Tactics The Black Hawk 2026 - Work in Progress

[TazerMan]

What do you mean by match préparation? Is this the new thing in the training side ? What do we have to choose for the tactic ?

[Pinuccio]

2 hours ago, TazerMan said:

What do you mean by match préparation? Is this the new thing in the training side ? What do we have to choose for the tactic ?

Basically, if you're good at talking to the players and if you're good at choosing the right training session before the match, and if you're good at team discussions before the match and not putting pressure on them... in theory, you can win with any tactic, even with Oronzo Cana's 5-5-5 (a quote from a glorious old Italian film).

[edduL]

So my season was pretty bad until I tried this. Had been testing out a few different tactics, but none worked.
I had used Black hawk in the past, so I wanted to try it again.
I was nervous that I would let in a lot of goals as a lower league team, so I only ended up tweaking mentality from Control to Balanced.

Only other thing I adjusted was enabling run at defence when I was chasing a goal, enabling control if I was dominating and lowering defensive line + time wasting when I was in the lead and afraid of conceding.
I don't have too many results to show off, but these are my games since using black hawk with balanced mentality..

Will continue using this next season, so hopefully I will have more of these results soon.

[iXfeirce]

16 hours ago, Black Hawk said:

My idea is that the match preparation is OP. A bad approach in match preparation and we're going to have a terrible day regardless of the tactic we use. I haven't gone into much detail about the different options yet, but be careful with the choices you make; they are the difference between winning by a large margin or being thrashed.

Interesting, so I assume you did put this to the test? What were the results cause I normally delegate this to my assistent but yeah I feel like some games (lost 5-0) it is indeed like you are being trashed and against the same opponent on the return we won 5-0.. went to pens. But did obviously not check the pre match training in both and all other occasions.

[rseven]

When I test your latest version of BH. My opponent is Newcastle United, and my team is Wolves. Newcastle United plays 4222. And beat me easily. So, during your test, did your team perform well when meet opponent with 4222?

[gorp]

by reading your posts i'm guessing you really love to keep the ball so just a suggestion if you want pure "control" and possession maybe try changing the creativity freedom to balanced/disciplined?

and even defensive mentality is viable if you want extreme possession since they barely take risks.

I watched on youtube someone (i think it was RDF? I'm not sure i forgot) made a tactic with Defensive mentality and creative freedom on disciplined. Because in the full version of FM 26 the players tend to shoot from outside the box more, so he get around that by tweaking the mentality and creativity freedom.

Hope it helps! big fan of your works

[Amir The Potato]

20 hours ago, rseven said:

Have you tried to change IF to AF or PF, and turn on run at defense? In my Wolves sav, this setting help me to build up, ball from GK to WK to AF/PF than to the BBM. 

I'm sorry. What is WK?

[Amir The Potato]

On 12/11/2025 at 07:01, Sammy 2207 said:

It works but am not satisfied so in my second season I moved the Roaming Playmaker to the attacking midfielder position 

Because of Cole Palmer and in the second season we were doing better I will send post more screenshots when am done ✅

Hi! What role is Cole Palmer? AM/AP/SS/Trequatista?

I'm currently trying this tactic with Liverpool. Thinking of doing the same thing because of wirtz. Tried changing one of the B2B to AP for him but not really working. 

[rseven]

1 hour ago, Amir The Potato said:

I'm sorry. What is WK?

WB, haha

[iXfeirce]

I did some testing with all the available pre training focuses. (I was bored and had nothing else to do 😅).

Some important notes:

- I played a variant of the black hawk tactic but with small adjustments to try and improve it in my own saves. 

Since the BBM and RP like to bomb up the pitch I decided to move the RP in the DMC slot to a Central midfield position to make a flat three in the 'CM' role as he acts like a playmaker without the role of a playmaker and has the most passes of team. I noticed that the MC does not bomb forward and actually does support in the build up as well in offence where he is often to be found around the 16 yard box. Besides that i only play with CD in stead of the BPD / no expressive freedom. Had some good saves and I find positive results, especially if you adjust during games. Especially with the defensive line in regards to the pace of your defenders vs opposition strikers and protecting a lead in the last 10 minutes. ( FOR THESE TEST I did not modify anything during the match).

- I played only the first half and closed the app and repeated it 50 times. (Even more because in some games the opposition or myself got a injury/red card and wanted no outliers. Played with the same 11.

- EDIT: This was all tested with Bayern vs Valencia so maybe not the most ideal match.

Now this were the results and I highlighted some stats which I thought was fun to do 😅. Now I am by no means an expert in reading stats / finding key differences etc. So here I would actually like to ask @Black Hawk, @Pinuccio, and the goat @DanEnglishsince he is an expert imo to read such things and analyze.

 

 

Edited November 14 by iXfeirce
Match added

[iXfeirce]

I took the time (as mentioned before, I am bored) to try summarize / analyse some results:

General: 3 bad results (imo a draw or when we are behind, just for these test i will list this as a bad result. Obviously when playing better teams a draw isn't bad by any means). 

Transition Press: All good results, except for maybe 1 outlier where we did not controlled the match (42% possesion). Which is the hole point of the tactic, to control! But created a clear cut chance on 4 out of 5 matches without giving any goal / clear chance away.

Pressing: Same as above with the 1 outlier where we had 48% possesion. 

Ball Retention: 2 bad results. 

Rest: Nothing to mention.

Transition Restrict: Nothing to mention.

Defensive Shape: No bad results. But noticed that Valencia had no goal threats. No clear cut chances / very few shots.

Direct Play: 2 bad results and did not control match on the occasion with 48% possesion.

Wing Play: 2 bad results and did not control match on the occasion with 44% possesion.

Counter attack: 2 bad results.

Based on this small sample size I would prefer to Transition press as mentioned above, CCC on almost every match, not giving anything away and with good shots (ot) ratio. Defensive Shape might be interesting where you are the underdog and want a more defensive approach. Might be worth a shot to test this in a save. 

