there are no visable problems, make sure that you're not expecting too much of these players too soon.
Lastly, recognise that each player has a personality. Every player is diferent and you can

expect diferent reactions from players as a result. It's best to treat weaker players with delicacy, whilst stronger players can handle a bit more pressure than most .

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Its important to note that morale is the measure of a players inner happiness (based on performances and team positioning in the league, et cetera), whilst motivation is the measure of their state of mind (based on their mental approach to the match ahead). Dont confuse these elements when following the advice here!

Half-Time Team Talks At half-time there is a more complex Team Talk, because not only do you have the original factors (personalities, morale and motivation) to contemplate, but you now have to add the scoreline and match ratings into the equation. Once more its best to set an overall Team Talk based on team performance and then highlight individuals who are either excelling or failing. Before we jump into specifc advice, there are a few things to make note of with in-match talks: Firstly, check the Assistant Managers feedback. Its vital to both your Team Talks and also your tactics. If you fail to do this, you might as well start rolling dice.
Secondly, its important to note that match ratings constantly change especially when

there is a key moment in the game, such as a goal scored or a booking so, try to keep an eye on the match ratings as the game is played out, as this way youll constantly know how the players are performing (its a good idea to view matches in split view with player ratings shown on one side and the match statistics or Assistant Manger feedback on the other side).

Tirdly, those who excel and get praised can often end up having more respect for you as a manager, but remember, if you give inaccurate or unwarranted feedback, you risk annoying or confusing the players and this will disrupt the efect you have on the them especially at half-time as players who get demoralised can have a poor game and end up having a negative efect on the whole team.

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Fourthly, if you fnd that a player is exceptionally poor, dont try to fx him; just bring him of and put on a substitute who you can motivate to have a better game. Lastly, remember to give all your substitutes a Team Talk. Teir impact could be far more positive with some instruction. If you don't give a Team Talk, there's a chance things will be fne, but that's not football management, that's Russian Roulette. So, lets take a look at the specifcs of the half-time Team Talks Firstly, you need to look at the scoreline and compare it to the match odds. Should you be winning when youre losing? Should you have a stronger lead? Are you doing better than expected? You need to select a global Team Talk based on that information. Secondly, you need to break your talk into four segments (most people do it in this order): 1. What would you say to the player based on the players match performance? 2. What would you say to the player based on the scoreline? 3. What would you say to the player based on the players mentality? 4. What would you say to the player based on the players personality? You need to take the answers to those four questions, rearrange them and then merge them into one fnal individual talk which sounds complex, but its actually very simple! Read on... What would you say to the player based on the players personality? Youd immediately have to examine the players personality are they strong or are they weak? Based on that you have three potential options: expectation, praise or encouragement? Te stronger players, as mentioned previously, can handle expectations, but they generally dislike encouragement (i.e. We can win this!). Te weaker players prefer to have less pressure, so youd either want to remove pressure or say absolutely nothing to them. Now, the next thing to consider is their match performance What would you say to the player based on the players match performance? Generally speaking, any player performing under a 6 would be told he was Disappointing,

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any player above a 7 would be told you were Pleased, whilst players with anything above an 8 would be told you were Delighted. Unfortunately, its not as simple as a personality review and a performance related talk. You have to not only consider personality and match ratings, but you also have to consider their mentality, the scoreline and the opposition, all of which can alter what you think you should say so far What would you say to the player based on the players mentality? Are they more Complacent or more Nervous? Based on that you have to either focus them or inspire them. Like the personality outline, you have to treat Nervous players like babies and give them very light talks, trying to remove their fear or give them some confdence; with players who are Complacent needing to hear that you expect them to perform (making sure that they dont remain complacent and throw away goals). Te last thing to factor in is the scoreline. Now this opens up far more avenues because you can get diferent talk options in diferent scenarios What would you say to the player based on the scoreline? If youre winning a game that youre expected to win, you will want to make sure you keep the lead. First and foremost you want to tell the team not to get complacent. Secondly, you will want to pick out and highlight the noticeable performances those whove played well will need to be told that youre Pleased, whilst those whove been poor will need to be told they were Disappointing or (depending on how badly they were playing) substituted and replaced by substitutes who would be either encouraged or challenged taking into account their personality tags. You should increase the severity of the Team Talks depending on how big the lead is. If players arent Complacent and are performing really well, dont be afraid to let them know that youre pleased just remember to use it sporadically so that the team doesnt slacken of in the second-half. If youre winning against a team who should be beating you, youd want to give the team encouragement players performing well would be told to do it for the fans, whilst players who arent would be told no pressure. Dont be afraid to praise the big performances, but remember to keep the team focussed on the fact they could still lose the game. If youre losing against a team who you should be beating, youd want to let the team know they were disappointing. Players performing well would be told You can make the diference whilst players who arent would be either told they were Disappointing or substituted

