Breaking down 5 man defences

[jdunn99]

Hi all

I'm having some problem with my Juventus team, I won the Serie A and the League cup in my first season, and I'm about 7 points clear at the top in Serie A in my second season.

I have always had a problem with conceding early, I have tried all sorts of tactics to counter this and nothing seems to work, but this isn't the main problem I'm facing.

It seems that teams will somehow nick an early goal against me then stick 5 in defence for the rest of the game, this means that I have no hope of breaking through the middle of the park and It reduces me to contstant crosses, my wingers are Giovinco and Sanchez and I have tried with 2 great ariel threats Amauri and Lukaku/Iaquinta up front together with Overload tactics and I still can't score.

How do you guys normally go about breaking down 5 man defences? I have had 3 draws in a row now and I don't want Inter to catch me

 

[sebastiansas]

I think that your team isn't focused enough. You should go to press conferences and try to motivate your team via team talks . A good team talk at the right time can get you miracles.

Breaking a 5 man defence, that can be done in 2 ways. The first, try to attack from the start, so you don't concede and the oponent won't be playing with 5 defenders The second way to break them is by playing a short passing game with 2 MC, 3 AMC and 1 ST. One of your MC's should have defend/suport role, so you assure that will not concede furthermore. In short terms, this is what I recomand. Good luck mate

 

[mashedPotatoes]

Try to exploit their flanks,using wingers and fullbacks to overlap and pressure the opposing fullback,giving space to cross but also passing into space and eventually breaking them down,bit by bit.

 

[Mike.]

personally wouldnt use overload, i like to pick them open, play wide passing into space using control mentality, get the fullbacks to overlap

 

[jdunn99]

Great stuff, thanks everyone.

I'm at work today, but when I get home I'll try what you all said and let you know how it goes!

 

[KluivertsBoots]

I see five man defenses a lot in Brazil with my Cruzeiro save (3 CBs, 2 WBs) and I always play wide as a general rule against compact defenses.

I play a wide formation and make sure Work Into Box is set on the touchline shout. The ball will be brought up wide initially to create gaps my central attackers can then exploit. This way I'm not limiting myself to only crosses.

Also, I highly recommend setting Cross from Deep for your primary crossers. This is a great way to catch the defense out before they shut up shop in front of goal. If you have good crossing fullbacks, you will score lots of tap in goals if you have attacking players with high off the ball/anticipation marks (poachers). Also, you will score the odd freak goal on a cross/shot if you have Drill Crosses set. That's somewhat cheap, but it will not happen often enough to qualify as an exploit.

 

[Gaffer]

good thread, playing in italy you often come up against heavily defensive teams. interesting to see the responses