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2014 The Tactics Guide


Dec
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Yes it could. Pick the wrong player with low leadership and experience and you may find your team panicking in big games if there is a lack of leaders all over the pitch.

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I've been meaning to join this forum for a while now as its been quality and look forward to posting on it loads more.

 

I was wondering do people tend to stick to whats the recomended and prefered player role for a player or do they try out different ones as I'm thinking am I missing out by not experimenting with them? I'd also like if the game itself made it easier by explaining the roles and whats required attributes wise similar to the pc version.

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I always used to only play my players in green or dark positions, and always recommended or preferred roles. But you really don't need to do that it seems. I often get better performed if I play my central midfielders as CM rather than their box to box etc, because with CM you know you are going to actually have players manning the midfield rather than running around and leaving gaps.

I also have players in their yellow or even brown (ie "awkward") positions, and they are doing great, like my captain Dzemailli at RDMC.

So I would definitely suggest experimenting.

Also, FMH does explain the roles if you tap the info icon at the top. And you can usually work out what stats are required based on the description.

I have a question however; if people have lots of good players in a particular are of the pitch (defence), do they lots of players in that area because they are very good, or do they have less players there because their extra skill makes up for it, so that they can have more players in other areas?

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BMC - As mentioned in the guides that is just their preference, sometimes it isn't their best in terms of attributes and others it may not suit the team (e.g. all midfielders want to be attacking/neutral). You need to consider balance and their attributes as a whole. Sometimes you can give them their preference but I wouldn't do it all the time.

Ian - That is a tough one, really you want to play your best players and have many in the positions you have due to squad depth working that way. However you have to be careful in case you focus on it too much. For example 6 defensive players overall is the limit else you will start just defending and not scoring many.

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3. Team Instructions

b) Variations and their effects

It is all well and good knowing what each team instruction does and how you want to play but football is a complex game. Sometimes what you want is vastly different to what you need (I want to eat chocolate for the rest of my life but I need protein to live). A lot of times these can be necessary changes and fixes using your own tactical viewpoint but other times it may take a more in depth approach as to what needs doing.

Firstly let us talk about passing. While there are some obvious things such as short passing requires players close together and not spaced out like a 4231 with 2 DMCs would be. You also have to consider with passing the use of wingers. Wingers are known for their direct play and therefore will not retain possession instead whip balls into the box instead. If you are defending it may be an option to put short passing on with Men Behind Ball as this will mean you are trying to retain the ball with vast numbers behind just in case you do lose it. On the subject of short passing it is worth noting that the slow nature of progression is not ideal if you plan to break quick via counter attacks. You will find that short passing will be a hindrance to your progress as your team looks to advance up the field with a few concise passes.

gallery_1_1_348269.png

On the other hand long passing thrives on totally different types of players to short passing. The nimble movement and skilful nature that short passing benefits from isn't going to suit the long passing play. Instead players who are taller and stronger (heading + strength) will be perfect to challenge the opposition defenders for the ball in the air then make us of it by either a turn and run at goal, knock down to a supporting player or have a shot on goal. As defenders are often tall and physical and long balls are usually aerial battles the player/players receiving the ball need to be able to challenge these opposition defenders in order to win it, more agile players are often shorter and focus more on their pace than their strength (or lack of strength). If you have a beast up front or someone who is very tall like Drogba is the former and Crouch is the latter then you want to make use of their traits and aim for their head at every opportunity.

gallery_1_1_96081.png

Long passing is also good when you have "backs to the wall" defending being done. If you are in a sticky situation pairing a strong player as above with long passing can relieve pressure, waste time and put the opposition in a very compromising situation if they have over committed. The only problem with this is that the long passing ball may not work all the time so sometimes the ball will come right back at you for another wave of attack. There is also a heavy reliance on your striker being on form, he may be isolated if playing one up top or there may be a gross outnumbering of defenders to your strikers, if your striker/strikers cannot cope with being outnumbered then you will cause little threat to the opposition.

