Wingers + Cross to far post : the way to go in FM11.1 ?

[S!lver]

Hi guys !

First of all, sorry for my poor english, I'll try to be as much clear as possible.

I noticed, just like all of you, that crosses in the 11.1 patch are a little bit weird. Probably too much efficients. So I decided to try something :

-> playing a wide enough formation to stretch the defense, and trying to get 3 guys minimum in the box to catch the crosses.

But for the test, I really need a top team, with world star players to see if it can actually work, so I decided to try it with Real Madrid.

Some screenshots :

Formation

http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/13507224052509_realmadridformation.jpg

League Table

http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/17244089808561_realmadridclassement.jpg

Team stats

http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/16444788316704_realmadridequipe.jpg

Fixture

http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/6580312892901_realmadridresultat.jpg

The draw @ Levante

http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/13746814611057_realmadridvslevante.jpg

My point is not to share a tactic here, but to talk about the crosses. And of course, the screenshots are here to show that it can be an efficient way to play in FM, and that's pretty cool to see imo.

And I didn't do anything regarding set pieces, or defensive tweaks for this particular test, just the offensive part to match what I wanted to see, +/-. I'm not 100% satisfied at the moment, but there are a lot of things to try before giving up ^^.

Note that results are against much weaker teams in general, except the Man Utd game, but I've been lucky to win that one (thank you Iker !). So they are not that much revelant.

Here are the main settings :

Both of my wingers are asked to hug the line, and crossing to far post, cross set to 'often'.

Both of my strikers are asked to run in the middle, and crossing to far post, cross set to 'often'.

Both of my wingbacks are asked to cross from deep, crossing to far post, cross set to 'mixed'.

Both the CM's are asked to cross from deep, crossig to far post, cross set to mixed.

I also decided to focus passing down both flanks to maximize the effectiveness of my wingers

I didn't push the tests further for the moment, but there is definitively something to think about that.

I'll try to elaborate this post when the tests will be more advanced

[timers]

What do you mean with your strikers that they are asked to run in the middle?

[Ernest166]

What do you mean with your strikers that they are asked to run in the middle?

via the prefered moves i guess.

[S!lver]

No, not the prefered moves.

I can't put my game in english, but this is this :

http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/11793015740484_blabla.jpg

So, in the width play selection, you have :

Normal

play on the side (hug the line ?)

move from the side to the middle <- This one

move from the middle to the side

Hope it's clear ^^

[el sid]

No, not the prefered moves.

I can't put my game in english, but this is this :

http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/11793015740484_blabla.jpg

So, in the width play selection, you have :

Normal

play on the side (hug the line ?)

move from the side to the middle <- This one

move from the middle to the side

Hope it's clear ^^

Cut inside ?

[patheticq]

So what you mean by this is that you did score most of your goals with crossers? If so its kinda interesting yes...

[Flohrinho]

I don't know why but with 4-2-3-1 it seams to be impossible to score from a cross.

But I will try some of the ideas you posted here and see if I can improve my goal scoring from crosses.

[aaannndddiii]

Despite AI's dominance of far post crosses I actually got a lot of goals from low near-post-centerish crosses from either deep or byline.

Probably because I don't have a tall player up front.

[S!lver]

@ el sid : Yes this is it, cut inside. I'm trying various things right now to see if it can be improved.

@ parthetiq : Yes, around 75% of my goals come from a wing play, deep cross from my FB's, and sometimes from one of the MC's playing between the lines

@ Florinho : Does your AMC is upfront when the cross occurs ?

@ aaannndddiii : Well, this is what i'm working on atm. Despite aiming far post + playing wide + making my wingers hug the line, they tends to come closer than i'd like to the strikers. Usually, this is not a heading that finishes the action, but a tackling of the strikers/opposite winger to push the ball in the empty space, where the keeper isn't; even if it helps a lot to have both strikers and wingers with heading capacities.

EDIT :

Here is a screenshot showing what usually happens :

http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/10814079843864_cross1.jpg

http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/9304806496293_cross2.jpg

Another one :

http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/16746585034014_cross3.jpg

[aaannndddiii]

What I'm doing currently is setting my wingers who cut inside but sometimes go to the touchline and deliver a low, strong near post cross where usually either my midfielder or striker tackle to tap it in.

Meanwhile my wingbacks - similar to yours - deliver a curling, far post crosses where usually my wingers ends up tapping an easy goal.

What I'm loving is that now wingplays have 'developed'. I have always been a fan of wingplays - despite in last FM patch where wingers are totally dead. And now it's back.

[JJ919]

Have you been using Drilled or Floated crosses? Which do you find works best?

[dazbowski]

Just been trying this setup, I have been very successful so far with my tactic but couln't score headers from crosses. After trying this although not every game i'm now scoring my fair share of headers. Cheers to the OP!

[S!lver]

@aaannndddiii : Yeah I really love seeing my wingers actually doing something and being dangerous, unlike in FM10 where they were close to useless (or not as efficient as playing ultra narrow)

@JJ919 : Floated crosses, but to be honest it doesn't really matter, as I tweaked them all on the side guys.

@ dazbowski : cool it's working for you. I think it can be implemented in every tactic as long as you have wingers.

[Kadatherion]

You're definitely right S!lver, finally wide wingers are once again a great asset to have, and I can have fun with a team playing as Del Neri's Chievo of some years ago

I implemented settings for wingers and generally for crossings much like yours in my 4-4-2 ( mAAckAttAcks) which already was pretty solid in defense (a quite rare thing so far, since crosses are also deadly against you and it's really hard to make your fullbacks behave as they should when defending) but had some issues in actually making the attackers score regularly. Result: what before would usually have been a 1-0 with a goal from a cutting in winger or a screamer from a midfielder, now turns out to be a 4-0 with my attackers scoring for fun.

[Gavolo]

its the same for setpieces. somehow goals comes when u aim far post