Before I get into the roster and PI, I want to point out that you will not find any AMR/L or WBR/L players/roles in my system. Nothing against either, but those players were harder to find in the lower leagues and I found them less customizable than the MR/L and FB roles. I also wanted to make it clear to the players and the match engine that those players are expected to have responsibilities in the build-up and defense. Plus, I’ll be honest, the AMR/L roles/players were (and still are) difficult for me to understand and conceptualize because I don’t have much soccer background.
For the most part, players in certain positions are expected to play more or less the same way no matter what the formation is. For example, my AMC is always a Shadow Striker with the instructions to roam, mark tighter, tackle harder, and close down more. So despite having 9 different formations, each position will only have 1 or 2 role/PI setups and they are universal across all tactics. I’m not going to post screenshots of all the setups, but I will bold and underline specific PI settings that are set other than the defaults.
Also, with my wide players you will notice a “support w/gets further forward” and “attack” duty. Unless otherwise indicated, they are set up exactly the same and are used to control how aggressive the player is attacking gaps vs sitting in zones in front of LOS, balance out their defensive responsibilities, and get them to play nicely with the team TI.
Additionally, you will notice that I avoid ball-magnet roles. This is to allow my team the freedom to play where the defense is giving them space, rather than force it into a predefined space that may or may not be there.
The base of the system is that every player has a role and responsibility to fulfill. If they succeed in their individual jobs, then the team as a whole succeeds. For this reason, the Player Instructions are the most important part of the entire system. At the end of the day, players make this system work rather than plays. The rest of the tactics in later sections are about helping the players accomplish these goals through favorable matchups.
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