What do you do if you are being dominated by the opponent?

[99]

Hi there,

I was playing against a rival that is theoretically similar to me, but specially in the first half I completely dominated the game, they couldn't do anything to stop my team. Scored 4 goals, could have been more.

But it made me question: if I was in the other side, with this happening to me, what could I do?

Taking down the mentality, defensive line, taking someone from the front and add to the back, things like these never seem to work when I tested them and quite frankly I don't like that type of football. Is this what you can do, or do you use other tactical strategies to regain control of the game?

Sooner or later I will face a similar situation, because no team is always good. If it helps, I'm using 4-1-4-1 DM Wide.

Thank you!

[Experienced Defender]

3 hours ago, 99 said:

Taking down the mentality, defensive line, taking someone from the front and add to the back, things like these never seem to work when I tested them

Rather than taking down the mentality, DL and changing the formation, I would rather drop LOE a notch and change a couple of roles/duties to slightly more conservative ones (e.g. FB on attack to FB on support, or MEZ on attack to MEZ on support etc.). But that's more general advice and does not apply to each single situation. For more precise advice, you'll have to post a screenshot of your tactic as a whole (4141dm wide is just a formation, not a tactic).

[FMunderachiever]

if im being absolutely dominated, ill try and weather the storm whilst the domination is happening and keep it tight, probably go with a low narrow block (very general advice and not always the case) and look to take the sting out of the game to get a foothold.

From there gradually try and be more proactive in creating chances with more attacking roles.

i think it also depends on what KIND of domination im facing. if players are moving off the ball with pace and we simply cant keep up with them, ill change the pressing strategy. If we are being dominated from crosses, ill look to stop the source etc

[scratchmonkey]

I watch and try and see where things are breaking down -- a couple examples that I can remember of being "dominated" are:

1. The other team is sitting back and playing fairly compactly and I am being too aggressive, constantly losing ball in the middle- and final-thirds and they're deliberately knocking the ball into wide areas where either my wide players have to win a race back or my CBs are risking being caught out by trying to come and win the ball.
2. They're pressing really aggressively and really well and we can't get the ball out from around our penalty area, meaning they get winning it back, generating a chance, then rinse and repeat.
3. They're holding the ball, gaining a 60-40 possession advantage and are generating decent chances as well.

Each of these requires a different 'solution', although I'll get to why I've used scare quotes there near the end -- in the first case, I'd try lowering my tempo and identifying the players who were turning the ball over the most and potentially change their roles/PIs such that they're more likely to circulate the ball, as well as switching my flank players to try and cover the wide areas between my CBs and the touchline more effectively; the second case, I try and find the space that they're leaving open as they're pressing, it's either going to be behind their defensive line if they're playing high or in front of it if they're not -- so you start hitting longer balls out of the back (and probably turn off Play Out of Defense if you've got it on) and either try and get in behind a high line or have forwards dropping back or midfielders moving up to receive long passes in front of their defense; in the case where the opposition is holding onto the ball, you need to try and turn into the opponent from example 2 and press hard to get the ball back, what zone you press in being dependent on where they're playing the majority of their passes and what kind of team you're managing...and sometimes, there isn't much you can do at all, for whatever reason your team is just not there today, or they're playing out of their skins -- and this is the case where I do things like drop Mentality and try and go compact and keep your shape -- usually these are scenarios where I'm only down by 1 and I'm trying to keep them at arm's length and nick a goal, or if I'm down by 4 or more and it's late and I just want to protect goal difference.

[99]

Thanks a lot for your answers, @Experienced Defender, @FMunderachiever and @scratchmonkey. Lots of good ideas to reflect on.