I’ve had several emails from people asking for some tactical advice for Football Manager 2008 (Worldwide Soccer Manager) and have finally got round to sharing some.
The system I’m currently using is with West Brom and is a rather odd 3-3-1-2-1 formation. As odd as it looks it has really helped me punch above my weight in the Premier league with a couple of fantasic wins away Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd as well is domination at home.
The main keys to this formation are to have at least one very strong centre back, a strong defensive midfielder and good attacking midfielders. I score most of my goals from my two attacking midfielders with my forward acting not as a target man just more of a pain in the backside, chasing down balls etc…
Much of the this formation it geared up into stiffling the opposition and then hitting them on the break. While you may not finish the season at the highest scorers in the league the way I see it the results are the thing that matter.
As your team progresses you can add quicker and more skillfull players into the same formation and be even more effective. I’ve had this formation for four seasons now the side is getting better and better as the years tick by.
What I end up doing if I’m trying to close out a away game when I’m in the lead is change the tempo to as slow as you can go, passing to short and time wasting to as high as it goes.
To download the tactics go to http://www.niallwalsh.net/wp-content/uploads/3-3-1-2-1.tac
To install simply place the .tac file in My Documents/Sports Interactive/FM 2008/Tactics
I’d be interested to hear how people get on with these.
What do you want to see from Football Manager 2011? How can they make it better?
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Hi Niall,
thank you very much for sharing this tactics with us. It’s a great tactic for me so far with my Newcastle team.
Best,
Ozi from Zagreb/Croatia
I Use 4-5-1 With a defensive midfielder and to attacking mids pushing to support the strikers, but i’m gonna try your tactics as everyone loves them.
Cheers,
Erm!
How can you get Banega, Lulinha etc especially at the start?
All I get from non european players is the work application denied crap etc. How can you override that without having to cheat?
ps. bought Saivet for 10m after 2 seasons (18yo) and he’s been nothing spectacular, even most of the skills aren’t showing much signs!
@ jimixi
Really? Those two are two of the easier wonderkids to get… I’ve never had any issues getting them early on. You have to wait 12 months to actually get Lulinha because of his age (although you can agree the deal at the start of the game) and Banega is good to go for about £2.5 mill.
I’ve read on here quite a few people saying the same kind of thing!
@ Bidge
Good luck with them buddy!
@ Niall
I could be wrong, I just remember approachin both. Still had impression they were unreachable for that reason alone. I’ll check again after season if i can afford the 10m asked of banega
It’s strange how no-one ever mentioned Dalla Valle from varios wonderkid topics i’ve looked into. He’s been my star player for 2 seasons now and doesn’t seem to slow down in Prem either. This guy is a free transfer from finnish league at age15 and has astonishin potential (irl as well i’ve heard!). Another wonderkid i found on my own was from Belgium and he’s been playin amasing 1st season so far. The name is Eden Hazard.
Hartlepool ftw!
i am in need of some good players for newcastle united but i just cant seem to attract them
i have not tried the tactic yet cause i’m @work and just founded the forum. but i can suggest some wonderkids to buy in 1st season other than banega: bruno formigoni DMC, george wijnaldum(way better than dala valle), and you might wan’t to look for a towering striker like toni, not saivet or agouda how are small but pacey.
I’ve tried it for 2 matches and i’ve been sacked
))) NOTE: playing with Otelul Galati in Romania. Crappy players.. so, you might wanna not use it on small teams.
@ Tudor
In fairness I doubt it was those two matches alone that got you sacked
I’m thinking there was a sequence of rubbish results ahead!
Good luck getting a new club
you got that right! the thing is that i’ve tried all things to keep up so the tactic was my last chance. anyway… no hardfeelings. BTW, if you don’t have a good playmaker to assign? what do you think i should do? i can’t sign one, so.. should i untick the “use playmaker” box or i should assing anyway a playmaker. one attaking midfielder i guess.. And another thing: on opposision instructions i’m usually closing down all players except DC and GK, tight marking the strikers only, and hard tackling on DMC. Does it fit for this tactic? After i tried it i havn’t selected any opp. instructions..
I started with a team with some very good attacking midfielders. They score lots of goals, and even though my centre backs are very young and not so strong, I opened the season with 6 wins in a row with a middle-range team. If this keeps up, I think these tactics are genious.
Maybe it is important to find some good, fast wing backs with good dribbling and passing skills.
i use 4-2-3-1 with a with the left and right attacking midfielders going more wide…..and the centre attacking midfielder is given the free role. My forward is Anichebe acting as target man with ball played into his feet. So far i ve played with chartlon and done 4 seasons and won every cup with my forward and attacking midfielder scoring at least one in every match.NOTE-full back cross from deep to far post and sice amc byline to target man and tempo slow with short passing to obtain possesion.
im goin in2 the 2014-2015 season with hull survived just twice in my last 2 years in the prem. im about 2 try out the tactics listed at top of page but im stumped when it comes to getting players for cheep. this is my best players (all costing 3mill or less bought over all seasons)
john fleck-15 at the start- scottish and played for rangers CHECK HIM OUT
bogdan stancu-18 at start- romanian (not sure of club)
carl medjani- 21 at start – french i think he plays for parma
my board has splashed the cash this season giving me £17.25m to spend. im needin som good solid young players to help with my team stay well clear of the drop and get resultes when it matters please reply niall (or any1)
I can confirm that Dan is talking out of his arse, and that Niall hasnt cheated to get this WBA team!
