ZaZ
famulor said: Hi everyone.



So many of us have tried it. Players (including during transfers) demanding higher and higher wages to the point where it seems unreasonable and almost spins out of control.



How do you handle it? Any tips?



Do you guys increase their wages but lower their bonuses? Increase bonuses but lower base salary?


I always remove all clauses and try to get the wage as low as I can. If the player only wants to sign for an unreasonable price, then I let him go, unless I feel like I can't hire anyone in the same level or better. I also usually add a relegation release clause of zero, since it usually makes the player lower his demands.

P.S.: I also like to keep a "maximum wage allowed" depending on my club stature, to make sure I don't hire players that would cause me financial trouble. It's not so important in the higher leagues, but very important when you start as a semi-professional team.
TactocTestor said: It seems the tactic is very draining on wingers. Do you have any suggestion for managing wingers because they seem to consistently overexert themselves and get injured.

Basically, rotation and resting. If a player starts showing fatigue (check medical centre), it's probably a good idea to keep him only 45 min in the pitch or rest him completely from next match. If condition is too low after a match, give him some rest from training (right click -> training -> rest). If fatigue is too high because of international matches during holidais, give them one or two weeks of holiday (also in the rest menu). Remember to always make all substitutions and set tactics to Light Blue when winning comfortably, or even reduce tempo to minimum if the lead is too big.

Some leagues have really tough schedules, like Brazil, where you sometimes play three matches in a row with one day off in between each of them. When that happens, you just have to accept it and rotate the squad, even sacrificing one match or another with reserve/youth team so you can keep fresh for the important ones.
Machismo said: I play with mid/lower-table teams.  Can you fashion a Zazz Copper setup for when I'm up against the elites like Liverpool ManCity, Barca etc?
(My skill level with tactics is to wind the mentality back from positive to cautious.  And that's the extent of my skills so far.)


Cooper is already suited to weak teams. You probably don't need to set it to cautious since it's already pretty strong in the back. There are some similar tactics with DW instead of WB, higher score but weaker defense, like Threedom from @Egraam or Ghost from @Mika.
Machismo said: Have you run Copper with a mid-table & relegation side?

Not really. I usually run my experiments with Manchester City and Fulham.
Machismo said: When testing did you run the DM as a halfback?  If so, was the HB nipping at the heels of the DLP or way behind in results?

Behind for strong team. I don't remember if it was better for weaker team.
crazyfmguy93 said: hey, do you have any advice position's favourite foot?
Like this is better?
DCL Left Foot
DCR Right Foot
AMCR Left Foot
AMCL Right Foot


According to @Zippo, it was already tested and the best is to use the same foot as side for both DC and AMC/ST.
Houldsworth Hatter said: It seems to work. I am Stockport in 2033 and well established in the PL. Had a rough start to the season though but plugged this in and beat Ajax away 5-0 in my first game followed by a 2-0 home win over Man City.

Do they use jetpacks to play football in 2033?
Machismo said: Can you comment on the DWs vs other roles?

I believe the key feature of DW is the closing down option, which got more effective this patch because of shorter throw-ins. There is a version of Blue with wingers instead of DW, using close down more PI, but it was untested for being too similar to Blue. Link is below.
https://fm-arena.com/thread/1062-zaz-blue-wings-3-0/

It had higher points per match than Blue 3.0, but lower goal difference. Obviously, results from my tests can be different from tests in FM-Arena or even in managed play, depending on the players. Maybe I should try close down more with other roles, like Wide Midfielder.
Machismo said: Sorry I'm not a Statzy manager.  Still a novice at FM.  But I watch my DM more than the others because he's my super-hero wonderkid.  His contribution to defense caught my eye.  Feeding the players up front was similar.  Defensive positioning was where I enjoyed the change.  I even had him as a roving playmaker a few games.  But in the go forward roles him & the IWBs tend to occupy the same space.  The halfBack stood back & let the IWBs do their job & supported them passing-wise.  Certainly the halfback earns more 7+ ratings than the DM.
(Save is Leeds 20/21.)


