Football Manager 2008 FAQ - Includes hints and tips Part 3

and this other FAQ ...
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++MANAGING CHALLENGES++
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How do I play slow probing football
Players need to have a neutral mentality, a slow tempo and some players need to be on direct passing for probing to happen.

My players get tired injured too fast
Mentality, tempo and closing down, wear down players fast. If you are leading a match consider subbing those tired players or reducing mentality, tempo and closing down.

I keep getting beat down the flanks, I can't seem to stop them from crossing
Increase closing down on the flanks by the fullbacks, or manmark their players

Those balls are going over the top and reaching their strikers when I push my dline up, what can I do?
Those balls are going to happen with high dlines, either reduce mentality of the DCs to ultra or manmark the strikers.


Playing to your opponents weaknesses and using your strengths

Prior to (important) games against quality opp study the opposite 11s attributes.

Check the backline's physical attributes. If one or both of their CBs have poor jumping attributes, you can play a direct target man to head approach, and making sure your TM always plays against their weakest CB. And if they have a very slow left full back try to put your quickest right winger against them, perhap focusing play on the right wing too. If the whole backline lacks pace, playing lots of through balls towards the feet of a quick targetman could work well.

Also have a look at their attacking players and check their bravery. Hard tackling on players with low bravery works well especially playmakers.

Class midfielders with poor pace close down often so they won't have much time on the ball. You don't want to close down players with great pace and dribbling ability though as they might leave you for dead.

Good Strikers with poor pace you can mark tightly. Be aware of the risks of marking, good teams with plenty of movement could also pull your defenders apart leaving the centre open. If the opp have a targetman who's dominant in the air, tackle hard, although this might give away penalties. Also, if their strikers are very quick go for a deeper defensive line to give them fewer chances to beat the offside strap.

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Pitch sizes

There are now 4 standard dimensions in pitch sizes, and they all influence how you should play.

Standard - Is pretty much what it means. Long and reasonably wide. Not a very common pitch in england, based on what I've played. Scout reports ahead of matches are important to reveal more information. So use a scout with good tactical knowledge.

In general most pitches come back as congested and you'll be hard put to find space.

In this kind of situtation you will need players to make loads of forward runs, getting behind parts of the congested midfield. And you will also need good players to hold up the ball while others create space. A good tactic as usual is always to have good crossers of the ball. If you have to attack good defenders, then pace is important, off the ball attributes are also vital for strikers who want to find space.

Good movement, short passing at high tempo ie. playing like arsenal can help too. Wingers will struggle to find space as they are closed down fast so having them on mixed RWB is usually a good instruction as it allows give and go with the overlapping fullbacks.

Wide pitches, though rare are common in Europe, these kind of pitches allow more running play and a chance to exploit the flanks which congested pitches can't provide. On these kind of pitches the danger will come from players with pace and good hold up men playing centrally. Manmarking strikers on pitches like this is also dangerous against good sides. A good option is to close down heavily on wingers and prevent them from putting in dangerous crossers.
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How do you halt a slump
There's a number of factors at play in a late-season run of poor form.

One, Morale has an impact on how team talks (HT and FT) are taken. So, if thought you had 'solved' team talks, and you had a great solution for a team on high morale, you may need to sort them out again for a team on low morale. (Just remember to go back to your old formula when Morale recovers!)

Two, Determination, professionalism, and experience has an impact on how well a player plays through a run of poor form, and how well a player plays when trailing. So, if you went out and got eleven great young players, well maybe they don't know how to fight through a losing streak. You might find some older, more seasoned players with worse apparent numbers play better during the poor spell.

Three, sitting players out after a poor showing seems to have a strong motivating effect on them: basically, they take it as 'I'm in danger of losing my first-team place', so that can help. (Especially if you have a veteran back-up, you can address points two and three simultaneously.)

