retired_lovely1

I have always had so much trouble making my own tactic on this game.... yeah you can download one that someone else has made, but it doesn't have the same satisfaction really! Nevertheless i did download some, and they worked, but i wasnt happy with that, i wanted to know WHY they worked. I set about readin topics about rule of one, two, the 5 defensive players 5 attacking, and it even tells you specifically where to place the sliders on the tactics. Not disrespecting the theories, they seem so realistic and so much time and effort must have gone into them, i admire everything about the authors, but they just didnt seem to work for me! I got fed up of this so decided to just experiment with tactics, nearly every tactic i look at emphasizes the need for a good high defensive line, but in theory in doing this, you are reducing the space for your midfielders to play, and therefore unless you have top quality players this wont work, and sometimes even fails with top quality players.

So, i set about giving myself a really deep defensive line, and would play friendlies jus experimenting with this. In relation to real life, i lose count of the amount of times i see Ferdinand with the ball for united, just strolling around, knocking it back and to with Vidic, and the same with Terry, Carvalho etc

In doing this, it draws out the forwards, which then pushes their midfield on, and there you have it....gaps. To try and use this to my advantage, this may sound stupid, but i have Knight and Davies at the back for my villa side, not the best technically so with ferdinand etc it would be even better! I set Knight and Davies as 1 & 2 playmakers, and also told them to hold up the ball. I also gave them short passing. My belief was, that having my fullbacks slightly ahead of the defenders, and an anchorman with similar mentality to the defence they would have easily 3 options at least to pass to when they decided to release the ball. Now then, according to the general rules for a successful tactic, high defensive line presses the game and puts pressure on, so scoring more goals, people often notch up defensive line when heychase the game, and a deep line often means sitting back and absorbing pressure, thus being defensive.

However, its not quite worked out like that for me, in pre season i have played 5 games so far, and have scored 15 goals, condeded not that many but that can be changed with a tweak here and there. My defenders hold onto the ball, and my fullbacks are having all the time in the world, and barry and reo coker are having a field day in the middle of the park! I added a target man of carew incase we did use the long ball, but it didn't have much effect, however i havent played mickey mouse teams, iv beat the likes of lyon and bayern munich with ease.

Try it and let me know how you get on, and i dont actually understand quite myself why this is working, it may be one off, could someone try explain why it works if it goes against the general ethics of scoring goals and winning games?

retired_meadow037

Sounds ominous but i shall give it a go with my Liverpool team and let you know how it goes

retired_meadow037

Just tried it away to Bolton, had lots of possession but a lack of chances created. How did you set your team up to get it to work?

retired_lovely1

Basically, i use a 4-1-3-2

My full backs have short farrows, and my centre mid (Matias Fernandez ) has a short farrow going to attacking mid.

With my anchorman i made sure he makes no forward runs and doesn't run with the ball, otherwise he won't be there to collect the ball from the centre halfs. My two centre midfielders either side of ferndandez have higher closing down, it works quite well because even though they are in midfield, giving them high closing down means they dont jus close down in their area, they have a larger area in which they will close down, thus helpin out the full backs!

retired_meadow037

From what I seen it looks like it could work as the opposition strikers had very little of the ball. Do you think me playing a 4-2-3-1 (with a AML, AMC & AMR) is bad then as they will be to far ahead of play?

retired_lovely1

Yeah see i might have just got lucky with instructions and positions which is working, but it depends, when you say 4-2-3-1, are the two just as centre mids, or is one an anchorman etc. I think doing it with your formation could work, like i said i have two centre halfs on short passing, so its goin to either full backs or anchorman, or in the stands if their in danger! So if you wer to do this formation, then i suppose you must alter the passing, as if people have short passing, theyre going to ignore people who aren't in their passing range, if you get me?

retired_meadow037

Yeah i've got my centre halfs on short passing with full backs on short farrows, my two CM's are both anchor's, or do you reccommend (sp?) me putting one into a more traditional CM role

retired_lovely1

hmm, give both a try, i mean it's just the base for what i hope could turn out to be a good tactic, so give it a try and let me know which one you have more success with!

retired_sfang125

Fancy uploading?

retired_mairamedina

Very interesting theory, just trying it out now, will report back with anything new.

I'll just add that I've had better success with the CB's on direct passing as opposed to short. I would have thought they'd pass it to the FB's and DM but they seem to be better off whacking it to my wingers.

Can't for the life of me score more than one goal though, haven't yet conceded on the other hand.