[neutralstate]

11 hours ago, iXfeirce said:

I took the time (as mentioned before, I am bored) to try summarize / analyse some results:

General: 3 bad results (imo a draw or when we are behind, just for these test i will list this as a bad result. Obviously when playing better teams a draw isn't bad by any means). 

Transition Press: All good results, except for maybe 1 outlier where we did not controlled the match (42% possesion). Which is the hole point of the tactic, to control! But created a clear cut chance on 4 out of 5 matches without giving any goal / clear chance away.

Pressing: Same as above with the 1 outlier where we had 48% possesion. 

Ball Retention: 2 bad results. 

Rest: Nothing to mention.

Transition Restrict: Nothing to mention.

Defensive Shape: No bad results. But noticed that Valencia had no goal threats. No clear cut chances / very few shots.

Direct Play: 2 bad results and did not control match on the occasion with 48% possesion.

Wing Play: 2 bad results and did not control match on the occasion with 44% possesion.

Counter attack: 2 bad results.

Based on this small sample size I would prefer to Transition press as mentioned above, CCC on almost every match, not giving anything away and with good shots (ot) ratio. Defensive Shape might be interesting where you are the underdog and want a more defensive approach. Might be worth a shot to test this in a save. 

sorry what is CCC?

[thatguy8]

13 minutes ago, neutralstate said:

sorry what is CCC?

CCC = Clear Cut Chance/s

[neutralstate]

1 hour ago, thatguy8 said:

CCC = Clear Cut Chance/s

ah right, thanks!

[gunnera]

Won Seria A with Fiore in second season in Italy and 1/4 final on CL. Didn't work well at Unterhaching ind 3rd Liga. 8 game without win

[Resurgam]

3 hours ago, gunnera said:

Won Seria A with Fiore in second season in Italy and 1/4 final on CL. Didn't work well at Unterhaching ind 3rd Liga. 8 game without win

With the original (DC) or latest (BPD)? 

[Juwon O]

On 13/11/2025 at 15:37, Black Hawk said:

UPDATE

 

I decided to abandon the three at the back design and stick to my instincts. Which is to say, I've gone back to the old 4123.

In Portugal, we have an expression: "velho do Restelo," which literally translates to "old man of Restelo" and means someone who clings to old ideas and opposes innovation. I'm a bit like that with this new match engine in the sense that I've already realized there are different things and I should be molding my tactics to them, but I like playing in this 4123 system and I'll continue until I make it work or die trying.

The funny part is that it's even giving results, at least in the two most recent tests I did with Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest. Still, it's not entirely to my liking, but it's the best I could come with until now.

 

Regarding the match engine

 

The match engine is quite chaotic. Some games are based on the old and infamous Kick & Rush, which is kicking forward and running; if the opponent recovers the ball, they kick forward and run behind or with the ball, and so on.

I don't like this approach of this years match engine. Games end up lacking order, and even when we manage to control the game, often a single bad pass is enough to trigger a deadly counter-attack and opponents are terribly effective on the counter-attack; even weak teams become top teams when they recover the ball. They recover the ball, kick it forward, and we have a striker running towards out goalkeeper.

This is guaranteed. There's no way to avoid it. I tested playing with a low block, deep defensive line, sit back closing down, and even then, opponents manage to get their strikers behind out defense backs with long passes.

If it's guaranteed they'll succeed with this, I decided to ignore it and play with the law of probabilities. If we create more goal-scoring opportunities and have more possession, in most games it might be enough to compensate for the goal-scoring opportunities that the opponent will inevitably create.

 

Why 4123 for now

 

As you saw on the last pages, I tried to create a system with three at the back and discovered that for a possession-based and game-controlling system, it doesn't work the way I want.

There is a way, which Pinuccio mentioned, that involves placing the Wing Backs in the midfielder line, effectively making them Wingers. I don't like the idea because I want a tactic that everyone can use. Most teams have Full Backs / Wing Backs who would become useless because they can't play that far up the pitch, which would require squad adjustments to use the tactic.

For a possession-based and game-controlling system to work with three at the back, there would have to be options to receive the ball from the goalkeeper. Now, the three Centre Backs are too close together to provide that option; if you use Wide Centre Backs, they run forward as if they were Wingers and don't give options to receive the ball either.

This forces the goalkeeper to kick the ball forward, often resulting in lost of possession and counter-attacks that lead to goals.

Therefore, until the functioning of the Wide Center Backs or the ball positioning of the three Center Backs is corrected (preferably both), the best way to play out from the back continues to be with a back four, as this way the Wing Backs stay back and give the goalkeeper the option of a short pass. From there, the Roaming Playmaker or the Inside Forward are options to play out and thus we can overcome the intense pressure that all opponents now apply in the central zone of the pitch.

This won't always work because even so, the goalkeeper and even the Wing Backs continue to kick the ball forward without any strategy, even when there are options close to them, I would say maybe half the time or close to that, but it's something we have to deal with - the match engine was designed for players to have these behaviors.

Okay, having made these preliminary points, this is the best I could come up with so far.

 

 

This is basically the layout of the old The Black Hawk 4123 from FMM24. I increased Tackling to Committed, removed Run At Defence and Through Balls, and changed Passing Focus to Mixed.

Tackling was set this way because much of the game is now based on individual duels. Opponents also make decisions faster, and it's helpful to be more assertive in tackling. This results in more cards, so when making substitutions, keep this in mind because the risk of a red card for someone who already has a yellow card is much higher.

Passing Focus was changed to Mixed because opponents crowd the central zone more. This way, we try to play down the flanks more often to get around the volume of players in the middle. I didn't go for Both Wings because then we would only play down the flanks, and that's boring to watch.

Run At Defence and Through Balls were part of The Black Hawk in the FMM23 (RAD) and FMM24 (TB) versions, but this time it doesn't seem to work as well.

