The ABC of Tactics

Latest update April 1, 2006

This tactical guide is an overview on what has been stated in the Hattrick rules and on several message boards (mainly Delphi Forums) in my time of playing Hattrick. I've mixed this with my own experiences and views and then posted each part of the guide on the Hattrick Forums on Delphi. Several opinions and corrections from the boards have then made their way into the text.

The purpose of the guide is to provide a foundation for understanding and mastering the tactical part of Hattrick. By tactical part I mean the part of the game where you from an actual squad and a known opponent select your best formation and tactical orders before a game. This guide is not about trading players and economy, these facets of Hattrick are covered in other guides (I'm not sure whether they are translated to English, though).

The guide consists of six parts:
Part 1: choice of team formations
Part 1b: choice of formation, contd.
Part 2a: the basics of player selection
Part 2b: team selection using key values
Part 3: Individual tactics
Part 4: Tactical settings
Appendix A: Formulas

Questions about the guide can be posted on the Hattrick Forum (preferrably) in the "The ABC of Tactics" discussion, or directly to me, user name LA-Loko in Hattrick. If you like the guide you are welcome to say so in my guestbook (in my club house) or even support my team, Lokomotiv Lund ;-).

/Robin

Part 1: choice of team formations
In this, the first of three parts, I'd like to sum up the standard team formations in Hattrick with their most important variations.

4-4-2, normal
General: This is the standard tactic that's also the one that 99% of all coaches will pick for their first game. It has the advantage that no players need special instructions, thereby you get the maximum performance from all-round type players.
Strengths: Good homogeneous defence, strong attacking wings and a good central attack.
Weaknesses: Weak midfield.
Best counter-tactic: Playing three inner midfielders and defensive wing defenders takes the edge off this tactic, and then attacks are preferrably made on the wings.

4-4-2, 3 inner midfield players
General: A variation of 4-4-2 where two position changes leaves you with three inner midfield players at the expence of one winger. I prefer moving down a forward and pushing up a winger to take his position. This tactic is a very strong defensive alternative for a coach normally using 3-5-2 och 3-4-3.
Strengths: Good homogeneous defence, strong midfield, one strong attacking wing and a good central attack.
Weaknesses: Abandons one attacking wing, not as strong a midfield as the tactics with 5 midfield players.
Best counter-tactic: Since the tactic leaves one wing you can have a weak defence here and also try attacking on this wing. Of course, a skilled opponent will make it difficult for you to guess which wing...

4-3-3, normal
General: One winger moved into the attack
Strengths: Good homogeneous defence, one strong attacking wing, very strong central attack
Weaknesses: Very weak in midfield, abandons one wing
Best counter-tactic: The opponent has a very strong central attack. Use three inner midfield players to stop them from getting so far and pack your defenders into the middle. If you can foresee what wing the opponent will abandon, use that defender in a more central position.

4-3-3, 3 inner midfield players
General: Both wingers are moved into forward position and a forward is pulled back to inner midfield.
Strengths: Good homogeneous defence, very strong central attack, fair midfield
Weaknesses: Abandons both wings
Best counter-tactic: A very central tactic, defend centrally and attack on the wings. Pack the defenders into the center of the pitch.

4-5-1, normal
General: One attacker moved into inner midfield
Strengths: Using strong inner midfield players, this is one of the most solid tactics in the defence. The number of opponent attacks are reduced with a strong midfield and the few occurring attacks are met by a strong homogeneous defence.
Weaknesses: Weak attack, especially in the center
Best counter-tactic: Against this tactic it may be wise strengthening your midfield with an offensive central defender, since the opponents central attack may be weak. It's all about trying to gain control of midfield and attacking on the wings - you'll need a lot of attacks to score.

3-5-2, symmetric/asymmetric defence
General: Symmetric: a central defender moved into midfield. Asymmetric: a wing defender moved into midfield. This is Hattrick's most common formation for a good reason, with its offensive/defensive balance and strong emphasis on midfield. It also lets the manager vary the attack and defence greatly.
Strengths: Very strong midfield and strong attack
Weaknesses: 3 defenders are bound to leave a weak spot somewhere.
Best counter-tactic: Try to attack where the opponent is weak and try to balance your defence against the opposition's attack. Many 3-5-2 coaches play with a winger towards the middle, some are kind enough to always play the same wing into the middle ;). Finally: if you succeed in beating a 3-5-2 team in midfield, the game is practically won...

5-3-2, normal
General: One winger moved into central defence.
Strengths: Very strong central defence, fair central attack.
Weaknesses: Very weak midfield, abandons one attacking wing.
Best counter-tactic: Try to gain possession using three central midfield players. Try attacking on the wings, in the center it's bound to be crowded.

