Football Manager 2022

[Finnegan]

I did dabble with 343 for a bit, which was the tactic I had in mind when I was thinking about this save before the game came out. But I just couldn't get a balance I liked and I knew the above would work because I've been using it on and off for the last five or six releases. 

 

I don't think the ME feels massively different this year compared to last, finishing 1v1 feels like it's been toned down slightly again which is probably fair. It was shocking in 19 and 20 but then went too far the other way in 21, I had strikers easily netting 50+ goal league seasons it was mad. 

 

With that in mind the tactic I think I'll use next season should still work. 

 

Team instructions and midfield identical to the 352 above but with a winger support on the same side as the mezzala, an inverted winger attack on the other and regular full backs instead of wing backs (attack on the wing support side, support on the wing attack side.)

 

Thats the system I won La Liga with in my first season in it as Oviedo last year. Attacking inverted winger absolutely piling on assists for the central striker. 

[Finnegan]

Just noticed, Big Nige got Bristol City in to the Prem. You love to see it.

[Will1981]

Leicester 2nd Season Results:

 

Managed to bottle the top 4 in true Leicester style after after taking 1 point from my last 4 games, lost in the 3rd round of the FA cup to Brighton and lost in the final of the Carabao cup to Man Utd.

 

However I somehow managed to win the Champions League getting revenge and beating Man Utd in the final knocking out Barcelona, Milan and Inter along the way with Fofana winning European defender of the season and 36 year old Vardy winning European attacker of the season and Champions League Golden Boot.

 

I left Rudkin in charge of all transfers again and was very happy with his signings this season, Lewis Dunk was signed for £13m and formed a formidable partnership with Fofana, Zeqiri came in from Brighton on loan and was a bit part sub, Marco Asensio arrived from Real Madrid for £20m and was the signing of the season on the left wing, Brazilian striker Brenner came in from Cincinnati in the MLS for £10m and was a very good strike partner for Vardy, Renan another Brazilian was signed for £12m in January and will be one for the future at LB/CB.

 

We were also able to offload a lot of deadwood including Choudhury, Vestergaard, Mendy, Bertrand, Perez and Ward for a combined fee of £38m.

 

 

[Finnegan]

Some ridiculous German youngsters in this. 

 

Adeyemi, Musiala, Moukoko, Wirtz, all phenomenal. 

[casablancas]

Like a few of you. I’ve adopted the 3/5 ATB but it fits our squad on this so well. Anyone else finding it easy to offload the chaff? I’ve made well over north of 100£ on: Choudary, Ward, Mendy, Perez and sadly big Dan  brought in: Kamara from OM for 24 and Gavi from Barca for his release clause (gulp) but looks a 16 year old youri   also brought in Arezo and am in negotiation for Adeyemi. 
 

anyone have any advice on keeping players for? Tend to have 3-4 that are always in need of a break despite rotation and subbing. Maybe pressing and tempo impacting?

[Matt_Lcfc]

On 12/11/2021 at 11:47, Finnegan said:

 

I hate to break it to you but halfway through the first season he's down to like 13 pace. Physical attributes in FM tend to nosedive off a cliff quite quickly once they turn.

 

He's scored 18 goals in about 20 league games for me this year, he's started much in the second half of the season. So clearly he's still excellent but I don't think you'll get much more than season 1 out of him.

Yeah, I’m in about January and I’m experiencing his decline. Luckily Daka is stepping up for me. Also, what do you think about Kel? Maybe I am not using him in the right way but he seems very poor on the game.

Edited 13 November 2021 by Matt_Lcfc

[Matt_Lcfc]

35 minutes ago, casablancas said:

Like a few of you. I’ve adopted the 3/5 ATB but it fits our squad on this so well. Anyone else finding it easy to offload the chaff? I’ve made well over north of 100£ on: Choudary, Ward, Mendy, Perez and sadly big Dan  brought in: Kamara from OM for 24 and Gavi from Barca for his release clause (gulp) but looks a 16 year old youri   also brought in Arezo and am in negotiation for Adeyemi. 
 

anyone have any advice on keeping players for? Tend to have 3-4 that are always in need of a break despite rotation and subbing. Maybe pressing and tempo impacting?

I actually quite like Perez on there. I can’t workout what it is about him - I think that maybe it’s due to the fact that he has hardworking attributes? Those sort of players always seem to be very overpowered on the game.

[Finnegan]

Just now, Matt_Lcfc said:

Yeah, I’m in about January and I’m experiencing his decline. Luckily, Daka is stepping up for me. Also, what do you think about Kel? Maybe I am not using him in the right way but he seems very poor on the game.

 

I had Daka and Iheanacho as my main strike partnership in season one. Iheanacho was excellent. 

 

Actually hilariously close to real life in that for quite a while he wasn't first choice and I wasn't picking him, yet he had by far and away the highest goals to minutes ratio in the squad. 

 

He ended up with a goal about every hour haha. 

[Matt_Lcfc]

1 minute ago, Finnegan said:

 

I had Daka and Iheanacho as my main strike partnership in season one. Iheanacho was excellent. 

