Hi there, and welcome to GC’s Guide to Tactical Synergy. In this guide, I will be looking in more detail at how to make your tactics more effective than the sum of their parts. I skimmed over this in my Guide to Formations and Tactics, but that was more of a general overlook.
Tactical synergy is hard to explain, but it is very useful when constructing a workable tactic. Tactics do not necessarily need to have components that complement each other, but as I will demonstrate later there is a whole untapped wealth of potential that is being lost without it. In my opinion, making a tactic that flows nicely and more importantly has players doing all the things you want them to is the most satisfying part of FM.
Let us start off with an example, as it is far harder to explain than to show. One of my pet tactics in FM, the “Attacking Fullback/Inside Forward” combination is potentially devastating and is becoming extremely widely used across the world in real life. As I’m just lazy, I’ll hand you over to someone who’s a complete genius at this kind of thing to give a short explanation...
Isn’t he brilliant? Anyway, that says it all. I am about to show you in more detail how to implement it and its effects on the game your side plays. First, here’s a look at the team I am playing with, Napoli, and how I intend to make it work.
View attachment 141389
As you can see, it’s the normal side, with two acquisitions. Paulo Henrique will be of interest later, but the people we’re interested in is Brazilian legendary wingback Roberto Carlos and the talented striker Ezequiel Lavezzi, who I have pushed out onto the wing. As he is quick, tricky and creative, being pushed onto the wing is not such a stretch for him. However, what is important is their roles. Lavezzi has been made an Inside Forward, and Carlos a Wing Back – Attack. For the purposes of simplicity and this guide, both have been completely untweaked. Note that on the other side, there is no such combination. Maggio plays as a winger and Zuniga a supporting fullback.
The idea behind this tactic is all about the movement of the attackers and the corresponding reactions of the defenders. Lavezzi, on the wing, is directly up against the opposition fullback (assuming you’re up against a flat back four. It is rare you will come up against another team using a three or five man defence and even if you do the tactic works just the same) and as a result is being marked by him. As he drifts inside with his Inside Forward role, he brings the fullback with him, leaving acres of space for Roberto Carlos to charge into. This next screenshot illustrates this:
View attachment 141390
The ball bobbles free, and Paulo Henrique and the opposition player tussle to win it. Henrique wins and the ball slides free to Lavezzi, who as we look at this has dived inside. Now we can see the opposition right back (No. 2) has followed him and left a huge gaping hole on the right which Carlos drives into. The right winger tries to track back and follow him, but he is too far ahead already and won’t be caught. From there, Lavezzi has the option of either passing back to Carlos who is in space, or going it alone through the centre. As this is preseason, the team hasn’t gelled and Lavezzi isn’t the most unselfish anyway he chooses option two, and narrowly misses. However, in the next screenshot:
View attachment 141391
We can see just how much time and space Carlos is afforded. He is completely alone and unmarked, and as we can see with (No. 6) Campagnaro, on the other flank with (No. 10) Maggio, nothing so potentially lethal has happened. Maggio has come in at the back post like a winger should, but Campagnaro is not exploiting any space left by his movement inside, and as a result of his lack of quick support the opposition would be well-stocked to repel any run he makes, with No. 7 passing Maggio onto No. 3 and in a position to intercept Campagnaro.
The crux of this particular attacking ploy is the options. With a winger, he has realistically one option: get to the byline and cross. With an inside forward, he has in theory two opinions, either get to the byline and cross or cut inside, but he can only carry out one. By adding an attack-minded fullback, you can have the best of both roles, dragging around opposition fullbacks and creating triangles with both the striker and the supporting midfielders.
Let us move on to something less flank-minded and more complex: staggered midfields. As two-man midfields become rarer, the potential for staggered midfields increases exponentially. A staggered midfield often consists of three sharply defined roles: creator, passer, destroyer. Let us ask that wizard of tactics, the mysterious and inimitable “Me”, for some info on staggered midfields.
So there we have it, simple. This next part is a matter of personal preference, but I prefer the following roles for the three midfielders: Anchor Man - Defend (destroyer), Deep-lying Playmaker – Support (passer), Central Midfielder – Attack (creator). Note that the “passer” role can also be filled by a Central Midfielder – Support, and the “creator” by an Advanced Playmaker – Attack. It’s all about getting the best out of your players, and thinking about the general shape of your side. As I have a talented passer rather than an athlete in Paulo Henrique, I am using him in the less energetic DLP role. Hamsik, also, is a complete threat both as a creator and a finisher, so I want him to drive into space from deep rather than remain there at all times waiting for the ball. Here’s a screenshot of my Napoli team displaying my version of it:
View attachment 141392
As you can see, the No. 6, Blasi, is the deeper lying destroyer of the three, the gnarled and combative Anchor Man. Slightly further forward, receiving a pass from Carlos, is the No. 8, Paulo Henrique. With his exquisite passing and reliable distribution, he is the passer of the three. Hanging around even further ahead, making a run into ‘the hole’ is the No. 7, Hamsik. With lethal finishing and creative prowess, he is the creator.
