Asunto: National Team U21

Yeah, I much prefer going out looking for ways to score lately. I started as a very defense based tactician though (although not 11 behind the ball). Club wise I've been kind of forced to given my relative weakness in defense/midfield. Defense is quite possible, but it requires excellent usage of the midfield to pass long length into space and then set up the striker. In my opinion, USA by using a single striker straight down the centre made it far too easy for us to defend and left some nice gaps down the defense for us to exploit and hence we dominated the game.

imo defensive placements is one of the hardest things to learn with the tactics editor... much much easier to set tactics for going forward than defending :)

I have always been a defence first tactician. A clean sheet is a game you cannot lose. I often find myself committing a lot of players behind the ball. It's something I'm trying to move away from now that my backline has become competitive.

Having said that, many of the managers I play against do not alter their tactics game by game, which makes things infinitely easier.

personally, my philosophy is "score more than they do and you win the game", but that's just me :P

reckon its heck more interesting to watch too :D:D:D

For sure, but I'm in a league with 3 other teams who between them have conceded 10 goals from 18 games this season. And 3 of those 10 were against my team.

If I concede more than 2 goals against these guys, it's game over. And to give you an idea of the potency of these 3 teams up front...
Larikan - 2 goals from 3 shots
Krayzee - 1 goal from 4 shots
Cumlion - 1 goal from 5 shots

In contrast, against these 3 I scored...
Larikan - 2 from 13 shots
Krayzee - 0 from 9 shots
Cumlion - 1 from 14 shots

Have to keep these guys as far from goal as possible! For me that means first setting up defensively to keep the ball in the midfield and not allowing opposition strikers any quality possession.
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(editado)

> keeping the ball in the midfield and not allowing opposition strikers any quality possession.

Something USA obviously failed to do.

I think I mentioned this before, but I'll say it again anyway.

I'm confused as to what the Stewart / Byers positions are meant to be doing.

When the ball is forward, they advance to a bit outside the box and stop. In that position they will practically never receive the ball from their own team and if the opposing team gets it, they will clear the ball well over their head. The few times the ball does trickle out, their first action is to run back towards the middle of the pitch.

When the ball is in our defense, they go back a little bit, but not enough to defend a winger or striker, and if one of our defenders get the ball, they hoof it up field (assuming they don't kick it out), sailing over their heads.

They're stuck in the middle going both ways, half way committed to attack or defense and in the end are in no-mans land, spending a lot of the game running backwards and forwards with no real chance of getting into the play.

If they aren't going to be attacking when the ball is in the box (or level with the box out wide) how about retreating them back to near the half then. That way if the defense just boots it up field, we've got our mids ready to rebound the ball straight back into attack.

Similarly in defense, lets either have them run back to the box (if we pass up field it will get booted to our wing or a striker anyway) OR, have them move back towards the middle of the pitch and attempt to play our strikers/wing further up field so that when our defenders clear we can counter-attack quickly.

Ielati.. 16days injury!
Not exactly welcome when I have to play Achmid's and FCM the next two games... by far the hardest two games of my league.
Oh well... I guess that's the only downside of having NT players...

At least with having my best player out for two weeks I can't hope anything in the next two league games. I won't hold it against the NT, no worries...

*Minkee realises what it is to go up the ranks...* :)

haha, all our stars are getting injured at the same time!

don't think the tactic choice was the right one. Think I would have preferred a flat back 5 1dm to a back 4 2 dm's when the dm's are playing that defensively and the opposition were clearly going to exploit the wing making the 2 dm's relatively useless. Other than that we gave away far too many shots on the edge of the box by defenders retreating too far too quickly, if they retreat that far back you need players filling the hole on the box. Finally, way too much space in midfield for England to use to stretch the defense. I'd have thought a 5,1dm or even a 3,3 or 4,1 would have gone down easier.

Anyways, criticism aside England were the better side both skill and tactic wise and deserved the win they got.

Edit: In saying all this I perhaps shouldn't be the one talking given my woeful effort last weekend.
(editado)

I have made a tactic for this match which I believe will work quite effectively. There were a couple of selection dramas due to the fact that both Ielati and Libbesson are out Injured/Suspended I have pushed Morton out of the defence line to become a Def Mid. The idea is to hold them out and defend neatly through the middle, while being able to spread the ball wide through the attack. This is a tactic that should win us the game, and hopefully the selections and positions of players work out nicely.

A good win against a very defensive outfit.. Good to see the U21 winning again :)

Well done TM, hands down tactical victory.

Yeah was a good win, probably could have ended in a bigger margin. Outplayed them tactically although a few areas that need serious looks at include the offensive throw positions. The top 2 squares on the tactic editor on both sides were very poor and killed the attack whenever they booted it out because we'd turn the ball over from nobody being in a position to receive a throw.

Probably should have been Muscat substituted instead of Alagich for Drum but that's something I tend to consider with all team selections. For example if you've got 1 striker with mainly striker and pace and 2 strikers with mainly striker and tech, as a general rule I like to sub off the one where I've got the same type back. I always consider looking at combinations and it's the same with the other positions too. Central midfielder/Wingers/Central Defenders/Outside Defenders. Depends on what my objectives for the game are.

Anyway, outplayed them, some of the striker runs were quite effective as the ball went wide to Puca and the defenders covered up and made it difficult for Greece to get a shot on goal.
(editado)

villafane is listed, agreed with nepthali
hopefully he will becom a master for your NT - i will be waching your games still - just lik i do now:)

hehehe... i smell money! :D