Deeper approach of top 11, for both beginners and high lvl player "including arrows"

[gohannie]

Firstly, Im actually not writing this to make it sticky or watsoever, as i know this game is not new anymore, some of you might already knew how this game works, despite of how deep your understanding is. Fortunately, I got some spare facebook accounts (as i played restaurant city fb games be4 so i have around 20 sub accounts) to test all the controversially rumors, prediction, guessing, of how this game works.
Yes, i tried like 20 different formations on the 20 sub accounts (non token purchasers), just play for fun and testing, the lowest lvl of these subs is now lvl 11 and i havent bought 5 star players since not so many tokens from daily bonuses. Ok, let'ts go now.

1. Formation:
There are many formation, and each varies from others. Better not to assume that you know the best formation as none is best, one counters other and be countered by others. For beginners, recommended formation are 4-4-2 classic, 4-3-3 classic, 3-5-2 classic. And yes you can tweak these formation a bit with arrows to make it run as you want your team to perform. However, after lvl 10, you need to choose your most favorite ones and stick with it, as countered formation is only theory and methodology but not really working here as each team varies from one to another. For example, Barcelona and Real Madrid are now playing 4-3-3 (4-3-2W-1) and none butterfly formation can beat them up, the reason is team quality, different key players etc.
2.Tactic:
2.1. Team mentality: yes, it is up to you, but as i figured it out:
- Teams playing with 3 defenders should be playing normal or attacking as you have more player up-field.
- Teams playing with 4 defenders should also be playing normal or attack
- Teams playing with 5 defender must be playing defensive with counter attack, however, normal is also optional if your team average quality is higher compared with your rival. Just dont do attack as game engine might punish you somehow.
These approaches go despite the use of dmc since dmc is also considered as mid-field line.
2.2. Focus passing: Interesting part, some like it flanks, some love it middle, some want it mixed.
However, I divide formation in 2 types:
- Formation with wings player (except fullbacks): Some known are 4-4-2, 4-2-2-2, 4-3-2-1, 3-2-2-2-1...: Some pro suggested newbies to select attacking down both flanks. Uhm, I dont say it is wrong, but it's not as effective as it should be. Apart from wingers, you still have 2 mcs out field and if you notice well, if choosing attack down flanks, your 2 mcs have very bad rating no matter they are scout players or not.
Solution is: formation and red arrows decide how your players behave not the focusing passing one. Accordingly, if you have really good wingers, red arrows on them, and get the focus mixed so your 2 mc will well contribute to the team, just less than two wingers but aint much and your wingers will go up more than these 2 mcs.
- Formation with 2 fullbacks are your only wingers: It means you have most of the players in the middle. You shall not choose mixed passing in this case. Through the middle is a must since mixed passing fails because you have only 2 fullbacks on 2 wings and it might be a disaster if you face any team with more than 2 wingers, there will be more chances for them to launch counter-attacks.
2.3. Pressing style: There will be 3 types
- Before the match:
Any formation with only 3 defenders (defending line with dr,dc,dl) in your own half and many attackers in opponent half should be playing whole pitch pressure since you have more players in the other half for range-defending. Example: 3-3-2W-2, 3-2-3W-2 or similar types.
Formation with 4,5 defenders (defending line with dr,dc,dl) in your own half should be playing own half pressing.
Formation with 3 defenders and 1 or more defensive midfield are capable playing own half pressing as your dmc/r/l will help defending if needed.
- During the match: If you are loosing and nothing else to loose, go for whole-pitch no matter what kind of formation you are using. Never go whole pitch if you are winning. However, whole-pitch goes will with attacking and hard attacking mode, with hard tackling mode since most of your players are in the other half, and you dont want your rival deliver the ball up to your own half.
- Logic: Logically, attacking with wholepitch and offside traps, normal without either offside and counter, defending with own half and counter attack (plus long or mixed passing)
2.4. tackling style: Go normal is a suggestion, forget the easy mode, however, hard tackling is optional if you play whole-pitch or against much better opponent without free-kick specialist.
