Every strategy starts with tactics
All the FM24 tactics I have built started with an idea, an idea of how my team looks and feels. This is where I show you how I build my tactics.
Building FM24 tactics can be as simple or complicated as you like. One of the biggest problems is that a new manager may not necessarily know how to build a tactic with the resources they have. So what are FM24 tactics? How do they work? Enter our guide.
In this guide, you’ll find everything you need to know to get started with building your own FM24 tactics, including:
- What FM24 tactics are and why they are important.
- The different types of FM24 strategy and how they work.
- Tips, tools, and best practices to succeed with building FM24 tactics.
Read on so you can create FM24 tactics that you can be proud of!
How to create FM24 tactics
So where do we start? I mean how do we start creating a FM24 tactic? Let’s start our journey into building your first tactic.
The first thing we have to do is choose a club. Now choosing a club is up to you, I normally have an idea in my head as to why I want to manage a club. My ideas come from projects, reading books or just watching footy on television.
We have opted to go with Mainz 05. I wanted to manage in a different league and so picked the Bundesliga, one of our followers choose Mainz 05. This is very fitting with my affinity with gegenpress football and Klopp.
The next step is to understand the objectives.
board and supportern objectives
So our first step is to align ourselves with the supporter and board objectives. Let’s look at the board objectives first, as we can see from the board objectives most are recruitment ideas. The only thing that we can take from here is that we need to be attacking.
What this means is more than you think. It actually means that we only have half of the different tactical styles available. There will be no catenaccio, no counter attack or balanced football here. We are attacking meaning gegenpresses and tiki taka are on the menu.
The supporter objectives are a little more tactically demanding, they want high tempo football and that limits our options a lot. So at the intersection where we look at attacking football and high tempo we find gegenpress football.
FM24 tactics formation
The next step is to build a physical structure for our tactic, a formation. The way in which we do that is to look at our best players and build a formation around them. Looking at the screenshot below, we are looking at our key players.
So when we round up the positions of our key players we get DL/DC/DR, DM, 4x MC and 2x ST. Straight away the conclusion we can draft is that this team lacks width and is very strong in the morning. The main formations that spring to mind are 4132 and the 442 narrow diamond. Both of them lean into combative midfielders in midfield to win the possession.
The rest of the squad back up the theory above, we have the resources to create the 4132 or 442 narrow diamond. Luckily enough we played this formation and tactic with Sheff United and it proved very successful. The next step is to assign the roles in the team.
With defensive tactics we need to have 4 defensive roles, 3 support roles and 3 attacking roles. With balanced 3 defensive roles, 4 support roles and 3 attacking roles. While the attacking tactics, you guessed it, 3 defensive roles, 3 support roles and 4 attacking roles. These are a rule of thumb and not a science.
Choosing tactical roles
This part is not easy, picking roles that work together within a tactical framework that you have already designed. I have pictured the tactic I built for Sheff United below, these roles are automatically assigned.
Mainz 05 have players that give their own character. Let’s take the forwards for example, both are pressing forwards with attack role. This is perfect in a gegenpress, we could keep both at attacking pressing roles, or mix it up with a support and attack pressing forward role.
The full backs are another position, with have one full back and one wing back. This gives us plenty of options as we need them getting forward. We could go two full backs or two wingbacks, or even one full back and one wing back.
The bottom line here is that it is down to tactical and personal preference, just keep a balance of roles.
Get started with building your FM24 tactic today
As a few last tips for you to consider when building your FM24 tactics, play to your strengths. Design the team based on what your team are good at as opposed to mitigating opponents. Working towards your strength is your identity, it is how you current a proactive team that wins.
The other thing to note, is as your team evolves, your tactic should evolve too. Try different things without changing the whole approach, like creating a deeper line to compensate for slower defenders. Or pushing the ball out wide to get to your better creative players more often.
The main takeaway from this, is that it is easy to build a FM24 tactic through doing doing some easy research.
I hope you enjoyed this guide, now go and start your journey with your new tactic. Please comment any feedback below.
