Help with recycling possession

[Malich]

Hi Forum,

I'm having trouble getting my team to recycle possession in the final third.

As my team moves into the final third, instead of passing the ball backwards or laterally, my wide players (wingers and inside forwards in particular) always try to dribble or play a through ball. They have the shouts to try fewer risky passes and pass shorter and shoot less often.

The formation i use is a 3-4-3 that plays like a 3-6-1 with control as the mentality.

If anyone has any advice, that would be greatly appreciated. If you need any more information, i can provide.

Thanks.

 

[Igneos79]

Hi Forum,

I'm having trouble getting my team to recycle possession in the final third.

As my team moves into the final third, instead of passing the ball backwards or laterally, my wide players (wingers and inside forwards in particular) always try to dribble or play a through ball. They have the shouts to try fewer risky passes and pass shorter and shoot less often.

The formation i use is a 3-4-3 that plays like a 3-6-1 with control as the mentality.

If anyone has any advice, that would be greatly appreciated. If you need any more information, i can provide.

Thanks.

No player instructions are needed if you set things up correctly...no pass into space in team settings, a less agressive strategy, and no run at defence is what you need....for tiki taka, I recommend standard strategy with perhaps push higher up aswell, to play closer to goal when you have possession...tempo you should experiment with, but I suggest higher. It will lessen your possession a tad, but you will not be easily tackled and countered...

 

[dave256]

Retain possession is the team instruction which will instruct players to keep the ball instead of always looking forward

 

[Igneos79]

Retain possession is the team instruction which will instruct players to keep the ball instead of always looking forward

I thought retain possesion only shortens passing length?

 

[dave256]

I thought retain possesion only shortens passing lenght?

That would be shorter passing. Retain possession instructs the team to play simple passes instead of look for killer balls. This could be taken as a shorter passing game as longer passes will generally lose the ball, but the main effect is that passes will be played backwards or between the midfield more often

 

[rocheyb]

Another good ploy is to use central midfielders - in my case a Deep-Lying Playmaker_Support and a Ball-Winning Midfielder_Defend - whose attributes list Likes to Switch the Play Often and/or Tries Long-Range Passes.

So, while on the team level, everyone is instructed to play short passes and retain possession, your central midfielders - who you will specifically instruct to Play More Direct Passes - will, when progress is halted down one flank, quickly switch the play to the other wing where your other winger and/or full-back will often have only one (and sometimes none) defender to beat to get in a shot or a killer cross.

Because switching the play often means playing the ball to a team-mate who is in acres of space, you rarely lose possession this way - but of course, a lot relies on the long-range passing capabilities of your central midfielders. I was lucky insofar as the Southampton squad I inherited already contained James Ward-Prowse (DLP) and Morgan Schneiderlin (BWM / DLP), who both already had those attributes (...as well as both being good options for Captain).

With these instructions, your midfielders will also be encouraged to play your forwards into the channels, behind the opposition's defence, with more direct passes from deep - hence it's a good idea to tell your forwards to Move Into Channels. But the central midfielders will only attempt this when that kind of move is ON; most of the time, they will play short passes and retain possession along with the rest of the team.

 

[rocheyb]

Also, have your Goalkeeper Distribute to Defenders and your Centre-Backs and Full-Backs Pass Shorter. Full-Backs can go more direct when you need to get forward and chase a game.

 

[Malich]

Thanks for the advice guys.