What changes would you make to this tactic if you were playing against significantly stronger teams?

[trueblue9877]

In Lower Leagues especially.

[Andros]

hi @trueblue9877, what problems have you noticed when watching the games?  Or are you just after general ideas?

 

My initial thoughts are good teams might press your defense and playmaker more, so maybe look to get the ball forward as quickly as possible.  Maybe get rid of play out of defense and take off the advanced playmaker if he is getting marked.  Maybe also consider more conservative fullbacks.  But without having seen a game with this I am not sure.

 

It also seems that a few of your players are not suited to the roles (just looking at the stars).  Now I know we can't completely trust the stars, but they are pretty low! Is there a reason for that (like people playing out of position)?

[trueblue9877]

2 hours ago, Andros said:

hi @trueblue9877, what problems have you noticed when watching the games?  Or are you just after general ideas?

 

My initial thoughts are good teams might press your defense and playmaker more, so maybe look to get the ball forward as quickly as possible.  Maybe get rid of play out of defense and take off the advanced playmaker if he is getting marked.  Maybe also consider more conservative fullbacks.  But without having seen a game with this I am not sure.

 

It also seems that a few of your players are not suited to the roles (just looking at the stars).  Now I know we can't completely trust the stars, but they are pretty low! Is there a reason for that (like people playing out of position)?

The main problem is that the opposing team's XG will always suddenly almost double if you manage to get promoted whilst ours will drop to below 1 XG.

I usually have better stars for the players.

[Andros]

ahhh so you have gone from probably the strongest team in the league to one of the weakest.  Ok well think like in real life: that would require a rethink of tactics.  Newly promoted teams usually can't go into the higher league playing exactly the same, the players are usually just weaker.  Have a look at the team comparison page, how do you compare to the average in the league?

 

So, when I say "what problems have you noticed?" what I mean is when watching the game.   EG:

How is the opposition scoring many of its goals? 

How and where are you losing the ball?  Why do you think this is the case?

When you lose the ball, what does the opposition do that looks dangerous? 

Do you have any players that are often in a bad position when you lose the ball?

What happens when you get the ball? Where are your open players?

How would you like to score the goals?

What is stopping you from scoring those goals?

Etc.

 

The more info you can get about what is happening, the more the experts on here (I am not one of them!!) can help you and the more you might be able to see for yourself.  Essentially, we want to try and work out why your XG is so low and the oppositions XG is much higher.

 

[Fox-7-]

I think that some (not all) of your problems in defense are in your TI.

Basically with a standard LOE,Counter-Press and More Urgent pressing you are telling your players to wait till midline to press the opponent,and then suddenly go chasing the ball around the pitch.

So the opponent has the time to build-up and once in your half you leave them gaps with your pressing that can be easily passed around,especially if the opponent is way stronger than you as you stated.

I'd go for standard pressing and regroup, maybe switch WBs to FBs (even on Attack duty,they do a quote good job in both defensive and offensive phases)

After this,you have to consider your opponent every time to spot their key players and try to limit them via OIs

Edited October 14, 2022 by Fox-7-

[trueblue9877]

1 hour ago, Fox-7- said:

I think that some (not all) of your problems in defense are in your TI.

Basically with a standard LOE,Counter-Press and More Urgent pressing you are telling your players to wait till midline to press the opponent,and then suddenly go chasing the ball around the pitch.

So the opponent has the time to build-up and once in your half you leave them gaps with your pressing that can be easily passed around,especially if the opponent is way stronger than you as you stated.

I'd go for standard pressing and regroup, maybe switch WBs to FBs (even on Attack duty,they do a quote good job in both defensive and offensive phases)

After this,you have to consider your opponent every time to spot their key players and try to limit them via OIs

So would you suggest high DL + high LOE? + More urgent pressing. 

Or just remove "more urgent pressing.

As the tactic is meant to be more of a middle block because I didn't think that I had the players good enough to press high.

 

[Fox-7-]

As I said, I'd go for standard lines and standard pressing + regroup and see what happens in game. If you notice that with this settings you are too much passive you can surely add one notch for the pressing or move your lines higher, but to understand better i prefer to start from quite all the standard settings

This is only my opinion based on what  I see from your tactic, maybe someone else could suggest a different approach

[trueblue9877]

14 hours ago, Fox-7- said:

I think that some (not all) of your problems in defense are in your TI.

Basically with a standard LOE,Counter-Press and More Urgent pressing you are telling your players to wait till midline to press the opponent,and then suddenly go chasing the ball around the pitch.

So the opponent has the time to build-up and once in your half you leave them gaps with your pressing that can be easily passed around,especially if the opponent is way stronger than you as you stated.

I'd go for standard pressing and regroup, maybe switch WBs to FBs (even on Attack duty,they do a quote good job in both defensive and offensive phases)

After this,you have to consider your opponent every time to spot their key players and try to limit them via OIs

I tried it as a team that was predicted to finish bottom of the league and had these results, we had the third best defence but our attack was not great somehow.

[Fox-7-]

Third defense as a predicted bottom tablet team Is a great achievement! 

In Attack you can try to be more aggressive as you should have space left from the opponent that are likely to camp in your half as you are seen as one of the weakest team in the League.

So you can try with higher tempo and more direct passes to give the ball to your front players as fast as possible.

For roles and duties depends on your players:

If your forward has good pace against slow CBs I'd go for something likes this 

---------SKa---------

FBa CBd CBd FBs

--------DMd--------

-----CMs APa-----

IFs----------------Ws

---------AFa---------

 

Or,if your forward is a beast type you can play him as a TF who holds the ball and wait for support

[trueblue9877]

4 hours ago, Fox-7- said:

Third defense as a predicted bottom tablet team Is a great achievement! 

In Attack you can try to be more aggressive as you should have space left from the opponent that are likely to camp in your half as you are seen as one of the weakest team in the League.

So you can try with higher tempo and more direct passes to give the ball to your front players as fast as possible.

For roles and duties depends on your players:

If your forward has good pace against slow CBs I'd go for something likes this 

---------SKa---------

FBa CBd CBd FBs

--------DMd--------

-----CMs APa-----

IFs----------------Ws

---------AFa---------

 

Or,if your forward is a beast type you can play him as a TF who holds the ball and wait for support

My main concern is really stuff like this, I was using this tactic and actually got 0.08 XG against a team in the same league that wasn't that much better than mine whilst they got 1.75XG how?

[trueblue9877]

I made some changes