900+ passes is it possible on FM?

Opta just tweeted:

924 - Man City's total of 924 passes v Stoke, Domination.

or in picture format:

Is this possible? I've tried with Man City, and the best team you can be on Football Manager for possession football, Barcelona.

But I can't get anywhere near 900 passes.. even with Barcelona?

I've got to 600/780 passes... but that's usually with a 0-0 / 1-0 scoreline.

Doubt it. Game is far too flawed. You could maybe get 900 passes with Barcelona but you'd still lose 6-0 to a non-league side because it's impossible to play possession football and score a reasonable amount of goals/create a reasonable amount of chances, sadly.

That's not strictly true Karftwerk.

I would stop concentrating on the number of passes. FM, as a representation of real life, doesn't have the full scope to deal with everything that happens in real football, but you can definitely dominate possession and create chances. Especially against poor opposition.

I believe a match in FM is "shorter" as a real life match due to how tragically long it takes for an injured player to get off the pitch or a ball to get collected for a free kick etc. The game also just seems to move slower in general. As such it's probably more realistic to aim for half the amount of passes just to compensate for the difference in effective game time. I'd personally focus more on how it looks and plays in the ME than the stats it produces afterwards.

I believe a match in FM is "shorter" as a real life match due to how tragically long it takes for an injured player to get off the pitch or a ball to get collected for a free kick etc. The game also just seems to move slower in general. As such it's probably more realistic to aim for half the amount of passes just to compensate for the difference in effective game time. I'd personally focus more on how it looks and plays in the ME than the stats it produces afterwards.

an fm match played in "real time" is far shorter than a 90 minute match so to get 900+passes game in game out is probably a little to unrealistic,besides i'd rather nick the ball in midfield and half a dozen passes later put the ball in the back of the net.

an fm match played in "real time" is far shorter than a 90 minute match so to get 900+passes game in game out is probably a little to unrealistic,besides i'd rather nick the ball in midfield and half a dozen passes later put the ball in the back of the net.

That's definitively true and the reason why I only concentrate on my passing percentage and not on the number of passes or the possession. I try to setup my team in a way that they pick the secure pass first and only try the through ball or the dribbling if the space opens up.

Usually I end up around 85% passing percentage and 60-70% possession while scoring ~2,5 goals per game and only conceding ~0,5 goals per game, this season it's even only 0,1 in 12 games and I just got my "part the tank" achievement.

Sure possession is probably not the way to go if you want your team to score 4+ goals per game and your main striker 80+ goals per season but if you can live with more realistic stats and want to enjoy some nice passing football it can be done with the ME but don't expect passing stats like the ones of Barca or City above.

Well, I'm getting 85%+ passing and 60%+ possession while averaging 3.8 goals a game and conceding 0.5, but I don't think I'm making that huge number of passes like 900+. For example, my highest passer usually attempts around 50 passes per game, while achieving around 90% completion. In fact, I also am not focused on the number of passes but more so on the possession and successful passes with high scoring as much as possible. This is usually how many passes my players attempts:

Fullbacks = around 40 passes (sometimes more if the opposition uses narrow formation)

Centerbacks = around 30 passes (one usually more than the other)

2MCs = one is around 50 as i said before, the other one around 40 passes

AMC = around 25 passes

Wingers = around 20-25 passes

STC = around 20 passes

My basic math tells me that overall it comes to a little over 300 passes attempted, but definitely less than 400 passes for the whole team. And that is a top-class Barca team in the 3rd season with Neymar, Thiago Silva and Aguero as additions each year.

I really think that with the right players it is possible to have good possession and passing completion with reasonably high scoring. But it is not quiet possible to have your playmaker make 100 passes while your team makes over 500 passes and scores lots of goals.

Ah ok, thanks for the replies.

I always thought FM was a full length match? If you select 'full match' highlights, it takes 90 minutes real time to finish, or am I wrong?

I know if you select 'Key' or 'Extended' highlights, the match is still a full length match, but it only shows you selected Key or Extended highlights, and zips through the rest of the match on commentary.

Yeah, I don't mind not having many goal scoring games that Barca have in real life, 5-0's or 6-0's that they get during the season.

I know FM can't handle both (well on previous FM's it hasn't been able to) So I'm willing to sacrifice the goals/chances, just so I can get the dominant, nice passing/movement/possession on the Match Engine instead.

