You are currently not logged into ManagerLeague
If you wish to log in, click here.
If you wish to sign up and join us, click here.
MKManager79s BlogSee all entries in this blog
About ML tactics (16/07/2015 20:04)

Be warned, this blog is not the "truth" about ML tactics. The ML simulator calculates match results from a lot of different factors.

This blog is a work in progress. The first few versions will not be great, but it might help you.

Disclaimer

This is a blog meant for Q88 or higher teams who have been playing Managerleague for a long time, preferably with 5 star perception and teamplay. In the early seasons, when you're still building up your team, I'd recommend using one tactic that works for you and stick to it. Training youngsters, upgrading your stadium, improving your team stats, balancing your team in terms of age and quality, getting to know the real price of players are all far more important during those early seasons.

Version 0.28

Release notes

0.28: Removed number of matches played in CL/SU by a player as a an important factor for succes.

0.27: Added a paragraph about going beyond tactics.

0.26: Added a conclusion. 

0.25: Added a paragraph about finding the best formation and tactics for your team. 

0.24: A few small corrections. 

0.23: Removed mixed as I don't know yet how it works. Rewrote the first part of the blog.

0.22: Added pictures to make the Blog a bit more exciting to read. Added another section about Team stats.

0.21: I've seen some incredible results from teams playing 433 mixed vs 343 continental or 442 mixed against 352 continental. I am trying to adapt the blog so it better fits these results.

 

formation

Formation and playstyle

Spinner states about formation:

- There is no "right formation" that counters any other formation. Use common sense, and use a playstyle, pressure, tackling and formation as "a whole tactic". 4-5-1 is just a formation, it is the playstyle, pressure, tackling and offside-trap that determines how it is played.

I'll explain how I read the formation and playstyle. So you play for example 4-4-2 continental and your opponent plays 5-3-2 long ball.

Defensive implications

You:

  • In defense you have 4 players, ready for direct pressure from the opponent's attackers or from the opponent's midfielders should they overpower your midfield 
  • In midfield you have 4 players, ready for direct pressure from the opponent's midfield.

Opponent:

  • In defense your opponent has 5 players, ready for direct pressure from your attackers or from your midfielders should you overpower your opponent's midfield 
  • In midfield your opponent has 3 players, ready for direct pressure from your midfield.

Offensive implications

You:

  •  You are playing continental, so in 100% of the cases where you build up an attack from your defense you will be using your midfield.
    • In these cases your midfield will put pressure on the midfield of your opponent. In case your midfield can overpower the opponent's midfield your midfield will put pressure on the opponent's defense.

Opponent:

  • Your opponent is playing long ball, so in 100% of the cases where your opponent builds up an attack from the opponent's defense (s)he will be using his/her attack.
    • In these cases the opponent's attack will put pressure on your defense.

Numbers

You are playing 4-4-2 continental. Your opponent is playing 5-3-2 long ball.

defense_puyol

Defense numbers

First let's take a look at your defense and your opponent's attack. Your opponent is using long ball and is putting pressure directly on your defense.

Your opponent has 2 attackers. You have 4 defenders. 

Your advantage in defense is:

4 (your defenders) - 2 (opponent's attackers) = 2 players 

This means you will have 2 defenders extra to give your other defenders backup. This should give you some confidence about your teams defensive prospects against this opponent.

midfield_kaka

Midfield numbers

Your opponent is using long ball and is putting zero pressure on your midfield.

