Tactic's and Training

[Aarfy Aardvark]

When it comes to matchday you can pick specific players/positions to mark, at least you could in 06.

AI changes it. It was a nightmare to get Makelele to man-mark Gerrard out of the game - it kept going back to Alonso for some reason. The whole system alters, meaning that you can't get your natural right back to man-mark the left-winger. Even when the computer scrambles the formation in such a way that the right back chooses to man-mark the CF or DMC instead.

The whole system of specific man-marking is redundant if you can't actually choose who you want to mark'

 

[Aarfy Aardvark]

Do you all use "Tight Marking"?
and should I set 1 of my 2 DC to do closing up often, and the other rarely?

Hmmmm. It depends, they'll need good work-rate and stamina. If your defender is hunk of lumbering crap and can't move pretty well, its best to keep him to not rush into challenges. If your player is quick, strong and has a good work-rate then by all means get him to close down your man. I think Gallas is a good exponent of this.

If you overplay closing down - then you'll find that other players will have more free-space and if the marked player in question has good dribbling and pace, he will destroy your centre-back.

I would use tight-marking if you want to close down the opposition and deny better players at the expense of your defenders having space to build the attack or intercept anything.

As a rule of thumb, I wouldn't set one of my defenders to closing down. Mainly because I like to have them as intertwined as possible. However it can be useful to negate one of them to a player who can be over-ran by a good defender closing them down.

I often think a sweeper/liberio system is quite useful for this... Especially if you push them forward and get them hitting balls into the midfield.

 

[Gerrard 17]

After a really ****ty start to the season I switched to a 4-3-3 and I've been unbeaten with Liverpool throughout September and October. I didn't even really play around with individual settings too much.

 

[champdave]

I'm playing a fairly stereotypical 4-4-2 at the moment and it's working out - won all 8 of my first 8 league games, and I've scored 15/conceded 0. Not played against any of the bigger teams yet (except Marseille, who I beat 1-0) so I'll give it a while and then look at it again.

 

[houston3721]

I'm playing a fairly stereotypical 4-4-2 at the moment and it's working out - won all 8 of my first 8 league games, and I've scored 15/conceded 0. Not played against any of the bigger teams yet (except Marseille, who I beat 1-0) so I'll give it a while and then look at it again.

*little bit off topic*
I got no David Bellion in my game when I start with large db...
should we select many more leagues in order to have more players?

 

[champdave]

*little bit off topic*
I got no David Bellion in my game when I start with large db...
should we select many more leagues in order to have more players?

Up to you- he's not really a great loss to you. (he would be to me though, cracking player) I selected French, English, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Swedish and Finnish leagues on Medium database.

and what is the meaning of "Show Onto Foot" in Opposition Intructions?

"Show onto foot" means you try and force a player to use a specific foot. Like if you were playing against John Arne Riise, show him onto his right foot as it's no way near as strong as his left.

 

[Daz]

I'm determined to get a 3-5-2 formation to work in this game - well i've adapted it to be more of a 3-3-1-2-1. And so far it doesnt seem to be that bad at all, beat Chelsea 3-1 with it, but also lost 1-0 to Olympiakos at home :/

To start with i had Rooney upfront with Toni, but i found that there was this huge gap between the midfield and the strikers, so pulling him back into AM with CR has done wonders to link the play.

My initial problem was that would CR really be as effective in the middle as on the wing, but he seems to be doing fantastic so far. Disappointed with Toni though; doesn't seem to be performing as the target man id've liked.

Comments?

 

[pefan]

The computer changes player positions frequently like every couple of minutes so theres no point man marking because players will come out of there positions.

A team like Man Utd will have players swapping positions frequently.

 

[Aarfy Aardvark]

Man-marking is really only best left to the lower leagues, where the rigour is 4-4-2.

If you play 3-5-2, then the system pratically requires zonal marking. Something like a flat-back four could do well to stop a front four with some man-marking. The problem I've found with this though, is that its very hard to negate an attacking full-back. In theory its a great little system whereby you can exploit this space, however you give your opposition too much time on the ball, and allow him to attack you in different ways.

I often use man-marking within a zonal system to negate a key player in their side. So for instance if I played against that above Manure formation, I would look to shut down Rooney and Ronaldo with two DMC's and have their wing-backs closed down by my fullbacks. I think a 4-2-2-2 would be quite a effective with some creative wide players on the flanks and a pacey front duo dropping deep.

I'm bored of having a go at the lower leagues, I think I'm going to go and manage Celtic and see what the state of play is over there.

 

[Aarfy Aardvark]

I actually am so tempted to take charge of PSG as well, however I don't think I could rise to that particualr challenge just yet.

Btw: Has anyone managed to sign Palacio yet? Boca keep rejected my bids.