Lack of goals with tiki taka

[Cookbooksupreme]

Hi all,

I'm having some goalscoring issues with my current tactic, and I was hoping to get your advice!

My tactics and team instructions are posted at the bottom, but here is the brief context. I'm playing with Bayern in the year 2031 with a tactic loosely based on the Pep Guardiola tiki taka as described here:

http://www.passion4fm.com/football-manager-barcelona-tiki-taka-tactics-emulating-pep-guardiolas-positional-play/.

Slow build-up, many passes, high possession, and patient attacking are what I'm aiming for here.

The tactic is mostly effective. Defensively, I'm rock-solid and have the best defense in the league. Offensively, I enjoy very high possession (55-60%) and have a high pass completion ratio as well (80%). However, I have trouble converting my possession into goals!

Watching the games, I notice a few things:

1. On offense, it often seems like my striker is outnumbered - he is often caught alone with the ball surrounded by 5 defenders. This problem was partially solved by changing my tempo from "normal" to "lower" - the slower build-up allows my midfielders and defenders to move upwards as the attack builds. However, I still do notice it occurring, and I'm tempted to change my tempo to "much lower"...any thoughts?

2. By looking at opposition positional heat maps, I can tell that my opposition is often just parking the bus right in front of goal. We pass and pass and pass again, but they just accumulate enough bodies in the box that it frustrates us.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what could work here? Thank you for any advice!

Tactics and team instructions here: http://imgur.com/a/rHsEg

[NickG]

Two things I'd suggest:

1. Get more bodies in the box. I would make your MCL a CM-Support, or a BBM. That would give you another player that would get forward in spots, without opening you up too much on the counter. You might also think about making one of your wingers a IF instead.

2. Related to that, try "Roam from position". You need movement and unpredictability in the final third, this would supply it.

[Exius]

This is a common problem with tiki-taka based tactics and I see nothing strange in it 'cause IRL teams playing tiki-taka sometimes suffer from goals lacking as well despite high possession and high number of total attempts, especially when the opposition is parking a "bus".

Let me guess - most of your shots come outside of the penalty box cause the team is not able to get through the opponent's "bus"?

I'd suggest to give your team more creative freedom, let them roam from their positions and try more passes into space. These may harm possession a bit but will bring more risky passes into the box, where chances to score are much higher. And make sure you has a playmaker with "Tries killer balls often" PPM - he will cut through the opposition defence.

[fi5hbone]

Can't seem to view the image of your tactic!

[Exius]

Almost forgot - do not decrease tempo when playing passing-based possession style with a strong team. Bayern should have players capable to play in a considerably higher tempo (even in 2031:))

By decreasing the tempo you give opposition deffenders more time to cover all your players who can potentially receive the ball, so your player just don't have any possible targets for a forward pass. That's one of the key features of IRL Barcelona - they move off the ball very quickly and unpredictibely so the opposition just can't cover their players in time.

[pedrosantos]

Positional play is about moving the ball around to create unbalances in the opponent shape and to to create space as an exploit, its never about stopping the ball onto the feet (Tempo in FM)

[summatsupeer]

I haven't read that article, way to long but i'll try to offer some insight.

Control mentality is a forward thinking mentality, your asking your players to look to take risks to create something. Attack duty adds to this, so your ST will be really trying to go forward leading to him being isolated. Tempo won't stop him trying to take risks and play forward thinking football, he will just take a few moments longer before trying something.

There's three things I would think about:

1. Duty of the ST. Switching to support will make him play deeper and less isolated.

2. Team Shape. Very Fluid would reduce the mentality of the forward players and increase the defenders so less likely to be isolated. This would keep the same creative freedom as Flexible + More Expressive. All your players would start with the same mentality which is then modified by their duty, making defence duty less risky than support duty, who are less risky than attack.

3. Team Mentality. Dropping to Standard would reduce the risk taking of your players so they are more likely to play lateral/backward balls to keep possession rather than trying to create something. Standard + Very Fluid can produce some beautiful football without using an attacking team mentality.

[pedrosantos]

Exactly

If the idea is to play possession, support is a lot needed and a lower mentality and I would go with a higher tempo (because of the short passing and retain possession TI, added the lower mentality and it would be a very low tempo).

This is when I remember mentality descriptions on-game should be improved, people read Control and automaticaly associate "Barça", "tiki-taka" and so on.

[Exius]

It seems after yesterday semi-final Joachim Löw will subscribe to this thread:)

Beautiful example how IRL teams suffer this problem.

[JWVG]

Doesn't matter if it's Tika Taka or any other style of play, when a team sits in his own third

with eleven men and just focuses on defending it's always tough to score...

[Warrenwwr]

the last time i got this style of play to work, i made a highly fluid strikerless formation with 3 attacking midfielders. you really need top tier players

[xambo]

The tiki taka needs a more fluid system. Also roaming movement is needed. Although this would require smart high technical players to perfect. There is a great video about how to implement the tiki taka here worth a watch.

[video=youtube;tLHoyrCpLxE]