Hey guys. Long time no see. As you will probably know, the new Tactical Theorems is out. We're hoping to answer any questions you guys have, and will be going around the community offering advice where we can. We know certain forums have trouble generating tactical discussion. So, I hope, with the new interface and the new guide we can begin to change all that!
Thanks ever so much for the support you guys in the community have given us. We had nearly a hundred downloads before we even officially announced that the guide was up and ready to download. So thank you. If you have any problems whatsoever, e-mail us at
[email protected] , and we'll do our very best to get you the guide as soon as possible.
Get your team playing exactly how you want, with in-depth discussion and analysis of the new tactics creator from the people who helped SI develop it. The guide not only looks to show you the nuts and bolts of tactic design, but also how to respond to in match situations.
The guide includes:
* Over 60 pages of tactical advice
* A comprehensive guide to the new tactical interface
* Foreword by one of the co-founders of Sports Interactive, Ov Collyer
* A special bonus guide to real-world football tactics, Tactical Visions, from new Think Tank member playmaker
* An appendix, giving brief portraits of tactical styles in FM – with links to the forums, encouraging you to contribute to the guide’s development
This year, TT10 is the start of a full season of tactical guides from FM-Britain’s Tactical Think Tank. We will be regularly writing articles for the main site, stimulating discussions on our message boards, and publishing e-books which will bring all of our collective knowledge straight to you in an easy-to-read format.
Unlike previous versions of the guide, TT10 will not cover slider “frameworks”, nor will it attempt to fully analyse the way that tactics are composed using the advanced or “classic” tactical system. We have completely re-written Tactical Theorems for the second time in two years not because we think the philosophy behind it has been superseded but because we feel we now have more room to elaborate on that philosophy. Now that Football Manager 10 can create the frameworks for us, we believe it is more important to teach people how to conceptualise football tactics using this new system and using real-world football terminology. The frameworks will, however, be covered in future Tactical Bible and Tactical Frameworks 10 articles. TT10 will therefore concentrate on the following:
Manager Style: distinct managerial styles require distinct managerial philosophies. While these philosophies are, to an extent, catered for using the “philosophy” settings, there are many other contributing factors including football culture, climate, standard of players, level of competition, importance of result, and, ultimately personal preference. We will try to help these different styles flourish by outlining the basic facets of different styles and how they can be effected in-game.
Match Strategies: Choosing the correct strategy at the correct time is vital to good football management. This is probably the most important macro-tool in the new tactical arsenal.
Formation Theories: 4-4-2, 4-5-1 and 3-5-2 are meaningless terms without the theoretical information to back them up. We will look at how formations are constructed, why they have developed in the modern game and what their pros and cons are in relation to performance, style and player abilities.
Player Role Theory: Player roles are important to giving shape and structure to formations beyond the basic positioning of players on the field. They also help add colour to different strategies within the same formation. TT10 will explore how they are used by the new interface and how best to use them in your tactics.
Individual Position Theories: TT10 explains what each of the player roles in FM10 means and how to get the most out of each player. In conjunction with duties and formation, these are the key building blocks to creating your team’s style.
Choosing Your Pitch Size: Key to getting the most of your players is ensuring they play on a suitable ground. Though it may seem trivial, both choosing a suitable pitch to play on at home and adapting to different conditions away can be a significant contributor to good results.
“Shouts”: These are the most dynamic and revolutionary instructions in the new creator, and proper use of these “shouts” can make the world of difference to your team’s performance. TT10 will explore how the touchline instructions can help turn a match in your favour by plugging holes in your own strategy and exploiting the weaknesses of the opposition.
Opposition Instructions: OIs can be vital in combating formations which do not exactly mirror your own, as well as to counter particularly troublesome opposition players. We will attempt to cover the basics as to when to employ them in a match and the positives and negatives of each instruction.
Reading the Match Engine: Throughout, our concern will be about trying to teach players how to better read the changes that go on during a match so that they can better use shouts and instructions; change strategies; combat opposition changes; realise the weaknesses in both their own and their opponent’s systems; and ultimately win football matches.
Football Manager Live: TT10 is a guide for Football Manager 10 first and foremost. However, its discussions of how the new system works, tactical theory and match engine reading should be of great use to FML managers – though obviously this guide is based around combating FM10’s artificial intelligence rather than other human players.
We wouldn’t have been able to write the guide without the generous help of our community. So, a big thank you to everyone who downloaded Tactical Theorems and Frameworks ’09 (some 200,000 of you, it seems!) and for all the input we have received over the years. We hope that this year’s offering has even more information for you to digest, and we’d love to hear your thoughts.
So, if you’ve got any feedback, good or bad, how about telling us? Follow us via twitter @FM-Britain, or find our face book page by searching for us on your main page. Alternatively, find us on our community forums, or, if you want to contact the authors directly, e-mail us at
[email protected].
