Any recommended tactics for beating Barcelona away from home?

[Dave3592]

I am currently in my 3rd season of managing Napoli, and everything this year has been going close to perfect. Unbeaten all season so far, won every single game at home, drawn 5-10 away from home. Got 16 points in the Champions League group stages, and then I am drawn against Barcelona.

I figured I'd have a try with my tactic that had served me well so far...Barcelona win 11-0.
Its like my team completely crumbled in every possible way even although they all had superb morale before the game and going in with incredible form and its not like my players are bad, my current first team line up and tactic is :

Muslera
Maggio Fernandez Bocchetti Dossena
Inler Hamsik
Lavezzi Pastore Muniain
Cavani
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I should also probably mention I'm playing on 12.2.2, so would anyone recommend some sort of way of at least making a decent attempt against Barcelona. (I'm not one to load my game, but after an 11-0 defeat I felt pretty annoyed)

Thanks for any help.​

 

[Jimmer1979]

I beat them with Alcorcón with this tatic

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/football-manager-2012-tactics-training/94065-ama-zing%99-4-2-4-new-attacking-possession-tactic-raikan007.html

 

[Jimmer1979]

Here some screen shots.

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[chapman7]

You'll need to play Fluid but control football. Napoli are a very young but talented team, the way I would try is playing with two strikers a poacher with pace run onto ball play with your best playmaker CM who has a pass stat of atleast 17 if you possess such a player.

In the team talk screen the touch line shouts should be work ball into box, pass into space pump ball into box then have the team talk if something like Give the fans something to cheer about Assertively that should get.them in the mood to do well works with teams I've played against. Hope it works.

 

[turbine54]

Jimmer and Chapman are right. I just beat the **** out of Barcelona 4-2 with my Guarani (Brazil) team in the Club World Championship. Guarani doesn't have anybody on the pitch worth more than 5 million dollars U.S., but I went all out attack anyway with Ross's Wonder Tactic (which I've been using for a season and a half).

After I scored first and they got one back, I made a few changes in the match, setting my back line to just one click away from "deep" (you can see this in the second screenshot below). Defensive width was two clicks above that. I tried to make Barca pass it in from the flanks instead of slicing me up through the middle. I also set hard tackling on all players except Valdes in the "opposition instructions" tab. The ref's stats suggested he was kind of lenient, which proved to be true, since there was only one yellow card during the match.

I set focus passing" to down both flanks," and then I just started pouring in the crosses. I set corners inswinging for near post and put a central defender to attack there, too. My touchline shouts were "hassle opponents," "get ball forward," and "pass into space." I got a little ****** that two of my goals were marked "own goals" because they were on target and merely happened to be deflected by Barca players. Messi got a stoppage-time consolation goal, but overall, the little club from Brazil (worth 49 mil. dollars) embarrassed the richest club in the world completely. It was a real rout.

Also, the tactic worked fine elsewhere: I decided to go on a continental tour 1960's-Santos style and whipped Bayern 3-0. Haven't lost a match since, either. So find a tactic you can whip anybody with, and then make a few in-game adjustments.

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[Death Ball]

In my case, my ultradefensive tactic has worked in the two preseason friendlies to not lose, one 1-1 and one 1-0.

Rigid, counter, direct passing, stand off opponents, default or more disciplined freedom, zonal marking, all other default, fast striker that's set as the target man to use and feed the ball to run onto it.

GK-D; FB-D, CB-C, CD-X, FB-D; DM-D (mentality set as CB-C), DLP-S (mentality as DM-D +2); MC-AP-S (mentality as DLP-S + 3);wingers IF-A, IF-A (mentality two ticks into attacking, no closing down, few creative freedom, cut inside, two fast wingers); P-A (mentality as wingers + 2/3, has to be very fast and the higher off the ball the better). It would be advisable to set the CBs and DMs tight marking to No, but not required.

All central players but the striker have no run forward, no run with ball, shots from range and crosses between rare and medium depending on having the proper stat lower or higher than 12, through balls rare or frequent. Wide players the same, but crossing is rare or frequent. The central midfielder has run forward and run with ball set to medium, with through balls and crosses to frequent.

If the opponent is not very much stronger the FBs can be set to support with a medium forward movement with or without ball (though it's best to set them back to defend and no runs after scoring to avoid counters from the flanks).

It's worked very well against stronger opposition. It served to my Torino side to beat Sporting Lisbon, Chelsea, Atlético de Madrid, Sevilla, Barcelona and not to lose against Arsenal. It did get thrashed 3-0 by Tottenham in their stadium, but I think I hadn't yet adjusted the midfield as mentioned and both defensive midfielders moved up more than it was prudent and that offered space that was exploited by the Tottenham players, which are clearly one or two levels above my players. With these adjustements I doubt it had been a defeat like that, maybe a 1-0 because, after all, this doesn't prevent them from shooting even if it's from range so there's always a chance they may get some goal. If your strikers have a good rating of shots of target, they should then be able to take advantage of the few chances this will create. Your assistant will say you're misplacing many long passes, but that's part of the system. Give up possession in exchange to deny them comfortable shots and use long balls to try find your striker or wingers unmarked running behind the opposition's defence for a one on one.

And a classic version of this has served me with England to get a 0-0 draw against Spain while dominating the game for several parts (though the final possession stat was just 44% for me) and to create the best chances, with 14 shots, out of which 9 were on target, forcing Reina to five superb saves, against Spain's 16 shots of which only one was on target.