Run At Defence might work in top teams because we have better players, but in midtable or weaker teams it leads to many turnovers.

I haven't yet managed to find a way for Through Balls to work well. Opponents put a lot of people in the central zone and it's difficult to find space to put the ball deep for our forwards when we're in organized attack - maybe it works better in counter-attack systems.

I didn't change the Width because then the players are too far apart to maintain the short passing system. In better teams it might work, but in midtable or weaker teams it leads to many misplaced passes.

Overall, this is a balanced system for both strong and weaker teams. It can be used as a base, but then, depending on the players and the moments of the game, there might be some tweaks here and there that can be made, for example when we are winning near the end and the opponent comes at us with everything - and believe me, they attack with everything!

 

The two tests I made

 

From my experience in these two tests, the tactic isn't as strong as in FMM24. This isn't necessarily bad, because it makes the games more balanced, and teams like Palace or Forest aren't supposed to completely dominate Liverpools or Man Citys.

There are games where we were much better, others where we were worse, we gained points where we didn't deserve them, and we lost points when we should have won easily. It would even be realistic if this wasn't caused by players not following instructions, but at least the games are quite tough, and I never know what to expect from each game.

My idea is that the match preparation is OP. A bad approach in match preparation and we're going to have a terrible day regardless of the tactic we use. I haven't gone into much detail about the different options yet, but be careful with the choices you make; they are the difference between winning by a large margin or being thrashed.

Keep in mind that this tactic in the current match engine allows clear cut chances for opponents. It also seems to me that any control and possession tactic will have this problem in this match engine because counter-attacks are overpowered.

Well, I'll share the two tests done so far.

 

Test #01: Crystal Palace

 

Just to clarify, Palace has a terribly unbalanced squad for this 4123 formation, especially since they start with many injured players.

For example, we only have one striker, Mateta, who thankfully is fantastic, but forced me to play many games with a midfielder as a striker (in this case, I opted for Ahamada due to a lack of alternatives) until Nketiah's return.

The team also only has two decent IFs. I had to bring Rak-Sakyi back from loan to have someone to rotate with the two starters (Sarr and Pino).

The midfield is nothing special, although Uche and Wharton seem to be good players, which made it difficult to maintain possession in some games and we conceded goals because of that.

The two main center backs are good, but the wing backs are only OK at the start and only improved as the game progressed.

 

 

Overall, it exceeded my expectations. I had set a target of 35 points for the middle of the season and we ended up with 40 points in 18 games without a single defeat.

Note that we are still playing in both domestic cups.

In the games against the stronger teams, I noticed that we weren't dominant, something that was possible in FMM24 with mid-table teams, and in some of them we came away with points when we could easily have lost.

In others, we even deserved to win and we didn't. I think it's part of the game.

It didn't happen in this test, but in others I did with similar variants I had games against stronger teams (Liverpool and Arsenal, in particular) where I conceded four or five goals from six or seven shots, so keep in mind that there may be a couple of occasional games where this goes very wrong.

Oh, just to comment that in the UEFA Conference League I always played with the second team.

 

 

Offensively, the team relied heavily on goals from their strikers: Mateta in the Premier League and Nketiah in the UEFA Conference League after he returned from injury. Pino and Sarr aren't exactly goalscorers, and none of the midfielders are strong offensively (except perhaps Uche).

This made me afraid that the tactic only worked because of Mateta, so the second test was done with a team without big strikers.

 

Test #2: Nottingham Forest

 

I don't know why, but Chris Wood is weak in this FMM26. The alternatives don't seem anything special to me either (maybe they have the potential to grow?).

In any case, Forest has a good defense and a great midfield. Hudson-Odoi is also a good IF, Ndoye isn't bad, but they're the only ones. I ended up adapting Hutchinson to right IF and bringing Jota Silva back from loan to have alternatives.

 

 

The results were basically the same as the first test against Palace. One more goal scored and one less conceded, I also played one more game than with Palace, and in terms of points it was more or less the same.

In the UEFA Europa League I also played with the second team so I could focus on the Premier League. Here too we are still playing in both domestic cups.

What I wrote about the test with Palace applies here in the same way.

 

 

Here we didn't have Mateta, but the team compensated for the absence of a goalscorer by distributing the goals among other players. This made me feel more at ease. It's as if the team, lacking a goalscorer, looks for other ways to reach the opponent's goal.

 

Okay, this is the best I've managed so far. I think this is a good base to start with.

Over time, perhaps some tweaks will be found for certain moments of the game: to defend a lead late in the game, to seek victory in a game we are dominating, things like that, but in the current format I think it already allows us to obtain some positive results.

In these tests I think we are a little above what would be normal. I can't shake the feeling that I was lucky in some games, it may even be my usual pessimism talking, but I think in both I could have finished with around 35/36 points instead of the 40/41 I achieved.

 

But it's also important to keep in mind that I went full plug & play; in some games I could have gotten something better if I had set the team to defend more or attack more, but I wanted to test this version without changes to see how far we could go playing like this.

For a base system, I think it's not bad. If I find improvements, I'll share them.

Just curious and weird question, what way or is there a skin or extension that gets you this background format, I love it. 

 

Thanks as always. 

 

I personally love control and possession and I've tried so many of it in my save currently and I even went ahead to try testing with a weird save where all the players had 20 rating in all attributes but even with the control possession or tiki taka tactics, struggle to keep possession and just make bad decisions generally, so it's definitely not about the attributes of some poor players or players in general. 

 

From constantly flying ahead for a pass instead of going slow to shooting from weird and far angles during clutch moments(which hurts so much when looking for a goal) even when WIB is active. 

 

 

So, nice tactics development and explanation. 

 

PS: I got more dribbles from my wingers with the TB than RIB and than when both aren't selected. 

[hsyncn9]

This tactic is working very well at Galatasaray. I scored three goals against Bayern Munich. We're in the Champions League quarterfinals. I'm in first place in the league.

