clear cut chance

A Quarterly Football Manager Magazine Issue 1 - September 2013

clearcutchance.com @ClearCutChance

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Welcome to Clear Cut ChanceBy Cleon Hobson, Editor

A round 18 months ago I was reading my quarterly copy of The Blizzard, and for some strange reason I began to wonder why Football Manager didn’t have an equivalent publication. It certainly has the fanbase for something like

The Blizzard. You only have to look around the blogosphere to see there are great writers out there who enjoy producing top quality Football Manager content. That was when the idea of Clear Cut Chance was born.

I’m an avid follower of Football Manager blogs and currently follow around 70 different ones, all of which offer something very diffe-rent. Amongst these blogs you’ll find some great writers who can talk about the game in such depth and detail that you find yourself wan-ting to read more and more of their stuff. Some of these writers while being great at what they do, don’t really have the audience to show off their writing ability to a much wider audience. There also seems to be a division between the big Football Manager sites and these blogs as the sites are reluctant to promote blogs regardless of how good the content is.

With all of this in mind, I decided to try and take matters into my own hands and bring the commu-nity together. I’ve always felt that passionate writers should be given a chance to showcase their work. I’ve been around since the birth of the so called Football Manager Scene so I’ve seen quite a lot of changes over the best part of two decades. We are quite lucky in some ways because the Football Mana-ger community has never been in a stronger position or had as many people writing about the game as it currently does.

Around February last year I made the decision to create a maga-zine. So I made contact with some people from around the commu-nity to see who would be interested in helping out on such a project. It was really well received and more people wanted to get involved than I had ever imagined. Over the course of the following month I ma-naged to put together a little maga-zine called ‘When’s The Patch Lads’. I sent it out to a few what I thought were trusted people to gather some feedback before releasing it. The next thing I knew it was posted on some site and being passed off as their own work. Devastated couldn’t even begin to describe how I felt when I found out. All that hard work ruined, I felt run down and at that particular time thought the whole idea of the magazine was never going to see the light of day again.

Luckily though, the feeling only lasted a few days. In some ways it actually made me more de-termined than ever to make this magazine. I learnt a lot though from that experience and it showed me that I couldn’t do this alone as it’s far too much effort. It also highlighted another major problem; people committing to stuff and then not being able to follow through.

So I decided to take stock of things and start planning from the bottom upwards again.

One of the first things I did was to approach Jad from Push Them Wide and pitch my idea to him. He seemed to like what I had in mind and had lots of ideas himself. Over several weeks we had managed to plan out our new strategy and set ourselves goals. We decided not to rush though and took our time. We’ve also brought in two other great people to help run this pro-ject, so the team now consists of myself (Cleon), Jad, Foxo and NakS. Having a four man team means we can share the workload and can bounce ideas around. Surrounding yourself with likeminded individuals who share the same goals and passion is important and we feel we have now done that.

What you are reading now has taken a lot of planning, discussion and hard work to get to this point. We hope you share the same pas-sion and enjoy what we’ve done. We are all really excited by this project and hope over time that we’ll be able to grow into something really special. We aim to bring you high quality content created by the Football Manager community for the Football Manager community.

Welcome to Clear Cut Chance.

Cleon Hobson

Editor’s note

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Clear Cut Chance, Issue 1

IntroductIon

2. Editor’s note, Cleon Hobson

IntervIews

4. The Coach’s view: Interview with Jed Davies, Cleon Hobson

8. The Analyst’s view: Interview with Matt Neil, Jarrod Birch

It’s just a game... Isnt’ It?11. The Lovely Catharsis of Losing, Jarrod Birch13. The Realtime Football Manager, Gray Surman chats to Cleon Hobson

ccc on tour

17. Opening Doors, Cleon Hobson

PoIntIng at the tactIcs board

20. Player vs System, Simon Boendermaker 23. A New Way of Seeing Things, Shrewnaldo26. The Creative Fullback, Matthew Fox30. Band and Zone system, NakS

about clear cur chance

36. Contributors and information

Contents

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The coach’s view: Interview with Jed Davies

Realism is often bandied about when talk-ing about Football Manager, but just how realistic are certain aspects of the game? We know the manager doesn’t stand on

the touchline and say things like ‘Change menta-lity by 2 clicks to the left’ as that is just ridiculous. But there must be some elements that are similar to how they are practised in real life. Whether it’s tactics, training, scouting or something else, we aim to explore these aspects every quarter and give you an insight into how people involved with football think and see if we can make compari-sons with Football Manager.

The first of these sees us asking a few questions to youth coach, tactician and theorist Jed Davies. Jed was forced to retire from the game at a very early age due to serious injuries. This saw him take up a coaching role, and he soon fell in love with this side of the game. He has worked with and studied alongside some of the best coaches in England and abroad. Jed is also an author and has published many things, some of which can be found on the EPL Index and his own site jeddavies.com.

One of his current projects is the ‘Tika-Taka Handbook’ where he has researched clubs and interviewed coaches. He aims to provide mana-gers and coaches with a source for tactical plans, training and coaching. As yet, there is no release date for this publication, as he is waiting for clubs to sort out legal issues associated with such a book to allow the use of certain quotes, all which takes time to resolve.

Cleon Hobson: You certainly seem to be busy and have a lot of other interests too. You are a great author and have had quite a lot of stuff published. I think you have a very unique writing style and seem to talk about the shape and the positional play of the players and translate that greatly in the things I have read so far. Does this stem from you being a footballer yourself or is that the coach in you and the things you seem to focus on when coaching?

Jed Davies: Much of my way of thinking is partially as a result of being a player. As a player I conside-red myself as a ‘playmaking centre back’, which as you can imagine, simply doesn’t exist in English football in reality (away from the elite environ-ments). So in truth, I spent much of my time in a state of struggle, never being happy with playing central defence, I moved forward into central mid-field, right-wing and then ended back in defence in my late teens, not because of my inability to play on the right or in central midfield, but simply because of a lack of central defensive cover. It was very much a case of ‘He has played central de-fence before, let’s put him back there’.

Like many ex-players out there, I have always been mindful to learn from my own experiences in terms of what was ‘bad practice’. Karl-Heinz Rum-menigge is a great example of someone who has taken this line of thought into his decision making post-playing in his role at Bayern Munich. As a player, he was a very physical striker who found success with his physical attributes - a never say die attitude - who post-playing has had a very close relationship with the technical side of the game.

Rummenigge employed Coerver coaches to come into Bayern and has even more recently turned to Pep Guardiola as a coach who can implement a very technical way of playing. It’s almost as if

By Cleon Hobson

Interview


http://jeddavies.com


Rummenigge has identified where his own playing career could have benefitted and taken action to make sure that no players coming through now suffer in the ways he will say he did.

For me, I have learnt most by speaking with coaches, many of whom have also gone through similar struggles. Tim Lees who coaches at Wigan’s academy (and finished second in the 2004 Wor-ld Nike Freestyle Competition with over 54,000 votes, losing out to the Brazilian champion from Rio de Janeiro), has a passion similar to mine in striving towards implementing a very technical game with his youth players. Chris Davies, who is at Liverpool, has a different story, but has clearly bought into Brendan Rodgers’ way of thinking. In truth, the biggest influence on my way of thinking (aside from Cruyff’s tactical methods) has been the solutions of Roberto Martinez. He speaks of achieving overloads through the system but more than that, he identifies that developing one vs. one specialists and unique players (no two players to be the same).These are all facets of football development that I can really identify with.Martinez will argue that 3-5-2 (in possession) is the most appropriate solution for British football because we are blessed with central defenders, we are blessed with out and out wingers (or at least we were) and we grow up as young players playing two up front; we therefore shouldn’t feel that 3-5-2 is beyond us and too complex.Instead we should see that this formation is one that would allow us to play through the thirds with the resources we possess. In a 4-3-2-1 or any other variation, we are then looking towards possessing players who can play under pressure, players who can receive the ball when marked, which is so-mething we simply aren’t producing at the mo-ment,- whereas Spain, Germany and Brazil are.Unfortunately, most are likely to turn towards the world’s best performing teams and say ‘Hey, let’s copy them’. The FA however, has made significant changes in recent years under Nick Levett, and change is certainly on its way, despite the masses of negativity towards coaching in this country.

CH: You believe football is not about possession or pressing alone, but about using the processes of football as tools to control the game and your opponent, both with and without the ball. How hard is it to translate this to the players?

JD: Simply put, I feel that structure is good for young players. How many of you often felt lost in what you should be doing at a particular point of the game or not understood why other players are blaming you for a mistake you haven’t realised you’ve made?

However you decide to transfer these ideas (struc-turing play), you always have to be mindful that it is age appropriate and that you aren’t taking the fun out of the game.I was told recently by a Premier League coach about a video analysis session with a Premier League U21 side where only FIVE players turned up! Unprofessional players? No, this was a case of coaches boring players to death. They’d turn up and have to sit through three hours of analysis, much of which was specific and offered informa-tion that really wasn’t useful in terms of walking out of that room having learnt something.

Instead, these analysis videos should be kept very short and sweet, picking on one or two particular themes, looking to get messages across this way rather than analysing the whole game! Themes could include overloading in central areas (support in behind, the side and in front), team movement etc. These should be done with wide lens came-ras sometimes and offer something that players couldn’t get from a regular view of football. I will break things down really simply. For exa-mple, when in possession we will play 3-5-2 (with wingers pushing up against their full backs) and then out of possession we will play 5-3-2. Then I will introduce transition rules that will look to aid these changes - which at first, may not be the long term goal ‘rules’ in terms of what we will want to achieve.


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I know that at a particular Premier League club, the manager demands younger age groups must see fifty passes from the defensive third to the middle third, which in an 80 minute game is a lot of one-twos when you think about it! However, this sche-dule isn’t designed to produce the same end result in games, instead it is something that will look to help the team understand how the processes work and how the picture of the game should begin to look.Players will then be taught how to delay, how to press etc. It’ll probably take most of the season to get this right with young players before you get games that really do look how the theory suggests.

