football manager contradictions, solutions needed

[drevil1969]

So will try to keep this short and sweet

You are at home, against a side you are expected to beat, but you have a slowish defence and they have lots of pace.

So you set up to attack from the kick off, pushing up as the mentality already already adjusts this, but of course playing against pace is dangerous, so what do you do?

If you use shout or say drop deeper in tactics screen, does that not contradict what you are saying in general? You cant play an effective attacking tactic and drop deep, or can you?

So the question im putting forward is, how do you deal with a problem like fast attack/slow defence? use drop deeper shout but contradicting the rest? or dont allow the supply to get to the pacey striker? In itself thats a risk because its hard to keep one player, with enough quality quiet for 90 minutes, so do you just accept that they will create 1 or 2 chances by you taking a few risks and attacking?

Hep please.

(I also hope this opens a debate plus is worth debating in the first place!!)

[Äktsjon Männ]

IMO your situation calls for a slower and deeper build up approach. Telling your team to attack means they'll try to get forward at every opportunity and the deeper players will look to quickly get the ball up the pitch. Attacking strategy coupled with drop deep does not sound a good idea as your midfield will just be bypassed and your forwards will be isolated. Personally I would go for a counter strategy, patiently keep the ball and look to exploit the spaces when your opponent pushes forward.

[drevil1969]

But te problem persists that I am trying to replicate Sam Allardyce style of football, combined with being the favourites for promotion. So im trying to be aggressive at the same time as not so if that makes sense. Can Allardyce only play counter?

[furiousuk]

Dropping deeper helps make the pitch larger - as a general rule better players enjoy space and a large pitch affords more space ergo a bigger pitch is better for better players!

In short (and without the pretense), yes dropping deeper and playing attacking is perfectly valid.

In fact, depending on how you attack it's absolutely necessary. My thread on tactic building goes into some detail about the difficulties I faced when pushing up to play more attacking - my attack-style required depth even though I had become the dominant team 95% of the time.

[JOSEPH!]

Adding onto Furious' point; dropping deeper isn't only about the defensive positioning. It can a/ provide your team with more time on the ball; b/ draw out the opponent's midfield and attack from deep positions causing c/ a 'bigger' pitch in which your team can attack into. To build a solid attack from deep, if you feel you aren't holding possession well, try drop deeper and play out of defence shouts. A simple and good base for attacking football, despite what it may seem on face value.

If you're pushing up you can limit the space for your attacking players sometimes as the pitch can become claustrophobic -- as Furious has pointed out.

[TwinsFan86]

All the drop deeper shout does (that I've noticed) is adjust the defensive line slider 3 notches deeper, so no matter what settings you have it on, using that shout will move the slider back 3 clicks. (if you have already manually adjusted the slider, I.e it's not grayed out, then the shout will change nothing).

That being said, using the drop deeper shout with an attacking mentality is a viable option and one I use fairly frequently.

[däkkä]

All the drop deeper shout does (that I've noticed) is adjust the defensive line slider 3 notches deeper, so no matter what settings you have it on, using that shout will move the slider back 3 clicks. (if you have already manually adjusted the slider, I.e it's not grayed out, then the shout will change nothing).

It also reduces closing down. The number of notches it drops the d-line depends on how deep it is to begin with. On defensive match strategies, it drops the d-line by 1 notch and if you play Overload, I believe it drops by 5 notches. Haven't checked it, but that's the way a lot of the shouts work.