Adapting tactics to other team getting man sent off

[peterc1992]

I've played two games in two weeks v City(away) and Arsenal(at home) where they had men sent off late in the first half.

I lost the first 1-0 (they scored before sending off) and drew 1-1 in the other.

My team is a good as both and I am especially annoyed with the home game as it is a point gained by Arsenal and 2 lost by us imo.

Sometimes I go attacking as I have an extra man but it seems as though the game goes on without any chances.

Other times I keep it at controll and very fluid and the same thing happens.

City went from a 4-2-3-1 at 11 men to a 4-1-3-1 and I still could only manage 51 per cent possesion compared to 45 before the sending off.

Any tips or help?

 

[Raul Madrid7]

Yeah, a man lost by the opposition certainly doesn't mean they roll over. Generally I start heavily attacking once their guy is sent off because I know it's far from won...

In any case, the Assistant Manager always suggests keeping possession to run them into the ground. Not sure if that's the best way to score, but it does seem like a good tactic

 

[TJD07]

Depending on your formation, start to play wider with a little higher tempo to stretch out their team. They'll either end up with a midfielder missing or a forward missing so you'll rarely just start to completely outplay them even with the extra player.

 

[MANUMAD]

Game is weird with sendings off. I usually win matches I play with 10 and struggle to get anything when I play against 10.

But TJD07 is generally correct about the approach

 

[Spleen]

All the clichés are right - winning against a team with ten men is not easy. If your teams are as good as each other as you say, how much of an advantage is an extra man? 10%. The average result of a football match is 1-1. If you add 10% and round to the nearest goal, what's the result? 1-1

I'm guessing from your post that you're playing in highlights mode? I usually do as well, but this is the kind of situation where I switch to the full match to see why my team isn't breaking them down. Without knowing more about what happened in those two matches, it's difficult to say what went wrong. Were they just passing it about in midfield and not attacking? Were they punting crosses in but without any quality? Did they create loads of chances but finish badly? Can't really say anything about your tactics without knowing how the match actually went.

Conventional wisdom says to keep the ball and play as wide as possible, but that's not just a matter of whacking the 'width' slider all the way to the right or switching tactics to 'fluid' - if you're playing with two inverted wingers and defensively-minded fullbacks then it won't make any difference.