An analysis of the Enhanced Tactics features

 

Above is the official Sports Interactive description of the new tactical features in Football Manager Mobile 2016. Within this article I am going to break it down and attempt to see what this means and whether they are good or not.

 

"You can choose where your team concentrates its passing"

What is this?: I believe this is fairly simple to understand. In essence it determines where your team is most active. It should be split into 3 sections - left, right and middle. It instructs where the team passes to more often.

Example: If your team has some good attacking players on the right then you may want them to have the ball more and dictate play as that is where you will have the most joy.

Is this good?: I believe it is situational, it can be very good when you have a certain philosophy or when coming up against a team that has an obvious weakness. It may not be used other times but when you have a brilliant player and want to get the most out of him it can be helpful.

 

"Selecting your main attacking threat and creative outlet"

What is this?: The attacking threat could mean a target main in which would lead to your players aiming as many balls to him as possible or trying to get the ball to him quickly. The creative outlet is a playmaker, he will be passed to in order to dictate the play and play the ball long.

Example: You play direct passing with a strong forward up front and an AMC in a 4231 formation. You set the AMC as the playmaker who often picks out the wingers or the forward who play it off each other or have a shot.

Is this good?: While both are technically possible already if your main threat is not a forward then it could be good, it is also good when having two of the same position/player roles to show which is better. It is also useful for Deep Lying Midfielders to have more creative control such as Pirlo. It is very much an expansion of what can be done and can give more freedom and not just via player roles.

 

"Advise your Goalkeeper on Distribution"

What is this?: Telling your goalkeeper where to pass to. Distribution could mean both side or distance. My guess is it will be distance or side and the options may be, short, left, right, middle, mixed.

Example: When playing a short passing game from the back your goalkeeper can play it short so your defence distributes the ball more safely.

Is this good?: Like the passing direction I believe it is very much dependent on philosophy. I don't believe it is game changing but then I don't believe it is bad in any way. For short passing teams or teams with a player who can head the ball a lot better than the rest of the attack then it will be beneficial but I don't see myself or many others using it and noticing much difference.

 

Is there anything else?

To me the way it is worded makes it seem like there is more. I may be wrong but other additions that would be significant include man marking; in which is sometimes mentioned in the news section of the game, player runs and tempo.

[Ashez]

Nice work Dec  

The features mentioned have been lifted right out the PSP version and they were great back then, minus the pass direction anyway. My memory isn't that good but it could be worth looking that set up back up and seeing what else could potentially be included. 

Personally I hope some pressing options and free roles are added as they can really change a formation. 

[Fish18ish]

Seems stupid that your assistant coach reccomend man marking when that isn't even available on the game!

Nice article.

[FastFurious]

Great article Dec. Any new tactical options are good for FMH since the current options feel a bit limiting sometimes. 

I've never played the PSP version but it would be disappointing if they were taken straight from there, I thought they were new features! 

[Ashez]

On the PSP we could set/edit these areas per position. 

[FastFurious]

That looks quite in-depth for each player, it's got marking as well. How does it translate into the match engine? Would be happy if that was in FMM16!

[phila]

I always assumed man marking was an encouragement to have a player playing in the same area as one of their players. for example, if Messi is playing AM then I have a DM to counteract him. Is this correct?

[scass]

I think man marking would be top of my list. Coaches is a good addition, so long as they actually give proper advice rather than the random rubbish they spout in the current version. Identifying the main creative threat, or where you concentrate your passing is pointless, unless you have better scouting advice and know the opposition's lineup before the game. It's a bit stupid to be a Premiership club and have the assistant manager give a useless pre-match assessment.

 

Apart from that, I'd rather they concentrated on watching a football match, and realising that "obstruction" is relatively rare, and fouls around the penalty area don't tend to lead to indirect free kicks. I counted more than a dozen in a game recently, and it undermines your faith!

[Alari]

On the PSP we could set/edit these areas per position. 

The existing roles have much the same effect as the above options.

[JustM1kePlays]

Brilliant write up Dec. I am actually looking forward to this the most out of the new features.  Let's hope it has some actual effect on the game. 

[Ashez]

The existing roles have much the same effect as the above options.

We assumed that as someone found the info somehow. The difference is on the PSP we can alter it compared to the set roles. 

Saying that you just reminded me, I have a save/bug for you. Not the one you requested but another player trade related one and I have the save before and after the deal. I'll get it you as soon as I'm on the PC but I'm not sure when that'll be, if it seems like I've forgot feel free to remind me lol.

[Alari]

As far as I'm concerned the roles are better for this because with the player instructions as listed it's possible to make incoherent/mutually exclusive instruction sets that make no actual sense on the pitch.

If you do have such a save, fantastic!

[UKFootballScore]

Yeah it was me who had found that info in with the files so the core is there to do something like that but what I want is to be able to tell Paul Pogba to shoot often from the DM role which isnt something you can do currently

[FastFurious]

Is there a list somewhere that breaks down the current player roles with the options in the PSP version? for example - WNG - forward runs (yes), long shots (no), cross ball (yes) etc. 

[UKFootballScore]

Kind of…

This is what I found a while back

 

[UKFootballScore]

[UKFootballScore]

And I did a test on these whether it seemed to change anything and it did on the Enhanced Engine for examlple I set the DM to Shoot Often and any player in that position would do just that

It wouldnt be a case of only my players did that though it would be accros the whole game

[FastFurious]

That's really interesting. IMO something like that in FMM16 would allow way more tailored tactics and combinations, even if it's already been in the game before