jmruss22

It's a bit of a joke really.
My view is that SI have implemented the old superstition about 10 men being difficult to beat, but set it too high. It's now at the stage where having a player less is an advantage...unless it's your team that loses a man, in that case the opposition just demolish you. It should have been thrown in as a very random occurence with the team with 11 men nearly always having an advantage. In real life 10 men teams nearly always lose.

retired_littlejessefield

i managed to beat chelsea 3-1 while being a man down from the 20th min. is this down to my tactical prowess ? Nope because if it was i wouldnt have been 3-0 down to everton in the 14th minute four week later !

retired_chrclgry

The answer to the 10 vs 11 situation is simple.
GET YOUR FULL BACKS OFF

The trick is to look at the formation they switch to once they get that man sent off. Usually the first thing to go will be the wingers - the AI normally gets rid of these in order to play a DMC or AMC system (or sometimes just a boring old 4-4-1 with the wide midfielders not being asked to make forward runs).

Your first step should be to organise your defence to deal with their reduced attack. First, if they play an AMC then you play a DMC then play one more DC than they have FCs. So 2 FCs means 3 at the back 1 FC means 2. Because their formation has no natural width any attacks down the wings can be picked up by wing backs or ever wide midfielders.

The second step is how to break down their more defensively minded team with the men you've freed up from your backline. Where are the gaps in their defence? Are the playing a narrow back line (With 3 or even 2 at the back)? If so the normally unusable FR and FL positions can be occupied to give unmarked options in the final 3rd or the field. Is their DM line weak or unmanned? If so playing 1,2 or even 3 AMCs can give possession in a very dangerous area of the field.

Also pay attention to the above post by norwichaggy - slow the tempo and stretch the play. Another thing that will help this is disabling the Counter-Attacking option - it leads to rushed attacks when you have the option instead to build slowly and make your numbers count.

retired_dpw202

I use 3 DC, 1 DMC, 2 ML\MR, 1 AMC and 3 FC's