Tactics and match setup

You take eleven starters and five players on the bench. Everyone else gets to watch, complain, or pretend they needed the rest anyway.

The formation divides the outfield places between defence, midfield and attack. You can use a player outside a natural role, but moving one problem around the pitch does not always count as solving it.

CBM formations run from a fairly respectable 5-4-1 to a 2-3-5, which is less a defence and more a strongly worded suggestion.

The formation decides where you put the numbers and where you accept the risk. It is only the starting point, though. Two teams in the same shape can still play very differently.

• More defenders give you better cover and fewer people up front.
• More midfielders help contest the large and inconvenient bit in the middle.
• More attackers give you options near goal and problems nearly everywhere else.

Playstyle, aggression, intensity, width, height, violence and finishing each control a different part of the match. In plain English: how you move the ball, where you play, how much energy you spend, and how many medical forms may be needed afterwards.

There is no best setting for every match. Hard pressing costs fitness. Width can expose a mismatch. More violence is dangerous to both teams. Shooting early gives you more attempts; waiting should give you better ones.

Events are instructions prepared before the match. They can watch the time, score, match type, formation, cards or serious injuries, then change tactics, switch formation, move players or make substitutions.

You set the priority. The actions inside an Event also run from top to bottom, so order matters. Computers are very obedient in this way and completely unsympathetic when you put the instructions in the wrong order.

• Protect a lead late in the match.
• Change shape when you need a goal.
• React to a red card or an injury.
• Choose a suitable replacement when your first option is unavailable.

The useful question is not “which tactic wins?” It is “which tactic suits this team, against that opponent, today?” Fitness, player quality, available roles and the other manager all have opinions on the matter.

The numbers will be balanced as the game develops. The basic idea will stay the same: choices should make sense, have counters, and matter once the match starts.