CH: Many newbies to both FM and football struggle to diagnose the problems their team are suffering. What do you think the main things to look for are in a match?

JD: I actually played FM or CM religiously growing up and my biggest complaint has been the omis-sion of what we have just been speaking about.

A lot of football fans don’t split the game up into these four moments (possession, out of posses-sion, attacking transition, defensive transition) and in reality that is how football is split up at the top of the game (some will split the game up further still into the deep defensive block, a medium block; playing out from the back and then playing in the attacking third) and each moment requires a different ‘formation’ or attitude from the players.FM currently offers you the opportunity to put your players into formation, one formation, and then allows you to draw on arrows of movement etc. This, for me, is still ignorant of the depth of the four moments in the game. There is so much more to that than the game allows. The latest version of FM however, I’m told takes many months before players get into the flow of complex systems, which at the elite levels is realistic if the system truly is complex. You need to understand that the best team is very rarely made up of the best players and this is so-mething a lot of true FM players will know, what

they may not know is which attributes will lend themselves towards playing a particular style of football or which attributes benefit another player etc. In a match you should really be looking to see if your game plan is happening. If you have a central defender who doesn’t play the ball through the middle third or a midfielder who keeps shooting from range,then you may not have players that allow conducive progress towards a possession team that will play through the third.

CH: Is FM trusted as a reliable representation of football in the coaching community?

JD: I’d be surprised if a coach turns around and says he has never played it. But there needs to be further emphasis on the training methods, the importance of the coaches you hire and the four moments of the game for me to look at the game as a realistic representation of the game itself from a coaching perspective. From a fans perspective, the game is heading towards perfection, which I guess is the real market for FM. The scouting system on FM is however, used every now and again for initial research at the top of the game believe it or not. Jose Mourinho openly admitted this, and I know AVB played the game religiously growing up. However, we have to remember that many of the ‘wonderkids’ on the game will already be known by the biggest clubs in reality. Smaller clubs who cannot afford full time international scouts howe-ver, may turn to the game’s database every now and again as INITIAL research. Then they’ll do various bits of desk based research and make a few telephone calls before following up the scouting processes.

CH: Another tool we have at our disposal is the ability to get a coach to teach a player a preferred move. This can range from running with the ball down the flank to diving into tackles. Are player traits something that is taught by coaches if you think the player is capable of doing something regularly?


Blurred line, the coach’s view: Interview with Jed Davies



JD: Coerver coaching is a brilliant example where this is done at the elite end of the game. Coerver coaching teaches 47 different manoeuvres that allow for players to beat their man.

I believe that most players rely on two or three successful moves. With Zidane as an example; how often did we see the roulette?! Or Iniesta with La Croquette? Ronaldo with the cut back?So in reality, players will identify what works for them and go with it themselves. I wouldn’t tell a late teenager or adult they have to practice this skill or that skill, but I may offer them the variety of 47 skills and then they would select what they identified with the most.

CH: Would you ever try do the opposite and ask a player to stop doing a trait? Or do you accept its part of his game and who he is?

JD: In youth football you have to be careful with this because it may not be working for them right now, but two years down the line they may have mastered the skill or ability to beat their man. We need to stop viewing youth football matches as ‘must win matches’ instead, players are allowed to make these mistakes and learn how to execute particular skills in a match environment. Of course if the game is breaking down all the time because you have a player who is looking to dribble with the ball at every occasion, you may need to step in and look to offer a guided discove-ry approach so the players understand when, how and why to do certain actions. I prefer thoughtful learners to players who are brilliant at one aspect of their game and those who will consistently only do what they are good at.

At the professional end of the game this may be different. But we cannot pigeon hole or allow for players to pigeon hole themselves too much at young ages. I am mindful of having role models or particular attributes in demand for particular posi-tions because if we had this, Barcelona would have looked at Laudrup in the 1990’s (widely considered one of the games’ greatest players at the time) and

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have attempted to model youth players on this. If they’d have done this, we wouldn’t have the same Messi we see today. So for these purposes, Barce-lona will not be using Xavi and Iniesta as the end result in terms of modelling young players on their attributes. Players are unique and we should look to be promoting diversity and unpredictability, not manufacturing the next X or Y.



Interview

By Jarrod Birch

The analyst’s view: Interview with Matt Neil

Matt Neil became football analyst at Plymouth Argyle FC at the end of the 2011/12 season after a long love affair with Football Manager. Matt is

also one of Sports Interactive’s army of resear-chers, ensuring that attributes and data are as up-to-date as possible. We managed to ask him some questions about his role at Argyle, and he gave plenty of fascinating insights to the overlap between FM and real life analysis.

Jarrod Birch: In your role with Plymouth, what do you get up to before and after games?

Matt Neil: You’ve caught me in the busiest part of the season maybe excluding Christmas. Currently my schedule is incredibly overloaded. The day I’m writing this is July 18th and this is the fourth week that the players have been back for pre-season. I have already attended seven of our friendlies in-cluding four in the past five days! This pre-season I’ve had to film every First Team, Reserve Team and Under 18 friendly including post match ana-lysis too which I’ll move onto in a bit. In total there are 14 games in those three categories this sum-mer. I’ve also got around a bit watching matches too. Whilst not officially a scout, I like to take a look around and have been at a few other matches already to take a look at a few players I’m keeping my eye on. During the week you’ll catch me at my desk, either watching a match or doing schedules, session plans, working on my databases/spread-sheets and other smaller things which need to be done behind the scenes to keep things going.

On to the analysis part I mentioned, after eve-ry game I’ll speak to the coaches and find out exactly what they want me to clip/tag from the match. This could include something as simple as the amount of times Player A loses possession or Defensive Clearances. There are others where the coaches want me to show every time someone

is doing something they don’t like. So if we were playing FM, a trait/preferred move. This will nor-mally take a few hours depending on what they are after and will either be shown in a group or individually. During pre-season I think it’s vital that this is done as it’s the time of the season where mistakes are expected, but there are more training sessions which allows the player to work on what they need to.

JB: Is it common for clubs at the lower end of the football league to employ an analyst like your-self? In FM clubs at Plymouth’s level tend to have a somewhat bare staff team.

MN: I only came across two or three sides last season who didn ’t employ someone and there are many clubs in this league who have more than one. When you get to the Premier League and you see two analysts for U12 sides for example, it is clear that the modern game is becoming very technical and analytical because the technology is there to use. There are some teams in League 2 who have 2/3 and one club in particular I know of who employ more than that. Here at Argyle, there is just myself and occasionally an intern in the Academy who does some work with them which allows me more time to work with the first team.

JB: Your YouTube channel contains a few video compilations of some Plymouth players, inclu-ding their goals, their movement, their passing etc. Jed Davies told us a story about only five players in a Premier League U21 team turning up to a video analysis session - is this an anecdote you can relate to? Do many of the players you work with come to you and ask for information about how they can improve, or do you spend most of your time talking to the manager?


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MN: You’ve done some great stalking [editors’ note: we call it research…] finding my YouTube channel! Last season I had around five or six players regularly coming to me wanting to go through certain aspects of their game and I’d say around 50% of the regular playing side watching DVD’ themselves after each game they played. It was mainly players under thirty who got DVD’s after every game as they’re the players who have room to improve. I also spent a lot of time towards the end of the season helping out the players you may have seen featured on my YouTube chan-nel in trying to help them get a move after their contract ended. A manager is far more likely in my opinion to consider a player seriously if there’s something in front of them they can watch ins-tead of a CV which lists something that can be found on Wikipedia! The goalkeepers are always interested in penalty takers too and it almost paid off for us last season when we visited Burnley in the cup and they missed two penalties against us during the penalty shoot-out. Unfortunately our keeper didn’t listen to my advice to stay down the middle for the final penalty and we lost!

Team analysis sessions are different to working individually with players and are compulsory for all players to attend or for example, if there was a post match session where maybe the defence didn’t do well we’d just get the defence in from that game. At the beginning of the season eve-ry game included a pre-match and post-match analysis session but as the season went on these started to become less frequent. One thing that you don’t want to do in my opinion is overuse video analysis as at the end of the day, the game is played out on the pitch and putting too much information into a players head could actually make it worse for them on the pitch as they try to over think a situation instead of going with their gut reaction.

The main bulk of my analysis time though is spent working with the coaches and every game I will always clip down set pieces and other general things to expect from the opposition to pass on

to them and I’ll leave it with them to choose what to do with it. Most teams will have certain trends, signals and patterns in their set plays and there were some very interesting ones in League 2 and most notably the Premier League last season when Stoke scored a perfectly practiced corner against West Ham. There were certainly a few signals in League 2 we had to look out for and a fair few we stopped form being executed after doing thorough research!

JB: To what extent do you think that your expe-rience with FM overlaps with your day job?

MN: Football Manager, if we’re going into a long story here is probably the reason I am where I am. Before playing FM/CM I had never really been ‘that interested’ in football and just played around a bit on the playground at lunch time. But so-mething about the game, probably the data and statistics appealed to me more than any other game I had played. I remember quite clearly when I first started playing FM, which unfortunately for me was the same year I started secondary school, I began looking around on Google for the best players and tactics etc and found my way to Susie as it was nicknamed. After finding that I think I joined a few random smaller sites and started posting and playing FM more and more which probably resulted in my below average GCSE results! This led to me moving around a bit, getting to know some very intellectual people, some not so, gaining a fair few enemies and people I still talk to now. I gained a lot of knowledge in Photo-shop from being on ‘the scene’ and this led me to video editing and I still use both on a weekly basis. FM certainly closed a few doors and I probably would’ve done better academically and probably been at university now instead of working but it opened a massive door into a business that is so hard to gain access to.

