Passing Length - Discussion

[peleJunior]

Everybody, well, alot of players want to use short passing in the game. Barcelona and all that jazz. I think there can be three good reasons to play short passing in the game. 1) The AI are camped in their own half waiting to break on you or maybe just camping, so you want to limit mistakes and not force the issue. 2) To see out a solid win. For example you are 2 or 3 goals up and want to take the sting out of the game. 3) You are playing for a draw or to nick a one nil.

So, in my opinion that game treats shorter passing as a more safe approach and can be detrimental to good sides against teams who are not just going to lie down against you.

From recent experimentation, default passing is very good indeed as starting point. What I have been doing lately is starting with default passing, changing my shout to get ball forward if I am drawing at half time or go a goal behind. Once I get a solid 2 nil lead I shout retain possession and deeper into the 2nd half If I am still leading I let the lads shoot from sight, it's a nice way to eat up time.

I am at the moment training the same tactic with three different passing lengths i.e. shorter, default and direct, so my shouts are not too alien to the players when I use them.

How do other people use passing lengths and what is their take on them?

[Kung]

Some views on passing for example Loversleeper have the theory that direct passing are for ungelled teams / weaker teams, maybe becouse a counter attack style of play. In his sets he uses short for top teams and direct for underdogs / ungelled teams.

[David Beckham_7]

I tend to use shorter passing because i always play with a diamond in midfield, 1 AMC, 2 MCs, 1 DM, with either zero or one striker. I love slower tempo, possession based strategy.

And also, just signed Lewi on a free, and he has the PPM stops play, which is perfect for my game, when he plays as a Complete Forward.

[sweep17]

I always use mixed and let the players decide which pass is best. Its easy for players to become isolated and with short passing on they may just dither and lose possesion or kick it away.

[furiousuk]

So, there isn't a general concensus on how passing length works in the game. You'll find strong (and plausible, and credible) arguments for a few different 'theories'.

My own view (which I think matches your own) is that the passing length slider actually defines the length of pass a player will consider, not necessarily what he will choose.

For the sake of simplicity: a long passing slider will allow players to play long passes, there is no stipulation that passes should be long. A short passing slider will restrict players to shorter passes, meaning that longer passes (if seen and if a 'good option') will not be taken.

Clever players with a long passing slider will still play short passes if they are the 'best' passes to play. There are a lot of factors which contribute to a 'best' pass (tempo, player positionining etc etc etc).

As a 'hard-and-fast' rule: default passing is usually the best way to go and then change your passing strategy as the game dictates (your examples illustrate good times, in my view, to change passing length).