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(depending on how badly they were playing) and replaced by substitutes who would be told You can make the diference or I have faith. If you were sufering a heavy loss, youd want to question players motivation and passion to get the win or youd inspire them with You can make the diference or be demanding with I want to see more from you again, this hinges on their personality tags. If youre losing against a team who should be beating you, youd want to ofer some hope to the team. Ask better performing players to Do it for the fans or tell them Tey can make a diference; those who arent performing well may be out of their depth and might have a better impact on the bench. If so, when bringing a substitute on let them know that you have faith in them or expect them to perform depending on their Personality Trait. Also look to the strong players (personalities) who you can be more demanding of they might be able to work some magic in the second-half, if you can inspire them. If youre in a deadlock with a team, your talk could win or lose you the game. Youd want to be expectant against the teams youre favourites to beat (pre-match odds) and youd want to be inspirational against those who you had no chance of beating pre-match. If youre expecting to win and youre drawing, let the team know youre Disappointed and try to inspire good individual performances with You can make a diference and condemn poor individual performances with Disappointed. If youre expecting to lose the match and youre drawing, ask the players to win the match For the fans, still highlighting the great performances in an encouraging way (i.e. Pleased). Anyone whos not playing well would be told they were Disappointing or substituted of. Substitutes coming on would receive the same talk as everyone else you'd motivate them. Tis is the most important part of Team Talks. Everything above is nothing more than a general guideline on dealing with certain situations; whats most useful is this the Team Talk formula... Team Talk = personality tag (strong/weak) + match rating (less than 6/more than 7) + player mentality (positive/negative) + scoreline (pre-match odds vs. score). If you look at the brackets you see the variable. Now, the frst three segments of the Team Talk formula has two variables, but the last segment has a variable which calculates what the score should be versus the scoreline you have. So, in Lehmans terms what you say regarding the team talk has to be in-sync with the other elements for example: we know that suggesting responsibility in mentally weak players can make them crumble, but there are times when

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were losing and need players to step-up and win the match, how is that done? Well, very simply, you either have to inspire those players without pressurising them or you substitute them of all whilst hoping that the stronger players in the team can put in a good performance for you. What Im hoping you notice at this point is that Team Talks arent as repetitive or as unimportant as you may have thought. Every team talk is going to be diferent because the variables arent static (scoreline, morale, mentality, et cetera). Some players are too mentally tough for certain talks and some are too weak. A very important player could be mentally weak and may have a terrible game, if you cant inspire your key man, would you have ever thought to have subbed him of for the good of the team? Probably not; who would have? Give some thought to your talks using that formula as your thought process. If you need to, experiment a little and take notes of how players are responding to your methods eventually youll have enough data on each player to give you a defnitive answer for each situation (although it might take you until FM3011 to compile).

Full-Time Team Talks Te full-time talks are the easiest to do because at this point the game is over and your only aim is to address the players. Ideally youd want to keep morale as high as you can so do not be overly critical of players, but at the same time, you do need to make sure you stop any poor form by giving the poor performers some hair-dryer treatment. Dont be afraid to let your best players know how happy you are with them after theyve put in a good performance. As I said above, players will begin to form a bond with managers who are supportive of them. At the same time, dont be unjust with your comments; players wont respond well to any comments about them (good or bad) if they dont feel that theyre true. As with the other Team Talks, set a general talk for the team based on their performance and then highlight any specifc players for praise or critique. Anyone above a 7.5 would warrant a

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Pleased talk, whilst exceptional performances (8.2 or over) would warrant a Delighted talk. Anyone extremely poor (below 6) should get a Disappointed talk. Also, considering the impact of scorelines, youd want to let anyone below a 7 after a bad result know they were Disappointing and anyone above an 8 know that you Sympathise or were Pleased with their performance. Anyone with 6 or below after a poor result should be given an Angered talk this is suggested for anyone receiving red cards too just to knock their bad behaviour on the head.

