Passing, width, and closing down

retired_fanito · 03-29-2007, 05:09 PM

I recently noticed something in my game. I was playing at home, heavily favored to win. I was playing a short, slow, narrow style and closing down on mixed (setting 11 on the bar). The score was 0-0 at half. Durring the break I increased the closing down to around 15 and started the second half. All my players became a lot more active it seemed and started creating a lot more shots and basically became more aggressive and scored 2 goals within minutes.

I'm wondering if this was really due to the change I made. It makes sense, I think. With short passing the players will come in more to get the pass and I think with the added closing down made them even more effecient. Has anyone else experienced this?

retired_sdilts · 03-29-2007, 05:25 PM

Funnily enough i play slow, short and narrow aswell, i use high closing down, press the opposition into a mistake.

retired_dinalb · 03-29-2007, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DirtyACE:
I recently noticed something in my game. I was playing at home, heavily favored to win. I was playing a short, slow, narrow style and closing down on mixed (setting 11 on the bar). The score was 0-0 at half. Durring the break I increased the closing down to around 15 and started the second half. All my players became a lot more active it seemed and started creating a lot more shots and basically became more aggressive and scored 2 goals within minutes.

I'm wondering if this was really due to the change I made. It makes sense, I think. With short passing the players will come in more to get the pass and I think with the added closing down made them even more effecient. Has anyone else experienced this?

When you are favored, the opp will play defensive and try to keep the ball, so the logical thing is to close them down.

retired_fanito · 03-29-2007, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bcm:
<BLOCKQUOTE>Originally posted by DirtyACE:
I recently noticed something in my game. I was playing at home, heavily favored to win. I was playing a short, slow, narrow style and closing down on mixed (setting 11 on the bar). The score was 0-0 at half. Durring the break I increased the closing down to around 15 and started the second half. All my players became a lot more active it seemed and started creating a lot more shots and basically became more aggressive and scored 2 goals within minutes.

I'm wondering if this was really due to the change I made. It makes sense, I think. With short passing the players will come in more to get the pass and I think with the added closing down made them even more effecient. Has anyone else experienced this?

When you are favored, the opp will play defensive and try to keep the ball, so the logical thing is to close them down. </BLOCKQUOTE>

If you're not favored though and playing short and narrow with high closing down should still have good effect because you're in a narrow formation so less space to cover. Is this a good assumption?

retired_BrownVanilla · 03-29-2007, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DirtyACE:
<BLOCKQUOTE>Originally posted by bcm:
<BLOCKQUOTE>Originally posted by DirtyACE:
I recently noticed something in my game. I was playing at home, heavily favored to win. I was playing a short, slow, narrow style and closing down on mixed (setting 11 on the bar). The score was 0-0 at half. Durring the break I increased the closing down to around 15 and started the second half. All my players became a lot more active it seemed and started creating a lot more shots and basically became more aggressive and scored 2 goals within minutes.

I'm wondering if this was really due to the change I made. It makes sense, I think. With short passing the players will come in more to get the pass and I think with the added closing down made them even more effecient. Has anyone else experienced this?

When you are favored, the opp will play defensive and try to keep the ball, so the logical thing is to close them down. </BLOCKQUOTE>

If you're not favored though and playing short and narrow with high closing down should still have good effect because you're in a narrow formation so less space to cover. Is this a good assumption? </BLOCKQUOTE>
IMO, no, just becuase your playing narrow doesn't mean there is less space to cover- if the opposition starts to play wider you will have players pulled out of position thus leaving huge gaps

also high closing down against teams who are superior is a bad idea - you may be able to keep them at bay for a while but later on the quality of the other team will tear you apart

Passing, width, and closing down

It's no use having a squad full of star players without a decent way for them to play their football.

Passing, width, and closing down