Should I follow my AM's in-match opposition instructions advice?

[b28937]

I'm playing a League 1 and his tactical knowledge is 10. He's always saying to close down or mark opposition players, but often it seems like bad advice based on the various tactical guides I've read (I have very little real world soccer knowledge) and would take my mediocre defense way out of shape marking/closing down players everywhere. Also, when I go to the tactics/opposition instructions, his advice is always different than his advice in his in-game analysis.

So the "we must close down so and so" dialogs are always popping up, and I'm not sure if I'm making a mistake if I ignore him. Any advice on how to handle this?

[kingtut313]

Never on offense but sometimes if an opposing player is playing well, he will say mark tighter, close down, etc. and I will take his advice.

[jc1]

Pick and choose and be careful as he gives such crap advise at time, tells you the midfield is being overrun when you're winning 4-0 also tells you to go direct when winning with short passing possession and also winning well. I generally just watch the game and do it all myself.

[KarlAbbott]

For pre-match advice I ignore and try and figure out the oppositions strongest points/players, assist areas, all that. Then base my advice on that. During and at half time I would usually look at their player ratings and check who is shining in the game for them and would usually close down more and tackle hard to remove his input of the game. Then just exploit the weaker players.

[Rashidi]

Its a lot of common sense really

1. Know your formation and understand where the strengths and weaknesses of the other formation are. If he tells you to close down one player on the pitch, understand what this could mean to your own defensive shape.

2. Know what your players can and cannot do. If there is a player on the pitch with great acceleration and your AM tells you to close him down, do you do that or do you just keep him on the wrong foot? If he has great acceleration and you tight mark him with a player who has low acceleration, if the ball gets into space behind them he will outrun your defender.

Understanding the effects of OI is just as important. You can get away without using them, but I prefer to stop another team from winning, so I use OI and shouts to achieve my purpose.