Touchline Instructions As you will know, during the match you have the ability to shout instructions to your players. Well take a quick look at the instructions now, just to ascertain what they do exactly. Some of these instructions are only unlockable on specifc mentality settings, which means youll only be able to access instructions relevant to the style of mentality youre currently employing.
Instruction Description and Efect

Retain Possession

Tis instruction tells the team to keep a hold of the ball at all costs. Tis looks to lower the amount of long passes which often result in wasted possession. Tis instruction tells the team to get the ball into the oppositions half and to focus on attacking rather than defending. It puts pressure on the opposition and attempts to fnd players with longer passing. Tis instruction tells the team to pass the ball into vacant space rather than directly to the players feet. Tis is an attempt to create opportunities by exploiting gaps in the oppositions formation, rather than being obvious and passing directly to players. Tis instruction tells the team to pass the ball directly to a players feet. Tis is an attempt to keep possession, rather than try risky loose balls into space.

Get Ball Forward

Pass Into Space

Pass Into Feet

Pump Ball Into Box Tis instruction tells the team to get the ball into the oppositions box via long high passes. Its a rather desperate attempt to overload

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the opposition, but can work if your forwards are strong players. Clear Ball To Flanks Tis instruction tells the team to aim their clearances out wide, so that the wingers or wide players can try to maintain possession of the ball, rather than clear the ball directly to the opposition via the middle of the pitch. Tis gives the wingers a chance to get hold of the ball and execute a counter-attack. Tis instruction tells the team to shoot whenever the chance arises (usually outside the box), rather than wait for a better opportunity to present itself (usually in the box). Often, this is a rather desperate instruction, but it can prove useful when your opponents are under a lot of pressure and are pinned back in their own area. Tis instruction tells the team to keep possession of the ball for as long as possible rather than take shots from outside the area. Its useful if your team is wasting chances or are taking too many long shots. Tis instruction tells the team to try and exploit the wider areas of the pitch. Tis is only really useful if youre playing against weak wingers or full-backs, if the opposition is playing without wide players, if youre playing on a wide pitch or if you spot a weakness in the oppositions formation. Tis instruction tells the team to try and exploit the middle of the pitch. Tis is only really useful if youre playing against teams without a Defensive Midfelder, teams without lots of midfelders, teams with weak players in the centre, if youre playing on a narrow pitch or if you spot a weakness in the oppositions formation. Tis instruction tells the team to try and hold onto the ball whilst waiting for a player to perform an overlapping run. Tis instruction is intended for a wide player, with the overlapping wide player taking possession and attempting to get more crosses into the box.

Shoot On Sight

Work Ball Into Box

Exploit Te Flanks

Exploit Te Middle

Look For Overlap

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Take A Breather

Tis instruction tells the team to slow the pace, relax and hold onto possession whilst they compose themselves. Its useful if the team is tiring or playing in tough conditions and need to rest briefy before quickly turning up the pace to catch the opposition of guard. Tis instruction tells the team to widen the spacing between them and expand the team's shape. Tis would give them more width and more space to pass the ball across the pitch and would help to quell any threat on the wings. Although it will create gaps in-between players (particularly defenders) which could be exploited, its useful on narrow pitches as it can give you more room to operate in. Tis instruction tells the team to narrow the space between them and compact the team's shape. Tis would make the team harder to breakdown and would present less opportunities for midfeld penetration. Although it would leave the team more susceptible to attacks on the fank, it is useful on wide pitches as it forces the opposition to work the ball out wide. Tis instruction tells the team to push the defensive line higher up the pitch, thus resulting in creating less space for the opposition to play in which puts more pressure on the opposition. Te biggest issue with this instruction is that the team can be exploited by a long ball over the top of the defence or quick opponents can sprint past the (often slow) defence, thus giving them lots of space to run into and usually, one-on-one opportunities with your goalkeeper. Tis instruction tells the team to sit deeper in their own half, thus resulting in a tougher defence. Te biggest issue with this instruction is that the team is likely to invite pressure on itself and have more space to cover to get to the oppositions goal. However, it does allow you to absorb pressure from teams playing higher up the pitch and it can null quick forwards who like to exploit a high defensive line. Tis instruction tells the team to constantly close-down, tightly mark and pressure the opposition into giving the ball away or