[Burn]

On 13/11/2025 at 14:37, Black Hawk said:

UPDATE

I decided to abandon the three at the back design and stick to my instincts. Which is to say, I've gone back to the old 4123.

First version that performa better than FM24 Black Hawk, for me.

Sorry I don’t  post lots of technical details, theories, guesswork or waffle.

What I do is play seasons fast, plug and play, commentary off, replays off, highlight speed at fastest - my play style is all about buying, developing and selling young players, so i want tactics that i can minimise time between transfer windows, but win enough so morale stays high.

I also don’t use elite teams with elite players and then say ‘tactic is amazing’. I always play with lesser teams, West Ham, Aberdeen, etc, so I could argue that my testing is the tough exam for tactics that can truly deliver.

 

Edited November 17 by Burn

[Black Hawk]

On 13/11/2025 at 15:12, Pinuccio said:

I read carefully. True conclusions! You said something right: that tactics in this edition of the game are influenced, for better or worse, by pre-match preparation and dialogue. When the time comes, I'll include this in my tactics. Maybe we should all write it in our publications. I like the 433 you're developing. I'm a fan of the Czech Zeman's historic 433, but on this platform, unfortunately, it's almost impossible to edit.

A lot by them.

Also, you were right about what you said to me: the key is in finding spaces for midfielders runs. I still didn't find how to make them run like they did on FMM24 tough...

On 13/11/2025 at 15:15, rseven said:

Have you tried to change IF to AF or PF, and turn on run at defense? In my Wolves sav, this setting help me to build up, ball from GK to WK to AF/PF than to the BBM. 

I did a test with Burnley (will share it soon) and after that I'm testing formations with three FCs where two are AFs. With Liverpool had instant impact, but with Liverpool anything works...

On 13/11/2025 at 16:29, Sergey Godina said:

But you still decided to go with BPD in the center defense and not the usual CD as it was in the first version. Are there any reasons for this?

Yes. I went with BPD because there's space to explore on early phase of construction after we recovered the ball. BPD are more prone to explore them with long passes and sometimes we can profit from it.

On 13/11/2025 at 22:44, edduL said:

So my season was pretty bad until I tried this. Had been testing out a few different tactics, but none worked.
I had used Black hawk in the past, so I wanted to try it again.
I was nervous that I would let in a lot of goals as a lower league team, so I only ended up tweaking mentality from Control to Balanced.

Only other thing I adjusted was enabling run at defence when I was chasing a goal, enabling control if I was dominating and lowering defensive line + time wasting when I was in the lead and afraid of conceding.
I don't have too many results to show off, but these are my games since using black hawk with balanced mentality..

Will continue using this next season, so hopefully I will have more of these results soon.

Good. I'm happy for you ❤️

I'm not liking Run At Defence because that makes my IFs run too wide, they seem to take that instruction as "Run to where there's space" and the space is only on the wings, which makes them run to the box a lot less than I wanted (and that was one of the strenghts of this tactic on FMM24).

But in some cases it may work.

On 14/11/2025 at 07:30, iXfeirce said:

Interesting, so I assume you did put this to the test? What were the results cause I normally delegate this to my assistent but yeah I feel like some games (lost 5-0) it is indeed like you are being trashed and against the same opponent on the return we won 5-0.. went to pens. But did obviously not check the pre match training in both and all other occasions.

I'm still not sure. I'm too obsessed with players moves on the match engine to try to figure out how to develop the tactic 🤣 but I can say right now I've been using only Transitions (Press or Restrict, the one is recommended) or Pressing, as they provide bonus to the attributes that are necessary to pressing and movement.

If none of the above is recommended, they will still have a blue asterisk when you have to select an option, so I go with the one that has it.

On 14/11/2025 at 10:59, rseven said:

When I test your latest version of BH. My opponent is Newcastle United, and my team is Wolves. Newcastle United plays 4222. And beat me easily. So, during your test, did your team perform well when meet opponent with 4222?

Yeah... 4222 is my nightmare right now. The one with two MCs, two Wingers on the attacking line and two FCs, right?

In time I may have to find something exclusively for that formations as that's the kind of thing nightmares are made of. Marseille plays like that and they have trashed me a few times already on various tests.

On 14/11/2025 at 11:05, gorp said:

by reading your posts i'm guessing you really love to keep the ball so just a suggestion if you want pure "control" and possession maybe try changing the creativity freedom to balanced/disciplined?

and even defensive mentality is viable if you want extreme possession since they barely take risks.

I watched on youtube someone (i think it was RDF? I'm not sure i forgot) made a tactic with Defensive mentality and creative freedom on disciplined. Because in the full version of FM 26 the players tend to shoot from outside the box more, so he get around that by tweaking the mentality and creativity freedom.

Hope it helps! big fan of your works

I did! (Creative Freedom)

I'm testing with less creating freedom in a new test I'm still doing, but don't have enough data to understand if that's working better.

Thanks for the help 😃

On 14/11/2025 at 13:32, iXfeirce said:

I did some testing with all the available pre training focuses. (I was bored and had nothing else to do 😅).

Some important notes:

- I played a variant of the black hawk tactic but with small adjustments to try and improve it in my own saves. 

Since the BBM and RP like to bomb up the pitch I decided to move the RP in the DMC slot to a Central midfield position to make a flat three in the 'CM' role as he acts like a playmaker without the role of a playmaker and has the most passes of team. I noticed that the MC does not bomb forward and actually does support in the build up as well in offence where he is often to be found around the 16 yard box. Besides that i only play with CD in stead of the BPD / no expressive freedom. Had some good saves and I find positive results, especially if you adjust during games. Especially with the defensive line in regards to the pace of your defenders vs opposition strikers and protecting a lead in the last 10 minutes. ( FOR THESE TEST I did not modify anything during the match).

- I played only the first half and closed the app and repeated it 50 times. (Even more because in some games the opposition or myself got a injury/red card and wanted no outliers. Played with the same 11.

