Ranking Every Tactic Available in Football Manager 26

Over the course of two seasons, I have used nearly every tactical preset in Football Manager 2026. I have gone through every tactical style, every formation and every base tactic that Sports Interactive have given us. To find out what the best ones are, what works in this game and whether every sort of tactic is viable. It has been a fun, intriguing and painful journey – to say the least. Now let me take you through a journey of all the tactical preset styles in FM26 and what happened with each one. Very big clarification before we start, don’t go off just the results, as the context is very important and some tactics were good despite what they may look like on the surface.

NOTE: I wasn’t able to do half the Catenaccio one as I had no more games left at the end of the season, and I didn’t do park the bus as really you should only be using that in very special circumstances – after my route one experience I was quite confident about what park the bus would be like as well.

Control possession

• 4-3-3 DM wide – (Watford H) 3-1 win
• 4-3-3- DM wide 4-4-2 OOP – (Hull A) 3-2 loss
• 4-3-3 DM wide 4-1-4-1 OOP – (Coventry A) 0-2 win
• 4-2-3-1 DM AM wide 4-4-2 OOP – (Ipswich A) – 3-2 loss
• 4-2-3-1 DM AM wide 4-1-4-1 OOP – (Lincoln H) – 2-3 loss
• 4-2-3-1 DM AM wide 4-3-3 OOP – (Birmingham H) – 2-1 win
• 5-2-3 DM wide 5-2-3 – (Preston A) – 1-2 win
• 5-2-3 5-2-2-1 – (Derby H) 4-0 win
• 5-2-3 4-3-3 – (Cardiff H) 2-0 win

Context: At the time I was predicted to finish 11th in the Championship, but had high morale and was battling for promotion when I started.

Verdict: When you’re the favourite, it’s a great tactic. You dominate the game and win the games you’re really expected to win. However, it feels very much like a Russell Martin tactic. Very soft defensively at times. The best was definitely the five at the back tactics with control possession – that shape seems to offset the defensive vulnerabilities of the tactic.

Gegenpressing

• 4-3-3 – (Birmingham A) 0-0 draw
• 4-3-3 4-4-2 OOP – (Leicester A) 1-1 draw
• 4-3-3 4-1-4-1 OOP – (Bristol City H) 4-2 win
• 4-2-3-1 4-4-2 OOP – (Norwich A) 3-2 loss
• 4-2-3-1 4-1-4-1 OOP – (QPR A) 0-5 win
• 4-2-3-1 4-3-3 OOP – (Oxford H) 3-2 win
• 4-2-4 4-4-2 OOP – (Blackburn A) 1-2 win
• 4-2-4 4-1-4-1 OOP – (West Brom H) – 2-1 win
• 4-2-4 5-3-2 OOP – (Charlton H) 0-0 draw

Context: Same as before

Verdict: I actually came away from this period a bit underwhelmed. You never had control of games. And whilst it often was a lot more decisive than other tactics at getting you wins, that lack of control also meant you swung the other way and didn’t get the result. Just felt a bit more unpredictable than the other high present tactics.

Tiki Taka

• 4-3-3 – (Notts Forest A) 1-1 draw
• 4-3-3 4-4-2 – (Southampton H) 2-1 win
• 4-3-3 4-1-4-1 – (Bolton A) 2-2 draw
• 4-2-3-1 4-4-2 – (Watford A) 2-0 loss
• 4-2-3-1 4-1-4-1 – (Hull H) 1-1 draw
• 4-2-3-1 4-3-3 – (Lincoln A) 0-0 draw
• 5-2-3 – (Luton H) 3-1 win
• 5-2-2-1 – (Sunderland A) 1-0 loss
• 5-2-3 4-3-3 – (Sheffield United H) 2-0 win

Context: Same as before.

Verdict: This one was not as good as control possession. I was definitely an underdog battling against the odds in a promotion battle and my feeling with tiki taka is that you need to be easily the best team for it to be effective. A lot of the time it also just completely kills the game when it comes to chances, as seen by the amount of draws. There were a lot of games in there I should have been winning and just couldn’t. Still, wasn’t completely calamitous.

Vertical tiki-taka

• 4-3-3 – (Swansea A) 2-1 loss
• 4-3-3 4-4-2 – (Preston H) 4-0 win
• 4-3-3 4-1-4-1 – (Coventry H) 1-1 draw
• 4-1-2-1-2 – (Derby A) 2-4 win
• 4-1-2-1-2 4-3-3 – (Ipswich H) 1-1 draw
• 4-1-2-1-2 4-4-2 – (Cardiff A) 0-1 win
• 4-2-3-1 4-4-2 – (Everton A) 0-2 loss
• 4-2-3-1 4-1-4-1 – (Man Utd H) 0-0 draw
• 4-2-3-1 4-3-3 – (Carlisle H) 1-0 win

Context: Same as previous three – but games against Everton and Man Utd were in the Premier League when predicted to finish 20^th

Verdict: I went into this expecting it to be exceptional, and it wasn’t a huge improvement on what happened before. There were definitely some good results, like the draw against Man Utd. But also some disappointing results. Performances improved substantially when not using 4-3-3 and using 4-1-2-1-2 and 4-2-3-1.

