Can "beautiful football" exist in FM24?

[AwakenOne2010]

My definition of "beautiful football" is where your team pass the ball about in a ti-ka-tac way until they find an opening with a through ball to the strikers/forwards for a clear-cut-chance on goal?

I have been to FM Arena and downloaded the best 4231 plug & play tactic and yes, I have just won the Vanarama National League South using Farnborough club BUT yet, I just do not feel satisfied because I am not seeing "beautiful football". Anyone here have successfully created a tactic that is successful and also beautiful? Have you found a successful tactic that does exactly that online?

I also considered creating one myself and I am thinking of a 4222 formation employing Wide-Playermaker i.e. WP (LM) and WP (RM). Anyone have success using WP? I am thinking of formation like this:

------ss----ss
wp(a)----------wp(a)
-----dm(s)--dm(s)
fb(a) bpd(d) bpd(d) fb(a)
---------sk(d)

where a = attack, s = support, d = defend

The idea is to get the WPs to do cross from deep and cross rarely so that they do more through-ball instead of running up the byline and cross. WPs also do the cut-in.

Please let me know what you think or any ideas/comments? Thanks!

[Voncrow]

While I've seen it happen even with my team that doesn't specialize. I think the match engine inherently punishes controlled possession through the center. At higher levels you will run into players with high pace that can steal and press from great distances. You'll also run into teams with these types of players that pack the center with great numbers and will closely mark or press your creative players.

The result is that the more you slow down the game the higher the chance your opponents will get a good roll in the simulation and take possession. Maybe you can be successful if you create a high quality team but everything I've read about the engine suggestions that high speed attacking play with a focus on overloading the final third will have the highest chance to succeed. You can try to play another way but will be punished if your opponents play the meta and/or have greater quality.

[gtjbm]

Couldn't sum it up much better.

You will need a very very high quality team to pull it off, but because of how the engine is designed ultimately you'll still have a much greater chance to lose against a team that presses, plays at a quicker tempo, counter-attacks and is not possession orientated - even if their players are vastly inferior.

So then it becomes a pointless exercise trying to create a possession based tactic with some exquisite roles. Not if you're looking to succeed on the pitch anyway.

FM for a while has been like this and is one of several reasons why I'm no longer continuing to play with the series after this year.

The tactics are so broken this year to the point I've gotten bored with the game. There is no challenge at all with this year's game.

[The Hare]

So I agree there with the fact the game engine need to be updated but guess what, that is exactly what SI are doing in FM25. Whether they can make it closer to real life is yet to be seen.

What I will say is they are trying.

Regarding there not being a challenge in this FM I totally disagree. All you have to do is not use focus down left and focus down right, don’t use NP corner routines and don’t use low crosses and you will find winning things a challenge.

If you then add on not using Gegenpressing you now have a very hard challenge.

Regarding possession based winning tactics, it is possible but you need the very best players to do it and you need to train player traits to push the tactic to the highest level. Things like, play more one twos, short simple passes, bring the ball out the back, play ball to the feet etc.

I’m currently trialing just this in my offline game and it’s a massive challenge even with the best players.

If I manage to be successful I will share the tactic with you. Good luck on your adventure and don’t give up

[AwakenOne2010]

Thanks Voncrow, gtjbm and The Hare for your comments. Seems all of you agree that for a tactic that will give a high chance of success, you need high defensive line, high Genenpressing and higher tempo which is exactly what the plug & play 4231 tactic I downloaded are doing leading to winning the league title.

Because I always start in lowest league and build big, I will not be able to get high quality players to execute this possession based wining tactics. Also, possession based ti-ka-tac in the middle is asking for trouble as my team moves up the leagues rank. How about I go less pretty route with high defensive line, high Genenpressing and higher tempo BUT using Wide-Player maker (LM and RM) and making them do more throughballs rather than crosses? I will do some experiment here.

Have any of you used Wide-Player makers and how did it go for you?

Voncrow, what did you mean by "opponent play the meta"? I have heard people saying meta players but I really do not know what that mean?

The Hare, your suggestion for a "beautiful football" and successful tactics seems interesting. I hope you are able to get the tactic working. Sounds like you can only do this at much higher league rank like championship or premiership level. Please do share if you cracked the challenge. I am most interested I think play more one-two would work well with my planned 42220 formation.

For now, I do a little experiment with WPs and settle with the not so beautiful route with more throughballs by the WPs to the forwards/strikers.

[Scruxx]

I have watched 20 videos from different tactics at fmscout. Because i was interested too which tactic leads to beautiful football scenes. I guess the best what i found was a tactic without any strikers: fmscout.com/c-fm24-tactics.html?id=11466 have a look at the youtube video for the ingame scenes. Some pretty trough balls.

edit: this one looked good too - fmscout.com/c-fm24-tactics.html?id=11447

[AwakenOne2010]

Originally posted by Scruxx:

Some pretty trough balls...

Thank you! There are some pretty scenes of through ball here in the video. Looks like you need very high quality team to pull this off from this video. I am currently working on a formation using lower league VNN Darlington (started unemployed) going a middle ground of "beautiful football" as I do not have good enough Wide Playermakers to pull this off. I started with WP on both LM and RM but my players started to complain about the role given to them not suitable. So I ended up using inverted wingers but make them work very much like a WP. I do now and then see some beautiful through balls from the IWs. Still work in progress.

Current formation:

---------SS-------SS----------
IW(a)--------------------IW(a)
--------DM(s)----DM(s)-------
FB(a)--BPD(d)--BPD(d)--FB(a)