Here's what I do against top tier teams in the FM edition, and usually works. There are some points:
--Look at their tactic...if it's 4-4-2.--
CMD man-marks one of the strikers. CD with better speed marks the other (in the same zone as him, of course). The other CD is zonal, but tight. If their wingers are great (Ronaldo, Malouda, stuff like that), your wingers should tighly man-mark them. The LD and RD should be there to cover if your wingers fail or if their left/right-backs overlaps.
--If it's 4-5-1...--
Nothing better. One CD tighly marks the striker, the other does zonal tighly. If they put loads of midfielders in the box for the final blow, you better put the CMD helping the CD back there, with defensive attitude. If not, then the CMD may have loads of space to do their game. The wingers man-marking stuff also applies here. Loads of pressure is needed against those guys, the midfield usually gets very overloaded in these matches.
--General considerations--
- If they have a really good playmaker/long range (Lampard), you better put a big line of pressure there.
- If their strikers are quick, deep defensive line. If their great in air, high defensive line. If they have someone great in air and another quick as hell (Villa and Zigic always comes to mind, and Valencia are quite hard to win) then you are screwed. Put the line in the middle.
- Wing plays, always normal attitude, counter-attack ticked if your team is quick.
- Tempo and Time Wasting are optional. But if you are winning without deserving it, you better start to up the Time Wasting a bit and slower the tempo and promote long passing if you have a good target man, or just short passing between the defenders.
- Creative freedom for the 5 in the back should be lower than normal. They can't concede errors.
- Be careful in the last 30/20 minutes if you are winning. The other team goes 4-2-4 usually, so man-mark accordingly. A good time to counter-attack as well. In other words, the match "brokes", and there are loads of space.
- In corners, defend with 9 if you have a great defense. If you are unsure about your defense, defend with 10. In tight situations, everyone should be in the back.
- If you have a quick striker, through balls are a wonder. And put him pressuring a lot to waste the CD.
This is usually what I do. And it usually works. Of course sometimes I lose, even if making everything right, but it's usually by 1-0, 2-1. And sometimes i scrap a horrid 1-0 win without deserving, but football is that. On the other hand, I got some amazing wins like 3-0 at Benfica's home and 4-1 at Porto's home (with Sporting Lisbon). Can't complain there mate
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