Play Wider

Play Narrower

Push Higher Up

Drop Deeper

Hassle Opponents

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making a mistake. Te biggest issue with this instruction is that it can be tiring and will draw your players out of their positions. Stand-Of Opponents Tis instruction tells the team to give the opponent space and to conform to their own tactical shape. Its intended to give underdogs the ability to hold their ground against stronger, more technical opposition and gives them the ability to try to shut out opponents instead of taking the game to them. Tis instruction tells the team to be extra aggressive with regards to tackling. It tries to scare the opposition into passing the ball quickly (instead of inviting tackles on themselves) and thus forces them into making mistakes. Te biggest issue with this instruction is that players will most likely get carded certainly if theyre not well controlled individuals or are poor at tackling. Tis instruction tells the team to stay on their feet at all costs and to not dive into tackles. Tis will make it tougher for the opposition to get around players and it will stop the team giving away fouls, but it also means that the opponents are allowed more time on the ball. Tis instruction tells the team to play without risk. Its designed to hold on to a lead and encourage a team to contain the opposition. Te side-efect to this shout is that it can have an adverse efect if used for too long because the team will become very predictable. Tis instruction tells the team to play for the win, regardless of their defensive duties. Its designed for those desperate to get a goal, create opportunities or for those wanting to go all out in a game. As above, playing this instruction for too long will have an adverse efect in this case because the team will abandon positions and instruction.

Get Stuck In

Stay On Feet

Play Even Safer

Take More Risks

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Match Reviewing Tis is the key to understanding how well your tactics actually work. Its one thing creating tactics and studying the dynamics of the formation, but when it all goes wrong, youre always left playing a guessing game. Was it the tactics, the pitch, the teams morale or was it what you said at half-time which cost you this game today? Well, there is a very conclusive tool which allows you to see a number of in-depth statistics about the way your team played their fxture. Tey are FMs equivalent to the OPTA stats the Match Stats and Analysis pages. Tese tools allow you to view an intimate match report, with details of how each player has played, successful runs, shots and crosses as well as all the failed opportunities too. Its a brilliant tool to assess the faws in, not only your tactic, but also your approach to the game youve been playing. It could be this which helps you better use a winger in future or it could even help you understand how to be more efective on a diferent pitch type. Lets spend a few moments looking through the options available for assessment and how they function in a way that will allow you to use them to improve your setup Analysing the Match Statistics Shots/On Target/Of Target Tese stats are all pretty similar with their efects. If youre seeing lots of shots and a low goal ratio, or lots of shots Of Target, you might want to adjust the amount of long range shots the players are taking and try to get them to pass the ball into the box more often. You might also want to consider looking at the roles in which your forward players are being deployed. If youre seeing few Shots or few shots On Target, youre going to need to look at whether the team is attacking enough to get into good shooting positions or if theyre trying to pass the ball into the goal instead of taking shots when they have the time to do so. Blocked Shots If youre getting a high Blocked Shots fgure, then its because youre being crowded out when shooting in the box or youre shooting from long range and the defenders are getting enough time to move in front of the ball and defect it. To counter this problem youre going to want to check your Assistant Managers feedback and look to the highlights for a reason as to why youre not getting your shots past the defending players. You will either want to try to work the ball into the box (instead of taking long shots) or youll want to draw the opposition out of the box (tips on this can be found under the Touchline Shouts section). Woodwork/Clear-cut Chances Obviously, these stats are indicative of the prowess of the forwards and midfelders respectively. If youre hitting the woodwork a lot, youre going to need to view the forwards Preferred Player Moves and see how he likes to shoot (tips for