You are putting pressure on the opponent's midfield 100% of the time. Your advantage in midfield is:

4 (your midfielders) - 3 (your opponent's midfielders) = 1 player

This means you will have 1 midfielder extra to put extra pressure on your opponent's midfield. Should you manage to overpower the opponent's midfield the extra midfielder will put pressure on the opponent's defense.

attack_messi

Numbers summary

Pressure on your opponent:

Midfield: 4 (your midfielders) - 3 (opponent's midfielders) = 1

Attack: 1 (your extra midfielder in case you can overpower your opponent's midfield) + 2 (your attackers) - 5 (opponent's defenders) = -2

Pressure on you:

Midfield: 0 (because of long ball skipping midfield)

Attack: 2 (opponent's attackers) - 4 (your defenders) = -2

The total pressure on your opponent's defense is -2 in case you can overpower your opponent's midfield. This is quite a likely scenario as you have more midfielders. The total pressure from your opponent on your defense is -2. This shows it should be an even match where other factors like team quality, team stats and morale will determine the outcome of this match.

Mixed

I think mixed is a special case. I've seen matches where 442 mixed and 433 mixed actually worked wonders against 352 continental and 343 continental respectively. If mixed would just be a combination of continental and long ball, both of which would be used 50% of the time, it wouldn't be very effective against 352 continental. On the contrary, using long ball 100% of the time would be a lot better. So my suspicion is that mixed is not just a combination of short passing and long ball.

I'm a bit doubtful how to translate this into numbers. I'll think about it. Until that time I'll stick to continental and long ball scenario's.

Some examples

Here are some more examples:

  • You are playing 433 continental and your opponent is playing 352 continental. Continental uses the midfield 100% of the time when building up from the back. 
    • Your pressure on your opponent's defense: 3 - 5 + 3 - 3 = -2
    • Your opponent's pressure on your defense: 5 - 3 + 2 - 4 = 0
  •  You are playing 433 long ball and your opponent is playing 442 continental.
    • Your pressure on your opponent's defense: 3 - 4 = -1
    • Your opponent's pressure on your defense: 4 - 3 + 2 - 4 = -1
  • You are playing 343 long ball and your opponent is playing 532 long ball.
    • Your pressure on your opponent's defense: 3 - 5 = -2
    • Your opponent's pressure on your defense: 2 - 3 = -1
  • You are playing 343 long ball and your opponent is playing 352 continental.
    • Your pressure on your opponent's defense: 3 - 3 = 0
    • Your opponent's pressure on your defense: 5 - 4 + 2 - 3 = 0

My conclusions for these examples are:

  • 433 continental vs 352 continental is a bad idea when looking at formation and playstyle only.
  • 433 long ball vs 442 continental can go either way when looking at formation and playstyle only.
  • 343 long ball vs 532 long ball is not a good idea when looking at formation and playstyle only.
  • 343 long ball vs 352 continental can go either way when looking at formation and playstyle only.

Surprise, surprise

You or your opponent can change playstyle during the match. Now let's take a look what can happen.

  • You start playing 433 continental and your opponent is playing 352 continental. At the earliest possible time you change your playstyle to long ball. 
    • Your pressure on your opponent's defense: 3 - 3 = 0
    • Your opponent's pressure on your defense: 5 - 3 + 2 - 4 = 0

You can see this changes things in a positive way for you. Changing 433 continental to 433 long ball resulted in 2 more pressure on your opponent, i.e. it went from -2 to 0.

Pressure on midfield vs pressure on defence

Imagine a scenario where you are putting a lot of pressure on an opponent's defence and your opponent is putting a lot of pressure on your midfield. How will this effect the outcome of the match?

That's actually a very good question. I think it depends largely on other match factors, like how good your players are compared to your opponent's players and if both teams are similar in morale, quality, team stats, etc. then how good your players deal with pressure. 

It is important to find your opponent's weaknesses if there are any. Some weaknesses are obvious, like a q93 team with a q95 midfield and a q91 defense. Then you will have a bigger chance to win if you attack your opponent's defense directly and skipping his midfield through using long ball. 

 

shaolin_soccer

 

Pressure style

Spinner states about pressure style:

- If you are playing a weaker team, be offensive! Attacking! Specially if your teamstats in Attacking is higher than your opponents Defending skill!
- If you are the weaker team, be either Defending or Counter-Attacking, use the one that matches your team-stats the best. 

