Closing Down - Opponent

[Pipo2525]

Question for you all.

My team really struggles when my opponent presses my midfield and back four! What is the best way to counter this. I currently play with a narrow formation with slow tempo with low mentality and Creative freedom as I like a possession based game.

Nothing I seem to do works and its really affecting my pass completion and possession stats. All help would be great.

[furiousuk]

Assuming that your players are all smart enough and technical enough to play that way, it sounds like you might need a bit more movement to give the opposition the run around, so to speak.

I wouldn't limit free roles and make sure that your role/duty structure creates some nice triangles (creating triangles is pretty old school but it's still a basic premise of keeping the ball well), what you don't want is flat lines in your formation which limits your options.

If you're playing narrow it'll be a lot of guys in a tight space so make sure your FB's are providing some width, they don't have to do anything with the ball really, just recycle possession when things get too crowded in the centre.

If done well then you can let loose when the game opens up in the final 20-30 mins or so.

[Pipo2525]

Thanks for that, will have a go at giving more free roles to my team and see how it goes

[lewis999]

What formation are you using? I know it might not be your cup of tea as you mentioned a possession game, but if they're pressing you a lot then their defensive line will be pretty high, use the pass into space shout along with play through defence and use your fastest striker as target man run onto ball, even Barca let rip with a few defence splitting passes from their own half.

If they're getting caught with a load of through balls chances are, they'll step back a bit and be more cautious, allowing you to play your own game.