ZaZ
I will focus on four different tactics for FM23:
- Fire: 4132 Attacking, based on Blue from FM22.
- Water: 442 Solid.
- Wind: 4123 based on possession (called Frost during beta).
- Earth: 343, for people that like three defenders.
AlexJV said: oh nevermind, we cant download the saves yet ?

Ohh, I guess they didn't upload yet, maybe? But in the other years, you could always download them to check stats.
Rambo said: No tactics got positive GD. I guess the tests could be something wrong.

The league is probably just harder. Also, the game was released earlier this week, so it's natural that results are not so good yet. They should improve a lot in the following days, and they will also change a lot after the patches.
AlexJV said: It has been tested, but somehow it's not that good, and being overperformed by some tactics that i tested myself and that were way worst, i dont understand how they are testing tbh but i tried a lot of tactics on 504 matches, and this one is still above in terms of winrate

You can download the saves and see all results.
Falbravv said: Even if the tactic is under pressure, and with a lot of plagiat, it's always on top of the table.

keep the good work Zaz :cool:


It's early, soon people will have better results. However, I think the testing league is just harder than last year.
sheso182 said: ZaZ, could you share the views and the skin that you are using currently?
Thnak you!


I suppose you are talking about someone else, because I'm using default skin and views in all those screenshots.
Water is a high intensity defensive tactic based on Fire, but with wingers and attacking midfielder dropped to a deeper position. For tips and extra information, check the Fire thread.

The tactic scores most goals from inside the box with advanced forwards, and assists come mostly from wide midfielders.

Water 5.0
Version used in my public run. It's the same as 4.2, but with wing backs narrow like the tactic from @opq, and pass directness set to short since it shows better results for goal difference here.



I also set a light version to be used when you want to preserve energy and avoid bookings. It is attached to this message.


Water 4.2
Back to a minimalistic approach, to measure the impact of the removal of Get Stuck In (as suggested by the admins).



Water 4.0
Adapted to play more through the flanks like the top tactics from the table, since dribbling has higher success rate in this match engine, and passing has lower accuracy.



I will add pictures to console players during the next few days.

Changelog Water 4.1
Set crosses to near post, to increase goal scoring opportunities, and wingback to FB-At, to participate more in attacking movements.



Water 3.6 WBIF
IWB -> WB and W -> IF, in the minimalistic approach. My goal is to check if IWB has anti-synergy with two DMs, or with wingers that run wide with the ball. I believe it's the later, but I need to check in different formations to confirm.



Water 3.5
Same setup as Fire 2.5.



Water 3.1
Same setup as Fire 2.4.



Water 3.0




Water 1.0





Water 2.0




Leave a comment below if you liked the tactic and make sure to share your results. Enjoy!
ZaZ - Water 5.0 Light.fmf
Downloaded : 199 times
Uploaded : Jan 7, 2023
tk said: Hi ZaZ, I just wanted to ask if the training schedule work in fm22?

Yes, it's actually the one I used in FM22.
Back to the board. =)
Thank you for testing!
Delicious said: I might be pretty new on the forum but i've followed those forums since ages, about this matter "plagiarism" is kinda hard to even try to handle it, i can understand the ego "oh guys i've runned test for 400 hours and a random guy came made some "tweaks" and now that tactic works stellar".
That's the risk by sharing something, I mean i saw on Knap's SI page there are tactic that even remind "your" blue 4.0 now we wanna call him a plagiarist? The guy to me create and test tactics like a tornado. I am pretty sure he went to a similar shape ages ago.
I am just pointing out to give you an example, for me what makes a tactic from decent to good or op are the Set pieces, roles and rules are significant but not that the same impact on it(ofc from my point of view).
I mean now you are using the less constrast(? no clue if that's the right word in english) rules etc, if toworrow those instruction become on "meta" what are you gonna do? check every tactic that used your intuition and ask for credits? It would be nice if people were correct and understanding your hard work but that's not gonna happen everytime.
What i am trying to say in few words that if you wanna work and release your play style be aware that people might follow it and after a process it's gonna be just a common thing aka (meta). But those things happens even in real life,i mean how many scouts tried to emulate the pep's soccer? Or Klopp's? Here we can just understand what you did by checking roles/rules/SP'S.
To me wasn't even correct to mention the guy that you had a "doubt" that he copied w/e you wanna call it because it's basically saying now "if you use something with 2 strikers 2 IWB and one SS is zaz's business". But that kind of behavior gonna just distance people from even share tactics at one point. I didn't check it personally but if set pieces are the same the roles are the same and he basically just "dropped" the wings is because your roles and rules become the Meta. Live with it or find another solution to protect your project i mean they created "copyrights for some reason i believe lads".


