retired_sarah002

Hi people,

I'm facing more and more AI teams coming to me with their 4-3-1-2 with sarrows on the strikers, and it seems to be a tactic against which I really struggle.

So far I have had some success with tightly man-marking the strikers with my fullbacks, and tightly man marking the AMC with one of my CB (letting the other one acting as a sweeper) but each time I was on the verge of defeat or draw.

Do you have some ideas I could try to use against this tactic ?

Thanks

retired_autumn

If you can, play with a DMC parked in front of your back 4, and have him specifically man mark the opp player playing in the AMC position. (Note: Since the Opp team might move its players around during the match, make sure you pay attention to where the AMC player is throughout the game on the opponent's team formation. If the player playing AMC switches to MC (or somewhere else), and the MC goes forward to AMC, your DMC will probably continue marking the player that has moved, leaving the new AMC unmarked and dangerous. So, for example, let's say that Ronaldinho is playing AMC, and Deco is an MC. You man mark Ronaldinho with your DMC, and if he switches positions with Deco later in the match, go to your tactics and make sure your DMC is now specifically marking Deco instead of staying on Ronaldinho.) Assuming your DMC is pretty good at his job, you can effectively neutralize the AMC pretty easily this way. Another alternative, if you don't have a DMC, or don't want to use one, is to put a diagonal barrow on one of your MCs, so that he comes back to the DMC position when the opp team has the ball, and contests the space that the opp AMC is patrolling. It's probably not as good as using a DMC, and it might make your midfield play a little unbalanced, depending on your other settings, but it shouldn't be terrible.

As for your defenders, the sarrows on the forwards seem designed to get your DCs out of position, so try not to make it easy for them to do so. The tight marking + zone marking setting might be your best bet for your DCs, with your DBs on zonal marking and slightly higher than normal closing down. I wouldn't recommend committing your DBs to man marking the opp strikers unless you don't have to worry about opp wingers coming forward for whatever reason. If they are involved, then your DBs will have a problem trying to get after the wingers while staying close to the strikers they're man marking. This would probably cause you problems.

retired_sarah002

Thanks for your reply

My main problem with setting my DMC to man mark their AMC is that my DMC is supposed to cover the front of my defence (being the only real defensive midfielder in my tactic) and he's also supposed to be the guy launching my attacks. I fear that setting him to man mark the AMC will neutralize their offensive force but prevent me from attacking.

I'll give it a go, though. Thanks

retired_autumn

Yeah, I just read your other thread and realized this might be a problem. Your DMC won't be able to operate in a great deal of space if he's always around the opp AMC, but it might not be a killer. The opp AMC may not aggressively close down, so your DMC may still gain some breathing space after you win back possession. But you'd be putting a lot of responsibility onto one player.

Alternatively, since you already play with a DMC, you're already putting a body in the space the AMC would be roaming around in. That might be good enough for what you need, so you might not have to ask the DMC to specifically man mark the AMC. One of the problems you might find if your DCs get dragged out of position by a sarrowed forward is that it opens up space for the AMC to run forward and get in the area that your DCs have vacated. But if your DCs hold their position and zone mark, that should cut down on the problem a bit. That said, if you see the AMC getting into the box a lot and giving the opp team lots of chances with unbalanced numbers (2 strikers and a AMC vs. your two DCs) you probably need to bite the bullet and consider man marking with the DMC.

Or you can ignore what the opp team is doing and just try to outscore him. Sometimes that's easier than trying to shut down what he's trying to do.