FM14 is out this year and will be the 10th version of FM I have played and I’m only 20! When I first got FM05 my knowledge was dreadful but now you could ask me to name a player from nearly




every country in the world and I could probably name one! My knowledge is nearly all from the game and is a reason why I got my job as I knew the Football League and players involved inside out which was vital for what I was appointed for. I first got the job towards the end of the 2011/12 season on a temporary basis and with no job guarantee in place. I was unemployed and offering to do anything that Carl Fletcher wanted at the time. I recommended a player to him and provi-ded him a DVD of all his goals and best bits from what I could find and he liked what I could do and asked me to do more and more including stuff individually on players at the club post match and finding details on players he was looking to sign. It felt like I was in a dream at the time, working for the club I support and being so heavily involved. After the season had finished I had a little meeting and he wanted a bit of background information on me which is where I told him that I was a re-searcher for Football Manager too and I’d like to think this helped me get the job. I still continue to research for SI but it’s unfortunately becoming increasingly hard to find a line between what I can and can’t put in. There’s also the fact I work and see the players I rate on a day to day basis which is never good when they start to moan about how poorly they’re rated in the game!



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It’s just a game... isn’t it?

The Lovely Catharsis of LosingBy Jarrod Birch

I shake my head. Another goal conceded. It’s like watching a bunch of five year olds de-fending, as both of my centre-backs wonder haplessly around the penalty area with little

regard for the football match breaking out around them, let alone their marking duties.The net flutters again. A Titus James goal. Titus bloody James. The thorn in my side. My arch ne-mesis. I’m not really sure where my centre backs are any more. It’s like watching my goalkeeper being subjected to an American penalty shootout in which my team doesn’t get a go.

Anger. Despair. Utter frustration.

These three descriptions do nothing to truly sum up how playing in South Asia on Football Manager feels. Over the past five years, I have managed there three or four times, with varying degrees of success, and over that period I have seen little change in how much potential it offers to evoke anger in a human. Stubbing your toe? Losing a bet? Surfin’ bird? Absolutely nothing on the Malay-sian League. Hell on earth, I tell ye.But this year, it’s been a little different. I spent four years there on one of my FM13 saves. Four bloody years, in the most infuriating country on the whole game! It gets better - I won the Malaysian Cup and got promoted into the top tier in my first season with Sarawak. Unbelievable.

I still watched on in horror as my striker Joseph Kalang fittingly dropped countless clangers with his 6 finishing, and I still winced as my 36 year old right winger swung in crosses that, with remarkable accuracy, consistently hit the bar. And indeed, we still played like shit most games. We lost loads of games. I didn’t crack the top tier very well.

But this year, I was more relaxed with how things went. I separated myself from the team’s results. I separated myself from the horrible victories that

that we achieved through dubious means. I sepa-rated myself when we lost five in a row. My friend, and administrator of FM forum The Away Stand, Matt Fox, told me that I was mad to go to Malaysia again but I trekked through more seasons than I’ve ever completed before, even in the face of a lack of progress.

As much as we love and immerse ourselves in FM, it’s important not to get too attached to a team. You don’t always have to feel every single result that you get because there is always the next match to come. It doesn’t matter if your players aren’t the best, because the other teams are usual-ly just as bad at some point. The team is not you, and you are not the team. You don’t have to feel their wounds in defeat; it’s not always your fault and you can’t always do something about it.When you stop yourself from flipping after some bad results, it allows you to get past the stage of blaming your lack of ability, or your players’ inade-quacy, or «the game is broken», and you can get straight into analysing what is actually happening. It may well be that your players are just significant-ly worse than the teams around you, and in such a case you can enjoy a refreshing feeling exclusive to only those with the worst teams. It’s a resigna-tion to losing that makes you see the funny side of losing. Importantly, it’s a resignation to losing that makes you celebrate wins like never before. The game is far simpler when you get past your fee-lings and focus directly on what you need to do.

My problem at Sarawak was that my team was poor, and I was changing too much too quickly to get them on the same level as the team around me. I also noticed that my attempts to motivate my players were failing, because I was so used to working with players with strong personalities and the mentality to keep their heads after some bad form. You don’t learn about weaknesses in your job in deepest, darkest Malaysia.


http://www.theawaystand.co.uk/community/index


This disassociation from my team has been the single biggest change I have made to my style of playing Football Manager in recent years, and it has been revolutionary in terms of the success I have had. I no longer want to rage quit after a run of five losses; I realise the need to be more accep-ting of my players’ fragility; I know not to move too quickly. I’m still playing the Malaysia save, albeit managing in a different country. Like any manager with the balls to lose five in a row, with the bravery to play two defenders with 6 jumping each because he’s got no-one else, I am far stron-ger for it.

I was sacked from Sarawak, but I am a far better manager for it. I learned to not take the game too seriously. When you do that, you’d be surprised at how much better you become.

The Lovely Catharsis of Losing



It’s just a game... isn’t it?

The Real Time Football ManagerBy Grayson Surman

“00:00 – Italian referee Paolo Mazzoleni blows his whistle and Swansea City begin their 2014 Europa League campaign.”

It’s a Thursday evening and I’m watching last sea-son’s English League Cup winners take their first bow in a competition that I’ll be thrilled to watch my beloved Wigan Athletic take part in later this season.

After all, it was that fantastic run in January that put the points in the bag and gave us breathing space over the chasing pack. Injuries took their toll, form dipped, but Liverpool and Villa couldn’t catch us. I’d masterminded taking Latics into Europe for the first time ever and no one could take that away from me.

I started to daydream as the Swans passed it around at the back. A day out in the pouring rain at Wembley. A penalty shout that I was texting my housemate about in a frothing “with Budweiser” rage. The fourth official’s light-up board. A Shaun Maloney corner. A towering near-post flicked hea-der. Ben Watson. Joe Hart. An outstretched arm. A millisecond of silence.

Bedlam.

I’ve still no idea where my watch ended up.

I’m closer to 40 than I am 18 these days, and the team I’ve supported my entire life have won the FA Cup in front of my hoarse chest, shivering body, blurry eyes and an audience of millions, and quali-fied for Europe for the firs-

Wait a minute.

We’d already finished 6th in the league. I know this. I was the manager. I’d stared at my MacBook at home, pacing my bedroom carpet. I’d sat in the

Black Horse as something uninspiring like United-City played out on the projectors while I mi-cro-managed my shouts and team cohesion for a crucial U21 Development match with Derby County’s youth team.

Michu scores. Didn’t he sign for Arsenal? I haven’t the foggiest idea what’s going on any more.

Football Manager 2013 has enveloped me.

A month after the game launched, I’d played enough of the 2012-13 season with Wigan Ath-letic that the in-game date matched the one on my desktop calendar. An idea flickered. “You’d go crazy,” muttered by sub-conscious.

We’ll see about that.

Real-Time Football Manager was born that day, and I’ve played my save every day since, advancing the game by one day whenever I get the chance around everything else that’s going on. It’s a simple premise, but one I find myself explaining a lot on twitter.

It’s quite simple. You may be sat there on FM in the year 2023 at the biggest club in the world, having amassed a small army of the greatest footballing superstars of the decade, swimming in money, winning every trophy possible. Congratulations!

I’m sat here with my save on Thursday 1st August 2013 drawing a list of pros and cons about losing a fitness coach to shave my club under the wage budget. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed success. I sent a table of drinks flying when Ben Watson (oh, blessed Ben Watson) volleyed home a 93rd minute winner to beat Spurs 3-2 at home after being two-down at half-time. We’d trained hard all week, I’d been passionate at the pre-match press conference, pored over the scouting reports,



watched them in midweek, and watched it all come unravelled after half an hour.

That winning goal felt like I’d scored it.

I certainly celebrated it like I had, before buying a round of drinks and explaining myself to onlookers with a shrug and “football manager, eh?”. They all understood.

Playing in real-time on a Saturday afternoon, just as Jeff Stelling started to round-up the day’s “real” action, they cut to Craven Cottage where Wigan had escaped with a point that lifted them out of the bottom three. A good day all round, but the distinction between fact and fantasy were beco-ming all that more blurred.I took to Photoshop to find the right angle on the goal replays, and copy the realtimeFM twitter feed to the blog to complete the match report. A couple of hundred people had been following along, and I’d have hugged them all at the final whistle if I could.

A simple “95:02 – Mark Clattenburg says it’s all over” would have to suffice.

A confusing chat followed when I got home as my Arsenal-supporting housemates were chatting excitedly about having tickets for their home game tomorrow. I felt guilty explaining that they’d gone down 2-1 at West Ham. I know, I’d scrolled through their match report after wondering how available Marouane Chamakh was on loan.

That night, they held an intervention.

“Explain yourself.”

I explained.

I manage the team I support on FM, and play it as accurately as possible with regards to the calendar in real-life, managing as much of the club as the game lets me, and report on events in-game as factually as possible, and publish that to a blog.

The blog previews my fixtures, features match reports after the game, talks about transfers, tournaments, statistics, awards, rumours, and the breaking news. It’s a little world I’ve created which ultimately decides my fate within it.

Amusingly, the blog gets its fair share of people not noticing the “Football Manager” in the title who simultaneously “correct” and insult me about whatever I’ve written about. If imitation is the sin-cerest form of flattery, then believing the reports I write as fact must rank just behind it.The weekly roller-coaster ride of being a Wi-gan Athletic fan wasn’t enough apparently, and I thought this would be a great way to either distract myself or find myself absorbed into an alternate reality. It’s most definitely the latter.It’s now Saturday morning, about 3 am, and I’m in my hotel room in Amsterdam after watching Ajax beat Roda 3-0 in their Eredivisie opener. That Da-nish darling Viktor Fischer rounded off the scoring with a beautiful finish with a couple of minutes to go.

I’d left Wigan in the summer and gone to Borussia Dortmund. Jurgen Klopp had gone to Liverpool after Brendan Rodgers was fired for finishing a place below us in the league. My first signing was young Fischer, and I’d seen him score in the flesh on a balmy summer’s night in Amsterdam. I felt so proud of the lad. I took a chance and he’d repaid me.

I’ll not lead Wigan out in the Europa League in Real-Time Football Manager world. But I’ll be there to sing my heart out in September, whomever we get drawn against.

