Football Manager 2010 new features blog Day 8: introducing 'touchline shouts', and advanced tactics

Yesterday I had the pleasure of showing you all the tactics creator for the first time.

Today, I'm going to talk about advanced tactics, and touchline shouts.

As you will have seen from yesterday's video ( click here if you haven't seen yet ), it's really easy to set up tactics in Football Manager 2010, and more "football like" in the way it's done.

Some managers and people, however, want to go a lot deeper with their tactical settings.

Also as mentioned yesterday, it's still possible to use the old system of sliders to set up tactics. But using the new system, there is also an advanced mode to be able to set up each individual player to play exactly as you want them to.

In this advanced mode (which you can get to by left clicking on any player on the tactic screen) you can set up individual player instructions much as you would have done in the old tactics system.

Whilst the old options are still there (like mentality, closing down, run with ball, long shots etc), there are also a few new options: "wide play" and "roam from position" for outfield players; and "distribute to" for goalkeepers.

"Wide play" gives you options to ask your wingers - or any player getting into a wide position - to "hug touchline", "cut inside" or "move into channels".

"Roam from position" allows players to, err, roam from position, and find themselves space.

"Distribute to" allows you to specify which player the goalkeeper should¨target with his kicks and throws.

"Roaming" is also used in team instructions, so you can ask all of your players to "stick to position", "more roaming" or leave it turned off.

Touchline shouts are also something that are new for Football Manager 2010. These enable a manager to make very quick changes tactcally while a match is playing, with a plethora of options. By clicking the "touchline instructions" button in TV view you can change the teams overall strategy with a couple of clicks, or use the "shortcuts" to change to a previously saved tactic, make a quick substitution, target an opposition player, set player marking, swap two players or change any player role.

You can also issue instructions. There are 22 instructions in total, and all of these automatically change the way your players will play, and are bunched into groups, so multiple instructions can be issued at one, but just one from each category. They are (drum roll please):

Retain Possession

Get Ball Forward

Pass Into Space

Pass To Feet

Pump Ball Into Box

Clear Ball To Flanks

Shoot On Sight

Work Ball Into Box

Exploit the Flanks

Exploit the Middle

Look For Overlap

Take A Breather

Play Wider

Play Narrower

Push High Up

Drop Deeper

Hassle Opponents

Stand Off Opponents

Get Stuck In

Stay On Feet

Play Even Safer

Take More Risks

...All of which are pretty self explanatory.

So, to summarise the new tactics system in FM2010: it's faster to use,¨easier to understand, more football based and more powerful than ever before!

To celebrate the weekend, here's another match engine video - have a¨great one, and don't forget to check back on Monday when I'll be continuing the Football Manager 2010 blogs, exclusively with¨MirrorFootball.

Fancy winning £3,000 for FREE this month? Play Mirror Football Streak for your chance to win cash prizes! Start predicting now!

williamhill.com

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