I’m currently engrossed with a WBA save, and I’ve got a really strong team, including the signing of Juan Manuel Torres for £7.25m and I’m still in the Championship! I’ve got Zarate and Maxi Lopez up front.
I’ve not cheated and I’ve made a fair bit from the sale of players – dont forget that Curtis Davies also leaves for 10m.
YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Hi Niall how are you???This tactic is for 8.02 or 8.01???
:D:D:D:D:D
Ronaldinho is the best, i have no doubt.
with the players you have in that team.. your hardly ” punching above your weight!
Niall,
you are clearly lying and are evil and this whole page is a sham and I bet u only made this website to try and lie not to help people or anything stupid like that an u have cheated as the players cost way more than west brom can afford they only have a 1k budjet and
banegea = 100million
kalou = 250million
flamini = 100,000,000 BILLION
DRENTHE = 999,999,999,999,999, TRILLION
Claude
it’s working bad and good i guess.. i drawnt against watford (im man utd.) but i beat chelsea… i’ll use my tactic for the easy ones and use your’s on the big guns… thanx anywayz
james i totally agree with u dan is an absalute idiot
@Claude
I’m by no means lying or evil (WTF)… My comments above more than explain this team and have been backed up by other people… I’m happy to leave your comments on here because people can see you are talking out of your arse!!!
niall i was taking the p*ss out of dan and not being serious
btw how comes u didnt work out that i was joking wen I clearly put unrealistic values 4 players and described u as evil and a liar wen this website is crealy the best fm09 website
+ soz if i offended u
haha sorry Claude, it was clearly a case of me being a fool! I’ll tidy the comments up laters
Thanks foe the comment about the site mate.
shit dis really works!!my boro side hammered barca 5-1.thanks..u’re roxxxx!!
ERm got battered with fulham, 2-00 by reading!!! hahaha. i had 3 shots to thier 20!!!!! me thinks this tactic is rubbish
i won the first season with newcastle no cheats won league cup 40 matches unbeaten somehow then next season stregthen my team 40m to spend and im struggling lol!
GREAT TACTIC!
THANKS
from EL NINO INDONESIA
first time using this formation, beat boro 2-1 away with arsenal, happy days! cheers mate.
ur tactic is pure genius i only lost one game in six starts although i picked up on the fact that stikres don’t always score but i have found if u have obafemi martins up front with smith and defour as attacking mids u score alot more with the strikres.Thank you for ur tactics but i need good CHEAP cover for most poistions with Newcastle if u have any please share thanks
Also can u help me coz i ave got my strikre won’t score syndrome
martins scores but is injured and owen refuses to score can u help me
Hey Martin
Glad you have got good use from the tactic. If your forwards are having a bad time maybe try and capitalise on your set pieces etc – http://www.thefootymanager.com/2008/05/25/football-manager-2008-set-piece-tactics/
okay thanks. Do u know of any one who is a genuine goal scorer a need one o and is the an attacking mid who will bag 10-15 goals a season i really need one as defour is gd but does not scvore
oh how can i sort out the fact the in last 5 games i have conceded 2 and only won 2 coz i have drawn the others can u give me ur defence tactics or something coz i really need them thanks
another thing what would you suggest a pacey striker or a striker who is big in the air
Love the tactic, but find that being a counter attacking tactic means that I do better against supposidly better teams when playing away from home than when I’m playing against lesser teams at home. I assume this is because they are not attacking much, and so it is hard to drag them in to counter against them. This means that I’m beating the likes of Man Utd away from home, but drawing too many games at home that I should be winning.
Is there a good attacking tactic that fits to the similar mould of this tactic, as I’ve built my team around it?
Tactics Rock… I Used Them For My Peterhead Team In The Second Division and Finished 2nd and Won The challenge Cup and also semi final of the scottish cup..
Well Done..
and no cheats were used here, because thats the whole point of the game to Play not to cheat
Cheers Again
Scott
the best formation i have ever used is 5-1-2-2
———-gk————
—–cb—cb—cb——-
rwb——————lwb
———-dcm———-
——-cm—-cm——–
——-st—-st——–
this work for real madrid ?
Hey,
Do i need to make the tactics differnt for player insructions or not
Luv the tactic
but i still am conceding loads of goals
Thanks
Henry
Your Tactic may work for you…..but nothing really works for me with your tactic…..i lose somthing like 4-0 or 5-0 with Man Utd….
To liverpool i have played 4-2-3-1 many atime and found this is 1 of the best to use for most teams
But you say your forward is target man with ball played in to feet.is this the best for fast forwards or can slow forward use this aswell.????
All so do you use attacking and closing down for your team.????.tight marking.????