It’s almost as good, right?

The Realtime Football Manager



Cleon Hobson: I love the concept behind Real-Time FM it’s great. I’ve seen other people attempt this style before, even myself, but mine was more of a thread which followed the same concept. But like all those others I quit it due to it been too time consuming and a lot of effort. How do you manage to find the time and most importantly the energy to carry this on day to day?

Grayson Surman: Firstly, thank you very much! I had considered it for FM11 but I’d have had to play so much from fresh to catch-up that it see-med daunting. FM12 came and went sadly. I’ve only typically bought every other version, so the stars aligned for FM13. RTFM was originally three of us after I pitched the idea to my friends Jon and Alistair but Christmas took their toll on those two. I’m genuinely very busy with career, football, partner, etc. but RTFM takes up maybe 45 minutes a day if there’s some graphical work to be done for a blog post. If it’s not a match day I advance the save, screenshot things of note, then compile blog entries during my lunch hour at work and schedule them to post throughout the day.

Matchdays are a different beast though. Typical-ly Saturdays, as you’d imagine, I tend to do the preview and prep Friday night or over breakfast Saturday. I’m then often off at a match of my own, then on the way home via the pub or while cooking dinner, I’ll play my FM match then. In full match mode. That takes about the same time as a normal game. Obviously stoppages are turned around instantly, but the extra time comes from posting “photos” of the goals during the match to twitter, etc.

I read a lot of FM-related blogs, it’s always fasci-nating to see how other people are doing, what gems they uncover and so on. Though I confess I do switch off at those who have barrelled through the game so much that I can’t identify any of the players. Kudos and congrats and all that though. Similarly, and I feel like a bit of a turncoat having got the job at Dortmund, when managers boast of their successes at a gigantic club after they’ve

bought all the superstars, it’s a little... dull, isn’t it? Where was the drama?

I felt confident in my spectacular ability to be slightly underwhelming at everything I turn my attention to, and the thought of GREAT SUCCESS (17th) or TERRIBLE FAILURE (18th) at Wigan was quite amusing. With previous FMs, and I know I’m not alone here, kept spreadsheets and notepads tracking players reactions to being subbed, trans-fer requests, formations, etc. The blog seemed a natural progression of that, so I could look back after a few months and remind myself that, yeah, that Argentine bastard DID throw his toys out the pram when I fined him a weeks’ wages. Screw that guy.

CH: If you were to have a holiday how do you still post updates? Is there some sort of support in place? Or is it only you working on it or do have you some help?

GS: It’s solely me. I’m lucky that while my job sends me here, there and everywhere, I spend a lot of time at airports or sat on tour buses where I can flip the laptop open and F12 a few things to muse over when I get the chance. If I know I won’t have internet access for a while then I tend to play half of my save before I go, then catch-up the other half when I get back. Wordpress takes care of scheduling posts to the blog and twitter to make it look like I’m around! I get back. Wordpress takes care of scheduling posts to the blog and twitter to make it look like I’m around!

CH: With Football Manager 14 out some time towards the end of the year (judging by past ver-sions around November time) how will your site progress? Will you be playing FM14 or sticking with FM13?

GS: I fully intend picking up FM14 and managing my beloved Wigan Athletic in the Championship. I’ve not been so excited about a football season for nearly a decade.




CH: Realistically how long do you see yourself doing this ‘style’ of site for? Is it something you can keep going long term or do you have other ideas and maybe expanding what you current-ly do? Personally I’d like to see it continue but I understand it can be quite an effort to keep this going.

GS: Once I realised that I was committed to RTFM over Christmas (and I’ll be honest, it was rocky) then I thought it probably had a two-year life span before the save gets too abstract compared to rea-lity. I’ll probably mention it on the RTFM blog, just how I’m doing periodically, but I’ll keep the RTFM save going then decide what to do when FM15 looms on the horizon.It’s the only save on any version of FM I play, which was kinda the original idea... see just how doing it like this affects me and how I think about “real” football, and how the leagues compared after X months.

CH: Thanks for taking the time to introduce us to your site, do you have anything you’d like to add?

GS: Thank you for your support and interest! It’s easy to get wrapped-up in my own fictional wor-ld, but when your peers compliment you on it, it’s very flattering. Honoured to be asked to contri-bute.




CCC on tour

Opening DoorsBy Cleon Hobson, Editor

Not for one second did I expect any kind of reply back or to be taken serious. But by some miracle people actually got back in touch with me and were very helpful. I’m still unsure as to why I was taken seriously, maybe it was my pitch and the way I came across in the email? Maybe these people and clubs are just friendly and want to spread the word? I guess I’ll never know the true reasons but nonetheless I am still grateful.

You’d be forgiven for thinking this is made up but so far I’ve had contact with Ajax, a top coach who worked at Liverpool, an Ajax scout, a Football League physio, an ex England U21 player and even a Chairman. I still find it hard to believe myself at times that these people took the time out to respond to my initial email and then took more time to aid me further in my pursuit. After all I was just playing a game, why should they help me?! I’m glad they did though. Some of the mentioned above can already be found on my blog and the rest is still yet to be revealed in this very publica-tion.

When I set out with my initial plan the aim was to see how realistic the game is and compare it to how stuff is actually done in reality. Basically it was to show which aspects of Football Manager have elements of realism to them, which hopefully the series so far has done. It was the interview that I did with Richard Tims, the Chairman of the worlds’ oldest club Sheffield FC, that brought about so-mething really interesting. After interviewing him I was invited to a special event they were having to mark the anniversary of the worlds’ oldest football derby.

The BT Local Business Stadium in Dronfield is the setting to the 153rd edition of the world’s first football derby, between Sheffield Football Club, the worlds’ oldest, founded in 1857, and Hallam Football Club, founded three years later, who also have their roots in the steel city of Sheffield. Since 1860, on Boxing Day December 26th, the two oldest football clubs in the world celebrate the first derby and inter-city football match ever played. Back then it was Sheffield FC against its local rival Hallam FC, the Countrymen. This “Gentleman’s Game” is considered the oldest still-contested derby of any football code in the world, and is probably one of the oldest organised team-sport derbies in the world, besides those found in cricket. The match was first played on the oldest football ground in the World, the Hallam Pitch at Sandygate Lane in the city of Sheffield.

The day itself was a great festive affair and people turned up from all over the world. I met fans who had travelled from Germany, Spain, Italy, Brazil and a host of other countries. It seemed like eve-ryone wanted to celebrate the occasion and make it a memorable day. There was a carnival atmos-phere throughout the day as the footballing world came together to celebrate the history and origins of football.

The day was set out as follows.

F or most people playing Football Manager it’s just a game but have you ever wondered what happens if you decide to take it further? Well I did and I did exactly that. A while back I had the idea of doing a ‘Real Life Meets FM’ article for my blog, so I set about emailing clubs, scouts,

coaches, players past and present and even chairmen.



1 pm

Pioneer Match – dressed like 1857 Veterans of Sheffield FC and Hallam FC celebrate football dressed in the old heritage style.

Ahead of the revival of the World’s Oldest Derby - played since 1860 - the Veterans Teams of Hallam FC and Sheffield FC took on a friendly match in the old heritage style dressed as the players and founders of 1857. This «Pioneers Match» was the official kick-off for the Derby-Festival and was won by the Sheffield FC Veterans Team 6-4 after intensive 90 minutes.

After watching this game it made me think about Football Manager. More importantly it got me questioning why we can’t play specific era’s in the game. How great would it be if we could choose a particular era and play with the correct teams and players from that time period? It wouldn’t have to be every single year that was available as that would probably be overkill. But you could start with adding the most important periods of time so far.

I’m guessing it wouldn’t be an easy task for Sports Interactive to set up but there is demand for this type of thing. It gets brought up quite often on their forums so many people do want to see something like this. I guess it comes down to how many people would actually purchase a database of this kind, some people might just be saying they’d buy it when they don’t really have any intention of doing so. I do think as some sort of add-on and for a reasonable fee though that the demand would be worthwhile.

3pm

Rock ’n Ball - Music meets Football Celebrity match featuring local and national musicians: Re-verend & The Makers vs. Chris Waddle All-Stars

Another highlight of the day was the arrival of former England national team player and Shef-field born Chris Waddle for the setup of a football match against a team build by local musicians starring the popular Rock-Band Reverend & the Makers. The Chris Waddle All-Stars won this clash of «Music meets Football» and joined the cele-brations in honour of the football pioneers born in Sheffield.

5 pm

Tea Time Tribute was given to the successful Sheffield FC Ladies’ Team, who won the Premier League and the Cup competition this year.

The following might be deemed as somewhat controversial but I’d like to see the women’s game added to Football Manager. We can already select to be a female manager so why not go the extra step and add playable leagues and teams? It would require some work to set up because the league structures and teams are different but the initial structures already exist with-in Football Manager already. I realise not everyone would want to play this game mode but they could make it optional and add it as downloadable content on steam. Then those who would like the option to play the women’s version can purchase it for a fee.

Women’s football is growing and becoming more popular so I think it would make a good addition to the current series. How many times have we all fancied a change in our current games so move abroad to a different country? Wouldn’t it be more of a change if we could actually change the game and play as the opposite sex instead of only mo-ving leagues? You could argue that the women’s game isn’t that popular compared to men’s game. But it is a growing sport and there are leagues on Football Manager that aren’t deemed popular already, so what harm could this do?

Opening Doors



6 pm

The Derby: Sheffield FC vs. Hallam FC

After a pure grass roots match of 90 minutes, Sheffield FC has taken the Derby trophy with a 4-2 victory, playing in front of the local Sheffield community as well as fans and media visitors from all over the world. It was a really good game and both sides were up for it as you would imagine in any derby. It really was an advertisement for ‘the heritage of football’.

People have been asking for dynamic rivalries in Football Manager for years, will Football Manager 14 finally deliver on this front? I really hope so be-cause the game changes so dramatically the lon-ger you play it especially if you start in the lower leagues. You gain different kind of rivalries as you make the way through the leagues and progress. The same can be said for teams already at the top too though.

