CM2 tactics

[johndevries]

Formation:
In all Championship Manager games there seem to be particular User Defined tactics that work better than the standard tactics. CM97/98 is less easy than other Championship Manager games, with a higher risk of getting sacked, especially if your reputation is low. So in CM97/98 I prefer to use User Defined tactics. The other CM2 games (95/96 and 96/97) are more easy, so in these games I prefer to use one of the basic tactics that the CPU teams use also. Personally in real football I love wingers, so I usually play 4-4-2 Attacking. In the original unpatched version of CM95/96 (version 1.37) and also in the 1.49 versions of the Euro leagues, there was a bias against the passing style. Which resulted in the direct and long ball styles being more effective in these games. This was corrected according to Olivier Collyer with the official 1.56 patch (also mentioned in the text file info of this patch). But still, your players need specific abilities to make the passing style work. The CM9798 manual states: "To find succes with a side that uses the Passing style is significantly harder than with the direct and long-ball styles." And: "For the passing style to function properly the majority of your side will be composed of good passers of the ball, with a significant emphasis placed upon each player`s technique and flair." So its not just passing ability of the players that is required, but also technique and flair.
Morale/Form
The CM2 95/96 manual states: "When picking your team pay particular attention to fitness and morale. But lets face it, you dont have to be Franz Beckanbauer to realise that a depressed, overweight midfielder is not going to win any prizes for you."
Personally, instead of looking at morale, I have more success looking at player form. For example: Normally Philip Albert (average something like 7.90) is a better player than Steve Howey (average something like 7.40). But when Philip Albert has low form according to the menu screen, and Steve Howey has Very good or even Superb form, I prefer to play Steve Howey and bench Albert. The CPU controlled teams also prefer to play the players with the highest form.
Fitness/opponents
The CM9798 manual mentions the "squad system" and the "traditional approach". "The squad system, essentially, does away with the idea of having a favoured and consistent eleven players, and is replaced by team on a match by match basis. By utilizing this method of management, your team selection will be primarily determined by the analysis of your side`s next opponents with players selected to undertake certain tasks." And "It is also considered to be, potentially, the more disruptive to the harmony and blend of your squad of the two types." And "The more traditional approach of picking your side based upon a favoured eleven players, like the squad system has both its advantages and disadvantages."
Personally, I prefer the traditional approach (I usually dont look at my opponents), but I dont like playing with players that have low fitness. When players are below 90 % fitness, I substitute/bench them. So I guess my personal approach is mostly traditional, but with some squad system elements.
What is your favorite strategy?
Greetings, Johndevries

[johndevries]

Problems Scoring:
-If you are not getting many chances, buy a player with high creativity or several forwards with high heading, and a decent corner taker.
-If you are getting chances but not converting them, buy players with high shooting and heading ability.
Leaking Goals:
-Every shot goes in - this tends to indicate a bad goalkeeper.
-Permanantly under pressure - this tends to indicate that you have a weak midfield as opposed to a poor defence and that they aren't holding the ball up and giving the defence some relief. Try either packing the midfield with more players or switching to long ball tactic, if you are not already using it.
-Poor defence - if you have few good defensive players, then try playing 532 with midfielders in the wingback positions and your best defender in a sweeper position in the centre, usually he will mop up any strikers who get past your weaker defenders.

[johndevries]

Narrow tactics (no wingers) are the best tactic in many Championship Manager games (CM93/94), CM01/02 etc). I think these tactics are cheat tactics.
I did a little bit of testing with narrow tactics in CM2 95/96 (v1.56), CM2 96/97 (v2.00) and CM97/98 (v.2.93).
I used a 4-4-2 with 1 DMC, 1 AMC and 2 Central Midfielders. All 4 midfielders in the centre in a diamond shape.
My results so far:
CM2 95/96: narrow tactics work very well. You destroy most of the opponents.
CM 96/97: narrow tactics do not seem to work. Or in other words: no extra benefit.
CM 97/98: narrow tactics dont work. No extra benefit.
My impressions so far are: CM96/97 and CM97/98 are the only Championship Manager games that dont have cheat tactics that work.
What do you guys think?
Greetings

