FIFA 10 Custom Tactics / Formations

[neo777]

Good day to all,

I am a fan of this forum, feel that their is quality discussion over here.

Just want to share what i thought about FIFA at the moment.

by now, we know that FIFA 10 have a few bugs , mainly with MM mode. However i feel the core of the gameplay is still excellent. The necessary improvements are made from Fifa 09 which had made the latter almost unplayable after sometime (eg, shooting , cant take on defender except through sprinting) .

With that being said, i really do enjoy FIFA 10 at the moment. I just want to share with you guys what i did and what to edit to really enhance the playing experience.

First, i list my main gripes of the game play that some of the ppl or me feel annoying when i first played the game

1) AI pressure too intensely and player cant hold on to the ball long enough to dictate plays.
2) AI doenst score often enough or AI always use the same method of scoring
3) Full back dont overlap

How i overcome the Gripes

One of the biggest improvement FIFA did in the next gen is to introduce CUSTOM TACTICS. This is what really define the core of gameplay. For eg, when the correct setting, Arsenal and Stoke will be wide apart in the way they play the game. Epl team and an la liga team will play differently. You will be able to feel the difference obviously when playing the game.

However, i feel that the FIFA data team did not really did a good job in this area (Rutter, read this pls). Because most team had incorrect setting for their CUSTOM TACTICS. This make most of the team feel the same way. I had check the setting for most team, especially the lesser known team. They had almost 70 for all custom tactics setting (Pressure 70!!!) . This why u feel that u r being forced to play a ping pong game all the time because of the pressure by the AI.

What did i do - i played mostly exhibition games involving english premier league teams. I d/l an excel template where i played every fixtures of every team myself. As such, i manually record all the scores of the game and put into the excel file. What do i gain from this? A very exciting premier league race. (does anyone of u do the same?) . I can also have realistic weather and day/night games according to the real fixture...

To make the game realistic, i edit the CUSTOM TACTICS of every EPL teams and their Formation. This is a few good threads over here that discuss correct interpretation of tactics and formation of various epl teams. It is very important to edit each team correctly so that they really played like itself in real life. I list an example, Stoke. They like to defend deep and narrow. As such, Pressure should not be high in the 70 range. They should be around 30. With width around 35 as well. When u played them, u will realised that defend deep with numbers ( correct formation had to be adjusted to do this) and it is very hard to break them down with the 1st goal. Once u scored the 1st, AI will start to attack and u will end up scoring more goals this way.

Most of the default formation are also in a mess. They had arrow pointing everywhere and the wrong defend / attack priority. This make certain team lose their shape easily when playing. There should be minimal arrows pointing unless it is for DM to track back or wingers to cut in instead of storming down the wing.

2nd Gripe - AI doesnt score enough or they only use the same method of scoring.

To counter this, I believe the only way is to choose legendary level of difficulty. I feel the AI is better only in legendary mode, ie; they made better decisions , esp when attacking.
I feel that there is not much difference between world class and legendary if you had the custom tactics and formation adjusted correctly. To elaborate,
Some of the lesser known team had 70 for all custom tactics , including crossing, speed and shooting. As a result, the AI will have only one objective when they have the ball, quickly get the ball to the wing and cross. Not every lesser known team play like that. U need to adjust all this according to your own interpretation of the team (that becos u r playing against AI) or get some reference from the various threads around.

3rd Gripe - Full back dont overlap.

The solution was highlighted in one of the thread. You can solve this by changing the base position of the full back to wing back. Put attack arrow up and high priority on attack. It feel really good seeing your alves, evra or boswinga bombing down the wing on their own.

My other settings

Speed of game - Slow (i feel normal is too fast)
Time - 7 mins (so that you can take your time to stroke the ball around and still have a realistic scoreline plus stats (shots on goal etc)

What i hope FIFA can really do to improve the game

To conclude, FIFA really did well in the core gameplay, animations etc.
But their incorrect use of custom tactics and formation really hamper the gameplay. It is not much, but if you looking for realism, you be very particular about this type of things.

