How to choose correct orders?

[pcmacdaniel]

To be honest, it's mostly about looking for patterns in the tactics of your opponents, and not being predictable tactically yourself. Once you become savvy is spotting patterns, you'll develop a pretty good idea of how to setup tactically for most opponents. Against managers that change stuff in match, watch the ratings, animations and match statistics, to try and workout how they've setup and what they've changed (this is difficult to do).

Regarding 4-5-1v defense/flanks/mixed/on. It's a common setup and the dilemma with this game is that the types of systems that work best in the real-life, ultimately are the most predictable tactics in top eleven, so they have a tendency to fail more often than they realistically should. For example, if playing against 4-5-1v and the opponent is in an association that is in the gold leagues or relegation danger in platinum, as a general rule of thumb, probe for a defensive + counters strategy first. Adjust later if needed; more often than not that manager will be playing defense + counters.

I did recently encounter an opponent playing 4-5-1v attack/short/on as the moderator mentioned above. That manager happened to be in the world #91 association when I played him. First leg I beat him 3-2, got spanked in the return leg 0-4 (I was stupid, went down 0-1 and starting changing stuff for no reason and snowball effect instead of staying patient). The more unorthodox setups tend to exist further up the totem pole. It really boils down to, spotting patterns, not being predictable and in-match adjustments.