Hello.
Every real tactician begins his work with the squad analysis, i.e. getting to know the potential. Otherwise, it may prove impossible to make the best use of it.

However, I assume that at this stage of our course we are not tacticians yet. So, let us begin with some theoretic knowledge. A thorough knowledge of positions and the principles of placing players on the pitch will make the potential analysis easier and will let us know what sort of players we are looking for and why we pay attention to certain attributes and information in the player profile and not some other.

To start off, let's concentrate on what is seen right after clicking on the tactical screen button – the formation.
FM allows us to put our players into 31 positions



As we can see, the amount of formations of our own creation is much greater than the number of the standard FM tactics.



Nonetheless, the choice of the formation is determined by the positions our players are capable of playing at.

A player's position can be established in two places:
1. Any squad screen where the basic positions the player can play at are displayed, e.g.



2. Positions info in player's profile where all positions the player can play at (currently or in the future) can be found



As we can see, Anderson (AMC) can play at several positions:
• AMC – natural position (light green colour)
• MC – accomplished position (dark green colour)
• AML/ML – competent positions (orange colour)
• DM/AMR – unconvincing positions (light yellow colour)
• MR – awkward position (dark yellow colour)
• ST – ineffectual position (not displayed on the pitch)

All these positions are described in FM (but hidden in the game) with the attributes from 1 to 20 that determine how good a player is at playing at these positions. Playing at different positions can, of course, be developed by ordering the player to practice it by training and fielding the player on the new position. However, this is not the subject of today's lesson.

Please note, that apart from the information about the positions there are also details about the ability of playing with left and right foot, and player's preferred moves. These information should be remembered as we will need them while setting the individual instructions.

FM 2009 makes our life easier while assigning a player to a position on the tactical screen. Once we make our choice next to the player an indicator will be displayed telling us how well suited to that position a player is. It does not determine how well the player will perform in the next match but surely we can expect a better performance form a player playing in line with his abilities.



The FM match engine is constructed in such a way that our tactical deficiencies are compensated by our players' ability and vice versa. That means it will be very unlikely to win the championship with a poor squad despite using a brilliant tactic, as well as getting relegated having a strong squad with poor tactics. It does not mean, however, that it is impossible for as some say: “if a patient want to live the doctors are helpless.”

Having said that analysing our players' positions would mean that the choice of formation is not of much importance. This is true (sic!) but only if we remember about a crucial rule: the rule of balance.

What does it mean? To make things easier let's organise all positions.



Positions in respective lines belong to certain formations. Hence:
0. Sweepers' line – defensive formation
1. Defenders' line – defensive formation
2. Defensive midfielders' line – defensive formation
3. Midfielders' line – midfield formation
4. Attacking midfielders' line – attacking formation
5. Strikers' line – attacking formation

I skipped the goalkeeper as FM will not let us start a match if there is no one assigned to that position.

The first three lines belong to the defensive assignments, one is for the midfielders and the final two describe attacking-minded players. It does not mean that players from lines 0-3 cannot have attacking assignments, and otherwise, yet the match engine “recognises” a team's formation based on these lines. Therefore we have to maintain balance between the number of players assigned to play in each formation.

So, what this rule of balance looks like? It is comprised of two elements:
1. A defensive formation (lines 0-2) must not contain less than 3 players, with at least 2 players in the line 1. All formations with two defensive players or one player in line 1 are bound to fail. FM immediately takes an attacking stance, packs the midfield, and focuses the play on both flanks. The outcome is a bunch of goals in no time.
2. An attacking formation (lines 4-5) must not contain more than 5 players. The sixth one will mean than the midfield will have only one player what makes the gap between the defensive and attacking lines too big. FM assigns 5 players to the defence, 3 to midfield and 2 to offence. Our pass completion ratio falls down drastically, and our players tire very quickly. This way of playing is justified only towards the end of a match under the condition that we use long passing and one of our defender will be moved to a DMC position. In the course of a whole match this formation results in a passing ratio under 40% and condition of around 50% at the end of the game. Even if our shooting effectiveness will be over 70% we will lose 7:11.

Keeping these two simple rules in mind we can think of any formation for our players and be sure that we will not see high scores whilst playing against an evenly matched opponent.

To end today's lesson I have an interesting fact about player's positions.

Many of the players have the ability to play at multiple positions. Usually, it is the ability to play at several positions but within the same line, e.g. D RC or AM LC. There are some players however, who are capable of playing at different positions in different lines. DC/DM, DR/WBR or AM/FC are quite popular. A real rarity is DC/ST, but even this happen.

A rule in FM is that about 90% of the players who can play at different positions within the same line will perform quite similarly at those positions. They are equally good both as centre and full backs, etc.

However this rule does not apply in the case of playing in different lines. There are very few players who are both good centre backs and defensive midfielders, or attacking midfielders and strikers. Please, play attention to this when we shall discuss technical and physical attributes, and every time when you select a match line-up.

The reason for this is that there are completely different attributes required for playing in every line mentioned today. And versatility is a privilege of the few.

I send my regards and invite you to the second lesson on which we will focus on the standard FM 2009 tactics.

See you.

PS. I shall illustrate our lessons with FM 2009 screens with Manchester United as our example team, as they are one of the best teams in the world and they are quite representative for our purposes.