Cross More Often/Cross From Deep/Hit Early Crosses

[marsh82]

Hi guys

I've been having a ponder today on ways to improve a new Strikerless tactic that is basically 4-3-3 wide.

I could just simply set a Wingback to sit wide and bang in crosses all day to a big Striker and score bucket loads, but I dont want to do that.

Basically, what I am doing is thus. Using FB/Suport's and asking them to sit narrower and, if possible, cut inside with the ball while Wingers (in theory) stay wider in build up.

I have fast and skillful players centrally "up front" but supply to them is stunted when teams sit back and defend deep - balls to feet get intercepted/tackled. I could play "Pass into Space" but I want to "Retain Possession instead.

So, I was wondering about the 3 instructions in thee title - P.I's Cross More Often, Cross From Deep and the T.I Hit Early Crosses.

Basically, what I think i want to do is have my FB/Supports clip diagonal balls towards the near post area for a Shadow Striker or Advanced Playmaker (or even Winger) to latch on to.

How would you guys initiate this?

Obviously P.I Cross to Near Post is needed, but what of the 3 aforementioned instructions?

T.I Hitting an Early Cross would allow the FB to then maintain there run in support, but then isn't that the same as Cross from Deep P.I?

Also unsure whether to go Mixed or Direct passing.

I'm currently set up as Standard and Flexible.

[herne79]

You'll get 20 different opinions.

What matters is your opinion and how you want to play. Put something together and try it out.

[marsh82]

That's why I asked, i'm interested in what peoples different opinions and approaches would be.

I will try a few different approaches but there's no harm in starting a discussion on it on a forum is there?

[mozaldinho]

marsh. I just wanted to ask you - you say you could get a wingback to clip crosses in all day for a big striker to score. In Serie A.

This is what I am attempting to do, but failing. I have been playing a 4-1-2-2-1, with the following setup and a flat back 4

GK (d)

CWB/L (a)

CD (d)

CD (d)

CWB/R (a)

DM (d)

BWM (s)

AP (a)

RD/L (a)

W/R (s)

DLF (s)

The style in which we play is to build up the pitch pretty slowly. Sit in the other teams half with a control mentality. The wingbacks over lap and loads of crosses come into the box. My cross completion stats are terrible! But my wingers has 14 for crossing, the 2 wingbacks both have 15.

I've got a big guy up front in the DLF (s) role. He has 16 acceleration, 16 jumping, 14 heading, 15 strength, 14 off the ball, 15 anticipation. His headers won % is 59%, so he wins his fair share.

However, I am struggling to score goals, and have been analyising the cross completion stats. For a selection of games they were:

1/39 (2%)

3/26 (11%)

4/47 (8%)

4/27 (14%)

2/41 (4%)

3/30 (10%)

Are these percentages pretty typical? Or are they very low. My striker is winning headers, but we are not completing any crosses.

I have tried changing him to an advanced attacker (a), so he is possibly higher up the pitch, but not sure this did anything.

With the setup, the players look to cross the ball from the byline. Usually when they do, the defending side is sort of camped in, which may be an issue as they have numbers back. I have tried aiming crosses to "centre" as that's where he is most likely to be. I have also played with whipped, low, floated and mixed crosses, but they dont seem to have any effect.

I would be very grateful if you could assist me on this, as I feel this will turn my struggling side into a very good side. I just cannot complete the crosses. Are there any obvious tweaks which I could make to make this more effective? Am I overstating the quality of the attributes involved? Do they need to be higher? Some help would be greatly welcomed.

Thanks,

M

[HUNT3R]

Balance (the attribute) is also very important for the crosser to have. Putting off balance crosses in at pace (which is probably what your WBs are doing) will reduce the accuracy, obviously.

You need to decide on what type of cross will suit you best, even if you want to do it on a game by game basis. If there are a lot of defenders in the box, obviously any low cross will just get cleared by the first defender. Whipping it in at pace is an option then or floating it, if he can compete for it against the DCs.

You also need to pay attention to whether you have players in the box who will connect with crosses. The DLF will be there, but make sure there are others too, unless you're getting them in early when he has to fight against only 2 or maybe 3 defenders.

[Jambo98]

Hi guys

I've been having a ponder today on ways to improve a new Strikerless tactic that is basically 4-3-3 wide.

I could just simply set a Wingback to sit wide and bang in crosses all day to a big Striker and score bucket loads, but I dont want to do that.

Basically, what I am doing is thus. Using FB/Suport's and asking them to sit narrower and, if possible, cut inside with the ball while Wingers (in theory) stay wider in build up.

I have fast and skillful players centrally "up front" but supply to them is stunted when teams sit back and defend deep - balls to feet get intercepted/tackled. I could play "Pass into Space" but I want to "Retain Possession instead.

So, I was wondering about the 3 instructions in thee title - P.I's Cross More Often, Cross From Deep and the T.I Hit Early Crosses.

Basically, what I think i want to do is have my FB/Supports clip diagonal balls towards the near post area for a Shadow Striker or Advanced Playmaker (or even Winger) to latch on to.

How would you guys initiate this?

Obviously P.I Cross to Near Post is needed, but what of the 3 aforementioned instructions?

T.I Hitting an Early Cross would allow the FB to then maintain there run in support, but then isn't that the same as Cross from Deep P.I?

Also unsure whether to go Mixed or Direct passing.

I'm currently set up as Standard and Flexible.

