Best formation and tactics

[pcmacdaniel]

The best formations are the one(s) that are most adaptable. 4-5-1v, 4-3n-2w-1 and 4-1-4-1 are the ones that come to mind (maybe 3n-2w-2n-2w-1 can be added). Orders are important, so a formation that is good with defensive, neutral or attacking orders is best, because the adaptability of the formation makes it difficult to read in match. If I can figure out what the opposing manager is doing tactically with his orders, I'm going to beat him and probably by several goals. But if the opposing manager can tactically adapt and keep me off balance with his tactics, it's far more difficult to manage the game.

Most managers don't adapt well tactically, and normally their is a "meta" in which a specific set of orders is most common. I've noticed on my server around my level (level 40, server # ???), most managers use an attacking, long passing approach. So naturally, managers tactics will evolve into using either the strategy that dominates the meta (attacking + long pass in my case) or the system that counters the meta (defensive + long pass in my case). However, the advantage of using an adaptable formation is it lets you disguise your system and switch up without making any visible changes, which is very confusing to play against. In associations the "meta" is different, because different servers = different metas; one probably did emerge but it's much more challenging to learn it.