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How to make tactics in Football Manager 2020
Article is written by ​fmplays.com​​​

One of the main responsibilities of any football manager in the world is to choose a formation, place the players in that formation and assign certain functions to each player, all in order to obtain the best possible performance from the team. A small team or one with budget or reputation limitations can balance things out with a world-class staff with the right tactical strategies.​

In Football Manager 2020, being the best football management simulator, this aspect is covered in an excellent way, even giving the user the possibility of developing their own original tactics, outside of those already established by the game, making this element one of the aspects that offers the most possibilities when we take into consideration all the different elements that Football Manager offers. The artificial intelligence of the game and its realism lead one to establish tactics that during the development of the game must be modified or improved to prevent other teams from predicting your game and defeating you and this is another point where the realism of Football Manager brings the experience as close as possible to what happens in real life.



Although it is somewhat extensive to explain all the options that Football Manager offers at a tactical level, we will try to make a guide as exact as possible of how to create your own tactic in the next few steps, however it is good to remember that each of these items have an enormous number of options that would require slightly more extensive explanations:

Playing Style: Based on how we want our team to play, we make the selection of the playing style that best suits our idea. This is treated from a general point of view, if we seek to form a team that is more vertical or one that seeks more counterattacks, for example. Here we find options such as Tiki-Taka (possession-based football), Gegenpress (idea that is common in the Bundesliga and characteristic of Liverpool in Klopp), Wing Play, among others.
Formation: this refers to the number of defenders, midfielders and strikers that the team will have and how they are distributed in the pitch, in the form of a succession of numbers well known in the world of football, we refer to the famous 4-3-3, 4 -4-2, 4-2-3-1, etc. In the formation, various aspects related to the formation of the establishment are indirectly defined since a formation may require some transfers and others not, this being a determining factor in small teams or without as much money for transfers. It is also important that the formation agrees with the playing style that we defined previously so that these two points flow better.

Players Roles and Duties: This point is part of a system to better define each position in the formation, giving each eleven position more defined characteristics. For example, if our formation has 2 full backs, they can play more advanced as Wing Backs or more delayed as full backs as well as define their work that can be more offensive (Attack), adaptable to the move (Automatic) or defensive (Defend ). Football Manager has all these options for all positions on the team. In teams with a slightly limited budget, it is good to adapt the training to the players who are in the club to facilitate adaptation to certain roles, which can be seen reflected in a sphere next to the name of the player who uses a system of colors to show your familiarity with the position in which you are being placed.

Team Instructions: The first thing we define is the mentality of the team, that is, what it will focus on during the game, which ranges from Contain (the most defensive) to More Attacking (the most offensive) going through several less extreme options. Subsequently, we must define what the team's movements will be in different facets of the game: in possession, in transition and out of possession. In essence, in possession refers to when the team has the ball and what each player must do during this stage of the game, which basically determines what the team's offensive performance will be like. In transition is an intermediate stage when the ball is recovered or lost and is important as these instructions can define how the team's plays will start. In out of possession, players are instructed on what to do when the opposing team has the ball, largely defining how our team defends.

Player Instructions: In this section, we assign specific functions and instructions to each position of our formation according to what we want each player to do, whether it is asking them to shoot more on goal, make a long pass or try to overflow the wing. These instructions should be adjusted according to the characteristics of each player in order to take better advantage of their conditions since if a player is not good at long shoots, it is not recommended that one of his instructions is to try long shoots frequently, for example.
Using these options in the correct way, it is possible to imitate real tactics of the teams such as the dizzying and pressure style of Klopp’s Liverpool, the more defensive and forceful style of Simeone’s Atletico de Madrid or the football of possession of the ball that has characterized Guardiola during his managerial career.

It is important to mention that the game allows you to save several simultaneous tactics in the same game for the same team, so it is a matter of using and training various tactics so that the players become familiar with them so that it is easier for them to perform in them.

These multiple alternatives that Football Manager 2020 offers is what allows you to develop all kinds of tactics, the only limitation is your imagination since you can modify so many things in your strategy and in the instructions to the team and the players, being another of the important attractions of this great franchise.

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