The strength of this is the specialisation. Instead of having three midfielders who do roughly the same roles, on roughly the same axis, therefore being a jack of all trades and master of none, you can have three midfielders specialising. Instead of three well rounded players, a staggered midfield allows you to buy and fit certain players to certain positions. Here’s an example of why the staggered midfield works so well:
View attachment 141393
An attack has broken down on the edge of my area thanks to sterling defensive work by Blasi, and the ball is picked up by Cannavaro who lays it off to Santacroce quickly. In the screenshot my destroyer, Blasi, has received a pass from (No. 2) Santacroce, and knows his job is to get the ball to a creative player as quickly as possible to start a counter against Taranto’s disorganised defence.
View attachment 141394
As my passer, (No. 8) Paulo Henrique is occupied by the opposition No. 8, Blasi moves a few steps forward at pace and gives it to Hamsik, who has made himself available by peeling off from the opposition No. 9, who has moved to intercept Blasi’s movement forward. Incidentally, this shows the advantage a 3 man midfield has over a 2 man midfield: with three men to mark, two men are at a distinct disadvantage. With my tactic of matching them face to face with Blasi and Paulo Henrique and having Hamsik floating around in front, I am creating a triangle through which I can pass around them. Also, if you notice, Paulo Henrique has used his mental acumen to realise that if he can get ahead of his marker, there is a pocket of space available. This gives Blasi, a limited passer technically, two creative options.
View attachment 141395
His job done, Blasi halts and does not move forward any more. Hamsik turns and immediately plays the ball forward to the right winger in order to stretch the play, before setting off on a direct run towards goal himself as the opposition No. 9 turns his attentions to him.
View attachment 141396
The right winger (No. 10) Maggio one-touch passes to the striker, who has his back to the ball and two defenders behind him. Meanwhile, the pocket of space for Henrique has disappeared as he realises the ball will not come to him. He will hang back and offer an option.
View attachment 141397
The No. 11, Cavani is my the main striker. He has received the ball from Maggio, and sees Hamsik flying towards him, outstripping his marker in a display of athletic ability. Cavani holds the ball up and waits.
View attachment 141398
He drops deeper, attracting a centre-back, as Hamsik sprints towards the area. The centre-back being attracted towards him has left a huge hole in the defence. Inadvertently, I have recreated the “False Nine” position with Cavani, in essence when a nominally main striker (in this case, Cavani) drops deep in order to drag the opposition out of position before exploiting it with midfield runners (Hamsik). You can find out more about this potentially devastating ploy in iNickstuff’s Amateur Tactician’s Chalkboard’s False Nine section, which by the way are all fascinating reads. It is not surprising Cavani has done this, since I have given him a free-scoring Complete Forward position, floating around wherever he likes. Anyway.
View attachment 141399
As Hamsik spots and exploits the gap, Cavani turns and plays a pinpoint pass into him. Hamsik is through on goal, and cannot possibly miss. At this point I paused, smiled in satisfaction, applauded a great counterattacking goal by my team and was happy that this goal would be a perfect explanation for a staggered midfield’s strengths. Hamsik’s clinical finishing was a sure-fire bet to put it away.
View attachment 141400
...aaaannndd he puts it wide. Of course he does... Still, even with that shocking miss, it proves my point. This was all caused by a staggered midfield: if the midfield had been flat, either nobody or everybody would have made the run in a much more unfocused manner, leading to the attack breaking down. On top of that, doing that in a match for 90 minutes is taxing and tiring, not to mention that the defensive work done by a pure destroyer was crucial to picking up the ball in order to put this move together.
These, of course, are but two methods of creating attacking synergy, and have focused on combining defence and attack, and the midfield within itself. The last part we can focus on is out and out strikers, a destroyer/creator axis within forwards.
A Deep-lying Forward (DLF) is a technical player with good reading of the game and accomplished passing. He drops deep into the gap between the opposition midfield and defence, asking for the ball in order to turn and play in his striker partner, the Advanced Forward. Almost the polar opposite, the Advanced Forward is the spearhead of your attack, scoring the goals the DLF creates for him. Time to explore this.