675 passes are possible so probably 900 are not as unreal as we think

Honestly i prefer a player with 40 passes total and something like 3 key passes than 100+ passes total and 0 key passes.

Ah ok, thanks for the replies.

I always thought FM was a full length match? If you select 'full match' highlights, it takes 90 minutes real time to finish, or am I wrong?

I know if you select 'Key' or 'Extended' highlights, the match is still a full length match, but it only shows you selected Key or Extended highlights, and zips through the rest of the match on commentary.

Yeah, I don't mind not having many goal scoring games that Barca have in real life, 5-0's or 6-0's that they get during the season.

I know FM can't handle both (well on previous FM's it hasn't been able to) So I'm willing to sacrifice the goals/chances, just so I can get the dominant, nice passing/movement/possession on the Match Engine instead.

a game watched in full will take (at a guess)60 minutes to play out.

About 60 minutes sounds right. So you'd be looking to get around 600 passes for your team. I personally don't care about how many passes my team makes. As long as I get a win (and preferably a clean sheet) then I'm a happy chap

I have developed a tactic that retains possession on a huge scale and completed passes range from 500 to my highest that I remember is about 726 completed from 787 attempted but to gain these stats you lose a huge amount of attacking threat take the screen shots below as an example

Score lines are usually low 1-0 0-0 sort of thing

I have developed a tactic that retains possession on a huge scale and completed passes range from 500 to my highest that I remember is about 726 completed from 787 attempted but to gain these stats you lose a huge amount of attacking threat take the screen shots below as an example

Score lines are usually low 1-0 0-0 sort of thing

I've been trying with Wigan [i started with Wigan because they have some players who are good technically/ passing.

As Martinez likes is Wigan team to play a similar style of football to Swansea, and he started off the passing philosophy at Swansea when he was manager there]

After alot of tweaking in pre-season, I'm managing to average around 500 passes.. which is good for a 60 minute match. ( some teams don't get more than 400 passes in a 90 minute match, with an extra 30 minutes than you get on FM)

My main aim is to play like Swansea, build up our play right from the back, from the goal keeper.

Work it about all over the pitch, pass it back if we have to, untill gaps open when the opposition get furstrated, and start to leave gaps trying to win the ball back.

It's a joy to watch at times, and our goals so far have been lovely goals. Although like you, we don't create many clear cut chances or have 20-30 shots a match. We have a few shots though, and always seem to hit the post or crossbar.

Still very early days, I'm tweaking in matches, trying to increase passes in area's we are lacking etc. But like people have said, I doubt it will be possible to get anywhere near 900 passes on FM12.

Some nice screen shots there barker mate, have you managed to get the centerbacks to go wide to receive the ball from the GK? how have you gone about setting up your team and individual instructions mate could you send me a link ? be more than happy to send you mine to have a look at this style of play can be infuriating though such lovely passing moves, total domination possession wise and you lose 1-0 lol

Some nice screen shots there barker mate, have you managed to get the centerbacks to go wide to receive the ball from the GK? how have you gone about setting up your team and individual instructions mate could you send me a link ? be more than happy to send you mine to have a look at this style of play can be infuriating though such lovely passing moves, total domination possession wise and you lose 1-0 lol

Nope I've not managed to get the centre backs to go wide to recieve the ball from the keeper, I gave up trying to get that to work on FM a while ago. :-D

I've tried to get them to set up like this:

With my DM sitting deeper like Britton, my other MC playing around the half way line, and the AMC a little further into the other half, behind the strike. And with my right back pushed a little further than my left back, like Rangel.

(Swansea's midfield are normally a bit more forward, but we're pushed back a bit in this game, due to Arsenal trying to close them down)

This was just against Port Vale in the Cup

Not as many passes as I like, but still, I did put a weaker team out (I made 8 changes to the first 11).

And with players like Ravel Morrison, who's greedy and doesn't pass that much, it didn't help.

My usual left winger is good and has good team work, so he has the highest creative freedom in my team (which is not much, as I've used the creative freedom sparingly.. to help keep our shape) so this is probably why Morrison was so greedy. he has the ppm runs with ball often.

