Kaz_1983...

Lately I found myself struggling against opposition to decide to take a more physical approach, this problem I'm having is very similar to Arsenal’s problems when they face the Bolton’s of the world. It is really starting to annoy me, I tried playing more defensive football on the counter but that has just lead to the opposition controlling the game. As has been said of many other threads, if you're playing against a team who are playing direct football on the counter, your best bet is to have your players on high closing down and not allow the opposition to get those crosses from deep into the box for their target man.

Now that's my exact problem, playing the more ' possession' approach hasn't worked because the opposition sit back and close me down at first opportunity and from looking at the way my players play on ' hard' tackling - that AI players are tackling with the same energy/urgency.

Playing the more ' defensive/counter' approach hasn't worked either, although different reasons… the first would be it seems to encourage that AI to attack more, while still tackling/closing down at the same high settings. And as I said above the way to counter ' defensive/counter' tactics are to have your players on high closing down and having your players on 'hard' tackling wouldn't hurt either.

So that leads me to question, how do you counter ' hard' tackling/physical approach from the AI, (if you're playing as a top European side - highly technical side, ala Liverpool, Milan, Madrid spring to mind)?

Kaz_1983...

I should add that this is because I'm currently having problems the team mid-table Premiership sides away from home, but I do not want this to be a thread about how to solve my current problems on having, instead rather a discussion about what changes you make to your tactics to counter hard tackling/high closing down approach from the AI.

rashidi1

Hmm haven't played Fm2007 in 2 months now so this is off the top of my head.

I have a simple approach, when faced with a team that is playing like that against me, I never play deep. By playing deep I put myself under too much pressure. Ideally in situations like this...

a. Mentality set up
DC's are on ultradefensive. One MC is on lowest notch of normal.
This is so I can use the Defensive Line/mentality tweak. It works like this...you can use dline to push up, but you want your defenders to be able to track back. The only way it works in the game for me is if my DCs are on ultra.

b. If the opposing team is closing me down heavily and not allowing me to play my football...I push up my dline..to around 12. This should make me play near or around the halfway line with my mids beginning their defense there. So set the closing down instructions accordingly, If you are using MCs CD should be around 15. If you are using a DM set it to 17 and higher.

c. You need to move the ball around, fast. So set tempo up to highest notch of normal, width to mid normal.

What this all does is :

Makes you play with the same amount of urgency, you close down aggressively, your fullbacks need to close down well so make sure they are set to around 8, DCs stand off, strikers close down high.

Remember to ensure that you have players making forward runs, no point making quick passes if they don't go forward. Now if you use a farrow MC or an AMC, get him to hold up ball if necessary if you want to get cheap freekicks.


Let me know how it goes, like I said before I haven't been doing this much lately. These are just the general principles I follow. To play a controlled possession, high intensity game you need to play in their half. Observe the extended highlights. The first clue that you get when you have the upper hand is that the highlights start from your own attacks. If the AI has the upperhand it starts with its attacks. Its the biggest clue in the game

Smac

I've often wondered about that but never taken the time to draw the correlation. Anyone else have an opinion either way r/e highlights? Would be an easy shorthand way to watch the game and keep an eye on who's dominating...

.....

To the OP: Its been suggested, albeit a bit tongue-in-cheek (I think) that one can also do something like this:

Give a player with low balance 'hold up ball' and have him repeatedly tackled by attempting to run with ball often.

I have to say that I've never tried that. What I do try to do (with some success) is overload one section of the park, usually midfield, and focus on keeping possession there with passing triangles. Kind of hard to implement in FM other than to simply have more players in midfield than the opposition, slow pace, short passing, wide pitch. I've found that it does help to overload the middle using DMCs, MCs, and maybe even an AMC rather than spreading it wide with ML, MC, MC, MC, MR for example. With players both laterally and vertically available the 'triangle passing' as counter to high-closing down does work a bit.

rashidi1

I've often wondered about that but never taken the time to draw the correlation. Anyone else have an opinion either way r/e highlights? Would be an easy shorthand way to watch the game and keep an eye on who's dominating...

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I spend way too much time testing this game

Kaz_1983...

•If you decided to use a defensive/slow tempo tactic, with the aim of shutting your opponents down in the last 20-30 minutes and hold onto your 1-2 goal advantage, you would want to see no highlights at all. If you start seeing highlights and especially if they become more frequent, in my experience to a certain extent I've found that the tactic isn't working… i.e your opponents aren't being shut down and are allowing them to take the upper hand by playing a defensive tactic that isn't being effective for the current situation.

Schit Onzermancs

Against a physical pressing system away from home, I would recommend that you play a short passing, quick, counter attacking system. In theory, this leaves your opponent closing down space only and exposing the gaps in behind them.

Against a counter-attacking system I would recommend the patient approach. Don't have your FBs on forward runs, play short, slow, possession football and attempt to break your opponent down more than anything else. I feel a lot of human managers are far too attacking at home and this is why we often concede to late goals or balls over the top.