What does play through the middle do and when should I use it

[radgrandma]

So I have very strong mids but don’t know if I should play through the middle. What type of tactic is this suited for. Also same thing for playing through the flanks

[cudithekid94]

For the 1st question. It means the player will move the ball more in central areas. The players will search for teammates in the central lane as their first passing option. It also affects on how they move in the pitch. But this doesn´t mean there wont be side plays. It´s more about the construction phase of the game. As the players will look to move the ball in this area during the transition between your own half and their half of the field. What happens in the last third of the pitch is affected by many more instructions.

But, as always, the instruction on itself means little. The roles of your players have a lot of influence in your playstile. 

For the type of tactic, the obvious answer is tactics with a lot of presence on central areas like 4231, 433 both wide and narrow, 442 diamond, 4312... But with certain roles you can make this instruction useful even in tactics that seem conflictive like classic 442 or a 424. And with this i mean if you are using roles like inverted full backs (Im spelling wrong this role in english, im sure), wide midfielders...

And lastly, playing through the flanks means exactly what it says. Players will focus to move more (and i say more, not always) the ball through the specific flank you set, and central players will move a little bit their position to these areas (try setting only one flank and then look at heat maps and average player positions).

Edited November 17, 2020 by cudithekid94
mispelling

[Experienced Defender]

Duplicate thread and hence locked.