December 28, 2009

No podcast this week, while the FM-Britain staff tuck into their turkey, visit family and generally do the whole Christmas thing. However, here’s a bit of a preview of what will be coming on the next FM-Britain tactics video.

Something to have a think about is non-mirrored formations. In the next video, I will be looking at the thing we have talked about most over the past few weeks – shape. The team’s shape is key to keeping a solid defence.

Imagine that you are playing a standard 4-4-2 formation. How would you deal with a formation that wasn’t a standard 4-4-2? Would you play your own game and try to use your system to break theirs? Or would you adapt to them in an attempt to nullify them.

For the most part, if you’re the better team, playing at home and with good players in important positions you probably can play with your usual style. You may need to make a couple of changes to break them down, but overall you should be fine. But, playing away or against a stronger team, or against a side with players who can exploit this space – in these situations you’d better have a plan B.

For instance. One PKM I saw had a team playing 4-4-2 against a narrow 4-2-3-1. The side midfielders (AMCl and AMCr) were pretty good players, and so were able to exploit the space. The human was playing away from home against a decent side.

Similarly, I saw another where a 4-4-2 was playing against a quasi-4-2-4, with two DMCs and wingers in the AMR and AML positions. The opposition was Real Madrid, with Ronaldo and Benzema in the two wing positions causing absolute havoc. The strong DMCs were also causing big problems.

The solutions to these problems are not necessarily to completely change the way that you play. But to ignore a threat is plain stupid. Sometimes, the opposition will find a system which minimises its weaknesses versus your system and exploits its strengths. Some little adjustments with marking, personnel and positioning should reverse this balance.

In the next few weeks, then, expect the next episode of the tactics video where we will look at this in more detail.

Merry Christmas all! Hope you’re enjoying the new patch, and the new year will see more episodes of both the video and the podcast!