My biggest annoyance is the lack of abilities to proper edit player stats. We can make arsenal play like arsenal in custom tactics, but we cant make Vermalern play like him in the game because of the lack of proper stats editing tools. We cant make him shoot harder, jump higher or head better in the game. The whole world know he is better than that. I just want to edit him for my own exhibition match enjoyment. FIFA should allow us to do that.

2nd suggestion. Option to edit individual player tendencies in the game. (like Football manager where u can tell you play to go up for corners, or keep the ball more often- for AI). This will counter the problems of AI not being realistic.

I hope u enjoy the post and feel free to share your own experience to make the game better as well. We cant always wait for patch updates. Ha.

cheers.

[neo777]

i going to try to post at least 1 team per team on its Custom Tactics, Formation and other stuffs to edit to make the team play authentically

Before i start, i just want to highlight that every settings i post is based on my own interpretation whenever i watch the team play. My objective of the settings is to make the team play like itself in real life, not make the team become stronger or play better.

I will be using the latest squad that the manager use. Meaning those injured or out of favour players will not be in the 1st 11.

I am going to start with one of the most popular team in the world.

Manchester United

Alex Ferguson team is known for its fast and attacking football. After a few season of tinkering with 4-3-3, they looked to gone back to the traditional good old man utd style of 4-4-2, with wingers being key part of the build up.

Formation (Position, Name , Att/Def workrate, Att/Def arrow )

GK - Forster
RB - O Shea High/Med
CB - Ferdinand Low / High
CB - Vidic Low/High
LWB - Evra High/Med Att Arrow up (make sure it is LWB)
RM - Valencia High/Med Att Arrow up
RCM - Fletcher Med/High Defend arrow back
LCM - Anderson Med/Med
LM - Nani/Giggs High/Med Attack arrow up
LS - Rooney Med/Med
RS - Bebartov Med/Med Def arrow back.

Custom Tactics

Build Up Play
Speed - 60
Passing - 40
Positioning - Free form

Chance Creation
Passing - 80
Crossing - 65
Shooting - 55
Positioning - Free form

Defence
Pressure - 55
Aggression - 50
Width - 70
Defence Line - Cover

Main points for formation

1 - Evra must be a LWB. You will see him bombing down the wing supporting the LM more often.

2 - Fletcher - The defensive mid of man utd. Def workrate must be high

3 - Bebartov - He plays deeper than Rooney. During games lately, he tends to drop back and link up the play.

4. LM/RM - Att Arrow up> Man Utd attack with their wings usually. They will see them making more runs down the flank.

Custom Tactics

For build up play, Man Utd nornally plays a fast and short passing game with the occasional long ball across the field but seldom to their strikers. The settings should be able to relfect that.
As for Chance Creation, Crossing and free form movement are part of man utd plays most of the time... With the high 80 setting in passing, The players will make more runs in the final 3rd.

Players to edit.

Fletcher - One of the most improved players this and last season. Very underated in the game. Need to increase his tactical awareness stats and reaction and strength. He is much stronger than he looked.

Hope you guys find this useful.

[neo777]

Stoke City

Tony Pulis team normally had 2 formations. One for the big match against the big 4 (4-5-1 / 5-4-1) and another one for the rest of the league (4-4-2). Nonetheless, their style is still very distinct. We all know that Stoke plays a narrow game, defend deep, and depend a lot on long ball and set pieces to get their result.

Formation (Position, Name , Att/Def workrate, Att/Def arrow )

GK - Sorensen
RB - Huth Low / High
CB - A.Faye Low / High
CB - Shawcross Low/ High
LB - D. Collins Low / High
RM - Delap Med / High
RCM - Whitehead Med / High
LCM - Diao/Whelen low / High Def arrow back
LM - Etherington Med / Med
LS - Fuller High / low
RS - Beattie Med / low ( Med so that he do not make runs all the time so that he can knock down balls for his faster partner. )

Custom Tactics

Build Up Play
Speed - 60
Passing - 75
Positioning - Organised

Chance Creation
Passing - 40
Crossing - 75
Shooting - 65
Positioning - Organised

Defence
Pressure - 35
Aggression - 65
Width - 30
Defence Line - Cover

There you go for Stoke. Try this against them and you see a stark contrast playing against manchester united. If you want to be even more defensive like how they play against big team. change the formation to 4-5-1. Almost all their full back are Centre back , thus make sure the width is set correct to narrow, so that they stay close to the CB at all times.

