Gameplan Details[]
A gameplan is made up of three parts: Formation, Tactical Instructions, and Roles.
Formations[]
Every gameplan has a formation for when the team is attacking and a formation for when the team is defending. Often, the formation chosen for the defence will mirror that chosen for the attack, but sometimes teams like to use different formations for attack and defence.
The game comes with a large variety of formations for you to choose from, but you can also create your own by dragging positions around on the pitch and setting them where you would like them. In this way you can design almost any formation you like.
A formation determines where players are situated and, in the case of a defence formation, where the team sets out its ‘Defensive Line’ and its ‘Line of Engagement’ (LOE). Preset gameplans will come with these lines already set for you, but you are always free to change and set them where you would like, by moving the line sliders on the formation screen (these are the lines that go horizontally across the pitch).
Defensive Line[]
The defensive line is a theoretical horizontal line on the pitch where the defence will try not to retreat back from. This line is where your team’s defenders will try to anchor themselves. So the defensive line acts as a line of restraint.
Line of Engagement (LOE)[]
This is a theoretical horizontal line on the pitch that sets how far up the pitch your players will begin to press the opposition to win back the ball. When the opposition crosses that line your forwards will begin to press them. Note this sets where your team will start pressing the opposition, but this is not the same as counter-pressing. Also, occassionally if there isa good opportunity to press, players will cross the LOE as well.
You can set this line where you want, though it cannot be inside the opposition’s penalty area nor too far inside your own half. It also cannot be too close to your defensive line - the game will stop you moving the LOE to locations that brake these rules.
Formation Width[]
Both the attack and defence formation will have a width which covers how spread out your players liek tos et themselves. You can adjust the width of your formation by moving either or both of the two width sliders (vertical bars) on the formation. As you move them out, the positions on the field will spread out horizontally, and when you bring them in, the positions on the field will narrow. Preset gameplans will come with their width set, but feel free to change them by moving the sliders if you want.
Position Types Within Formations[]
Every position in a formation is assigned a position type based upon where it is in relation to the other positions on the field. Position types vary depending on which line the position is attached to - attacking line, midfield line, and defence line. If they are attached to the attacking line, then their position type will either be Winger (W) or Striker (S). If attached to the midfield line their position types can be either Wide Midfielder (WM) or Central Midfielder (CM); and if attached to the Defensive Line, their position types can be Fullback (FB) or Centre Back (CB).
Which of two position types they can be is determined by how horizontally wide the position is on the pitch e.g. if a player attached to the attacking line is quite wide, then their position type will be a Winger (W), but if more central they would have Striker (ST) as their position type. There are some horizontal cross-over areas which allow a player to be either a wide position type of a centre position type, your choice. In addition, the widest positions in the formation will always be wide position types, regardless of where they are on the pitch.
Position type is important, as it will limit what roles you can give to that position.
The above may all sounds complicated, but you don’t have to bother with figuring it out yourself, as the formation screen does it all for you. If you move positions around on the pitch, their position type will automatically change based on their new location. On the position shields the position type is shown as an abbreviation, along with whatever role they have been given.
E.g.
A position that is attached to the defensive line and is wide on the pitch would have the Fullback (FB) position type, and so could only be given fullback roles. If that fullback had been assigned the ‘Balanced’ role (balanced is the default role that is initially assigned to all positions) then this information would be shown as ‘FB:B’ on the position shield.
If the position was centrally located and attached to the midfield line, the shield would show ‘CM: B’, if the position had been assigned the ‘Balanced’ role, but if the position had been assigned the‘Shadow Striker’ role instead, it would show ‘CM:SS’.For more information on role abbreviations and what roles do.
Roles[]
Every position on the pitch will be assigned a role, which covers the individual instructions any player occupying that position will operate under during the match. These instructions take precedence over team tactical instructions if they clash. For a list of the instructions see Role Instructions
A player will have both an attack role and a defence role. All players default to a ‘Balanced’ role, based upon the position they are playing (e.g. if playing fullback, they will have the role of Fullback: Balanced). Once you have invested in the Coaching tech tree you will get access to more specialist roles which you can then assign to players if you wish to, rather than the default balanced role.
Role And Position Types[]
Every role is attached to a position type, meaning that the role can only be given to a position that shares that position type.
The position types within the game are:
- Goalkeeper (GK)
- Fullback (FB)
- Centre Back (CB)
- Wide Midfielder (WM)
- Centre Midfielder (CM)
- Winger (W)
- Striker (ST).
If a position is moved in the formation so that it becomes a new position type, then any role attached to that position will change to being a ‘Balanced’ role. You are free to reassign a role to that position, but as per normal, the new role must be of a position type that matches the position.
Locked and Unlocked Role Instructions (Future Feature)[]
Every role will have some instruction that are locked. Locked instructions cannot be changed. However, all roles will have some instructions that are unlocked, allowing you to change what they are set at. When you change instructions in this way you create a customised version of the role. Roles where you change the unlocked instructions will be saved as a custom version of the role.
In addition, if you invest in the Coaching tech tree in the Training building you can get access to ‘Fully Customisable Role’ tech. This will allow you to change any instruction in a role, even locked instructions. You will only be able to fully customise a limited number of roles at any one time, determined by how many times you have chosen the ‘Fully Customise’ tech choice in the Coaching branch. These roles will be saved as custom version of the base role.
See Role Descriptions for a list of the roles and what locked and unlocked instructions they come with.
Team Tactical Instructions[]
These instructions tell the team how you want it to play. These instructions fall into three different areas:
Attack Instructions[]
These are used when you team has possession of the ball and are attacking. In these instructions you will set what passing distance you are looking for and how much risk you think is acceptable to take when passing, as well the tempo you want your team to play at, how often they should look to dribble and so on.
| Attack Instructions |
|---|
| Attack Mentality |
| Tempo |
| Dribbling Frequency |
| Passing Risk |
| Passing Distance |
| Passing Aim |
| Attack Focus |
| Switch Play |
| Overlaps |
| Run Depth |
| Crossing Frequency |
| Attacking Corners |
Defence Instructions[]
These are used when your team does not have possession and so are defending. In these instructions you will set the intensity of your pressing game, what type of pressing trap you want the time to play, whether your defenders look to play the offside trap and so on.
| Defence Instructions |
|---|
| Defence Mentality |
| Marking Tightness |
| Pressing Intensity |
| Pressing Trap |
| Press Play From back |
| Tackling Frequency |
| Tackling Intensity |
| Offside Trap |
| Defensive Corners |
Transition Instructions[]
These instructions govern the brief period when possession has changed hands. When you first gain possession from the opposition, your team has to decide whether to counter-attack quickly in the hope of catching the opposition out of position, or to reorganise first and then attack. In a similar way, when you team loses possession they have to decide whether to regroup into their defensive shape or to counter-press and try to win the ball back quickly. Lastly, transition instructions cover what your goalkeeper does when they have a goalkick - what direction they like to move the ball and how far.
| Transition Instructions |
|---|
| Counter Attack Intensity |
| Counter Press Intensity |
| Distribution Distance |
| Distribution Direction |
Descriptions of all the tactical instructions can be found in Team Tactical Instructions.