 FM 08 Tactics For Beginners Part 2
Individual player instructions (A.K.A. getting that lazy git who you pay 90k a week to do what you want)
First thing you need to be aware of; when you set you team instruction, all of your players will play like that. As Im sure you can imagine, this doesnt really bring balance to your side, especially if you want consistansy throught the season.
First things first, be sensible!
Do you really want your DC set to all out attack? If you play an attacking formation, remember to adjust you defenders to actually do their job. Im sure you get the idea.
Running lines
As mentioned in Part 1, clicking and holding the right mouse button on a player (in the tactics screen(, can place a running line. This tells the player where to run when you have the ball, this works with the individual player instruction of forward runs. It is best to do one or the other, using both will result in your players well up the field against in the counter attack.
Mentality, creative freedom and passing
This is pretty similar to the team instructions, but remember, if you have set these things high for your team, all of your players will follow these instructions. Personally I put CB's to ultra defensive and full backs to normal for mentality, even though I set my team to attacking.
Creative freedom is good, if you have the players. Having too many players with aa high setting will result in lots of tricks and dribbles, but less simple balls being played. Try to give freedom to your best players, 2 or 3 max should do it.
Passing style is exactly the same as in team instructions, but I prefer to set DC to long ball so they arent messing about.
Tackling, closing down and marking.
If you set you team to Hard tackling, then you will get a lot of cards, its just not worth it. Leave the team on normal and set your DM/CM to hard tackling, it will disrupt the oppositions flow.
Closing down, as mentioned before, players with a high work rate will run all over the pitch and close down, lazy players will not. Again, be looking to set this high for DM/CB/MC.
The rest of the settings for individual players are mostly for tweaking, depending on how you play. Friendlies are a great way to try these other settings out.
Target Men and playmakers
Target men are those big guys (Crouch, Zigic etc) who dont have to jump very much to get a high ball. Playmakers are the guys who pull the strings in your team.
On the top of the tactics screen, there is a set to button, select the player you want to be a target man, and then select the set to button, then choose target man. After this, make sure you have set the target men in the box next to the set to button. Playing with a target man is best with long passing, then he will knock down balls to your other striker/AM (really usefull for poor teams/players)
Use the same dropdown box and put all the players you want as playmakers in there. When a player is selected as a playmaker, your team will try and get the ball to him as often as possible, so pick a hard working creative player.
I hope this has given you a little more of an insight into making your team balanced and consistant. Using individual player instructions can real add an extra bite to you side, but dont forget, they work together with team instructions and can really unbalance your side if your not careful.
In part 3, we'll look at set pieces.
Good luck! | 