5-3-2, 3 inner midfield players
General: Both wingers moved into central defence, one defender moved up into midfield.
Strengths: Very strong central defence, fair central attack, fair midfield.
Weaknesses: Abandons both wings.
Best counter-tactic: Another very central tactic, defend centrally and attack on the wings. Pack the defenders into the center of the pitch.

3-4-3, normal
General: One defender moved into forward position, the most attacking standard formation.
Strengths: Very strong attack.
Weaknesses: Weak midfield and (similarly to 3-5-2) one weak spot in defence.
Best counter-tactic: Win possession or lose the game, it's as simple as that! Your opponent is very dangerous so try to move play into his half of the pitch. Then adapt your attack according to the advice in the 3-5-2 section.

3-4-3, 3 inner midfield players
General: One defender is moved into midfield position and one winger into the attack. A very strong attacking formation. If you are superior to your opponent, this formation will guarantee a large number of goals and goalscoring opportunities (but you do lose attacking strength on one wing). You might even consider using an offensive wing defender too, to strengthen a wing attack.
Strengths: Very strong central attack and one very strong attacking wing. Strong midfield.
Weaknesses: One weak spot in defence and abandons one wing.
Best counter-tactic: Concentrate your defence on the centre and the attacking wing (if predictable). Try to attack in the weak spot. If you can't control midfield, 4 defenders would be a good idea.

5-4-1, normal
General: One attacker moved into defence.
Strengths: Rock-solid central defence
Weaknesses: Weak midfield and attack, especially the central attack.
Best counter-tactic: Like 4-5-1 it may be a good idea to use an offensive defender. Defend your wings carefully if your opponent doesn't use his wingers towards the middle. Try to win possession and attack on the wings.

5-4-1, 3 inner midfield players
General: One attacker moved into midfield and one winger into central defence. One of the strongest defensive formations in Hattrick.
Strengths: Rock solid defence, strong midfield.
Weaknesses: Weak attak, especially the central attack and the abandoned wing.
Best counter-tactic: The opponent is rather weak in his attacks. Use this to gain control over midfield, an offensive central defender has never been more appropriate. Attack on the wings and prepare for 0-0... 

Part 1b: choice of formation, cont'd.
Studying part 1a might be a good guide to selecting team formations, but there are many factors to consider. This "checklist" may be of some help:

• Experience is in reality the most governing factor when selecting a formation, resulting in many players selecting one formation and sticking to it for a number of seasons. The most imaginative managers may train up experience on two formations and alter between them and 4-4-2 variations. The experience gives an inertia that makes every formation selection a long term decision. The dependency on experience may be reduced with routine - an experienced team captain can give you the opportunity to change formations far quicker without having team confusion. 
• The coach's preference. It's your choice whether you choose to use your coach's offensive/defensive preference to balance your tactic - i.e. using attacking tactics with a defensive coach and vice versa - or to enforce your tactics - i.e. using an offensive formation with an offensively minded coach and vice versa. Balancing may be used to keep wages low in defence or attack. Enforcement may be used to get a high class attack or defence at a reasonable wage cost. 
• Your players are a classic parameter: "play the cards you're dealt" is a rule many IRL managers live by. This is not the way I would recommend you to act in Hattrick! Pick a formation and buy players that are suited for each position is a far better solution. Having specialised players fitting your formation requirements is definitely the most cost (wage) efficient. Part of the efficiency is reduced since you also need specialised (and hence a few more) reserve players, but that's a small price compared to having a number of all-round players in your squad. 
• Team attitude. When playing MOTS you will hopefully play most of the game on your opponents side of the pitch, a good reason to put more effort into offense. The opposite goes for Play It Cool. 
• The opponent's formation and tactics. Cf. the advice in part 1a.
• The opponent's squad. The opponent's formation is important, but what you really need to consider are the area grades (the midfield, right side defence etc.), where you clearly can see the weaknesses and threats of your opponent. This also includes player skills. E.g. in my latest league game I played a team with a strong midfield but with a tendency to always use the same formation (there are a lot of those in lower leagues in Sweden). They play 3-5-2 asymmetric and always attack on the same wing and abandons the same side of defence, readily available information from area grades. So I attacked on their weak side and defended their strong wing. In spite of losing possession by 57/54% (away) and having equally strong teams we won 2-0. At home it ended 5-0. 
• Home/away is similar to team attitude. Away you need to strengthen your defence and vice versa. 
• Training type is an important parameter for many managers, one reason for defence training being popular is that the 5-3-2 and 5-4-1 formations allow you to efficiently train 10 defenders at once. The has become even more compelling when the defenders got their wages reduced season 16, but an increased supply will probably also lead to lower prices. I don't select my formation considering training types, bur many managers far wiser than I do.

Since formation experience is so governing you are forced to alter between the formations you have experience of and 4-4-2, but this is enough for beating most evenly matched opponents, good luck! Hi everyone, it's time for part 2 of my tactical walkthrough. Much of what is written below may be read in the Hattrick rules, but I hope to provide some good advice even for more experienced managers...