Right attributes as you know are important for player roles but they can also influence your team's performance in their tasks. For example if you like to play committed tackling naturally you want players with high tackling and aggression as this means they are more likely to go for the ball with hard crunching tackles. However without the right decision making attribute your players may end up lunging into tackles that are going to get them cautioned or dismissed making a result for your team harder to achieve than before and suspensions plentiful.

Similarly if your defence doesn't have high teamwork and cohesion (played together for a while) then you may find using an offside trap may cause more goals than it saves. This is even more so the case when your defenders have a lack of experience but without the teamwork one man may drop deeper allowing space in behind to be used by the attacker. If they have a yard of pace on their opposite number often a great goal scoring opportunity will follow from this situation too.

On the subject of defending it is worth noting that when wanting to hold onto a lead defensive may be a good idea to pair with Men Behind Ball in order to make the team harder to break down, however your team will lose firepower doing this. You will need to experiment and use this carefully else you may find your team getting shots hit at you constantly with very few for your team, however if you can get this right some big scalps can be gotten against a lot better teams.

On the other hand if you decide to go attacking then pressing the opposition can cause them to make mistakes high up the pitch so you can continue your offensive push and attacking dominance. This can lead to you barraging your opposition and stop them playing making them tire quicker and lead to more mistakes. With pressing though you must consider the energy required to fulfil such a role. Players with low stamina may have to be rested or substituted more often and this can lead to a burn out if too heavy which in turn may cause problems later on in the game, during congested periods of the season or with consistent injuries occurring.

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While it is impossible for me to cover every single option and this would create a very long article. Part of the fun of FMH2014 is experimenting and finding out what works and doesn't work, I hope I have given you a rough idea throughout this section and also the guide on how tactics work and what can make a tactic great. Sometimes you may just be using a wrong player role or team instruction, however by now you should be able to grasp each section of tactics and competently create a tactic that can take you to many, many trophies. Find your preferred style and have a look at whether this fits in with not only your team but also the game mechanics, if it is logical then more often than not then it will and you will accomplish great things.

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4. Finishing touches and the future

a) Final tactical considerations

While you should now have a solid idea on what makes your tactic there are a few final things to consider that can directly influence results. These logical and simple methods are some of the most overlooked things in FMH and normally a go-to response for when a tactic isn't working but really should.

First up is the consideration of your team's age. While in theory you may try to buy young and sell the old doing this too drastically can have serious implications on results. While it is ok to have a majority of your squad being young (for this let's say young is under 23) if you are heavily challenging for a title or in a relegation scrap experience is needed. Without experience in your squad youngsters have a proneness to be vastly inconsistent, fail under pressure and make silly decisions. The inclusion of older and more experienced players at the level you are performing is important to stop this especially in areas of the pitch where decisions are key such as defending or producing a key pass to open up a tight defence knowing you need a win or scoring a vital goal. Having budding youngsters is always going to be key and a sound investment if they show a lot of potential but making sure you have the right balance and players to carry them over the finishing line will be what makes you win games and trophies. Arsenal are a good example of how not to do this as they have shown in their trophyless seasons in which the majority of players in the squad have been under 23 or never played at the level they are looking to compete at. On the other hand though Barcelona have managed to breed through many youngsters such as Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique by having core players such as Victor Valdes, Carles Puyol and David Villa in their squad to show the younger ones how to perform on the pitch and to step up every week when the team needs it.

You should also watch your transfer policy as while it may be easy to load up a game with Real Madrid and spend the millions on 10 or so players to craft your dream squad this will not work. Players need time to gel and get used to the team and set up. Changing your team too dramatically can lead to poor results for an extended amount of time with negative morale kicking in and therefore players not settling in as quickly as they would if only several changes had been made. Teams need consistency and though individually better options will be available most of the time as a unit your team is very important and can combat the flaws of said individuals with their harmony with one another and the knowledge of the club/league.

