Asunto: u21 friendlies

Guys, with so many changes made in the new ME it is really hard to find what tactic is really working best these days, beacause the players behave so differently than before.
There has been increasing number of surprising results as it is harder for strikers to score a goal and better teams are more frequently loosing to outsiders, unfortunately we have not been lucky yet to get some nice result against a better team.
Recently there've been another updates in the ME so I really don't know what to expect and I have to try some new things, even though I hate to use NT matches especially in WCQ for experiments.

Moldova is recovering from a devastating draw against Korea that I posted here and which was even used in international forums as an example of the new ME troubles:-)

Iľl try classic 442 without wing (2x DEFMID,2x OFFMID), as the winger position is less and less usefull (and we dont even have a suitable player for it) in the new ME and we will play very high defense. It seems like the players are struggling against higher defenses and are passing the ball unnecessarily back and to the side instead of through ball to the strikers. We'll see how it goes..

Squad
1 Fabien Lechesa GK
2 Mfundo Jooste DEF
3 Fabian Olivier DEF
4 Dominic Cole DEF
5 Shaun Sekano DEF
6 Jimmy Molefe MID
7 Petrus Hendricks MID
8 Zane Matsau MID
9 Arthur Serola ATT
10 Paul Kalaka MID
11 Thabiso Ledwaba ATT

12 Jeffrey Tavlibudine GK
13 Ryan Lehoko MID
14 Granwald Masenia ATT
15 Bonang Ludick ATT
16 Austin Sibaya DEF
Set pieces
Free kick: not specified
Penalty kick: Arthur Serola
Conditional orders
Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 1
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 2
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 3
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 4
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 5
68' always
Granwald Masenia on position 11

Good luck! I hope the tactics work out for you!

Jup, high defense and no use of a pure winger are 2 certain things to do in this ME. Good luck mate!

Ukraine likes to play 2 wingers and we are missing Matsau so 3 MIDs and 5 defenders is a no brainer.
Again we will try very high defense.

Tactic will be called Шевче́нко

This is our line up

Squad
1 Fabien Lechesa GK
2 Shaun Sekano DEF
3 Fabian Olivier DEF
4 Dominic Cole DEF
5 Mfundo Jooste DEF
6 Austin Sibaya DEF
7 Paul Kalaka MID
8 Jimmy Molefe MID
9 Arthur Serola ATT
10 Petrus Hendricks MID
11 Granwald Masenia ATT

12 Jeffrey Tavlibudine GK
13 Ryan Lehoko MID
14 Thabiso Ledwaba ATT
15 Bonang Ludick ATT
16 Mwila Champion DEF
Set pieces
Free kick: not specified
Penalty kick: Arthur Serola
Conditional orders
Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 1
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 2
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 3
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 4
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 5
1' always
Paul Kalaka on position 6
50' always
Thabiso Ledwaba on position 11
80' always
Bonang Ludick on position 9

(editado)

Great. Good luck!

African friendly against Kenya should be cakewalk but the new match engine has will on it's own as you can see here in another example of it's unpredictability.

Kenya has a great striker Ngigi Phiri who's value is almost twice as high as owr strikers, but the rest of the team is not that good and we should get a win.

We will play 442 without wing, but it would be tactic and positioning I've never used before, very offensive, with defenders on opponents half, I kinda like it so we'll see how it goes.
We should at least create a lot of pressure and play mostly on their half, hopefully that Kenyan striker won't get many opportunities for break aways..