- EDIT: This was all tested with Bayern vs Valencia so maybe not the most ideal match.

Now this were the results and I highlighted some stats which I thought was fun to do 😅. Now I am by no means an expert in reading stats / finding key differences etc. So here I would actually like to ask @Black Hawk, @Pinuccio, and the goat @DanEnglishsince he is an expert imo to read such things and analyze.

 

 

Tell me one thing: aren't the CBs too exposed and forced to break formation to press adversary midfielders without a player on the MD position? That's why every tactic I developed with a 4 at the back has a player on the MD position.

On 14/11/2025 at 13:54, iXfeirce said:

I took the time (as mentioned before, I am bored) to try summarize / analyse some results:

General: 3 bad results (imo a draw or when we are behind, just for these test i will list this as a bad result. Obviously when playing better teams a draw isn't bad by any means). 

Transition Press: All good results, except for maybe 1 outlier where we did not controlled the match (42% possesion). Which is the hole point of the tactic, to control! But created a clear cut chance on 4 out of 5 matches without giving any goal / clear chance away.

Pressing: Same as above with the 1 outlier where we had 48% possesion. 

Ball Retention: 2 bad results. 

Rest: Nothing to mention.

Transition Restrict: Nothing to mention.

Defensive Shape: No bad results. But noticed that Valencia had no goal threats. No clear cut chances / very few shots.

Direct Play: 2 bad results and did not control match on the occasion with 48% possesion.

Wing Play: 2 bad results and did not control match on the occasion with 44% possesion.

Counter attack: 2 bad results.

Based on this small sample size I would prefer to Transition press as mentioned above, CCC on almost every match, not giving anything away and with good shots (ot) ratio. Defensive Shape might be interesting where you are the underdog and want a more defensive approach. Might be worth a shot to test this in a save. 

Wow, you're are doing Gods work, my friend!

I too tend to use Transition Press a lot, but I was only using it because of a feeling based on the attributes it gives bonus to, not because I have tested it.

Thanks a lot!

On 15/11/2025 at 09:32, gunnera said:

Won Seria A with Fiore in second season in Italy and 1/4 final on CL. Didn't work well at Unterhaching ind 3rd Liga. 8 game without win

Unterhaching is in Regionalliga, right? So they were promoted and you are playing with them after a few seasons?

How are team performing (apart from the results), what are you finding that don't work?

Any help is welcomed.

On 16/11/2025 at 07:15, Juwon O said:

Just curious and weird question, what way or is there a skin or extension that gets you this background format, I love it. 

 

Thanks as always. 

 

I personally love control and possession and I've tried so many of it in my save currently and I even went ahead to try testing with a weird save where all the players had 20 rating in all attributes but even with the control possession or tiki taka tactics, struggle to keep possession and just make bad decisions generally, so it's definitely not about the attributes of some poor players or players in general. 

 

From constantly flying ahead for a pass instead of going slow to shooting from weird and far angles during clutch moments(which hurts so much when looking for a goal) even when WIB is active. 

 

 

So, nice tactics development and explanation. 

 

PS: I got more dribbles from my wingers with the TB than RIB and than when both aren't selected. 

The background... I'm note sure, I installed a skin to FMM24 and maybe it still is working on FMM26 🤣

It was Dark Skins here on FMVibe.

 

Don't know if it's compatible with FMM26.

Regarding the way the match engine is right now, I have a strong feeling it was designed to nerf possession and controlled tactics as they were working really well on last versions of the game - same way they nerfed IFs some time ago too.

Look, I'm not looking for excuses. I'm not. But when I see how opponents recover the ball and two seconds later are already with a clear cut chance with a direct pass; how our players are shooting balls ahead even when they have easy short options available; how some roles don't do what they are supposed (Box-to-Boxs are running ahead like crazy on early stages of ball possession, but then they don't run to free spaces on the box when our forwards create them).

This makes me believe there was an attemp to nerf this kind of tactics.

But hey, I was stubborn enough to spend weeks until finding a way for IFs to perform when they were nerfed, so... 🤣

15 hours ago, hsyncn9 said:

This tactic is working very well at Galatasaray. I scored three goals against Bayern Munich. We're in the Champions League quarterfinals. I'm in first place in the league.

Wonderful ❤️

26 minutes ago, Burn said:

First version that performa better than FM24 Black Hawk, for me.

Sorry I don’t  post lots of technical details, theories, guesswork or waffle.

What I do is play seasons fast, plug and play, commentary off, replays off, highlight speed at fastest - my play style is all about buying, developing and selling young players, so i want tactics that i can minimise time between transfer windows, but win enough so morale stays high.

I also don’t use elite teams with elite players and then say ‘tactic is amazing’. I always play with lesser teams, West Ham, Aberdeen, etc, so I could argue that my testing is the tough exam for tactics that can truly deliver.

 

Happy that's working for you, mate. I usually dont play with top teams also, only Sporting to test as it is my team.

I did a test with Burnley to see how this version works on weaker teams, I will post it soon.

[Pinuccio]

14 minutes ago, Black Hawk said:

Molto da loro.

Inoltre, avevi ragione su quello che mi hai detto: la chiave sta nel trovare spazi per le corse dei centrocampisti. Non ho ancora trovato difficile come farli correre come hanno fatto con FMM24...

Ho fatto un test con Burnley (lo condividerò presto) e dopo sto testando formazioni con tre FC dove due sono AF. Con il Liverpool ha avuto un impatto immediato, ma con il Liverpool tutto funziona...

Sì. Sono andato con il BPD perché c'è spazio da esplorare nella prima fase di costruzione dopo aver recuperato la palla. I BPD sono più inclini ad esplorarli con passaggi lunghi e talvolta possiamo trarne profitto.