Similarly players need to also have time to adjust to any tactical change. For example if you intend on rapidly changing your team's formation from 3 at the back to 4 then expect results to dip while they get used to the set up and this will depend on the team's adaptability (in which is a player's hidden attribute).

It would be a good idea to consider the rotation of your players. If you are changing more than half your squad every match then the team cannot gel and bond. This will then create erratic performances and more mistakes especially in defence and with instructions such as offside trap on. Changing too drastically too often means the team struggles to get to grips with how each other play and work on intricate details that only match experience allows them to improve at. Rotation is key for many factors such as preventing fatigue, keeping morale on all players high and allowing growth for all players. Players with low fatigue (90 and below) will become tired in matches quicker, be prone to mistakes and may lack the energy needed to fulfil a high energy role such as a box to box midfielder or winger. If a player isn't high on morale then depending on personality they may wander around the pitch with no purpose and not want to play well in which will arguably be a waste of time playing them. However it should be noted some players may want to "prove the media wrong" or are determined on their player personalities. It is worth noting that a player's personality can affect their in game performance too; for example if a player is lazy it may be best to not ask them to do a lot of work.

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Sorry for the slow progress it is now over 8000 words though so I hope you can appreciate the work that goes into this. I have only 2 sections left to do that are both minor but University work and a holiday have halted progress for a short while. The end is near though.

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Wow I love this, fantastic read. I've gone from a mid table inconsistent frustrating team to a top four team in a month. Thank you so much. I would love your opinion on my tactics if you have the chance. I feel the wbk's cover the width of my midfield covering the am's to enable them to be inf, which in turn gives more support to my lone striker.

I play attacking mentality with direct passing,normal tackling,pressing on and the rest off

If I've understood your guide I think I'm right in what I'm saying! I have strong bbm's on my bench aswell as they do lose fitness in busy weeks.

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The league table and player roles for my fleetwood save, any tips? Started off well unbeaten in 8 then lost a pattern emerged of winning a game then losing a game then winning again, etc. haven't changed the squad much so most players have played every game!

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Sorry for not replying guys, been busy writing the next part.

Both of your formations look fine and you are both on point with what you are doing. Jacob you may want to consider it being what was said in 4a if your team is young. In the next part I will write about modifying tactics so you may want to look at this if you are playing against better teams.

Sean - Trqs and ADFs are a tricky one, in theory they can work but they may not. The TRQ can feed the ADF but you may find them both out of position at times and I would say use them as support more than as the main strikers unless you play ADF with INFs.

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Can I just say thanks for this. I've been wondering why my 4231 tactic doesn't work for Liverpool - but I brought in about 10 new players and Kept rotating the squad each match with league and cup fixtures. Now it makes sense. Thaks

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Im trying to make a 433.

Now this is what i did

Gk

Wbk bpd ctr wbk

apm bwm dlm

Adf pcr treq

Att/bal

Short

normal

on

on

Btw dec.

How about advanced playmakers with forwards

What would happen.

Like

apm with a adf

apm with a treq

so on...

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An APM would feed the ADF forward but it means the ADF may drift to the wing more as they will be receiving a variety of passes and use their movement more.

A TRQ and APM are both passing players so are too similar to operate in the same area in my opinion.

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4. Finishing touches and the future

b) Modifying your tactic

Sometimes in Football Manager Handheld things happen that you just cannot help such as mass injuries, red cards or even coming up against an opponent so in-form that you fear their performance may single-handedly stop you from winning. On occasions it is obvious what is needed to be done, other times it requires a bit more thought. Constantly changing your tactics can be a hindrance if you do it too much as players will struggle to adapt and gain consistency but maintaining the right balance and knowing when and what to tweak can take your team up a level even if the task seems impossible.

