Tactics

This is an overview of tactics maker module. It doesn't really matter if you are setting tactics for senior or youth team as the procedure is identical.

It may take some time for the whole Tactics Maker to load - especially if you don't have a fast Internet connection. Once it loads you can see a list of your players on the left side and the pitch, with round red (and black for the GK) markers on it, on the right. Another thing you see are the 3 rectangular icons above the player list (in the top left corner of the window). The first icon is the Player Selection, which is the window you are on at the start, the second is Instructions and the third is Substitutions and Conditions. One constant factor through these three screens is the Pitch and the Players (the round red & black markers) on it. So let's take a look at each of the screens in more detail.

Player selection

This is the screen where you put the desired first eleven in their positions. You do this by moving the mouse over the desired player's name and dragging and dropping him on one of the markers. Once you've done that you'll notice that the player's name appears under the marker. Now you can move the player to the desired position (or not move him at all, if the position he's in is the one you wanted in the first place). You need to do this for all 10 outfield players. For the goalkeeper you just need to drag and drop him on the black marker - you'll notice that you can't move that one. Once all eleven players are on the field you can move to the next icon.

Instructions

Here you'll see that the instructions are loosely divided into three groups. The first one has:

Aggression, with a small box to the right of it. Here, you select your player's aggression on the pitch (1-100). One (1) meaning that your players really, really watch that they and their opponents don't get hurt. One hundred (100) meaning that they will 'eat grass', fight to the end and use any means necessary to achieve their goal. NOTE that neither of these two options are really advisable.

Mentality has a drop-down menu beside it. There you have 8 options:

• Ultra Defensive - Most, if not all of your players will tend to be behind the ball. Every one of them will assist in some way in defending the goal. The attacks from your side will be very few and far between.
• Defensive - Most of the players still try to stay behind the ball, though the whole thing is not as rigid as Ultra Defensive. When given the chance (it has to be a good one), they will go on the attack.
• Cautious - Most of the players assist in defensive duties. When in possession of the ball, they tend to move slowly towards the opponent's goal.
• Normal - Neither defensive or attacking is the best way to describe this one. The players will push forward when they can and defend when they must.
• Attack But Be Careful - The players do their best to push forward, but will also not neglect their defensive duties.
• Attacking - Players strive to be on the attack. The back line starts to get involved, but still tries to do its defensive duties.
• Push Forward - Players strive to keep the ball in the opponent's half. The pace is rigorous. The back line gets involved in the attacks and the defence is of secondary importance.
• Total Attack - All the players have only one thing on their minds - to score that goal - and then another and another... Defensive duties get neglected more often than not.

Att (attacking) Wing - Here you decide from which side (if any) you'll try to launch most of your team's attacks. There is again a drop-down menu with multiple options. These are: None, Left, Right, Center, Left + Right, Left + Center and Right + Center - all pretty self-explanatory.

Passing also has a drop-down menu beside it, though this time it has only 3 options:

• Mixed - Players themselves decide if it's best to pass short/direct ball or long ball on given occasion.
• Short/Direct - Players make mostly short and direct passes. NOTE that if you use this type of passing it's advisable to have a good midfield.
• Longball - Players pass the ball across longer distances. The ball is more in the air than on the ground.

The second "group" contains:

Captain - Here you select who the team captain will be. This is again done with a drop-down menu, which displays your current first eleven players. NOTE that the captain needs to have good Influence to be able to lead the team best.

Playmaker - Select (again as with the Captain) from your first eleven the best suited man to do the job. NOTE that the playmaker needs good creativity.

Target Man - This is usually one of your attackers. Selecting a target man means that the rest of your players will try to pass the ball to him.

Pen (penalty) Taker - This person is the one that takes the penalty shots. He needs to have the attribute 'Good Shooting'.

The third "group" has two check-boxes. The first one is for counter-attacks. Click it (so that it's checked) if you want your players to counter-attack. NOTE that checking counter-attacks, if you are using an attacking mentality, will probably just serve to confuse the players. The second one is the Offside Trap check-box. Click it if you want to catch the opponent in an offside. NOTE that the defensive players need to have good positioning to be able to do this successfully.

Substitutions

There are 5 Substitutions you can choose from the rest of your players (excluding the first 11). You do this again with the help of a drop-down menu. NOTE that only 3 substitutions can be made during the game. This option will be updated somewhat later, since the Conditions currently handle only basic substitutions. You have 6 drop-down menus (3 in the first line and 3 in the second). So let's take a look at what they do;
The first one currently only has the "Substitute" option in it. The second one is the player you want substituted (and is currently on the pitch). The third one (and the last one in this row) is the player you want to place on the pitch. The first drop-down menu in the second row has the player's position. Select here which position the player that's coming on will play in. Then there's a drop down-menu with minutes in it. Select at which minute you would like the substitution to be made. And the last drop-down menu is the condition under which the substitution takes place. Once you are finished with the condition, click on the green check icon to activate it. When you are satisfied with the tactics press the "Submit" button that's in the bottom right corner. To make sure everything went OK, check if the "Last submitted on : Xxxx XX, 200X, X;XX xx" message is displaying the correct date and time (and keep in mind that it shows the server time(GMT), NOT your local time.