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Mar 2008 29

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.

West Brom Tatics

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?

Related posts:

  1. Football Manager 2008 – Set Piece Tactics
  2. Football Manager 2008 – Training Schedule Revised
  3. Football Manager 2008 – Training Guide
  4. Football Manager 2008 Dream Team
  5. Football Manager 2008 – Work Permits

95 comments

  1. Rob says:

    I’m only about ten games into using this and i’m doing the business. Thanks for sharing!

  2. Chris says:

    I’m using this for away games and have found it pretty decent. Your time wasting tactics really work well!

  3. Niall says:

    @ Miffey

    Well not every team is made up of mega players so you have to do the best you can with what you have got. Like I said in the post though the better the players you add to the system the more you tear teams apart with it.

  4. Niall says:

    @Sammy

    Like I said in the post siply place the .tac file in:

    My Documents/Sports Interactive/FM 2008/Tactics

    You may have to create a tactics folder.

    Then in your game in the tactics screen just import/load the tactics into your team!

  5. TheMan says:

    hi , any tips on a formation for a barcelona team in its 3rd season . i have not won the champions league yet and was hoping to do so. my team is :

    Valdes or Ustari
    Zaccardo or Zammbrotta
    Puyol or Barzagli
    Thuram or Terry
    Marcelo or Abidal
    Messi or Dos Santos
    Fabregas or Banega
    Ronaldinho or Ineista
    Lulinha or Giovinco
    My striking options are : Henry , Eto, Bojan , Saviet or Balotelli .
    I would like to recommend Balotelli to anyone as i havent seen him mentioned by anyone , he is a 17 year old striker with Inter at the start of the game and is billed as the new Ibrahimavic

  6. Sherminator says:

    these tactics are solid, thanks a lot. I was up for religation and nowi’m beating Chelsea, i’m the business now. :D

  7. Lulinha says:

    Yo…. Balotelli is Inter’ talent,.. no for Juve :D

    but the tactic is not good for my Juve’s Team :) ,.. too defensive and negative play,..some people with superb attacking abilities like Trez’ goal is not optimized

    .( I have super-Buffon in defensive line btw…)
    so I won’t bother about facing other club except vs inter with Ibra’z played,…

    You should also mentioning about opponent tactic,.. some of players need to be mark or not,..closing down, hard tackling and open to weak foot

  8. Robbo says:

    This have proved to be very good for me. Like you said I’m rolling over quite a few of the big boys and I’m pretty solid.

  9. Tuts says:

    Very solid, I’ve been using for a week or so and think it’s ace.

  10. Nom says:

    Cool tactics.

  11. Cliff says:

    Pretty solid, I’ve been using these for away games!

  12. Chrissy says:

    I though these were cr*p at first but stuck with them and have been well impressed!

  13. chris says:

    does this formation work when people are playing at home? i’m just wondering because everyone seems to be saying they use them just for the away games.

  14. gavin says:

    Ive used these tatics for my leeds side and they work a treat im now 10 unbeaten in the championship and sitting second in the league.

  15. Will says:

    see you got Breno, a genius buy (Y)

  16. Cliff says:

    I use it at home also and it’s great. Really does the business home and away. Plus you seem to get stronger the longer you play it.

  17. Will says:

    Those tactics are brilliant, and thats some team you got there, never thought it would be possible to get Drenthe for West Brom :L

  18. Darren says:

    How did you get all those players at west brom? Where did you get the money from?

  19. Niall says:

    @ Darren

    Well I was promoted to the Prem so got a large chunk of cash there and this is after about 3/4 seasons as well… Drenthe was on loan as was Foster and other than that I paid no more than than 5 mill for anybody in that team.

    Oh Lulinha and Banega were both signed at the start of the game so they were cheap as chips :)

  20. che says:

    I got few lose and drawn on first few games but next few games i’m getting wins. That’s cool, i won Chelsea 3-0. I think this formation rocks, but sometimes little bit not good working on away games although it’s cool formation. Thank u for sharing !

  21. Niall says:

    Spanking Chelsea 3-0 is always nice :)

    Btw if anybody has some tactics they would like to share email me the .tac file and a paragraph of how they work etc to niall@thefootymanager.com and I’ll get them listed on here for you.

  22. LFC4Ever says:

    Great tactics these, I used them to beat Man U with other night :D

  23. ajax4ever says:

    Who is the playmaker? The MC?

  24. iko from macedonia says:

    hi!i love fm 08 and like to thank you for this advice for tactic because before this i cant find the real tactic im playing with west brom its my first season my results are not very good but im hoping that in the future the results will became better i want to ask you in your first season did you have any problems with results and did you have promotion in the premier league in the first season please write on this e-mail iko_agharta@live.com.PLEASE because i have problems with results.

  25. iko from macedonia says:

    WHICH VERSION DO YOU PLAY 8.o.2 or??????????
    do you put player instructions in thi tactic??????

  26. iko from macedonia says:

    DID you put playmaker in this tactic??? pls write to all my questions.

  27. iko from macedonia says:

    you use this tactic for all games that you play or only when you play against strong clubs??? pls answer

  28. iko from macedonia says:

    ej man this tactic does not give me any results im on the last position in coca-cola legaue with west brom please answer to all mu questions?????????????how to make my club to be as power as your club please answer

  29. Niall says:

    The playmaker is the attacking midfielders who sit ahead of the mc and the strikers.

    iko,

    Don’t really know what I can add other than these were the tactics I used to gain promotion. I used most of the squad that you get when you with WBA but with addition of Banega and Lulinha! If you look at the image in the post there was a playmaker, along with counter attacking and playing offside.