As aforementioned the most likely situation in which you will change your tactic is if your team goes down to 10 men. When you lose a man to a red card (or injury on rare occasions) then you may find that player whom has gone off was playing a vital role and you have to sacrifice another player for them. This is in most occasions when you have a result you are happy with now given the situation and you want to "shut up shop" by swapping your attacker for a more defensive player to fill the void for the player that has just been sent off. Making little changes or slightly tactical ones such as moving your wingers back would help the team keep their harmony and not confuse their roles in which mass changing may do this. Sometimes though in extreme circumstances you don't have to abide by the balance rule as taking off your lone striker could be helpful as you intend to go all out defensive and chance your luck within the last ten minutes of the game.

You may also get advice to man mark a player on team reports. While Football Manager Handheld doesn't currently have the ability to do this at the time of writing there are options that can be done in order to restrict a threat's effectiveness. Whether it be an attacking midfielder or striker playing an experienced and defensive minded player or cluster of players to limit options for that player and crowd him out is a wise choice. Dropping a striker or attacking minded player depending on formation; for example a 442 could turn into a 451 and a 4231 could mean an attacking midfielder is dropped to make a defensive choice. Simply pulling one attacking player back will allow you to sure up a threat while keeping most of the team cohesion there providing it isn't a key player to the game you play or one of few of your own threats. On form players and players who are a lot better than your team can lead to games being won on their own, stopping these threats can often nullify whole teams' attacking strategies and with some smart thinking and careful deployment may lead to an easier game than you expected.

The premise of modifying is pretty easy but it just depends on the situation. With 11 players sometimes it can be changing a player role from a B2B to BWM that may win the game to counter an opposition or to play more physical and overpower technical opponents. However one thing should be clear, modifications should be done little and with thought. Thought of not just the opponent but your team's strategy, who your players are and how many changes you are making. This can be the difference in a big game or halfway through a game between 3 points and 1 or 0. Good managers can adapt slightly and not upset the team but enhance it, even if it is for just one game of the season (see Mourinho's Chelsea v Manchester City away for a great example of this).

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4. Finishing touches and the future

c) Changing your tactic

Over time you may notice tactics get less effective. Teams slowly start to figure out your weaknesses and when that happens a rapid decline in form can occur. While sometimes this may be temporary lack of form can also turn into greater, permanent issues.

Sometimes tactics simply require a tweak (see the "modifying your tactics" section). Other times it requires something more drastic whether it is a gradual team reshuffle; to go with a new transfer policy, or a fast change in order to have an immediate impact upon results. Changing your tactic isn't a fast thing and can yield undesirable results at first until the team gets used to the formation, especially if the formation isn't a "standard" one or is quite different from the previous used formation. However as FMH has evolved it is key that you do change tactic to stop your form going down after several seasons of use as teams work their way around it.

As aforementioned you cannot expect instant impact and while some (namely big) players have high adaptability and it will be less obvious upon this others can be resulted negatively at first by a new system employed by you - their manager. The key to changing a tactic is give it time, a few months may be wise to leave it though if you are in a situation where you are struggling keep in mind what the team has and try and work your way around that instead of going "gung ho" and chopping/changing the formation. Often you are best to do any major tactical changes at the close of the season so your team gets used to the system in pre-season. With the pre-season you can find and iron out any fundamental flaws or vastly underperforming players without losing points in the league. It also allows you to buy new players to fit into your system as you adapt it meaning you can enhance your team to the new system as opposed to fitting your system around what you currently have as there may still be problems there with lazy players or players struggling to play how you expect them to.

The key to changing to a new tactic is how you implement it, sometimes you may want to gradually change it over by modifying one or two positions while keeping the solid base and doing this more and more over time or by mass changing. This however is dependent on situation as if your players are doing well and still on task to win the league then you don't want to upset this too much by editing to a tactic they aren't used to. Use common sense and caution, if things aren't going your way but one or two players are still performing spectacularly then it may be just be a minor modification as opposed to a huge revamp. Look at the situation and what/who is available on the market that can come in to your system too, if there are an abundance of tough tackling midfielders but you don't play any yet you play technical ones that you are struggling to find then consider changing to a different system to keep your team rolling. However if your team is vastly underperforming and you are in an all or nothing battle for relegation with no positives to your team then giving your team a change of system can turn the table dramatically and be the difference in your season. Simply some wise thinking and planning can turn a tactic change from a nightmare and huge loss of form to a smart move. Utilise pre-season, it is there for a reason and not just to build up form, it is a key and often over looked part in FMH but for tactics it can give you a huge edge over your rivals if you can get settled and find your rhythm tactically during it.