When I was playing as Sheffield FC on the game I managed to take them from the Evo-Stik leagues all the way to the Premiership. On the rise through the football pyramid I developed what I classed as quite a few rivalries with teams who seemed to al-most mirror my progress or stopped me achieving my goals time after time. One of those teams was Oldham Athletic, they had fallen on hard times and found themselves in the Bet Square League. When I achieved promotion to this league we bat-tled for promotion and they managed to pip me to the title leaving me in the playoffs which I won.

The following season we were battling for the title yet again and running each other close, this time we both lost our playoff games. The year after we both took automatic promotion and carried on our new rivalry. This carried on into cup conditions and all the way to The Championship.

It stopped for a while when I made the Premier League as it took Oldham three seasons to get promoted for The Championship. But finally they did manage to make the Premiership after winning the playoffs. So again we renewed this rivalry and it has now progressed into Europe too. It’s just a shame the game doesn’t recognise it as a genuine rivalry.

8 pm

After Party at the Coach & Horses Pub, Sheffield FC Stadium, with live-music by Reverend and The Makers and other local music acts

After the official Derby played between the first squads of Sheffield FC and Hallam FC - the two oldest existing football teams in the world - the derby festivities invited all local and international fans on to the after-party at the Coach & Horses Pub at the Home of Football. Aside of food, drinks and the shared joy about the game football, local Sheffield bands performed their Derby-related songs for the crowds of Sheffield to celebrate the day.

While all the above might not be Football Manager related, it all came about because of the game. Wit-hout it none of this would have been possible at all. Sheffield FC and in particular the Chairman Richard Tims, have been fantastic with providing me information and answering any questions I have, no matter how silly they might seem. Jakub also deserves a special mention for been really helpful and pointing me in the right direction at times to ensure my questions got answered by the correct people. This club really is a community orientated club and have gone above all expectations to help me, a gamer.

Opening Doors



Pointing at the tactics board

Players vs SystemBy Simon Boendermaker

In the (hopefully very) unlikely situation that Pep Guardiola one day wakes up managing Stoke, it’s hard to imagine Robert Huth conti-

nuing to lump long balls up the pitch aimlessly. Or, in some incredible alternative universe where Bayern Munich saw Tony Pulis as a more worthy successor to Jupp Heynckes, we can only imagine the terror Kenwyne Jones would strike into Bun-desliga defences with better supply than Charlie Adam.

My point is that, many of the world’s biggest managers are known for their system and style of play, and no matter where they end up, they will usually try to implement this at a club and fit the players into it, rather than adapting to a style of play that would seem obvious based on their new charges.

Yet, when it comes to FM, many managers will, as one of their first tasks, take a look at the squad screen and almost immediately decide their style of play based on what jumps back at them. Your best player is your AMC? Well, guess you’ll need a formation that exploits his strengths. Your best MC is an advanced playmaker? Seems like a short pas-sing system would be the best way to go then. Yet, with the ease with which it is possible to create a tactic in FM and the high level of scouting that ma-nagers outside of the top flight probably wish they could have on such a regular basis, why do more managers not load up the game with a philosophy and enforce it on their latest club?

I suppose the simple answer is ease. I mean, not many of us can confess to having an in-depth knowledge of Eintracht Frankfurt’s playing style, but opening it up and seeing their best two players are an advanced playmaker and poacher respec-tively, many of us would assume that the best way to play them will be with a short passing style and probably a quick tempo. Already the major tactical

decisions have been made for us just with a curso-ry glance at who our best players are.

Now, what will be said over the next few para-graphs will probably smack of advocating a “plug and play” system where someone has a world beating tactic and just buys the best possible players to fill the individual roles in there. That’s not at all what I hope to conclude, instead I want to show you how sometimes the team will be more important than individuals, especially with the resources many of us have to contend with on FM, and that the “long-termism” of FM makes this an ideal game to follow in the footsteps of real life football.

If we shy away from a real top club with a genuine identity, like many of the more “hardcore” FM players do, then we really do have a blank tem-plate with which to let our imaginations run wild. An example of this is a recent Trabzonspor save I had in FM13, where, not being Galatasaray or Fenerbahce, I knew my best chance of success was building a team on solid foundations and coun-ter-attacking the top teams, while at the same time being able to dominate the lesser teams at the other end of the spectrum of Turkish football.

So, without looking at the squad profile, I opted to play a direct style of football, focusing on ex-ploiting set-pieces and hoping to maximize what few chances I got against the top teams, whilst defeating smaller teams by bombarding them with a barrage of long balls that their defence would eventually be unable to cope with (sounding like a certain Mr. Allardyce who just so happens to manage the English club I support…). But, when looking at the squad screen the squad were, shall we say, unsuited, to that particular brand of foot-ball, without much height, a key player that was a playmaker and a striker who would be best descri-bed as a poacher.



However, undeterred, I pressed on with imple-menting my tactic and trying to import some height from Scandinavia, while hoping that the no-toriously impatient Turkish board members would break their trend with me and allow the philoso-phy to take hold.

After a first season where we just about scraped our season expectations, the time to revolutionise kicked in. One of our natural DCs was retrained to MC to move the height we did have in the team further up, the wide men were replaced from slow, passing, wide midfielders to nippy crossing win-gers and the striker designed to receive the long balls was given the target man (support) duty to lay it off for my AMC, who I had already identified as my best source of goals.

Ultimately, by the mid-season transfer window in that second season, only 4 of the starting XI that I had when I took the club over remained, and then only because they had been moulded over the previous season to fill the roles I had designed for them in the framework of the team.So, while many of you reading this probably asso-ciate this way of playing with pulling players out of position and giving them unfamiliar duties, you are only partially correct. If you have a clear vision of what you want and you invest the time into moul-ding the players to suit the roles you give them rather than the roles they look like they should play, then they will adapt and it will be successful.

If, on the other hand, you don’t prepare your side and then suddenly make changes like putting a DC into the MC slot to have more height in the middle of the park, then the move is inevitably doomed to failure. This is not a case of simply moving people around and expecting results, you have to pay attention to even the smallest details, because if it’s not 100% right then the whole system can collapse on one weak link.

What followed over that second season were fa-mous wins away against Roma, Schalke and Spurs in the Europa League, combined with drubbings

of the relegation fodder at the bottom of the table back in the Super Lig. Clearly, the system that I had set out to implement way back at the start of the first season was bearing fruit in the form of suc-cess on the pitch, but the essential philosophy of the club was being changed at grassroots level too.

Despite having reserve and U-19 managers, I instructed them to use the same system and ap-pointed tutors to younger squad members, which brings me to another point about the system.

Arsene Wenger was considered a pioneer when he brought in psychoanalysis to assist with his trans-fers, yet in FM this is again a key concept that is sometimes ignored. I mean, if you’re going to sign the best playmaker in the world, does it really mat-ter if he doesn’t really fit the squad personality? Well, in that case, probably not, but in my case where strong understanding between my players was of vital importance to success, I decided that we would need a determined squad personality to win those games we were huge underdogs in, but also to have the resolve to grind down the stub-born sides we faced as overwhelming favourites.

Therefore, a vital part of my transfer business was to bring in players with that personality, or that could be tutored to have it and again it showed in the second season. Despite more upheaval in the transfer window and moving players around the pitch to fill in new roles, there was never any advice of problems in squad blending, so whilst we suffered initial problems in the first season with players not really “grasping the concept” as we moved on players were coming into the side and making immediate impacts as they were already comfortable with the rest of the squad’s persona-lity and identity.

Thus, aggregate deficits were overturned, and substitutes came on to score winning strikes, be-cause there was no issue with the blending of the team. So, if you are going to adopt this strategy of putting the team before talented individuals, then makes sure it truly is a team, you can’t have a loyal

Players vs System



squad personality and then having one “ambitious” full-back going on a darting sun forward with no one to cover him suddenly leaving one glaring gap and then all of a sudden costing you the game. This is an issue that could easily have been avoi-ding by picking a full-back who was perhaps less talented but more likely to develop an understan-ding with the other players, his “inadequacy” as an individual would have been compensated by his greater ability to be an important cog in the team unit.

Fans of Rinus Michels’ “Totaal Voetball” system should start to notice similarities between his real-life management style and the implementation of my system. Whilst it was at times described as “chaotic,” the seemingly random lines and swirls created by his sides were only possible because of the extreme tactical discipline of his sides. This “visionless chaos” was in fact the height of foot-balling vision by the father of Total Football, as Michels ensured that every player had an establi-shed role within the side and that there was “Total Understanding” present in every side he built. The only reason his system had such great success was because every player could cover any other player on the field, and any outfield player therefore had the freedom to surge forward and attack, knowing that the tactics drilled into them by Michels would ensure that someone would take up the space they had created.

While I advocate something far more rigid in my example, it is clear that this is yet another way in which the system can be implemented. By buil-ding up a clear picture of each player’s role within the side it is possible to afford more individual licence to some at the expense of others. Whilst individuality may seem at odds with the system as a whole, bear in mind their freedom only comes because of the sacrifice of the unit as a whole. For every Johan Cruijff ripping the opposition to shreds there is a Ruud Krol who must dispense of his at-tacking urges to ensure that their team do not face the same fate when the ball is turned over.

So, is it possible to arrive at a club and enforce a philosophy, rather than play to the strengths of individual players? Yes. In the long-term, is as successful a way of playing the game? Arguably, yes. However, you will be forced to make decisions that sometimes appear to defy the logic of the game, but as the squad adapts to your philosophy, the rewards will gradually become greater, and the hardships of your initial time at the helm (since it will be a gradual process, not many clubs can just buy a new team) will be totally outweighed.

Hopefully this doesn’t sound like I’m advocating “plug and play” tactics and you can see I’m trying to view the game from a new, more genuine, pers-pective and I hope some of you reading this can be inspired to stop and pause as you hover the cursor over the “senior squad” button and ask: “Will I create a legacy, or will I be shaped by legacy?”

