Subject: Tactics help

I don't know whether this is allowed/morally right, but is anybody willing to give me general tips on how to beat a tactic?

i.e. I know(ish) what tactic they are going to use, but how can I counter it?

I'm saying this as I'm expecting to be in a play off come the end of the season, and there's a chance I may play a bot team, which I should really have a stab at.
I'm asking now (it's early, I know) as I want a chance to fine tune things in the league matches to come.
(edited)

sure

Put simply, make sure your attackers are in the holes between his defenders. And put your defenders where you expect his attackers to be.

Thanks. Any help is appreciated as I'm not quite confident on the tactics editor.

Lets imagine he's playing a standard 4-4-2. You'd want two central defenders to cover his two strikers. You'd want your fullbacks to cover his wingers (how far up the pitch you can play your fullbacks depends on how advanced his wingers are, among other things). Then consider his centre mids. Is one attacking? If so, put a defensive midfielder on him. If not, then it's up to you how you place your six non-defending outfielders. As he has four at the back, he's got three holes in the defence. You might want to put a forward in each of these. Or just one or two. Let's say you go one up front. You might then go three behind (in the three holes in his four man midfield). And you've got two men left over to do what you want with which will probably be dictated to you by how the oppo's tactics actually work.

Plenty of options, really. Of course, it all depends on what tactic he actually plays, but the principles are the same.

Now, if it's the editor itself you have issues with, the first thing I'd do is decide roughly how my players are going to line up. Against this fictional opponent's 4-4-2, a 4-2-3-1 similar to liverpool play might be your best way to line up. So, leave the ball in the middle and set the players up in a rough representation of 4-2-3-1. I'd then copy and paste it into the other 34 possible spaces (the ball can be moved around the pitch to give your tactics flexibility). I'd then go through and sort out the 35 spaces, leaving less space between my players in when the ball's in the bottom half of the pitch and more space between them in the top half of the pitch. And obviously they'd be more advanced/withdrawn depending on how high up the pitch the ball is. The "Gerrard" role in that 4-2-3-1 might want to be a space or two ahead of the level of the ball regardless of where it is, or just on it. Probably not far behind it. A more defensive one might be a few spaces below the level of the ball (in the top half...probably a little nearer the ball in the bottom half).
I'm sure someone will come in and rip all this to pieces, but as a general starting place it'll work.

Any good to you?

Ah, awesome. As it stood, I have two edited formations, a 4-1-3-2 (of sorts) and a very open 4-3-3. I did these as you suggested, by copying and pasting all the positions.

Thanks for all the help, and I've made a couple of tweaks to my formations after what you said (closing the space in my own half).
I really needed that tip on how to combat the other team, which is covered by the first post, so for now, that's all great. I'm pretty sure my tactics leave a lot to be desired but there's no way of knowing until I play some sides that actually change their formation.

Thanks a lot for the help, much appreciated.

Yeah, don't neccessarily expect instant results (unless the changes are drastic) but like you say once you see the matches you can make tweaks here and there :o)

Good luck.

Right. I created my first 4-1-3-2 tactic as soon as I started, and made slight changes from there. If only my striker could finish.

u cant go wrong with 4-1-3-2 :)

Actually u probably could if u tried... but u could so easily go very very right with it! :)