Part 2a, the basics of player selection

Player selection must be made knowing what demands each position imposes on the player. The table below simply compiles what is stated in the rules, along with my view on player skill priorities.

One comment regarding offensive central defenders and wingers towards the middle: when selecting these individual tactics I mean that you abandon the wing and central defence in order to get a necessary reinforcement of the midfield - therefore I rank playmaking/stamina more important than the main skills of the players for those positions.

I've seen a few comments on the Swedish conference stating things like: "passable stamina is enough for an inner midfield player, it's better to train something else" which I consider plain stupidity. Why only use 70-80% of a player's capacity? Playmaking and stamina work together, a fact that most managers are aware of.

If you have all-round players that may play anywhere; man the positions that you consider the most important first, so that they are provided the best players. In the long run I think you should specialise your squad...

Form is an incredibly important parameter when selecting players. A player in excellent form performs 25-35% more than a player in inadequate form, a player in disastrous form performs 40-50% less than one in inadequate form. More on this in part 2b. Another player characteristic that's becoming more important with Hattrick 6 is experience. If two players seem equally suited for a position to you - pick the player with the most experience.

Part 2b is coming up...

Part 2b: team selection using key values

OK, so you've seen these rather inexact advice before, but it's quite boring to guess each time and to be unsure whether you really picked the right player. And what where the characteristics of that player that worked so well?

Time to introduce key values: you can once and for all decide how important you consider different skills to be, and then compare players in a straightforward manner. All you need is som basic maths.

The foundation on which key values rely is the enumeration of player skill values (and this is where you realise that solid isn't that much more than passable ;-) ). For the ambitious manager, high/low skill values also need to be considered.

The next step is to define your key values, and this is where your experience as a Hattrick manager enters. I can only tell you how I do it, and I will exemplify it showing how I assess a forward. Please note that my formulae are tested with players with inadequate-solid skills, and in this interval they work fine. I hope to be able to test on better players in the near future ;)

1. Skills, how important are they? I sum the skills of the forward below. In the formula I usually assume C1=0.25 and C2=0.75 - but you probably know better than I do. C1+C2 should be 1 for convenience.

BasicSkillValueForForward = C1*Passing + C2*Scoring

2. How does stamina affect? Here I multiply the skills with a stamina factor, since stamina nowadays affect all skills. (Tip: for inner midfield players the stamina should affect the various skills differently, for playmaking C1 should be lower and C2 higher). I usually set C1=0.95 and C2=0.01 for all skills but for playmaking.

SkillValueForForward = BasicSkillValueForForward*(C1 + C2*Stamina)

3. Consider form, it's extremely important. My proposal for a formula is on the same form as stamina consideration. Form is much more important though, so I set C1=0.5 and C2=0.1! But I may be wrong, experiment!

CurrentSkillValueForForward = SkillValueForForward*(C1 + C2*Form)

4. Consider experience. I like to use an experienced team to avoid silly defensive mistakes, but since it doesn't affect player skills directly it's certainly not compulsory to consider it a factor when selecting players. Once again the formula is on the same form as earlier formulae, and once more the importance is not that high, so I use C1=0.95 and C2=0.01.

KeyValueForForward = CurrentSkillValueForForward*(C1 + C2*Experience)

I still don't consider set pieces since I'm a bit unsure how important long shots are. Special events aren't considered either, perhaps someone has a proposal how to enter those into the equation? OK, it's time for an example from my own squad:

Most of you can already decide who is better fitted for the job of forward in the next game, but here is how you decide using the equations above.

So Patrick should play, not Li. If you like, you can translate the values back to the skill values, meaning that Patrick corresponds to a highly solid scorer/passer in inadequate form, inadequate stamina and with inadequate experience. Li on the other hand corresponds to an inadequate (close to passable) scorer/passer in inadequate form, inadequate stamina and with inadequate experience.

Part 3: Individual tactics

In the table below I sum up facts (basically directly out of the rules) and my own comments on different individual tactics. Please note that all individual tactics are made so that the player performs some percentage below his maximum if they are used, so with one exception (commented below), normal should be your default setting and all deviations from this should be motivated tactically or by the individual player's skills.

Another thing to consider is that all modifications on player skills are relative to their base values. A solid winger is more beneficial to play offensively than a weak winger. Accordingly, it's less serious to weaken an already weak skill than a passable skill. So an excellent winger with disastrous defending has everything to gain from an offensive setting.

Part 4: Tactical settings

The tactical settings have been around for some time now, and have added quite a lot to the depth of the tactical game. There are opportunities to beat an opponent with superior midfield, something that was quite difficult before the new settings...

Counter-attacks

Appendix A: Formulas

Since 20/12 2003