I strongly hope you choose the former.

Players vs System




A new way of seeing things

By Shrewnaldo

When Cleon asked me to contribute to this e-book, I had all sorts of spe-cific tactical ideas that I was consi-dering writing about - the virtues of

a back 3 v a back 4; making the most of overlap-ping strength through the centre of the park; the much-misunderstood target man; and a host of even less enthralling subjects.

However, there is a recurring subject that has been nagging me for a while. It’s something I see all the time on various forums, Football Manager sites, Twitter, Facebook and everything in-between. It’s an all-encompassing topic which stems from the simple question of what is the best...?

What is the best role for a striker?What is the best combination for my central midfielders?What is the best marking system to use?What is the best training to use?What is the best pitch size?What is the best PPM for a striker?What is the best tactic for my team?

I’m sure you’ve all seen similar questions asked, perhaps even asked one of them a few times your-self?

Of course, the frustration for me is that they all have the same answer and always will: there is no ‘best’.

With the way that Football Manager is now coded and the improvements made in the match engine, there are no longer game-breaking super tactics. There are no plug-and-play tactics that can be arbitrarily applied to any team and propel you to Champions League success. And the game is all the better for it.

This applies to nearly every area of the game.

There isn’t a secret combination of training and match preparation which will make Accrington Stanley beat Manchester United every week. There is no ‘best’ pitch size to select. There are no ‘best’ attributes to prioritise. There is no ‘best’ selection of leagues to give you a good game.

Football Manager is as subjective as the sport upon which it is based. Who is the current best player in the world? Many will say Messi. Others will say Ronaldo. Fewer may say Xavi, Iniesta, Neymar or Pirlo. Some deluded scousers might even say Gerrard or Suarez. What we can be sure of is that there is no definitive answer. You will have your opinion but that is all it is - an opinion.

Football Manager is exactly the same. The game is all about opinions and variables. Some examples?

Let’s take something simple. You are playing against Tottenham and know that the danger man is Gareth Bale with his extreme dribbling ability. You decide to use the ‘Opposition Instructions’ to help you out. In particular, the ‘tight marking’ ins-tructions. So do you tight mark him?

1. Of course you don’t. It’s best not to tight mark quick players because once they’ll probably get by your marker on at least one occasion and then they’re uncatchable. It’s best to set ‘tight marking’ to rarely and have your defender sit off him, retain your defensive shape and make Bale play around you.

2. Of course you do. You need to stop Bale at source so your defender should get tight and tackle him as he’s receiving the ball. If you have your defender stand off then Bale’s just going to have an opportunity to get up to speed, running at you with the ball and that’s dangerous. It’s best to make sure you mark him tightly.



Both seem reasonable, right? Well that’s because both are reasonable and both will probably work just as described on occasion. Of course what is ‘best’ for you will depend on any number of other variables: the defenders at your disposal, what po-sition Bale is playing in, what formation Spurs are using, what formation you are using, the weather, what sort of service Bale can expect to receive, luck.

An even simpler example? Team talks.

I’ve seen some people suggest that ‘calmly telling the team you expect a win is the best option to use’. What utter nonsense. ‘Advice’ like this just has no cognisance that your game is not the same as everyone else’s game. Just because something seems to work consistently for you does not mean it’s going to work for someone else. In fact, it doesn’t even mean it’s going to work for you in the next fixture.One last example and a very simple one. Take a look at this drawing:

Two identical shapes but the midfield duos are very different. The tactic on the right is mine, whe-reas that on the left is from @MrEdsFM from the excellent Coffehouse: FM Discussion blog.

In mine, the MC is the static player with the more mobile DM providing the vertical movement whilst Eds has gone for the opposite. Neither is better. One or t’other is likely to be stronger in certain situations but likely to be weaker in others. The key to both their successes is that the tactic is based on a solid concept which both Eds and I have applied - or rather a series of concepts. We both wanting a deep holding midfielder to protect the defence, we both wanted a player in the DM level to close the gap between midfield and defence, we both wanted vertical movement through the middle and we both wanted to do this with just two players.



https://twitter.com/MrEdsFM

http://fmcoffeehouse.wordpress.com/


After that, we’ve both understood what the players will do and therefore what attributes they require, what PPM’s may be preferential and what gaps may result which other players around them can compensate.

Neither of us would be stupid enough to suggest that an A(D)/CM(S) or DM(S)/DLP(D) combination is ‘the best’ and that anything else would be less effective.Now, more than ever before, you should be able to implement a successful FM tactic through a process of solid logic and an understanding of how footballers interact on a pitch. Game-breaking tactics are, thankfully, a thing of the past. Even the moronic usual suspects who claim to create ‘plug-and-play’ tactics through a process of mathema-tical trial-and-error have conceded this. Now it’s a ‘plug-and-play tactic as long as you have the right players’... which sounds like any other tactic to me!

This isn’t to say that Football Manager is without its flaws. It is, after all, a computer game which is based on a mathematical code implementing how a small group of people think football works. Both this code and these people are, like everything and everyone, fallible.

Some, perhaps even some other writers in this e-book, will argue that any tactic which is based on sound footballing logic will have success given the right players and right circumstances. I’m not 100% in agreement with that as it suggests that the match engine is perfect, that the coding is per-fect and that the logic of those people who created the game is perfect. I believe that none of these things is true.

For example, central defenders in FM fail to posi-tion themselves appropriately when the opposi-tion is crossing from the byline, in my opinion. To me, the defender should position himself in line with or just in front of the near post to cut out the most dangerous potential path of the ball unless he isolated with an attacker in a more dangerous position.

Should you build a tactic that takes advantage of this flaw and a subsequent patch corrects the er-ror, the response to your complaint would be that your tactic was not logical and took advantage of a weakness in the match engine. So why should that logic not apply to a tactic which you build now that is entirely logical but is susceptible to this speci-fic weakness that is created by the game but not present in true-life football?

Having said that, in my opinion the coders have been doing a pretty damn good job and the match engine is getting better and better. The flaws that remain are fairly minor in comparison to the early days of FM13 and should only dissipate further with each passing iteration of the game.

The ‘FM Community’ is also in a really healthy state at the moment, although that sadly has taken the form of social media style interaction and independent blogs such as my own rather than the old forum system. Nevertheless, there are some fantastic writers ‘on the scene’ just now who really know their stuff - in fact this e-book is full of them - and even the most experienced FM-er should be able to find something new or interesting within.

Anyone who thinks that they know it all and have nothing further to learn, in FM as much as life, is doomed to repeat the same failures over and over again. As Einstein said «wisdom is not the pro-duct of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it». Claiming that your solution is ‘the best’ or asking someone else for their opinion on ‘the best’ attempts to bypass the process of achieving the optimum answer - and through by-passing the process, arrives in entirely the wrong destination.

Henry Miller once said that «one’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things». Whilst this e-book is never going to transform your outlook on life, you just might find a new way of seeing FM. Just don’t expect to be told the best way to play the game





The Creative Fullback

By Matthew Fox

Recently in the papers we’ve heard that Paolo di Canio wants to use tactics last properly implemented during the time of Gary Neville and David Beckham at

Manchester United. He wants to utilise attacking full backs, and have tried and failed to sign players that would enable Sunderland to repli-cate them. The desire is there, but the execution remains to be seen.

Other teams have tried it since Utd achieved it with Neville. Take the wise words of Arsene Wenger who claims that “having a full-back who creates is an important part of winning.” This comes from a statement in November 2011 when the Arsenal full backs included Sagna, Gibbs, Jenkinson and Andre Santos. Ironically the com-ments came about when talking about the latter, probably the worst defensively but a key exponent of something that had gone missing in the full back position, with the exception of Dani Alves, in recent years: Brazilian flair. Of course we can go way back, as Wenger goes on to say, “Take the Brazilian national team, the ones who have won trophies anyway, you will see that there are always two good full-backs. With two average full-backs they would not have won. But they had Carlos Alberto and Roberto Carlos, Jorginho and Cafu.”

There’s one crucial word from Wenger that is the crux behind the idea of an attacking fullback: “creates”. There aren’t many full backs in the world with the ability to be creative, and those that have that ability are often impeded in their creativity by the rigid tactics of their manager. We’ll avoid the obvious examples, being Marcelo, Dani Alves and to an extent Philipp Lahm.

I’m not going to name players we will analyse, we’ll just analyse clubs as a starting point for this. Ever-ton are a good place to start, if you think of the succession of attack minded full backs they

have had over the last few years. Between the three of them, Leighton Baines, Seamus Cole-man and Royston Drenthe, they have amassed, 47 assists in 4 seasons. Of course you can look at other full backs who have recently grown into such an attacking creative role: Patrice Evra has assisted 12 goals in the last two seasons, Glen Johnson 14 for Liverpool in the same time frame, and the top defensive assister last season was in fact Jean Beausejour of Wigan, with 8. Spurs are another good example, with Walker and Assou-Ekotto col-lecting 19 in the last three years. There are more than that, but for the basis of this article we’ll use Everton, and Everton will also form the basis of part two to come in the next edition.

Now you might be saying “Coleman isn’t crea-tive”, but in his own way he is. He goes somewhat outside the natural domain of a full back to provi-de further up the pitch than the position in most ways intends to do, laying on chances for his team. While not as “creatively minded” as Baines, he still has the ability to provide.

In this part we will look at the Everton style and why such attack minded full backs are so effec-tively used, or were used, under David Moyes. I’ve touched on assists as a key denominator in a creative full back, but there’s more to them than that. A creative or attacking full back is involved from the back to the front, bringing the ball out of defence, and will most likely look to pass forwards than backwards.

Firstly we’ll pick out the key player in the Everton full back roles, Leighton Baines. With him being such a high profile player, more statistics are avai-lable for him than for Seamus Coleman, a player I would argue is becoming increasingly important for the Toffee’s cause.



