retired_kellyk

I do score goals from counter-attacks, in fact I'm a firm believer that you don't need to choose the option to get a team to counter attack. Most of my counter attacks come from defending setpieces. In a 442 formation I do play staggered CF as well. Low at the back and high in front. Seems to work fine for me

Littell_Sam

@Rashidi

great post and a lot of good ideas. one question though, you said that you use a quickish tempo and little time wasting. how do you encourage your defenders to knock the ball about then while your forward line is rearranging, coz if they are pressing all the time, and you are playing direct passing along with a quickish tempo, I dont quite see how that would work. the defence would probably play the ball forward quickly as soon as they win it back instead of knocking it abt with the midfield right?

how much possession do you usually enjoy?

retired_mgavlick

I do score goals from counter-attacks, in fact I'm a firm believer that you don't need to choose the option to get a team to counter attack. Most of my counter attacks come from defending setpieces. In a 442 formation I do play staggered CF as well. Low at the back and high in front. Seems to work fine for me </BLOCKQUOTE>

Aye. I actually believe the term counter-attack to be counter-intuitive in the FM world. Ticking it means players will only attack if they perceive reward to heavily outweigh risk. It is not pure counter-attacking a la Man Utd of 99 vintage. It is more of a defenisve measure in FM.

retired_kellyk

@Karan

Good questions. By playing short passing, I keep possession. Having said that I have been using direct passing lately with my fullbacks and I think mentality plays a role here too. If their CF is low and their mentality is set to normal. I do not think the players will try too extravagant passes. And are more inclined to play the ball to the mids.

Having distribution to mixed helps too. That way my mids are on short passing, and things seem to work together cos there is balance in the attacking flow. The idea here is to get the fullbacks to come up to the halfway line. and then work with the mids to whip in the crosses.

My possession varies, depending on who I play with it ranges between 51%-60%

Littell_Sam

Good points. Didnt think about the mentality and the CF of the fullbacks, I think those settings combined with direct passing would result in them only attempting a good direct pass when it is on, which is probably what you see them do in your game.

when you say mixed distribution, is that the option to focus attacking play down the flanks/down the middle that you are talking about

also, do you only have your fullbacks on direct passing then? i think i read in one of your previous posts about the fullbacks, the ML, MR and AMC being on direct.

Im assuming that these settings are being used with the basic formation of a 442 diamond since you spoke of an AMC in your previous posts. Is that correct or is this with another formation?

I've been using the 442 free with Reading so far and have made a few observations similar to yours. Playing with two quick strikers on cross ball does seem to work better than big and small as Ive always had more success with Lita and Doyle up top than one of the two and Kitson. And with Sidwell playing MCa and on full forward runs, hes already scored 4 goals so far.

The other thing Ive noticed abt this game, and something that is very different from FM06, is width. When playing the likes of Arsenal, United, Chelsea, I have a tendency to play deepish and narrowish. The deepish works well but narrowish always results in these long cross field balls from deep positions playing in the wingers who are then one on one. I have since adjusted my width and now never play less than 11-12, even at say Old Trafford.

However, one problem Im having even with width on 11-12 is this. Sometimes if my fullback is pushed up, the AI plays the ball down the channle to a striker and my DC follows him, which is ok. But then my other DC moves inward leaving the other fullback to mark the other AI striker. Striker 1 crosses to striker 2 and since my fullback is much weaker in the air than my DC (who isnt really marking anyone) the striker wins the ball in the air and scores. Tried man marking but that seems completely ******* in FM07 with both my DCs perpetually running toward the same man whatever I do.

retired_kellyk

@Karan

Yeah earlier i thought of putting quite a few players on direct..but after playing through it a while I figured that the best way to do this is actually to have the MR and ML on short and the fullback on direct. Its a lot better especially if he can pass the ball well. If he can't then you're going to see a lot of attempts to find the strikers who are making runs from deep.


I am using a 442 diamond now and when I refer to mixed distribution I am referring to the option just below...Balls to Flanks..balls to left/right which you refer to.

I think the one I'm referring to is the one just after that..where you choose whether to play balls to feet, head, run onto or mixed.

When playin against really good sides the problem with keeping narrow widths is that your flanks get overrun...have your tried tight marking instead of man marking with 0 Closing down.?

Mark86

So Rashidi is the diamond working for you?

I was thinking because Blackburn have quite a few very fit players in their squad of increasing the tempo, but im worried that my team doesn't have the greatest passers of the ball on defence, and other players like Nonda, Roberts, (gamst) pederson all have passing ~13.

If i tweak the tempo up do you think i will be giving possession away more?

retired_kellyk

The diamond is working very well for me actually. Well I am using 'Pool now and they too don't have great passers at the back, and it seems to be fine with them.

I don't mind giving possession to get more attacking chances going. For example, I was playing Wigan, who took an early lead against me, so I chose to increase my D-lIne against them, knowing fully well that I was asking to concede again, but I was banging on my players to move the ball up fast to score.

As it turned I was right. The moment they scored a goal I noticed a morale boost for Wigan, who came out more after I pushed the DLine up. We went on to score 5 goals past them.

Sometimes you want to give up possession, but I think tempo at max settings may be dangerous. I have not seen it work well and haven't heard anyone say it can work well too at such high settings

retired_abelin

I have settled for the diamond as well for the time being.
I finished 1st season with West Ham in 5th position a single point behind Spurs. I also won the UEFA cup.
I'm still conceding a little more than I'm comfortable with (about 0.8), but have scored around 2.0. I'm trying to rectify this in pre-season and the signs are good.
I'm using a variation of Asmo's 5x5, pretty basic individual instructions. I'm playing wide and short/slow.
Will try and give a more detailed report on instructions when I get home.

retired_monica90

Some good discussion here.

I cetainly agree with your views on counter-attacking being counter-productive. I think selecting it is more like adopting it as a style of play than simply encouraging your players to counter attack.

I've been using global closing down thus far as opposed to low defensive closing down.