Bene. Sono felice per te ️

Non mi piace Run At Defense perché questo fa sì che i miei IF vadano troppo larghi, sembrano prendere quell'istruzione come "Corri dove c'è spazio" e lo spazio è solo sulle ali, il che li fa correre verso la scatola molto meno di quanto volevo (e questo era uno dei punti forti di questa tattica su FMM24).

Ma in alcuni casi può funzionare.

Non ne sono ancora sicuro. Sono troppo ossessionato dalle mosse dei giocatori sul motore della partita per cercare di capire come sviluppare la tattica 🤣 ma posso dire che in questo momento ho utilizzato solo Transizioni (Premi o Limita, quella consigliata) o Premere, poiché forniscono bonus agli attributi necessari per premere e spostare.

Se nessuna delle precedenti è consigliata, avranno comunque un asterisco blu quando devi selezionare un'opzione, quindi vado con quella che ce l'ha.

Sì... 4222 è il mio incubo in questo momento. Quello con due MC, due Winger sulla linea d'attacco e due FC, giusto?

Col tempo potrei dover trovare qualcosa esclusivamente per quelle formazioni poiché questo è il genere di cose di cui sono fatti gli incubi. Il Marsiglia gioca così e mi hanno già distrutto alcune volte in vari test.

L'ho fatto! (Libertà Creativa)

Sto testando con meno creazione di libertà in un nuovo test che sto ancora facendo, ma non ho abbastanza dati per capire se funziona meglio.

Grazie per l'aiuto 😃

Dimmi una cosa: i CB non sono troppo esposti e costretti a rompere la formazione per premere i centrocampisti avversari senza un giocatore in posizione MD? Ecco perché ogni tattica che ho sviluppato con un 4 in fondo ha un giocatore in posizione MD.

Wow, stai facendo il lavoro di Dio, amico mio!

Anch'io tendo a usare molto Transition Press, ma lo usavo solo per una sensazione basata sugli attributi a cui dà bonus, non perché l'ho testato.

Grazie mille!

Unterhaching è in Regionalliga, giusto? Quindi sono stati promossi e tu giochi con loro dopo qualche stagione?

Come si comportano i team (a parte i risultati), cosa stai scoprendo che non funziona?

Qualsiasi aiuto è accolto con favore.

Lo sfondo... Noto sicuro, ho installato una skin su FMM24 e forse sta ancora lavorando su FMM26 🤣

Era Dark Skins qui su FMVibe.

 

Non so se è compatibile con FMM26.

Per quanto riguarda il modo in cui è il motore della partita in questo momento, ho la forte sensazione che sia stato progettato per nerfare il possesso e le tattiche controllate poiché funzionavano davvero bene sulle ultime versioni del gioco, nello stesso modo in cui hanno nerfato anche gli IF qualche tempo fa.

Senti, non cerco scuse. Non sono. Ma quando vedo come gli avversari recuperano la palla e due secondi dopo sono già con una chiara possibilità di taglio con un passaggio diretto; come i nostri giocatori stanno tirando palle avanti anche quando hanno a disposizione facili opzioni brevi; come alcuni ruoli non fanno quello che si suppone (Box-to-Boxs stanno correndo avanti come un matto nelle prime fasi del possesso palla, ma poi non corrono negli spazi liberi sulla scatola quando i nostri attaccanti li creano).

Questo mi fa credere che ci fosse un atteggiamento nei confronti di questo tipo di tattiche.

Ma ehi, ero abbastanza testardo da trascorrere settimane fino a trovare un modo per far sì che gli IF si esibissero quando erano nerfed, quindi... 🤣

Wonderful ️

Felice che funzioni per te, amico. Di solito non gioco anche con le migliori squadre, solo con lo Sporting da testare perché è la mia squadra.

Ho fatto un test con Burnley per vedere come funziona questa versione sui team più deboli, la pubblicherò presto.

I have the feeling that it all depends on the excessive RANGE or RADAR or ACTIVATION of the marking, so to speak, which this year is very broad. Even in possession, the famous box-to-box players don't attack the space because it's as if they're constantly paying attention to the opposing midfielders. This is all due to the famous marking radar, which seems to remain active even in possession. Given these feelings, I preferred to remove the box-to-box midfielders.

[Black Hawk]

Test

 

Someone mentioned in a previous post that Sporting is too strong in Portugal to test a tactic and that for a real test, one should choose a weak team.

That's true, although it's also useful to test a tactic with stronger teams to see how it works against more defensive opponents. So I decided to do a quick test with what seems to me to be the weakest team in the Premier League in this FMM26: Burnley.

The Clarets have consistently finished last or close to it in all the tests I've done with other teams, so it seemed like a good challenge to test this variant of The Black Hawk that I previously tested with Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest.

When I started, I set an acceptable level of around 20 points mid-season, with something like 25 points being an excellent result.

 

 

The results were well above expectations.

We scored 30 points, which practically guarantees our survival halfway through the season - and instead of fighting to avoid relegation, we're fighting for places to qualify for European competitions!

I must confess that I had a lot of fun playing with Burnley. The team passed the ball quickly and with good combinations because the opponents opened up more and there was more space; in some games, it was just like The Black Hawk from FMM24. It was wonderful.

As you can imagine, the team scored less offensively than usual because most of the players are nothing special, but even so, it was enough to add 9 wins in 19 games with Burnley.

The vast majority of points were achieved against other mid-table or bottom-half teams, usually in balanced games or games where we were better - I don't recall any game where we were inferior against those teams.

Against the strongest teams (Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea, Newcastle and Tottenham) we only managed four points, but I was surprised by Burnley playing on equal terms against all of them, and in some games we were incredibly unlucky.

 

 

As you can see, we came very close to securing draws against stronger teams, and we deserved it in many of these games, and we lost some in the final stretch.

I would like to highlight that epic comeback against Man Utd, we were losing 0-3 in the 80th minute and still managed to draw!

