Breaking Teams down who play defensive possession football

[R0ca]

I'm currently managing Man City, we've been very successful winning a lot of major honours, I'm now in my 7th season with them but increasingly I'm coming up against teams who play defensive possession football, i'm having 2 major issues, one is creating a decent amount of clear cut chances and the other is the sheer amount of ball the opposition has.

I like to play carefully threaded through balls, and loathe to cross the ball from wide areas, i believe i have a team quite well suited to this but games are becoming increasing difficult, my players tend to get caught in possession, forward players are being very static, often not offerring a passing option at all.

I'm currently playing a 4-2-3-1 system

GK - Sweeper Keeper

Fb's - fullback (auto)

CBs Defend (Both)

CM- Ball winning mid (support)

Cm - Deep lying Play (def)

AMR - Winger support

AMC - Adv Play (Attack)

AML - Inside Forward (Attack)

CF - Advanced Fwd - Attack (Attack)

I'm totally open to changing roles and system if this will facilitate me creating more chances, i don't want to start lumping it in to the box, i don't have players equipped to do so, nor are they are up and coming ones to buy either (i've been looking to create a plan B)

Any help is appreciated!

[Marsupian]

Are you playing an attacking mentality? When I find I have trouble scoring I usually switch from my usual control to attacking and with the more direct passing and faster tempo I can usually get the ball to my attackers before their whole team can park themselves in front of the penalty area. You could also try to make some more space for your dangerous players by maybe playing a fast poacher who forces the D-line deeper or put your AMC on support (or set run from deep to rarely) so he stays in the hole (if there is one).

If you just want to try a different strategy I found this one quite effective in terms of scoring goals.

4-3-3 (or 4-1-2-3 as the deep lying playmaker is a DM))

GK

FB - Attack

DC - Defend

DC - Stopper

FB - Attack

MC - CM Support

DM - Deep lying playmaker

MC - CM Support

FC - Poacher (wide play on normal)

FC - Trequartista

FC - Advanced forward (wide play on normal)

The goal of this formation is to force the D-line deep by playing two fast and dangerous strikers which creates a lot of space for the trequartista which is absolutely lethal if you have the right player (although I once played a 20 year old reserve player who had not performed anything up to that point and we won 3-1 with him getting a goal and an assist).

The obvious weakness is the lack of cover for the fullbacks. If they get overrun you can switch them to support (which results in less width but they sacrifice men in the center to pressure you wings so you should dominating the middle of the park). The Deep lying playmaker is there to cover for the fullbacks if they venture forward. If you want you can put him between the two CM's which will make the CM's go wider and support the fullbacks more but this will make the DLP less likely to cover for the fullbacks if they venture forward or get skinned.

[R0ca]

I seem to have "cracked" it for now, I've made my team play with more creative freedom, more roaming and with more fluidity, it's helped no end i'm dominating games again!

Playing 2 DLP in certain situations can be a joy to behold, there's nothing quite like the sight of a 50 yard through ball played to perfection,

[SFraser]

I seem to have "cracked" it for now, I've made my team play with more creative freedom, more roaming and with more fluidity, it's helped no end i'm dominating games again!

Playing 2 DLP in certain situations can be a joy to behold, there's nothing quite like the sight of a 50 yard through ball played to perfection,

Absolutely, that's how I play my Man United save. Movement and bags of creative freedom is both excellent to watch and a potent weapon.

A few things worth thinking about to take your team forward is using your "wingers" as inside forwards to play almost like three upfront, and maybe playing a bit narrower with overlapping fullbacks hugging the touchline. Also if you play with 2 DLP, which I find to be excellent, and a very attacking striker then find yourself an AMC with bags of movement ability and the PPM "comes deep to get ball" then instruct him to get forward. He will float all over the place in the space between your DLP's and Striker and the opposition wont be able to get close to all of your different threats.

And one other key point, be patient! Wearing the opponent down with pass and move football and finishing the match in an onslaught of goals is something I do regularly. Just because you are not 3-0 up at half time does not mean you are not playing well. The better you get the more defensive teams are going to be against you until such time as almost all they seem to do is camp the 18 yard line.

[R0ca]

Thanks for your replies guys:-

This is what i'm achieving now, i just demolished Sunderland 8-0, they just couldn't handle the movement, the setting of control seems to be so well balanced when your winning a game...

I'm using either pastore or ganso (paulo henrique) in the AMC position, Pastore is the one who shines there though, i think it's his ability to both create and score which makes him so deadly for me.

I was pretty cautious to go for 2 DLP however if the opposition if forced back defending there penalty box for there life they can't do a great deal about exposing my less than perfection defensively MC's

for my CF i'm playing a very quick CF, who has Finishing 18, composure 16, off the ball 19, Acceleration 19 and pace 18, He's like Nilmar on steriods PPM shoots with power

[heathxxx]

Control is quite a good tactical setting and one I quite like, especially when used with Balanced.

Team keeps shape well and probes patiently, making more considered passes. Of course, you can up the ante a bit with shouts, to increase the directness of passing, balls into space, more width to spread the play. Or, you can retain possession and play "keep ball", letting opponents chase you around, which I particularly like if I'm comfortably in the lead and they're chasing my men around more urgently to get the ball back. They tend to open up quite nicely sometimes.

As SFraser said, sometime you just have to be patient. Once you get a goal or two, they'll probably open up even more, at which point you can hit them with the good stuff

[kwel]

One of the best changes I've made is to actually switch to Counter and set the tempo to quite quick play - this will actually entice the opposition to come out of their defensive play, and against weaker teams it really works because my team (Internazionale) is so much quicker and more precise with the through balls! The possession will then completely switch because even if you don't immediately counter attack and score, you'll at least reclaim possession in order to slowly build an attack.

[phnompenhandy]

Is the OP Roberto Mancini? Pundits have been answering that question all season long!

You need more flair, especially in midfield rather than pack it with flair-free defensive midfielders.

[R0ca]

My midfielders have flair of 17 and 18, as I stated in my first post this only became a issue this season after great success in previous seasons