Formations

The very first thing you should take into consideration is the formation you are going to play. Or indeed, formations, because the best managers will be able to adapt their shape based on the opposition and match situation. There are two basic schools of thought on formations – pick a shape that best suits the players at your disposal, or shoe-horn your best players into an XI and then pick the formation based on your players.
The former certainly allows for more balance, although perhaps at the expense of leaving out a talented player because he doesn’t ‘fit’. Naturally, if your best players fit into a formation that suits them all, then you should be looking to take advantage of this as much as you can.

When a player is assigned a position, a coloured graphical indicator alongside his shirt will show you the suitability for that position. The colours match the Position indicators outlined in another article, so if a player is being played in a Natural role, the indicator will be bright green. If he is being played totally out of position, the indicator will be red.

From the ‘Tactics’ menu you may select one of a number of standard formations to use as either your main tactic or merely the framework for further and more detailed work.

Here's where you start wondering - Ok, but where do I start?

What I've learned so far, is that certain formations tend to be liked more than others on different match engine updates. If you don't feel too comfortable about setting up tactics, just try to analyse the current situation of your current GameWorld. See what's the most popular one troughout the leaders, and if you have the players for it, or the ability to get them, go for it and try to replicate it. Watch a few games of that team and try to understand the idea of it. Set it up as so, then do your thing according to your view and your players ability.

Part of content was taken from FM/FML Manuals © Sports Interactive Ltd 2008