View attachment 141401
As we join the action, the ball has broken to No. 23, Gargano, who is playing the destroyer in a two-man midfield. Ahead of him, Lavezzi, our DLF, has pulled wide into the channel between the left back and the centre back. Gargano spots him and plays the pass.
View attachment 141402
Lavezzi recieves the ball as the opposition right back (No. 2) is desperately trying to get back to close him down. However, he has room to think. The right-sided opposition centre-back (No. 13) has shuffled across to plug the gap, with the other centre-back (No. 5) moving across to stay in line. However, with the opposition left back (No. 3) marking the Napoli right winger, there is a large gap left. As the left back tries to get back across, my Advanced Forward, Cavani (No. 7) charges into the gap.
View attachment 141403
Lavezzi spots him, and plays an exquisite pass, splitting the defence perfectly and giving Cavani a one on one with the goalkeeper.
View attachment 141404
Which, rather inevitably seeing as I’m trying to prove a point here, he misses completely, firing straight at the keeper. Hamsik skies the rebound and it goes out for a goal kick. My players seem to hate me today.
Either way, I think that covers it. Simply put, the DLF creates the goals, the Advanced Forward scores them. Simple as, and just as simple to execute. I used Lavezzi as a DLF – Support, and Cavani as an Advanced Forward – Attack. So there we have it, that’s the final one I’m going to do.
Attacking in FM is all about movement. Movement creates gaps, gaps are exploited, you score. However, if you try to increase Tactical Synergy, not only will you create more gaps but you will also exploit them more. Use your brain, work out how things might pan out, and read up on real life tactics. Once you have the basics down, you can create the craziest of formations. False Nines, False Tens, the world is your oyster. Just make sure you don’t go TOO overboard, you wannabe Spalletti. With all formations, you need to retain a degree of tactical common sense. Don’t, for instance, throw every midfielder you have forward because they can exploit gaps left. Sure they can, but what if it fails and the opposition launch a counterattack? Your defence, possibly minus one or more fullbacks, will be left horribly exposed. So yeah, think before you construct your ultra death tactic of ultimate doom, eh?
That should be all for now. Maybe if I muster up the courage and time, I’ll add a couple more, but I’ve covered three lethal combinations: “Attacking Fullback/Inside Forward”, the “Staggered Midfield” and “Deep-lying Forward/Advanced Forward”. Try them out, enjoy it, thanks for reading and feedback is as ever welcome.
Tactical synergy is hard to explain, but it is very useful when constructing a workable tactic. Tactics do not necessarily need to have components that complement each other, but as I will demonstrate later there is a whole untapped wealth of potential that is being lost without it. In my opinion, making a tactic that flows nicely and more importantly has players doing all the things you want them to is the most satisfying part of FM.
Let us start off with an example, as it is far harder to explain than to show. One of my pet tactics in FM, the “Attacking Fullback/Inside Forward” combination is potentially devastating and is becoming extremely widely used across the world in real life. As I’m just lazy, I’ll hand you over to someone who’s a complete genius at this kind of thing to give a short explanation...
Me said:
Isn’t he brilliant? Anyway, that says it all. I am about to show you in more detail how to implement it and its effects on the game your side plays. First, here’s a look at the team I am playing with, Napoli, and how I intend to make it work.
View attachment 141389
As you can see, it’s the normal side, with two acquisitions. Paulo Henrique will be of interest later, but the people we’re interested in is Brazilian legendary wingback Roberto Carlos and the talented striker Ezequiel Lavezzi, who I have pushed out onto the wing. As he is quick, tricky and creative, being pushed onto the wing is not such a stretch for him. However, what is important is their roles. Lavezzi has been made an Inside Forward, and Carlos a Wing Back – Attack. For the purposes of simplicity and this guide, both have been completely untweaked. Note that on the other side, there is no such combination. Maggio plays as a winger and Zuniga a supporting fullback.