Most importantly, make sure you set the set piece taker to whitehead. He had the best stats for FK in the 1st 11. Stoke can really punish you from set pieces.

[neo777]

Carlos Ancelotti team had bring stability to the chelsea playing stye and formation by sticking with his 2 main strikers whenever possible. However, the team still produce the same style that began with Jose Mourinho reign. With that being said, i would say the Custom Tactics for Chelsea 3 seasons ago wont differ much from today.

Chelsea played with a standard 4-4-2 diamond formation with either Essien or Mikel protecting the back 4 as a DM. Lampard as his more advanced role in the hole with the other 2 midfielders at the side playing more closely to the centre giving Chelsea a very narrow and compact midfield. The width of the squad will be provided by their wing backs, Cole and Bosingwa hugging the touch lines.

Formation (Position, Name , Att/Def workrate, Att/Def arrow )

GK - Cech
RWB - Bosingwa High / Med Att arrow up
CB - Carvalho Low / High
CB - Terry Low/ High
LWB - A.Cole High / Med Att arrow up
RM - Ballack Med / Med
DM - Essien Low / High
AM - Lampard Med / Med
LM - Malouda Med / Med
LS - Anelka High / low
RS - Drogba High / low

Custom Tactics

Build Up Play
Speed - 50
Passing - 50
Positioning - Organised

Chance Creation
Passing - 50
Crossing - 65
Shooting - 65
Positioning - Organised

Defence
Pressure - 45
Aggression - 60
Width - 40
Defence Line - Cover

Key Points
1. Remember to change the full back position to wing backs. Chelsea need the Cole and Bosingwa to support them in attack so that they will look like Chelsea.

2. Change the base position of LM and RM closer to the centre so that the midfield is more compact. Chelsea style again.

3. The setting for speed and passing is set at 50 as Chelsea try a patient game at times but there is still the occasional long ball to drogba or anelka.

That all for Chelsea folks.

Comments are always welcome to improve the tactics.

Any requests are welcome too

[neo777]

Arsene Wenger 's Arsenal playing style is one most entertaining of all the EPL teams. Ask any neutral supporters who they want to watch the most playing, i believe the answer will be Arsenal. The reason for this is this fast, fluid and imaginative football. Similar to barcelona , but with a faster build up. Put messi into arsenal and you get Barcelona. That why Arsenal is missing at the moment. Someone on the right that can produce the unpredictability and excitment. You dont get that with Bendtner or Eboue at the moment.

To summarise Arsenal playing style this season, it is short and fast build up, minimal crossing from the flanks and they had been shooting more compared to the previous season. Wenger also adopted a 4-3-3 formation similar to barcelona but of cos tweak to the strength of his players.

Formation: 4-3-3 ((Position, Name , Att/Def workrate, Att/Def arrow )

GK: Almunia
RWB: Sagna (High/Med) Att arrow up
CB: Vermaelen (High/High)
CB: Gallas (Low/High)
LWB: Clichy (Med/High) Att arrow up
RCM: Fabregas (High/Medium) Att arrow diagonal up towards left
CDM: Song (Low/High)
LCM: Diaby (Medium/Medium)
RW: Bendtner (High/Med) Att arrow diagonal left - Cut inside
ST: Van Persie (Med/Med)
LW: Arshavin (High/Med) Att arrow diagonal right

Custom Tactics

Build Up Play
Speed - 60
Passing - 30
Positioning - Free Form

Chance Creation
Passing - 80
Crossing - 25
Shooting - 50
Positioning - Free Form

Defence
Pressure - 40
Aggression - 50
Width - 70
Defence Line - Cover

Key Points

1- Put Sagna and Clichy positions as wing backs. They will support the wings when arshavin and bendtner cuts inside.