2.5.Passing style: Controversially, some like it short, some love it long. Logically, attacking down flanks needs long passes, attacking through middle requires short passes BUT with the use of DMC (some might use more than 1), Short or long shall be highly considered, hence the MIXED choice is always the BEST. However, in some specific cases, short or long passing should be adapted to get better result. Examples, stronger 4-1-2-1-2 shall be using short passing to break the 4-4-2 classic to make the attacking more effective.
2.6 Marking style:
- ZOnal mark: you should use this generally, mainly but it doesnt mean zonal mark is the only marking style.
- Man on man: Perfectly use if lower quality team plays against better team with SAME formation: For example: a lower 4-4-2c team will get very nice result using man on man marking against better 4-4-2c team (or 4-3-3 c against 4-3-3), it means same qtty players on same line (it doesnt mean a 4-5-1V style shall be using man on man against 4-5-1 v style).
3. This should be the most interesting part of my thread. ARROWS
We all know the only answer from the development dep for arrows is Amr,L with red arrows will be playing as wing strikers. However, after several attempts, efforts trying to get to understand and figure out how arrows work from nearly 20 seasons, i believe i found how arrow works.
3.1. Defenders: Logically, defenders dont need blue arrows as their main responsibility is to defend already. However, there are some exception as below:
- formation with 3 dcs and 1 dmc, the middle dc with blue arrow will act nicely as a sweeper
- Formation with 3 dcs and 2 dmcs, the 2 dc (not the middle one) with blue arrows with act nicely as 2 sweepers, very effective against formation with AMR/L
- Formation attack down both flanks (fullbacks are not the only players on 2 wings) with fullbacks are capable playing 2 position (Dr/dmr, DL/dml), red arrows on these 2 fullbacks will boom boom boom for sure.
Briefly, red arrows make your defs go up a bit, to avoid long shot but will be victim for one on one situation. Blue arrows make your defs go back, tend to act as sweeper, ideal for avoid one on one, but weak againts long shot. This has been clearly, nicely explained by dv8rt in our forum and THIS IS ABSOLUTELY CORRECT.
3.2. Defensive midfielders: Known as DMC,DMR,DML
- DMC with capability playing as dc (DC/DMC) with blue arrow will perform nicely with higher rating
- DMR/L with capability playing as (DR,DL) with blue arrow, better rating
- DMR/L with capability playing as (MR/L) with red arrow, better rating
3.3. Midfielders: (MC,MR,ML): If you notice well, you never see any mc with 2 position, different stories with Mr/L as you might see a Mr/Amr or a Ml,Dml ones. These actually explains alot:
- dont go red arrows with MC unless you have scout players (who is far better than the one who zone marks him). Yes, red arrows work on MC, it helps our MC to go up more often, but in contrast if your mc is not good enough, you can see your mc waste alot of chances as they tend to long shot and drible more. Accordingly, leave your mc without arrow shall be the best choice.
- a mr/amr is allowed for red arrows as the arrow sends him closer to the rival pitch delivering passes, long shot or cut inside. Dont put blue arrows on him as it makes his rating down.
- a ml/dml will perform much better with a blue arrow on him, as the arrow make him moving back quite a bit, helping defenders, zone mark, launch the counter attack....Dont put red arrows on him as it makes his rating down and the team will perform less effective.
- Just leave any player with 1 position with no arrows as he migh go up for attacking (occasionally) or go back for defending as what the system explained to us.
3.4. Attacking mid-fielder: Red arrows are recommended in all cases as what the dev dep has told us. However there is one exception as an Amr/mr (aml,ml) still play well with a blue arrow as he might go down a bit help defending in the mid of the field and it raises his rating by end of the match.
4. Strikers: Dont go blue in any cases. Red arrows make him play more behind the line, suitable for long passing and mixed passing but will be less effective if your rival plays offside trap. However, red arrows on Sts are still a good choice as not so many teams playing offside trap (keep your eyes open for teams playing with 3 defenders, most of them use attack whole pitch with offside trap) as with red arrows you will be given more free kicks, coner kicks, and your sts score more from those oppurtinities. "it has been rumoured around, and i think it is true because with red arrow, your st will be the man who is closest to the post and have most chances to receive the ball from these free (coner) kicks". However, if you have 1 (or more) good striker, leave him with no arrow, he still pays you well no matter what.
What else you need to know or you wanna share with others, just press like first and leave your comments.
Thanks for reading

[Cat Harrison]

Wow! Very nice. I think this should be in Tutorials, though. Would you mind if I copied it there?