Do you use one of the MC as a playmaker? I find selecting one helps as the ball is recycled back more. last season my two DM`s passed the ball successfully around 5000 times over the course of a season (Crisetig and NordtVeit)

Creative freedom like yourself is low all over the park with my str and amc set at 13 and the rest of the team at 5 or below my Right DM has it set around 7 and is my playmaker. passing is short 5 or as low as 0.

Could link my tactic if you fancy a look and vice versa

Do you use one of the MC as a playmaker? I find selecting one helps as the ball is recycled back more. last season my two DM`s passed the ball successfully around 5000 times over the course of a season (Crisetig and NordtVeit)

Creative freedom like yourself is low all over the park with my str and amc set at 13 and the rest of the team at 5 or below my Right DM has it set around 7 and is my playmaker. passing is short 5 or as low as 0.

Could link my tactic if you fancy a look and vice versa

Erm yeah you could do, I'm still tweaking, so see if I can take any tips from your tactic, which gets a big amount of possession.

Yeah, I use the MCR has the playmaker. (James McCarthy and James McArthur as the backup)

Back to 500+ passes in the QPR match, only 1 goal though.. and we hit the woodwork again.

Decent win, they have some strong players in Barton, Wright-Phillips, Taarabt etc, and they have signed Nathan Dyer.

Yaya Sanago came off the bench for his debut, and after some nice patient passing, he showed good speed/strength to get through on goal, but his low shot heading for the corner, came back off the post... would have been a great goal.

[video=youtube;PrFZ7bZIfRw]

Be interesting to see how you gus get on against the big teams.

I am getting my Swansa team to play like this but more attacking, I don't tend to get as high passing stats as you guys but I would like to have a mix of high passing and many decent efforts on goal. At the mo its averaging about 400-450 passes/360-400 completed.

I was not faring aswell against the bigger teams, although I'm still getting high possession and high passing all over the pitch.

Wigan's weak defence is a let down though, low concentration stats etc.

Stam got injured too, so I've been playing Gary Caldwell at right back, which is why we lacked with possession down the righthand side against Arsenal.

Caldwell is more of a centre back/ is slow and struggles to get forward and support down the right.

Also we had 10 men against Aston Villa for the last 25 minutes, so the passes are not as high.

But I'm just into January, and I've made a few new signings.. Joe Bennett/Rivaldo and Sol Bamba coming in, with lot's of players going out too.

A promising start against the big teams, with the new signings:

Rivaldo lobs Joe Hart:

There was loads more passes from the right side of the pitch, then through the centre and back to the keeper, before this video starts.

But the video recording can only be between 10 and 60 seconds long, so I had to cut most of the passes out.

Anyway lots of passes down the left hand side, which eventually stretches Man City, and leaves a wide open gap in the centre for Rivaldo to run into, before lobbing Joe Hart with a delicious chip on his Premier League debut.

We were still doing well against similar teams before the new signings, having 69%+ possession most of the time.

We struggled on Stoke's narrow-longer pitch, Rodellaga was isolated at times, so that's why there are not many passes in their half.

I should have tweaked to adapt, but I couldn't be bothered. :-D

A 2-0 defeat at Sunderland, but we totally out passed them all over the pitch.. ending with 84% possession at full time.

http://i.imgur.com/3k1HO.jpg

But 2 goals from set pieces (a free kick/ corner) gave us an harsh defeat.

it s possible , but my team not create CCC, my team is very closed and no creates CCC

My highest in one game is 779 completed passes.

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/1007/liverpoolvqpranalysisan.png

Hi all, great topic.

I've always tried to play possession tactics and when I saw this, naturally I tried the challenge of 900+ passes.

Iv'e topped the 1000+ successful passes in a match. It is with Barca however who have great passers throughout the team so I don't know yet if the tactics migrate well to different teams (I shall try)

1039 completed passes, 1071 attempted . Clear chances was around 8 I think. Needs some more testing against better opposition, there's a bit of a left side bias and I want to try pushing the passing up field a tad. Away from home however I think its a good tactic to start developing from.

(Bigger picture if that's too small http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/826/alittihadksavbarcelonaa.png)

I shall test/tweak a bit more and post back.

250+ passes for one player?! care to share your tactic or share how it works?

900+ passes is it possible on FM? Yes..