End Notes:

Thank you for reading the tactics guide, this 10,000 monster has taken a long time to plan, write and post. While it has taken a lot longer than I would have liked University and other real life matters got in the way so I had to put it to one side. However, I hope you have enjoyed reading this and it can take you to glory on Football Manager Handheld. Whether you are a tactics newbie or a veteran my only wish is that you have learnt something throughout this in which has made you a better, more thoughtful manager. It has been a honour guiding you through the most complex and intriguing section of the game and I wish you luck in your adventures through management on the best Football Management simulation on a mobile platform.

Regards,

Dec

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Thanks for the lovely feedback guys, I am glad it has helped. I believe no one has ever done anything as in depth as this guide before for FMH so it is an honour to say this is the largest ever FMH guide to be produced.

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Hi,

 

Brilliant guide, read every single word of it.

 

Would like you to check my formation if you wouldn't mind, in terms of player positioning, player roles and any other holes you can see. This is my current formation:

 

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The only thing i can see is possibly too much space between my right full back and right winger. So to solve this what i can think of is making the full back a wing back may help but his stats arent really good for a wing back. 

 

Other thing I thought of was moving my DMF or CM right and other left and making my left winger a Wide midfielder so he cuts in and fills the gap every so often. If I have to move player positions around, i prefer to focus on moving these 2 positions (Tiote or Sissoko) anywhere on there line. So e.g moving the DMF a bit more left and CM a bit more right or vice versa or both of them pin point central or any other combinations.

 

Here is one im thinking of trying out.

 

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Thoughts?

 

Also few questions:

 

1) Would it make a difference if I swapped my target man and Advanced forward around?

2) Should I keep him as an advanced forward or maybe poacher? 

 

3) I have 4 good strikers of equal level, 3 Advanced forwards and one target man, so i rotate a lot, e.g one game striker

A and B and other game striker C and D and another game striker B and C etc. Is this bad, as in too much changes? And is it fine playing 2 AF together or should I make 1 e.g AF and other Deep lying forward?

 

4) A good tip I learned from you was that I shouldn't keep changing formations around, didn't realise football manager was this clever. Is this changing just based on player positions or also player roles too? So I know that if I change from 3-5-2, then another game to 4-3-3 and then another to 4-4-2 my team will perform bad from the changes.

 

But what about if I stick to a consistent formation,but change my player roles a lot, e.g my strikers one game from AF to another game to DLF and same time I change a winger from Winger to wide midfielder and a full back to wing back etc all changes like this every game, will this make them perform poorly from the changes.

 

And finally, does changing team instructions count? Because I change team mentality every game, if I face a top team I play defensive, with counter, if I play a mid tier team I play attack and when i score mid game i change to defensive. Does these changes make it hard for my players to adapt and perform poorly?

 

 

Btw just a interesting note, I used to play Anita in DMF and every game, like probably 10-15 in a row he was getting 8's and 9's. his average rating from 16 league games is 8.06 and 3 cup games 8.33. Then I played tiote in that roll instead of Anita as he was unavailable, and he seemed to get 8's and 9's too. I guess my formation allows this position to play good. But on the other hand my wingers were always getting 6's and would get the coach report of "Wingers ineffective". Not sure if they had the wrong player roles, or because on the right the gap between my full back and winger was a lot, or because I changed the player role every game to find the suitable one but could make it worse because of player having to constantly adapt.The wingers do seem to be better now, it may be because of me changing the roles around or that they settled in, but took probably like 10 games. Just curious as to what this might have been as to avoid it happening again.

