samillyroy

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Hi there.
Let me fill you in, I'm doing a Rangers file and I storm the SPL, I've got a great little team going and we are dominating Scottish football. But I want to take things to the next stage, and unfortunately I'm struggling.
The last two seasons we've missed out on the knockout stages of the Champions League by the skin of our teeth, and I think we need to qualify to really move on, and if we don't I fear I'll lose some of my bigger name players to clubs with bigger reps.
Can anyone offer any advice on playing differently against the bigger clubs? Should I change formation and tactics if I'm away from home?

My current champions league group contains Barcelona, Fenerbahce and Kalmar FF. We should have no problem with Kalmar but it's really Barca and Fenerbahce I may need some advice on.
Anyway thanks in advance :)
 
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yeah well I though tof that, but whenever I try to do that with teams I get absolutely spanked :S
 
4 CBS, 1 FB each side, 3 anchorman one fast striker and a big one..

Put the FBS at automatic wing backs, play with counter attacks and with crosses, also you need stronght and tall players for the corners..
 
4-5-1 with attacking wingers, two defensive midfeilders and central midfielder. give it a go...
 
That against Barca.. against the turks im sure you can beat them normally..
 
Go for it. Don't change your formation to match bigger teams, it'll only unsettle your squad. Play as your normally would, with one change: I'd change match strategy to counter. Apart from that, take the game to them.
 
yeah I could probably beat fenerbahce if we play to our best..
I've got Kyrgiakos Lukaku and Webster for corners, they big enough players? :L

---------- Post added at 04:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:01 AM ----------

Godcubed - I think that's probably the best idea..
Whenever I try and chagne formation for the Champs League I get done over so will just have to make subtle changes and hope for the best (yn)
 
I never change tactics. At all. Ends up being worse for the players and the performance imo.

Use opposition instructions wisely, you should look to cut off their midfield, keep the strikers in check and nullify the wingers. So yeah, midfield onwards, you'll want instructions on them. Also, for a team that has very good attacking fullbacks (aka Barça and Daniel Alves for example), he should be hard tackled as well.
Still on this subject, man-marking, in my experience, is to be used with caution. Mark one player tightly and you nullify him, mark 4 and your defense ends up looking like a swiss cheese.

The other thing you should look to is not pushing your defensive line up. I usually play an attack-minded 4-4-2 with a high defensive line, but playing a super-dominant team, you'll want to pull your defensive line to Deep.
Also dependant on your tempo and play style are the touchline instructions, you most definitely want to enable a fast counterattacking style, so make sure you always allow for counters even if you change philosophies.
 
okay well let me tell you my first XI..

normally I play 4-3-3 with wingers pushed right up..

GK - Allan McGregor
RB - Gianni Zuiverloon/Steven Whittaker
LB - Crainey
CB - Kyrgiakos
CB - Webster
DM - Edu
CM - McArthur
CM - Buzaglo
LW - Zhirkov
RW - Mirallas
ST - Lukaku

should I play a more defensive midfiedler than Buzaglo like Sokolowski or Cairney or just leave it as that team and just make the subtle changes and opposition instruction changes?
 
yeah I could probably beat fenerbahce if we play to our best..
I've got Kyrgiakos Lukaku and Webster for corners, they big enough players? :L

---------- Post added at 04:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:01 AM ----------

Godcubed - I think that's probably the best idea..
Whenever I try and chagne formation for the Champs League I get done over so will just have to make subtle changes and hope for the best (yn)

Yeah i bet you can.. Lukaku and Kyrgiakos yes, Webster not too match..
 
mantpro - don't knock webster, he is deadly from set pieces - scored 13 goals for me last season! better than kyrgiakos really from set pieces..
 
okay well let me tell you my first XI..

normally I play 4-3-3 with wingers pushed right up..

GK - Allan McGregor
RB - Gianni Zuiverloon/Steven Whittaker
LB - Crainey
CB - Kyrgiakos
CB - Webster
DM - Edu
CM - McArthur
CM - Buzaglo
LW - Zhirkov
RW - Mirallas
ST - Lukaku

should I play a more defensive midfiedler than Buzaglo like Sokolowski or Cairney or just leave it as that team and just make the subtle changes and opposition instruction changes?

What season you´re in ? if you´re in the first, you could get Anthony Annan, one of the best DM of the game, and one of the cheapest too.. cost like 2,5 M

---------- Post added at 04:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:10 AM ----------

mantpro - don't knock webster, he is deadly from set pieces - scored 13 goals for me last season! better than kyrgiakos really from set pieces..

How many jump and heading he have ? <)
 
against barca i recommend playing counter attacking on with counter mentality and a slow tempo so you minimize their time on the ball and close down often. when playing either side keep your formation as you would for any other match but maybe tweak pace and mentality and palyer instructions to try to take out their best passer, that way it should in theory limit their chances.
 
mantpro - I'm in my third now, my defensive midfielders are Edu and Balitsch, both seasoned pros and very decent, dont have enough cash to even buy annan! he'll be gone now anway.
and websters heading is 16, jumping 15 and he's 6,3! he's lethal, don't knock my captain haha.

sammyt - okay thanks, I'm just about to play barca now so I'll take that advice on board and hopefully we can get something from the game, as it is at ibrox!
 
mantpro - I'm in my third now, my defensive midfielders are Edu and Balitsch, both seasoned pros and very decent, dont have enough cash to even buy annan! he'll be gone now anway.
and websters heading is 16, jumping 15 and he's 6,3! he's lethal, don't knock my captain haha.

sammyt - okay thanks, I'm just about to play barca now so I'll take that advice on board and hopefully we can get something from the game, as it is at ibrox!

Plenty odd i read on the wiki he´s 6,0 XD
 
well we just played barca, I lost 2-0. frustrating game
we made 8 chances to their 3 and had 55% possession and then they got a flukey penalty and the players head's went down, was a shame but a definite improvement on performance to last season when I lost at home to arsenal 3-0!
thanks for all the hlep guys, hopefully we'll manage to progress this season!!
 
and mantpro, you can argue with my game then, it must be wrong.
 
You could start form the pre-season to train a tactic that is focused on those kind of games, where you look for the counter...If they got that tactic as one of the 3 they train your squad would know what to do...

Maybe a 4-2-3-1 but with 2 dmf's, 2 smf and a playmaker, with a target man and a quick player for the counters could work.
 
yeah that's a good shout. I've only really used 1 tactic since January of the first season, before that I'd chopped and changed but now I seem to have a settled one but maybe having a bit of flexibility would be a good thing, it's definitely something I'll look to implement for next season.
 
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