Playing against 10 men

Anyone else find it very hard playing against 10 men?

Take this game for example (I'm Gateshead), they went down to 10 and went on to score 4 goals away from home. Before the game i was fourth in the table with the second best defensive record in the league and had never let in more than 2 goals at home all season! They were 17th.

Oh, and also they only had 2 clear cut chances and still scored 5..

Against 10 men you need to stay calm and not think, right its attack time! They will obviously look to keep things tight and may well go ultra defensive. To combat this you need to slow things down, widen the play and let them tire themselves out so you can exploit gaps in their defence due to the extra man. Against 10 men I usually go: Control mentality, and then use these shouts: drop deeper and play wider, get ball forward(these 3 make the pitch bigger with you dropping back your d-line, widening it and hitting longer passes to your boys either opposite or higher up the pitch) and sometimes work ball into box. If they are still holding me with 5 or 10 minutes to go I'll switch to attacking and maybe 'look for overlap'.

EDIT: oh and don't get dragged into the CCC nonsense. It has little to no relevance to you scoring or winning.

My tactic is very defensive anyway and i only play 1 up. I find teams just seem to get much better against me when they go down to 10.. You must admit scoring 4 after going down to 10 away from home against a team with the second best defence in the division is a tad extreme?

My tactic is very defensive anyway and i only play 1 up. I find teams just seem to get much better against me when they go down to 10..

Against 10 you should definitely look to switch that defensiveness up then to control!

I would play with wide wingers playing short passing to stretch them

I would play with wide wingers playing short passing to stretch them

I did do..

I did do..

aha - great minds think alike (but fools seldom differ)

My tactic is very defensive anyway and i only play 1 up. I find teams just seem to get much better against me when they go down to 10.. You must admit scoring 4 after going down to 10 away from home against a team with the second best defence in the division is a tad extreme?

Re: your edited bit, its a lot but I won't admit that without seeing a .pkm or uploaded save. You could have hit overload left loads of spaces and then even with 10 men it would be easy to pick those gaps up and batter you.

For RL examples see Arsenal (much as I hate to admit it) when they had Viera et al, they were always going down to 10 men and often performed better then.

Re: your edited bit, its a lot but I won't admit that without seeing a .pkm or uploaded save. You could have hit overload left loads of spaces and then even with 10 men it would be easy to pick those gaps up and batter you.

For RL examples see Arsenal (much as I hate to admit it) when they had Viera et al, they were always going down to 10 men and often performed better then.

Well i didn't hit overload, why would i be saying it was strange if i had of done?! I play with a classic tactic and the mentality never went above half way (normal).

Well i didn't hit overload, why would i be saying it was strange if i had of done?! I play with a classic tactic and the mentality never went above half way (normal).

Fair enough, but one screenshot doesn't tell enough to say whether you've been gipped by the ME or made a tactical boo boo.

Fair enough, but one screenshot doesn't tell enough to say whether you've been gipped by the ME or made a tactical boo boo.

I'm putting it down as a freak. It's rare for me to score or let in 5!

I went down to 10 men in the 8th minute away to a lower in the table side at 0-0 and ended up winning 7-0

There was an interesting article in this month's FourFourTwo about this exact thing. While the 4 goals is a tad extreme (though, on one of my games I scored 5 after going down to 10; they only netted one, and that was int he dying minutes of the game). Some former manager was saying, just because you are up a man, doesn't mean you are going to win 10 nil. You need to use your full backs to get forward, because they are your extra man, he said. You also need to keep possession and wear down the other team, because when they get tired is when you can exploit them. Playing against ten men you have to be patient.