Season 6: SM23 (Tactics Page) Episode 4: GENERAL

Soccerblog 3 Minutes



Welcome back laddies! Let’s get straight into today’s episode:



The General area is all about the foundational set up that your team will be looking to implement throughout the course of a season. The items within this area should be locked in over the season without too many chopping and changing since that will lead to a possible lack of team identity.



WIDTH


Width is pretty self explanatory, enit? It basically indicates how stretched or congested the shape of your formation will be during majority of a match. In SM23, there are 3 different options available in terms of the different width you decide to implement during the course of a match.Additionally, the only way for us to be able to see the difference between the different types of available widths will be when our team does not have possession of the ball.

Here is an image of Oldham United defending with what is considered a ‘normal width. You will be able to notice the difference as we look at the following images.


In this image we can see that the Oldham players are more closer to each other compared to the above image of the ‘normal’ width


Now we can see that the players have completely spread out using the entire width of the pitch for their defensive structure




FORMATION FLUIDITY


Since I assume that you soccermanagerites already have a broaden understanding of ‘Mentality’ and ‘Tempo’, we will skip these areas and head straight into the formation fluidity section. The beauty about the modern game is that teams are now seeking to change into many different formations throughout the course of a match based on their personnel and the role each player has been provided. The same is true within SM23 but there is also the option of maintaining a more rigid formation throughout the entire match which also has it’s own perks:

Here is an image of what to expect from a more normal fluid set up with your players not aiming to stray too much out of their original shape (I am using a 4-3-3B formation)
Similar to a normal fluidity, your players aim to keep the team’s shape but with as much rigidity as possible which means that no player will come out of his zone so that the shape stays exactly the same throughout the entire match


Here is where your creativity gets tested as your squad aims to pull opposition players out of their formational positions by making intelligent movement around the middle- attacking third of the field. This movement is more difficult to defend against but you must ensure that you have lots of creative players wihtin your team in order to get the most out of it.



WORK RATE


This section of football should be a no brainer but not every player was created equal so there aboslutely must be an understanding of the attributes of each players within your X1 before choosing which one of these Work Rate styles to choose. A Slow Work rate tactic is all about players being more passive and subdued whenever they are in or out of posession. This is done by keeping the team shape as much as they possibly can; Normal Work Rate is a good mixture of both since your team will pick the best times when to apply extra pressure towards the opposition and when to simply ease off in order to recuperate energy; Fast Workrate (as the name suggests) is all about going after your oposition’s throat in almost every pressing scenario that becomes available. This workrate requires that you have a lot of energetic players within your squad so make sure you have them in abundance if you want to choose this type of work rate.



CREATIVITY


We end off today’s episode with a look at creativity. This essentially is the amount of freedom that is provided for your team based on your managerial preference. Are you a pragmatic type of manager who focuses more on not conceding goals but also not too interested in scoring a bucket full? Then the ‘Cautious’ creativity option is for you; If you want to give players the permission to express their skills on the pitch then ‘Bold’ creativity is for you. If you prefer a bit of both, then the ‘Balanced’ creativity type is within your ball park.



Join us tomorrow as we take a look at the ‘Attacking instruction’ which is another area that will be crucial to master if you want to be one of the best players within the Soccermanagerverse! 👍

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