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After reading some of these threads, I have decided to have another crack at making my own tactics and request help for improvements.
I looked at my team with a fresh pair of eyes to start. What is my best 11? I used to download this tactic and that tactic and try to put the players there and expect results. This time its different. My players are going to tell me what I need to do.
I decided that my defence only had 3 good CB's and nice attacking FB's. I would play 4 at the back, leaving me a nice CB to cover injuries etc.
Midfield - Pedersen is a star, Bentley hit and miss, Savage a legend and Steven Reid can run all day. This is my 4. I would like to have used Tugay, who technically is wonderful, but is aging and I want a sturdy, combative midfield.
Strikers - Well McCarthy is good, and Derbyshire will come on but Nonda is strong and powerful. I decide to play Nonda as the holding man and play McCarthy as the striker.
So, I end up with 4-4-2. Novel eh?
I tell my ass man to do the friendlies, the team talks and anything else I cant be bothered with.
Team instructions. I looked at the West Ham thread and looked at Cleons setup. It was direct, quite wide, defensive and countered. Just what I wanted as I knew Blackburn were a top/mid table team. I wont beat everyone on quality, so have to do it on workrate/organisation.
Up next, player instructions. I knew what I wanted was a strong defence. Something I could rely on when making a tactic to minimise the goals conceded. I again followed the roles of Cleon in his West Ham thread with Hammer1000 and assigned the CB's and FB's as he has done.
I set the left hand midfielder as my more defensive mid, the Robbie Savage type.
Slightly more attacking mid
My target man type bloke
Finally, my striker
You may now be asking "where are your wingers instructions?". Ha I say, I wonder where to. Only after all these games and wondering where I lost my way against Chelsea despite being 2-0 up at half time, I discover I have not done anything with the wingers. Oh joy.
Anyway, the results so far
Was looking so sweet until the second half at the bridge. Anyway, Cleon has the PKM and besides telling me my wingers were not in the game, is going to tell me what else I did wrong!
First thing I noticed as soon as you kicked off, is you seem to be wide especially the space bweteen defender. Whats your width setting? Chelsea should exploit this well especially seeing as they have lace upfront. I only played 15 seconds too hehe
You just explained about the wingers, but when you do give them settings id get them to close down high up the pitch and see how that goes.
None of your MC's seem to be breaking play up as of yet. Its still early stages but could become a problem if they dont start breaking it up soon. Is it just me or do Chelsea look dangerous every time they get the ball? I'm just waiting for them to score, I can sense its coming.
When your defending a freekick, throw-in, corner etc and the ball is cleared you not got anyone to pick the ball up. Your strikers are too far up the pitch to get the ball. What I do is keep one of my DMC's or MC's in the middle, then when the ball is cleared they should be in possession to either pick the ball up or put them under pressure before they play the ball straight back at you.
The back 4 and the midfield are playing as a unit, yet the strikers seem to be a different unit. They just seem too high up and seperate from the rest of the side.
Chelsea are just playing ball after ball stright throuhg the centre of your midfield. Shevchenko just nearly scored, a second earlier on his run and he would have. Whats your d-line set on?
Aye the strikers are definetly isolated at times, Nonda just got the ball but had noone in support so hit a ball across field and wasted possession.
The possession you are loosing between the middle and strikers is worrying, you just cannot get a grip on the game due to this. As soon as you get possession you give it away in the final third. I think this is a isolation problem though that I mentioned earlier on.
How the hell are you winning 2-0? You are riding your luck here I like it But seriously you could easily be 3-0 down here.
Andre Ooijer doesn't complete many passes, maybe something for you to look at. Same with Bernard Berner, there hitting them far too long in this game aiming for the strikers.
Did you make any chances at half time? Chelsea look less lively now and seem to be struggling. They hardly created any chances first 20 mins of second half. Although I still got a feeling there gonna go away with all 3 points due to how they started.
Nonda was useless all game I felt, he just didn't do anything except give Chelsea the ball back.