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Preferred Player Moves can be found under the Understanding the Genetics of a Footballer section). If youre not getting enough Clear-cut Chances then youre going to need to look at how the midfelders are creating opportunities. It might be a good idea to increase throughballs, alter your crossing technique or give the midfeld more creative freedom. You may fnd your midfeld is inadequate and might want to look at their abilities to create opportunities for the forwards (you should review their Technical stats and Preferred Player Moves to see if they could be problematic.). Long Shots Tis is only going to need addressing if youre failing to convert opportunities or are getting lots of shots Of Target. Its very easy to restrict long shots, but you may want to increase them if youre not using them and have nothing to show for playing a more controlled shooting game. Possession/Passes Completed If youre not keeping the ball, you will need to look at how youre passing it. You may be too direct, you may be passing the ball too long or you could be playing with too much distance between the players, as a result their passes are possibly being intercepted or youre not actually pressurising the opposition enough to win the ball from them in which case Philosophy and Strategy settings would need adjusting (information about both can be found under the Understanding the Fundamentals of Tactics section). You may as a last resort need to alter your tactical shape, with the idea of better aligning players in the formation to keep the ball. Naturally, this element of the game could be afected by a players ability to pass and stay calm under pressure when they have possession. Corners/Free-Kicks/Trow-ins If youre getting a lot of set-pieces and youre not noticing many goals/opportunities from them, youre going to want to address your routines. Start looking at whos taking the set-piece (and if they have adequate ability to execute a successful corner/free-kick/throw-in), look at where the ball is being delivered to and how the players are setup to attack the set-piece. Be under no illusion, set-pieces can be vital, so remember to work on them in training and remember to make some efort with the set-piece creator before the match. A good set-piece routine can get you a lot of goals per season goals which could be the diference between frst place and second when the fnal game of the season is played. Fouls/Yellow Cards/Red Cards If youre giving away a lot of fouls and are conceding setpieces as a result, its obviously going to be highly problematic. If youre getting booked or sent of, its defnitely going to need to be addressed. Te obvious things to do would be to frstly lower your tackling aggression. If that isnt an efective solution, youre going to need to look at the players giving away fouls and either work on their Preferred Player Moves or even look to move them out of the team (certainly, if theyre repeatedly being sent of or suspended).

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Ofsides Tis indicates whether or not your attacking strategy is fawed. Obviously, if this is high, youre going to need to build up play away from the player being caught ofside or try to develop the player to time his runs better (via Preferred Player Moves). Ofsides arent generally thought of as something which is a terrible faw, but every time youre caught ofside you give possession away and remove pressure from your opponents, so it is a big problem. Crosses Completed If youre not successfully completing crosses, its important to assess where things are going wrong. Youre most likely going to need to either adjust the way youre crossing the ball or look at whos crossing the ball. You might also want to look at who the ball is being crossed to as a good ball may come into the box and the forwards may be failing to capitalise on it. You can watch the highlights to see how your crossing is failing, but also check the Assistant Managers feedback for clues. Tackles Won/Headers Won If youre not doing particularly well with either of these stats, youre going to want to look at the players you have in roles where their objective is to tackle and head the ball. Identify whether or not the tackling is too weak (therefore the players arent committed enough to actually winning the ball) or if the players assigned to tackle have poor attributes. If its a heading issue, check to see if the players are marking their opponents well enough (you may want to setup specifc marking pre-match), check to see the height and Jumping statistics of those who you have heading the ball they may not be good in the air but remember, forwards also head the ball, so it could be an issue with your crossing. If youre struggling to solve the issue, you should review the highlight footage for a better indication or watch full length games for the next few matches to fully assess where the problem lies. Kilometres Run/Average Rating Tese arent the most important of statistics if youre winning, but they could be highlighting a problem if youre not winning. Te best way to boost the amount of running your team can do is by working on their ftness in training and the best way to boost Average Rating is via good Team Talks and a good pre-match setup. All of that concludes the intricacies of the post-match stats, but dont forget that you can assess these things at half-time and make changes before the game is over. Tis in itself could better the statistics at the end of the game. You should also utilise the Analysis tool as well. Its a fantastic way to understand the inner-workings of the way your tactic functions and its a good idea to review the analysis after the match to see where things worked and failed. It can give you a solid indication as to who is efective for you (and who isn't), who needs to work on certain elements of their game and how you can fne-tune the way your tactic is functioning. Dont be lazy and overlook it, see where you could be going wrong and make those changes!

