Hello dear readers,
Today I would like to present review and download link of my current FM 2012 tactics. I called it Fluidity because of its very fluid philosophic concept.

Share the tactics with your friends!

3-4-3 formation and team instructions

I chose 3-4-3 with DMC formation bearing in mind ideas:

- 3 strikers organizing goals and closing down defenders;
- Midfielders as active participators in both defensive and attacking phases;
- Defensive midfielder should intercept balls and hinder opponent's attacking midfielder;
- 3 central backs have to work together efficiently to disallow opponents to score goals.

The following team instructions were chosen to realize these ideas.

 

Features of the tactics

Now I want to explain main ideas which became a base for the tactics.

Fluidity

First of all, fluidity. Very fluid philosophy is a key part of tactics. It allows making players to contribute to all phases. To increase fluidity level, I set more expressive Creative Freedom in team instructions.
I think Rigid philosophy would not suit 3-4-3 formation because of large gaps between lines and only 3 defenders at the bottom.

Creative Freedom

It's all about trusting players more than usually. My previous Supersonic tactics had an opposite effect because Rigid philosophy has been restricting many unexpected creative actions from players. This time I wanted to trust them, trust their creativity.
So finally you should have players with rather high level of Decisions to achieve success with the tactics. Attackers have to possess high Creativity and Flair as well.

Defensive Wingers

I have never used Defensive Wingers earlier. Normally people tend to set Winger or Wide Midfielder roles for ML and MR positions. I decided to experiment because of only 3 defenders behind. They merely need help on the flanks when team is in defending phase.
Attacking duty of my defensive wingers means also an active participation in attacks.

Attacking triangle + Target man usage

Here I have 3 strikers in different roles forming a special triangle. Its keen sword is Poacher (SC) who should be amazingly fast and concentrated when striking a ball. He is expected to become a main goal-machine.

Other 2 strikers sit deeper on a pitch trying to support the Poacher. Especially it touches on Deep-Lying Forward (SRC).

Target Man (SLC) wins headers passing the ball to 2 other forwards. The most long passes are addressed right to him. You should have noticed team instructions have Target Man instruction enabled.
I feel it's a really good combination of roles, though other variants can also successfully exist.

Defenders must to be fast

It's a tactics feature and restriction at the same time. One will fail using 3-4-3 formation if centre backs have average values of Pace and Acceleration attributes. DLC and DRC are Stoppers who use tight marking and sometimes shift to flanks if needed. The 3rd central back covers them.

Ball-playing defender

He has 2 important functions:

1. As I have already written, covering 2 other defenders and making important interceptions.
2. Providing long passes to the trio of forwards. Good Decisions, Creativity, Technique, Passing are needed.

By the way, goalkeeper has a ball distribution setting aimed to this defender.

Pros & Cons

	Pros	Cons
Attacking Phase	- 3 strikers create open spaces for each other; - Wingers and MC join attacks, so you have 6 players in attack; - Anchor man DMC works well against counter attacks; - Ball-playing DC makes amazing long passes that turn into assists sometimes.	- Playmaker MC performs long shots when he doesn't see a good option for pass (bad if you player tends to make long shots often); - Sometimes a winger crosses the ball to another winger who joins attack. Though they both have player instruction to aim crosses to Target Man.
Defending Phase	- Defensive wingers tackle ball on flanks; - 3 fast defenders cooperate great, DC covers 2 stoppers; - It's hard to break this defence because of 3 defenders and 1 DMC in its centre; - Strikers participate much in closing down opponents.	- Higher than normal amount of dangerous crosses when opponent has formation with AML and AMR.

Backup tactics

I created backup tactics to play against more strong opponents in away matches. It's more defensive because of 2 important changes if we compare with the main one:

1. Counter-attacking strategy.
2. Defensive wingers have Support duty instead of Attack.

Download tactics

Downloads of my both FM 2012 tactic files are available in FM Crowd Share tactics section:

Fluidity Tactics for FM 2012

Counter-Attacking Fluidity Tactics for FM 2012

Hope you will like my new Football Manager 2012 tactics!

Excited to blog for you,
Vitaliy Mokosiy