hold up ball

[sergiolagartija]

Hi, first of all sorry if this has already been commented but if so i can´t find that thread. I´ve downloaded a 4-4-2 that has "hold up ball" ticked for the 4 midfielders and i wonder if that is somewhat related to the strenght of the players to use. Am i right? is it better to use strong players when you want them to hold up ball? Thanks in advance

[jascko]

To be honest, I hate HUB. It has to many backdrops then positivity. Players tends to be caught in position by opponent, which often results in counterattack against me. The only time I think is useful to use HUB is in situation when you have good lead and you want to defend it last 10-15 min. Sure, there is people here who use HUB throughout the hole match, but I m not one of them - by the reason explained.

[sergiolagartija]

To be honest, I hate HUB. It has to many backdrops then positivity. Players tends to be caught in position by opponent, which often results in counterattack against me. The only time I think is useful to use HUB is in situation when you have good lead and you want to defend it last 10-15 min. Sure, there is people here who use HUB throughout the hole match, but I m not one of them - by the reason explained.

Interesting point. I supose that if i use players who think fast (good decision, technique, anticipation) i can untick HUB. I´ll have a try. Thanks for your answer

[Falahk]

HUB is more or less a tempo controller, you use it to make specific players play at a lower tempo then the rest of your team, for example if you sit deep and counter attack, you might want a targetman to hold onto the ball a bit longer for the rest of your team to arrive, or if you want slower build up play in defense or in midfield and higher tempo in attack, etc

most of the time I dont use HUB at all since I tend to play on the slowest tempo possible and hence it would just mean that my team would get caught out in possession to much

[furiousuk]

Falakh is thinking along the same lines as me, I'm figuring the creator of the tactic wanted to change something (tempo) for the midfielders. It may even exploit (or try to) something or other. Sounds like a dubious call in any case to have all 4 midfielders with HUB, it's really an instruction that should be used infrequently to be of use.

My DM normally has HUB selected, I don't like him to do anything too spectacular so he sits, he holds and he picks sensible passes rather than incredible ones. If he was my quarterback launching counters I probably wouldn't want it set on him.

I use it more frequently than the other posters. If you have a position (normally a creator) who requires other players to move beyond them (i.e. Forward Runs set to often) then it's a great instruction to use, but I'll only ever use it on 1-2 players because it just isn't really necessary for more (you need the contrast between movement and patience, too much of either can be a disaster).

Interestingly, a seemingly counter-intuitively, it can be combined with Runs With Ball or Forward Runs on the same player and work perfectly well.

[higgins]

Recently, playing 4-2-3-1, I instructed both my full backs to HUB with some effects, they seem to be less prone to give away the ball when we start building a move, waiting until my more attacking players are in the right place to receive the ball.

You should consider that a player set to HUB would need some decent mental attributes (decision, anticipation...), otherwise he could be often dispossessed.