Understanding opposition instructions.

I understand the benefit of opposition instructions. All to well in fact as in a network game once i saw my friend take karslruhe (in the second season) and beat Bayern munich 1-0 in the cup final by playing some ridiculously defensive tactics throughout the tournament, with no strikers and one player in attacking midfield. He had every opposition instruction on every player, or so he says.

Anyway, opposition instructions are good at thwarting players, especially skillful players. I like to use them on threats. Edin Dzeko used to score every game against me until i used all the OIs on him and he then rarely scored again. However! Do OIs sometimes contradict your tactics?

For example, A right winger andf left winger, its is alwas advised to show them onto weaaker foot to stop their threat. Hence doing this will subdue them slightly, but in turn will open up all sorts of problems as it will be showing them inside and cause problems for you. Especially if you play with cbs that are very good in the air and the have an aerially inept striker. In this instance i would put show to right foot for a rtight winger, and vice versa. Still getting the ass manager whatever quality he is lamenting that i show him onto his weaker foot.

What if you play a stand off style? Should you abstain from using closing down on players? If you sit back and have closing down on OI which one overides the other?

I think that opposition instructions can be effective, however their are times when i dont even use them at all, and this works too. What are others experience of OIs? Helpful or Hinderance?

Finally I would like to see them taken a bit further. Perhaps Double up! If a wingger is very successful then tell the team to double up on him (left mid track back a lot more and work with left back)