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- Chapter Ten -

Random Toughts
Below you can fnd some random hints and tips which Ive picked up from the game. Teyre just things which span from little ideas on scouting players to some pretty useful tactical advice. Tis is my best scouting tip a Wonderkid tip to fnd you a Wonderkid! Manually search the best teams in the world via the team flter. I tend to start scouting the more talented national teams, simply clicking on their team and then scanning through their young and highly valued players or by checking out their U21 squads. I cant begin to tell you how many gems Ive found by doing this and its prefect for fnding regenerated players later in the game. Its important to maintain a good rapport with journalists. If youre in their good books it can stop you from getting criticism. Tis can ease the amount of pressure you are under from the media. When instructing the groundsman on pitch dimensions, its important to consider how your formation and tactical instructions will work on both a wider and narrower pitch. Look at your tactic and then tailor the pitch to best suit the style of play you want to use at home. If youre afraid of losing your star players due to bigger clubs coming in and poaching them, its best to avoid commenting on transfer speculation in the press. Make sure that youre interacting with them praising them when they play well and letting them know (on occasion) that your club matches their ambitions. Also, try to tie down the players to contracts with long durations and insert an extortionate minimum release clause. At least that way, if the player goes youll get some cash for him. When you need to keep morale in the team high, keep praising your better performing players and theres every chance that theyll respond by playing well in the next game. If you have a problem with low morale, make sure youre not overly critical, it wont help the situation. During the game, if you are ahead, but are only just holding on wait until the match reaches the 75th minute and then increase the Time Wasting tactical setting or

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trigger the Retain Possession shout. Its not advised to waste time before the dying embers of the game as youll become sloppy and give the opponents time to come back from the brink of defeat, but if you trigger it at the right time, you have every chance of holding on to the result you want. Don't forget to keep an eye on the game during the match. If you spent time watching how your team play, you can pinpoint anything thats going wrong. You can also pick up ideas about the way you and the opposition are playing, which can help stop them exploiting holes or it can help you to exploit the opposition yourself. To evade man-marking, its advisable to have your players swap their positions. Tis will make them far tougher to mark and can drag defenders out of position, thus creating holes for unmarked players to exploit.
Tere is no universal tactic for success, but repeatedly changing your tactics is beyond

unhelpful to your team's harmony and to their familiarity with the tactics you're employing. Ideally you will want to stick to the same shape and only tweak the duties, roles and team instructions. Remember though, touchline shouts can help when you need to change things without altering your tactical setup.

Try mixing up the passing in your team. Having a team build up play with short and slow passing at the back, then quick and direct passing up-front can often leave the opposition wondering what's hit them. Don't be afraid to lose. If you're losing or about to play a tough game just go for it. Attack them and go out with a bang. Its only one game and if you take the shackles of, your team might surprise you. Constantly changing your tactic or making radical changes to the style of play will remove all comfort and rhythm the team had with the prior tactic. You should look to fnd a tactic and settle on it (as best you can) certainly during a match otherwise youll unsettle the whole team and see even worse results. When playing a match, not only is it important to consider how the weather will afect your passing movements, but give some thought to goalkeepers too. Whilst your goalkeeper may be at risk from a wet surface, the opposition goalkeeper will be prone to the same risks why not try some long shots and see if you can catch him out? Pre-match, when discussing your teams chances in the game ahead, it is sometimes possible to make your team more determined to win the game and prove you wrong if youve suggested that theyre not likely to win the game.

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Give some thought to the match referees mentality. If youre playing alongside a strict referee you might want to play without strong tackling after all, youre more likely to be sent of or booked if the referee has a penchant for fashing cards. When contemplating not signing a player due to his weak Jumping attribute, look at his height; theres every possibility that hes tall enough to get away with a lesser Jumping attribute. Always make sure your players have the attributes to play in their roles. Tere's nothing benefcial about playing someone in a role they cannot perform in.