Wing play

• 4-2-4 4-4-2 – (Aston Villa A) 0-0 draw
• 4-2-4 4-1-4-1 – (Everton H) 3-5 loss
• 4-2-4 5-3-2 – (Sheffield United H) 3-2 win
• 4-3-3 4-3-3 – (Crystal Palace H) 0-3 loss
• 4-3-3 4-4-2 -(Newcastle A) 3-1 loss
• 4-3-3 4-1-4-1 – (Chelsea H) 0-2 loss
• 4-2-3-1 – (Liverpool A) 1-1 draw
• 4-2-3-1 – (Bournemouth H) 1-1 draw
• 4-2-3-1 4-3-3 – (Arsenal A) 0-4 loss

Context: Predicted to finish 20th in the Premier League – so the underdog in most games and morale slowly decreasing from the high levels in the Championship

Verdict: Because were the underdog, I was hoping that wing play could be surprisingly effective, but it was definitely a grind. However, even though some games it wasn’t effective, we still got some great results. Like the win vs rival Sheffield United and the draws against Villa and Liverpool. Wing play was definitely functional and the performances weren’t terrible (except vs Palace and Arsenal). If I had used this for the whole Prem season, we might have stayed up.

Route one

• 4-2-4 4-2-4 – (West Ham H) 0-2 loss
• 4-2-4 4-1-4-1 – (Man City A) 2-0 loss
• 4-2-4 5-3-2 – (Brighton H) 0-3 loss
• 4-3-3 4-3-3 – (Maidenhead A) 0-3 win
• 4-3-3 4-4-2 – West Ham A 1-1 draw
• 4-3-3 4-1-4-1 – Brentford H 2-0 win
• 5-3-2 5-3-2 – (Brighton A) 2-2 draw
• 5-3-2 5-2-1-2 – (Fulham H) 0-2 loss
• 5-3-2 4-4-2 – (Tottenham A) 3-1 loss

Context: Morale was terrible after Arsenal loss – underdog in every game except cup game

Verdict: When your morale is low, do NOT use this tactic. It was responsible for some of the worst football I have ever seen. However after a cup win and some morale boosting, it actually became more functional. The win against Brentford was brilliant. And a couple decent draws. I don’t think it was too far off wing play for functionality, just was impacted by morale and some brutal games at the start.

Fluid counter attack

• 4-3-3 – Brentford A 4-1 loss
• 4-3-3 4-4-2 – Fulham A 2-0 loss
• 4-3-3 4-1-4-1 – Tottenham H 1-0 win
• 4-2-3-1 4-4-2 – Leeds A 0-2 win
• 4-2-3-1 4-1-4-1 – Wolves H 2-2 draw
• 4-2-3-1 4-3-3 – Hull A 2-1 loss
• 5-2-1-2 – Aston Villa H 2-2 draw
• 5-2-1-1 5-2-3 – Sheffield United A 1-2 win
• 5-2-1-2 4-1-2-1-2 – Man Utd A 0-0 draw

Context: In a relegation scrap, average morale

Verdict: The results might not look pretty, but this tactic was really good for a relegation battle. There were some games we were off it, but some games we got seriously impressive wins. Spurs had won 10 games in a row and we had lost six in a row. Im very confident if we had used fluid counter attack and I could have been more reactive with positional changes then we could have stayed up with this tactic.

Direct counter attack

• 4-2-4 – Everton Home 2-3 loss
• 4-2-4 4-1-2-1-2 – CP A 1-2 win
• 4-4-2 5-3-2 – Newcastle H 0-0 draw
• 4-3-3 4-3-3 – Fulham A 2-2 draw
• 4-3-3 4-42 – Man City H 1-1 draw
• 4-3-3 4-1-4-1 – Hull H 0-1 loss
• 5-3-2 – Wolves A 0-0 draw
• 5-3-2 5-2-1-2 – Leeds H 2-2 draw
• 5-3-2 4-4-2 – Liverpool H 1-2 loss

Context: Same as before

Verdict: You know what, not as bad as I thought. It held its own in most games. If you need a draw, this is actually a viable tactic. But as for winning games, not so much. It was very defensively solid (for us) – but struggled to help me beat teams. Although some of the games were seriously hard in this period so I actually didn’t hate it.

Catenaccio

• 5-3-2 – Bournemouth A 1-1 draw
• 5-3-2 5-2-1-2 – Arsenal H 1-2 loss
• 5-3-2 4-4-2 – Chelsea A 4-0 loss

Context: Last three games of the season, needed something to stay up

Verdict: Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. My morale wasn’t great and we were terrible. So it might need testing with a more dominant team. But for a team in a relegation battle, it was nowhere near as effective as one of the others. When I lost with the other tactics, there was at least a battle. With catenaccio we got battered in every game.

MY RANKING AFTER TESTING:

1. Control possession
2. Fluid counter attack
3. Gegenpressing
4. Vertical tiki-taka
5. Wing play
6. Direct counter attack
7. TikI-Taka
8. Route One
9. Catenaccio

 

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