Pressure styles are:

  • Attacking
  • Normal
  • Defending
  • Counter-attacking

The way I read these is:

  • Attacking: your team plays 20% riskier
  • Normal: no consequences
  • Defending: your team plays 20% less risky
  • Counter-attacking: your team plays 10% less risky if the opponent has the ball and 30% riskier if your team has the ball

How effective the pressure styles are depends a lot on the difference in the team stats involved and the player quality of the opposing teams. 

Attacking

Attacking works best if your team is a lot stronger than your opponent's team. A lot means 4Q difference or more, assuming other factors like morale and team stats are similar. By playing 20% riskier you will get more scoring chances.

Attacking can work against teams of similar strength or slightly better teams if your formation and playstyle is better, like you are playing 352 continental vs 433 continental or if your team deals with pressure well.

Attacking works better if your attacking team stat is higher than your opponent's defending team stat.

You can change your pressure style during a match through events. Consider switching pressure style during a match. For example if your team gets behind by 1 or 2 goals early in the match your pressure style might be too attacking. Another example is where your team gets in front by 1 or 2 goals early on and you want to switch to a more defensive pressure style.

Or you can start defensive and play more attacking from minute 60 in the match and combine this with 3 fresh players to maximize pressure on your opponent in the last phase of the match where the opponent's players are tired.

Normal

Not much to tell about normal, it's just... normal.

Defending

Defending works best if your opponent is a lot stronger than you. By playing 20% less risky you won't lose the ball as much. Your team will be playing more on your side of the pitch, making defending easier for your team.

Using defending against a much weaker team is not effective, as it will result in your team creating less scoring chances.

Defending works better if your defending team stat is higher than your opponent's attacking team stat.

I've noticed that defending is especially effective against a stronger opponent if your opponent plays with players tired from a previous match.

Counter-attacking

Counter-attacking is most effective if your opponent is slightly stronger than you and is playing attacking style. 

If the opponent is slightly stronger than you and you play 10% less risky when the opponent has the ball, your team will have less trouble defending.

If the opponent is playing attacking, i.e. riskier, counter-attacking is more effective, because chances are higher the opponent is out of position when stealing the ball.

When attacking after stealing the ball, your team will play a lot riskier. This will often fail against very good opponents, or opponents of similar strength that are positioned very well. This means counter-attacking is not as effective against very strong opponents or against opponents of similar strength that play defending.

Counter-attacking works better if your counter-attacking team stat is higher.

Counter-attacking is extremely effective against a slightly stronger opponent that plays attacking when your counter-attacking team stat is high enough.

 

stoitchkov_celebrating

Morale

High morale is important for a team. Everyone knows a team with high morale performs better. The way I look at morale is as follows:

  • High morale makes your players deal with pressure better.

I think players with high morale are less likely to make mistakes. I think players with high morale are less likely to get yellow or red cards.

I think when your team has very high morale and your team meets an opponent with average morale, you can play a bit more attacking than you would do based other factors like team Q and team stats.

 

pirlo

Experienced players

Experienced players are players that have played a lot of matches in their carreer so far. Some players reach over 500 matches in their career. In my opinion experienced players deal with pressure better. Youthful players can play very well, but underperform more frequently compared to experienced players with the same quality.

Offside trap

- Do not underestimate your offside-stat, it can be a very effective weapon if applied correctly.

The offside trap helps dealing with passes from your opponent's defenders and midfielders to your opponent's attackers. The offside trap works better if you have less defenders.

The offside trap works better if your offside team stat is higher than the offside trap team stat of your opponent. 

A high value for the offside trap team stat also helps your attackers to avoid the offside trap of the opponent.

 

zidane

Team stats part one

- Do not underestimate your teamstats

- Make damn sure you upgrade your training-facility to the max, it's more important than before.

