ZaZ - Fire 3.0

Fire is a high intensity tactic based on the successful Blue 4.0 from FM22.

When in possession, inverted wingbacks cut inside to become midfielders while shadow striker becomes a third striker. Defensive midfielder is one of the most important players, offering a short option for passing and holding position to protect the backline. The tactic scores goals from inside the box and distributes them evenly between advanced forwards and shadow striker, with assists distributed evenly between middle and flanks.

Fire 3.1
Crossing to near post to increase goal opportunities. Wingback set to FB-At to participate more in the offensive actions. Defensive midfielder set to DM-De to protect the back and make the game flow through the flanks.



Fire 3.0
This is a blend between Fire and this tactic, assimilating Focus Play Down the Flanks and the throw-in routine.



Instructions TODO: Update to Fire 2.0 instructions.
For people in consoles, below are the screenshots of team and player instructions.







Set Pieces TODO: Update to Fire 2.0 set pieces.
Takers should be the best available. For throw ins, give preference to wingbacks of respective side, and for corners, give preference to wingers of respective side (unless someone has way higher corners, then leave it to better taker).








Training After some experimentation with training, I found the training schedule below to be the most efficient for player growth (for the whole year, including pre-season). Set players to rest automatically when condition is not excellent. The schedule is attached to this post. (Credits to Max for testing the effects of each individual training session.)


For additional focus, goalkeepers train reactions, wing backs and defensive midfielders train endurance, and all other players train quickness.

Keep in mind that some players might be unhappy with the training schedule, complaining of lack of technical training, excess of quickness or something like that. Just ignore them!

Important Attributes For the most important attributes, check this table. In short, Pace > Acceleration > anything else.

Suggested Players

Preferred Foot Difference is minimal even for wing backs or wingers.

Role Ability Ignore role ability, or the stars showing how good a player is in his role. It is just cosmetic, showing the opinion of your assistant manager based on current ability and the role attributes. It is always going to be low for IWB using the same foot as side, despite making no difference in performance. In the end, what really matters is position rating, which should be at least accomplished (dark green).

Remember, the important attributes are not the ones highlighted in a player's role, but those that actually affect performance.

Player Traits Use player traits that promote player instructions. For example, if a role has "Move Into Channels", consider getting the trait with the same name. Avoid getting contradicting traits, like "Stays Back At All Times" or "Comes Deep To Get Ball" for players with the instruction "Get Further Forward". Traits without corresponding instructions, like "Plays One-Twos", are optional and should use common sense based on player attributes.

Opposition Instructions Empty. Change if you know what you are doing, but don't listen to your assistant manager.

Squad Management To be successful in football manager, you need to manage your team's playing time, which affects happiness, match sharpness, fatigue (can only see with sports scientist) and condition. Manage happiness and sharpness by making sure each player is getting enough minutes, and fatigue and condition by avoiding giving more minutes per week than they should play. Note that you can use friendlies and reserve matches to keep players sharp, but those matches have no effect on happiness.

My suggestion to manage the squad properly is to add two columns to selection info: "fitness and injuries > fatigue" and "stats (general) > general > games missed in a row". You can do that by right clicking any column name in squad screen, e.g., name, position, and selecting insert column. Make sure you don't use players with high fatigue and don't let any player reach too many games missed in a row (between 3 to 5 depending on your squad size).

To keep players fresh during the season and avoid injuries, I also recommend setting automatic training intensity to rest all players below excellent condition, as in the picture under "Training" section.

Morale is another characteristic that needs management. The easiest way to increase morale is by winning, but you can also praise last (official) match, recent form (last 5 games) and training level, as well as criticize the same things. For last match and training level, threshold rating for increasing morale is 8.05+ for praising and 6.3- for warning. For recent form, you can safely praise anyone with rating 7.5+.

Finally, you also need to manage complacency and anxiety. Do that through team talks and shouts. The effect is based on players' hidden status and match odds, but some talks and shouts are usually more positive than others. For example, praising a winning team with shouts usually gives a positive response, as well as encouraging your team when not winning (losing or tie).

For team talk, I usually prefer to relieve pressure by telling them to play their natural game, then tell them individually that I have faith in them. At half time, I praise them if winning by at least two goals, otherwise I tell them I'm not happy. After match, I praise them for victories, tell them I'm unhappy when we don't win and sometimes warn against complacency after big wins. Keep in mind that you should be a little lighter with your team when playing against stronger opponents.

If one of your players gets a yellow card during a match, it might be a good idea to change his player's instruction to Ease Off Tackles to avoid being sent off. To do so, click on the player card by the bottom of match view, then click player instructions. You can also do the same for exhausted players if you run out of subs, as well as reducing his individual pressing trigger, to avoid injuries.

