Good defense is hard work

[rockpie]

OK so I've been using this tactic in my Cardiff City save.

Here it is + results and league table:

 

As you can see, pretty good. Most importantly of all, a great defense which is the main thing I wanted to accomplish.

19 clean sheets from 30 league games, plus a few others in the FA cup has to be considered a success. 

Also, another key aim was to have a tactic where the AF was the main goalscorer and a constant threat.

Rhian Brewster has scored 17 in 24 league apps plus another 1 in the cup, despite being occasionally rotated / subbed out for Glatzel.

Murphy as an IF on the left has also contributed 12 league goals so far and he may have scored more, but I switched him to an IW for a stretch of games to see how that affected things. He stopped scoring as much.

Player Instructions?

Yep there are a few...

The WB (s) and FB (s) both have extra PIs to cross often and cross from deep.

The DLP (d) is instructed to take more risks.

The IF is instructed to stay wider.

And the AF is instructed to dribble more and shoot more.

But....

This has been far from easy.

The tactic is not plug & play, far from it in fact.

For every opponent, I've taken a detailed look at the scout report on their tactical setup.

Where are they creating most of their chances from?

Where are most of their assists coming from?

Who do I need to shut down to limit their threat?

I can then set specific instructions to mark certain players tightly, always close them down, etc.

During matches, I also make changes to my DL, DOE, and level of pressing depending on what I'm seeing.

Are they dribbling or passing right through me?

OK, I need to push up and press more, maybe defend narrower and get stuck in to show them that they can't walk the ball through my lines.

Are they catching me with longer balls over the top, or exposing my flanks with an overlap?

OK, I need to drop my DL more, maybe defend wider.

But the changes have to make sense in terms of what I'm seeing.

Extended highlights is usually good enough for this, I generally find that the AI creates 1 or 2 chances of the same type before they finally manage to score... giving you a couple of opportunities to make adjustments and improve things.

Of course, in some cases you just get it wrong or can't figure it out... see 0-2 loss to Brentford; albeit with a weaker, rotated team and 0-1 loss to Swansea. 

To see what would happen without the constant tweaks & adjustments, I simulated a season with the same team using the same tactic (I made sure to sign / sell all the same players during the preseason).

And Cardiff finished.... 16th.

I know that's not a perfect demonstration, since different injuries and different bans and a lot of other variables are at play.

Still, I don't think such a drastic change in fortune would have happened if the base tactic itself was solid.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my thoughts and experiences here.

If anyone wants to give this tactic a go, it does play some lovely direct attacking football... but you have to put the work in on the defensive side.

On the other hand, if anyone has suggestions on how to improve the tactic or make it so that it requires less work, let me know!

Edited November 26, 2019 by rockpie

[Experienced Defender]

5 hours ago, rockpie said:

if anyone has suggestions on how to improve the tactic or make it so that it requires less work, let me know!

Why would you want to make any changes to a tactic with which you won the league (unless it suddenly stopped working in the meantime)? I mean, even though the tactic is not my "cup of tea" (in terms of how I approach tactical creation), it has obviously produced great results for you, so you fully deserve congratulations for what you've created  

[rockpie]

1 hour ago, Experienced Defender said:

Why would you want to make any changes to a tactic with which you won the league

Because I think it can still be improved!

For example, I played a few games today and switched the B2B mid into a BWM (d).

Also adjusting the PIs of the WB (s) on the left to stop crossing from deep and stay wider instead.

I found a really nice feature of the tactic then, with the BWM (d) arriving late in the box to connect with crosses from the WB (s).

Callum Paterson has scored 3 goals in 4 games from this.

Although this save is going very well, I'm still using it as an experiment mainly, to see what combinations of roles and instructions work best in the type of football I'm trying to produce.

Edited November 26, 2019 by rockpie

[Experienced Defender]

1 hour ago, rockpie said:

Because I think it can still be improved!

Anything can be improved, no doubt about that. But sometimes an attempt to improve something that already works may lead to more harm than good. That was my point, nothing else. 

I can tell you what (and why) I personally would change in your tactic based on my tactical "philosophy", but I cannot guarantee that it would prove a good idea for your particular team. 

[sporadicsmiles]

11 hours ago, rockpie said:

The tactic is not plug & play, far from it in fact.

This tells me you do not need to change your base setup, because you have learnt that few tactics are truly plug and play. Effort spent in setting up correctly can be turned into excellent results. It is showing you are good at the game,and I find it so much more rewarding to out think an opposition (even if it is only the AI). 

Since you talk about specific changes, it would be interesting to hear exactly what thought process goes on around your changes. I think that kind of post could really help some users on here who struggle with this side of the game. And perhaps certain situations where you struggle to counter the AI. 

[rockpie]

8 minutes ago, sporadicsmiles said:

Since you talk about specific changes, it would be interesting to hear exactly what thought process goes on around your changes. I think that kind of post could really help some users on here who struggle with this side of the game. And perhaps certain situations where you struggle to counter the AI. 

Hmm, good suggestion. Maybe I'll see if I can put something together soon.

[MK-48]

Hey, got any of them...tactics?