If you have any good tips that youd like to get included in the next edition of the guide, check out the Contact and Support Information section of this guide and let us know!

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- Chapter Eleven -

Credits & Acknowledgements

Tis guide might be my body of work, but I have to thank a few people for the research and testing which theyve carried out and also for publishing their fndings. Tis allowed me to not only validate a couple of my own theories, but it also gave me the ability to be a little more specifc with a couple of subjects which I didnt have a lot of research to support the theory behind the words. With that said, thanks to WoIfsong, Pompey_Dan, Crouchaldinho, Bubbabaytuna, StormenDK and Lyssien all of whom have carried out a lot of research in diferent areas of the game and have documented their results over the last couple of years. Im sure there are a lot more people I should be thanking as Ive read SI Games forum religiously for the past four or fve years, but looking back at the experiment/research threads that I can remember reading most recently, those are the guys I was able to track down to thank. Ten of course, there has to be a nod to FM-Britain, wwfan and Millie, who inspired me to begin this project a couple of years ago (Im only two years late in producing it!). Teir work with tactics has been exceptional for as long as I can remember; in fact to the point where I can recall being completely overwhelmed when I frst read their work in the Tactical Teorems & Frameworks 08 e-Book. It was an exceptional piece of literature and so in-depth that I struggled read it all. It was in that moment that I decided that I wanted to write something which could stand proudly next to their work, but something which was easier to pick up and read. I can say without a doubt, without FM-Britains contributions to this area of the game, that this guide Ive produced wouldnt be as in-depth as Ive tried to make it. Lastly, a big thank you to Jordan Cooper ( JordanC), whos put in a huge amount of time to help me get this e-Book distributed. He might be a terrible, terrible comedian, but hes a good e-Book distributor ;) I think thats everyone, but there are a lot of people who Ive spoken to and read comments/posts/blogs from over the years Ive been around, so a thank you to all of you guys who have debated and argued your points with me, its only served to produce a more thought-out guide. A quick thank you to Dennis as well. Some of his e-Book feedback from the frst version has led me to simplify a few things for the readers and look at the way some information was being interpreted all of which has been a massive help in this latest edition.

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- Chapter Twelve -

Contact & Support Information

Should you need to contact anyone regarding this e-Book wed like to make it very easy. You can fnd me (W.) at www.footballmanagerfanboys.net you can usually fnd me lurking the forums. I have no Facebook or Bebo or any of that stuf, so unfortunately I cannot be poked. As always, feel free to e-mail me anytime at mail@footballmanagerguide.com and I (or someone else) will try to reply when there is time to. You can fnd JordanC (the man behind the scenes) at www.fm-britain.co.uk. You can grab Jordan on Twitter (@getsacked). He probably has Facebook and Bebo, and probably MySpace too (hes very lonely and never gets out; poor guy) so defnitely track him down and be his virtual friend. I also believe you can email the site at support@footballmanagerguide.com Id imagine thats for more technical issues, but Im not the one dealing with it, so again, feel free to email about anything you like Jordan would really love the conversation. Important Notice One last thing I should clarify is that www.footballmanagerfanboys.net is not afliated with this guide. FM Fanboys is a site which I created and occasionally blog or post at. I no longer administrate the site and need to clarify for SI and SEGA purposes that FMFb has no ties with the production or distribution of this e-Book. Tis e-Book is completely independent of both FM Fanboys and FM-Britain (www.fm-britain.co.uk). I do however recommend both sites if youre looking for more information, people to talk with or even things such as graphics, downloads, et cetera. FM-Britain should occasionally be producing their high quality reading material and FM Fanboys is probably the best all-in-one fansite for producing blogs and articles, as well as graphics, databases and all those kinds of add-ons so check them both out, theyre two of the most high quality fansites around. With that said, thanks for reading and thanks for investing in the e-Book, it's more appreciated than words can say. I hope you enjoy it, I hope it helps you and if there's anything you need, well, you know where I am. Wonderkid.