Tactical dials

📐 On top of formation and mentality, ManageFC exposes four continuous tactical dials you set before every match. Each is a 1-10 slider; a dial left at 5 is neutral. Your dials are saved with your tactics and apply to every match until you change them. A high-press, high-tempo, narrow team is a coherent identity; a low-press, low-tempo, wide team is a different one.

The four dials: Pressing intensity (how aggressively your team closes down out of possession); Tempo (how fast your team moves the ball when in possession); Width (how wide your shape sits); Defensive line (how high your back four sits).

🔎 The dials reward coherence more than extremity. A high defensive line with low pressing is the classic trap: the back four steps up while nobody pressures the ball, and every through-ball becomes a chance — raise pressing before you raise the line. High tempo with low width funnels everything through the middle at speed; add width before you add tempo. And change one dial at a time: give each adjustment three or four matches before you judge it, because one fixture tells you almost nothing.

📊 What the dials actually do. The engine turns them into a single force multiplier, point by point, and only in the matchups below. A high defensive line (6–10) gains 0.6% per point against possession sides but loses 0.8% per point against counter-attacking sides; a deep line (1–4) gains 0.5% per point against counter-attacking sides and loses 0.3% per point against possession. High pressing (6–10) gains 0.5% per point against possession sides — but costs 0.4% per point if your XI averages under 60 stamina. Tempo above 6 pays 0.4% per point only in vertical or high-pressing styles; tempo below 5 pays 0.3% per point in a possession style. Width above 5 pays 0.4% per point in a 4-4-2 or 3-5-2; width below 5 pays 0.3% per point in a 4-3-3 or 5-3-2.

⚖️ Two things follow from that. First, the whole dial package is clamped between 0.85× and 1.20× — the dials can cost you up to 15% or win you up to 20%, never more, so they amplify a good team rather than replace one. Second, a dial moved outside the pairings above changes nothing at all in the engine: a high line against a long-ball side is neither bonus nor penalty. Set dials with the opponent in mind, not as a personality statement.