The most important team stats for creating more scoring chances from passing during matches than your opponent are in my opinion, besides morale:

  • attacking
  • defending
  • offside trap
  • teamplay

In the next paragraphs I'll explain how I look at these team stats.

Attacking

The higher the attacking team stat the easier it gets for your team to put pressure on your opponent. 

Defending

The higher the defending team stat the easier it gets to deal with pressure from your opponent.

Offside trap

The higher the offside trap stat the easier it gets to deal with pressure from your opponent.

Teamplay

The higher the teamplay stat the easier it gets to put pressure on your opponent and to deal with pressure from your opponent.

 

suarez_corner

Team stats part two

- Don't use young players to take your penalties, corners, freekicks etc.

The most important team stats for creating more scoring chances from standard situations during matches than your opponent are in my opinion, besides morale:

  • free-kick
  • corner
  • penalty
  • throw-in

Free kick

The higher the free-kick stat the higher the chance to score and create scoring chances from a direct or indirect free-kick.

Almost every match your team gets one or more free kicks. Making the most of these free kicks is important.

A good free kick taker can put a player in scoring position most of the time. It helps a lot to train the free kick team stat.

Some players can score directly from a free kick. This can be a real weapon against tough opponents.

If a goalkeeper deflects a direct free kick shot it often results in a corner, which is also a great source for scoring goals.

Corner

- Your corner-stat has never been this important before, don't ignore it!

The higher the corner stat the higher the chance to create scoring chances from a corner.

If you have players with high heading, perception and shooting attribute values you will score more from corners.

- Consider the difference between using the player with the highest passing-skill for corners / freekicks AND using the player with the lowest perception..if you know what I mean.

Only a few top teams have midfielders with high heading and perception attribute values. These teams also have 5 star corner team stat and score a lot from corners. Consider using the midfielder with the lowest perception and highest passing to take the corners.

Penalty

The higher the penalty stat the higher the chance to score from a penalty.

A lot of ML managers neglect this team stat in favor of other more important team stats. In league matches penalties are not too common and training this team stat a lot will not have much benefit. In CL or SU and department or league cup matches however it will come in handy now and then.

Throw-in

The higher the throw-in stat the higher the chance to get the ball to a key player from a throw-in.

Most ML managers neglect this team stat in favor of other more important team stats. It wouldn't surprise me if a few stars in this team stat would make a difference and would result in more scoring chances per match. 

Pressure

So, what about pressure? What should you expect to see in a match report?

I've talked a lot about putting pressure on your opponent. Suppose you have a formation and playstyle where you put a lot of pressure on the opponent's defense or midfield and your team is similar in strength and morale compared to your opponent. Somewhat unrealistic examples are if you're playing 352 continental vs 433 continental or if you're playing 433 long ball vs 361 long ball.

Here's what I've noticed in the match reports cases where you put a lot of pressure on your opponents defense or midfield:

  • One or more of the opponent's defenders or midfielders gets a yellow card
  • One or more of the opponent's defenders or midfielders gets a red card
  • You create more scoring chances from passing than your opponent

 dennis_bergkamp

The best formation and tactics for your team

I think the best formation and tactics for your team depends on the players you have in your team and on your team stats. Most top teams stick to a certain formation, tactic and stat distribution they have found to work really well. The challenge these top teams have each season is to find the right players that work best in their preferred formation. Once they have found the right players for their preferred formation and tactics, they stick to these players, formation and tactics.

Instead of trying to find the right formation and tactics for your next opponent, I'd recommend finding the formation and tactics you like and stick to it. After that you can concentrate on finding the right players and putting them in the right position and giving them the right responsibilities. Once your results get better and better, even with about the same team quality and level of team stats you had before, you'll know you have found the right set of players. And yes, you will probably lose some matches, but you'll win more than you'd expect based on your team quality

If you are having trouble finding the right players for the formation you like, you can try to change your formation until you find a formation where your team performs well even against tough opponents. This is probably the 'hard way' and will probably take weeks or even months to get right. Being an experienced manager will help a lot here.