Just sacrificed my League Cup final to pursue this challenge! Was quite fun to watch in 2D, a bit like pinball; but rather frustrating in that I didn't really threaten the Norwich goal. I won't bore you with all the details at this stage, but pretty much sent my players out to just keep the ball, in a slightly unorthodox shape - a 4-3-3-0 you could call it? GK-RB,CB,CB,LB-DM,DM,DM-CM,CM,CM.. Ended up bringing of one my center backs near the end for Torres, who I whacked up front in the hope he may concoct a chance or shot from something. This was over 120mins I must add, but extra time wasn't specified in the question Sadly lost on penalties. Treated the fans to some real football though.. I might add this was aided in Norwich lining up with a narrow midfield diamond, therefore giving me the freedom of the flanks to play keepball in, thus Coetraeo and Papaopoulos being so pass-happy.

As you can see, both keepers were kept busy for the whole two hours..

Some heat maps.. (with the Norwich goal being very tepid)

Don't think I'll be using this system again, think it so far away from being a functional tactic it's untrue; it wouldn't be a question of finding goals from it, more like finding shots at goal. Anyway, was kind of fun!

...been playing around from what you see above, and have managed to score a few goals along the way. Obviously the passing has been toned done somewhat from the absurdities of above, but still some good keep'ball.

This game vs. Bolton I managed to create 3ccc but their keeper had a blinder. I brought out a now 37 year old Frank Lampard out for a rare appearance, and on this showing there maybe a contract extension for him, Paul Scholes esque.

No download links to try these tactics?

Surely, still, this is nigh on impossible with the current ME to re-create it with significant success considering the game counts throw ins as passes, too, correct?

That's impressive tommonufc, what shape are you using?

Hi all, great topic.

I've always tried to play possession tactics and when I saw this, naturally I tried the challenge of 900+ passes.

Iv'e topped the 1000+ successful passes in a match. It is with Barca however who have great passers throughout the team so I don't know yet if the tactics migrate well to different teams (I shall try)

1039 completed passes, 1071 attempted . Clear chances was around 8 I think. Needs some more testing against better opposition, there's a bit of a left side bias and I want to try pushing the passing up field a tad. Away from home however I think its a good tactic to start developing from.

(Bigger picture if that's too small http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/826/alittihadksavbarcelonaa.png)

I shall test/tweak a bit more and post back.

this is amazing. you must upload your tactic!! it would be great to achieve this kind of thing on my save!!!!!

Yes it's definitely possible I would say.

My record (using a tactic I created) in FM 2012 has been at Barcelona, where we reached 849 total passes, with Xavi reaching 170 passes as playmaker. The match was played away against Al-Ittihad funnily enough!

That's impressive tommonufc, what shape are you using?

The first screenshot is a example of the shape I used for the screeshots above, with the second being the line up I used to start the game against Norwich (1000+ passes);

Share some tactic's boys!

Hi all, great topic.

I've always tried to play possession tactics and when I saw this, naturally I tried the challenge of 900+ passes.

Iv'e topped the 1000+ successful passes in a match. It is with Barca however who have great passers throughout the team so I don't know yet if the tactics migrate well to different teams (I shall try)

1039 completed passes, 1071 attempted . Clear chances was around 8 I think. Needs some more testing against better opposition, there's a bit of a left side bias and I want to try pushing the passing up field a tad. Away from home however I think its a good tactic to start developing from.

(Bigger picture if that's too small http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/826/alittihadksavbarcelonaa.png)

I shall test/tweak a bit more and post back.

ben carter 250 passes from 1 player is INSANE tell me how you did it!

I've got 800 passes. More important though is the possession percentage and the number of goals scored, in this match I had 89% possession and scored three goals, plus a missed penalty (all in the first half) against quality opposition.

All these screenshots all good and that but this is the tactics forum. Unless you start discussing the actual settings used etc I'll be forced to closed the thread. Hardly anyone who's posted have gone into any details whatsoever about the actual tactics.

Something quite interesting (as well as specific tactical details from contributors, as Cleon asked for and I agree is important for this thread), is that most of the images thus far show a great deal of focus towards the left.

This is something I've noticed quite a lot myself, when I've viewed the analysis of my own matches in my Granada CF save. It's not something intentional and whenever I see passing analysis images, it seems to be the same for other people too.