I didn't mean to offend none i just wanted to express my opinion on the matter.


Fine, let's assume what you said is valid. Then you copy a tactic from a Korean website, make one slight change like "SK-Su -> SK-At", and rename it to "my wonderful tactic 300 points with PSG all titles", with a long text to describe how hard it was to discover such a good tactic. Would that be fair for the guy from Korean website? Would it cost much for you to simply say "I got inspiration from the tactic in this website"? Who is the one full of ego?
CreeZ said: Firstly, thank you for your comment! as I am kind of testing blue 4.0, if I have to rate my squad`s rate out of 100, I can say about 75, and almost all equal teams are defeated by me. Also, I can say better teams like 85+ overalls almost equalized all the games with blue 4.0. On the other hand, Fire 1.0 was unfortunately sad experience for me. I lost almost half of the games, maybe because my squad and player quality were not able to follow up all the tactics and pressing.

The form analysis says always the same things as;

Is there any recommendation for negative form analysis? Thank you!


Those negative analysis can be very deceiving. For example, few touches to shot can just mean the opponent can't pass the ball very well close to your box, so they need to reach the goal with direct passes instead. It's not exactly a negative. The other about 107 entries by the middle is also a bit deceiving, as it's just slightly above 1/3 of the occasions (which can only happen from three directions).

Anyway, the strong of Fire is the attack, not the defense, so it will always have negatives in the defensive department.
CreeZ said: I have just signed-up to the website to reply this post. ZaZ you are a wonderful guy bro with all the tactics, I used your blue 4.0 all fm22 seasons and carriers, although I scored 100+ goals every season with blue 4.0 on FM22, I couldn`t score and win any game with fire 1.0 on FM23. I loaded blue 4.0 from FM22 save as tactics, and my team started score again and now I win most of the games. I play the team in real life also similar to your tactics but a smaller team than premier league teams.
I just wanted to let you know. Thank you for your all help to us.


Fire 1.0 is just Blue 4.0 with Drop Off More and Higher Defensive Line. Results shouldn't be much different, but I will test again to see if it is actually better or worse. Keep in mind that the game was released less than 24h ago, so I didn't have time to test much.

@Zippo, do you plan to test the top tactics of last year, or I should post Blue 4.0 for it to be tested?
nicolae said: it seems to me that the attackers are no longer scoring

I just ran a holiday test here and got 170 goals with Manchester City. They still seem to be scoring.
sheso182 said: Amazing work as always ZaZ.

Thank you!
McDonalds said: 23.1version result is totally different,maybe you should test again:shock:

There was no change to the match engine. What you are feeling is just random deviation.
I can't find FM23 pre-game editor in steam. I click tools, it shows editor from all previous editions, except FM23. Anyone having the same issue?
P.S.: Nevermind, it's a bug that is fixed restarting Steam.
vankosi said:

the first half of the season

prediction 17 and i am first


Thank you for testing, and good luck in your season!
Belladonna said: My results using Fire 0.3 so far after training the tactic preseason, I did move SS to MC At as my best midfielders play there and i feel it provides more cover in central midfield, I'm Airbus in Wales second season predicted 6th

I do make the odd tactical change during the match if its not going well ie take off roll it out or play out of defence.
I'm really enjoying the tactic and the games are pretty crazy, i feel so far in the beta there are quite a few defensive errors and long balls over the top are a bit op so attack is definitely the best form of defense. I have been using Fire 1.0 light recently to shut out games if winning and it still scores goals, so far so good.
Thanks Zaz ;)


Thank you for testing! Glad it's working for you.
Tejash said: Which one is the best you feel or good in defence?

I'm not committing to anything yet, I'm just testing to see which is the best one. I want to set two tactics as a focus for FM23, one for attack and one for defense, and find a way to change in between easily.

P.S.: Remember that FM was not even released yet. There are some good tactics for defense that were tested by other people, like this one here.