The idea behind this tactic is all about the movement of the attackers and the corresponding reactions of the defenders. Lavezzi, on the wing, is directly up against the opposition fullback (assuming you’re up against a flat back four. It is rare you will come up against another team using a three or five man defence and even if you do the tactic works just the same) and as a result is being marked by him. As he drifts inside with his Inside Forward role, he brings the fullback with him, leaving acres of space for Roberto Carlos to charge into. This next screenshot illustrates this:
View attachment 141390
The ball bobbles free, and Paulo Henrique and the opposition player tussle to win it. Henrique wins and the ball slides free to Lavezzi, who as we look at this has dived inside. Now we can see the opposition right back (No. 2) has followed him and left a huge gaping hole on the right which Carlos drives into. The right winger tries to track back and follow him, but he is too far ahead already and won’t be caught. From there, Lavezzi has the option of either passing back to Carlos who is in space, or going it alone through the centre. As this is preseason, the team hasn’t gelled and Lavezzi isn’t the most unselfish anyway he chooses option two, and narrowly misses. However, in the next screenshot:
View attachment 141391
We can see just how much time and space Carlos is afforded. He is completely alone and unmarked, and as we can see with (No. 6) Campagnaro, on the other flank with (No. 10) Maggio, nothing so potentially lethal has happened. Maggio has come in at the back post like a winger should, but Campagnaro is not exploiting any space left by his movement inside, and as a result of his lack of quick support the opposition would be well-stocked to repel any run he makes, with No. 7 passing Maggio onto No. 3 and in a position to intercept Campagnaro.
The crux of this particular attacking ploy is the options. With a winger, he has realistically one option: get to the byline and cross. With an inside forward, he has in theory two opinions, either get to the byline and cross or cut inside, but he can only carry out one. By adding an attack-minded fullback, you can have the best of both roles, dragging around opposition fullbacks and creating triangles with both the striker and the supporting midfielders.
Let us move on to something less flank-minded and more complex: staggered midfields. As two-man midfields become rarer, the potential for staggered midfields increases exponentially. A staggered midfield often consists of three sharply defined roles: creator, passer, destroyer. Let us ask that wizard of tactics, the mysterious and inimitable “Me”, for some info on staggered midfields.
Me said:
Me said:
So there we have it, simple. This next part is a matter of personal preference, but I prefer the following roles for the three midfielders: Anchor Man - Defend (destroyer), Deep-lying Playmaker – Support (passer), Central Midfielder – Attack (creator). Note that the “passer” role can also be filled by a Central Midfielder – Support, and the “creator” by an Advanced Playmaker – Attack. It’s all about getting the best out of your players, and thinking about the general shape of your side. As I have a talented passer rather than an athlete in Paulo Henrique, I am using him in the less energetic DLP role. Hamsik, also, is a complete threat both as a creator and a finisher, so I want him to drive into space from deep rather than remain there at all times waiting for the ball. Here’s a screenshot of my Napoli team displaying my version of it:
View attachment 141392
As you can see, the No. 6, Blasi, is the deeper lying destroyer of the three, the gnarled and combative Anchor Man. Slightly further forward, receiving a pass from Carlos, is the No. 8, Paulo Henrique. With his exquisite passing and reliable distribution, he is the passer of the three. Hanging around even further ahead, making a run into ‘the hole’ is the No. 7, Hamsik. With lethal finishing and creative prowess, he is the creator.
The strength of this is the specialisation. Instead of having three midfielders who do roughly the same roles, on roughly the same axis, therefore being a jack of all trades and master of none, you can have three midfielders specialising. Instead of three well rounded players, a staggered midfield allows you to buy and fit certain players to certain positions. Here’s an example of why the staggered midfield works so well:
View attachment 141393
An attack has broken down on the edge of my area thanks to sterling defensive work by Blasi, and the ball is picked up by Cannavaro who lays it off to Santacroce quickly. In the screenshot my destroyer, Blasi, has received a pass from (No. 2) Santacroce, and knows his job is to get the ball to a creative player as quickly as possible to start a counter against Taranto’s disorganised defence.
View attachment 141394
As my passer, (No. 8) Paulo Henrique is occupied by the opposition No. 8, Blasi moves a few steps forward at pace and gives it to Hamsik, who has made himself available by peeling off from the opposition No. 9, who has moved to intercept Blasi’s movement forward. Incidentally, this shows the advantage a 3 man midfield has over a 2 man midfield: with three men to mark, two men are at a distinct disadvantage. With my tactic of matching them face to face with Blasi and Paulo Henrique and having Hamsik floating around in front, I am creating a triangle through which I can pass around them. Also, if you notice, Paulo Henrique has used his mental acumen to realise that if he can get ahead of his marker, there is a pocket of space available. This gives Blasi, a limited passer technically, two creative options.
View attachment 141395
His job done, Blasi halts and does not move forward any more. Hamsik turns and immediately plays the ball forward to the right winger in order to stretch the play, before setting off on a direct run towards goal himself as the opposition No. 9 turns his attentions to him.
View attachment 141396
The right winger (No. 10) Maggio one-touch passes to the striker, who has his back to the ball and two defenders behind him. Meanwhile, the pocket of space for Henrique has disappeared as he realises the ball will not come to him. He will hang back and offer an option.