[Christian Christiansen]

Very nice tutorial very useful too

[Dman2pt]

Great job!

And your explanation with the arrows is very good, makes all the sense.

[Skidz]

Firstly, Im actually not writing this to make it sticky or watsoever, as i know this game is not new anymore, some of you might already knew how this game works, no matter how deep your understanding is. Fortunately, I got some spare facebook accounts (as i played restaurant city fb games be4 so i have around 20 sub accounts) to test all the controversially rumors, prediction, guessing, of how this game works.
Yes, i tried like 20 different formations on the 20 sub accounts (non token purchasers), just play for fun and testing, the lowest lvl of these subs is now lvl 11 and i havent bought 5 star players since not so many tokens from daily bonuses. Ok, let'ts go now.

1. Formation:
There are many formation, and each varies from others. Better not to assume that you know the best formation as none is best, one counters other and be countered by others. For beginners, recommended formation are 4-4-2 classic, 4-3-3 classic, 3-5-2 classic. And yes you can tweak these formation a bit with arrows to make it run as you want your team to perform. However, after lvl 10, you need to choose your most favorite ones and stick with it, as countered formation is only theory and methodology but not really working here as each team varies from one to another. For example, Barcelona and Real Madrid are now playing 4-3-3 (4-3-2W-1) and none butterfly formation can beat them up, the reason is team quality, different key players etc.
2.Tactic:
2.1. Team mentality: yes, it is up to you, but as i figured it out:
- Teams playing with 3 defenders should be playing normal or attacking as you have more player up-field.
- Teams playing with 4 defenders should also be playing normal or attack
- Teams playing with 5 defender must be playing defensive with counter attack, however, normal is also optional if your team average quality is higher compared with your rival. Just dont do attack as game engine might punish you somehow.
These approaches go despite the use of dmc since dmc is also considered as mid-field line.
2.2. Focus passing: Interesting part, some like it flanks, some love it middle, some want it mixed.
However, I divide formation in 2 types:
- Formation with wings player (except fullbacks): Some known are 4-4-2, 4-2-2-2, 4-3-2-1, 3-2-2-2-1...: Some pro suggested newbies to select attacking down both flanks. Uhm, I dont say it is wrong, but it's not as effective as it should be. Apart from wingers, you still have 2 mcs out field and if you notice well, if choosing attack down flanks, your 2 mcs have very bad rating no matter they are scout players or not.
Solution is: formation and red arrows decide how your players behave not the focusing passing one. Accordingly, if you have really good wingers, red arrows on them, and get the focus mixed so your 2 mc will well contribute to the team, just less than two wingers but aint much and your wingers will go up more than these 2 mcs.
- Formation with 2 fullbacks are your only wingers: It means you have most of the players in the middle. You shall not choose mixed passing in this case. Through the middle is a must since mixed passing fails because you have only 2 fullbacks on 2 wings and it might be a disaster if you face any team with more than 2 wingers, there will be more chances for them to launch counter-attacks.
2.3. Pressing style: There will be 3 types
- Before the match:
Any formation with only 3 defenders (defending line with dr,dc,dl) in your own half and many attackers in opponent half should be playing whole pitch pressure since you have more players in the other half for range-defending. Example: 3-3-2W-2, 3-2-3W-2 or similar types.
Formation with 4,5 defenders (defending line with dr,dc,dl) in your own half should be playing own half pressing.
Formation with 3 defenders and 1 or more defensive midfield are capable playing own half pressing as your dmc/r/l will help defending if needed.
- During the match: If you are loosing and nothing else to loose, go for whole-pitch no matter what kind of formation you are using. Never go whole pitch if you are winning. However, whole-pitch goes will with attacking and hard attacking mode, with hard tackling mode since most of your players are in the other half, and you dont want your rival deliver the ball up to your own half.
- Logic: Logically, attacking with wholepitch and offside traps, normal without either offside and counter, defending with own half and counter attack (plus long or mixed passing)