[Cam F]

Narrow tactics (no wingers) are the best tactic in many Championship Manager games (CM93/94), CM01/02 etc). I think these tactics are cheat tactics.
I did a little bit of testing with narrow tactics in CM2 95/96 (v1.56), CM2 96/97 (v2.00) and CM97/98 (v.2.93).
I used a 4-4-2 with 1 DMC, 1 AMC and 2 Central Midfielders. All 4 midfielders in the centre in a diamond shape.
My results so far:
CM2 95/96: narrow tactics work very well. You destroy most of the opponents.
CM 96/97: narrow tactics do not seem to work. Or in other words: no extra benefit.
CM 97/98: narrow tactics dont work. No extra benefit.
My impressions so far are: CM96/97 and CM97/98 are the only Championship Manager games that dont have cheat tactics that work.
What do you guys think?
Greetings

Ooh, that's incentive for a new 9596 game.

Did you have any arrows in your 442 diamond, was it a flat back four or wingbacks? What style? Direct?

[johndevries]

Ooh, that's incentive for a new 9596 game.

Did you have any arrows in your 442 diamond, was it a flat back four or wingbacks? What style? Direct?

Im using this tactic:
http://www.imagebam.com/image/ac1699583932253

in the 1.56 version

[johndevries]

Narrow tactics (no wingers) are the best tactic in many Championship Manager games (CM93/94), CM01/02 etc). I think these tactics are cheat tactics.
I did a little bit of testing with narrow tactics in CM2 95/96 (v1.56), CM2 96/97 (v2.00) and CM97/98 (v.2.93).
I used a 4-4-2 with 1 DMC, 1 AMC and 2 Central Midfielders. All 4 midfielders in the centre in a diamond shape.
My results so far:
CM2 95/96: narrow tactics work very well. You destroy most of the opponents.
CM 96/97: narrow tactics do not seem to work. Or in other words: no extra benefit.
CM 97/98: narrow tactics dont work. No extra benefit.
My impressions so far are: CM96/97 and CM97/98 are the only Championship Manager games that dont have cheat tactics that work.
What do you guys think?
Greetings

I did some more testing with narrow tactics (no wingers) in CM2 version 1.56 (95/96), and I have to correct my above statement. From my testing results, narrow tactics do not work (read: no benefit) in version 1.56. Apparently my testing result with Sheffield Wednesday was just a lucky period of results. I used the same formation with Liverpool and my team performed poor. So my conclusion is that narrow tactics are only succesful in the CM1 games. The "narrow cheat tactics bug" has no benefit in CM2 1.56, CM 96/97 and CM 97/98. I havent tried these tactics in the bugged 1.37 CM2 version or the Euro Leagues games.

[JLa]

I played a lot of CM2 (95/96) with a friend of mine back in the day.

The best tactic by far was 4-4-2 (flat). All midfielders had inward forward arrows, the two central midfielders up between the the striker positions:

    x  x
/   /  \  \
x  x    x  x

x  x    x  x

Direct passing.

Granted, you needed decent players too, but if you started with a upper half Prem team you would boss everyone.

And buy Noel Whelan from Coventry!!!

[johndevries]

I played a lot of CM2 (95/96) with a friend of mine back in the day.

The best tactic by far was 4-4-2 (flat). All midfielders had inward forward arrows, the two central midfielders up between the the striker positions:

    x  x
/   /  \  \
x  x    x  x

x  x    x  x

Direct passing.

Granted, you needed decent players too, but if you started with a upper half Prem team you would boss everyone.

And buy Noel Whelan from Coventry!!!

Thanks for the tactic. I will try it! But im not sure about Noel Whelan. His match ratings look poor. Or does he only turn into a star in your specific tactic? Greetings.