FA Cup Final 2011: Manchester City 1-0 Stoke City

Defensively minded 4-4-1-1 is undone by possessive 4-2-3-1

Stoke got everything wrong tactically as Roberto Mancini won his first trophy with big spending Manchester City

Stoke were pushed back by Manchester City's shape, and their own lack of confidence

Arsene Whinging -4- Aston Villa 0-3 Arsenal: Indepth tactical analysis

Photograph: Nigel Roddis/Reuters

 Arsenal head to Villa Park

So far then we’ve

1. Identified the weaknesses of Arsenal along with examples.
2. Signed some players to cover those weaknesses
3. Devised some tactical systems to ‘mix it up’ but keep in the Arsenal spirit and philosophy of playing attractive football. I’m not exaggerating when I say that my teams on Football Manager are based around one principle: outscoring the opposition. That doesn’t mean having a shoddy defence and leaking goals in the quest forward, it means knowing when to retreat and when to attack.

Arsene Whinging – 3 – Tactical prep. and what to do with Walcott

Photograph: Nigel Roddis/Reuters

 Tactical preperation

So it’s still pre-season, and one of the major innovations of this edition of FM must be dealt with: match preparation. Basically, your team can learn and be drilled in up to 3 formations. This means that in a match you can switch tactically and your team won’t unrealistically be perfect or, alternatively, spazz out like a chicken on meth.