How to win the Champions league final? ( fm 19) any tips?

[celticwarrior]

Hi everybody. I seem to be struggling to win the CL final. im barcelona and have reached the CL final twice in like 4 years but ive lost to the same team twice aswell. Liverpool just seem so god damn strong and my team seems to drops their levels when i play them too.first final i played against them i was playing a 4-3-3 or a 4-5-1 with a positive mindset and work ball into box. played well against pretty much every team this way and it suits my players but play against liverpool and it feels like it dosent work at all.also players seem to make more costly errors too.i got dominated and lost.

second final against liverpool, i changed to a balanced approach with same formation. I didnt get dominated, my team actually defended quite well and we made chances but another costly error from a player who normally dosent give away cheap balls happened and i concede.also my star attacking players cant score with any opportunity. i change the approach back to positive in the last 20 mins and for some reason i have even less possesion and shots than balanced play and still cant score. i also concede again and end up losing 2 nil. 

 

it feels like im managing a different team when im in a CL final plus liverpool are so good on this version.i dont have a problem winning the league or domestic cups.i actually finished on like 105 points or something like that in the league and only lost 1 game. How do you beat liverpool? any tips?

[FrazT]

What is the tone of your pre-match team talk?  Are you expecting a win-are you putting pressure on them?

[goranm]

The reasoning behind Klopp's Gegenpress is to use pressing as a "playmaking" opportunity, in the sense that retaking the ball with a high press high up the pitch gets the ball forward much faster than if one uses a playmaker to transition the ball from the defence into attacking areas. This is why his midfield is very hard-working and physical, but not particularly technical. This is what you want to limit, their ability to win the ball with a high press up the pitch.

So a positive system in which the ball is played from back is exactly what Liverpool want, you are playing into their strengths and their traps. A positive mentality means more risk, and if you're on standard or higher tempo with no time wasting, that will be even more risk, meaning more opportunity for Liverpool to press you and take possession.

What I do as Barcelona against Liverpool is: formation is 433 (DM, wide wingers) mentality is never higher than balanced, even when I'm down by 1 goal (if it's more than 1 goal I switch it to attacking). Tempo is never higher than low. Time wasting is on sometimes. Passing is short, width is narrow. Work ball into box is off - the players still are patient around the box, and sometimes the midfielders take a long shot. Which is what I want to do because Van Dijk and Gomez can really sterilize the box.

I don't play from back in the first half. Instead, MAtS has insane distribution attributes, so I tell him to do kick the ball to Suarez or just long kicks in general. I don't want to give Liverpool the opportunity to press me in my own half. I don't want over/underlaps on while the score is even, because if they dispossess an overlapping fullback, that's likely a goal for them. If I'm down by 1 goal, then I go with overlaps. In the second half I start playing from the back - the forwards and midfielders who do the pressing are more tired, but even that is a risk.

I also don't want to force pressing on them, because they're still technical enough to launch a fast counter, so nothing except Take Long Kicks is selected in the In Transition screen.

In the Out of Possession screen, Offside Trap and Tight Marking is always on. Defensive Line and LoE are at standard. As Salah and Mane get more tired, I push it up more. Salah was often injured when I would face them, so I would sometimes start with higher. Later on they sold off Mane and Salah lost pace, so Higher was the starting point. Pressing intensity standard, prevent short GK distribution off.

As you can see, this is a very neutral approach, not very defensive, but also not very attacking. I don't care if they have 60% possession as long as it's them passing it in their own third. If I score, I change nothing. If they score, there is a lot that I can do in gradual steps, not in any particular order: tell the fullbacks to overlap, increase the mentality of fullbacks, increase defensive line, increase amount of pressing, turn on counter-pressing, reduce time wasting or increase tempo. I only increase mentality when all of those have been used up. But it depends on the game - if you concede in the 85th minute, then of course you go gung-ho. If it's minute 75, then maybe a lot of these options are turned on at the same time, and the mentality bumped to attacking. If it's minute 5, it might have been a fluke, so being patient can pay off.

I've faced Liverpool 5 times in the UCL final, and won 4. (This is FM20 but I don't think much is different to FM19). The one final I lost I was 1-0 up until the 80th minute, they equalised, had a lucky goal in extra time, I went gung-ho and ended up losing 3-1. My last win was a very clean 2-0 with them having only 2 shots on target. I had 5, so I wasn't particularly dominating them.

There is other fine tuning involved with corners, free kicks etc, like always having Messi stay up front on defending corners, or if he's lost pace, a pacy player like Dembele. But I don't think that had as much impact as just playing a patient game against Liverpool and not allowing them to play to their strengths.

 

Edited July 31, 2020 by goranm

[Nobby_McDonald]

Score more goals than your opponents. Easy peasy.