 

Going beyond tactics: finding the right players and working on the right team composition

For CL or SU prize winning teams, regardless of the used tactics, I often see one or more of the following:

  • The team has a player that shoots attacking free kicks directly on the goal, regardless of distance and shooting style settings, and has at least a 33% conversion rate from free kicks. This player is not necessarily a special ability player. 
  • The team has a goalkeeper which excels in matches where the rest of the teams doesn't perform and single handedly keeps your team in the match and ensures you don't lose.
  • The team has at least a 33% conversion rate from corners. The team has a corner specialist and 7 to 9 players with 85 to 99 heading and 90 to 99 perception, that can position very well while the specialist is taking the corner kick.
  • The team has attackers with a very high conversion rate, capable of scoring half chances.
  • The team has at least 2 substitute players that are nearly as good as the starting 11 players, or even better, and can be used to turn around the game or win the match in the last minutes.
  • The team has at least one extreme quality player with Q98 or Q99.

If you want to find out how competitive I think your team is in the CL or SU just score each category. Note that your team should also have a high enough average quality, good team stats and 100% fitness. Scoring should be based on performance vs teams of similar quality and team stats.

  • Direct free kick shot conversion: 33% conversion = 1 point, 50% conversion = 2 points, 66% conversion = 3 points
  • Excelling goalkeeper: 80 performance in difficult matches = 1 point, 90 performance in difficult matches = 2 points, 99 performance in difficult matches = 3 points
  • Corner conversion: 33% conversion = 1 point, 50% conversion = 2 points, 66% conversion = 3 points
  • Attacker conversion rate: 33% conversion = 1 point, 50% conversion = 2 points, 66% conversion = 3 points, 80% conversion = 4 points
  • Excelling substitutes: 1 point per substitute
  • Extreme quality players: 2 points for each Q98 player, 5 points for each Q99 player

If your team scores 6 or more points I expect your team to be able to reach the KO phase most of the time against teams of similar or less strength.

 

Conclusion

There are many formations and tactics in ML. In ML you can change formation and tactic for every match. This might result in an occasional succes. For structural succes I believe the way to go is to chose a formation and tactic you prefer and find the players who perform well when using your preferred formation and tactics.

Now how about the first part of this guide you might ask yourself. Why bother with reviewing different formation and playstyle combinations in the first place? The answer is simple. I think combinations of formation and playstyle work well against some combinations of formation and playstyle, but are worse against other combinations of formation and playstyle. So even if you have found the right players and positioning, it will still get tricky against teams that use a combination of formation and tactics that effectively counter your preferred formation and tactics. However, I do think that if your players perform well enough your team can win even these matches. 

There are formations like 442, 433 and 343 that are easy to change during a match by using events to, for example, switch from 442 to 433 and substituting a midfielder for an extra attacker. A formation like 343 can be used with a continental style but can also be effective when playing long ball. This adds even more depth to the tactics part of ML.

As a final note I would like to point out that in my opinion formations that are too extreme, like 361 are not likely to win you prizes. I would recommend chosing formations that are more balanced, like 442, 433 or for example 343 and 352. I think even the best team will have a hard time winning the CL or SU with a 361 formation.

Appendix A: Formation notes

  • 352 continental works well vs any formation with playstyle continental
  • 433 mixed seems to work well vs 343 continental and normal pressure
  • 442 mixed seems to work well vs 352 continental and normal pressure
  • 442 continental defending and 442 long ball defending seem to work well vs stronger teams tired from playing a CL, SU or league cup match

 

Share on Facebook
This blogger owns the team JustinLaFieber. (TEAM:58384)
Post a comment
You must be logged in to post comments.
© 2003-2007 Fifth Season AS, Oslo, Norway. Privacy Policy. Rules and Code of Conduct. Sitemap.
Responsible Editor for ManagerLeague is Christian Lassem.