Hank Scorpio

There is some excellent advice on these forums but one thing nearly all the 'guides' mention is - 'concentrate on the scout reports, this will often give you hints about what to do'

Yet not one guide i've come across actually goes into depth about what to do on each aspect of the report. Yeah sure there are some hidden gems, such as man marking a top rated striker, and using a defensive line if they have a fast pace attack, but how do you counter possesion football or a strong midfield that works well as a unit?

There a lots of other examples, just thought it would be a good idea for a discussion?

I'm sure its all second nature to some people, but if your like me I really struggle with finding the correct counter.

tomescan

I think I've had a good idea regarding this:

How about people post up images of the different scout reports encountered and then we all debate them and come up with the best plan to counteract each different one?

We could also add the 2 other relevant pieces of information:

1) Home or Away
2) Odds

What do you reckon?

boingboing

Any team I face where my scout says ' There Midfield work hard for each other, or even if they say 'They like to get the ball down and play it' .

I always put closing down to 4, as I beleive if your players are chasing the ball for 90 minutes the opposition will just quick pass the ball around you. With closing down of 4 I beleive you limit there midfield options. I also play direct when using low closing down.

tomescan

Let me get the ball rolling so:



Away
Odds: 6/4 Fav

boingboing

I would Play about 15 team mentality, closing down on 4 , width on 12 , time wasting 10 and defense line about 6.

I would also tight mark , hard tackle , and weaker foot kenny lunt.

If I was to go 1-0 up. I would instantly turn my mentalitys down and counter attack at least for 10 mins ( seems to eliminate instant replys).

Hank Scorpio

Excellent stuff, just what I was hoping for. This will really help a lot of people :thup:

I'll post some scout reports soon, although probably tomorrow now, im knackered! Thanks so far though.

Kez-Man

here's a trip thru a game I'm about to play ...

Aston Villa play a efensive 4-4-2 formation dand often look to draw the opposition onto them before attempting a counter attack.

Terim likes his teams to play possesion football and Aston Villa will look to get the ball down and play it . Their midfield are good on the ball and can create chances. Finally, it will be important to defend deep or use fast defenders as their attacking pace may cause problems.

Willis believes that a potential threat to our defence will be the pace of Luke Moore.


Neutral Site, odds Arsenal 4-6(fav) Aston Villa 7-2 (English FA Cup Final).

Weather : Dry 25C <--- you must pay attention to the weather as well as the scouting report. Short passing and being too wide from each other is bad in bad weather.



For this game I will man mark Luke Moore, play a fairly attacking formation (because they say they will counter attack) with slow pace and short passing (because I want to keep possesion and not get countered easily, plus it's dry so it'll be good for short passing).

Their midifield will get down and play it = short passing. I will match them as I feel i'm bette. I will back off closing down slightly as their midfield are good on the ball. I'll move my d-line back a bit to compensate for their attacking pace.

[B}In Game [/B]: They actually came a bit more attacking with the 4-4-2 short farrows so I backed off a little on the mentality as the first 10 mins it was all them. I scored immediatelly following the tweak. Villa got me back before I could tweak again.

They went to 4-4-2 Long farrows at 1-1 after their goal and I scored again while waiting for the tactic instructions.

At 2-1 I gave side arrows to my forwards , barrows to my fullbacks and tightened my width to the first notch of narrow and lowered my mentalities to even more defensive. I added always always and hard to opposition instructions on their wingers and full backs. No chances for anyone til halftime.

Weather has become wet which I didn't notice so I am going to go direct passing and quicken the tempo a bit in the 2nd half.

They score in the 50th, 2-2. I narrow down after this and lower my pace back to normal. i score immediatelly ,3-2. They score lighning quick, 3-3. I decided to drop my mentality down to defensive and click counter attack and subbed in a more defensive left winger.

Aston then switches to short farrow 442 again and I score immediatelly , they go back to long farrows. 86th minute I change passing to long and turn up time wasting to the max. Also i increase closing down a bit and tackling is set to hard. They switch to 4-2-4 . I put instructions for their FR and FL as always always and hard. I give my wingers barrows now too and my amc and dmc as well.They get no more chances and we win.


End Result 4-3. They outshot me 20-10 ,outpossesed me 52-48, outheaded me 69-44 and outpassed me 66-64 but i clung on ..that was a tough one.

any comments or questions appriciated.

tomescan

Boingboing

Gave your suggestions a go and came out of the match with a credible draw after going 1-0 down and having a goal controversially disallowed. Reckon your closing down idea is spot on. Here are the match stats if anyone cares to see:

tomescan

The only suggestions I have Kez-Man is that at 2-1 up when they starting coming at you all guns blazing and you went defensive, click counter attack, go direct and up the tempo and catch them on the break but im not sure if that would have been completely successful..With the pace arsenal have up front you could have caught them.

tomescan

So here is my next report, a bit trickier me thinks maybe:



Away
Odds: 9/2
Weather: Dry