 

Actually hilariously close to real life in that for quite a while he wasn't first choice and I wasn't picking him, yet he had by far and away the highest goals to minutes ratio in the squad. 

 

He ended up with a goal about every hour haha. 

I actually don’t know what I’m doing wrong then. I’ve tried him in the number ten, on the wing and as a striker paired with both Vardy and Daka. 

[Beliall]

8 minutes ago, Matt_Lcfc said:

I actually don’t know what I’m doing wrong then. I’ve tried him in the number ten, on the wing and as a striker paired with both Vardy and Daka. 

im my beta save he was good as a shadow striker

[Finnegan]

8 minutes ago, Matt_Lcfc said:

I actually don’t know what I’m doing wrong then. I’ve tried him in the number ten, on the wing and as a striker paired with both Vardy and Daka. 

 

Number 10 is one of the hardest things to get right in FM, or has been over the last few years of this ME. That's not a criticism of sports interactive or the game itself it's just an observation. You have to really carefully design your tactic to create the right space for a player in the CAM strata and to give them the opportunity to properly influence the game. Not suggesting it's impossible, just a bit tricky.

 

But yeah, you can see the tactic I've got him playing in above and he was fine for me.

[Matt_Lcfc]

2 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

Number 10 is one of the hardest things to get right in FM, or has been over the last few years of this ME. That's not a criticism of sports interactive or the game itself it's just an observation. You have to really carefully design your tactic to create the right space for a player in the CAM strata and to give them the opportunity to properly influence the game. Not suggesting it's impossible, just a bit tricky.

 

But yeah, you can see the tactic I've got him playing in above and he was fine for me.

I agree with this. I didn’t actually observe why though, I have always chosen 4-3-3 on my season with Leicester and found that players like Maddison get greater output on the wings. 

[Finnegan]

5 minutes ago, Matt_Lcfc said:

I agree with this. I didn’t actually observe why though, I have always chosen 4-3-3 on my season with Leicester and found that players like Maddison get greater output on the wings. 

 

It's about space and options and how FM's match ratings are sorted (and then how the match ratings influence moral, happiness, development, etc.) 

 

To get good output (particularly in terms of ratings) out of a CAM he's got to fairly accurate in his passing and he's got to either be scoring or creating CCCs on a fairly regular basis. It means he needs good passing options in front of him but he also needs the room to get on the ball to find them. 

People tend to go to one extreme or another with their tactics in FM, they either go full gegenpress or they lean massively in to possession football. When you play a gegenpressing style with counter attacking switched on, people tend to go from back to front so quickly that the CAM gets bypassed. When they set up to play possession football, they tend to find that their CAM gets crowded out in a condensed final third and has little space between the lines. This is where the game's AI not quite having the intelligence of a top level human pro (a David Silva or Iniesta) to truly unpick an elite defence.

 

This is why the mezzala role has been such a god-send in recent iterations. If you leave a lot of space in front of a mezzala for them to burst forward in to, they tend to get on the ball deeper and still achieve a lot of the things you want out of a 10. If you look at my 352 above, superficially at first glance it might look problematic having two advanced forwards playing vertically away from the midfield and then nobody at all in the attacking midfield strata. But what that actually does is drag the opposition defence backwards and the depth of my midfield brings the opponent's midfield on to me, creating a huge gap for the mezzala to carry the ball through in the middle of the park. That's the space you're after and it's much harder to achieve at CAM.

 

Easiest CAM role to get working is probably the shadow striker because in that instance you're not trying to have him actually be a playmaker. 

[tomfmlcfc]

I think the CAM discussion is interesting, particularly because I'm of the view playing a proper no.10 inside the striker has pretty much died out in the last few years in football IRL - most of the top teams play 4-3-3 with deeper creative players and three 'forwards'. Even Leicester under Rodgers played our best football in Rodgers' first 12 months at the club when it was 4-3-3 with Maddison and Tielemans in roughly that same 'strata' rather than a pair in deep-lying midfield and Maddison 20 yards upfield.

 

A lot of the big names of the early-mid 2010s have found it extremely difficult to adapt to modern systems (Coutinho, Isco, Rodriguez, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Alli), or have dropped deeper to influence games (De Bruyne, Wijnaldum, Silva).

 

So to me, I quite like the fact that FM makes it difficult for that position to work. In my saves Maddison does seem to work well for me if I play him a bit deeper in that mezzala role.

[Finnegan]

5 minutes ago, tomfmlcfc said:

I think the CAM discussion is interesting, particularly because I'm of the view playing a proper no.10 inside the striker has pretty much died out in the last few years in football IRL - most of the top teams play 4-3-3 with deeper creative players and three 'forwards'. Even Leicester under Rodgers played our best football in Rodgers' first 12 months at the club when it was 4-3-3 with Maddison and Tielemans in roughly that same 'strata' rather than a pair in deep-lying midfield and Maddison 20 yards upfield.