Let’s just consider the amount of chances Baines creates. In the last four seasons, he has finished in the top 12 players for chances created, his lowest being 67 in 2011/12. Last season he created 71 chances, and was one of just three defenders to fi-nish in the top 40 creators. The others? Long term England adversary Ashley Cole and team mate Seamus Coleman.

Moving on to other statistics we can pick out, we can usefully use comparisons made by many people with Ashley Cole, trying to argue their rela-tive merits for the England left back slot. The latest comparisons show just how complete a player Leighton Baines is. In the last two seasons Baines was defensively superior, being dribbled past 34 times in total, compared to a full 67 from Ashley Cole. Now staying away from the comparison as I don’t want to turn this into a Cole v Baines argu-ment, we’ll look at other statistics.Baines passed the ball forwards 74% of the time last season, sideways 15% of the time, meaning he passed it backwards just 11% of the time. This forward thinking is what leads to his high success-ful dribbles, some 41 last season, while he crossed the ball 4 times more than any other full back in the Premier League (with the exception of Seamus Coleman) with some 383 crosses, if only Jelavic could finish…

We can use statistics endlessly though, but we need to consider the theory before applying it in Football Manager. Comments from Arsene Wen-ger back in November 2011 give some food for thought against the 4-4-2.

«[Traditionally] when you play against a 4-4-2 the two strikers stop your centre-backs so the full-backs get the first ball from the goalkeeper. If your full-back gives ball back to the keeper or cannot get out of a tight situation you have to kick the ball forward.»

If you’ve watched Everton much over the last 18 months you’ll see what I’m trying to demonstrate here. This simplistic diagram shows just how easily Everton get down the side of an opponent, parti-cularly Seamus Coleman. Using Wenger’s theory above we can see how the ball would go to the full backs against a 4-4-2, leaving them as free men with attacking ability and space.




There needs to be some defensive cover though with this kind of overlap, which is why at times you’ll see Fellaini (if playing holding midfield) dropping back, or Darron Gibson doing the same. You’ll also see Pienaar in particular hold back as Baines flies forward down the left to cover the left back slot. Using this image you can see Baines has advanced higher up the pitch, and Gibson in this instance has dropped back. This is a carbon copy of what happened against Aston Villa just last season. This led to a goal (the player names are not correct - I’m using typical line ups here).

While being able to be effective in the last third of the pitch, and in the defensive third, many full backs seem to get lost in the middle third, looking at players such as Joe Bennett of Aston Villa, and Adriano of Barcelona in this instance. The ac-tion of a full back here should be to maintain the width, to stretch the play and defence, while also providing an out ball. On countless occasions the Everton full backs looked great at this last season, unsurprisingly, Villa was one team they were great against. I happen to have this game recorded, hence these drawings of this match. Coleman got oceans of space on numerous occasions, this comes from about halfway through the first half, Bennett is nowhere, despite the ball still being in centre field.




For each of these three “parts” of a full backs game, when related to FM, you need specific attributes to fulfil them most effectively. That’s why a full back is one of the most rounded players, and you’ll often discover that they are more than capable of playing roles such as central midfield. Obviously for defensive third you’re looking at tackling among others, middle third passing is key, while in the attacking third you’re looking at cros-sing. But that’s only technicals, mentals are much more subjective on what is important for such a role, I’d make cases for concentration, work rate, and the two positional attributes, positioning and off the ball, among others. Physicals I’d argue the whole lot except jumping. These will all be covered more in part 2, I don’t want to set parameters.

With that in mind, I’d like some suggestions from people, get in contact with us, I want some full backs to use to demonstrate how this highly effec-tive tactic can be used in FM. I don’t want to know about Dani Alves, nor Darijo Srna, I want players that are far more unknown.

Get your thinking caps on!





Zone and band systems: applying tactical concepts

By NakS

In Football Manager, it’s easy to get dragged into micromanaging every aspect of the game - especially the tactical side - hoping to find out a tactical sweet spot using sliders and

heavy tinkering on a game-by-game basis. I used to play this way for a while, from this analytical and mathematical perspectives, playing the game with the determinism of an experimentalist phy-sics scientist, my daily job.

After all, this game may be considered as nothing more than a complex spreadsheet filled with num-bers as inputs, be it attributes or sliders. The inputs then go through a black box filled with equations, which are supposed to represent how football actually works. Finally, you have a result and an updated spreadsheet, and you are ready to press continue and repeat the process.

So my final aim was to gain inside knowledge of this black box. What is going to happen to the percentage of on-target shots if I put mentality on 15 with my 10 finishing striker? With 5 mentality? With 10 mentality and finishing 18? What about 16 creative freedom then? Could I calculate a qua-dratic average of creativity, flair and teamwork to determine the perfect spot for creative freedom?

That’s inextricable and meaningless to say the least. This kind of exhaustive and abstract method will never get any results for reasons I won’t bo-ther explaining here. The positives of this venture were that I learned how the match engine behaves and what its limits are. Nonetheless, even if I was performing quite well, I didn’t like the feeling of it. Spiritless. I wasn’t managing. I was just optimizing a spreadsheet with a football layout; the one thing I wasn’t optimizing was the most important: my enjoyment of the game.

At this time I started to conceptualize sliders and trying to put words on numbers. I still needed

a logical framework to work into and fresh infor-mation to think onto. I literally spent hours reading tactics forums all over the scene, scouring for every piece of information that could help me to move away from exploiting the match engine and move towards feeling like a true manager. At the same time, I started to follow closely tactical analyses and I even bought some tactics books to perfect and polish my knowledge of the game, the real football game.

I realized then how much football managing is first and foremost a matter of opinion and tactical concepts. Tactics are not about permanent statis-tics monitoring and computing to find that parti-cular sweet spot that will win that game. In fact, a manager can control a lot of things, except the game in itself. It’s all about decision making guided by information and tactical concepts at your dispo-sal, then filtered by your own opinions and prefe-rence.

So, in an edition of Football Manager, I completely overhauled my thinking. Instead of being gamey I went for a more holistic, simulation and realistic approach. I started putting tactical concepts to-gether and manned up, finally putting into prac-tice what I feel I have understood. I had to refrain from overanalysing and overthinking things from a statistical point of view. I faced defeats, taking on board what I could when everything went badly wrong. It was not an easy step since it meant trusting my decision making process based on my burgeoning football knowledge. But, at the end of the day, it proved to be a worthwhile exercise. My learning curve has been an enjoyable journey. I am now playing along the mantra: any sound tac-tical system should work …Well, in theory. In other words, with a perfect game this belief rings true. Indeed, there are some limitations in the match engine for a number of recent tactical concepts, but most of the time it proves to be true.



At the same time, Football Manager has evolved towards more conceptual tactical tools: the tactical creator and shouts combination is now the main way in which managers can influence their teams’ tactical style. FM has become more and more dif-ficult to break down with super tactics exploiting the holes in the match engine, and instead more logical and coherent set-ups are rewarded. So, I have finally caught up with the game, embraced the tools at my disposal - and I have the fun back. I am now going to present a zone and band sys-tem highlighted with my current tactical identity.

The drawing presented here represents how a football pitch may be split into 18 different zones. Some are, of course, more important than others and I will expand on this later. It’s not my concept - actually, the first time I heard, by luck, about a zone system was in reading an article published back in 2002 in the Telegraph.

At that time, I didn’t know how useful it would be as a basic tool to help me apply football concepts in Football Manager. Now I use it tocontrol depth and width in my team. Then, I can spot easily, zone by zone, if players are going into each others’ way and if their movement makes sense from a team point of view. Maybe I don’t have enough width by playing with 2 inverse wingers without offensives fullbacks? Maybe I have too many players in zone 11 and I am missing a body up front? Do I really need a defensive midfielder for that game? Where my playmaker will have more space to dictate play?

The zone system is obviously good at delimiting space and spot overcrowding or undercrowding, but football is about time as well. So I decided to consider attacking and defensive shape, separa-tely. For each shape, I then picture how transitions phases may develop to switch to the other shape. For example how will my attacking transition look when we regain the ball back? By the same logic, am I exposed to counter-attacks when my team is going back?

What will be the consequence of using a highly creative striker and two gung-ho dribbling wingers when in possession? Do I want my striker to drop deep or exploit space behind the defensive line on the counter?How am I going to deal with their overload on flanks in defence? How will it impact my offensive play?

As a result, I have eleven players, a basic forma-tion, 2 shapes and 4 different phases…and a lot of questions. I am using this zone system to build my defensive structure and my offensive movement. My main concern is to control space used by each players, movements and spacing between players in each phase. It’s all about space allocation for each player with his own abilities and how they are in agreements with your footballing philosophy. But some zones are more important than other in each phase.

Zone and band systems : applying tactical concepts


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/3028353/Scientists-find-footballs-golden-square.html


Zone 17 is the main goal-scoring zone. All shots in that area have a high probability of being dan-gerous. Thus, my aim is to have different type of threats on goal coming directly from that zone. It could be a poacher lurking for a goal, a powerful striker pinning central defenders, or, indirectly, a deep-lying striker creating space with his move-ments and a false 10 type of player, arriving late in that zone or inside forwards coming inside from the flanks. A multi-faceted sassing supply in this zone should be your priority.

Zones 13-14-15 are usually the goal-supply area, long-range opportunities and indirect threats. In-side forwards are usually potent cutting inside from zones 13 and 15 and taking chances at mid-range in zone 14 or even in zone 17 if its not overcrowded. Wingers and wing strikers will prosper in zone 13 and 15 as well, putting crosses or dribbling past an opponent to have a clear way into zone 17. Zone 14 is one of the most important and controlling this zone is usually highly beneficial with creative players feeding strikers from just in front of the goal-scoring zone. A more direct approach might work as well with a shadow striker waiting for the right time to surge into zone 17 for a goal oppor-tunity. A central winger may move outside zone 14 towards a flank to create an overload allowing a deep runner to move towards goal.