I'm not particularly worried about possession or huge passing attempt/completion percentages, as I'm more one for trying to improve the cutting edge of my team. The control and passing is nice to watch, but I like to see my team create plenty of good scoring opportunities. Mindful of that, I actually vary through short, mixed and direct passing, depending on opponents and pitch conditions.

What I do always look for is "balance". That's to say, that I see a good range of passing and movement in all areas of my team, with good quality chances created from all areas too. With no attempts to focus passing left, right or centre, I'm often perplexed as to why it always seems to be more down the left, or left of centre.

One reason I'd thought of was perhaps related to the preferred feet of my central midfielders, or those central players who are more creative. Even experimenting with changing which of the two central midfield berths my deep-lying playmaker works from (left or right central midfield positions), the focus of play always seems to lean towards the left. For example, using a DLP in the right MC position, who is left footed... I would expect him to pass more to the right side. That is, passing across his body position, which would be the more comfortable body position if facing directly forward.

I use a DLP as my example, because he's usually the player with the most space and time to pick his pass.

Part of me feels this could be ME related, whilst the other thinks that there is something we can do (aside from using sliders and specific passing focus instructions), that should influence things more.

Just wanted to throw those thoughts into the mix

I don't obtain the amount of passes as the guys above, I average around 460 passes a game which around 400 are completed. I use Southampton, the team I support and I use the idea of Van Gaal and his Ajax's 3-3-1-3 which draws my attacking art and inspiration from with help Cleon as I saw on his thread and then began reading it, so it wasn't long ago. Plus I'd like to thank him also.

As you can see, I'm also bleeding through the youngsters as well. But back to topic. I'll start from the back. I have signed Marc-André ter Stegen from Borussia Mönchengladbach, and only fairly recently for a cool £7,25 million. His role though the defence is very deep (4), to sweep up those ball up at the back (as well as James Tomkins) and play them out wide to Danny Fox and Jack Stephens. James Tomkins signed from West Ham, my first signing of £3,2 million. He has vastly improved, he is practically unbeatable in the air (Heading, 15 and Jumping, 17) and his role is to sweep up those balls when booted long from the opposition and once again play out wide. Danny Fox and Jack Stephens both at Saints when started, the latter was in the Under 18's, but their roles are to provide support and extra width to the midfield and are that connection from Jack Tomkins and Marc-André ter Stegen to one of the focal points of my midfield, which is Jack Cork.

Now onto the midfield three of Jack Cork, Morgan Schneiderlin and the captain Jack Collison and we shall start with Jack Collison who was signed from West Ham, but for £4,7 million. But he's the runner, generally I have learnt if he's not get involved enough, I have lost the game by at least 2 goals at least. He's the runner, my Frank Lampard, he'll help defence and he does sufficiently well and he provides a passing option in the attack as well as well as scoring a few also! Now onto Jack Cork, former Chelsea trainee, but starts at Saint also. He connects the play from Danny Fox and Jack Stephens to the rest of the team. However, I haven't got him as the main playmaker though normally out of him and the two full backs, they'd get the most passes. But he stand back and dictates the play and the passing, he also protects James Tomkins, more so than Jack Collison, due to his duty and role, which is obviously a lot more defensive. But he just sprays his passes round and makes space for the players to get into. Then the last one, Morgan Schneiderlin who also a Saints player when I started and he is the main playmaker and he's the one of the two people with the most freedom, his creativity as well as Marco Verratti which I will do in a bit is highly important, because it's highly influential on my game and it's plan and therefore his role is in a way similar to James Collison's Box To Box role, because if he gets no passes as I saw when I was resting him in cup games and used James Ward-Prowse to fill in, I lost games, that I know I should of won (Bristol City and Barnsley). But my midfield as is every midfield is important, however, I believe because I am a lot more exposed at the back, the midfield trio of Morgan and the two Jack's is a lot more important than the 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 4-5-1 and even 3-4-3 because they have a lot more protection whereas I am relying on minimal protection and this is shown in the my example with the game I have played whilst typing this up which is my win against Bolton 8:3 with Yaya Sanogo capping with four goals.