Bad Results It's very common for some people to have a series of poor results during a season and think the tactic stopped working. Below are ten reasons your team might stop winning for a while.

1. Complacency: When a team wins too much, players take victories for granted, not giving their best. To avoid that, you must motivate them with team talk, shouts and media handling.

2. Pressure: When playing against stronger teams, your players might feel pressured and perform worse. To avoid that, you need to relieve pressure on team talk, shouts and media handling.

3. Fatigue: When a player has high match and training loads, he builds fatigue. It's not the same of condition or match fitness and you need a sports scientist to see it in the medical centre. To avoid that, you need to rest from training and rotate your squad.

4. Morale: When you lose matches or certain events happen (like player getting unhappy), players lose morale. It is one thing that affects performance a lot, so it can create a bad spiral if not managed properly. To avoid that, praise and warn players based on last match score, form (last 5 matches) and training. You can also increase morale with team talk after matches, team meetings and other forms of interaction.

5. Poor form of players: Sometimes, strikers can get into a poor form that lasts a long time, like ten matches without scoring or more. I am not sure if there is an internal mechanic for that, but it certainly happens fairly often. If both your strikers get into poor form at once, it can get really hard to win matches. To avoid that, I believe you need to score to avoid the poor form, but it might also be just RNG.

6. Injuries: It is fairly common to have injuries by the mid of season, forcing you to use worse players or play in lower condition. To avoid that, you need good physios, lighter training during season, rest and rotate players.

7. Condition: By the middle of season, you usually have several championships being played at once, forcing you to play 2 or 3 matches a week for several weeks in a row. That can force you to rotate to players of lower quality or use players with lower condition. To avoid that, you need to rest players from training and build a balanced squad to rotate.

8. Match fitness: Injuries and lack of rotation can make your players lack match fitness, decreasing their performance. That can cause your team to suffer when you are forced to rotate because of injuries or tight schedule. To avoid that, either rotate your squad or use those players in reserve friendlies.

9. Hidden attributes: There are hidden attributes like consistency and important matches that make your players not have maximum performance during some matches. There are other attributes like injury proneness and dirtiness which can harm your chances of winning some matches. You cannot avoid that unless you hire players with better hidden attributes.

10. RNG (or randomness): Sometimes, your luck is just bad during certain matches. There is no way to avoid that, just keep playing and results should normalize eventually.

Changelog Fire 2.0




Use Focus Play Down the Left/Right whenever you have an advantage on that side (when your opponent has a weakness on that side, or when one of your flanks is clearly stronger than the other)..

You should use Fire Light when you want to rest your players and avoid bookings, thinking about the rest of the season. I recommend using it anytime you think a match is under control, like two or three goals of difference. If your aim is to hold a score, just set mentality from Fire to Cautious instead.

Fire 2.1 Legacy (Blue 4.0 Legacy FM22)




TODO: Update to Fire 2.0 Light


Fire 2.6 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.


Fire 2.5
Removed:
- Play Out Of Defense
- Counter-Press
Added:
- Balanced mentality
- Much Higher Defensive Line
- Get Stuck In




Fire 2.4 DW
Removed:
- Work Ball Into Box
- Take More Risk (all)
- Shoot Less Often from positions with high accuracy (BPD, SS and AF)
Added:
- Pass Into Space
- Distribute Quickly
- Pass It Shorter to positions with high accuracy (IWB, DW, SS and AF)
- Close Down More to IWB.




Fire 2.2 Legacy (Blue 3.0 FM21




Fire 1.0





Leave a comment below if you liked the tactic and make sure to share your results. Enjoy!

@ZaZ, I assume that Fire 0.3 and Fire 1.0 are the same tactics or there're some changes between them?

Chewbacca said: @ZaZ, I assume that Fire 0.3 and Fire 1.0 are the same tactics or there're some changes between them? Expand

You are correct, they are the same. I just named 1.0 because we are leaving beta next week.

ZaZ said: You are correct, they are the same. I just named 1.0 because we are leaving beta next week. Expand

Ok, thanks.

ZaZ said: You are correct, they are the same. I just named 1.0 because we are leaving beta next week. Expand

ZaZ, do you think there'll be M.E. changes with the game released?

Droid said: ZaZ, do you think there'll be M.E. changes with the game released? Expand

Most likely, but probably minor. They will probably do the big changes around 23.2 or 23.3.

Thanks zaz, thanks for sharing

ZaZ said: Most likely, but probably minor. They will probably do the big changes around 23.2 or 23.3. Expand

I'm sure SI will make some changes regarding yellow/red cards... IMHO, the number is too high at the moment

Rince said: I'm sure SI will make some changes regarding yellow/red cards... IMHO, the number is too high at the moment Expand

Red is actually not THAT high. Even with everyone tackling harder, it's barely 2 or 3 per season. Yellows, on the other hand...

