Opposition Instructions

[wazza]

Been reading a guide on how to set up Opposition Instructions.

It stated that for players with good pace, acceleration, agility you should never tight mark. Also players with good acceleration, pace agility but poor dribbling, passing, long shots and crossing you should never close down. I tried this in a game only to find that the two players I was doing this against scored.

On my assistants feedbacks they do not ever tell you to never close down or never tight mark any players always the latter. It has never come up in all the FM's Ive played

What do you believe a guide that is written by the fans which in theory seems to make sense or your assistant? What does the forum do for OI's as to me its an important part of your tactical plan

[Welshace]

Could always try both and see what works for you?

It sounds like a cop out but it's really not, anything you do in game depends on your tactic as a whole and it all working together...

There is always the tactics forums too..

[Guest]

If my defender matches or betters the opponent for pace & good marking & positioning there is no reason to not have them mark the player tightly, guides should never be taken as gospel facts that must always be followed.

[WizbaII]

Tricky stuff, wazza. The way I set up my OIs also depends on the position of the opposing player. For example, I will never tell my team to tight mark a striker if I am facing a two-striker formation...regardless of how fast or slow the opposing striker is. Another example...I never tight mark wingers, no matter how fast or slow, because I am afraid that my defender might lose concentration at the wrong moment and the winger will make a run at the perfect moment and score the header. So I'd rather find a way to force my opponent to play in a way that doesn't allow that. And I always tight mark opposing defenders regardless of attributes, because I like to press high. I'm not saying I'm a successful manager. What I am trying to say is that, for me, OIs are about more than just attributes. You also have to account for how your overall tactic matches up against your opponent's tactic.

[OLLMEISTER1]

I never use OI's for the simple reason being by instructing these it can deviate from what you have put as PI's for players in your team.

Example: asking a CM on defend duty to stay back at all times, but you may have instructed a OI as close down more, to me it just confuses & counteracts.

Sometimes doing very little is often the best way about going about this game. I have learnt this the very hard way eventually

[zigaliro]

I never use OI's for the simple reason being by instructing these it can deviate from what you have put as PI's for players in your team.

Example: asking a CM on defend duty to stay back at all times, but you may have instructed a OI as close down more, to me it just confuses & counteracts.

Sometimes doing very little is often the best way about going about this game. I have learnt this the very hard way eventually

But it can be good if you want to setup a specific pressing style.

[OLLMEISTER1]

But it can be good if you want to setup a specific pressing style.

True, like I say its not for me but I accept people may like to high press and this can be good for this purpose.

You would just need to make sure you do not have conflicting PI's in your team.

[marsh82]

Or a CM/D with close down more may close down an opposing AM who is situated nearby, he is on D duty after all, as opposed to being dragged out of sitting deeply... win/win there.

[Paulmgrath]

I have had far more success not using the ois it seems to pull your team out of shape, for example i have my 2 cbs set to stand off and stay on feet if the ois tell them to mark and close down the opposition striker they will resort to a henchoz, hypia role where one covers while the other one presses or even worse they both pressure. With my style of play i prefer having the dms close down and my cbs to back off. I find it more helpful to set up similar instructions through the pis - such as botg my ifs have mark tighter and close down more which in my tactic makes the ifs chase the opposing full back should he decide to venture forward.

[Paulmgrath]

Seting ois on the opposing gk is good if you play a high pressing game as iv noticed the sts seem to give the gks too much time on ball

[TommyH89]

Could I ask a question? How do you use standard opposition instructions? I.E. on the tactics screen as opposed to pre match?

[Laurefinwe]

To OP, I'd rather leave blank the closing down option when the high pace/dribbling/acceleration player is a winger than set "never close down". I usually tight mark both wingers and the striker(s), unless the ST is much taller/better in the air than my defenders, in which case I always close him down. What is a must from my point of view is to always close down midfielders and the central att. midfielder. Those are often the brain of the opposition, so if you press them and take the ball from them before they can think & pass you render the opp wingers and strikers useless.

[sirgiorgio]

19 hours ago, TommyH89 said:

Could I ask a question? How do you use standard opposition instructions? I.E. on the tactics screen as opposed to pre match?

I would use OIs on the tactics screen when my tactics are somehow lacking when dealing with specific positions. For instance, I used it extensively in FM16 against The Almighty Wingback. Other examples could be: teams playing with one vs two strikers, teams playing with a DM or an AM, etc.

Pre-match I'd use it when I want to set specific OIs against specific players, regardless of their positions.

Hope it makes sense