Halfspace crosses - how to get them frequently

[aditya]

You can play with inverted fullbacks or inverted wingback, but you also have to make sure you have 4-5 players at least in the box.

[lied90]

1 hour ago, aditya said:

but you also have to make sure you have 4-5 players at least in the box.

Did you get that number out of thin air?

[aditya]

2 hours ago, lied90 said:

Did you get that number out of thin air?

OP's picture has 4 players, reasonable to have 4-5 players receiving a half cross. Do you expect 2 fowards vs 4 defenders will be enough to provide results? no.

You can achieve that by having 4 players on attack.

[lied90]

20 minutes ago, aditya said:

OP's picture has 4 players,

Look again, it's 3.

20 minutes ago, aditya said:

Do you expect 2 fowards vs 4 defenders will be enough to provide results? no.

Depends on positioning and situation, if caught in transition, even 1 might be enough.

22 minutes ago, aditya said:

You can achieve that by having 4 players on attack.

You said 4-5 (AT LEAST!). Meaning that if playing 433, you would need ST, LW, CM, DM and LB to get into the box in order to have 5. Also, have you tried and tested that having 4-5 consistently in the box increases half space crossing, or is it an educated guess?

This is a very typical half space cross situation. Silva uses Kdb on the underlap, KDB crosses to ST, LW or CM.

Yeah sure 4-5 would be nice but it's not necessary to have 4-5 in the box for a half space cross unless it's from a set pieces or against a very low block team.

[julle17]

3 hours ago, aditya said:

OP's picture has 4 players, reasonable to have 4-5 players receiving a half cross. Do you expect 2 fowards vs 4 defenders will be enough to provide results? no.

You can achieve that by having 4 players on attack.

Whether there's 4-5 players in the box, should in my opinion not change whether or not i can in a way instruct my team or some players to specifically cross from the halfspace, which is the whole point of the thread, that it just does not seem all that possible. I couldn't find a way to do that, and from what people have said in here, it doesn't seem like anyone else has found out how to do that.

[dankrzyz]

On 21/04/2024 at 13:57, Poison said:

Hmm if the "cross more often" player instruction doesn't help I don't know what will do it.

Anecdotally, I find that short passing can restrict those crosses a little, try nudging that setting up a notch or two for those players you're looking to for crosses.

[HUMBL3B33]

On 25/04/2024 at 12:50, lied90 said:

I've tried to reproduce it with Man City and using KdB as the mezz in 12 competitive matches.

 

After having looked at all passes and crosses made by KdB, watched all passes made by him in the half space, and excluded free kicks, I have observed two crosses from the half space in a total of 12 matches.

 

Hey @julle17,
I think @lied90 is spot on in terms of the individual instructions. So adding on to that, one thing i had particularly benefited in FM23 when i tried to do this was playing on a narrower widths. This discourages the outer most players from taking more risk or play the final balls less often and if there's anyone like a Mezzalla waiting for the ball to come to him, they'd find that player more often than not since he's situated a bit centrally. I'm not sure if this is intended by the attacking width directly or has a more cause and effect relationship but this one thing increased my output drastically when i tried that. 

[julle17]

7 minutes ago, HUMBL3B33 said:

Hey @julle17,
I think @lied90 is spot on in terms of the individual instructions. So adding on to that, one thing i had particularly benefited in FM23 when i tried to do this was playing on a narrower widths. This discourages the outer most players from taking more risk or play the final balls less often and if there's anyone like a Mezzalla waiting for the ball to come to him, they'd find that player more often than not since he's situated a bit centrally. I'm not sure if this is intended by the attacking width directly or has a more cause and effect relationship but this one thing increased my output drastically when i tried that. 

Could you show actual examples of it happening? and in turn whether the crosses happen frequently?

[HUMBL3B33]

51 minutes ago, julle17 said:

Could you show actual examples of it happening? and in turn whether the crosses happen frequently?

Sure, i dont have old safe files but i can try and recreate once i get back home, travelling right now. It doesnt usually increase the cross frequency in-fact, it would reduce them. It's just the general chances created by it would be slightly better in terms of quality of shots as the mez is in a bit more open space than usual (still depends on the player crossing).