2.4. tackling style: Go normal is a suggestion, forget the easy mode, however, hard tackling is optional if you play whole-pitch or against much better opponent without free-kick specialist.
2.5.Passing style: Controversially, some like it short, some love it long. Logically, attacking down flanks needs long passes, attacking through middle requires short passes BUT with the use of DMC (some might use more than 1), Short or long shall be highly considered, hence the MIXED choice is always the BEST. However, in some specific cases, short or long passing should be adapted to get better result. Examples, stronger 4-1-2-1-2 shall be using short passing to break the 4-4-2 classic to make the attacking more effective.
2.6 Marking style:
- ZOnal mark: you should use this generally, mainly but it doesnt mean zonal mark is the only marking style.
- Man on man: Perfectly use if lower quality team plays against better team with SAME formation: For example: a lower 4-4-2c team will get very nice result using man on man marking against better 4-4-2c team (or 4-3-3 c against 4-3-3), it means same qtty players on same line (it doesnt mean a 4-5-1V style shall be using man on man against 4-5-1 v style).
3. This should be the most interesting part of my thread. ARROWS
We all know the only answer from the development dep for arrows is Amr,L with red arrows will be playing as wing strikers. However, after several attempts, efforts trying to get to understand and figure out how arrows work from nearly 20 seasons, i believe i found how arrow works.
3.1. Defenders: Logically, defenders dont need blue arrows as their main responsibility is to defend already. However, there are some exception as below:
- formation with 3 dcs and 1 dmc, the middle dc with blue arrow will act nicely as a sweeper
- Formation with 3 dcs and 2 dmcs, the 2 dc (not the middle one) with blue arrows with act nicely as 2 sweepers, very effective against formation with AMR/L
- Formation attack down both flanks (fullbacks are not the only players on 2 wings) with fullbacks are capable playing 2 position (Dr/dmr, DL/dml), red arrows on these 2 fullbacks will boom boom boom for sure
3.2. Defensive midfielders: Known as DMC,DMR,DML
- DMC with capability playing as dc (DC/DMC) with blue arrow will perform nicely with higher rating
- DMR/L with capability playing as (DR,DL) with blue arrow, better rating
- DMR/L with capability playing as (MR/L) with red arrow, better rating
3.3. Midfielders: (MC,MR,ML): If you notice well, you never see any mc with 2 position, different stories with Mr/L as you might see a Mr/Amr or a Ml,Dml ones. These actually explains alot:
- dont go red arrows with MC unless you have scout players (who is far better than the one who zone marks him).
- a mr/amr is allowed for red arrows as the arrow sends him closer to the rival pitch delivering passes, long shot or cut inside. Dont put blue arrows on him as it makes his rating down.
- a ml/dml will perform much better with a blue arrow on him, as the arrow make him moving back quite a bit, helping defenders, zone mark, launch the counter attack....Dont put red arrows on him as it makes his rating down and the team will perform less effective.
- Just leave any player with 1 position with no arrows as he migh go up for attacking (occasionally) or go back for defending as what the system explained to us.
3.4. Attacking mid-fielder: Red arrows are recommended in all cases as what the dev dep has told us. However there is one exception as an Amr/mr (aml,ml) still play well with a blue arrow as he might go down a bit help defending in the mid of the field and it raises his rating by end of the match.
4. Strikers: Dont go blue in any cases. Red arrows make him play more behind the line, suitable for long passing and mixed passing but will be less effective if your rival plays offside trap. However, red arrows on Sts are still a good choice as not so many teams playing offside trap (keep your eyes open for teams playing with 3 defenders, most of them use attack whole pitch with offside trap) as with red arrows you have more free kicks, coner kicks, and your sts score more from coner or free kicks. These has been rumoured around. However, if you have 1 (or more) good striker, leave him with no arrow, he still pays you well no matter what.
What else you need to know or you wanna share with others, just press like first and leave your comments.
Thanks for reading