In general, the team is fighting on equal terms against the strongest opponents, then we lacked some individual quality to make the difference in attack and some luck to avoid conceding goals right at the end of the games - perhaps with some adjustments for the final minutes we could have added two or three more points.

 

 

Individually, the goals and assists were distributed among several players, especially the forwards (IFs and PFs).

I was a little disappointed with Armando Broja. The lad scored four goals in the first two games and then went a long time without scoring (and it wasn't for lack of opportunities). At that stage, the goals mainly came from the IFs.

Burnley's midfield is weak. For example, Florentino Luís, whom I used as a RP, has Movement 7 (7 AS MOVEMENT), which is obviously terrible for a RP. Still, we managed good results.

 

In terms of match preparation, I almost always chose the Transitions (Press or Restricted) or Pressing options, selecting the most recommended one from the three. If none were the most recommended, I chose the one with the blue asterisk in the selection menu.

In pre-match talks with the players, I followed two patterns: if they were confident, I would move forward without saying anything; if two or more players were nervous, I would choose the comfort option to calm the team down.

At halftime, I rarely said anything to the players, only if two or more were frustrated. In those cases, I would praise one of the frustrated players and choose the middle option for the rest.

The tactic is working best when there is space, which at this point leads me to think that it is even more geared towards weaker or midtable teams than top teams. At least with Burnley it worked wonderfully.

[rseven]

46 minutes ago, Black Hawk said:

Test

 

Someone mentioned in a previous post that Sporting is too strong in Portugal to test a tactic and that for a real test, one should choose a weak team.

That's true, although it's also useful to test a tactic with stronger teams to see how it works against more defensive opponents. So I decided to do a quick test with what seems to me to be the weakest team in the Premier League in this FMM26: Burnley.

The Clarets have consistently finished last or close to it in all the tests I've done with other teams, so it seemed like a good challenge to test this variant of The Black Hawk that I previously tested with Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest.

When I started, I set an acceptable level of around 20 points mid-season, with something like 25 points being an excellent result.

 

 

The results were well above expectations.

We scored 30 points, which practically guarantees our survival halfway through the season - and instead of fighting to avoid relegation, we're fighting for places to qualify for European competitions!

I must confess that I had a lot of fun playing with Burnley. The team passed the ball quickly and with good combinations because the opponents opened up more and there was more space; in some games, it was just like The Black Hawk from FMM24. It was wonderful.

As you can imagine, the team scored less offensively than usual because most of the players are nothing special, but even so, it was enough to add 9 wins in 19 games with Burnley.

The vast majority of points were achieved against other mid-table or bottom-half teams, usually in balanced games or games where we were better - I don't recall any game where we were inferior against those teams.

Against the strongest teams (Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea, Newcastle and Tottenham) we only managed four points, but I was surprised by Burnley playing on equal terms against all of them, and in some games we were incredibly unlucky.

 

 

As you can see, we came very close to securing draws against stronger teams, and we deserved it in many of these games, and we lost some in the final stretch.

I would like to highlight that epic comeback against Man Utd, we were losing 0-3 in the 80th minute and still managed to draw!

In general, the team is fighting on equal terms against the strongest opponents, then we lacked some individual quality to make the difference in attack and some luck to avoid conceding goals right at the end of the games - perhaps with some adjustments for the final minutes we could have added two or three more points.

 

 

Individually, the goals and assists were distributed among several players, especially the forwards (IFs and PFs).

I was a little disappointed with Armando Broja. The lad scored four goals in the first two games and then went a long time without scoring (and it wasn't for lack of opportunities). At that stage, the goals mainly came from the IFs.

Burnley's midfield is weak. For example, Florentino Luís, whom I used as a RP, has Movement 7 (7 AS MOVEMENT), which is obviously terrible for a RP. Still, we managed good results.

 

In terms of match preparation, I almost always chose the Transitions (Press or Restricted) or Pressing options, selecting the most recommended one from the three. If none were the most recommended, I chose the one with the blue asterisk in the selection menu.

In pre-match talks with the players, I followed two patterns: if they were confident, I would move forward without saying anything; if two or more players were nervous, I would choose the comfort option to calm the team down.

At halftime, I rarely said anything to the players, only if two or more were frustrated. In those cases, I would praise one of the frustrated players and choose the middle option for the rest.

The tactic is working best when there is space, which at this point leads me to think that it is even more geared towards weaker or midtable teams than top teams. At least with Burnley it worked wonderfully.

You still creat lot chances for shooting! With higher quality players, the results will be better.

[Resurgam]

51 minutes ago, Black Hawk said:

Test

 

Someone mentioned in a previous post that Sporting is too strong in Portugal to test a tactic and that for a real test, one should choose a weak team.

That's true, although it's also useful to test a tactic with stronger teams to see how it works against more defensive opponents. So I decided to do a quick test with what seems to me to be the weakest team in the Premier League in this FMM26: Burnley.

The Clarets have consistently finished last or close to it in all the tests I've done with other teams, so it seemed like a good challenge to test this variant of The Black Hawk that I previously tested with Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest.

When I started, I set an acceptable level of around 20 points mid-season, with something like 25 points being an excellent result.

 

 

The results were well above expectations.

We scored 30 points, which practically guarantees our survival halfway through the season - and instead of fighting to avoid relegation, we're fighting for places to qualify for European competitions!

I must confess that I had a lot of fun playing with Burnley. The team passed the ball quickly and with good combinations because the opponents opened up more and there was more space; in some games, it was just like The Black Hawk from FMM24. It was wonderful.

As you can imagine, the team scored less offensively than usual because most of the players are nothing special, but even so, it was enough to add 9 wins in 19 games with Burnley.

The vast majority of points were achieved against other mid-table or bottom-half teams, usually in balanced games or games where we were better - I don't recall any game where we were inferior against those teams.

Against the strongest teams (Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea, Newcastle and Tottenham) we only managed four points, but I was surprised by Burnley playing on equal terms against all of them, and in some games we were incredibly unlucky.

