Fix your tactic(Football Manager 2023)

I got a message in Twitter and he said "I want you to analyze my tactic. I can't go well". So this time, I check his save data and try to fix his tactic. My English is not good. But I hope this is readable.(今回はTwitter上で外国の方から上手く行かないのでセーブデータを見てほしいというリプが来たので、ちょっとアドバイスをするために記事を書いてみました。日本の方でも、セーブデータを連携してくれれば、時間があれば似たようなことを出来ます。時間があれば…。後日これの日本語版も投稿予定です)

My twitter account is @kerlon_fm. Please follow me.

As I watch the league Table, Leeds Utd we play is 18th place.

For the result of matches, there are a lot of games in away or against strong teams. I think it is difficult to win. But I think we could be more in match against Arsenal and Tottenham. The number of goals we conceded is so many.

First time, I check the squad. The player who I'm most interested in is the 20-year-old Peruvian winger. He has good attributes and his age is young, so he will play for a long time in this team. Then I want to create a tactic that focuses on him.

He has good attribute of "Off the Ball", so I believe he is good at fight with a opposite defender without ball. On the other hand, his "Anticipation" is not good, so I think He is not good at considering how to play in a situation where there are many teammates and opposite players near him. From the above, I think Winger(Attack) is a good role for him. If he will play as Winger(Attack), he can battle with a opposite defender as one-on-one in the wide areas. I think if he will have a good attribute of "Dribbling", he will be better. So we have to set a training for "Dribbling" to him. But he is unhappy, the promise made to convince him to sign has been broken. So his moral is bad and I don't know that he will play well.

Next, I have to consider a player who plays in the position opposite side of Leon. There are two right winger in this team as below.

Both player's "Anticipation" is low so I think they also have to play in the wide areas. Their "Off the Ball" is low and "Dribbling" is good, so they will play well with ball. So I set Inverted Winger(Support) as a role in the right side. I choice Winger(Attack) in the left side and he dribble to outside, so I use Inverted Winger(Support) who dribbles to inside in the right side. When the opposite team defends narrow, "Winger" will play well. On the other hand, the opposite team defends wide, "Inverted Winger" will do well.

The role of both sides are "Winger" so we use wide width to attack. So I think 4-4-2 is good for our formation. Because wingers play in the wide areas, we have to use two strikers in the large middle area.

Next, I consider the players who play as FW. There are FWs in this team as below.

We attack wide so I want a tall striker, but there isn't. The striker who has best "Jumping Reach" in this team is Wallbank and I use him. In winter transfer window, I want to get a "target forward".

Odogwa is a very good player. He has good attributes of "Dribbling", "Passing", "Vision", "Off The Ball", "Anticipation", so I think he is good for "Shadow Striker". But this time, I use "Advanced Forward" for him. "Advanced Forward" moves free, so Player who has good "Anticipation" is good for this role. And also, a player who assigned this role go to the forward areas, so a player with good "Off The Ball" will play well.

For midfielder, there are a lot of player with good "Anticipation". I think they will play well with teammates who play in a more forward position. So I use them as Central Midfielder, not Defensive Midfielder.

I choice Rodriguez as BoxtoBox MF to make use of his "Anticipation". And I choice Salavedra as Central Midfielder(Defend) because his attribute for defense is good. Only Xavi Simons, his "Anticipation" isn't good, so if he play, he will be Central Midfielder(Support). Midfielder(Support) will not move more flexible than BoxtoBox MF.

There are Cntre-Backs.

Jovanović is so great player. He has good Physical, attributes for defense and also skills. But it is difficult to choose his partner.

Bige has good "Pace". But his "Jumping Reach" is low. In fm23, I think the number of goal from heading is a lot. So I think the Central-Back should have good "Jumping Reach". He can run fast. So we can think to set high defense line. But Jovanović  isn't so fast and attacking players are not good at Pressing because they don't have good "Teamwork" and "Work Rate". I think it is little bit difficult to set high defense line. It is also bad that defensive attributes like "Marking", "Tackling", "Positioning" are not good.

