Not my own work this time but something another manager and regular reader of my blog wrote. I like it, so it's getting its own spot on here, because D. doesn't have her own blog.
Well it deserves the name "world". It is full of personalities, has its own economy with booms and recessions, and has its own evolutionary trends. By this I am of course referring to tactics.
A man who started his career as a clerk in a patent office went on to theorize, "For every action, there is an opposite and equal re-action". He later went on to patent Einstein's theory of relativity. I would like to suggest that "For every tactic, there is an opposite and equal counter-tactic". In application of such a theory you will elicit far more benefits than you first imagine. It is about more than simply defeating the latest "super-tactic" or countering the latest corner "exploit". Let me explain what I have been noticing...
The latest "super-tactic" is the narrow 4-3-3. It is tantamount to what I've heard is known as "Kevin Keegen soccer". You score, 3, we'll score 4. And it works. The working of such a tactic is beyond the scope of this blog, but there are plenty of posts out there explaining how it works. People have been embracing this religion of narrow 4-3-3 and dumping world class wingers onto the market place as they have no need for them, often going for half MV! Whilst pacey strikers (as called for by the use of 4-3-3 narrow) have seen their MVs rocket up!
So, what did I do? I decided to develop a counter tactic for this 4-3-3 narrow formation employing wingers to specifically mark the opposing FBs, and using a single big TM up front and flood the midfield a DM/CM and two supporting AMC's for the TM. And my tactic works. I came from mid table obscurity in my league which I had just been newly promoted to, to winning it in the last third of the season. I made a ton of cash selling a pacey striker, and paid peanuts for a couple of wingers as the MP was flooded with them. And the best bit was, as popularity in narrow 4-3-3 grew, my advantage grew further as I came up against more 4-3-3 narrow teams and turned what might have been draws against higher rep stronger opposition teams into wins and took the title.
Investing time alone into FML by searching out the latest super tactic or corner exploit and applying it correctly will bring you some short term success against teams with managers who are less active and don't keep up with the tactical trends. You're 1 or 2 steps ahead of them and you will bag the points. However, it is not a recipe for long term success. Especially if you end up reshaping your squad each time you change your tactics. You sell your unwanted players at below MV, and pay way over the odds for the required players. Supply and demand. It's simple economics and you don't have to be Adam Smith to work that one out. So you are left with no money to invest in infrastructure which is key to the long term success in FML.
I prefer to take a leaf from Darwin's book. He theorized that "It is not the strongest who survive, but those with the ability to best adapt to change in their environment". Evolution. Our environment is our game world. To be the strongest and survive using narrow 4-3-3 you have to buy the best 3 pacey strikers and best 3 ball playing MCs. In other words, be better than the other 4-3-3 narrow teams out there by having better players! That will not be cheap! You are fighting for the same limited resources everyone else is. Instead, adapt to your environment, don't join the flock in going narrow 4-3-3, find the equal and opposite counter-tactic. Do this by finding a CPU team that plays this way and practicing against them and gradually over the course of maybe 15 - 20 games develop a tactic. Whilst developing it, look at the changing trends in the MP and see what you notice. In the case of narrow 4-3-3, all the wingers going for half MV... could you somehow employ these guys in your counter tactics to your advantage? (remember the specific marking of the opposing 4-3-3 fullbacks whilst running rampage down the wing using "hug the line" instruction?)...
My results speak for themselves. I have been in Miller for three seasons, won three consecutive promotions, two of those as league champions. Cup semi finalist on two occasions where I dumped out much higher rep teams along the way and last week i won the most recent CPU vs Human tournament. I have a very healthy 28 day financial projection, great youthful players with huge potential as well as current ability, and a stadium with 4 two tier Opstilla II stands with exclisiff boxes raking in the money. All in 3 seasons by adapting to my environment.
In conclusion, monitor and adapt to your FML environment, and you will not only win on the pitch, but you will conquer the transfer market, be financially sound as this will allow you to invest in the long term future of your club with infrastructure, and you will have money to pay for higher wages and buy better players. In short, whilst the other clubs that followed the latest super tactic pay over the odds for players in short supply and offer ridiculous wages for them in auctions, and eventually go into administration and start again... you will not only survive, you will grow and prosper in your FML game world.
Good football insight but incorrect science. 'Every action has an equal and opposite reaction' is the second law of motion, which was discovered by Isaac Newton a good while before Einstein was born.
ReplyDeleteEinstein discovered relativity both special, where time changes according to how fast you go, and general, where gravity affects space-time. Gravity itself was coined by Mr Isaac and his apple, as were the laws of motion.