Nothing else I can really say that I haven't already
Having watched the PKM myself, I thought I would step in and give a second opinion on things. Anyway, the major problem with the tactic, is something I like to call 'the flow problem'. By this I mean, the game does not flow. Reasons for this, is because of the gap in your midfield and strikers. You defenders and midfielders are working as unit, so there is limited keeping hold of the ball going on, and limited chances been made.
Now, there are a few reasons for this. Starting at the back, its not a fantastic idea to play deep in the first place, something worth reading about it is this:
'Deep: Your defensive line will sit very back. They will not venture forward. Works well when against a pacey attack. Very true, but you will also be sat very deep so you are inviting a lot of pressure. Also by having the defensive line deep you might create a big gap in-between the defence and midfield, if this happens you will leave your opponents a lot of space to play in and the AI will quickly exploit this. If you have very slow and old defenders then having the line deep may help them from running about much. But they will have a lot of defending to do so need very high teamwork, work rate, concentration and tackling.
Normal: Your back line will play in the middle of their own area. They won’t push up or stay to far back. I would recommend everyone to use this one when first creating a tactic. And then once you’re in a game and have the player instructions you want to use, and then experiment if you need to push it further up or further back. I always use this as the base and vary rarely go and deeper than normal as I am not one for soaking up pressure when there is no real need. This also provides a good base for playing counter attacking football without any real problems as there would be sat any deeper.'
Hence the reason you should go for a normal back line, as you were inviting unwanted pressure, and it always looked to me as if the midfielders felt obliged to drop back and help, thus creating that gap between them and the strikers.
Now, both goals sort of came from long ball and making the most of a Cheldea break, this was because you are playing counter attack with a good tempo to match, and to be honest, the tempo never looked a problem for me. However I put it on extended highlights, and was very disappointed by the amount of chances, been created.
It might be a good idea, to play with Nonda as a target man, and for him to hold the ball up for this liked of Bently, Reid, Pederson to come on to, and maybe have Savage back to break up the counter. So for this simply designate a target man in team instructions.
Hope this on top of what Cleon has said could help you, any help in the future mate just ask. I need the practice. Also Cleon, keep firing them my way, cheers.
Right, so I just drop the mentality of the strikers a little and push the d-line up a bit? I wanted to play a countering formation so I could match the top teams in a game, not to "try and beat them at their own game" of attacking football.
Originally posted by CelticWiseman:
Right, so I just drop the mentality of the strikers a little and push the d-line up a bit? I wanted to play a countering formation so I could match the top teams in a game, not to "try and beat them at their own game" of attacking football.
If thats the case then you want players on defensive/normal mentalities and noone on attacking. You want a deepish d-line or the 2 central defenders on very low mentality to compensate. And you need the mentalites to be simliara cross the full team, so you can break as a unit and not 2 seperate ones.
Think I know somewhere I was going wrong, putting defenders on defensive mentality, mids on normal and attackers on attacking. These must create the gaps you talk about then. Duh!
Originally posted by CelticWiseman:
Think I know somewhere I was going wrong, putting defenders on defensive mentality, mids on normal and attackers on attacking. These must create the gaps you talk about then. Duh!
It stops you acting as a unit yes if the mentalities differ so much through out the team. So if you want a team who play as 1, you just need simliar mentalities really.
What team mentality was you using? I tend to use either first notch of normal or 2 notches from the end of defensive for a counter attacking tactic. Just my personal preference though
Originally posted by Cleon:
What team mentality was you using? I tend to use either first notch of normal or 2 notches from the end of defensive for a counter attacking tactic. Just my personal preference though
Originally posted by CelticWiseman:
<BLOCKQUOTE>Originally posted by Cleon:
What team mentality was you using? I tend to use either first notch of normal or 2 notches from the end of defensive for a counter attacking tactic. Just my personal preference though
There is a screenshot in the opening post mate! </BLOCKQUOTE>
How could I forget I added the bleeding things for you
Tactical Formation and Improvements 
But seriously you could easily be 3-0 down here.
Linear Mode
