Hello, dear readers! I have prepared very interesting and pretty unusual information regarding different tactical approaches used by Premier League clubs in my Hull game. We will try to understand together what tactics AI clubs prefer more and what tactics lead to success. I reviewed all the tactics used in Premier League one by one. Here you can find also enumerations of clubs with their positions in the league per each tactics.

Classic 4-4-2 formation

4-4-2 tactics in FM 2009

2. Manchester United

3. Tottenham

6. Aston Villa

7. Blackburn

10. Newcastle

11. Middlesbrough

12. West Ham

14. West Bromwich Albion

16. Fulham

17. Sunderland

19. Stoke

20. Bolton

4-4-2 is the most classic tactics for the whole history of football. 13 of 20 teams have been using this tactics since the start of the 3rd season in my game. Among them are top 3 teams (Arsenal, Man Utd, Tottenham) at the moment. Yes, of course, they have different tactical instructions which I cannot investigate so easy. But anyway we can see that this FM 2009 tactics may lead any team to success. It’s just matter of careful tuning of team instructions and selection of squad members.

4-1-3-1-1 – tactics of sacked coach

Chelsea tactics by Scolari in FM 2009

4. Chelsea

Luiz Felipe Scolari (who was sacked a while ago in real life) uses strange centre-concentrated tactics with one forward. As you see he is still ruling the club in my game. This means that he is on the way of success with it! And actually Chelsea won Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup of the previous season (2009/2010) following this smart tactical approach of famous Brazilian coach.

The main strength of this FM 2009 tactics is strong and mobile centre of midfield. Such guys like Essien, Ballack and Mikel can enclose flanks when it’s needed.

If you have some time I will try to investigate this tactics more. I would even like to tune for my team… But it can only happen in case if I’m not happy with the current one.

4 in advance, 6 behind

Liverpool tactics in FM 2009

5. Liverpool

What have we here? Another quite rare approach of team work when 4 players are used only for wide attacks and 6 players think about defense. It’s pretty fluently because either defensive midfielders or wing backs can be involved in attacks in case when it’s necessary.

By the way, in my game this tactical style is produced by Louis Van Gaal – not Rafa Benites because he is sacked already.

Standard 4-4-1-1 tactics

Everton and Wigan tactics in FM 2009

8. Everton

18. Wigan

This one is hard to implement for me! I used this formation in different versions Football Manager and actually FM 2009 with Hull. Unfortunately it didn’t give me results I expect. But Everton performs quite good in my game anyway.

Though potentially it looks smart and tough because of 5 midfielders and 4 defenders together.

My 4-1-2-2-1 FM 2009 tactics

My tactics in FM 2009

9. Manchester City

13. Hull

15. Wolves

There are 3 teams including my Hull left without being discussed. All of them use formation of my best FM2009 tactics!  Manchester City doesn’t have high achievements with it, though Hughes is still Man City manager. We will see if my Hull is able to prove that this tactical approach is one of the most effective!

And what tactics do you use in FM2009? What’s your favourite?

Original article published by Vitaliy Mokosiy and reproduced under permission.