Beating teams when you are underdog.

[boogiept]

Good morning everyone

I believe that many of you are struggling to defeat teams with better reputation than yours, especially when you are playing outside.

I tried a lot of things, changed the settings of my defence to a lot of different combinations, played with a 2 dm system, but nothing seemed to work. I dominated, created a lot of chances and then suffered 3 goals in 5 minutes, a cross and a short striker beated my tall cd banging a header, or a 20 yard shot. Yes, it can hapen but not so often as it happens in the game.

In previous editions of fm, i never cared to assist pre match reunions. I believe in creating a good tactic and play your own football, and not in playing according to your opponents. Let they adapt to your football, but i gave it a shot.

I currently play in a 451 system, similar to 451 Mourinho´s implemented in FC Porto, but i was struggling against better teams (I´m playing with Benfica).

I assisted to pre match meeting and my AM informed that MU uses to experience problems playing against teams with a 442 system, very slow tempo, and with a very deep def-line.

So i changed everything, i downloaded a 442 tactic from this forum (Arsenal) and tweaked it to match AM advice).

I made the following experience.

Played 3 times with my own system - lost 4-0; lost 3-1; lost 5-3

Played 3 times with all the tweaks suggested- Lost 3-2 (2 stolen PK), won 3-2, won 1-0

Maybe this is the anwser and not to improve defence, because in that matter nothing seems to work.

If anyone tyied this please tell me your opinion.

Godd games

[eqqismar]

Use OIs; close down and man mark their fullbacks with your wingers. Man mark their CMs or DMs, close down their wingers, AMs. In tight matches don’t attack the opposition from the beginning, play a standard or control approach and try to use the counterattack.

Also, if you must download a tactic, be aware that your team won’t be able to play that way from the first match (check the match preparation levels).

[crazyscotsman]

i currently play as Everton but for this post it doesnt matter who you play with, Bolton, Birmingham etc. I play my own formation and bring in the players to suit. At this particular time I am playing a modified a 4-4-2 with a "Control" mentality. I play using shouts and no OI. When I come up against the "big teams" I do the following:

After I have done my team talk, and before I "click" play I change my starting mentality from Control to Defensive. I do not change any of the players indivisual settings as all those were set when I built the tactic originally. Once I click play, I then pause the game and go to the Shouts menu. I select "pass to feet" and depending on who I am playing also "play wider" What this does for me is with the defensive mentality it gives me slower tempo and narrower width (thus why i sometime chose play wider) Once you see how the game is going you adjust via the shouts. If the opposition scores I will go back to the shouts and along with pass to feet will also add keep possession, this allows the team to slow down play even more.

Works for me and out of playing each of the big 5 twice I have lost only once to Liverpool 2-1 in the league ( a late penalty) and 1-0 to Arsenal in the League Cup (have of my players were reserves)