Now onto Marco Verratti, the little man from Pescara signed for £2,5 million. He's the man that also makes things happen, the trequartista, he provides the creativity and attacking spark which my team needs as it's lost in the striker position. Though I lose out on his defensive abilities, he more than makes up for it in his attacking and creativity prowess (Creativity, 17 and Flair, 18). He goes and finds space in between that defence and midfield to let the two wider midfielders run into and Yaya Sanogo to also pick up the ball also, but he makes those cheeky pass and through balls that none us would of ever anticipate.

Onto the front three, the wide men to begin with Jens Stryder Larsen who signed from Brondby for £2,9 million and originally planned him to be a back up to Jack Collison, but he manage to make that right wing role his to keep out Nathan Redmond and also Jake Sinclair. And also for left I rotate between Adam Lallana and the new upcoming talent of Cristiano Vigano who I signed from Varese for £475,000. These guys are the guys that makes the full backs fall onto their asses after being turn left, right and centre, they try and force mistakes from anyone near them, causing trouble. But they track up all away up to the half way line, as I don't want them to get too tired from constant running from one end to the other, I like to keep their energy for their attacking and help provided goals for Yaya Sanogo, the opposite winger or my midfielders if they get lucky shooting, but notably Yaya Sanogo whom is my fox in the box like Michael Owen in his early days, Jermaine Defoe and Billy Sharp, snatching a shot on any chance they can. And that is why I love him. (Yaya Sanogo signed from Auxerre for £2,3 million.)

Right now for statistical moment with my squad in my first Premier League season (played 30 games so far.)

Highest goalscorer; Yaya Sanogo. Appearances: 23 (1), Goals: 15. Average: 0.625 goals per game.

Most assists; Marco Verratti. Appearances: 26, Assists: 9. Closely followed by Morgan Schneiderlin and Danny Fox, 30 appearances respectively with 8 assists each.

Best passing rate; Jack Cork with 92% then followed jointly by Morgan Schneiderlin and Giovanni Sio with 87%.

Best tackling per game; Danny Fox with 3,94 followed by Jack Stephens with 3,49.

Here a screenshot, just in case, there is more stats you want to see.

Now onto my example, I'm going to use the Bolton game for the goals and also a Sunderland game for the creativity and domination.

Southampton 8:3 Bolton and Southampton 3:1 Sunderland (were the scores if you wanted to know.)

This is comparison between the two games, not many passes difference between, but the possession we maintained on the ball is the key thing here. The extra 10% of possession given to Bolton in respects could be the reason why they scored two more goals, but in contrast you can say how did I not create as many chances as I did against Bolton as I did against Sunderland back earlier in the season. But I let you guys debate..

Now I shall move onto the average positioning, unfortunately I cannot make rid of the sub so, here it is.

A lot more clearer in the Bolton game, the full backs and the defensive winger are very wide whereas my midfield trio is very narrow in comparison which is how I like it. But also it you notice with any three players you can make a triangle even up front, so holding the possession is a lot more easier. That is to my proof why I held the ball better in the Sunderland game than the Bolton one though the similar amount of passes, the triangles were bigger and not so flat.

I hope this helps and it's clear. I'm sorry if the English is poor. German is my first language.

Something quite interesting (as well as specific tactical details from contributors, as Cleon asked for and I agree is important for this thread), is that most of the images thus far show a great deal of focus towards the left.

This is something I've noticed quite a lot myself, when I've viewed the analysis of my own matches in my Granada CF save. It's not something intentional and whenever I see passing analysis images, it seems to be the same for other people too.

In my game the reason why my team focusing left is goalkeeper. GK always looking to pass to left defender. So i choose my goalkeepers option to pass to right defender. By this way there is a little more homogeneous pass movement.

*Sorry for my english not my native language.

In my game the reason why my team focusing left is goalkeeper. GK always looking to pass to left defender. So i choose my goalkeepers option to pass to right defender. By this way there is a little more homogene pass movement.

My goalkeeper passes to his left, but the dominance of play in my team tends to be on the right.

Nice reading that article, very informative, but most of the information I am very aware of, regarding the importance of mentality etc etc. Reading that length Southampton post got me thinking back to the 3 at the back formation I've been developing over the past couple of FMs, managed to develop it recently with the basis of ball retention. Has had great affect, with me using it against weaker sides, especially at home.

Team Instructions Overview

-Very high line, very effective coupled with heaviest pressing and lightening quick defenders.

