CARRERA

awsome, love it. take my money

Width = horizontal spreading / stretching of your players focus play = focusing passes (and the build up) into that area. It’s not necessary, but can make sense to align the width with your focus play.

No sorry, I just noticed that those links change depending on results. Nvm, my bad again 😂 He should be good enough. Must be familiarity issue then. And yeah, it’s strange how it works.

Intercepting passes is primarily down whether you ask your 1st defender to pressure the ball or to stay in the defensive shape and cut off passing lanes. You can’t do both at once. If you pressure the ball, you need to leave your position and open up space or an attacker who is then available for a pass. If you stay in shape to cut off passing lanes you can’t pressure the ball and the attacker has more time to make a good decision for what to do next. Of course player attributes do have a great effect on how good your players can fulfill those tasks.

I think that is because he is neither familar with the role, nor with the tactic itself. It’s essential. Up familiarities. However, in terms of attributes, you want your CMs to have got positioning, antizipation, bravery, aggression, marking and tackling. (Also physicals are nice) I don’t know Tousarts attributes, but maybe have look into that to check if he is a potential CM in a double Pivot. Sometimes it’s just good to get over it and move on to the next match. That combination by the way is what direct play looks like, eventhough most of the passes were „short“ in terms of distance. Maybe now, when watching Barca on TV, you may notice when and who is playing those threatening diagonal / vertical passes. and they do, they are not only passing from left to right on a low tempo to keep the ball. They didn’t even in their prime.

Ok sorry, i thought it went like this. But obviously i misunderstood then what was happening No, thats not true. There are only two possible intentions for a pass 1.) to maintain possession which can also be a sideways or backpass 2.) to threaten the space behind the opposition you pass by, which is usually achieved by a vertical pass. Both have up and downsides, but not lets get too deep into this. The most effective pass however is a diagonal pass as it makes the defense move and forces them to shake up their defensive shape while your team can gain space and threaten those areas. The translation to FM may be misleading but is relatively simple: Shorter passing is primarily asking your players to play passes that maintain possession but not nessecarily be threatening and direct passing is primarily asking your players to look for threatening passes at the risk loosing possession. And dont get me wrong, your team needs both. Players who maintain possession and players who play threatening passes towards the goal. If you combine that with staggered movement of your attacking squad, you will get many diagonal balls. "Take more risks" as an equivalent to pass into space which does not equal through balls. Throughballs are vertical / diagonal balls into space. Pass into space / take more risks does simply mean, that players are looking to pass into space instead of passing into feet. However the intention of the pass will remain accordingly to your passing instructions. Thats a start at least, but you may need to change more. unfortunately i cant see how exactly your team plays. And you really need to up your tactical familarity.

Did you increase his "passing directness" or added "take more risks"? Those are different things. Yes, but thats what you told your team. quick transitions (Counter TI), direct roles up the pitch (Winger, AF). Also Wingbacks, who are also very direct roles. Well, players being back does not equal being compact. Your team is still looking to press aggressively. that will force players (also defenders) out of position and dortmund is playing very direct to exactly exploit those gaps. All the passes you described, Bellingham to Poulsen, Poulsen (into space) to fabio and fabio to sancho were vertical / diagonal and intended to threaten the goal.

Your team is under great preassure and that can cause mistakes in terms of movement and positioning especially if they run at you once after another. Dortmund is committing many players forward so they almost equal you in terms of players (8 vs 9). You can accept that (or properbly your players cant do better) and simply see out the match but you need to step back then in terms of defensive intensity and just shut down your area. Or you can fight against that and attack them before they cage you in. Of course at the risk of being ran over.

You are trying to achieve possession for the sake of it. Low tempo for example is most effective to use possession as a defensive style method as it allows your players to rest with the ball. However, it is very easy to defend against it and unless your team is way better than the other team you will really struggle to score. If thats what you are looking for, then fine. If its not, you need to understand that possession is a result of dominating the match and not of playing slow, predictable and non threatening. The problem with wingbacks is not that they are going forwards or create width (you need that) but they are instructed to dribble down the line and cross. you dont want that usually as you are looking for combination play. better use fullbacks, or inverted fullbacks as both are more involved. As you are playing with a double pivot in center you can play them both with an attack duty agains smaller opponents. If you are playing with shorter passing, individually instruct your creative player to play more direct its a nessecary component to provide threatening passes. It doesnt mean your players will play long balls, it just means they will play forward (vertical / diagonal), risky passes.

No need to throw everything over. Its important for your players to become familar with a certain style of play. Only make small changes to prevent certain situations. If balls are played over the top, drop the defensive line and see how it plays out. If you cant keep possession, remove Counter TI to take your timer for the transition or lower the passing directness. Be careful tho, playing safer with the ball does also mean beeing less threatening to the goal. You need to find the "sweet spot" for your team. You can also just remove Counterpress if you are looking for a slightly faster transition into your defensive shape without completely wiping out the chance of winning back the ball immediately.

The things are not working as you think they do. Prevent short GK Distribution is most effective when the other team actually trys to play out short from the GK - it only affects your players behavior if the GK is in possession.. It comes at the risk of being played over the top. So if the GK anyway trys to play it long you just increase the risk for that play to be successful. When loosing the ball, the first instructions that kick in are your transitional instructions. So instead of preasuring the ball, your players will regroup and once transitioned into the defensive shape, they will start pressing and opening up gaps in your lines.

Dunno whats wrong with Tousart, maybe because hes a BWM. However, regrouping into defensive shape and pressing urgently doesnt work. Once the other team fully transitioned into the final third, pressing will open up gaps in your defensive line. So you either want to to regroup and then hold position to cut off passing lanes, or you want to win the ball further up the pitch or at least around the middle third. Same goes for PGD as it sends your forward players further forward to mark out the defenders when the others teams GK has possession.

Post your tactic, then we can help you sorting out your defensive squad

You need to take more risks at the cost of possibly loosing possession. Increase the tempo if you want the ball to circulate more quickly allow your Creative players or up front players in general more direct passing if your players are just passing it sideways and let out opportunities for passes towards the goal allow more creative freedom (be more expressive), if players are not offering enough passing options and you want them to make more unexpected moves stretch the play by widening attacking width (if your attack in general is too congested) pass into space if the other team is pressing high Overload the attacking third by sending more players forward (only if you really need to score in the last 15 minutes) there is more but I’m just trying to give you an idea. Obviously don’t use it all at once

Ok, but I still don’t think it’s representative, because often your attacking transition starts in your own half. And the 2-3-5 is a positional formation for the attacking third. That’s why I would rather look how your team lines up when in the final third of the pitch. i assume you don’t want your Wing backs defensive starting position when transitioning into the attack to be like a winger