Indeed, DLP is the position that consistently gets bad grades, because it works as a transition role. That doesn't mean it plays badly, just that it doesn't do what it needs to get good scores in the engine. Changing it to DM is often better for weaker team, but DLP is still king for teams with good players, which is the case in FM-Arena tests.

In the end, what matters is the win rate, not the grade of a specific role. I tried to improve conditions for DM lots of times, but it always end up with lower win rate. I tried all roles in that position, but DLP just seems to do better, despite the low scores.
PeacemakerBR said: @ZaZ , would it be possible for a version of ZaZ that is aimed at high possession and with good efficiency? Have you tried something like that?

Can you be a bit more clear with what "efficiency" means?
Guardiola seems to play FM21. He is clearly playing strikerless, and I would even say he is using Blue. =)

P.S.: Seems like an "unrealistic strikerless tactics" will be in the finals of UCL.
TactocTestor said: I use your schedule but it seems that every player is complaining about high volumes of quickness training. Should I just leave them be and stick with the schedule?

I just let them whine.
crazyfmguy93 said: Is that normal?

It's normal to have bad spells every now and then. If you win too much, your team can get complacent. If you lose, your team loses morale. Not only that, some players have low consistency or low important matches and just perform bad for five or ten games in a row. If that happens with both strikers at once, or a number of other positions, then you are bound to enter a losing streak.

In short, the tactics improve your chances of winning, but don't make you invincible. If you lose with a strong tactic, you would probably do even worse with a weaker tactic.
Machismo said: How does a Regista perform as opposed to a DM?
And an AMC & SS up front rather than two SS?


Difference isn't big, but it's not better in my tests.
Poacher said: As far as I know you can choose the volante role for a DM position only if there are 2 or more DMs positions in your tactic and if there's only 1 DM position in your tactic then the volante role isn't available.

It can be Volante as long as it's not in the center.
Asstem said: I was try it to test 2 times on mrl base test league. AM choose players. Don't know why, but when I pick fast players FMRTE settings break(

Thank you for testing! It seems to be stronger than Blue for weak teams, so I'm satisfied.
TactocTestor said: Thanks. How about the defensive winger guys? Do i need to train them in defensive positioning attributes?
Here's my regen. Would you advise developing his defensive positioning or going all in on quickness development. He already has 15 in both attributes.


Defensive attributes don't matter much. For a defensive winger, you want pace, accelerations and agility (like anyone else), as well as dribbling and vision, since they do the most dribbles and assists in the team.

Your regen is pretty good, he will definitely become a beast in the future. I would still train him in quickness because nothing stops him from reaching 20 in those key attributes. =)
Egraam said: Here are results for Blue:



Red is clearly a better mid table tactic - even if we exclude the bad Chester performance, it got better results with every team apart from Accrington (but still there was only 4 point difference there).
Blue got better results with underdog teams - mainly because how much better it performed with West Brom and Dover - Red got better results with 3/6 of the teams, so part of it could be just randomness.
And it seems like Hungerford is just a really bad team, no matter what tactic you use with it.

Here are the save files if anyone wanted to get more data from them (they were too big to upload directly to fmarena):

Blue - https://www.mediafire.com/file/fflxk98xz5kr6j5/ZaZ_Blue_-_Results.fm/file
Red - https://www.mediafire.com/file/gzmjar1xsfesetb/ZaZ_Red_-_Results.fm/file


Thanks, I'll check on it.
TactocTestor said: So for youth team training do you let the youth team managers do it or do you also set them up for pace and acceleration training?

Same for youth. If they don't get enough speed, they won't even have a spot in the upper team.
Machismo said: Does blue 3.0 replace Blue 2.0 or have you uploaded both to use as specific tactic? e.g. Tighter marking when up against the elite teams thus switching to 2.0?

Blue 3.0 is the best. The others are there for history value, but they are outdated.