2. Vermaelen attack mentality is et to high because we wants him up the field whenever possible. We seen him done that a few times this season.

3. Fabregas will be the main man from midfield to support the attack as Wenger had deployed an additional midfielder this season. This allows him to play further up the pitch.

4. Even though Van Persie is playing as the main striker, He doesnt just stay deep and hold off the defence. He is not that type of striker. Instead, he like to link up the play with the midfield and be part of the build up. As such, his work rate mentality is set to medium for attack and defence.

5. I feel Vermaelen is very under rated in the game. We seen what he can do consistently this season so far. So he is not just a fluke who happens to be on form. I think he is quality. His style is similar to Chellini of Juve. Another CB with a left foot who have an excellent leap. With that being said, His Jumping, shot power and long shot stats need to be edited.

I feel EA had purposely give us a poor editing tool this season so that their Live Season could sell. As such, we had to minus attributes before we can add. Generally for anybody who i want to improve, I always look to take points away from the Consistency stats, followed by penalties, then stamina.

6. Arshavin and Fabregas balance need to be increased by abit. Their strength can be increased too. I do not understand why EA always put players who are short low on strength and balance. It doesnt work this way in real time. I got a coaching cert in strength and conditioning. Strength and Height is not link together, so is balance. A short player can still be strong and not fall easily. Messi , Arshavin , Fabregas are few examples that are wrongly represented in this area. Crouch is tall, but he is not strong...

My bad for another long post. Hope you guys find it useful.

[DagsJT]

Brilliant work!

I'll wait and see if the patch resolves any team settings first (don't want to edit anything in case it's wiped out) but if not then I'll certainly be using your settings

[northstandhero]

Quality work Neo, I'll get Uncharted finished this weekend and then give this a go, Maybe you should give Tik a PM and get your heads together as he has been doing something similar, anyhows big thanks to you and Tik for having a go at this, because underneath all the bugs and niggles there's a quality football game.

[Rob92]

Great work!

I'll give it a go later.

[Coopz]

I need to find a team i'm decent with and i think its nearly all down to custom tactics

What team sit back and pick passes with there centre mid's busy and when they dont have the ball?

I tried Arsenal and they didnt work out at all

[winston]

Aldershot?

[Nick Cave]

Shame we can't share files, good work...

[gomito#10]

Originally Posted by Nick Cave

Shame we can't share files, good work...

another reason why 2k rules.. they have 2k share feature in hockey and nba, you can download anyones rosters(which include team strategies), game sliders, and player dna(some 2k thing).. its awesome

[Rob92]

I'm pretty sure you can upload custom tactics/formations for people to download... You could do it in 09, i'll have a look for it now.

EDIT - Yep, go to your Player Hub, press LT/L2 and select "Shared Tactics" and then press RB/R1 and select the file to upload. You can do this for both tactics and formations .

[winston]

Originally Posted by Rob92

I'm pretty sure you can upload custom tactics/formations for people to download... You could do it in 09, i'll have a look for it now.

EDIT - Yep, go to your Player Hub, press LT/L2 and select "Shared Tactics" and then press RB/R1 and select the file to upload. You can do this for both tactics and formations .

Excellent. We can leave neo777 to do all the work and then we can just download it.

How do we connect to neo's player hub? We just need to know his user id?

Hopefully he's on PS3 and not xbox360.

[Nick Cave]

Originally Posted by Rob92

I'm pretty sure you can upload custom tactics/formations for people to download... You could do it in 09, i'll have a look for it now.

EDIT - Yep, go to your Player Hub, press LT/L2 and select "Shared Tactics" and then press RB/R1 and select the file to upload. You can do this for both tactics and formations .

Originally Posted by winston

Excellent. We can leave neo777 to do all the work and then we can just download it.

How do we connect to neo's player hub? We just need to know his user id?

Hopefully he's on PS3 and not xbox360.

Yes... We need a data base on here then...

