[retired_anitarobinson]

Originally posted by rashidi1:
To add on...

Width is an important component in playing well. Having too little or too much can be counterproductive. If you are playing against a massed defense..you need to do several things:-

1. Increase width and make sure you get a quality crossmaker in your side.

2. Stretch the defense, you can do this by sarrowing the strikers and telling them to make RWB and cross ball..this adds another dimension to attacking play.

3. Mass defenses can be notorious. More often than not you'll dominate possession but lose because you have parked yourself in their half leaving yourself open to counterattacks.

Personally in these kind of matches I hate playing with any formation with a flat back 4. My personal favourite is having 3 defenders and 1 DMC in front of them shaped like a diamond. When playing with 3 man at the back the odds are you will take care of quick breaks. The problem is protecting the flanks from wingers. This you do by making sure they dont' have much time on the ball.

This can be done by getting your forwards to harrass the defenders early. Or you can also tightmark the wingers with your wingers.

Funny about the sweeper (which is what i read the 3 at the back to be) if the AI is using a quick defensive 4-3-3 i pull 1 CB back to the sweeper position and keep the FB's where they are, so i have a sweeper/stopper situation going on.

Any tips on getting at them when you have 1 up front? (bluntblade style formation, different settings)

[retired_FaultyFate]

Hi,

I have a couple problems I couldn't find solution yet.

A couple words about my tactic. I (Sampdoria) play 442 diamond. I adopt a counter attack style. The mentalities settings are some combination of WWFAN, Cleon, others here and my own thoughts (I am not at home, so cannot give the exact details). I vary tempo, width, and passing a little bit from game to game (depending on weather, players available, opposition, etc.). I am in my third season now, and after 22 games I have scored 38 goals (more than any team in Serie A) and allowed 18 (too many, I think, but 7 of them in just two games where I made tactical mistakes in the begining and went to extremely attacking settings, making things worse).

Problems.

First, at least every other game I concede a goal from distance (I allowed 10 such goals). With otherwise solid defense and a good goalie (Marcelo Grohe (sp), I am in the third season, so he has developed pretty well) it is a little bit annoying. I analyze the opposition and mark tightly AM's with good long shot stats, but there always happen to be someone else (often DC or FB) who happen to score. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Second, generally I play better away than at home. The funny thing that if I am at home and play against strong team, my defensive counter-attacking setup looks like I am playing attacking football (I control the ball, create chances, receive comments like "Sampdoria have hardly given the opponent a sniff", etc.). On the other hand, if I switch to more attacking tactic, everything disappears, no matter which team i play against. It is not that I am loosing often, but I don't like the style.

Third, in my other games (i played Premiership with Newcastle, Rusiian with Zenith, Spain with Celta) I had one-one chances, breaks, etc almost in every game. In Italy I have not had one since the first season (ok, may be a few, but I don't remember seeing it for while). I know Italian style implies a good defence, but with a good strikers (Johnson, Higuain (sp), Foti) and counter attack I would expect to see at least some.

Thanks.

Btw, i have tried a tactic with three back line (SW and two CD's) and it seems work well at least on defence side (though I played only 6-7 games with this tactic, so too early to jump to definite conclusuion). I will post more details later, when i have time.