Counter-attacking... without pace?

[jc577]

Hi all,

I'm currently playing as Portsmouth, doing fairly well in the championship sitting in 6th, after getting promoted first season. Things are going well, but we're just so inconsistent and I never know which team is going to turn up!

Anyway, we've been playing a 442, Standard/Flexible with no TI's. What i've noticed is that quite frequently when breaking from deep, the strikers are isolated, and support from midfield doesn't arrive in time purely because our midfielders (barring our RM) lack the necessary pace. What also doesn't help is that my DLF-S only has 9 for pace and acceleration which is far too slow. What i'd like to see is the whole team bursting from deep together, or at least the players I expect to get to be in support be a lot closer to the strikers. I've thought of two ways to achieve this, but more than welcome to hear other ideas. 

1. Switch mentality to counter/defensive. This will encourage the strikers to be deeper when we're defending, allowing them to get support a lot quicker.
2. Use 'Shorter Passing'; the idea here is that we shorten the passing length which brings everyone closer together, enabling better support. Shorter passing decrease the tempo, so would have to bump that up a notch. 

Any thoughts?

[sporadicsmiles]

Sitting deeper whilst leaving your quickest players up front with attack duties, could work. Otherwise, it is difficult, I agree. I do find it very hard to counter efficiently when I only have slow players. I'd primarily focus on making yourself as sound at the back as possible, since this is where counter attacking sides are born. Then, even if you do not score all your goals (or even the majority of them) on the break, you will be in a position to make every single goal count. 

If you want to play a counter/defensive mentality for a counter attacking tactic, I would encourage you to have one deep lying player who plays risky passes. Otherwise, counter/defensive encourages risk averse football, so you will not build up that quickly. It does, as well, really help if you even have a single pacy player up front.

What I would do, actually, is set up your defensive corner routine so your two fastest players are ready to break forward with the ball if they get the chance. Does not matter who they are (well, CD you probably want to use to defend), but you want to have a super fast transition from defence to attack. Even if you do not score, you can turn a defensive corner into an offensive one, which is a result. 

[jc577]

I had thought giving my DLF-S and attack duty but seen as he's so slow, I doubt increasing the frequency of his runs in behind will add anything going forward. We're not great defensively, but i'm thinking this is player related issue more than anything. Having said that, we've only kept 6 clean sheets in 30 league games...

Just to make things a bit clearer, here's my tactic:

 

GK: Take Short Kicks

FBs: Close down less

CM-S: Get Further Forward

WM-A: PIs of a winger without 'run wide with ball'. 

Strikers: Close down more, tackle harder, mark tighter. 

The DLP works well, often drifting over to the left when the ball is on that side, and then spreading it to the Winger attacking space on the right. I don't think I want the defence to sit as deep as they do when using counter/defensive, that's my only issue. I'd much prefer us to sit in a medium block, attempt to win the ball/force transitions around the half-way line or just in our own half, as then there's less distance to cover and my slower players stand a chance of getting up in support. Do you think there's any legs in using shorter passes to transition the ball?

Good Shout re the corner routines; that's something I always do in pretty much any save. Got my 2 fastest players staying forward, and my best passer outside the box waiting to release them