[neo777]

hey mates,

i on a PS3...

just want highlight that all my tactics are my own interpretation of watching the games... so opinions might differ.

so we can share it then?

[neo777]

Btw guys,

i am new to the community. Was actually experimenting with the game to see how can i improve it and realised the best way is through custom tactics.

Was was searching for a right forum to be part of, found that the most ppl here know their stuff and often engage in constructive discussion..

looking forward to talking football with you guys

[Mark]

Neo, are you going to complete the EPL teams? And is there any chance to see some international teams like FC Porto or PSV Eindhoven?

And thank you for your work mate!

[quiet_riot]

Fantastic.

Has anyone successfully downloaded this from Neo?

[Soul Carver]

Increadable Man Utd tactics. So good i use them for mostly every club. (those that fit it to a resonable extent)

[DagsJT]

We only have like 20 slots to save tactics? So really we can only fix the Premier League teams and that's it?

[Tim7]

28 I think?

[Mark]

Yeah, only 28 slots for custom tactics.

[Placebo]

Even though it's only 28 that's still plenty of different styles we can create then apply to the various teams, the player's stats will then differentiate further as was discussed previously, so even if you give a team the Arsenal tactic it doesn't mean they'll play exactly like Arsenal as the players won't be up to it.

[winston]

28 is probably more than enough, in terms of giving very distinct styles that will be discernable when playing.

In fact, something like 10 slots is probably enough to giving styles that are genuinely unique and noticably different, that real-life teams would actually use.

You can fine tune each paramater endlessly, but moving the build-up-passing slider up by 10 and defensive-aggression down by 10 for a team isn't going to radically alter that teams style to the point where it's radically different to a team that's not had it modified by 10.

The styles all get watered down by the cpu anway, because in MM on Legendary, if the cpu needs a goal, it just boosts all its stats, plays pixel perfect 100mph passes and scores a goal. Playing style/tactics doesn't come into, other than the tactic to defy the laws of physics and human ability, and cheat.

[neo777]

@placebo

you are right mate, not all tactics will work on each team. West Brom tried to play like Arsenal last season and it got them relegated.If possible, I wish we can have more slots for custom tactics and formation but it is unlikely to happen at all.

As for myself, I use around 15 slots for EPL team. The rest for major teams around Europe for my offline Champion league mode. I really enjoyed Fifa offline.. Thank goodness for custom tactics, it make the game better.

@kirunaru
I not sure what difficulty you played on, but I believe legendary can solve the issues as the AI is better at decision making and following instruction on custom tactics.

Lastly, i realized Championship and league 1 games are alot more fun than premiership games.
The pace and speed of game feels right..

[Mark]

Originally Posted by neo777

Lastly, i realized Championship and league 1 games are alot more fun than premiership games.
The pace and speed of game feels right..

Thats the reason why I reduce the values of 3 attributes at 15% for each player in a team: pass speed, acceleration and sprint speed.

Unfortunately editing stats in FIFA is a pain in ass. You need about 30 minutes for one team... but after you finish 2 teams... its simply amazing to play. Right now, I finished PSV Eindhoven, FC Porto, Chelsea FC, Bayern Munich, Olympique Lyon, Juventus Turin and Piräus.
Teams to go: Manchester United, Liverpool FC, Arsenal FC, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Benfica Lisbon, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

We will play a European League with some mates

[kevano22]

Can anyone with a 360, who has done any formations...put them in their locker for us to use?

[DagsJT]

Or even better, is anyone able to create some standard templates that we can apply to a number of teams?

Rather than just have 28 teams accurately fixed, I'd rather do what was mentioned earlier and just have templates that I can use to try and make all teams more realistic.

[Nick Cave]

Originally Posted by DagsJT

Or even better, is anyone able to create some standard templates that we can apply to a number of teams?

Rather than just have 28 teams accurately fixed, I'd rather do what was mentioned earlier and just have templates that I can use to try and make all teams more realistic.

x2
We could do with some for lower league sides too, maybe split it leaving 4 for your own team and then 8-6-5-5 or like for the other English leagues...