2026-11-09, 05:13 PM - Word count:
Hi all, I've been lucky enough to have a sneak peak behind the scenes with regards to the Academy League, as my manager, the wonderful and awe inspiring @nckkss (on Discord, assuming he's the same name on here), was daft enough to let me sort the tactics, and give me the league files to play with. Now I know everyone’s tactics, watch as I completely fail to capitalise on this gain of information.
In the meantime, had a few thoughts on the setup, ranging from dodgy tactics to dodgy players. Older hands feel free to point out at great length and in great detail where I might be wrong, or misinformed.
Meta tactics – Everyone loves a good 4231 or 433, but that’s boring! I’m not feeling the regional flavour when we play the npc teams. I’m thinking of things like the classic British 4-4-2, defence obsessed Italian sides, fluid Total Football Dutch teams, and Argentinian teams that just kick you off the park. I propose giving each completely npc team distinct formations, rather than yet another 433 or 4231. This obviously goes out the window if someone is managing one of the teams, then they impose their own style of play. If it isn’t meta – who cares? I didn’t come here to get pumped 4-0 by a team of Waffle LEGEND McFootball’s playing the most meta tactic possible for FM24.
Which brings me onto…
Cohesion and tactical familiarity – I propose the simmers using the editor to give each team 100% team cohesion and tactical familiarity before each game. The budding Academy manager may want to encourage audience participation by letting a different person in their team pick the tactics each week (I think I’d like to become an Academy manager in the future, and potentially run my team like that, so this is possibly entirely self serving). This lets them play and experiment, also letting them account for new arrivals that may need to be shoehorned in, without losing effectiveness. And it’s nice sometimes to see your team actually doing what you want it to! Purely for the Academy teams, as I'd imagine that the proper teams are somewhat more stable in their plans.
Which brings me onto…
Player distribution – you guys tried to sneak this past me, but I saw what you did! Franco LEGEND Torres was a key part of the Accra team until some time between MD1 and 2, when Athletico Medellin special forces swooped in and kidnapped him for their own team, leaving us with a lesser npc in his place. In reality, it took our only AM-LRC/ST from our team, and left us with four CM/AM-LRCs who couldn’t a cow’s backside with a banjo (all 5 finishing). We were also left with only one ST (not including the supersub), so no chance of a strike partnership for us. This blatant sabotage got me wondering why we don’t just have a large squad for each team with multiple players for each position, essentially a full npc squad then we sprinkle actual players among them (I'm sure they wont mind the extra competition for places). Then there’s no need to steal our Torres, because you have three of your own!
I’ve also just noticed that Stockholm doesn’t have a single CM/AM-LRC that can cross the ball. Maybe I’m splitting hairs talking about 5 in a stat vs 10, so please let me know if I’m getting far too excited about this sort of thing.
Finally, those lovely, hideous kits for each team – I’m just sad there’s no Scottish salmon pink anywhere!
In the meantime, had a few thoughts on the setup, ranging from dodgy tactics to dodgy players. Older hands feel free to point out at great length and in great detail where I might be wrong, or misinformed.
Meta tactics – Everyone loves a good 4231 or 433, but that’s boring! I’m not feeling the regional flavour when we play the npc teams. I’m thinking of things like the classic British 4-4-2, defence obsessed Italian sides, fluid Total Football Dutch teams, and Argentinian teams that just kick you off the park. I propose giving each completely npc team distinct formations, rather than yet another 433 or 4231. This obviously goes out the window if someone is managing one of the teams, then they impose their own style of play. If it isn’t meta – who cares? I didn’t come here to get pumped 4-0 by a team of Waffle LEGEND McFootball’s playing the most meta tactic possible for FM24.
Which brings me onto…
Cohesion and tactical familiarity – I propose the simmers using the editor to give each team 100% team cohesion and tactical familiarity before each game. The budding Academy manager may want to encourage audience participation by letting a different person in their team pick the tactics each week (I think I’d like to become an Academy manager in the future, and potentially run my team like that, so this is possibly entirely self serving). This lets them play and experiment, also letting them account for new arrivals that may need to be shoehorned in, without losing effectiveness. And it’s nice sometimes to see your team actually doing what you want it to! Purely for the Academy teams, as I'd imagine that the proper teams are somewhat more stable in their plans.
Which brings me onto…
Player distribution – you guys tried to sneak this past me, but I saw what you did! Franco LEGEND Torres was a key part of the Accra team until some time between MD1 and 2, when Athletico Medellin special forces swooped in and kidnapped him for their own team, leaving us with a lesser npc in his place. In reality, it took our only AM-LRC/ST from our team, and left us with four CM/AM-LRCs who couldn’t a cow’s backside with a banjo (all 5 finishing). We were also left with only one ST (not including the supersub), so no chance of a strike partnership for us. This blatant sabotage got me wondering why we don’t just have a large squad for each team with multiple players for each position, essentially a full npc squad then we sprinkle actual players among them (I'm sure they wont mind the extra competition for places). Then there’s no need to steal our Torres, because you have three of your own!
I’ve also just noticed that Stockholm doesn’t have a single CM/AM-LRC that can cross the ball. Maybe I’m splitting hairs talking about 5 in a stat vs 10, so please let me know if I’m getting far too excited about this sort of thing.
Finally, those lovely, hideous kits for each team – I’m just sad there’s no Scottish salmon pink anywhere!
![[Image: CTtL39n.jpg]](https://iili.io/CTtL39n.jpg)
![[Image: Barry-Mc-Glynn-Sig-2-0.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/C191CSW9/Barry-Mc-Glynn-Sig-2-0.png)