Four, your captain has a huge effect. Before reading on forum, I selected captain by Influence. However, "Influence" should be read as 'potential influence', or 'the influence he will have when he's 36 and has been at your team for ten seasons.' An 18-year-old with 20 Influence who just joined the club may have some respect among the youth players, but does not have the respect of the veterans. The next point to consider is what Mental aspects he has: a high-Iinfluence player can do harm rather than good if he is weak in other Mental attributes. I've found a lot more success picking my captain by Determination, Work Rate, and Composure, seeking a captain with a professional attitude, a veteran whose been with the team a long time. By that point, at League One he may only have 10 or 12 Influence, but that's okay: he's a force beneficial to the team.

Five, look to your tactics. I find I shade my tactics more defensive when I hit a losing streak: my theory is that if I grind out a few 0-0 results and 0-1 defeats, eventually I'll get lucky and grind out a 1-0 victory, and that can help turn around the Morale issue. In particular, I'll look to keep it 0-0 for seventy minutes, then bring on some fresh attacking players in the hopes that they can outrun and outwork the opposition defense to get the decisive breakthrough.

Finally, think about Condition and training. There's a number of different things that can 'go wrong' in this area - I'll run over a few common mistakes.
- over-emphasizing one or two areas for a single position. Most players on the pitch do need to contribute both offensively and defensively. You may want tailored training by position, but don't overdo it: you still want your forwards to be able to make a tackle, and your defenders to be able to pass, for example.

- over- or under- training. If your players always have 100% condition by Tuesday after a Saturday match, you're probably under-training them, and could increase the Intensity of their training significantly. If your players haven't recovered to at least 95% condition by the Saturday after a Saturday match, you're definitely over-training them, and need to decrease the Intensity. Where you want it between those extremes is up to you, and depends on how much squad rotation you want to do.

- If Condition is dropping excessively in the individual matches, you might need more Aerobic training to counteract that effect. (Its especially useful to go an a serious Aerobic binge during pre-season, dropping off the deeper you get into the year.) - courtesy of Amaroq

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What's a good corner strategy
Try to have three big targets in the box, one on Near Post Flick-On, the strongest on Challenge GK, and a third on Forward. Add to that a real shooter on "Attack Near Post", and somebody with Headers and Finishing at "Stand on Far Post", and you have four goalscoring threats plus a good garbage collector.

Likewise, your throw-in instructions can make a huge difference; get somebody with 18+ Long Throws as your throw-in taker, put a big defender on Near Post, two Long Shot specialists on Lurk Outside Box, a striker on Default, and a fullback on Go Forward. Works a treat; all five are threats to score.

As for Long Shots, you need space to pull it off - so if you have tight-marking and high closing down all over the pitch, neither your players nor the opposition have enough space to really make it work. If you dropped that to loose marking, low closing down, I bet you'd see a lot more - both for and against.

What kind of a player makes a good freekick taker

The first conclusion I came to was that although composure IS important, it is nowhere near as important as it is when taking penalty kicks. In my view, the composure attribute is, (believe this or not), more important than the penalty attribute when deciding the result of a spot kick.

With free-kicks, there are other options to consider and all of these affect the outcome.

Should the player shoot, tee up another player for a shot, cross, play wide left/right, or our old favourite, pass back to the GK from just outside the opposition area. Affecting this decision would be decisions, creativity, flair, and possibly anticipation.

If he shoots, which part of the goal does he aim for. I would say that decisions and free-kicks affect this.

If he decides he is going to shoot, and he knows where he wants to put it, does he blast it or try a delicate placed shot. I suppose what affects this is decisions, free-kicks, technique and maybe any PPM's that are applicable.

Once he has decided that he will shoot, what part of the goal he will aim at and whether he will blast it or place it, we have the following attributes to consider that will effect the outcome. Finishing, free-kicks, long-shots, technique and composure.

My GK isn't a very good example of an excelent free-kick taker, I just used his stats as an example to counter the comment from adonis who suggested that attacking players are better at free-kicks.

