Tactical Warfare

Another gripe I occassionally hear from users is with regards to the effectiveness of tactics - as if results are pre-determined, that their tactics don't work because of some flaw in the match engine, or that tactics just don't matter. There's an ancient proverb that speaks of this issue, and it goes something like this:

It's your tactics.

I've never, ever, come across a case of someone struggling where I've been unable to at least help improve a team's form. The key to improving performance in FML is amazingly to actually watch the games. Watch back poor performances, analyse where things are going wrong - do you tend to concede a lot from headers off of crossed balls? Push the defensive line out some. Your fullbacks are ineffective? Aye, they will be if they're more attacking than your wingers. A lot of people don't understand closing down - it doesn't refer to frequency! If things are going wrong, you must review performances.

Too many throw the baby out with the (dishwasher, as someone once said) bath water and radically alter formations and approaches. If you picked a tactic, it's likely it had some level of reasoning behind it - the fix is probably only a couple of tweaks away. If in doubt, ask a mod for advice, we're always happy to help, though it may not be instantaneous!

FML isn't like FM, you're not going to win every game, and being 50 or 500 ranks above someone else does not imply you're massively better than them - the biggest factor in the match engine, by a zillion miles, is tactics. And with such a variety on display in FML, you can be sure of a challenge - you won't be playing the exact same style every game if you want to succeed.