All Content Written By The Author

  • The next cheat tactic!
    Perhaps it’s because I haven’t been playing that much Football Manager Live of late, but I haven’t seen much talk of cheat tactics around lately. Sure, the same old accusations about the 4-6-0 or the 4-5-1 pop up from time to time. But...
    by Gareth Millward on January 15th, 2010
  • Giving us something to play for? SI’s latest prize money revamp
    In July, I wrote an editorial on the structure of prize money in Football Manager Live. In it, I essentially called for a dramatic reduction in income sources which weren’t directly related to official competition performance, such as stadium income,...
    by Gareth Millward on January 8th, 2010
  • 7 is the magic number – using player ratings to judge your team
    Back in Football Manager 2008 we only had ratings going from one to ten. This was fair enough, but it didn’t really give the best indication of how well players were doing. When all of your players play either a “6” or a “7”, who is doing better...
    by Gareth Millward on December 17th, 2009
  • Three ways to use a holding midfielder
    Over the past few years the “holding midfielder” has become an integral part of football’s vocabulary. During the 1980s, in England at least, central midifelders played as box-to-box types, going forward to help attacks and putting in...
    by Gareth Millward on December 11th, 2009
  • Balance is the key to winning football matches
    One of the key parts to any tactic, as anyone who has read articles on GameWorldOne before will know, is balance. Balance is vital to any tactical plan. You need to be attacking enough to achieve your goals, but not so attacking that you become defensively...
    by Gareth Millward on December 3rd, 2009
  • Let There Be Light – The Big Announcement First Reactions
    And lo, it came to pass that Sports Interactive announced their plans for the gameworlds. And it saw that it was good. But has the rest of the community? SI’s announcement, in two testaments, has outlined not only the future structure of the gameworlds...
    by Gareth Millward on November 26th, 2009
  • 5 Things to Know About Wide Defenders: Fullbacks or Wingbacks?
    Full backs are difficult beasts. Do you play them as defenders? Do you want them to push on into the midfield to help attacks? Or do you want them bombing down the wings to put in crosses. Do you even want them at all? Well, it’s a difficult decision,...
    by Gareth Millward on November 19th, 2009
  • 5 Things I Learned At The FML Council
    It seems like the plans have been finalised from the community day. Marc Duffy has announced via the forums and through the developer blogs that the council has taken place, and there will be a full disclosure of everything that went on in the week beginning...
    by Gareth Millward on November 17th, 2009
  • Improve Your Tactical Knowledge, Your Game World, Your Bank Account
    With Football Manager 10 now in the shops, the community forums are buzzing again with people asking for downloadable tactics, accusing the AI of cheating, and generally causing mayhem. Ah. November. There’s nothing quite like it. It does raise an interesting...
    by Gareth Millward on November 12th, 2009
  • Playing Fluid Football – the balance between pragmatism and beauty
    Pellegrini’s “magic box” at Real Madrid is a new attempt to play very fluidly with incredibly skillful players. As a formation, it is the perfect compromise, allowing the team to play Kaká, Ronaldo, Raúl and Benzema as a foursome in attack, whilst...
    by Gareth Millward on November 5th, 2009
  • How to get a 3-5-2 working against a 4-5-1
    Teams are playing with fewer forwards than they used to, and yet the number of defenders has stayed the same. The “flat back 4” has pretty much achieved hegemony in top class football. Even in the Balkan states, where 3-5-2 used to reign supreme,...
    by Gareth Millward on October 30th, 2009
  • The Wing Inside Forward – New Match Engine’s Not-So-Secret Weapon?
    The winger as an inside forward is becoming more and more popular in modern football. Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and even Rooney to an extent have excelled at starting off in a wide position and then cutting in towards goal – with spectacular consequences....
    by Gareth Millward on October 22nd, 2009
  • Is Only Having A Youth Team Right?
    Through the GameWorldOne mail bag, we got this interesting message from Stephen Westrip in GW Lineker. Youth managers – are they destabalising the game worlds in Football Manager Live? There have been a few teams in my GW, Lineker, that have ‘gone...
    by Gareth Millward on October 19th, 2009
  • Sweepers: A Response to the 4-5-1 Formation?
    When Switzerland went to the 1938 World Cup, they did so with a team of amateurs and a very small talent pool. In response to the physicality and technical sophistication of their opponents, coach Karl Rappan used one of his centre halves as a deep-lying...
    by Gareth Millward on October 15th, 2009