Clem

Can anyone explain what the counter-attacking feature actually does?
I was wondering if you switch counter-attack on and set your teams passing to short and slow will they use the short and slow style for normal attacks and then suddenly switch to a quick and direct style if the counter is on or does it maybe overwrite the team mentality in a way by not letting players go forward unless the counter is on? Or both? Or do I need to have direct passing and a quick tempo for it to work although this seems to give the ball away more often.

steves_smith

The aim of this type of football is to catch the opponent on the "break". When they give away possession in midfield or attack, where midfield is the most dangerous, defensive players will tend to be further up the field than usual to help the attack, and may not be able to quickly adjust to a defensive mindset. Counter-attacking football may involve leaving one or two strikers near the half-way line in the hope that a through ball can be played to catch the opponent off guard. This tends to go hand-in-hand with the long through ball tactic explained above.

In other cases, defenders and midfielders may join in the counter-attack, trying to outnumber or otherwise overtake the opposition by quick and intelligent movement and fast passes. Speed is an important factor both in offense and defense, as the probability of scoring decreases sharply when the opponent has managed to organize their defense.

Teams playing successful counter-attacking football will try particularly hard to dispossess the opponent's midfielders, and a measure to prevent this is to play long balls from the defenders to the attackers, temporarily omitting the midfield players.

kolobok

And where is this come from???
Team playing real counter-attacking football will try invite to its half as many opposition players as possible. If you try to play counter-attacking football, there is no reason to press any opposition player up to certain point (somwhere between your area and center line), so all your players (except 1 or 2 ST) would drop deep and wait. Their goal is interception, forcing opposition to make risky passes, etc. So if opposition plays long ball to forwards, the opposition can prevent some counter attacks but have almost zero chance to score. Moreover, it gives you excellent chance for interception. A better way to counter counter-attacking team irl is to play relatively slow but very wide, making sure that at least two defenders stay back all the time.

Ok, back to the topic starrter's question. Basically counter attack feature (box) implies that whenever team has a chance to break it will try to use it and organize fast attack. It works just fine with slow-short combination, but you would have to accept consequences - your team will create less chances, though they will be of better quality. In FM counter attack works approximately like this: intercept the ball - organize counter attack either immediately (quick-direct) or if you think you have a good chance for a break (slow-short). If you play slow-short and your player does not see a good chance for a break he will just start usual attack.

Hammers-Mad

I use a 4-1-4-1 counter attack against teams that are stronger.

I have beaten Chelsea 4-1 and Barcelona also 4-1 with my humble West Ham side.

4 Defenders (yes I have got Breno and Ignashevich) with a defensive midfielder playing in front of the defence.
I then have 4 midfielders,the two centre ones make runs into the box to support the lone striker whilst the two wingers makes runs into the centre (final third of the pitch) for extra support.

Delgado

Hi "Hammers-Mad"! Can you make available your tactic? Sorry bad english

dean66683

yea hammers-mad post the tact, sounds like the tactic iv been looking for, and it works! lol.