retired_hope

Hi peluk,

Thanks for taking the time to read the topic.

To answer you first point, I can't tell you why I can only give you my view.

I manage teams usually in the bottom tiers in England and try and move them up the leagues. The players I tend to have at my disposal are usually pretty good physically, but are not so good technically or mentally. Equally the opposition I face are of the same standard.

My original setup was based on several factor, from a defensive point of view I didn't want my central defenders to close down until the ball was quite close to my penalty area. The aim was to keep players between the ball carrier and the goal, as their lesser technical skills who mean they would have to achieve something very special to shoot from distance to score. If I closed down with the central defenders, who didn't have high mental skills there was always the chance that I would be beaten by the pace of the opposition strikers. I saw it as the midfields job to close down the attacking team, try to winning the ball in midfield first and then if beaten, hopefully chasing back whilst the defenders backed off.

In attack the idea was that the wingers and my physical striker whould closed down the oppositions defence, hopefully causing panic as their mental attributes would hopefully be on the low side. I also had another stiker who I would have on a lower closing down and lower mentality, but with higher forward runs and run with ball. This was an effective way for my physical striker to win the ball and flick it into the path of the forward running striker who was either not being marked or had the acceleration and pace to beat his marker from his deeper position.

This seemed to work really well, an example of which I gave earlier in this post(see Harrogate Town). The other advantage of this setup was that I could push up my defensive line to take the game to the opposition or reduce it or play deeper when defending a lead late on without having to alter the closing down settings.

The physical attributes of my team led me to play a mixed to direct style of football. This also effected how wide and deep my team tended to play. Creative Freedom was in the main rarely to early mixed.

I've recently started a new game with West Ham in the premiership. I had never played in this league before (Vauxhall Motors are not quite their yet), but I definately have change my approach slightly for playing in this league. The mental skills of the defenders means that the physical approach doesn't work as well when breaking down a defence at this level. I found more success by reducing closing down and increasing freedom for the front players. I also played short passing and therefore tend to play a higher line. If the defenders did get betan they have pace to get back and the keeper are much better when dealling with a one on one situation. My defence is still setup the same as before, although I also tightmark with my central defenders now.

I haven't noticed any problems defensively from low closing down at this level. Playing with a high defensive line means the attackers will be boxed into their own half more, so they don't actually need to close down anyone as they are positioned very close to the forwards anyway.

As I said above, like a few other people I use defensive line push up to win more of the ball in midfield or play deeper to reduce space behind the defense for attackers to run into. I feel that I can still do this with my West Ham team.

One question for you would be do you always play with a def line of 14 or do you change it in game as I do?

So to answer your second point, I don't know why this failed, although as I say my premiership experience is limited. Perhaps rashidi or crazy gra would have a better knowledge to address this.

However, your setup is another implementation of closing down. What you have suggested makes tactical sense and I can totally see how it could be effective.

Hope this addresses your points to the best of my knowledge, perhaps others can help you further.

retired_smckruit

By setting closing down and DLine, How do you set passing? I dont know well what slider bar means.
short pass(1)~long pass(20).

retired_kellyk

Peluk there could be a lot of reasons why. Personally speaking setting up a team on high closing down can work for a host of other reasons as well. Was your defensive line deep? Are you also using one mentality across the board?

Looking at your closing down instructions alone, I must say it also depends on the attributes of the players. You practice normal closing down on wingers which is largely to hold them in position, when the ball enters your half, your fullbacks come up and challenge for the ball; the moment it just enters the defensive zones the DCs get involved. So there is a fairly high level of pressing that occurs.

I would assume you are playing at a normal to high tempo to make this work as well. You have a defensive line set fairly further up the field, which also implies that your wingers and your midfielders are very involved in the game.

If your dcs have been giving high closing down instructions and you also give them tight marking, that may not work. What you should try instead is, ,man marking. Its just a thought cos I never really used it before myself.

Remember closing down is about denying space, not about the challenge. So if you have high closing down instructions, your players positioning and marking and anticipation must be good. If they aren't then you'd be vulnerable.

retired_hope

I'm sure everyone used different passing styles. Mine depend on the team and players I have.

With Harrogate for example I played Mixed(11) away and Mixed (9) at home, this was because although my players didn't have fantasic passing ability they also didn't have fantastic aerial ability either. I would set my central defenders to longer passing (Direct 16). The goalkeeper was always a tricky one. I usually set his distribution to defender collect and then left him on global passing, if a defender is being marked he will still kick it up field.

However with West Ham I play Short(6) passing at home and Mixed(8) passing away.

In general I would say if your team are good enough to play short passing then the idea situation would be to have the defenders capable of playing a high d-line as this is beneficial. If you are playing direct then a normal line best. Play deep line when you are playing long ball or are taking up a defensive posture to hold onto a lead.

Passing style is usually the place I start when determining the general tactics I will use with a specific team.