What changes would you make to see out a game?

[ryandormer]

If you have a narrow lead and need to try to see out a game, what would you do?

Naturally, you could change the entire team set up to play a 'park the bus' style, but your team might be completely unsuitable for it, or untrained in it.

So what sort of small changes would you make (if any) to try to hold on to a narrow lead?

[The3points]

46 minutes ago, ryandormer said:

If you have a narrow lead and need to try to see out a game, what would you do?

Naturally, you could change the entire team set up to play a 'park the bus' style, but your team might be completely unsuitable for it, or untrained in it.

So what sort of small changes would you make (if any) to try to hold on to a narrow lead?

If wingers in AM strata, I move them down to the M strata. Additionally, tempo goes down and I take out all aggressive roles in midfield for more solid ones (MEZ to CM, RPM to DLP etc). Finally in the last 5-10 minutes I turn up time wasting.

[WhyMe]

I will usually make one of my fullbacks more defensive (i.e. attack to support or support to defend), add some time wasting and sometimes put on be more disciplined.  I will also occasionally drop my mentality a bit, usually only one notch, move one player back into a more defensive position (e.g. an AM to CM or DM)  and if I am not already playing possession football and my team is good enough to do it switch to a keep ball style, but these are situational and I probably wouldn't do them all at once.

[vrig]

No way on earth would I change the whole style of play. Imagine training a possession game all preseason and then your manager shouts ten minutes from time "Form of Simeone's Atletico!" at you. You'd probably kick him.

Personally I up time wasting. If I'm using Play out of Defence and it's getting particularly dicey, I might swap that for Pass Into Space. Besides that, just subs really.

I generally find it fairly easy to hold a lead. It's a lot more difficult chasing one, for me anyway.

Edited December 14, 2022 by vrig

[phnompenhandy]

Lower tempo, shorten passing, timewaste, tell keeper to slow down, go conservative in transitions, play for set pieces, maybe cautious mentality. Likely some, not all of these depending on how the game is going.

[frukox]

21 saat önce, ryandormer said:

If you have a narrow lead and need to try to see out a game, what would you do?

Naturally, you could change the entire team set up to play a 'park the bus' style, but your team might be completely unsuitable for it, or untrained in it.

So what sort of small changes would you make (if any) to try to hold on to a narrow lead?

No, you don't need to consider your players as incapable. They can play it to some extent anyway. For example, this is my see-out-the-match version of my only save:

What do you see? An extremely compact narrow and aggressive low block to hit teams on the counter with fluid sane attacks. In possession, the team is trying to progress to the final third through the middle moving up the pitch all together without any hollywood-style passes while doing this with a bit of haste and time-wasting when possible.

[Hovis Dexter]

I change very little. I normally line up with a conventional 4 3 3 so I pull my two wide AMs back to WMs with as similar roles as possible and maybe drop the mentality one one notch. If I’m winning and my players are doing well why change anything dramatically.

[Dereka]

One thing to add: I always become more conservative with the number of players I send up for set pieces, for corners specifically. Typically when the AI is down then in the final minutes they might leave two or three attackers forward when they are defending a corner. You don't want to get caught out on the break!

[Robson 07]

On 15/12/2022 at 18:59, frukox said:

No, you don't need to consider your players as incapable. They can play it to some extent anyway. For example, this is my see-out-the-match version of my only save:

What do you see? An extremely compact narrow and aggressive low block to hit teams on the counter with fluid sane attacks. In possession, the team is trying to progress to the final third through the middle moving up the pitch all together without any hollywood-style passes while doing this with a bit of haste and time-wasting when possible.

I like your posts a lot @frukox, but not this one quite as much , sorry.  But you have made some really fine ones that are worth other people looking up .  This post looks a bit counter-attack style which it doesn't need to be if simply seeing out a game.

I don't think you need a Mezzala, Inverted roles, or force the oppo outside in this strategy.  Personally I would be neutral toward defensive width neither encouraging crosses (yet nor being wider and leaving the channels wider and encouraging long shots).

To the OP & to see out a game, I would definitely come away from any Attacking tactic.  Toward any mentality that goes as low as Counter but no lower.  My key would be to keep possession (see not Attack mentality) and lower the height of the team (see not Attack mentality).  I would keep some men behind the ball; midfield more packed, slow the pace and narrow the width, add time wasting and look to keep the ball.  But I would not become passive, backing off on a low mentality & low block - this invites FM trouble.

You need changes, common sense ones but not seismic to "control" the game, don't just back out of it. 

Edited December 19, 2022 by Robson 07

[aderow]

On 14/12/2022 at 15:38, ryandormer said:

If you have a narrow lead and need to try to see out a game, what would you do?

Naturally, you could change the entire team set up to play a 'park the bus' style, but your team might be completely unsuitable for it, or untrained in it.

So what sort of small changes would you make (if any) to try to hold on to a narrow lead?

I usually lower the tempo, ask my players to dribble less. Depending on them match, I may change mentality. Depending on condition and/or the ref, I may tackle harder or ask my players to take it easy in that regard. I've been trying out reducing width to see if that helps.

[frukox]

4 saat önce, Robson 07 said:

I like your posts a lot @frukox, but not this one quite as much , sorry.  But you have made some really fine ones that are worth other people looking up .  This post looks a bit counter-attack style which it doesn't need to be if simply seeing out a game.

I don't think you need a Mezzala, Inverted roles, or force the oppo outside in this strategy.  Personally I would be neutral toward defensive width neither encouraging crosses (yet nor being wider and leaving the channels wider and encouraging long shots).

To the OP & to see out a game, I would definitely come away from any Attacking tactic.  Toward any mentality that goes as low as Counter but no lower.  My key would be to keep possession (see not Attack mentality) and lower the height of the team (see not Attack mentality).  I would keep some men behind the ball; midfield more packed, slow the pace and narrow the width, add time wasting and look to keep the ball.  But I would not become passive, backing off on a low mentality & low block - this invites FM trouble.

You need changes, common sense ones but not seismic to "control" the game, don't just back out of it. 

I always use this if it's a tight game and I'm up and never disappointed me except for odd goals coming from crosses, which is expected from this low block. I don't want to allow any long shots personally. That's why we still defend narrow. They are very strong unfortunately.

Here I know they are going to throw everything at me but the kitchen sink and am willing to soak up pressure but still need a plan to get out of my own defensive third. This is the plan. It gives me lots of opportunities to close the matches in my favour. That's why I posted this.

[Tsuru]

Em 14/12/2022 em 21:38, ryandormer disse:

If you have a narrow lead and need to try to see out a game, what would you do?

Naturally, you could change the entire team set up to play a 'park the bus' style, but your team might be completely unsuitable for it, or untrained in it.

So what sort of small changes would you make (if any) to try to hold on to a narrow lead?

I have been experimenting on this (I am still on FM 22).

My initial playstyle is quite a bit bland, just a few instructions, so I can adapt it from game to game.

But to hold a lead I have been using "Be More Disciplined", "Waste Time" (a little bit during the match, on full near the end of the match), "Lower Line of Engagement" and "Get Stuck In". The idea here is not just to park the bus, but to avoid any mistakes and keep using space to score on counters.