Football Manager 2011 Tactics

Dear readers, finally you can review my Football Manager 2011 tactics used Boston

United story. Pay attention that explanation of tactical approaches and the download

link are located in the end of the post.

Formation

This formation can be called either 4-3-2-1 or 4-3-3. Whatever. What I like about it is

an intention to rule the pitch getting more possession than opponent. 3 central

midfielders together with Short passing style are the key feature for gaining possession.

Another nice thing I like is, for sure, two wingers with roles of inside forwards. They

are the spirit of attacking force in thisformation.

Team instructions

As I described the tactical approach, it’s important to hold the ball possession.

Therefore short passing style was chosen. It helps to provide more accurate passes

between players.

Fluid philosophy gives some freedom to players. I would like to trust my players

during match. Of course, it obliges to form squad more carefully signing smarter players

with good mental skills.

Take a look also at the Set Pieces part. My tactics provides high opportunities to score

goals from corners in Football Manager 2011. Corner taker passes the ball to the far

post where 2 central defenders wait for it with instructions:

- Attack far post

- Stand on far post

Player instructions

Goalkeeper (Sweeper Keeper)

I like more goalies who can secure their defensive lines. It’s important if attacking style

is chosen. Therefore Sweeper Keeper role was chosen for this tactics.

DLC (Limited Defender, Stopper)

Limited defender with Stopper duty. Tackle balls and take care of defensive line – main

targets of this player.

DRC (Limited Defender, Cover)

Almost the same as previous DC but with Cover duty. It means this defender should

cover errors of the second DC. This is the reason the very best defender has to be used

at this position.

DL, DR (Automatic)

Classic full backs with Automatic duty that changes depending on a team’s strategy

(attacking, defensive). Defenders with good Pace, Acceleration, Tackling and Crossing

should be used here.

MC (Ball Winning Midfielder, Support)

Ball winner, king of pitch’s centre. This is the case when defensive attributes are even

slightly more important than attacking ones. High tackling, determination and good

speed are very demanded from a player at this position.

MLC (Central midfielder, Support)

Classic midfielder who should have high levels of Decisions, Technique, Passing, Work

Rate, Teamwork and so on. Well, I think everybody used this type of midfielders in the

centre. So there is no need to explain

MRC (Advanced playmaker, Support)

We’ve just seen MLC having Central Midfielder role. Prepare for assymetry in roles!

MRC performs role of Advanced Playmaker supplying the attacking trio with good

balls. High Passing, Creativity, Technique, First Touch, Flair, Teamwork, Decisions are

necessary. Truly important player in this tactics.

AML/AMR (Inside Forward, Attack)

Attacks through flanks works very well in Football Manager 2011. Two my wingers

became the motor of all attacks. Inside forward role with Attack duty allows to achieve

this effect. High speed abilities, Dribbling, Off the Ball demanded. As well as Finishing

and Composure because players at these position have scoring chances very often.

FC (Poacher)

Central forward will score most of the goals. Since the previous version of Football

Manager I prefer to use Poacher role. It seems the most efficient for me if you want a

striker to score goals permanently. Good poacher’s attributes set: Finishing +

Composure + Anticipation + Off the Ball + Balance + Technique + Pace.

Tactical approaches

Football Manager 2011 is a complicated game. It’s not enough to set up one tactics for

all matches without any change. Some people even use several different tactics trained

during Match Preparation (and it works!). I prefer leave formation the same and tune

tactical approach during match using team instructions and touchline shouts.

Let’s examine several match cases.

i) Your team needs to score a goal

In this case I do one of the following actions:

- set Control strategy. Controlling ball in more creative way and pushing higher

defensive line often helps to score a goal.

- set Attacking strategy + Get Ball Forward shout + Work Ball Into Box shout. The

1st shout allows a ball not being delayed at your pitch’s half, the 2nd reduces amount of

long shots produced by the 1st shout and Attackingstrategy. Long shots go off the target

too often. I think it’s a very good tactical approach.

- shout to Hassle Opponents if you want your team to get the ball quicker. If referee is

not strict, use also Get Stuck In shout.

