June 16, 2007

Top Teams Tactical Guidance
How to win when everybody plays ultra-defensively against you

Playing as a top team is not always the easy task it seems to be. You expect your team to win almost every game, the board, the fans and the players expect the same. But unfortunately, the opposition has eleven players as well, and they are always free to park the bus in front of their goal for ninety minutes and pray that they may strike lucky and convert one of the few chances they might get or take profit from a blatant defensive error of your team.

This does happen in both games, this one and the real one; it is fair, it is not an AI cheat, it does decide about titles and sackings – and, to be honest, this is maybe one of the most important challenges for the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsène Wenger and Frank Rijkaard. So, why should it not be for you? If you are moaning about this and accuse the AI of cheating, you will not find any ammunition here. If you want to find a few hints how to avoid this, please read on.

If you have built a wonderful, counter-attacking or possession-based tactic, which is able to dominate the few opponents of equal or even slightly better quality then your side, you have made the first step towards winning the big titles, domestic and continental. Given that this is a proven, well working tactic now, you will need to make certain adjustments in order not to lose your points when playing the sure-fire home and away games. But keep that excellent tactic on file – you may need it one day.

First off: if you did not read the article ‘Reading the AI tactical systems’ so far, you really should do this now. As a top team, you always should be able to read the game your opposition does play, and it will make a huge difference if you are facing a minor side playing a long farrowed 4-4-2 against you while staying on a possession based system (which could mean just keep your attacking approach and change nothing) or a Real Madrid going into an attacking mode while keeping two defensive midfielders on the pitch. If you base your decisions by looking at these formations, the game might already be lost for you.

The most difficult problems will be ultra-time-wasting opponents, both at home and sooner or later away as well. Playing on the counter and pretending to be a mid-table club will definitely not help you much.

Top teams always should have a second formation or a special tactic suited to counter the time-wasting sides. Obviously, playing on the counter my not help you much against these teams, if you failed to score a lucky early lead.

There are some adaptations you could make:

• Uncheck counter attack, since there are no real counter options anyway
• Play a high defensive line
• Avoid using a full target man, use a semi-target man instead
• Use very aggressive opposition instructions on forwards who try to hold up the ball and keep possession in your half.
• Use very aggressive opposition instructions on time-wasting defenders and keepers
• Use offside trap against hoofed up balls
• Use a sweeping keeper to clean through balls
• Apply an overloading formation against 3-3-2-1-1 systems and very weak teams
• Use very aggressive closing down

Please also have a look at ‘Opposition instructions’ and ‘Tactic Building approaches’, especially the ‘Control’ version approach.

Last but not least, you should always take advantage of good man-management skills and team-talks. Top team managers can be very demanding if it comes to media interaction and team-talks, but you also should not overdo it, since finishing with a few draws already can damage your team morale badly and result in a number of bad results.

Helpful link
Communication and psychological warfare

Tactical Bible Credits
Author: The Next Diaby. Editor: Millie