View attachment 141397
The No. 11, Cavani is my the main striker. He has received the ball from Maggio, and sees Hamsik flying towards him, outstripping his marker in a display of athletic ability. Cavani holds the ball up and waits.
View attachment 141398
He drops deeper, attracting a centre-back, as Hamsik sprints towards the area. The centre-back being attracted towards him has left a huge hole in the defence. Inadvertently, I have recreated the “False Nine” position with Cavani, in essence when a nominally main striker (in this case, Cavani) drops deep in order to drag the opposition out of position before exploiting it with midfield runners (Hamsik). You can find out more about this potentially devastating ploy in iNickstuff’s Amateur Tactician’s Chalkboard’s False Nine section, which by the way are all fascinating reads. It is not surprising Cavani has done this, since I have given him a free-scoring Complete Forward position, floating around wherever he likes. Anyway.
View attachment 141399
As Hamsik spots and exploits the gap, Cavani turns and plays a pinpoint pass into him. Hamsik is through on goal, and cannot possibly miss. At this point I paused, smiled in satisfaction, applauded a great counterattacking goal by my team and was happy that this goal would be a perfect explanation for a staggered midfield’s strengths. Hamsik’s clinical finishing was a sure-fire bet to put it away.
View attachment 141400
...aaaannndd he puts it wide. Of course he does... Still, even with that shocking miss, it proves my point. This was all caused by a staggered midfield: if the midfield had been flat, either nobody or everybody would have made the run in a much more unfocused manner, leading to the attack breaking down. On top of that, doing that in a match for 90 minutes is taxing and tiring, not to mention that the defensive work done by a pure destroyer was crucial to picking up the ball in order to put this move together.
These, of course, are but two methods of creating attacking synergy, and have focused on combining defence and attack, and the midfield within itself. The last part we can focus on is out and out strikers, a destroyer/creator axis within forwards.
A Deep-lying Forward (DLF) is a technical player with good reading of the game and accomplished passing. He drops deep into the gap between the opposition midfield and defence, asking for the ball in order to turn and play in his striker partner, the Advanced Forward. Almost the polar opposite, the Advanced Forward is the spearhead of your attack, scoring the goals the DLF creates for him. Time to explore this.
View attachment 141401
As we join the action, the ball has broken to No. 23, Gargano, who is playing the destroyer in a two-man midfield. Ahead of him, Lavezzi, our DLF, has pulled wide into the channel between the left back and the centre back. Gargano spots him and plays the pass.
View attachment 141402
Lavezzi recieves the ball as the opposition right back (No. 2) is desperately trying to get back to close him down. However, he has room to think. The right-sided opposition centre-back (No. 13) has shuffled across to plug the gap, with the other centre-back (No. 5) moving across to stay in line. However, with the opposition left back (No. 3) marking the Napoli right winger, there is a large gap left. As the left back tries to get back across, my Advanced Forward, Cavani (No. 7) charges into the gap.
View attachment 141403
Lavezzi spots him, and plays an exquisite pass, splitting the defence perfectly and giving Cavani a one on one with the goalkeeper.
View attachment 141404
Which, rather inevitably seeing as I’m trying to prove a point here, he misses completely, firing straight at the keeper. Hamsik skies the rebound and it goes out for a goal kick. My players seem to hate me today.
Either way, I think that covers it. Simply put, the DLF creates the goals, the Advanced Forward scores them. Simple as, and just as simple to execute. I used Lavezzi as a DLF – Support, and Cavani as an Advanced Forward – Attack. So there we have it, that’s the final one I’m going to do.
Attacking in FM is all about movement. Movement creates gaps, gaps are exploited, you score. However, if you try to increase Tactical Synergy, not only will you create more gaps but you will also exploit them more. Use your brain, work out how things might pan out, and read up on real life tactics. Once you have the basics down, you can create the craziest of formations. False Nines, False Tens, the world is your oyster. Just make sure you don’t go TOO overboard, you wannabe Spalletti. With all formations, you need to retain a degree of tactical common sense. Don’t, for instance, throw every midfielder you have forward because they can exploit gaps left. Sure they can, but what if it fails and the opposition launch a counterattack? Your defence, possibly minus one or more fullbacks, will be left horribly exposed. So yeah, think before you construct your ultra death tactic of ultimate doom, eh?
That should be all for now. Maybe if I muster up the courage and time, I’ll add a couple more, but I’ve covered three lethal combinations: “Attacking Fullback/Inside Forward”, the “Staggered Midfield” and “Deep-lying Forward/Advanced Forward”. Try them out, enjoy it, thanks for reading and feedback is as ever welcome.
