Real Madrid set up

[fraeyke]

Hi,

On my first save of the year i always try take a world class team (to get a hang of it).

This year im playing with real madrid.

My aim is to play very high pressure, direct football. To get the bal asap to the best and most dangerous players (Ronaldo, isco, bale, rodriguez). I Want to have the AP do late runs on the opp area. My front players all have heavy closing down.

Yet again i fail to open up opponents that sit deep. If i play against a lesser team( like 99%) of them i keep on attacking but take one goal on the break.

Also i dont close down fast enough on a opp striker that comes deep en launches a teammate running behind my high lines. (usually in a 2 striker formation)

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Can anyone give me some pointers as to how i can:

A) Find more space in the opp area when they are sitting deep

and

B) Keep high pressure so hanging strikers or roaming midfielders cant continously bomb deep balls behind my defensive line

Thanks in advance

[Daffius]

I'm playing the same setup with a different team, so I feel your pain. You are playing a fast tempo very direct play while simultanously pressuring the opposition into their box.

What worked for me was:

1) Not pushing my back line so high up - opens up the field and prevents clutter in the final thid

2) I made away with working the ball into the box (debatable) - against low level teams who where defending anyway it really led to outnumbering and someone stepping in

3) I used clearing to flank - It also pulls out the full backs who come closing down giving more space

It worked for me for scoring goals. If you still have problems with parking bus, you can always "shoot on sight". It isn't as useless as it used to be.

As for defence, I'm not sure I can help. I have the exact same issue and haven't figured it out. I switched the DM into a classic DM role, turned fullbacks to half backs... nothing, nada. So if you get a solution on that one, I'm interested as well.

[fraeyke]

Hey Daffius,

Thanks for the response!

I do indeed try to play that way. And most of the times i see i recuperate the ball rather high (as intended).

Your ideas sound solid and will give them a try.

The reason that i push my line higher up is to make the spaces between my Striker and the cm's smaller. So there is more connection between them.

When i see that lots of shots are coming from deep i change into 'work ball into box'. But what i do notice is that lots of players take shots at goal even when its very claer that it will be blocked. eg: a player of 2 standing right in front of them. And this when there is another viable option in the box that is totally free.

Cant really figure out how to change that..

The clearing to flanks im definatly going to give a try!

Will keep you updated!

[Pedroig]

So you want to play direct, but you are unwilling to make space to play direct efficiently?

Bring your line back, play counter if you must and then go up tempo and direct. You need to "lure" the lesser teams out of their shell, into your side of the pitch and than close, steal/intercept, direct over the bulk of them into the space where your studs will beat their back defense and have a 1:1 or 3:1 with just the GK.

Direct and crowded does not seem to be a good mix.

[fraeyke]

Neither does short and crowded imo..

But i get your point. Thing is that when i back off, the opponent starts to get way more time to play it arround in my area, with eventually leads to a trough ball and ccc's..

But i will give it a go now.