 

Sorry for all the questions lol be very helpful if you can shed some light on these for me

 

Thanks very much,

Navid :)

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Both tactics seem fine, for the second you could move Guttierez up though for both I would make them both wing backs, it won't matter if you do this.

Questions answered:

1) I would say your ADF is good where he is as he has space on the wing to move out to.

2) Either way though with no winger on the left ADF is perhaps the best.

3) 2 ADFs can be a problem as they may both drift and you only have one player getting into the box then. I would have one as a PCR/TM at all times to stop this.

4) It is both, if you ask a player to play a TM then a PCR then a ADF one after another then they are totally different roles and he won't capture form as much. Player roles can influence shape don't forget.

Glad you have enjoyed the guide and found it useful :).

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I didn't want to move Guttierez up as it is his secondary position and hence goes light green. You still think it will be worth moving him up in his secondary position?

 

Sorry but is PCR short for poacher? So if I'm understanding correct, a good combo is a poacher+ADF. Alternatively TM+ADF?

 

Just was reading previous comments, and if a BBM is similar to a BWM just runs more, then im thinking of switching Tiote to a BBM as he has the stamina to support it and I have another very good DMF. My question here is, will it be a problem with 2 BBM's (Tiote and Sisoko)? If it is then I would Change sisoko to a central midfielder role.

 

 

Just wondering if could get an answer on these 2 previous questions:

 

Does changing team instructions count? Because I change team mentality every game, if I face a top team I play defensive, with counter, if I play a mid tier team I play attack and when i score mid game i change to defensive. Does these changes make it hard for my players to adapt and perform poorly?

 

I have 4 good strikers of equal level, 3 Advanced forwards and one target man, so i rotate a lot, e.g one game striker

A and B and other game striker C and D and another game striker B and C etc. Is this bad, as in too much changes? 

 

Thanks for the help 

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I can definately vouch for my BWM consistency having one of the highest averages in the team playing just in front of the defence - guess he must do a lop of mopping up!!

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I didn't want to move Guttierez up as it is his secondary position and hence goes light green. You still think it will be worth moving him up in his secondary position?

This shouldn't make a difference, he should do a job there but I think he is your weakest player anyway so may be worth replacing.

Sorry but is PCR short for poacher? So if I'm understanding correct, a good combo is a poacher+ADF. Alternatively TM+ADF?

PCR means Poacher and PCR and TMs can both work well together and with similar players - moving ones. This movement are often ADFs/DLFs and TRQs.

Just was reading previous comments, and if a BBM is similar to a BWM just runs more, then im thinking of switching Tiote to a BBM as he has the stamina to support it and I have another very good DMF. My question here is, will it be a problem with 2 BBM's (Tiote and Sisoko)? If it is then I would Change sisoko to a central midfielder role.

If you do this then you will lack a player protecting your defence and be vulnerable on the counter attack. You need that purely defensive player in your side.

 

 

Just wondering if could get an answer on these 2 previous questions:

 

Does changing team instructions count? Because I change team mentality every game, if I face a top team I play defensive, with counter, if I play a mid tier team I play attack and when i score mid game i change to defensive. Does these changes make it hard for my players to adapt and perform poorly?

It depends how overboard you go. If you suddenly ask your players to play the offside trap they may not perform as well as you want straight away until they get used to it but mentality should in theory be ok.

 

I have 4 good strikers of equal level, 3 Advanced forwards and one target man, so i rotate a lot, e.g one game striker

A and B and other game striker C and D and another game striker B and C etc. Is this bad, as in too much changes? 

 

Thanks for the help

If you rotate every game then this is bound to upset teamwork, players thrive on consistency as much as possible and this will yield the best results. For example Sturridge and Suarez knew each other's traits and movements for Liverpool this season and this showed.
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