Subject: NEWS Sokker- big changes are coming!

Another problem this game has is the limited number of well working tactics at higher level (at u21 it's much better...)

4 at the back basically unplayable, even 6 at the back is a much better formation

5 at the back is in 99% of situations superior to everything, so all you're left is 532, 523, 541 and choice whether you want a winger or not

Yes the set-pieces from defenders drives me insane, it's cost me a couple of times.

The major problem with tactics is simply that you can't react to what you're playing against, and that will never change. How many times do you start a game and see the opposition have dropped their defence way back, and that your strikers are completely screwed because they're playing from midfield? Being able to change tactics would massively change this game and end the 1-wing dominance, but it'll never happen.

You are able to change tactics...

I said react. I know within 30 seconds of the game starting whether I'm tactically screwed but there's absolutely nothing you can do about it once the game has started. All you can do is plan and hope.
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You can react with orders if you are loosing for example.

The major problem with tactics is simply that you can't react to what you're playing against, and that will never change. How many times do you start a game and see the opposition have dropped their defence way back, and that your strikers are completely screwed because they're playing from midfield? Being able to change tactics would massively change this game and end the 1-wing dominance, but it'll never happen.

that would be terrible, the whole idea of this game is that you prepare blindly so you have to decide whether you play risky or safely... and you can use a second tactic that might cover your problems if your result is bad after 30/45/60 minutes

if you would allow live changes to the tactic the game would become stupid... imagine two users playing each other live.

he uses a wing, you change to a tactic covering wing. then he changes to tactic without wingers, so you move to a 4 def tactic. so he changes back to wing tactic.

he uses a low def line, you change to a tactic with high att line. so he changes to high def line, then you change back to low att line. etc. It wouldn't make any sense and it would make it impossible to win when not being online.
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No, you can't react with orders. You can plan, that's it.

You can plan to react.
A lot is possible If you will use this in a smart way.
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Yep I know the issues and why it is how it is, but there's no order for "My defence is getting murdered by their wing and I need to move them" or "My strikers are 15 yards offside for the entire game, I need to move them back".

You plan as best you can, but if you get unlucky, you're screwed.

Well for me that's the best side of tactics. You try to be unpredictable and surprise your opponent, while you analyse the way he plays trying to outsmart him and guess how he will set up his team for the game.

Now it's even easier/worse because of automatic covering of defenders... in the past they always move the way they were set up in the tactics, so if you analyse well and spot "holes" in defence and place your ATT there, you had a huge advantage of uncovered striker who got more through balls, got headers uncovered etc. Unfortunately they added the auto-marking and took that aspect largely out of tactics.

Something could maybe be done with conditional formation orders like "Caught offside more than 5 times". It'd be far more difficult to code something like "Conceded more than 5 crosses" but even then it's still just guesswork.

Well for me that's the best side of tactics. You try to be unpredictable and surprise your opponent, while you analyse the way he plays trying to outsmart him and guess how he will set up his team for the game.

True, but it also has it's limitations and has led to the 5-def 1-wing meta that's dominated this game for 20 years.

I'd much rather like an addition of 3rd tactic, so you could have your starting-neutral tactic + offensive tactic when losing and defensive tactic when winning etc.

It would probably be quite easy to add as well, potentially though it might become a problem while generating matches (longer generating time, higher impact on server etc.).

I would suggest fm like tactic editors and orders such as high pressure, defensive, tiki-taka etc. so each team could build different squads. such as one team might build a squad with high tech and pass while other may use high pace. also additional skills can be added such as strength and if height and bmi also added to match engine... sokker would be superior then

But I'm aware this could also require changing match engine so I just wrote that in an ideal universe

Something like man-marking would be a huge improvement, but also difficult to code for asymetric formations. Not really ideal if your left-back is marking the winger on the right side.

I would really love the option of either pressing or sitting back. It frustrates me hugely seeing my centre back leaving his line to meet the striker and leaving a huge gap behind. Either move up in a line or hold the line I told you to.