Set Pieces

A New Patch, A New Set Piece Approach

Set piece plays are an essential aspect of the game. If you are unable to break down a particularly sturdy defence, a set piece may be all you need to pry open the defence. Hell, you can win games by making sure your offensive set pieces are good. Just look at Rehhagel’s Greece, in the knock-out stages of the 2004 European Championships, they scored some crucial goals from set pieces.

In the past, I have made several posts on set pieces and I published a very successful routine by @thefmveteran. I’m not knocking those approaches and I still stand by them, but part of me is always looking for room to improve on the setup I am using. Unfortunately, the new patch is also forcing me to change my ways, as the previous routines have lost their effectiveness. Whilst I really do realise perfection is nigh impossible to achieve, chasing it relentlessly will improve the chances of being excellent. Just being good just won’t do.

This focus on improvement is easy for set pieces as set plays, by their premeditated nature, offer a relatively consistent level of defensive and attacking opportunity and by looking at the effectiveness of teams against a variety of different opponents, we may be able to further improve upon the setup I described earlier. In this blog post, I’m to come up with a routine that works efficiently in the latest 16.3 patch.

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By Guido, ago

Forget About Near Post Corners; This Is FM16’s Most Effective Corner Setup

Set pieces have always been an important part of football. Especially corners can make or break a team. Corner routines are an important factor nowadays for most football clubs and they no longer can be ignored. Now that Football Manager 2016 has been out for some time everybody has been looking for a corner routine that actually works! I can proudly say that I’ve been able to make one that has given me a goal almost every game. So take a closer look at this article!

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By thefmveteran, ago

FM16 Corners; Various Routines And Their Merits

Managers, coaches, players and pundits alike often make reference to the importance of set plays, which can be a crucial means to force in a goal when things don’t look good during open play. Set plays by their premeditated nature offer a relatively consistent level of defensive and attacking opportunity and by looking at the effectiveness of teams against a variety of different opponents, we may be able to start to characterize what constitutes good set play defence and attack. In this article, I will look at a few attacking setups, why they are effective and of course the necessary downloads.

corners003

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By Guido, ago

FM16’s First Throw In Routine; The Long Throw Makes A Return

Last year’s version saw the tremendously overpowered long throw tactic help teams soar to new heights. Putting the exploitative nature of this routine aside though, you could argue that the long throw has gained acceptance as part of a robust approach to the game, pioneered by someone like Rory Delap upto the point where many Premier League clubs now use it as a legitimate weapon. For a throw-in anywhere in line with the penalty area, a player will be designated to hurl the ball into the box in the mode of a surrogate corner kick.

So if that works in real life, there should be a way to make it work in FM as well. The good news is, there is a way to make it work in FM and it’s pretty easy as well. You do need a few things to make throw-ins work like this, but when you get it all right, you end up with moments like these in FM.

So how do we achieve goals like the one above?

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By Guido, ago

FM16’s First Corner Routine

Managers, coaches, players and pundits alike often make reference to the importance of set plays, which can be a crucial means to force in a goal when things don’t look good during open play. Set plays by their premeditated nature offer a relatively consistent level of defensive and attacking opportunity and by looking at the effectiveness of teams against a variety of different opponents, we may be able to start to characterize what constitutes good set play defence and attack. In this blog post, we look at a good attacking setup, which is consistently getting me goals.

corners003

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By Guido, ago

Direct Free Kicks; Defending

Has this ever happened to you? You concede a free kick in a semi-dangerous position and the opposition rifles the ball in. The ball seems utterly stoppable for your goalie, but instead of just holding it or punching it clear, he releases the ball and some completely unmarked forward blazes past your defenders, who have turned into biblical Sodommian salt pillars, and taps the ball into an empty net, because of course your goalkeeper isn’t back on his feet in time to make even a semblance of an effort to stop the ball. Just to re-fresh your memory, here’s a wee visual aide.

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By Guido, ago

Hipster Overload; 5-2-3 Strikerless With A Sweeper

Imagine a formation that takes you back to the times of the early nineties, to the times of teams like the 1990 West German squad. A sturdy, defensively reliable squad, with a proper defensive sweeper like Klaus Augenthaler. The Germans won quite a few trophies in their day playing, according to the pundits, a particularly cynical style of football. But in Italy 1990 the cynical defensive football prevailed, while the Germans began playing more offensive attacking football, but without losing their organisation and discipline. I’ve tried to marry this ruthlessly efficient and defensively solid style with my own strikerless ideas in the same fashion a master whisky blender tries to take the best flavours to create something new and genius. The end product of my whisky-fueled brainstorming-session looks like this.

putzie01

Now before reading on, please don’t expect this tactic or any Football Manager 2015 tactic to provide instant results. This is a system involving a strikerless formation, which by default takes time to implement but has a proven track record of success in Football Manager 2015. This specific tactical system has been designed around the concept of an Auspützer as described by Jonathon and myself earlier. I will go into a detailed breakdown, covering both the formation and the various roles below. (more…)

By Guido, ago

Strikerless Meets Pulis; The 4-4-2-0

Over the last seasons, quite a few people have fallen in love with Barcelona, Spain and FC Bayern’s tiki-taka brand of football. After Guardiola’s departure to FC Bayern, we’ve seen the Bavarians employ a mix between the more direct style Heynckes implemented and Guardiola’s own possession-based style. Either way, possession seems to be crucial, as its importance is preached ad nauseum.

Now I am not blind to the importance of possession, but sometimes keeping the ball just isn’t enough to break down a well-organised defence. The problem with possession is that, while having the ball is certainly more desirable than not having it, you force the other team into sitting deep in a low block defence. This is the bane of possession-orientated teams such as Barcelona and Spain and to a lesser extent, Pep’s FC Bayern.

Breaking down such a team requires a different approach and in this case, I’ll be honest with you. @JLAspey‘s recent work on the Tactical Annals has been nothing short of inspirational for me. I quite enjoyed reading about his exploits with a 4-4-2 formation and I  started thinking of putting my own spin on 4-4-2 formations, naturally adding a strikerless twist. In this particular case, I decided to merge my own strikerless antics with a few pages from the Tony Pulis playbook.

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By Guido, ago

Exploiting Set Pieces; The Delap Style Throw-In

It’s hardly a new tactic or a new approach to matters. In fact, you could say the long throw has gained acceptance as part of a robust approach to the game, pioneered by someone like Rory Delap upto the point where many Premier League clubs now use it as a legitimate weapon. For a throw-in anywhere in line with the penalty area, a player will be designated to hurl the ball into the box in the mode of a surrogate corner kick.

So if that works in real life, there should be a way to make it work in FM as well. The good news is, there is a way to make it work in FM and it’s pretty easy as well. You do need a few things to make throw-ins work like this, but when you get it all right, you end up with moments like these in FM.

In order to end up with moments like these, you need a mere two things:

  • The right settings;
  • The right delivery system.

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By Guido, ago