Adapting to your opponents or not?

[WiffGiff]

Last night before the Semifinals in the Euros I played with Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League against Barcelona. When I previously played against them I obviously lost by a few goals, I tried to adapt my tactic to them and so on, but it didnt help much.

So this time I just took the usual tactic I have, Attacking fluid football with direct passing and with offsidetrap and counter attacking. That got some good results, I did lose by 0-1. However the way my team played was satisfiying. We had equally amount of chances as Barca and more possession, 53%, Willian and Texeira had some open chances that they should have scored.

It acctually made me think if trying to play defensivly and adapt against a better team in FM 2012 acctually is ueful or not, or to play with a tactic that your team regulary play with?

 

[Death Ball]

It depends on your side and your relative strength. If your side is strong then by going very defensive you're taking out some of its edge and actually making things worse, but if it's much weaker then going very defensive can be what gives you a fighting chance. It's also relevant how far away from your trained tactics it is, as the unfamiliarity may be harming performance more than you can get with.

For example, in my Torino career, going defensive against stronger teams such as Chelsea, Sporting, Sevilla has been what took me to overachieve in Europe and be close to get past group stage in ECC and reach EURO Cup quarterfinals twice. And in last preseason, to beat Barcelona 1-0. I do have amont the three prepared tactics one ultra defensive to be comfortable enough when the match needing it comes.

 

[alicwkd]

If I'm a weak team I always change to counter strong opposition. For example as Southampton I drew United in a cup, and changed to a 3 man defence, before drawing City and changing to 4-3-3 to try and stifle their midfield. I guess you could say I'm very reactive, but I can't help thinking I would have been steamrollered if I hadn't changed.

 

[WiffGiff]

Well if its a quite a low qualittyteam that is playing against a strong team, then adapting is vital. But when it comes to two teams were one is clearly stronger but not in a huge way, like Shakhtar vs Barcelona, it seems more useful to be more aggressive. Also in games which are suppose to even I get a better advantage to attack then be more cautious.

When I played with Inter my second season I met Barca. I saved before the game and then I wanted to experiment and see if I could win against them using diffrent tactics and formations.The first three times where I used a defensive tactic I lost, then I changed to a very offensive 4-2-3-1 and won 2-0, even though my team is not really used to that formation or especially strong upfront.

Later on I always used very offensive tactics against teams with strong attack and team taht on paper where better then mine. Which seems to work.

 

[porterness]

It depends on your side and your relative strength.