Today I want to talk about the kinds of edits that you can do with your team sheets ... formations, player instructions, and custom tactics. I realize that there is no "right answer" for any of these options ... I am more interested in what people have found to work well for them, and how one idea may have a corresponding effect on another idea.
The are six slots for possible team sheets (right?) - one of which is the predetermined default for your team plus five more that you can make of your own creation. But you cannot really mix-and-match one formation with another custom tactic ... each team sheet has a formation and single custom tactic associated with it (the standard tactics [counter / pressure / possession / longball] seem to be available within each team sheet). So ... if I wanted to explore six different formations ... I could not ALSO explore two different tactics for each of those six formations ... right? Bummer.
FORMATIONS:
Starting at the back ... I have always been a fan of the four defenders (LB CB CB RB) alignment ... I already have challenges with my defending ... but is there some argument to be made that three defenders + two defensive midfielders can actually provide better defensive cover? The formations that I am most familiar with from my time playing FIFA are: (a) 4-1-2-1-2, (b) 4-3-3, and (c) 4-2-2-2 ... all of these feature the same back four. And it is not even that simple anymore ... because there are multiple versions of "4-3-3" available to choose from now.
So - what formations are working well for you? Does it depend on your playing style? The personnel on your roster? The situation in the match (do you switch formations in real time during the game)?
INSTRUCTIONS:
This seems to be a new thing for this year - and I admit I have certainly not flushed out all of the opportunities that this presents. The available decisions are a function of what position (DEF / MID / WING / ATT) you are looking at. Your defenders can "stay back" or "overlap" or "join the attack". Your midfielders can be "balanced" or "help with defense". Your strikers can "stay central" or "drift out wide". And lots more (I do not have all of the options memorized - that is for sure).
So, again, any thoughts/suggestions/advice on how to best use these player instructions to affect the way the game plays? Same as before ... I believe any player instruction decisions are locked to a team sheet. Are there good combinations for a pair of CDMs or for the LW/RW partnership or the interplay between a CAM and a ST ... you get the idea.
CUSTOM TACTICS:
This has been present in FIFA for the past few iterations (though I do believe that last year you could build a larger variety of custom tactics and more rapidly switch between one tactic and another during the course of a match ... win some, lose some). I would imagine that someone's preferred custom tactics would line up heavily with the style with which they play. But maybe I would like to try to have a few different custom tactics so that I can experiment with changing my style during a career mode, or based on my opponent, or even a change at half time.
[ Build Up Play ] = (Speed / Passing / Positioning)
[ Chance Creation ] = (Passing / Crossing / Shooting / Positioning)
[ Defence ] = (Pressure / Aggression / Team Width / Defender Line)
Most of these vary on a scale 0-100 ... but does FIFA really know the difference down to the ones place? Is (passing = 54) all that different from (passing = 55)? Is it more likely the case that instead inside these ranges there are "bins" ... and as you move from one "bin" to the next (however many there may be ... but "less than one hundred" is my point) ... your team will take on a different style/feel. I also recognize that these scales are not totally independent of one another ... a change in "Build Up - Passing" may be coupled with a change in "Chance Creation - Shooting".
So, as I have been asking with the other sections, has anyone any thoughts here on nice combinations that work well with a particular style of play? Anything that I should try out for my own career mode progression?
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
The big finish here is that each of the prior three sections (formations / instructions / custom tactics) are probably not independent of each other ... meaning there might be one "good" set of instructions that works best for a 4-3-3 and a different set of "good" instructions that would be better when using a 4-1-2-1-2 ... there might be one nice custom tactic for a 3-5-2, and a different custom tactic that is more successful with the 4-4-2 ... the interplay / overlap / exchange between all of these ideas leads to (seemingly) infinitely many combinations that could be explored.
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This discussion seems independent of things like this ... but I include this in all of my "Talking Points" threads ... I play all-manual, World Class, Slow, 15 minute half, "OS Community" sliders, tactical defending ... I would consider myself more of a "sim" player (rather than an "arcade" player) ... I only play offline career mode matches against the CPU.
Also ... just going to leave this here for me to check back on later ...
http://letsfut.com/2014/11/fifa-15-c...tactics-guide/