Football Manager 2020 Tactics: How To Play 4–4–2  The Burnley Way

In Dyche’s own words it’s 'long passes' and not 'long balls' when talking about Burnley’s passing game. ‘Verticality’, as the trendy laptop managers call it, can be super effective in FM.

Pushing the slider up to More Direct will tell your players to go back to front as quickly as possible. Another approach is to keep the team’s passing at Standard and have certain players play More Direct Passes.

When using this approach utilise the full backs and a good central passer. The full backs will send balls into the channels for the forwards or hit long diagonal balls (especially if they have Likes To Switch Ball To Other Flank as a trait). The CM can help you get your strikers or a quick winger in behind with long passes or through balls. Vision, Decisions, Technique and of course Passing attributes should be good to excellent when doing this. Think Xabi Alonso rather than Shabby Long Balls.