Popular Post Jack722 Posted January 9, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted January 9, 2021 (edited) Motivation Choosing your passing style is a very important aspect of FM, and I feel like lots of people don't fully understand it, or get it wrong. Every time I open the SI forums, there is a post from somebody asking for support with their tactic and normally, there is somebody there to help. This is obviously great, and some obvious flaws with the role choices normally get fixed, but one thing that is impossible to get exactly right is the player suitability to both the roles and the instructions. I reguarly watch full games, and even I only really have a good idea of player's attributes from the premier league's top 10 teams, and maybe a few other top Champion's League teams. So how are the people in these forums supposed to have any idea of your player's attributes when you manage a team in Brazil's second division? You could obviously post a picture of every player, but who wants to scour through every single attribute in your team? While I think that the tactical styles feature in FM19 was a good addition. I think that its given a one dimensional outlook on passing styles to some people. The only real 'positive' styles of play are variants of short passing 'possession' football, such as control possession and tiki-taka, or all out high tempo pressing such as gegenpress. While the other styles such as route one get attached to a cautious style of play with lower lines of engagement. This can make it seem like you can't play positive, attacking football using a direct style, which is wrong. I've also seen a lot of posts along the lines of "I manage a top team and therefore need to set up a possession based tactic". But while a top team needs to be comfortable with the ball, this doesn't mean that they have to constantly play short passes at a low tempo. It just means that your team must be able to create chances when the opposition are happy to camp in there own half and play for a 0-0. Whether you do this through long or short passes is mostly up to your player's attributes. On the other hand, I also see posts from members who are "managing a relegation threatened team and therefore must play long ball to stay up." What is Passing Directness? "It's not about the long ball or the short ball, it's about the right ball." - Bob Paisley Football manager gives you the choice of selecting extremely short passing, to extremely direct passing. Both styles, and everything in between is important to consider when making a tactic for a team of any level. My interpretation of extremely short passing would be that of Barcelona from 2009- ~2013 in the era of tiki taka, while Tony Pulis' Stoke City can be an example of extremely direct passing. Passing directness is simply how long you want your passes to be during your approach, from your centrebacks to the oppostion box. An extremely short style would encourage your players to pick the shortest possible option out of every choice, whereas an extremely direct style would encourage your centrebacks to kick it straight to the forwards and bypass the midfield. This doesn't mean that only short passes would be played when you select a short passing style, it just means that your players would be more likely to choose the short option. The same way that you wouldn't want your players to continue playing out the back if all the centrebacks are being tightly marked and pressed effectively, your players should and would clear the ball if the other type of pass is clearly better in the situation. If you play too short when your players aren't suited to it, you can end up producing boring, sideways football, with the worst case scenario being losing the ball in your own half due to a poor first touch or bad composure when under pressure. Whereas, if you play too long, you're going to be giving the ball away far too often, and probably lose control of the game. This Post I want to choose three different top teams that must be able to create chances against packed defences. Every one of these teams has a different passing style that I believe suits them the best. I also want to show the tactic that I used for each team, videos of the types of chances you end up creating with the style, and a couple of screenshots of important players that make the playstyle viable. Another reasons for choosing top teams is that hopefully most here have a good idea in general of the types of players in each side. To demonstrate the difference in passing directness, I'm going to make sure every tactic is very similar in all non-possession instructions. ============================================================ Short Passing What makes a team good at short passing? Well if you are playing 'pure' possession football, your defenders have to have good enough passing, first touch, and composure to work the ball into your midfield when under pressure. Secondly, your attacking players must be able to all work together to pull off a short attacking move. Unlike direct passing, where the ball may only be with three or four players during an attack, a short passing move may even be circulated across all eleven players multiple times, meanining that even if one player makes the wrong decision, or takes a poor touch, the move could be killed. While composure is important to stay calm on the ball and not give anything away under pressure, you also have to be prepared for the opposite. Short passing naturally slows ball progression, meaning that by the time you get to the final third, you are normally trying to pass through a solid and organised defence. This means that your team needs sufficient flair and vision to play that unexpected pass that cuts through the lines. Your players also need to make themselves available for a pass. The shorter range means that it can be predictable who will recieve the next pass, this means that you whole team has to be constantly finding good angles to recieve the ball and avoid being marked. The lack of long balls means that your team isn't going to be competing as much for second balls or high passes, and with slower progression, this means that you can afford to neglect a little certain physical and mental attributes, such as pace and stamina and jumping reach. So which core attributes are important? Composure Passing First Touch Decisions Off the Ball Technique Vision Let's look at a team that can pull off short passing. Manchester City are a team stacked with nimble playmakers and defenders that are composed and comfortable on the ball, they are my ideal choice for short passing football. *play wider is only included due to winger's tendancies to come too narrow. The tactic is supposed to be purely based on keeping the ball short and on the ground. And here is a nice goal that we scored in our first game that demonstrates what you're getting with short passing. Key Midfielder KdB has always been City's star man, his 20 vision and 18 passing means that he can thread a pass through the eye of a needle, and break down any organised defence. Players of this type are essential for creating chances in this type of system. Key Forward It's most important for a forward in a possession based system to be intelligent and make the correct runs. He won't be asked much to hold up the ball very often, or compete with centrebacks in the air, so attributes like strength and jumping reach aren't so important. As sterling is going to be getting guaranteed service all game from the likes of De Bruyne, all he really needs to do is find the right positions and put the chances away, which won't be hard with 20 off the ball and 18 anticipation. Mixed and direct styles will be written in the following post to avoid too much length. Edited January 9, 2021 by Jack722 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jack722 Posted January 9, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 9, 2021 (edited) ========================================== Direct Passing In an ideal world, you would use direct passes, as it is the most efficient and quickest method to goal. But this isn't an ideal world, and an accurate direct pass is risky and difficult to pull off and recieve. But direct passes don't always have to be perfect. If you don't have world class passing and first touches in your team, you can expect the passes to be a little innacurate and instead focus on other aspects. Long passing will naturally result in more air time of the ball, as well as poor clearances and first touches, leading to counter pressing opportunities, aerial duels and chances to win second balls. A game with moments such as these will always lend itself more to players that 'want it more' and are naturally more athletic in terms of pace, strength and height. As direct passing will always result in more turnovers and faster attacks, your players will need to have the workrate to have to defend and press the ball for longer periods of time, while having the stamina to reguarly run forward and back. This will turn the game a little more into a matter of physciality rather than technicality, leading to a different set of desirable core attributes to short passing football. Bravery Jumping Reach Strength Stamina Work Rate Determination Aggression Let's look at my direct passing team. Inter are a team ideal for direct passing. Not only do they have atheletes in the middle who will run all day, they have a target man that can hold up the ball during fast attacks to wait for support, and two brilliant passers at the back in the deep lying playmaker and ball playing defender roles. While more direct passing will at times, cause your defenders to ping it straight to your forwards, it is far from 'hoofball'. Lots of beatiful attacking moves can stem from accurate forward passes that can tear a defence apart in seconds. Take a look at the types of chances that get created: Key Midfielder Vidal for me is the personification of warrior. He is going to be sprinting up and down the field all day flying into tackles and winning second balls, due to his work rate, determination and stamina. He is also able to pop off longshots if the ball drops to him from the target man. While lacking the vision and flair to stand out as a centre midfielder in a slower, possession based system, he is an absolute key man for any direct team. Key Forward Lukaku is another important in this system. He as the strength and height to hold the ball up, while also being both stronger and faster than most centrebacks, allowing him to thrive on long passes both to feet and in behind. With high numbers for workrate and aggression as well, he will pounce on any oppertunity to counter press should the ball be lost. Edited January 9, 2021 by Jack722 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jack722 Posted January 9, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 9, 2021 (edited) Mixed Passing So what do you choose when your team have a mix of everything? Well you can just let them decide what they want to do. With mixed passing, you'd see a bit of everything. From long balls from your defence straight to your forwards, to tiki-taka sequences. Not only can this be effective in its own right, a team that is balanced enough to play a mixed passing style would be more adaptable, allowing you to switch from shorter to more direct to exploit an opposition weakness, or to cope with losing some of your more technical players to injury. This may be chosen either due to a squad having 'Jack of all trades' type players, or if the team is composed of a mix of very physical players and very technical players. What is an example of a team that can play mixed? I used to see Liverpool as a more direct team, due to their players being pressing machines, and due the lack of any pure playmaker in midfield since the loss of coutinho. But since the addition of Thiago in the middle, Liverpool have suddenly become very balanced. Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold are excellent passers who can ping long diagonals, while Henderson is a workhorse that will run up and down all day and the front three can all press and run onto long balls that have been hit in behind. On the other hand, Thiago and Firmino both like to recieve short passes to feet and orchestrate attacks using their flair and vision. These two players also like to drop deep to link the defence and midfield, and midfield to attack respectively, allowing short passes to be recieved between the lines. As you can see below, you get a large variety of different chances being created using this style. Key Forward Salah is far from a target man, but he has the physicality both in terms of pace and strength to bully defenders. This makes him effective when holding up passes, or chasing over hit long balls in the channels. But he also has brilliant vision, technique and off the ball, allowing him to participate well in short passing moves that rely more on technique and intelligence rather than physicality. Key Midfielder Henderson is a player that can do many jobs. He has the workrate, determination and stamina to press when risky passes are given away, while also having a brillaint first touch and good composure, both being a 16. This allows him to be a useful player in any kind of attacking move. And it could be argued that he would be wasted in either of the extremely short styles, or extremely long. Edited January 9, 2021 by Jack722 17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilljons Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Awesome write up, made things a lot clearer for me personally! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquaplex Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Fantastic write up, very helpful. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coach vahid Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Good work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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