Volpes is also low "Jumping Reach" and not fast. So it is hard to defend for physical reasons.

Guitierrez has good "Jumping Reach". But defensive attributes are not good.

Carrick has good "Jumping Reach" and "pace". And also his defensive attributes are not bad. But "Teamwork" and "Work Rate" is low. So I think He is slow to correct his defensive position. Their attributes for pass is not bad, but not enough, so I assign them to "Central Defender".

Finally, I chose Carrick as the partner of Jovanović. Carrick has 17 "Jumping Reach" and it is good in Set piece.

There are full-backs.

In FM23, Wide attacker is important in attacking. This also means defense of full-back is important in defending. So I select Kumbedi as the 1st choice of right full-back. In the left, Ait-Nouri is better than Gutierrez. So I chose Ait-Nouri.

Kumbedi and Gutierrez play well with ball. In the right side, the role of wide attacker is Inverted Winger and he move to inside in attacking. So there is a space to be interrupted by full-back and I choose "Wing-Back" as the role of the right side full-back.

Samardzic who haven't been introduced here is also good player. But he is attacking central midfielder so there is no position for this tactic. I can't find a tactic which uses both Samardzic and Leon. Leon is younger and I think Leon is more important for this team.

First-Choice Goalkeeper is Tenas. He has good skill with ball, so I assign to Sweeper Keeper(At). To create area where he plays, I set "Stay Wider" to both of Centre-backs.

To summarize the above, the tactics are as below. "Slightly Lower Tempo" is chosen because we wait for that wide-player will beat opposite player. 

Experience tells us that many goals are scored from corner kicks, so it should be set up properly.

I set Tall player in Far Post and try to kick towards him. To isolate Far post, I use "come short" and set a lot of player in near side. In this way, we can move opposite defenders to near and make Far Post teammate free.

Before I goes to matches with this tactic, I check the tactic which is created by requester.

This is the tactic.

I asked him about the intent of this tactic and he answered "I originally wanted to play a 4231 tiki-taka formation with very high wing-back but nothing seems to be working".

I feel this tactic is interesting. If Center-Backs will have very good attributes with ball like "Dribbling", "Passing", "First Touch" and "Vision", It may goes well. But they are not enough and they need teammates who come to receive passes. I think we have to set defensive duty to one of midfielders and we should use full-back. And also Wing-Backs are far from Center-Backs and Wing-Backs can't got supports from Center-Backs. Left-Wing-Backs, Aït-Nouri and Gutierrez has a good attribute of "Drribling" so I think they will play well. But the Right side, Kumbedi and Williams don't have enough skill. So I think they will struggle.

There aren't midfielder with defensive duty nor defensive midfielder. Then there are no player who has responsibility with vital area obviously. If we are very strong team that has always with ball, this is not a big problem. But we are not so strong and I think this is dangerous.

"High Press" and "Counter-Press" is used. But the most of attacking players don't have good "Teamwork" and "Work Rate". So I think it doesn't go well. And if press won't be good, Higher defensive line will also be failed. Because the passer of opposite team is free from press, and he can pass to spaces easily.

Then I show the result with my tactic.

I finished the season with 8th place. I played 30 games and the number of goals we conceded is 33 so the defense is not bad. But we can get only 39 goals so the offense is not good.

The fixtures is below.

This is player status.

I thought Leon is very important player, but he got 4 goals and 4 assists. He has unhappy so he might not play well. So Samardzic may be better choice.

I forget to say but I got Federico Pindter in the winter transfer window.

He got 7 goals in a half-season and I think he will play better If he will play for all season.

In next season, I think we need left inside-forward with scoring ability to get more goals. I think he needs good "Off The Ball" and "Anticipation" and if he has good "Finishing" it is better.

If we use inside-forward, attacking width not need to wide. And I can use attacking central midfielder. So I can use Odogwa as "Shadow Striker".

Leon couldn't play better than I thought. So it is better to use Samardzic or other players and I think they will be good at "Winger(Su)".

We need more another good center-back like Javanovic.

So the tactic will be like this.