[HUMBL3B33]

1 hour ago, julle17 said:

Could you show actual examples of it happening? and in turn whether the crosses happen frequently?

Here's how it works.

Generally the aim is to make the Mez free and make the players out on the wing try to get the ball to him. Having the width narrow allows the wide players to not be extra aggressive in putting the final ball and more often choose to pass the ball short. Eventually, you'll see him in space to put in a first time cross and since he's in space, he's more likely to put in a ball either on the other player's feet or in a space where he feels the ball has a better chance to be put into the goal.

The one running with the ball is my WB on defend.
My IW in this goal is actually making an inside run to make some space for the WB.

This is in my current journeyman save. Almost at the end of my journey on this one. 

The shot I am talking about was rated at 0.45 xG which was actually blocked but then the IF on the left wing got a free ball from the deflection.

 

 

Here's my Mez. A better crossing att would make him cross even deadlier balls. 

Edited May 18 by HUMBL3B33
Additional details

[julle17]

57 minutes ago, HUMBL3B33 said:

Sure, i dont have old safe files but i can try and recreate once i get back home, travelling right now. It doesnt usually increase the cross frequency in-fact, it would reduce them. It's just the general chances created by it would be slightly better in terms of quality of shots as the mez is in a bit more open space than usual (still depends on the player crossing).

I appreciate the response, so i'm not trying to sound like a knobhead here(i might ), but the whole point of this thread is to increase the frequency.

 

 

10 minutes ago, HUMBL3B33 said:

Here's how it works.

Generally the aim is to make the Mez free and make the players out on the wing try to get the ball to him. Having the width narrow allows the wide players to not be extra aggressive in putting the final ball and more often choose to pass the ball short. Eventually, you'll see him in space to put in a first time cross and since he's in space, he's more likely to put in a ball either on the other player's feet or in a space where he feels the ball has a better chance to be put into the goal.

The one running with the ball is my WB on defend.
My IW in this goal is actually making an inside run to make some space for the WB.

This is in my current journeyman save. Almost at the end of my journey on this one. 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's my Mez. A better crossing att would make him cross even deadlier balls. 

And being a bit knit picky aswell, in my opinion that cross is not from the halfspace, but from the wide right. Not to say i don't appreciate the responses because i do, i just still don't think it's what i'm looking to happen more in the game.

[HUMBL3B33]

30 minutes ago, julle17 said:

I appreciate the response, so i'm not trying to sound like a knobhead here(i might ), but the whole point of this thread is to increase the frequency.

 

 

And being a bit knit picky aswell, in my opinion that cross is not from the halfspace, but from the wide right. Not to say i don't appreciate the responses because i do, i just still don't think it's what i'm looking to happen more in the game.

Sure, That's fine. I appreciate the honest response. 

[julle17]

2 hours ago, HUMBL3B33 said:

Sure, That's fine. I appreciate the honest response. 

I hope i don't come across wrong. I guess i'm just frustrated i can't get the game to do what i want.

[HUMBL3B33]

21 hours ago, julle17 said:

I hope i don't come across wrong. I guess i'm just frustrated i can't get the game to do what i want.

No worries. It's just that the general area you're looking to create crosses from is almost impossible to create from 100% of the time. In my opinion the general aim should be to create from between LW and striker as that's what the actual half space cross was named after.

So i suppose instead of worrying about having 100% of the crosses from that exact position which is extremely unlikely to happen. You should consider looking at it from a different angle and understand that you're anyway going to get some crosses from that exact position but generally a lot of the crosses would shift bit outside since there's extra space out there.

Hope i am able to make sense. I am a little tired and just thought of replying before i go to sleep xD

[Andrew Marines]

I did actually get them a bit more than you guys did with a 3421 using Wide Center BacksIn this case #2 had cross less often and dribble less as a complete wingback on attack(don't worry, they will actually cross and dribble). He was marked so he searched Nilsson as a WCB-A with cross more often. He won't do it everytime he gets the ball in that space but he's surely doing what you've asked

Edited June 11 by Andrew Marines