Squad
1 Fabien Lechesa GK
2 Shaun Sekano DEF
3 Fabian Olivier DEF
4 Dominic Cole DEF
5 Mfundo Jooste DEF
6 Paul Kalaka MID
7 Zane Matsau MID
8 Jimmy Molefe MID
9 Arthur Serola ATT
10 Petrus Hendricks MID
11 Granwald Masenia ATT

12 Jeffrey Tavlibudine GK
13 Ryan Lehoko MID
14 Thabiso Ledwaba ATT
15 Bonang Ludick ATT
16 Mwila Champion DEF
Set pieces
Free kick: not specified
Penalty kick: Arthur Serola
Conditional orders
Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 1
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 2
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 3
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 4
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 5
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 6
50' always
Thabiso Ledwaba on position 11
80' always
Bonang Ludick on position 9

Guys any idea what to play against Moldavia? So far I've set up the same tactic as in the friendly against Kenya. We won the match, so may be it can bring us some luck, since tactic seems to be marginal these days :-)

But I'm listening to ideas..

Hmm, ok, here are some thoughts.

You have had some rough results with the engine this season, but you have also been facing some pretty tough opposition and I'm more than happy with the job you've been doing.

The tactic you used against Kenya worked very well. The team completely dominated that match by shots and territory, and it's certainly worth considering using it again. That said, Kenya were quite weak, especially compared with Moldova who have produced the best marks against us this season.

When we last played Moldova, the score was only 0-1, but the 3-9 shot count, low possession rate, and most of the play in our half does suggest that we shouldn't repeat the same tactics this time.

Looking at the last match, they completely dominated in the midfield. I see little chance of beating them by going through the middle, which implies that we need a wing. Yes, the ME concerns are there, and we don't really have a great wing prospect right now, but they are so strong in the centre and play a narrow formation, so it may be our only chance. Their right back looked like a potential weak point, so go down the left if you choose to use a wing - assuming their players remain the same! ;)

I haven't looked at the tactics from their other matches, so I don''t know if they change it around a lot. If they don't, you could try to focus our best defenders in a narrow area in the centre to concentrate on their twin strikers, and then use more mid-like players in the wider positions, similar to the way Carna has used them in the senior team. Somehow, we need to keep the ball away from their mids, or cut out their route to the strikers, while at the same time leaving us an attacking option.

Whatever you decide, good luck!

Thanks for the remarks I appriciate it.
I was certainly big fan of wingers, you know I used it almost the whole last season with Methula even though sometimes it was not necessary and I still use it in my club (although I have really suberb winger there), but I'm afraid if the winger is not excaptional in the new engine, it is not a good option. The headers are pretty much useless now. Anyway it might be something the Moldova coach won't expect and it's worth a try at least, as you said it would be tough to create something else through the middle..Certainly the only player qualified as a winger is Matsau.

Moldova coach is changing tactics for every game, so that makes it more difficult. Using mid-like players in the wider positions..hmm we don't have that much to choose from, Sibaya, Sekano and Jooste at least have some MID secondaries and they are playing anyway, I could try Kalaka on the wing back instead of Jooste may be and insert Lehoko as a starting off MID, it would hurt us defensively, but help in the midfield as he has better MID skills than Kalaka.
Or may be I'll try 532 with a wing :-) I've played it in my club..
Or I might try 2 tactics this time :-) Offensive 442 with Lehoko for a half (he has low stamina anyway) and than 532
The real question is how high should be our defense line? :-)

I always use 2 tactics which are opposite to eachother, it could be a very useful feature, so why not use it? ;-) You have to keep in mind to check thoroughly the number of the positions in both tactics, for exemple you need to avoid a striker becoming defender in the other tactic :p

And I do not know the strenghts and weaknesses of this U21 squad but I'd suggest a 6-2-2 with 2 'mid-like' players on the wing backs, like Marc already said. I do understand, though, there aren't much players capable of playing that position. An offensive wing doesn't seem to be that useful these days, but in my opinion 'lower positioned' wingers could be more useful since there is often lots of space in front of the wingbacks of the opponent, this gives the winger(s) time to deliver a decent cross.

For last, I'd definitely suggest a high def line. One-on-ones aren't that effective, long distance shots on the contrary are more often scored.