I think your looking at this a bit wrong. If your vision is to have a FB who sits, narrow, cuts inside, and delivers a ball to the near post, then unless my geometry is wrong........that is neither a cross or a diagonal? Think about it. Lets assume your FB starting point is circa 7/8 yards from the touchline (very few Fb will hug the line, perhaps look for one with that PPM but far more likely to apply to wingers). Now you have asked him to "sit narrower". Its impossible to quantify exactly, but lets assume that moves him in another 5 yards on the pitch. Now you want him to cut inside when he recieves the ball. Again, hard to quantify, but lets be very conservative and assume he only manages to cut in another 2/3 yards.

So now we have a fullback who is positioned 20 yards from the touchline. Now, take account of the fact that an average pitch is maybe 75 - 80 yards wide in total. The goal is 8 yards wide. So in rough terms, your FB is only standing 10 - 12 yards wider than the near post. So a diagonal / cross to the near post is well.........not a diagonal or a cross (not to say he cant play through ball, but thats different).

I think what you want is something Rashidi1 used in his West Brom tactics - long early missile passes from fullbacks early, which play in outer strikers/ AMCs. As i recall, he achieved it by having "More risky passes" and "more direct passing" added as PIs to this FBs (as well as paying attention to the attributes and PPMs of the FBs) and it worked very nicely.

marsh. I just wanted to ask you - you say you could get a wingback to clip crosses in all day for a big striker to score. In Serie A.

This is what I am attempting to do, but failing. I have been playing a 4-1-2-2-1, with the following setup and a flat back 4

GK (d)

CWB/L (a)

CD (d)

CD (d)

CWB/R (a)

DM (d)

BWM (s)

AP (a)

RD/L (a)

W/R (s)

DLF (s)

The style in which we play is to build up the pitch pretty slowly. Sit in the other teams half with a control mentality. The wingbacks over lap and loads of crosses come into the box. My cross completion stats are terrible! But my wingers has 14 for crossing, the 2 wingbacks both have 15.

I've got a big guy up front in the DLF (s) role. He has 16 acceleration, 16 jumping, 14 heading, 15 strength, 14 off the ball, 15 anticipation. His headers won % is 59%, so he wins his fair share.

However, I am struggling to score goals, and have been analyising the cross completion stats. For a selection of games they were:

1/39 (2%)

3/26 (11%)

4/47 (8%)

4/27 (14%)

2/41 (4%)

3/30 (10%)

Are these percentages pretty typical? Or are they very low. My striker is winning headers, but we are not completing any crosses.

I have tried changing him to an advanced attacker (a), so he is possibly higher up the pitch, but not sure this did anything.

With the setup, the players look to cross the ball from the byline. Usually when they do, the defending side is sort of camped in, which may be an issue as they have numbers back. I have tried aiming crosses to "centre" as that's where he is most likely to be. I have also played with whipped, low, floated and mixed crosses, but they dont seem to have any effect.

I would be very grateful if you could assist me on this, as I feel this will turn my struggling side into a very good side. I just cannot complete the crosses. Are there any obvious tweaks which I could make to make this more effective? Am I overstating the quality of the attributes involved? Do they need to be higher? Some help would be greatly welcomed.

Thanks,

M

Cross completion percentages tend to be very low in football in general. I cant place any stats off hand, but i would not expect much more than circa 20%, and if you play a crossing intensive game its likely that number will drop slightly again. Also consider how many headed goals are scored from open play crosses in real life by a big striker. At the top level, it is not many at all. The days of prolific big targetmen are mostly gone. Andy Carroll will bang in a few with his head from open play, but not many. Big guys in Serie A like Llorente and Manduzic have not been prolific from crosses to head. In Spain, Adurtiz is a big guy and scores plenty but not from crosses.

My advice would be to look at the crossing analysis in game and review each one. A few things could be happening:

1) I suspect cross % includes corners, which skew the the stats (particularly if you play quite attacking, my team average up to 9 / 10 corners a game).

2) With 3 out of your 4 wide men being attacking duty, are they already too far ahead of play by the time they cross? Think about support duty for at least one of the fullbacks.

3) Your using CWB rather than WB - that introduces more roaming as a PI and means that perhaps they are not always crossing from an optimal position

4) Where are they aiming the crosses? you say you have tried all, but have you tried them for enough time, and then watched back to see what the crosses look like? If they are all being cut out and the striker is no where near, then yes probably your setting is wrong. If they are being unsuccessful because the big man gets beat in the air a lot well some games that is going to happen. Unless you have an absolute monster, there are going to be good DCs who are big, tall and great in the air.

5) In real life, a lot of headed goals from crosses will not come from byline type crosses. They wil come from deep / early crosses (even more so in FM, i think SI acknowledge that deep / early crosses are a tad over powered). The best chance most big strikers have of scoring a header is through anticipation and reaction, getting to the ball before the defence. When it is a straight challenge to get to it above the defence its much harder to win.

6) THink about second phase from crossing. A cross can lead to a goal often indirectly. (Guardiola preaches this) - IF you are going to cross a lot, accept that a truck load of these wll be cut out. Even if you optimise your tactic and players, still something like 75% of crosses will not be a success. So how can you setup to best take advantage of the second phase when a cross is cleared or blocked etc?

Overall, watch back all the crosses from 3 / 4 recent games and see what you think

[xambo]

It really depends on the team you have. If you have a tall strong striker floating crosses makes sense. While if you have a quick poacher striker drilled crosses are better. The same goes with cross from deep and byline. Having a good winger with dribbling skills make him go to the byline. I think this video will be helpful to understand the types of crosses and effectiveness.

[video=youtube;Z6P89KlnzrM]