- find the most weak players in opponent’s formation. Middle or flank? Set Exploit The

Flanks or Exploit The Middle as a result of this analysis.

ii) Your team needs to hold a score

- set Contain strategy + Pass into Feet + Retain Possession + Clear Balls to Flanks.

In the very end of the match you can make a Play Even Safer shout if it’s necessary to

save the score but opponent’s team is very dangerous.

- set Counter Attack strategy. Sometimes it’s really efficient in this case because your

team will bring a ball to opponent’s half and score goals from time to time that should

lighten a pressure.

- use Drop Deeper shout.

iii) Your team plays against very strong opponent

This is really special case when you understand that you team will loose a game. But

sometimes miracles happen. And we can do miracles trying to tune tactics with these

hints:

- Set Counter Attack strategy + Pass into Space + Exploit The Flanks. It can result in

one or two goals in case if you have quick wingers.

- Don’t use Hassle Opponents shout because every your player will use pressing more.

It’s dangerous because they will loose positions. Instead try to profit from Opposition

instructions. Set Hard tackling and Closing Down on opponent’s central midfielders

disallowing them to make dangerous passes to forwards.

- Try to win ball possession if it’s possible by means of these touchline shouts: Pass

into Feet + Retain Possession + Play Narrower + Exploit the Middle. It can be

efficient tactical trick sometimes even with very strong teams.

Download my Football Manager 2011 tactics

Download FM 2011 tactics file

How to use Match Preparation in FM 2011

Match Preparation is one of the most interesting new features in FM 2011. It allows

you to work on your pre-match setup and gives you opportunity to train your team

regarding selected tactics. By the way, Match Preparation screen can be accessed

quickly with this shortcut:

Control + R

The most important here is tactic familiarity levels for tactics you use. You should

achieve the following levels of tactic familiarity for each your formation in the end:

It means your players understand all nuances of the tactics and adapted them greatly.

FM 2011 allows to adapt players to 3 different tactics. Interesting that training of 3

different tactics makes the players to learn them a bit slower than in case of just 1

tactics.

You should also know that Match Preparation is only modelled for the first and reserve

teams without youth squad

Special Focus Area explained

An individual attention has to be drawn to Special Focus Areas. If you don’t use

Special Focus Areas (SFA), you should start getting benefits from this new feature just

right now!

Almost all variants of SFA allow you to gain a temporary boost for attributes of your

players during some match. Actually it’s about all areas except Team Blend.

Let’s imagine you select before a match one of this SFAs:

- Attacking Movement. All attributes linked with ball control and movement gain

slight increase when your team is in attack.

- Attacking Set Pieces. Anticipation, positioning and perhaps few other attributes are

boosted temporary. Only during attacking set pieces.

- Defending Set Pieces. The same attributes as in previous case will be increased but

only during defending set pieces.

- Defensive Positioning. Your players gain a boost of concentration, marking,

positioning and maybe several other attributes during your pitch half’s defence.

Team Blend

This is the only focus area that has cumulative effect, and it’s not active during match as

other SFAs. Instead it works between matches improving your squad gelling. Team

Blend increases player relationships and collaboration which influences

performances and morale.

There are several important rules regarding Special Focus Areas everyone should

understand:

- if you select any SFA, it takes time from training tactic familiarity levels making them

to grow slower

- higher workload does not increase effect of Special Focus Areas

- Team Blend is a long term SFA and should be used always because your squad

changes every season or even half of season

My advices

This is the optimal algorithm I developed for Match Preparation use:

1. Reach the maximal level of tactical familiarity setting Very High workload at the

start of your game. But remember, setting the MP workload will have an effect on the

Training workload.

2. Move workload to ‘Normal’ level when maximal tactic familiarity levels are reached.

3. Now you can start using Special Focus Areas depending on your next opponent.

4. Select one of 4 SFAs before a match: Attacking Set Pieces, Defensive Set Pieces,

Defending Positioning, Attacking Movement. Your selection should depend on the

strong and weak sides of the opponent.

5. Select Team Blend just right after the match.

6. Repeat steps 4-5 for every match.