---courtesy Jimbokav1971

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What are good targetman settings

POSITION FWR RWB CROSS TTB HUB TM STAT
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Fast Striker YES YES RAR RAR NO Run onto Ball
On the deck TM MIX MIX RAR OFT YES Play to feet
Aerial TM MIx RAR RAR MIX YES Play to head



The mentality of a targetman should always be lower than the strikers, this allows him to be deeper. Keeping forward runs low is also recommended so that he does not make forward runs. If you choose to do quick one touch passing to bring the TM forward then set to to mixed

For aerial targetmen : Strength, jumping, passing, perhaps composure
For pacey targetmen: Pace, anticipation,off the ball runnning, composure, finishing
Passing for targetmen is generally recommended as direct

What about the team instructions for targetmen
Selecting the target man options on the team instructions page, means the team as a whole will be looking to play the ball to him at all times. So he basically dictates the play.

Where as the individual one, means he play as a target man only when balls are played to him. Meaning your team still play a normal game but he only takes the aspects of a target man when hes receiving the ball/got possession.

How do you set up playmakers

By ticking the playmaker box you ask your team to look for the player selected in the building phase of attack if possible.

Off-the-ball, decisions, passing and creativity should be very high attributes for the playmaker.

By ticking the free role box you tell your player to decide for himself where in the pitch he is going to play. He will be roaming the field at his will, so high decision stats are a must.

So,
a) use playmaker, box disabled, free role on
The player will decide where to play, but he will not be the main point of reference for your team.

b) use playmaker, box disabled, free role off
You don't have a playmaker. The player will follow mainly your instructions (unless you give him high Creative Freedom).

c) use playmaker, box enabled, free role on
This player will decide where to place himself and will be the point of reference for your team. So he'd better be an outstanding player, because you are placing in his shoulders the destiny of your team.

d) use playmaker, box enabled, free role off
Teammates will try to pass him as much as possible. This player will mainly stick to his assigned position and instructions.

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What is ingame tweaking

In game tweaking refers to making small changes to your tactic during a game.

Tweak only when necessary here are some examples.

You go a goal behind
Opposition getting too much space
A forced injury
A substitution
You see something worrying
Your style just isn't working

These are the most common things I look out for, and is one of the main factors before I tweak something. If something is working and my tactic is doing what I think is good, then I won't change anything. I don't tweak just for the sake of it, I only tweak if its needed. If I am being really dominant in a game, its very rare that I ever change anything, after all I am being dominant. So I must be doing something right?

Before you play your next fixture its quite possible to tweak a few things here and there, before you enter the game to give you what should be a slight advantage hopefully. How I determine what I tweak before a game depends on my scout report on the next opposition says. Most of it is really common knowledge and nothing no-one shouldn't be able to work out by reading what it says. Its nothing too complex or anything and in most cases, really easy to determine what needs to be done. For example my next game is against Newcastle and my scout said

' Newcastle play a defensive 442 and like a quick direct style to hit teams on the break'.
Now this tells me I can play quite attacking against them, as they tend to sit deep and hit me on the counter attack. So as long as I don't over commit on the attacking front, I should have quite a few shots if I can break
them down. Another thing I can do is play a short slow tempo game and try and limit the possession Newcastle have, because they play on the counter and rather direct, I should dominate possession in this game as at times they will give the ball away. So by playing short and slow I will be making them play a style which does not suit them at this time.

I will probably drop my defensive line slightly too, as i know they got fast strikers just by looking at their probable line up. So I don't want my defence to play too high or they might get caught out here, especially as my defenders lack pace. As you can see, I can change quite a few things here, it might seem a lot of messing about, but really its not. All this should take no longer than 30 seconds to change, it sounds harder than it actually is. Newcastle line up against me defensive as I am one of the better sides in the league now, but you get the drift about what I mean with scout reports hopefully? One more thing I should add, is that if my defenders have good man marking attributes then it might be worth while man marking their fast striker who is likely to cause me trouble, I find this helps keep them at bay most games.(Cleon)

*If you are faced with a 424, you can make small tweaks like manmarking their wingers
Or if there is a creative force in midfield, you can close him down and tackle hard