Igneos79

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Possession can be achieved in multiple ways, but I will only describe the best one. Tiki taka.
Strategy that fits possession football is standard and to a degree, control. Standard is probably the best one, as most of your players will look for the best pass, not necessarilly forward. Your players will look to pass the ball in all directions, and by various channels you have created. Control is slightly more inclined to make passess toward goal, and while it may prove to be successfull, it is not real tiki taka. Your players may choose a forward pass and lose the ball. With a more rigid, progressive philosophy, your forward players will make even more forward passess, and that may also prove wastefull. The real deal is perhaps with very fluid philosophy. It offers a global mentality, except in the case of a few specialist roles. Meaning, with standard strategy, all of your players mentality will be on the exact middle.

Very fluid will also give them more creativity, so they should always pick out the best pass. All of them. Your defenders and your forwards, and your midfielders. Tiki taka doesn't rely on throwing your players forward, it relies on a patient and slow attack buildup, with accurate passes, and correct passes. Not only from one of your players, but from all of them. Some players tend to get impatient with this style, so if this is the case with your team, order them more disciplined team setting. That way, they will need to follow instructions, and play a very slow tempo, and keep passing the ball, until they finally get that ccc, when defence opens.

And to open up a defence, you will need to use roaming and running both off and on the ball. However, roaming should be restricted only to your treq and adv.play attack roles, as they are the only ones capable of it, and you shouldn't give to many players roaming as that will mess you up defensively. The player with roaming should preferably be in the centre of the pitch and below him should be two central or defensive midfielders with a support or defend duty. Running on the ball should be given to your players with good dribbling, usually in the winger position. If all of your team is good at dribbling, you can consider running at defence team instruction. If you are failing to open a particulary good defence, turn it on anyway.

To keep passing the ball and looking for that ccc, you will need to retain possession, and to keep your passess accurate, you will need to shorten your passing length. Keeping a low tempo makes sure you build up attacks slowly and not rush things. Eventually, even with all of this, you will lose the ball, and when that happens you will need to get it back ASAP. That's why you should use hassling. It basically intructs your players to close down immediatelly and try to force a mistake. Of course, all of this closing down, and running is very tiring, so you should make the pitch smaller by pushing much higher up, at the same time making your players stand closer to opponent.

Such high pressing style usually comes with a lot of cards, as your players tackling efforts will be bad, so you shouldn't instruct agressive tackles. Staying on feet instruction may also work, but with increased number of fouls commited, so avoid it if the referee is strict. Defending so high up the pitch will increase the risk of counters, so you should use offside trap with two defenders on defend duty. A sweeper keeper isn't necessary but may prove usefull, so if using one, you should instruct him not to start counter attacks by long kicks, and instead distribute ball to defenders. That may put your defence under additional pressure if you are up against a high pressing team. To make sure your defence doesn't clear the ball long, don't use limited defenders, and use play out defence team instruction. Work ball into box team instruction may also prove to be a possession saver.
 
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great post. you said about the ups and downs about the roam+be more exp/stick+be more discip, but what's your opinion about which was used by guardiola? also, i know that the PI overwrites TI's, but if i set stick+be more discpl on TI, and roam on PI, the tactic will also remove the 'be more disciplined'? if not, this could be a tweak
 
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great post. you said about the ups and downs about the roam+be more exp/stick+be more discip, but what's your opinion about which was used by guardiola? also, i know that the PI overwrites TI's, but if i set stick+be more discpl on TI, and roam on PI, the tactic will also remove the 'be more disciplined'? if not, this could be a tweak

I have no idea what Guardiola used, I don't watch RL football. And I also don't know if PI's have priority over TI's.
 
the philosophy is great, but guardiola also did some micro-management. if u try your TI in the game, you will find many through balls, many shots because of the high creative freedom and a rush in possession, which is not tiki-taka about. have you tried it?
 
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