    Hope that helps!

  30. iko from macedonia says:

    MACEDONIA MACEDONIA NOT f.y.r.o.m ONLY MACEDONIA

  31. iko from macedonia says:

    ok, niall i will get some better team like juventus and i will try because with very weak teams there is no chance to win THANKS FOR THE HELP YOU ARE THE BEST MANAGER OF THE WORLD AND CAN YOU PUT ANOTHER TACTIC PLEASE YOU ARE THE BEST

  32. Jonas Steffensen says:

    hi i cant download this tactic when i click on the link nothing happening what can i do ?

  33. hilly says:

    These tactics are cool but can any send as many tactics or players to buy on this game by sending me an e-mail @ adamhill2@tiscali.co.uk

  34. Dan says:

    u have to right click then save target as

  35. Mil says:

    Has any one tried kasper hamalainen, gabriel torge or bogdan stancu, i’m with west brom in first season ad stancu scored 101 goals

  36. joe says:

    any good tips for the x box 360 tactics or players

  37. dan says:

    you used the create more than one manager cheat at the start at sold you poor players for millions, no other way would you have those players in your team,
    benaga £12,00000
    breno £22,00000
    as for the others being bought at start, wba dont have any money at start so how you buy them, all lies,lies and more lies……..its easy to win when you cheat.

  38. Niall says:

    Dan,

    You don’t know what you are talking about mate. No manager cheats at all were used for this team. Benaga cost nothing like £12,000,000, he was less £2,500,000 and I bought Breno after I won promotion for around £6,500,000. This was my team after about 4/5 seasons in the game most of which were spent in the Prem which gave me money to pick up Chelsea and Aresnal reserves!

    I sold Gera for £3,000,000 in my first season and he paid for Lulinha (who joined the season after) and a chunk of Benaga.

    Don’t call be a liar when you are talking out of your backside!

  39. 123hello says:

    are there any player instructions with this tactic??

  40. Notts County says:

    Great tactic. Used it with Notts County and got all the way to the PL . Some amazing wins away against Liverpool and Chelsea, and home against Arsenal and Man U. But didn’t work with playmaker and offside trap. My players are too stupid for that. Playing away I would move the second attacking midfielder down to central midfield. Not pretty, but effective.
    Good job!!!!

  41. dmt says:

    Ur tactics kick ass man… I’ve been usin it with Romorantin (3rd category, France) and I beated Laval and Nimes so far. Thanks a lot dawg…

  42. carl says:

    Hi niall, do you change your player instructions ?

  43. Niall says:

    Nope, I generally keep player instructions the same although depending on the individual stats I might suggest run with the ball, long shots etc but nothing other than that really!

  44. dossa says:

    God that was a good tatic. Champions league 1st round knockout phase against Chelsea, i was Fiorentina. 1st leg i won 2-1 at home. 2nd leg at half time they were winning 3-0 haha. Then i took Michael Owen off the bench. He scored on the 74th minute. Then on the 79th minute my central mid “Kuzmanovic” was sent off. Then on the exact last play of the game 94th minute michael owen on the break rounded the keeper and scored. Greaat tactic. The tactic i usually use works really well at home to big teams. I beat AC Milan 4-0 at home and Inter Milan 2-0 but ive lost 3 away games. I dont play to good at home with that tactic.

  45. Jason says:

    This tactic sucks hell, give us some results on screenshot because i dont believe you can get good results with this tactic at all!

    bb

  46. Niall says:

    @Jason

    Each to their own mate although if I take a screenshot of the results you wouldn’t actually know what tactic I used.

    Not actually bothered what you believe but there are now than enough comments backing up the kind of results I got!

  47. RSAchelskiFAN13 says:

    Hey people

    I’m currently with Derby, and doing great. It’s 2007-2008, 8 games player, 6 won, 1 draw and 1 loss. Loss was 2-1 against Man U, but we should’ve won. The draw was 1-1 with Liverpool, and a few other highlights were the 7-1 win away to Tottenham (we demolished ‘em), 5-1 over West Ham at home, 4-0 against Hull in the Carling Cup. I was wondering, should I change to these tactics or not? I here that it takes time for the squad to get used to it, and I’m on a role, so my instinct is not too change.

  48. RSAchelskiFAN13 says:

    BTW, I play and attacking 4-1-3-2. 4 Normal defenders, no wingbacks, 1 defensime midfielder, 2 wingers, 1 attacking midfielder and two strikers.

  49. RSAchelskiFAN13 says:

    Don’t worry about me, I tried this on Chelsea and won them 2-1 at the Bridge, great result, the chance for them to win was 1-6, and for me 10-1. Great result. I’m gonna use this for difficult away games. Thanks a lot Niall.

    Cheers

  50. Niall says:

    @ RSAchelskiFAN13

    Sounds like you are onto a winner with your own tactics never mind these ones, those are some fantastic results mate.

    Saying that glad these tactics are proving to be of use to you for some games at least, they can be seen as quite negative but you have tow ork with what you have got.

    Good luck with them!

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