The Vikond

I manage to won with Real Betis 2 times in a row CL and La Liga for my first 3 seasons. I found that for teams like that is good to play with 1 fast forward and 5 midfielders. At home and against weaker teams I played slow, wide and semi-attackiung football. Against top teams I playd deeper,with counters on, slower, with 3 defensive minded midfilders and 2 offesive midfilders and a lonely stricker and manage to destroy the top teams easily...may be that was becouse Sobis scores really a lot and he is the perfect lonely striker.

ucant

i was playing with CElta following your advices and there's no results:
mentality - deffensive (5)
creativity - normal (10)
passing - direct (14)
tempo - quick (14)
field - narrow (5)
prsesing - often (16)
yime wasting - mixed (10)
defensive line - deep (5)
tacling - hard

tight marking, offside trap and counter attack

they only know how to score at own net (4 goals in 9 matches). I´m playin at spanish second division, i've got the best team and the table:

9th 4W 3D 3L 12F 12A 15pts

can you give an advice?

kolobok

Slow down tempo!!! No midtable team is really able to play quick! Your players don't have time to make a decision. With direct passing it means they simply shoot ball upfront.

Defensive line deep and offside trap??? How is that supposed to work?

Time wasting - rarely! They will spare some time at the end anyway, but rarely make stupid things.

Mentality - closer to normal, or at least set individual (use ROT or something like this).

Tight marking and closing down often... Not sure it will work either. It's just 2 different approaches to defense. Btw, your DCs also close down often?

So here how approximately I would set it up, assuming Celta is one of the best teams in the league.

mentality - normal (8-10)
creativity - normal (10)
passing - short-mixed (7-9)
tempo - slow-mixed (6-9)
field - narrow-normal (7-9)
prsesing - often (16)
yime wasting - rarely (2)
defensive line - normal (8-10)
tacling - mixed

Individual mentalities:
DCs - 7, FBs - team, def MC - team, creative MC - 12
Wingers - 11, ST1 - 14, ST2 -16

No tight marking, DCs close down rarely, but you could put them on man marking instead of zonal. Ask wingers to cross ball often, and all players except for STs try through ball often. Focus passing down both flanks. No offside trap, counter attack on.

Then, if you are playing at home and clear favorite, you can play wider (14-15), team mentality 10 and def. line 10. If you are away and play against stronger or similar team - play narrow (7-8) with team mentality 7-8 and DL 7-8.

That's approximate setup. Individual instructions can vary depending on your players. I find it usefull to give some players free role (one of the MCs and/or wingers), but only if they are good at team work, creativity and decision. Some other things (run with ball, forward runs, etc.) may vary as well.

aston_martin

First of all, don't play a deep defensive line and offside trap, the two completely contradict each other.

aston_martin

*good pacey wingers.

aston_martin

*sorry accidentally pressed post. What Kolobok said is good advice.

I find the key to making a lower league or mid-table side successful is to get them as organized and defensively solid as possible, while still having good outlets, so get a couple of good pacy wingers and a decent ST or 2 in (if you already do have these types of players then great)

If you are the better team you will be wanting to press the opposition so close down a lot. However should you need to defend, drop closing down, mentality, defensive line and width( don't go too narrow though.

Always have alternate ways of playing (Same formation, just different tactical set-up) to fit different situations.

Following these rules has made me successful with mid-table and lower league teams.

Bob

maybe just push up your defensive line!