 

A lot of the big names of the early-mid 2010s have found it extremely difficult to adapt to modern systems (Coutinho, Isco, Rodriguez, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Alli), or have dropped deeper to influence games (De Bruyne, Wijnaldum, Silva).

 

So to me, I quite like the fact that FM makes it difficult for that position to work. In my saves Maddison does seem to work well for me if I play him a bit deeper in that mezzala role.

 

Yep, like I said, my comments aren't a criticism of the game.

 

The opposite point to the observations about Leicester's 433 is Madders' time playing under Claude Puel before Rodgers arrived. Puel had him playing as a hard 10, at times he was practically holding Vardy's hand, he was far too advanced up the pitch and almost never actually got on the ball. One of the first things Rodgers did at the club to turn our fortunes around was to have Madders drop in deeper to come looking for the ball and get more actively involved. 

[The People's Hero]

I tend not to play CAMs; but when you do find a system/role/player combo that works; its extremely effective. My CAM in my Maidstone save was unbelievably effective; perhaps unrealistically so as he just 'worked' there in my system. He then did his ACL and I tried another 2 players there... nowhere near as good; tweaked the role/instructions a bit and still no good. So changed shape in the end.

 

The player who performed so well is unremarkable in terms of the attributes you can see; but just somehow always found pockets of space. His 'positioning' and 'anticipation' I think were quite high. I'll check in a moment. When I say high, I mean high for that level (conference south) so 11/12 or so. I think the 'long shots/shooting' whatever the stat is might be a bit broken as well, unless long shots are just overpowered in this version as he was regularly scoring from 25 yards or so.

[The People's Hero]

12 minutes ago, The People's Hero said:

I tend not to play CAMs; but when you do find a system/role/player combo that works; its extremely effective. My CAM in my Maidstone save was unbelievably effective; perhaps unrealistically so as he just 'worked' there in my system. He then did his ACL and I tried another 2 players there... nowhere near as good; tweaked the role/instructions a bit and still no good. So changed shape in the end.

 

The player who performed so well is unremarkable in terms of the attributes you can see; but just somehow always found pockets of space. His 'positioning' and 'anticipation' I think were quite high. I'll check in a moment. When I say high, I mean high for that level (conference south) so 11/12 or so. I think the 'long shots/shooting' whatever the stat is might be a bit broken as well, unless long shots are just overpowered in this version as he was regularly scoring from 25 yards or so.

Anticipation 11, Positioning 11, Off the Ball 12, Composure 11, Technique 12, First Touch 12, Dribbling 11, Finishing 12 are his best states

 

Long shots 4; but yet a danger from long range.

 

Does have these traits: places shots, curls ball, cuts inside from left wing (I'm not playing him on left wing!)

 

His best role is supposedly 'attacking midfielder' his he worked best for me as 'enganche' - was just always in space.

 

 

[The People's Hero]

My best player - Regan Booty (great name; and not a bad player in real life) have just done his cruciates as well now. 12 months out they reckon! 

 

Good out personal assistant George Wilson suggests Sadou Diallo as a repalcement; he's on just the £800 a week at Forest Green and is not for sale at any price, whilst being wanted by Barnsley, Peterborough and Wrexham,

 

Cheers George Wilson!

[The People's Hero]

Sorry for another post.

 

Can anyone recommend a facepack? Do they tend to do the lower teams as well? I'm managing in the conference south

[Dan LCFC]

I've barely got anything above average form from a number 10 since about FM17. I do play 4-2-3-1 fairly often but the 10 has almost become a supporing role to the others rather than a key threat.

[The People's Hero]

10 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

I've barely got anything above average form from a number 10 since about FM17. I do play 4-2-3-1 fairly often but the 10 has almost become a supporing role to the others rather than a key threat.

Sometimes it works to play a striker there and pick the shadow striker role; if we're talking the actual AMC position on the tactics pitch.

[moore_94]

23 minutes ago, The People's Hero said:

Sorry for another post.

 

Can anyone recommend a facepack? Do they tend to do the lower teams as well? I'm managing in the conference south

This is the one I use, it is absolutely massive though

 

Best option is to download it as a torrent

 

https://sortitoutsi.net/graphics/style/1/cut-out-player-faces

[The People's Hero]

7 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

This is the one I use, it is absolutely massive though

 

Best option is to download it as a torrent

 

https://sortitoutsi.net/graphics/style/1/cut-out-player-faces

Thanks. Going for this! Just dump them in the graphics folder, yeah?

[moore_94]

11 minutes ago, The People's Hero said:

Thanks. Going for this! Just dump them in the graphics folder, yeah?

Yeah need to download, extract the folder, dump it in the graphics folder, then do the below within FM (instructions are on the link and have screenshots, same thing you have to do when you download kits etc.)

 

[Dan LCFC]

28 minutes ago, The People's Hero said:

Sometimes it works to play a striker there and pick the shadow striker role; if we're talking the actual AMC position on the tactics pitch.

Yeah I have tried this also - I pretty much echo what others above said and I think Tom is right in that the 10 is kind of dying out a bit in football in general. Ozil for example I think would've been seen in a totally different light if he was born 10 years earlier.