Opposition Instructions

My management has always made pretty limited use of this. I've only ever used it to tackle hard on playerswho have annoyed me in the game and get my players to hack them to pieces with some sadistic pleasure. To an extent I can understand using it to heavily mark the opponents dangerman whos been bigging himself up. However I dont even use this as from my expirience of real life football overmarking the dangerman results in an awesome game for his strike partner.

I'm not saying its a rubbish feature, im sure theres a lot you can do with it, I just havn't found it yet. What do you guys use it for?

This is nothing to do with it but you know before the game when it says opposite instructions; not ONCE in the whole of last year did i see one instruction for ONE of their players, anybody know why?

Here are some things I like to do:

For opposition GK with poor anticipation and composure and/or high eccentricity - closing down ALWAYS (and occasionally, tight marking also). Encourages my strikers to get in his face, can lead to intercepted backpasses and occasional goalkeeping gaffes.

When chasing a game, Tight Marking: Always and Closing Down: Always for all four members of the opposition back line. Don't give them time to hoof it clear, and a turnover in the back line can often lead to a quick breakaway goal.

Under normal circumstances, if I spot a DC with poor anticipation and composure, I find its worth Closing Down: Always on him, as it can force him into errors as well.

For opposition fullbacks who love bombing forward and drilling crosses, Show Onto: Weaker Foot. Especially useful if they are single-footed as it really slows down the crossing.

For opposition wingers who are single-footed, Show Onto: Weaker Foot. Helps prevent them from swinging in their cross, or cutting inside (if their weaker foot is the outside foot). Warning: equal-footed wingers who like cutting inside will tear you to shreds if you do this by always "force ML to Right Foot, force MR to Left Foot"! - I learned that lesson the hard way!

For opposition central midfielders, especially slow-of-foot but technically brilliant playmakers, Tight Marking Always.

For opposition strikers who are single-footed, Show Onto: Weaker Foot. If a guy is only willing to shoot with his right foot, take it away from him!

For players with low Bravery, Hard Tackling: Always. You'll see your guys win far more than their share of fifty-fifty balls against that player.

. . .

A couple OI that I think don't work:

Closing Down: Always on midfield players. When I do this, I tend to see my back line picked to pieces because they abandon their marking responsibilities to close down the midfielder, leaving a simple pass in behind them to slice open the defense. If you want your midfield to close down their midfield, its better to set your four midfielders to a high Closing Down than to try to do it via O.I.

Show Onto: Weaker Foot on central midfielders. They tend to operate in too much space, so if you "give" them one side, they'll simply pass or dribble into it even if it is theoretically their "weaker" side.

Tight Marking: Always on pacey wingers or strikers. They always tear my guys up, even if it looks like we have comparable pace and acceleration.

. . .

One of my favorite techniques is double-covering somebody, which isn't really an OI but might feel related:

Against their AMR, set my ML to explicit man-mark him, Tight Marking checked. Set my DL to explicit man-mark him, Tight Marking off.

Against their ST, set my DMC to explicit man-mark him, Tight Marking checked. Set my DC to explicit man-mark him, Tight Marking off.

The effect is you get the "Tight Marking" guy positioned between him and the ball, and the defender positioned between him and the goal. I've successfully bracketed a player completely out of the game with this technique.

I always have had mixed success with opp instr but I do still set closing down and tight marking to always for the slowest 2 or 3 players on their team as I have seen this directly result in dispossession.

Other than that I only really change around marking responsibilities, my best DC/DM header on theirs, my fastest defender on theirs if they have a real pacey threat, things like that.

This is nothing to do with it but you know before the game when it says opposite instructions; not ONCE in the whole of last year did i see one instruction for ONE of their players, anybody know why?

Because you didn't set any!

Here are some things I like to do:

For opposition GK with poor anticipation and composure and/or high eccentricity - closing down ALWAYS (and occasionally, tight marking also). Encourages my strikers to get in his face, can lead to intercepted backpasses and occasional goalkeeping gaffes.

Under normal circumstances, if I spot a DC with poor anticipation and composure, I find its worth Closing Down: Always on him, as it can force him into errors as well.

I do like what you do however concentration is the attribute to look at rather than composure. Composure is an attacking attribute which rates composure in front of goal, and is most important in one-on-ones. Concentration is pretty much the defensive equivalent.

What I do is this:

Defenders with low concentration get closed down and shown on the weaker foot.

Goalkeepers with high eccentricity get closed down and shown on the weaker foot, especially if their concentration is low.

I tend to look at decisions too but concentration and eccentricity are the major ones, especially if they have low morale and/or poor form.

Agreed, concentration and decisions factor into my decision as well - as does sheer age, actually. I'm much more likely to go after a 19-year-old or 20-year-old than a 30-year-old.

On the composure issue, I've interpreted "composure" as "composure while on the ball and under pressure", and from my experience it is a useful thing to judge on for this purpose.

I always close down the DCs and the GK.

If a player has condition below 75% I tackle hard, this does not include offensive players though, because I am too worried about causing penalties

But it can cause the odd injury and make them subsitute.

Can be more effective if you do it on players with low bravery I believe, but I am too lazy for all that effort and stick to the above.

oh, and slightly injured players will also be tackled hard!

Composure is usefull, maybe not as much as concentration or decisions for defenders but, it still take up some CA point as you can see with the research tool - its not only for attackers..

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