retired_shahzadmasih

Hello all,

I wonder if anyone can give me some tips, and before I get the usual read so and so post I already have. What I want to do is create a tactic which doesnt concede and plays short passing football from the back through the team. I like to play a flat back 4 with a defensive midfielder in front to close down all over the pitch.

Current instructions for team and defense:-
Team Instructions

Full backs

Center Back

Def Mid

I also like to play with a center midfielder and wingers. The Problem I have is that I am conceding loads and not creating chances I am very inconsitant, one game I will dominate play and have about 60% Possession and the next 30%.

Attacking players instructions:-

Wingers

Cen Mid

Strikers

Formation

So basically I want a tactic where I keep possession, dont concede and score also score goals, not to much to ask is it?


Any help would be great.

andre_t.o.

Hey mate,

I have some similar wishes for my team (Swansea). My favorite formation is 442 diamond. Flat defensive 4 with one defensive midfield who clears the balls infront of the defense.

Defending:
I like to have the 4 defenders and the DM to concentrate on defense. But the two backs and DM should also be building plays, so we can keep possesion. What I do is to slide the creative freedom slider up. What I think it means are that the player will decide what to do, so I look for players with decent decision attributes.

What I have noticed are that this tactic have problems against two types of attack. 1) fast position game with 1-2 passing though the center. 2) fast play which envolves crosses from the wingers. Typical this require that your opposition are a top team with quality players.

What I noticed are that you general want pace in defense and attack. Since fast defenders will prevent many counter attacks and you can in theory have a high defensive line. You want a high defensive line to keep the distance between the different lines (defense, midfield, attack) to be short, to give the opposition small spaces to play on.
I haven't found a perfect solution to counter great wing play. 40-50 yards diagonal passes who rip your defense apart are hard to counter. I don't see too many of these plays who leads to goal so atm. I just enjoy that concede great goals.

Attacking:
I like to play creative football, so I have a diamond midfield to keep possession by letting the one with the ball having passing options. The wingers, Attacking midfield, and attackers should all be creative players. I want the wingers to cross from byline to create chances that way. Also I like the AM to create space to create chances through the center. The attackers should be good overall players. I don't look for specialist (target man) or fast players for counter attacking style. The attackers should be Wayne Rooney/Raul types who just are great players.

To create chances from crosses I want my backs and wingers to play fast and direct. The wingers also needs to challenge opponent defending back to come the the goalline for a cross. The DM is the passing distributer who do safe passes to either side or to the AM. AM I want to create space for himself and create chances with great passes. He is on free role to roam around and high Try through balls to find wingers or attackers behind the defense.

Results:
I played this style in English 2nd division (07/08 season) and I generally dominated my games. Won the title with ease, but saw some worrying things against quality teams in cups.
In my 2nd season (08/09). I ended at 8th place, where I had many problems with cards and top quality teams who with their fast position play rip my defense apart.
Typical I create various chances from wing play and great position play through the center. I usually got over 50% ball possession. The main problem this season have been that the opponent are more effective against my tactic and second that they have quality players.

I hope this will give you some inspiration to get your team play as you like

Cheers

retired_shahzadmasih

Thanks for that!

I am playing with Newcastle at the moment which means I have great pace up front, I dont have a very pacy back line at the moment so although I would like a high defensive line I cant really risk it.

I am worried about giving my winger a direct passing style as I think this would contradict me wanting them to cross from the byline and start banging balls in from everywhere. I am also a bit confused as to how to set up my Central Defenders - do I want them to close down or do i want 1 to close down and the other to sweep up any mistakes or both to sit off attackers

retired_shahzadmasih

Also just want to know how people set up there teams in terms of mentallty, do you just set the teams mentallty or do you have a certain mentallty for each position?

andre_t.o.

One way to test your thesis about crosses from wingers are to do it for 5-10 matches and analyze your settings. I have alot of crosses from byline from my wingers, so I don't think you should worry about that. Remember to set the winger to cross often and cross from byline.

I have seen a lot chances and goals created in the space behind the central defender who close down the attacker. I haven't used much time on the central defenders, but I have set the mentality and creative freedom about the same. I set one with normal tackling and the other with hard. Again that is something you have to test over several matches to get the feeling for the settings.

andre_t.o.

Mentality do two things as I have understood it. First, it is a position slider from the [standard] position (physical position). Second, it indicate "aggression" level toward either defending or attacking (Decision making). I have set the mentality for my central defenders to very low (defending). My backs have a normal mentality since I want them to create chances (take some risk). My Defensive midfield have also a very defending mentality since I want him to make safe passes and stay aggressive when the opposition got the ball.

Wingers and AM + attackers all have various attacking mentality because they need to be creative and take risk to make chances. I haven't got forward arrows on the wingers since I know their attacking mentality will position them further up compared to their original position.

retired_shahzadmasih

Cool,

Starting to feel I need to change my formation and move my central midfielder into the attacking midfield position as he seems to close to the defensive midfield, so close that they always both try and close down the same person at the same time, leaving loads of space for the opposition to take advantage of

retired_shahzadmasih

Ok after reading near enough everything in these forums and this thread i still cant get anything to work, I getting to the stage where I am gonna give up altogether. It seems the more I read on here the less idea's I have!!!

retired_maverick8

If you have a good targetman you could try my 4-3-3 tactic for v8.01.

Shameless plug

retired_shahzadmasih

Can someone have a look at my instruction and explain to me why they are not working, just so I get a better understanding.