Formations, Formations, Formations.....just some thoughts.
I see wayyy too many posts asking for help how to beat this formation because its weird, not covered in the "how to win against any formation" or missing in the "counter formation" list. I would like to say you guys may have read the information given, but you didn't understand it. Those information are great basic cover of all the legal formations. If you read them carefully, you should have vast knowledge of each individual formation's pros and cons. Yet I see alot of people take it the wrong way. You don't find out your next opponent's formation then go on the forum, flip through and find a formation that will beat your opponent's formation and expect to win. It takes alot more than that simply because formations are only part of the tactic to win a football match. Your posts asking for help should be asking for the acceptable tactic to approach the match, not formations. I'm new to the forum, I'm not the greatest Manager in the game but I would like to share with all the noobs like me my way of playing the game. All the experts should ignore since I'm not trying to prove nobody wrong or taking any glory. These thoughts are my own and my insights are for experiments only.
O.K.! First thing is first! No formation is superior to another formation! Even if it was, it will be like paper rock and scissors as your opponent can also change his formation and counter yours. Read the "bible' and try to understand why "rock" beats "scissors" but lose to "paper". Your opponent plays 4-3-2-1 narrow, you decide to leave the center to him and attack him on the flanks. This will work if your defence in the center can withhold his strong middle attacks while your wingers must damage his flanks. Before you decide to change your formation, not only you have to make sure have players that can play in the positions required, you have to make sure that player is up to the task. To stop you opponent's AMC takes more than a DMC. If your temporary DMC is 4*, don't expect him to lock a scout. Will 2 DMC do the job? Then you be lacking firepower unless you look for a draw. Before you think about all of this and what formations you should use best to your advantage, you must first understand your opponent in order to analyze your chances. After calculating the strengths and weaknesses your the opponent and yourself, you can prepare for the mentality of your team going into the match. Then the last thing before kick off is set up your formation, this should come LAST!!!
Whether your opponent is weak or strong, an expert of a noob, AlWAYS spend sometime studying him. It's better to get a precise view of all the teams in the competition you are in, filter out the dangerous cats and be prepared for them. Look at your schedule and "Pace" yourself. Most likely you'll have 2 matches/day and sometimes they are 15 mins apart. You must rotate your squad in order to compete in every competition. You don't need to field your best 11 every game and give them green boosters after and head to the 2nd match right away. There's always a chance of injury or if some of your stars played bad in the 1st game, chances are he'll play bad in the 2nd as well. You must make sure you are in your best shape to face a tough game. Preparing yourself in the best form and watch your opponent closely. If you can, try to watch some of his games. You can get an insight of who's the danger man, who's the "shadow striker", where is the gap in his defence, his style of play. Once you have a good understanding of how your opponent plays, you can then actually calculate the % of winning you have. That's preparing for your team's mentalilty.
Put your team and his team on the table, if you're far superior then go to transfer market and browse. If you feel like you're the underdog, figure out his strength and weakness as well as yours. If he's a good manager, most likely he'll study you as well and try to use his strength against your weakness. This is the battle of wits! We'll get into the shady stuff later. For now its simple, flip a coin and heads you attack, tails you defend. No, I'm joking! It's logical. The strong attack, the weak defend. Barcelona attacked...well...they tried, and Milan defend. Let's say you're weaker...It's not fun when you're always stronger. Now we got our mentality set as the underdogs, let's create a game plan, or as managers say, tactics and options.
Your opponent likes to attack. He plays the offensive 4-2-4. He's got a 5* GK, his back 4 are pretty good. 3 of them are 5* and the other DC is a young and expensive 4* defender. His 2 MC are 5 stars. AML and AMR scouts! 2 ST...ofcourse scouts. Looks hard? Very! Now look at your team. Mostly 4*, 4 of which are 5*. You were pretty proud of yourself until you look at his lineup. Don't worry! On paper Real Madrid always look good. Now individually look at each of his players. You have attended his games in the past and supported him even, you know his style of play. Strong in defence, much possesion, the wingers are fast and skillful, whipping in crosses and the damn ST scouts seem to convert enough. So you might be thinking you need to lock the wings, tight mark the ST, maybe put 3 on 1 and step on his ST hand. Pack your defence and long ball counter attack? That's logical! Or maybe you think twice when you see the 2 low profile MC of his always have consistent ratings. Maybe then you realize those 2 are the main supply of balls that they whip diagonally across the field like Scholes always do. Now the choice is yours, go for the logical 2 story bus or pack the midfield and cut off the ball supply. Up on the other end, you should attack the young and inexperience lad or take advantage of the out of form superstar left back? That's your choice as the manager.
So you see, there's much more to the game other than the formation itself. Although if you study the "bible" well, you would know that you need a versatile squad. You need to buy players that can play in multiple positions and you need enuff of them to have depth. I don't buy 22 players to have identical 2 teams of 11. I prefer 20 players that's able to play 4,5 formations. This is important for me even though I don't get much injuries. I don't switch formations before the game unless I have too. What I do often is I tweak my formations during the game. My starting 11 can change to 3 formations depending on the situation of the match. Normal-attacking-defend. Note that these 3 formations are similar such as 4-2-3-1 change to 3-4-3 or 4-5-1. Make a change of personnel and you can make a total new formation. Shifting from wing attacks into central short play possession. You do this during the game and the bible should work its magic. Once you have a tight grip on this you should try to guess your opponent's tactical changes during the game as well and be prepared for them.
Again, these are examples and mainly they are my personal thoughts I would like to share. The game is football manager so its best think and play like a manager. It takes more to win a match than counter formations. Some of us are better than others at certain things and vice verca. Some of you might be laughing at me because you have a different approach on the game. Some of you don't need to care about this because you are rich of tokens. Some of you are masters on the transfer market. The main point I want to get across is put some of your own @ into your team, stick to what you're good at, and enjoy the game and explore. Right now i'm in love with power training and if any of you have extra tips please share with me. Lets win some trophies or achieve promotion goals this season. I'm out for now, time to kill some brain cells.
Cheers!
