Gung Ho or GTFO is the third tactic I’ve created for Football Manager 2013 and the first I’ve shared here. – Ed
From the mind of the tactical genius that brought you the Brazil 1970 replication tactic in Football Manager 2011, as well as more recently, Banana Bread is Tasty and Sort of Tiki Taka comes a tactic so crazy, so out of the box that the creator was mocked viciously when proposing it to his peers. “It won’t work, you lunatic!” they cried as Dean, visibly dejected, left the room.
But they were wrong. It did work. Perhaps a little too well. It is a formation so good even the Premier League’s worst finishers in Fernando Torres and Danny Welbeck, are made to look like goal scoring machines. Reports suggest that Dean’s peers are now begging him to stop using it. Some select quotes from managers around the globe;
AssMan: “This tactic is so brutal that the gaffer went and offed himself when we came up against it. Looks like I might have to change my name from AssMan to IntMan now.”
Name Withheld: “I was the first to call Dean a mad man and label his tactic a pile of dog shit. Now I can’t sleep at night without pills because of the the beating we took from his lads.
Arsene Wenger: “Is cheap and dirty tactic. They don’t play football properly. Is disgrace.”
Jose Mourinho: “Dean could possibly be new Special One. #NotOneNil”
Name Withheld: “Weebo weebo weebo.”
Introducing…..
GUNG HO OR
Glad you asked, Jimmy. I had decided to update my first off the wall tactic Banana Bread is Tasty, because the original was pretty bollocks in FM 13 in truth. The tactic needed to be better, it needed to reflect the man that inspired it. And so I started working on the updated version of Banana Bread is Tasty. But something happened…
I ate all the Banana Bread. It was tasty. But the Banana Bread is now all gone, so I would have to name it “Banana Bread was Tasty” instead. And so I did, for a short while. But whenever I saw the name, I found I wanted to snack on some Banana Bread. But being all out, that wasn’t possible. This made me sad. A sad, sad panda. We couldn’t have that now, could we?
So I went back to the drawing board. Okay, I lie, I’m far too lazy to walk all the way to my drawing board just to name a tactic. But seriously, this started out as a homage to Drai‘s cavalier gung ho style of playing Football Manager. Gung ho. Gung ho is defined as being ‘extremely or overly zealous or enthusiastic’ about something. In the context of Football Manager, it’s about leaving it all on the line and scoring goals, without a care about defense. And so we have Gung Ho or GTFO. Because quite frankly, if you aren’t playing Gung Ho, you should cease playing. Now.
So what does this tactic do? It scores goals, simple. In fact, you will score a lot of them. Welbeck and Torres can look like beasts in this tactic. You will also probably concede a lot of goals too, but who cares? You’ll outscore the opposition anyway. So far this is proving to be more effective than the original, with the attacking unit working together much more effectively to tear opposition teams a new one. First lets take a look at the formation (click the image for a larger version):
As you can see from the shape here, the team is set up into two clearly defined units; attack and defense, with no traditional central midfielders bridging the two. Our defensive unit consists of two limited defenders and an anchor man in the middle. The anchor man’s job is to attempt to break up any attack before the defenders get involved and if he doesn’t, becomes a third man in the heart of the defense.
Because there are no true bridging players and the team already plays a fast and direct style, the anchor man and two central defenders are set to push the ball up the park as quick as possible or out wide. Despite only being set to support, the wing backs are still somewhat attacking. Their job is to quickly get up to the byline and pump balls in to the waiting strikers. They’ll move beyond the wide players further up the pitch to do so.
Then we have the attacking unit. In Banana Bread is Tasty, the attacking unit was two inside forwards on the wings, two advanced play makers in the RCAM and LCAM with an advanced forward up front. This didn’t work altogether too well. The two advanced play makers now reside on the wings as support. They provide creativity, hold the ball up so the wing backs can run past them and also attack. How effective they have been out there has surprised me a little.
Then we have what is really three strikers up front, however one of them is playing a little deeper in the shadow striker role. The inside forward will pick up the ball deep and run through the middle, attacking the space that the two guys hopefully create up front, or slotting a through ball to either. The partnership up front includes a Trequartista, who will get more involved in the build up and an advanced forward who will be your main goal outlet.
The philosophy of this tactic is relatively simple; We’ll just outscore the opposition. You should expect to concede goals, as this tactic isn’t about being strong defensively. Click the button below to download the tactic. [wpdm_file id=1]
Don’t know how to install new tactics in Football Manager 2013? This link will help.
Now for a snap shot of results using this tactic.