 

 

As you can see, we came very close to securing draws against stronger teams, and we deserved it in many of these games, and we lost some in the final stretch.

I would like to highlight that epic comeback against Man Utd, we were losing 0-3 in the 80th minute and still managed to draw!

In general, the team is fighting on equal terms against the strongest opponents, then we lacked some individual quality to make the difference in attack and some luck to avoid conceding goals right at the end of the games - perhaps with some adjustments for the final minutes we could have added two or three more points.

 

 

Individually, the goals and assists were distributed among several players, especially the forwards (IFs and PFs).

I was a little disappointed with Armando Broja. The lad scored four goals in the first two games and then went a long time without scoring (and it wasn't for lack of opportunities). At that stage, the goals mainly came from the IFs.

Burnley's midfield is weak. For example, Florentino Luís, whom I used as a RP, has Movement 7 (7 AS MOVEMENT), which is obviously terrible for a RP. Still, we managed good results.

 

In terms of match preparation, I almost always chose the Transitions (Press or Restricted) or Pressing options, selecting the most recommended one from the three. If none were the most recommended, I chose the one with the blue asterisk in the selection menu.

In pre-match talks with the players, I followed two patterns: if they were confident, I would move forward without saying anything; if two or more players were nervous, I would choose the comfort option to calm the team down.

At halftime, I rarely said anything to the players, only if two or more were frustrated. In those cases, I would praise one of the frustrated players and choose the middle option for the rest.

The tactic is working best when there is space, which at this point leads me to think that it is even more geared towards weaker or midtable teams than top teams. At least with Burnley it worked wonderfully.

Great work as always. Was this with BPD or CD?

[Black Hawk]

51 minutes ago, Resurgam said:

Great work as always. Was this with BPD or CD?

BPD.

To give you guys some idea of the difficulties that sometimes arise when testing new ideas, I'm testing a variant with the same Burnley team and I've just conceded goals from direct free kicks in four consecutive games 🙄

Five goals conceded, four from direct free kicks. It feels like the game is thinking "you are not suffering enough" 🤣

[Pinuccio]

2 minutes ago, Black Hawk said:

BPD.

Per darvi un'idea delle difficoltà che a volte si presentano quando si testano nuove idee, sto testando una variante con la stessa squadra del Burnley e ho appena subito gol su punizione diretta in quattro partite consecutive 🙄

Cinque gol subiti, quattro su punizione diretta. Sembra che il gioco stia pensando "non stai soffrendo abbastanza" 🤣

I had this feeling about the script too. I lost the first Serie C match, new test save, dominating the match with 20(6) shots to 4(2) and I lost 1-2 with exactly two free kicks that did not follow the live in 2d but appeared suddenly from the text message to the live with free kicks awarded suddenly.

[kamLay]

2 hours ago, Black Hawk said:

BPD.

To give you guys some idea of the difficulties that sometimes arise when testing new ideas, I'm testing a variant with the same Burnley team and I've just conceded goals from direct free kicks in four consecutive games 🙄

Five goals conceded, four from direct free kicks. It feels like the game is thinking "you are not suffering enough" 🤣

How about the training setup? What are the Role Focus and the Focus Attribute?

[Matt97]

I tried the BPD’s version in two different saves with opposite results.

In the first one i took Lazio and managed to win back to back league titles and UCL in the second season. Unfortunately lost in both season the final of Italian Cup against Inter. 

In the second save i tried german league with Leverkusen but the results were so bad. We got eliminated in second round of the domestic cup and stuck in the middle of the table until January and then decided to give up and try something different.

(sorry for my english, i’m so bad 😁)

 

 

[Resurgam]

6 minutes ago, Matt97 said:

I tried the BPD’s version in two different saves with opposite results.

In the first one i took Lazio and managed to win back to back league titles and UCL in the second season. Unfortunately lost in both season the final of Italian Cup against Inter. 

In the second save i tried german league with Leverkusen but the results were so bad. We got eliminated in second round of the domestic cup and stuck in the middle of the table until January and then decided to give up and try something different.

(sorry for my english, i’m so bad 😁)

 

 

Could this be down to what pre match training your assistant is or isn’t doing? Seems to have a huge effect on matches 

[Black Hawk]

2 hours ago, kamLay said:

How about the training setup? What are the Role Focus and the Focus Attribute?

I always put the players training the position and the role I want to use them. There's one exception: my FCs train Complete Forward, not Pressing Forward, to develop general attributes of a striker.

The focus attribute depends on the position and the player.

Centre Backs, I try to develop Agression and Pace to at least 15 (Agression develops way faster than Pace, some players don't become faster and entire seasons). If they are already good in those, I focus on Aerial or Tackling, the one who needs most.

Wing Backs is all about Movement and Pace (again, Movement develops Faster than Pace). If those are good, then Crossing or Tackling.

Midfielders I focus on Movement as most are lacking in it. If they are good, Agression or whatever player lacks on this Attributes recommended in Roaming Playmakers or B2Bs.

IF, I go for Movement and Shooting.

Strikers, I want Movement, Agression and Aerial, the one the players is lacking.

But all this depends on the players, as some need Stamina, others Passing or Dribbling or whatever they are weaker. These are examples I'm currently most focused on.

22 minutes ago, Matt97 said:

I tried the BPD’s version in two different saves with opposite results.

In the first one i took Lazio and managed to win back to back league titles and UCL in the second season. Unfortunately lost in both season the final of Italian Cup against Inter. 

In the second save i tried german league with Leverkusen but the results were so bad. We got eliminated in second round of the domestic cup and stuck in the middle of the table until January and then decided to give up and try something different.

(sorry for my english, i’m so bad 😁)

 

 

It has to be what @Resurgam said, these differences are too pronounced to originate from tactics. Unless players from Leverkusen are nowhere close to a possession system, what I don't believe - if Burnley worked, how the hell Leverkusen were that bad...