Nice thread. I will just tweak a few of your points!. For playing 3-1-4-2 (DL,DC,DR,DMC,ML,MC,MC,MR,ST,ST)
When playing 3 defenders a DMC is essential for back up!, no need for blues on any defenders.
Depending on how attack minded you want to be! play red arrows on the DMC!.
Red arrows on all midfield and strikers.
Orders... Attacking, passing Mixed, Close down own half, Hard tackling when playing stronger opponenets or if you are being over run during live matches, Normal for lower quality teams( DO NOT BE AFRAID OF PLAYERS BEING SENT OFF!!!,) You can always take of a player
if you think he is acting to aggressive and has been yellow carded!.
Mixed focus passing, zonal marking always!, NO force counter attacks!, play offsides.

[DamonAlbarn]

What about players playing in different position? Like a natural amc plays as an aml/amr, should i be concerned about the little yellow error? And would the player play worse if i put arrows while not playing in his original position? Thanks

[gohannie]

Wow! Very nice. I think this should be in Tutorials, though. Would you mind if I copied it there?

Well, it was kinda almost 1 am when i was writting this post and there should have been some typing mistakes in it, i will check over and edit if any. I just wanna share with you my experiences playing top 11, so if you like it, like it and share with others.

[gohannie]

Nice thread. I will just tweak a few of your points!. For playing 3-1-4-2 (DL,DC,DR,DMC,ML,MC,MC,MR,ST,ST)
When playing 3 defenders a DMC is essential for back up!, no need for blues on any defenders.
Depending on how attack minded you want to be! play red arrows on the DMC!.
Red arrows on all midfield and strikers.
Orders... Attacking, passing Mixed, Close down own half, Hard tackling when playing stronger opponenets or if you are being over run during live matches, Normal for lower quality teams( DO NOT BE AFRAID OF PLAYERS BEING SENT OFF!!!,) You can always take of a player
if you think he is acting to aggressive and has been yellow carded!.
Mixed focus passing, zonal marking always!, NO force counter attacks!, play offsides.

Uhm, frankly, i dont agree to put a red arrow on DMC (unless he is capable playing MC with power training), DMC might appear with DC position as well. This was why i said it is ok to put blue arrow on those with 2 position capability. For 3-1-4-2, you can put blue arrow on middle to make him act as sweeper. Red on Sts is optional, but important if you want to play normal with long ball and counter. If you want to put red arrow on winger, make sure your mr can play as amr, and same story with your ml. If not, they will not perform effectively and achieve very bad rating. I am happy to put a blue arrow on Mr or ml if they can play as dmr/l as well as it doesnt mean the winger with blue arrow wont attack, they just do it less than normal but help defending more and as a result they have better rating.

[gohannie]

What about players playing in different position? Like a natural amc plays as an aml/amr, should i be concerned about the little yellow error? And would the player play worse if i put arrows while not playing in his original position? Thanks

The solution is to put a red arrow on him, dont put a blue one if he is not able to play as mr, ml or mc. An Amc need shadow striker sa to behave nicely with red arrows. AMR,L will need drible SA as you can see how Ronaldo and Bale are playing in reality. July had some successes playing with blue arrows on his wing-strikers for example.

[gohannie]

Guys, 1 more thing i need to insist. These above are just my understanding of how this game engine works. we have many pros to give us appropriate suggestion like july forth or dv8rt and many more who should understand this game much more than I might do..... I am not wirting this to make you all strictly follow my guide as you have right to play top 11 the way you like. For instance, a full team with scout player play amazingly no matter they tend to defend or attack, with or without arrows. This thread will be suitable for non-token purchase players just like me 0-0