Beautiful Offense for a Season or Two

[lessthanjake]

I started a rather interesting game recently, and the results have actually been startlingly good and very fun.

I began the game as Manchester City, but only intended to play for one season. My goal was to create the best team I could solely with transfers, but not caring about the future. This meant trying mostly to get a bunch of godly veterans who are bargains because they are about to retire and/or have no upside (again though, none of this matters if you are just going for one season of glory).

In the end, I ended up picking up the following players:

Rivaldo
Riquelme
Alex (the AM one)
Ronaldinho
Mata

At first glance, one would think this is stupid. All 5 of these players are attacking midfielders. Honestly, I didnt actually expect it would work that well, but the result of all of it was an extremely explosive offense that can get lots of goals no matter how defensive the other team plays, score goals at will on the counterattack, and get more possession every match.

I have been playing with Robinho and Mata up front as poachers. Riquelme, Alex, and Rivaldo play just behind them, with Riquelme and Rivaldo being Attacking Midfielders and Alex being a Trequartista. Ronaldinho typically subs in at half time for whichever one of those midfielders is playing the worst or is tired. This is actually fairly important as Riquelme, Alex, and Rivaldo are all old and would break down and get too tired if they weren't given a frequent reprieve by only playing half a match.

The offense that resulted is really unique and interesting for a few reasons:

- Robinho, Mata, Riquelme, Alex, Rivaldo, and Ronaldinho ALL have extremely high Passing, First Touch, Technique, and Decisions. The result is that the attack can keep possession for very long periods of time in the opponents' third, giving time to manufacture chances.

- Because they all have really high Passing, Crossing, Creativity, Decisions, and Flair, you get a ton of amazing through balls every match.

- Mata and Robinho have amazing Pace, Acceleration, and Off the Ball. Combined with the aforementioned godly through balls, these players find themselves completely free in front of the goalie on counterattacks multiple times a match. Their Finishing is very good so they typically score on these opportunities.

- Riquelme, Rivaldo, Alex, and Ronaldinho lack the pace of the forwards, but their high Off the Ball and Finishing allows them to get free and score plenty of goals. They are particularly great at getting opportunistic goals (ie. if the ball bounces off a defender/goalie and lands dangerously in the box, one of these guys will almost always get to it and score).

- They all have extremely high dribbling and technique. I have them all set to run with the ball frequently with high creative freedom and this has worked very well. The attackers' constant dribbling consistently breaks down defenses even against the most defensive-minded teams. Furthermore, it allows for very frequent goals of solo brilliance. Solo brilliance is also common from long shots from Rivaldo and Riquelme.

- Set pieces are a strength. I have a whole slew of incredible free kick tackers, and get plenty of goals from free kicks. I also have a slew of ridiculously good corner takers. The main weakness of this team is that I don't really have a dominant header in the attack, but the defense has solid headers, Rivaldo is very good at it and while Alex can't jump, his 20 Off the Ball gets him free on corners enough for his solid header score to get him goals from corners anyways. So plenty of goals from corners come. Lastly, all four attacking midfielders have 18 or 19 for penalty taking, so they basically never miss on a penalty kick.

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This all combines to mean that the team plays absolutely breathtaking football. So far, I am 16 matches into the season (13 Premier League matches and 3 League Cup matches). I have 56 goals in those matches (3.5 goals a match).

The goals are typically of the extraordinary nature. Almost every goal is one of the following:
- On the counterattack, one player sends an amazing long pass to a free Robinho or Mata who scores.
- One player dribbles by multiple players, gets himself free and launches a goal from range.
- One player threads the needle through a set defense to put another one through to goal.
- Goal from a direct free kick

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Robinho has been particularly godly, as he is set as my Target Man with it set for him to run on the ball. 16 matches into the season, he has 19 goals and 10 assists.

Anyways, the point is that this is a somewhat antithetical way to get a really fun team for a year or two. All the attacking players are extremely similar but their mutual creativity, passing, dribbling, and finishing combines to create the ultimate beautiful playing team.

 

[Alcaraz]

Any screenshots??

I would not mind trying it out....but im sure it leaks goals too?

 

[lessthanjake]

I'll work on getting some screenshots

Surprisingly, it doesn't leak goals for me at all. In fact, I have shut out Manchester United at Old Trafford as well as Liverpool at home, and conceded only 1 goal to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. I attribute this to a few reasons.

1. I typically use Nigel De Jong as my defensive midfielder instead of Gareth Barry. De Jong is leading the Premier League in tackles and reliably completes 80% of his passes. He is playing his defensive role extremely well.
2. I play with the defensive line very deep. The point of this is twofold. First off, Manchester City has a solid back line defensively, but its pace isn't that incredible. A deep line makes sure no one gets behind the defense very often. This actually helps the offense in some way, I think, too. The team is godly in counterattack as there are so many good passers and two strikers with great pace. To some degree, the deep defensive line pulls other teams in so that countering is even more effective. And with all the attacking ability up front, I don't need my defenders pushed up in order to score against set up offenses.
3. I play with a Very Rigid, Stick to Position, and More Disciplined tactic. Thus, my defenders are very no nonsense. They stay put and don't take risks. Of course, I've overrided all of my attackers to have the highest level of creative freedom, but the point is that the defenders don't do anything stupid.
4. I play a Slow tempo. A slow tempo match overall means my defense is set up more than it might otherwise be. Furthermore, this sort of game, combined with my teams' skill has allowed me to win the possession battle in every single match. Less possession obviously means less chance to score.

I think this is actually part of the beauty of this. The amazing technical ability of my attacking players means that I can play slow and have my defense stay back and take no risks and STILL score boatloads of goals.

EDIT:
5. I also have tackling set to More Aggressive. I'm not too concerned with bans for yellow cards for my defenders as I have a good back up for every player.

 

[LewLufc]

Sounds intresting, but please post somescreen shots