How to beat low block | Defensive teams

[Teme55]

Hi there,

Im really struggling against weaker sides away from home. Doing okay, currenlty at 6th in the league, but I keep hitting brick wall against weaker sides away from home. Creating about 1.0xG or less in those matches that I should beat. 

Any suggestions, thanks

[Experienced Defender]

Okay, instead of telling you what IMHO is wrong in your tactic, I'll give you an example of a tactic with which I was regularly beating those ultra-defensive teams with 3-0, 4-0 and sometimes even 5-0 or 5-1. Only on couple of occasions did I struggle to break them down and snatch a narrow 1-0 win. But in the vast majority of matches, it was fairly easy and in a convincing manner.

So here is what the tactic looks like:

CFat

IFsu          AMat          Wsu

DLPsu   CMde

 

WBsu   CDde  CDde   WBsu

SKsu

Mentality - Positive

In possession - run at defence, overlap left & underlap right

In transition - distribute quickly to CBs and FBs (and occasionally counter-press and/or counter)

Out of possession - higher D-line (and nothing else at all)

Player instructions

The front 4 players - close down more (so-called "split block")

AML/IFsu - sit narrower

AMat - roam from position, take more risks

Both CBs and CM on defend - shorter passing

And that's it.

The only tweak I would occasionally make regarding roles/duties was - CFat into CFsu & IFsu into IFat. 

IMPORTANT: The reason I shared this tactic with you is only to help you see how simple it can be, both in terms of roles/duties and instructions. In other words, you don't need too many attack duties and "fancy" roles nor too many instructions. All you need is just a good balance of roles and duties and couple of (basic) instructions to support your desired style of play.

I am not saying that you should use this particular tactic, simply because it was created for a specific team and is not a plug'n'play by any means. Instead, take it just as a (potentially) useful example of how simple tactical creation can be 

[frukox]

As ED said creating a successful tactic is all about the balance of all of the instructions. You need to take some risks when trying to break down a low block and it's crucial to create some space in front of the defence as the space would be there and on the flanks. Make sure your players have better mentals and ball keeping skills to play through opposition defence in the final third. So personally my 4-3-3 would look like this:

                    CF(S)

IF(S)                              W(S)

            DLP(D) MEZ(A)

                  DM(S)

WB(S) CD(D) CD(D) IWB(S)

                   SK(S)

Balanced Mentality

Shorter Passing, Narrow Width, Play out of Defence, Focus Down Left and Right Flank

Counter, Counterpress, Take Shorter Kicks

Higher DL, Much Higher LOE, Stay on Feet

Basically,I would try a possession based high-block system if I don't have an aerially dominant forward. Then, the whole system would change, for example.

[Captain Cabinets]

1 hour ago, frukox said:

            DLP(D) MEZ(A)

                  DM(S)

Out of interest why would you use a (D) duty in the CM line and an (S) duty in the DM line?

[frukox]

It's a defensive formation so using a defend-duty DM would be tricky to get the second balls close to opposition penalty area as I need depth in front of defence to create space since they sit deep, I can still use CM(D) and get the second ball without any problem using DM to link play to MEZA and IWBS thus creating an overload in the right half-space. So it' s a win-win. 

Edited December 2, 2020 by frukox

[Captain Cabinets]

Very interesting and makes sense, thanks for the explanation

[Teme55]

9 hours ago, Experienced Defender said:

IMPORTANT: The reason I shared this tactic with you is only to help you see how simple it can be, both in terms of roles/duties and instructions. In other words, you don't need too many attack duties and "fancy" roles nor too many instructions. All you need is just a good balance of roles and duties and couple of (basic) instructions to support your desired style of play.

Thank you very much @Experienced Defender and @frukox

I see your point. My tactic was created in a manner that when something wasn’t working the way I wanted, I just kept modificating adding that one instruction more and the end result is a complete mess   

I just got defeated by a 3rd tier team in Spanish Cup, but I’m still okay in the league and in 2nd rnd of UEL. 

Back to the drawing board. Thanks guys.