I've set up the tactics like this


Squad
1 Fabien Lechesa GK
2 Shaun Sekano DEF
3 Fabian Olivier DEF
4 Dominic Cole DEF
5 Paul Kalaka DEF
6 Jimmy Molefe MID
7 Petrus Hendricks MID
8 Zane Matsau MID
9 Arthur Serola ATT
10 Ryan Lehoko MID
11 Granwald Masenia ATT

12 Jeffrey Tavlibudine GK
13 Mfundo Jooste DEF
14 Thabiso Ledwaba ATT
15 Bonang Ludick ATT
16 Austin Sibaya MID
Set pieces
Free kick: not specified
Penalty kick: Arthur Serola
Conditional orders
Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Granwald Masenia on position 1
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 2
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 3
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 4
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 5
45' always
Change tactics for Additional tactic
46' always
Mfundo Jooste on position 10
47' always
Mfundo Jooste on position 6
48' always
Mfundo Jooste on position 5
50' always
Thabiso Ledwaba on position 11
80' always
Bonang Ludick on position 9

First tactic



Second tactic



I hope the substitutions will be fine according to the changed tactic, it's bit tricky :-)
High defense is used in both of them. Although I think after some updates the 1on1 situations are better than before, they made the Gks weaker and the shots stronger again..

Btw. I played my strikers with MID order last club match and they seemed to be even better than with ATT order, there was no visible difference in their dicision making and they even scored some nice long distance goal (they didn't make any before). I scored 7 goals out of 14 shots with MID order..

I'm gonna try that 622 against Bulgaria in our next match ;-)

Oh and i'll put mirror in the first tactic, the winger will be on the left side.

interessting, 1:3 is not bad result against such a strong team as Bulgaria is.
It is interessting, that you had same tactics (your second one) :-)

in 14 days in am playing with Turkey and it seems I will be in the same situation

We should face Nigeria this week, but their coach ignored our agreement, so we are facing tougher Wales instead, it will be much tougher match especially because we are missing Molefe and Ledwaba.

I'll try 4-3-3 this time, without Molefe we don't have adequate substitute in midfield so I decided to put extra striker:-) Hopefully it will bring some more scoring chances. Ludick is returning to the squad, so we can look forward to some woodwork action:-)

Squad
1 Fabien Lechesa GK
2 Shaun Sekano DEF
3 Fabian Olivier DEF
4 Dominic Cole DEF
5 Mfundo Jooste DEF
6 Paul Kalaka MID
7 Petrus Hendricks MID
8 Zane Matsau MID
9 Granwald Masenia ATT
10 Bonang Ludick ATT
11 Arthur Serola ATT

12 Jeffrey Tavlibudine GK
13 Ryan Lehoko MID
14 Kamaal Cupido ATT
15 Valentine Methula ATT
16 Austin Sibaya DEF
Set pieces
Free kick: not specified
Penalty kick: Arthur Serola
Conditional orders
Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Granwald Masenia on position 1
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 2
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 3
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 4
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 5
70' always
Kamaal Cupido on position 10

After recent update, wow:

Jimmy Molefe, age: 21

club: Cologne Canaries, country: South Africa,
value: 23 535 059 Kč, wage: 197 251 Kč,
outstanding form, incredible tactical discipline,
height: 187 cm, ·weight: 77.0783 kg , BMI: 22.04
bookings:
Last update: 2012-08-24
formidable Stamina hopeless Keeper
brilliant Pace outstanding Defender
incredible Technique excellent Playmaker
outstanding Passing adequate Striker

Very nice!

I just compared him with Matsau who has a similar value. Looks good. :)

Zane Matsau, age: 21

club: Durban Pace Academy, country: South Africa,
value: 6 536 000 R, wage: 51 000 R,
magical [15] form, brilliant [14] tactical discipline,
height: 178 cm, ·weight: 71.6664 kg
bookings:
NTDB:
formidable [11] stamina tragic [0] keeper
brilliant [14] pace adequate [6] defender
very good [9] technique outstanding [12] playmaker
brilliant [14] passing poor [3] striker

Molefe: 14-13-12-12-10 with 12 form
Matsau: 14-14-12-9 with 15 form