Archive for the ‘Tactics’ Category
Arsène Wenger came out a couple of weeks ago saying he was going to stick with the 4-3-3 formation which had battered Everton, Celtic and Portsmouth in the first few days of the 2009/10 season. The free-flowing, gorgeous attacking football that Arsenal were seemingly allowed to play at The Emirates, Celtic Park and Goodison would continue, he argued. Probably in defiance of those who complained that perhaps in the past Arsenal had been naive to a fault, and should perhaps consider changing their play or their playing staff to add more steel to the side. All good. Just one problem. Draw me Wenger’s 4-3-3 in FML. You’ll find it difficult to just put in the basic…
* Added the concept of non-human teams – these sides will always accept match challenges and so are the ideal opportunity to test out new strategies or get practice before big matches. – official change list notes 1.3 *There are plenty of sides available of different qualities and styles. Allowing a broad range of tactical options to be tried and tested. Who will be the first to beat the mighty Buckton Titans? – official change list notes 1.3 Last week we looked at match plans, and part of that was a shift away from the perception of AI management in human owned teams. In part this shift was also about making room for a new breed of AI teams, after all where would we…
Last Friday, the Champions League winners FC Barcelona bored the world to a 1-0 win over the last ever UEFA Cup winners, Shakhtar Donetsk on a rutted field in Monaco. Beyond the usual turgid affair we get in Europe’s most over-blown pre-season friendly, however, it was interesting to see the classic Spain versus Ukraine philosophy battle. The age-old decision between individual and system What happened in the Super Cup Short answer – not a lot. The first 45 minutes consisted of Barça passing the ball around the midfield with neat two-touch passing that never actually got anywhere. In reply, Shakhtar pressed their opponents into the…
The most controversial of additions mentioned in the roadmap blogs, match plans are a certain addition for 1.3 and as such worth a detailed look. However much people dislike the concept of offline management in FML, it’s a necessity, and something which will remain. Addressing the reasons why people dislike this area of the game though is a major part of what the match plans are about. From both sides the current “AI manager” leaves a lot to be desired. For the casual manager it’s clear the AI manager fails to deliver a consistent match result and feels like a penalty for not being able to live online. For the more active managers it varies between being a…
I got an e-mail through a few weeks ago from Philip Sinkins about catenaccio, and it got me to thinking – can you actually do it in FML? I mean, the whole point of developing the new tactical interface was to give people the tools to build solid tactics quickly and effectively. So, surely, even though catenaccio has had its day in modern football we could recreate it in FML? Couldn’t we?…
Striker partnerships are tricky beasts to get right. Especially since the rise of single-striker formations (or, as we saw last week, strikerless formations). However, a good number of people like to play 4-4-2 or 3-5-2, and to get these to work effectively the manager has to look at his forward line….
In amongst an argument over whether Sir Alex Ferguson uses a 4-4-2, a debate broke out about the “4-6-0” in FML. Or was it the other way round? Either way, it did raise some questions about whether the 4-6-0 is a cheat formation. The examples in the following two paragraphs are both taken from Fowler. The one on the left is used by Wisla Warriors, and the other by Athletico. I’m going to put my cards on the table from the start – I do not think the “decapitated” 4-6-0 in use in FML currently is a realistic tactic. Does that make it a cheat? No. I am very much of the opinion that you can play any tactic you want to. Anything that can be countered is not…
First of all, apologies for a lack of an update last week. I could make excuses about family pets dying, office deadlines or working hard on other projects, but then I would be a liar. I’ve given myself a slap on the wrists and will endeavour to be more organised in the future. Right. The new Tactical Interface. I promised last time that I would start to explain how the thing actually worked. Then I realised that most of this would probably be: a) Irrelevant, since most people just want to use it and get playing b) Boring, since most people don’t give a damn about sliders and check boxes c) Difficult, since everything in the system affects something…
