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Originally posted by Columnarius:
I think I feel on semi solid ground with the pre-game analysis although I'm not sure I understand why loosening up the creativity occurred to you.
The in match analysis I have no idea as to whether I did along the lines you were describing or not so would be great to point out where things went astray in either of the two attempts.
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Np's I'll try and answer it now. In the second game you did pretty much most things I would have, so you do have a grasp of what to do and not to do even though you might not think you do.
As you are Arsenal though you shouldn't be really adapting to sides at all. You should find a solid tactic set up and force the opposition to play the way you want to not the other way around. With the exception of Chelsea, Liverpool and Man U who you should probably need to set up same but just counter attack them.
I had a quick go with Arsenal yesterday in a 442 and it looked promising. I played a slow tempo, short passing game, normal mentality and a normal width. I had Fabregas as the creative player and played a defensive minded player beside him to break up play and do the stuff that would compliment Fabregas and allow him to play like he does in real life.
Also remember that we all set up differently with regard to this part of the game. Rashidi, wwfan and myself all have different takes on how we set up for playing sides and what we consider. But the end product is roughly the same between all 3 of us. So you need to find something that fits you and makes it easier for you. Try and read some of the threads by them and see if there approach is simpler to implement. If not then just try and find your own approach. But any questions and advice you need I will try and answer in any way possible if I can
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Shorey takes the free kick and it goes towards Alonso just in the box. I'm starting to think Alonso is set up as a target man. Should I go into opponent settings in order to tight mark and close down often? My DCs are already set as man marking, closing down often, tight mark so maybe I don't need to?
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Id have used opposition instructions here if all else was failing. Have him closed down all the time and forced onto weaker foot. Also make sure 1 defender is slightly deeper to pick up and flick ons he may make. Make sure his initial marker is better at heading and jumping than he is, also strenght helps too.
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So what do I know at this point? They are mostly playing direct passing as I thought. Alonso is getting a lot of passes his way, which I didn't know coming in. So I think I need to set his close down and tight marking as always.
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You should have the calibre of players that can cope with this easily. If they are playing direct there bound to give the ball away a lot. Becareful not to over commit on closing players down though or you might become stretched yourself.
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So far I've had almost zero possession, mostly knocking the ball away. My two attempts at my direct passing game was a ball that missed Hleb down the wing and one to van Persie's head, which was lost.
I decide to tell Lehman to long kick it to Adebayor and I set Alonso's close down and tight marking as always.
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If they are playing direct id have played a short passing game and limited the possession they had. Theres no question you got the players with ability to keep possession so id have utilised that more.
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Play continues. I notice that the reading FBs don't really cross into my half of the pitch. Does this mean they are not playing quite as aggressive as I thought, and that my direct passing game will suffer due to them having 4 defenders in good position?
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You need to play a quiet patient game here and force them to make errors or pick them apart. Or instruct your wingers to run at them with the ball and see if they can get in behind them or maybe cross it over them for Adebayor.
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it is now 11:05 into the match and I've had 0 shots, 42% possession 55% passes completed. They have 2 shots (1 on target). Those shots came from a long shot by Alonso, and a header by Lita off of a cross by Doyle after he dribbled around my FB.
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Long shots don't tend to bother me. If they happen frequently its normally an indication of them not being able to get through your defence, so the only way is to long shots.
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Out of the blue, a long ball to Alonso is headed by Toure over to Sagna on the right side. He passes it short to Fabregas who is in space. Fabregas turns and plays it short to Hleb. Hleb dribbles up the right wing a bit and feeds it to Adebayor, who is in space about 35 yards out. Adbeyar turns and fires a through ball, which van Persie runs onto and buries. 1-0 Arsenal.
So this wasn't my direct passing instructions at all. It was a quick series of short passes. Good result but not how I expected to get it.
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Thats the sort of things I was seeing yesterday when I played Arsenal. All my goals seemed to be well worked team goals.
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What changes do I notice after the goal? Shorey is now coming forward from the LB position. Their other FB is staying at midfield so I assume they are now on "sometimes" instead of "rarely" for forward runs.
Should I think about man marking their FB with my wingers?
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They have to be adventorous now as there chasing the game.
You can ask your wingers to track back yes as this should toghten you up at the back.
BTW - Do you have forward arrows on the wingers by any chance? If so they are probably too high up the pitch to help the defensive side of things.
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Alonso has been subbed off. Doyle is now the striking parter for Lita and Sno is the new MR. No injury or anything so I don't know why they subbed him.
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Probably a tactical change so they can play differently against you. Its quite common especially when a side is chasing a game.
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A lot of short passes are going to Lita, who has a lot of space. He's playing really deep, and neither of my DCs are going up that far. However, Gilberto is playing further up the pitch. I need to stop Lita having so much space. So I move Gilberto to DM and Fabregas to the middle of center.
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You could have kept him where he was but given him just defensive duties to do.
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A second long pass results in a Free kick near the box. I'm going to take my FB off of hard tackling and put on Medium. The central defenders are already on medium.
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Hard tackling is probably a bit too agressive at times, unless the opposition players have low bravery then its excellent.
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I'm doing NOTHING offensively. Long balls from Lehman are falling to Reading and long balls during the run of play are going out of bounds or their defense is easily dealing with it.
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Sounds like Adebayor is being isolated, you could try and make him come slightly deeper.
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I'm clearly not winning many balls in the air and this is hurting my direct style offense.
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The headers won ratio is low because you instructed Lehmann to play long balls to Adebayor. And if he isn't winning them then your giving possession away cheaply and allowing Reading time on the ball to come straight back at you.
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I decide to un-tick use target man and take Adebayor out of the target man list. I set him forward runs mixed and run with ball sometimes (like Van Persie) and turn off hold up ball. I'm going to try and see if this results in more running onto balls.
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Was he more advanced than Van Persie? I tend to prefer my targetmen set deeper so they flick it on, especially when you got a fast silky player like Persie.
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I noticed that they've dropped both central midfielders to defensive midfield and their wingers don't have forward arrows. I think they are going defensive so I might want to raise my mentality to normal or even a little aggressive.
I set it at 11 (normal) to start.
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Id have started the game like that. Id have never done defensive I always start on normal and then adjust accordingly to what I see happening in a game. Thnis is probably the sole reason you had little chances, as you've instructed your players not to venture forward much.
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I take note here that Lehman is totally ignoring my instructions to have defenders collect.
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I think its bugged actually and is on the fix list of the patch.
Linear Mode
