Chro

I'm having a serious problem similar to Sven's England and would appreciate help.

Background
Club: Portsmouth
Tactic: 4-4-2, ML/MR short farrows
Tempo: 7 notches
Passing: Mixed for all, short for strikers
Closing down: Low for defenders, higher for midfield
D-Line: experimented with everything and found no success

I took pompey because i saw a fabulous midfield. Pedro Mendes, Manuel Fernandes, Gary O'Neil, Sean Davis and Niko Kranjcar. With that i saw great reason to achieve more than media prediction of 17th. Brought in Freddy Adu to replace Kranjcar on the left whenever he was injured (which was basically very often).

Now ive been trying to create a 4-4-2 with pedro mendes and manuel fernandes the core of the centre midfield. With stats like that, those 2, though similar, cldnt b left out of the starting 11. I had an idea of pedro stayin deeper and spreading play like he does for pompey IRL without doing too much defensive work, while manuel, not as creative, having great technique and long shot makes him more the all action midfielder. So i wanted manuel to play simple short passes to link the attack and midfield and create space for the wingers while pedro did the more extravagant passes to the flanks. Both had decent tackling and pace, but nothing fantastic enough to make them a pure DM.

So i tried the following:
1. pedro having 2 notches lower mentality than manuel, and having long shots mixed, thru-balls mixed, crosses mixed, forward runs mixed, closing down 5 notches, passing style 8 notches.
2. manuel having 2 notches higher mentality than pedro, having long shots often, forward runs often, through balls mixed, crossing rarely, closing down 15 notches, passing style 4 notches.
3. i also experimented with having pedro as playmaker without ticking playmaker option.

The problems I observed playing against most teams (home and away) were that the opponents were overrunning my central midfield, and both MCs won few tackles and made few passes due to the ball being unable retain possession. there were slight signs of pedro passing to the flanks but that was it. manuel ran up and down but barely touched the ball.

This basically offends the all important DMC AMC combination, with the DMC having a more defensive mentality than the AMC, and the DMC never ever going up to attack while the AMC never ever tracking back to defend. I'm thinking along the lines of what Man Utd is doing currently, with carrick and scholes. Neither are strong tacklers of the ball but both help out in defence with many interceptions, and attack with scholes (pedro) doing the more extravagant balls to the flanks, while carrick (manuel) plays the simple passes to link the strikers and midfield and create space for the wings. and they retain possession in midfield so well.

Hence, would appreciate some help on successful similar MCs player instructions, especially on retaining possesion in midfield and creating spaces for my skillful wingers to put crosses in.

wwfan

The first thing is to change FWRs to rarely/often if they are in a flat 4-4-2. That way one of the tow MCs will make runs into the AMC position and the other will hold off and pick up poor clearances. You will see the difference in positional play instantly.

The MCd should have the same CD instructions as the defence (in my opinion) whereas the MCa can CD a lot. I would also have the MCd TTB often.

In terms of threading passes through to the wingers, that will related to Pass Focus and FWRs on the flanks. You could also look at increasing Pedro's passing length to direct so he hits the wings from his deeper position rather than laying balls off to the defence or the other MC, which is more likely with his current setting.

Good luck

Chro

thanks wwfan.. will give it a try!