Zone 10-11-12 are controlling and recycling zones. Centrally, a deep lying playmaker will dictate play and recycle possession, switching the ball from flank to flank or trying to make an incisive pass into zone 13-14-15 or even a long ball towards zone 17. Zones 10 and 12 will be used by creative wingbacks towards zone 13 and 15 in order to combine with other players, dribble past an opponent, attempt a through ball or put a cross from deep into the box. Usually, players in these 3 zones will see a lot of the ball.Regarding the defensive side, zones 2-5 must be core defensive structure zones, and 4-6 to an extent. In other words, your defensive structure must restrict time and space as much as possible to prevent easy passes, crosses or shots. It’s very

likely that a missed tackle or interception in these zones results in a goal scoring opportunity.

Zones 7-8-9, and to an extent 4 and 6 as well, are pressuring zones. This is where your players must close down opponent to disrupt their playmaking and reduce their time on the ball. If closing down is instructed correctly, you may win the ball back. At worst, opponent’s passing will be less accurate thus creating a second layer of interception.

Of course, in the case of a more pro-active de-fence with a very high line and closing down, your structure will be a lot higher but the same principles still apply. If your central defenders are standing in zone 8, then zone 11 is core defensive structure zone. Your pressuring line will be with players in zones 10-12-13-14-15.

But this tool is nothing without key tactical concepts - width, depth, role, movement, players’ abilities - and a footballing philosophy. I have a few tactical preferences I am comfortable with and that I like to implement in the game; in other words, my tactical identity.

Spare man at the back

Very simply, I am quite reactive against opponent’s offensive system and I always want a spare man, usually a sweeper or a libero if one of my defen-ders is out of position or has got skinned. I have listed the 5 most frequent cases I face. Keep in mind this is only my base defensive system which reacts to the opponents’ players in ST-AM strata. For each case, I have highlighted key defensive zones.




1. Against 2 forwards with no attacking midfielders I always go for a back three with a libero that could push a bit forward when in possession to start transition in zone 8. The two outer central defen-ders are very mobile, aggressive in their defensive behaviour and have to deny space in the key zone 5. I am happy for them to venture into zone 4 or 6 since my libero is covering zone 5 directly or swee-ping in zone 2.

2. Against 2 forwards with a central attacking mid-fielder, I always play a back three with a defensive midfielder. Basically, my thinking is to counter the deep threat in zones 5 and 8 by denying space thanks to a defensive midfielder. The spare man is a sweeper and not a libero; I don’t expect him to venture forward anymore since the defensive mid-fielder is already occupying that space. Instead, I favour a more creative defensive midfielder to ini-tiate transition from zone 8, keep the play flowing and recycle the ball. I am fighting an attacking trio with a defensive diamond.

3. Against 2 forwards and 2 wingers, my base de-fensive system is composed of 5 players. I usually play wingbacks to monitor their wing players in addition to my usual back three. I am still confor-table with the outer DC covering wide if necessary since my libero is covering the centre of the pitch. Offensive transition may be initiated by the libero pushing into zone 8 or wingbacks advancing into zone 7 and 9.

4. Against 1 forward and 1 one attacking midfielder, my main concern is to deny space in zones 5 and 8 by using a defensive midfielder. I usually go for a back four in this configuration and I don’t have a designated spare man, it is just one of my centre back. If one is moving out wide, the othershuffles across the pitch to keep cover in zone 5 and keep the shape of the defence. The defensive triangle denies the opposition space in zone 5 and 2.

5. When facing an attacking diamond composed of a lone forward supported by a central attacking midfielder and 2 wing players, I go for a standard back four with wingback. If one of the wingbacks are skinned, either the defensive midfielder or one of the centre back need to cover out wide. The de-fensive midfielder in zone 8, supported by fullback in zone 7 and 9, leads transition.

2

1

3

4

5




Diamond midfield

I like using 4 midfielders either in a diamond or box shape structure. It adds depth to my midfield and offers a greater variety of passing angles. More importantly, it adds numbers in the centre of the pitch in an attempt to control zones 11 and 14. I like to control possession in midfield. If I want to em-phasize depth, then I go for the diamond structure. Indeed, it offers a deep passing outlet to recycle possession if under pressure and at its tip, a player between lines. Of course, a dynamic box shape could do the same.I usually go for a “Dutch” playmaking trio and a shadow striker.

The deepest one is the defensive deep lying playmaker. His job is to protect zone 5 in defence phase. In attacking transition, he builds from the back and passes to more creative players in front of him. In defensive transition, he intercepts long balls and covers midfielders making runs from deep. In attacking phase, he is recycles possession (blue arrow) simply in zone 8/11. Deep-Lying Play-maker - Defend or Support.

The controlling playmaker is the real heartbeat of the team. In defensive phase, he closes down in zone 5 and 8, and could press out wide if necessa-ry. In attacking transition, he collects the ball from defence and tries to look for a forward pass. In defensive transition, he closes down or marks

the opposition’s forward passing outlet. In attacking phase, he must be the king of zone 11, orchestra-ting play, switching flanks and making forward passes (red arrows). Deep-Lying Playmaker or Ad-vanced Playmaker - Support.

The incisive playmaker is a highly creative and mobile player, very intelligent in his movement, always with an eye for the pass. He floats between lines, offering passing outlets and quickly changing the point of attack, feeding the forwards or drib-bling. In the defensive phase and defensive transi-tion, he is doing the exact same job as the control-ling playmaker. In the attacking transition, his job is to find space in midfield to help bring the ball forward. In the attacking phase, he is supposed to float between zone 11 and 14 (dotted arrows), com-bining with the attacking midfielder and controlling playmaker. He may also move out wide to play with wing players. Advanced Playmaker – Attack.

The shadow striker is a highly mobile and technical withdrawn striker. In defensive phase and defen-sive transition, he is expected to disturb opponent play construction at the top of their zone 8 or zone 11. In attacking transition, he must find space between midfield and defence. In attacking phase, the shadow striker is playing just behind the main striker, moving between zone 14 and 17 (dotted arrows). He is a threat at dribbling and shooting but could still make an assist. Inside Forward or Attacking Midfielder - Support.




Attacking down 5 channels

This simply means that I want one player threate-ning in each of the pitch’s five vertical bands. If I construct my team around a four-man midfield like in the previous example, it usually means I have 2 wide midfielders motoring each flank, 2 central midfielders dictating play and a mobile duo of a striker and a shadow striker.

In this drawing, the 2 widemen are not operating on the same depth, the left one being a wide mid-fielder or winger with a support duty and the other a winger on an attack duty. For the former, his role is to leave attacking space for the incisive play-maker to move into, make crosses at mid range and arrive late at the far post. The right one being a winger – attack, who I want to dribble and cross from the byline. He may as well beat his man and open his way to goal. Obviously, they both need to stay wide in their band (1 and 5) to stretch play horizontally.

In this kind of system, I like to have an all-round, very mobile forward that could create space by its movement horizontally or by dropping deep. I usually pick a complete forward – attack. The duty means he will try to push back opponent backline, creating space between the lines for my shadow striker as well as moving horizontally and propo-sing passing outlets. I like him to work horizontally

across 3 bands or even 5 bands in attacking phases. If I feel he is getting isolated, I switch to a support duty. The shadow striker is instructed to work rather centrally in band 3, moving into any space vacated by the complete forward in band 2-3-4 at most. The shadow striker works more vertically, adding depth and vertical movement to the attack.

With their playmaking abilities, the two playma-kers are connecting each flank by staying in band 2 and 4. They are feeding the attacking duo and widemeb as well. They operate at different depths in order to force the opponent to close down high, thus disrupting their own defensive shape, creating space and facilitating passing around them.

I hope this article gives you an idea of the tools I am using in tactic creation on Football Manager, as well as an insight into my own tacticals principles about using space and time. I hope you enjoyed this write-up, and of course I hope it made some sense!




About CCC

Contributors and informationClear Cut Chance, Issue One

Contributors

Cleon Hobson, Editor - @Cleon81 – The Chalkboard Diaries. Cleon is an FM veteran who has been involved with the FM community for over ten years. Nowadays he runs his own blog, The Chalkboard Diaries and mode-rates the official Sports Interactive Forums.

Jarrod Birch, Editor - @PushThemWide – Push Them Wide. Better known as Jad, Jarrod makes up one half of the FM tactics blog Push Them Wide, where he writes frequent posts about tactics, training, team building and FM management.

Matthew Fox, Deputy Editor - @matthewrfox – The Away Stand. Foxo is one of the owners of FM forum The Away Stand and frequently writes tactical articles on TAS and Push Them Wide. NakS, Deputy Editor and Graphic Design - @NakSFM - FMEurope. NakS is the man behind the beautiful design of CCC. He has also established himself as one of the most knowledgeable sources of information on tactics and training in the FM community.

Shrewnaldo - @Shrewnaldo – Football Manager Veteran. A long-time writer at The Dugout, Shrewnaldo has gained greater exposure in the last year thanks to his tremendous blog, FM Veteran.

Grayson Surman - @RealTimeFM – Real Time FM. Grayson is the man behind Real Time FM, a brilliantly unique concept which sees him update followers on his matches in real time.

Simon Boendermaker. Simon spends much of his FM time on The Away Stand, where he is well known for his strong opinions and unshakeable tactical philosophy.

Special thanks to:

Jed Davies – @TPiMBW – jeddavies.comMatt Neil - @mattneil_ Reggie Herringbone - @rtherringbone – When Seagulls Follow The Trawler

Contact us

Follow us on twitter - @clearcutchanceWebsite - clearcutchance.com

Disclaimer

Clear Cut Chance Magazine is intended for education and entertainment and is not affiliated with Sports Interactive, Football Manager or SEGA. Sports Interactive, the Sports Interactive logo, in-game generated images and any other Football Manager related items are registered trademarks and/or copyright material owned by Sports Interactive, or their respective trademark and copyright holders.SEGA and the SEGA logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of SEGA Corporation. Football Manager, Sports Inte-ractive and the Sports Interactive logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Sports Interactive Limited. All rights reserved.


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