-Normal/Wide width to allow room for the three central midfielders.

-Playmaker being the center of the three defensive midfielders, allowing him forward runs.

-Every player in the team allowed roaming, and wide play set to move into channels. This allows for triangles to be made all over the pitch.

-Full backs allowed forward runs and make use of the space in front of them, often spending more time in the opponents half, often playing on the outside of the two wide attacking mids; essentially becoming wingers. Something that can be seen with their average positions showing so high up, level with the midfielders. Whilst these players are so high up the field, their defensive duties will be covered by two of the three defensive midfielders that aren't allowed forward runs.

Passing

The passing is very high relative to normal formations and systems that you may see, but is still being developed when I have the chance to use this system against lesser sides. Having read the aforementioned article on passing systems I intend to lower the mentalities of the forward players even more so, to try and notch up the numbers even more. Will post an update in here later on, stay tuned.

Okay, so following on from the previous post, I played this system against Liverpool at home. A strong side, 3rd in the League, who set up with an orthodox 4-5-1 formation. One amendment I made was to set my whole team to a minimal mentality setting (1 click on the slider). I won the game 1-0 with Torres scoring from a well worked succession of passes around the box, before a neat through ball to set him in. I took screen shots at half time to show the power that the tactic had when the team were sitting off and allowing us to play at home.

Passes at Half Time

http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/ae197/tomrichards1992/ChelseavLiverpoolAnalysis_Analysis.png

Passes Full Time

http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/ae197/tomrichards1992/ChelseavLiverpoolAnalysis_Analysis-10.png

First Half Stats

http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/ae197/tomrichards1992/ChelseavLiverpoolStats_MatchStats.png

Full Time Stats

http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/ae197/tomrichards1992/ChelseavLiverpoolStats_MatchStats-2.png

.. a decrease in the possession we had of the ball, and a decrease in the pass completion indicates that Liverpool were done with sitting off us and looked to take the game to us a bit more. Alas, that wasn't the case due to the old law of possession being nine tenths of the law!

As you can see the midfield three set up across the DM positions controlled the game, resulting in a saturation of passes inside Liverpool's half. McEachran was my playmaker and the central figure of the three, which included John Obi Mikel to his left and a 38 year old Frank Lampard to his right! The first half numbers couldn't exactly be replicated within the second half due to the increased pressing that Liverpool put us under nearer the end of the game, which can be seen in the possession stats here.. Whenever they did get a hold of the ball they were sitting so deep in their half the only ball to relieve the pressure they were put under from effectively 9 men deep in their half (minus GK, and CB) was a long ball over the top for their loan striker to run onto. And as you can see here, this played right into my hands; David Luiz played as my center back sweeping role, he has a good level of pace and acceleration, coupled with good composure and ball playing skills to make him a perfect match to mop up any long balls..

None of the screenshots you've posted today have worked Tom.

None of the screenshots you've posted today have worked Tom.

Ohh, I was seeing them crystally clear :/ Well, I've removed them in-bedding of them, less aesthetically pleasing but more functional I guess. Hopefully that'll work, as the links are coming up for me.

Ohh, I was seeing them crystally clear :/ Well, I've removed them in-bedding of them, less aesthetically pleasing but more functional I guess. Hopefully that'll work, as the links are coming up for me.

The issue is you've exceeded your bandwith according to the images

None of the screenshots you've posted today have worked Tom.

after reading this thread i decided to give a possession tactic a go.

i am not very tactically minded but with all the advice and tips i thought why not.

the formation i chose was a standard 442 as i read somewhere that is more versatile than people think. for the individual player settings i did the usual short passing low creativity and lowered the attacking mentality, restricted long shots. the other settings like run with ball, run from deep, width settings etc i have found more difficult to do. (any help here would be great) i also was not sure about how to set team instructions so i will post a SS of them for any hints.

well this is what i have come up with so far. it doesnt get the results as some that are posted above but as a 1st attempt i think its step in the right direction.

this is the 1st go at using it and i understand that alot of work still needs to be done. so any advice to get these stats up would be great!!

The issue is you've exceeded your bandwith according to the images

Ahh, that may make sense. Been far too happy with screen shots lately. Thanks! *Goes and sets up Flickr account*

the individual player settings are: