Team instructions react to opponent too many shots

[kayyuenchinup]

What would you do to react when your assistant manager feedback telling you the opponent too many shots

Higher defensive line?   

Closing Down?

Tight Marking?

Tackle Harder?  

One by one to see if the situation improved or tick all together?  

[herne79]

The first thing I’d do (assuming I actually ever read what my AM is telling me, which I don’t because he’s useless) is to check that what the AM is telling me is accurate.  I’d then want to know where the shots are coming from, such long range or short range and (more importantly) how the chances are being created.

For example, if lots of long range shots I may not do anything - long range shots are low risk shots and usually only a worldie will score, which you can’t do anything about anyway.

If short range that may indicate different issues.  Are opponents getting in behind your defensive line?  In which case you may want to drop a little deeper.  Are they being given too much space?  If so you may want to press more.  Where are passes coming from to give the attacker a shooting chance?  Therefore mark the creator tighter/press him harder.  That’s just a few basic examples.

Typically speaking however it tends to be the build up play to counteract, not the final shot.

[Draakon]

Yeah, you need to check and interpret what your assistant says. His common warning is about some opposition player who, in his opinion, should be pressed more often because he gets too many crosses in. In reality it's usually their set piece taker who takes corners and wide free kicks, so pressing has nothing to do with it. I might want to tweak down tackling for full-backs if we concede too many free kicks in wide areas, but suddenly starting to press the opposition player more in open game might backfire in a way you can't anticipate. 

But there are moments when AI definitely changes something in the game (e.g. gets more attacking when you've taken the lead) and suddenly you need to be aware of what's happening. If their winger gets suddenly more attacking and finds open space in attack, it's perhaps because they've started to find him more or concentrate on attacks on that flank. It might be a good idea to change your full-back instructions to counter that threat.

What sometimes happen in my save is that opponents have a towering target man with a jumping attribute of 19-20 and good heading. Usual recipe would be mark him tighter (those big target men are usually not very quick and technically gifted), and your assistant eagerly suggests just that. What he forgets to say is to play with higher defensive line - you're bound to lose some headers against the goliath anyway, but they're not much of a threat when they're a bit outside of the box, not in front of your goal.