Countering in the lower leagues

[maztheplaya]

Started dafuge's challenge. And I was thinking that I could play a counter-attack based tactic in the until I reach League 1 and I can get some better players.

This is my current setup:

The other instruction that you can't see in the screenshot is "Hit Early Cross"

What I am doing wrong? What can improve? Would be nice if people with experiences in the lower leagues could share their thoughts on playing a counter-attack based game.

[Cleon]

The poacher is very static and offer little in a lone striker formation due to no movement and being more of a 6 yard threat. So the fact that every single midfielder is on a support/defensive duty you're not getting the ball to him and he has no support at all from midfield. Even counter attacking I can't see where the goals are going to come from. You need to think about what you want the striker to offer (I'd reconsider swapping the Poacher for something else and wouldn't advise using them as a lone striker) and you also need to make sure you have midfielders who will support attacks and can help out the striker when attacking.

[RTHerringbone]

I'm personally not a fan of "Automatic" Duties either - as used on your full backs.

Is there a reason you have elected for this? Unless you are changing your Mentality frequently, I would suggest you allocate specific Duties.

As you are Rigid, it will mean that the Duties you allocate are tangibly different.

Like Cleon says, I can't see who will score for you.

There are no runners from central midfield, and a couple of wingers banging in early crosses (both on the same Duty) to an isolated and ineffective lone Poacher.

[maztheplaya]

Thank you for you responses.

This is how my tactic looks now:

Changed to Fluid since I don't have many specialist roles. I'm thinking if I should also put the AP on Attack, my first thought is that it will be too much and will break my team in half.

Also dropped the Early Cross instruction, I think it was a waste of possession for the way my team plays.

[Cleon]

I'd have 1 winger on support and the fullback behind him on attack. It'll offer you much better balance imo.

[RTHerringbone]

I still feel that your striker has an awful lot of responsibility on his shoulders. He remains the sole goalscoring threat.

I'd do what Cleon suggests above, and change the other Winger to an IF (Attack) - with a fullback (or wing back) on Support behind him.

The IF (A) will get into the box and take some pressure off the AF.

[Torskus77]

I still feel that your striker has an awful lot of responsibility on his shoulders. He remains the sole goalscoring threat.

I'd do what Cleon suggests above, and change the other Winger to an IF (Attack) - with a fullback (or wing back) on Support behind him.

The IF (A) will get into the box and take some pressure off the AF.

From experience, using a counter attacking system, it works pretty well. I actually found wingers out performed the inside forward by some distance in my counter set up, and my Inside forward was a much better play than the winger who I had to drop the inside forward for in the end. Sure I could have worked on making the inside forward work, I'm not saying it wont of course.

What I found after tinkering with counter attacking tactics (not just the mentality, but with the intention of really playing on the break often) is that having more support roles worked quite well, because they still made forward runs when the breaks were on. Personally I think the biggest problem with the above tactic is the lack of a DLP, a Center Midfielder (s) Isn't a great role to have next to a Center midfield (d) in this set up in my opinion.

To the OP please note, listen to Cleon and RTH above my advice always, they know much more about the game than me, and most of what I learned has come from them. However I did spend a lot of time making a counter attacking tactic, and got it working reasonably well. The problem with it being is that it wont last forever, as soon as you start to do really well with it, the opposition don't attack you enough to exploit the gaps behind them. This is when you will certainly be needing the have more attacking balance like what Cleon and RTH tried to explain.

Another point, stand off opponents, I never quite made my mind up about, it does what it is supposed to, and I did get it to work, but in the end dropped it, because I found teams started playing with a really low tempo against me, and basically passing it in to the six yard box without any real kind of challenge made. Stay on feet is a fine shout though, really love that combined with drop deeper, and stick to positions.

[maztheplaya]

This is what I have now:

The results haven't been stelar but I made quite a few changes in a short period of time. Hopefully i'll give this iteration the time to be learned by my team.

The AM is on support.

[Bobby_Zamora]

It is quite hard in the lower leagues.

I've been trying my hand in this new version without much success.. The players are awful. I often get a little frustrated when watching any part of the match as their decision making is baffling and the lower leagues look like schoolyard at times.

I often struggle with anything other than a 442 and very basic instructions (or none at all).

I'm interested in seeing how your changes affect your side. How are you doing in the league? Can you provide more details?

[Torskus77]

This is what I have now:

The results haven't been stelar but I made quite a few changes in a short period of time. Hopefully i'll give this iteration the time to be learned by my team.

The AM is on support.

Looks good, you would be better with your Center Mid (d) the side of your attacking full back, I'd probably prefer a support or at least play maker role in the AM slot, and I'm still not sure about Fluid philosophy because of the amount of creative freedom, having said that as it is you don't have many specialist roles, so it should be fine.