ZaZ said: Red is actually not THAT high. Even with everyone tackling harder, it's barely 2 or 3 per season. Yellows, on the other hand... Expand
yes, I agree mostly I was talking about the yellow cards number.

I was comparing Fire 1.0 to Blue 4.0. Fire has way higher dribbles per game and interceptions, and smaller pass accuracy, clearances and tackle won rate. That might be evidence that players retain better the ball and intercept better, which could benefit tactics based on individuality of players.
Link with the four pictures side by side: https://twitter.com/ZaZFM/status/1588865343677960196

Sorry for the (silly ?) question. Are Fire 1.0 and Fire 1.0 light in this thread diferent? Thanks

MarcoL said: Sorry for the (silly ?) question. Are Fire 1.0 and Fire 1.0 light in this thread diferent? Thanks Expand

Fire 1.0 Light is Cautious mentality. Standard Fire is Positive mentality

MarcoL said: Sorry for the (silly ?) question. Are Fire 1.0 and Fire 1.0 light in this thread diferent? Thanks Expand

Light is a variant to rest players and avoid cards. It is the same as Fire, but all players have Ease Off Tackles, mentality is Cautious, goalkeeper is set to Slow Pace Down, and players are instructed to Stay On Feet.

ZaZ said: Light is a variant to rest players and avoid cards. It is the same as Fire, but all players have Ease Off Tackles, mentality is Cautious, goalkeeper is set to Slow Pace Down, and players are instructed to Stay On Feet. Expand
Thanks a lot

I can confirm that is also works with small clubs. I just put one AF as a midfielder. Media prediction is 15.

Petrades said: I can confirm that is also works with small clubs. I just put one AF as a midfielder. Media prediction is 15. Expand

I have been testing a number of different shapes to improve defense, like moving one striker to CM, or moving wingers to MLR position. I'm still testing to see what option is the best, and it will probably only be finished after the end of Beta.

ZaZ said: I have been testing a number of different shapes to improve defense, like moving one striker to CM, or moving wingers to MLR position. I'm still testing to see what option is the best, and it will probably only be finished after the end of Beta. Expand

@ZaZ Can you pleas share your new work? Would love to test it!!

Tejash said: @ZaZ Can you pleas share your new work? Would love to test it!! Expand

Those are the three formations I'm testing for a more defensive tactic. Feel free if anyone wants to help testing them.

P.S.: I'm also trying some variation with Frost (based on Green), but I didn't manage to get it right yet.

P.S.2: Added Water, the one I'm currently testing right now.

so far in the league

@ZaZ, what does "Low" mean in the tactic names?

Chewbacca said: @ZaZ, what does "Low" mean in the tactic names? Expand

Wingers in MLR position, like the difference between Blue and Blue Legacy. People have been complaining of Blue being leaky since the first day, and that is one of the alternatives to get better defense, for a variation to use during matches.

P.S.: I pick W instead of DW because you can change to Ease Off Tackles, which helps against cards, or for a light variation to save energy.

Here is some tests with Low FIRE.
Not impressed to be honest, however results are good for Europa teams, but i will run the same test with FIRE 1.0 which is for me clearly the best, with Cautious mentality.

Falbravv said: Here is some tests with Low FIRE.
Not impressed to be honest, however results are good for Europa teams, but i will run the same test with FIRE 1.0 which is for me clearly the best, with Cautious mentality.



Expand

Thank you for testing! In my experiments, it is as good as Fire, but not much change defensively. That's why I moved to other formations for now.

ZaZ said: Thank you for testing! In my experiments, it is as good as Fire, but not much change defensively. That's why I moved to other formations for now. Expand

I don't put here some screenshots, but yeah, it's the same here for me, don't see some improvements.

Important to note that, in test it works good, but if you take the lead of the team in a real save, it's very efficient, UCL with Rennes in three seasons, and Europa League the first season.

ZaZ said: I have been testing a number of different shapes to improve defense, like moving one striker to CM, or moving wingers to MLR position. I'm still testing to see what option is the best, and it will probably only be finished after the end of Beta. Expand

@ZaZ Can you pleas share your new work? Would love to test it!!

ZaZ said: Those are the three formations I'm testing for a more defensive tactic. Feel free if anyone wants to help testing them.

P.S.: I'm also trying some variation with Frost (based on Green), but I didn't manage to get it right yet.

P.S.2: Added Water, the one I'm currently testing right now. Expand

@ZaZ What is the difference between water and fire and the rest?

Tejash said: @ZaZ What is the difference between water and fire and the rest? Expand

They are all different formations.

ZaZ said: They are all different formations. Expand

Which one is the best you feel or good in defence?

Tejash said: Which one is the best you feel or good in defence? Expand

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.

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