Mastering Football Manager 2020: Essential Tactics to Dominate Your Save and Win More Matches

Let's be honest, we've all been there. You've spent hours meticulously building your squad in Football Manager 2020, you've got that wonderkid from Argentina finally arriving in January, and then... a dubious penalty call in the 89th minute shatters your 25-game unbeaten run. You stare at the screen, a familiar sense of injustice brewing. It reminds me of that raw post-game quote from basketball player Mo Tautuaa: "I'm not gonna say much. You all saw the play. I don't agree with the call. That's the exact opposite of the right call." That feeling of helpless frustration when an external decision, real or simulated, derails your best-laid plans is a core FM experience. But here's the truth: dominating your save and consistently winning matches isn't about hoping for favorable calls from the virtual referee. It's about building a tactical system so robust that even the occasional bad break can't sink your season. Mastering Football Manager 2020, truly mastering it, means moving beyond plug-and-play tactics and understanding the engine's soul.

My first essential piece of advice might sound simple, but it's the bedrock of everything: know your squad's actual strengths, not the ones you wish they had. I made this mistake for years. I'd get a lower-league team and try to implement a high-pressing, tiki-taka style because it's what the best teams do, right? It was a disaster. You have to be a ruthless assessor. Look at those key attributes: Determination, Work Rate, Teamwork, Acceleration, Stamina. If your central defenders have Pace of 9, a high defensive line is a suicide note. I once took over a team predicted to finish 24th in the Vanarama National League. Their average Acceleration was maybe 10. So, we played a deep, compact 4-1-4-1, focused on set-pieces and direct counter-attacks. We finished 3rd and got promoted. That's not a fancy tactic; it's a logical one. The game rewards pragmatic choices more than idealistic ones, especially early in a save. Spend a good 45 minutes just analyzing every player's profile, their preferred moves, and their hidden consistency rating if you can get a staff member with good judging ability to reveal it.

Now, let's talk about the tactical creator itself. The single biggest shift in my FM success came from focusing on team and player instructions as a cohesive unit, not a collection of cool-sounding ideas. You can't just select "Be More Expressive," "Play Out Of Defence," "Much Higher Defensive Line," and "Extremely Urgent Pressing" all at once unless you have a squad of world-class athletes with 15+ in all relevant mental and physical stats. It creates massive, exploitable gaps. I prefer to start very, very simple. Maybe just three instructions total. For a control-based tactic, I might begin with "Shorter Passing," "Play Out Of Defence," and "Counter-Press." That's it. I watch the matches, often on comprehensive highlights, and I add or subtract based on what I see. Is my playmaker constantly getting closed down? I might add "Pass Into Space." Are my wingers hitting hopeful crosses to no one? I'll add "Work Ball Into Box." This iterative, observational approach is how you build a tactic that feels truly yours. It's not about downloading a magic formula; it's about understanding cause and effect within the match engine. Data is your friend here. Don't just look at the result; look at the xG map, the pass completion percentage in the final third, the number of tackles your midfield is making. If your advanced forward is getting 4.5 shots per game but only 0.8 on target, his instructions or role might be wrong.

Player roles and individual relationships are the secret sauce. A "Mezzala" in a midfield two is a liability waiting to happen; he needs a stable partner like a "Deep Lying Playmaker" on defend duty. I'm personally a huge fan of the "Inverted Winger" ahead of an "Overlapping Full-Back" on attack duty. It creates beautiful, unpredictable rotations that the AI often struggles to handle. But you have to have the right players. Putting a left-footed winger with "Cuts Inside From The Right Wing" as an IW on the right is a recipe for him constantly running into traffic. Training matters immensely, too. Don't just leave it to your assistant. If you're playing a high-press system, every player, including your striker, needs to be drilled in "Defensive Shape" and "Pressing Triggers." I dedicate at least one session a week to this. And mentoring! A strong leadership group with high Determination can improve the personalities of your entire young squad over a season or two, which has a tangible, if hidden, effect on performance in big matches.

Finally, in-game management. This is where you separate the good players from the true masters of Football Manager 2020. The AI adapts. If you're dominating possession and 1-0 up at halftime, expect the opponent to come out more aggressive. You need a plan B. I always have two additional tactics saved—usually a more defensive, counter-attacking version of my main one and a more aggressive, direct one for when I'm chasing a game. Shifting mentality from "Positive" to "Balanced" around the 70th minute when protecting a lead can be more effective than just parking the bus. And remember those frustrating calls? The Tautuaa moments? They happen. A questionable penalty, a star player getting injured in the first minute, a 35-yard wondergoal against you. The key is not to panic and rip your entire system apart. Make one or two subtle changes—a substitution, a slight mentality shift, a specific instruction to focus play down a particular flank. A resilient tactic and a calm manager can weather those storms. Over a 46-game season, your system will earn you far more points than any single moment of luck will take away. That's the real path to domination: building something so consistent that the bad calls just become minor footnotes on your way to the title.