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Can a tactic win me that important game?

Written by Zorbas

Tactics are a part of the game that are often misused; we all can read section 14 of the manual, but do we understand when to use the six tactics we have at our disposal. Lets face it we have all seen the teams that play AIM every single week or alternate between one and another tactic with little or no understanding of what it does to their performance. Many do not understand that you can just play normal, so when should you use a tactic?

Written by Spiney (3089655)

Your everyday Joe or Josephine Hattrick uses tactics because they exist without a clue what they do, here I hope to give you the edge over even the most experienced player.

First misused tactics are Attack in the middle (AIM), and Attack on the Wings (AOW), why play one of these when you have uniform ratings across the three sectors of your attack, yet we have all seen this. The time to use these are when you think your opponent will have a weak defensive sector which you can exploit. Say he always plays with three central defenders or has his best central defenders suspended, set your team to maximise the advantage.

Another common mistake is to consider Counter Attack (CA) or Pressing only when you think that you will lose heavily in midfield and therefore possession. While both these can help a team with lower possession win matches they both need to be used correctly.

To be most effective Counter Attack (CA), should be used when you can get as close as possible to the oppositions midfield rating, but remember if your midfield is stronger before removing the CA de-rating the tactic does not work. Yes there are examples of teams with vastly inferior midfields winning due to CA, but these are rare and require a considerable defensive effort. CA should also only be considered when you can convert the chances you create by having a strong attack to go with your strong defence. The more strong areas of attack you have the better but you do not need all three, you can always take a risk that your chances will fall on correct side.

Pressing, reduces the total number of chances in a game, therefore most managers will say PPP (PIC, press, and pray) when you are on a hiding to nothing. Pressing can however also be used when you will win midfield and therefore the majority of chances, but your opponent has a very strong attack which may score every time against your weaker defence.

This leaves Long Shots and play creatively, two newer tactics but again if used correctly they can be effective. If you know that your specialist players are more likely to give you the positive events than the oppositions are to give his team, or the converse less likely to give you the negative events then play creatively may just give you that edge. Long Shots is a difficult tactic to call, when will you have good scoring but not have good attack ratings. Well if you train set pieces then the tactic may be appealing, or you have scoring in other areas of your team than the attack. Certainly a team with strong midfield but poor attack may be able to utilize this.

The simple rule should be when unsure what tactic to play use normal. However the correct choice of a tactic can win you a match you may have lost. Finally if you play the same tactic every week you are giving your opponent a big hint on how to beat you, be sparing and unpredictable in the use of tactics. A team that uses normal most weeks then throws in say Attack on the wings can catch even the most experienced managers cold.

So to close let me say tactics are worthwhile, but only if used correctly and unpredictably.