Ive Been tinkering with a possession tactic for some time now as I noticed people seemed to struggle getting it to work. Problem is, people want to see 70+passes a game from each player. This is totally unreasonable, and near impossible to achieve on FM.
Heres an Example of the kind of passing Ive been achieving: This was from my 4-0 away win over Lecce.
Going on the Crowd the Middle, Pass Short, Play Slow philosophy, I set up a 4-1-2-1-2 and played a narrow game, focussing passing through the middle. This gave good results with pass attempted and pass completion being within around the reasonable 30 pass mark.
This was good but I knew I could do better, I started a game with Napoli (who are a joy to manage) as I felt that there balance of Technique, Passing and Aggression was perfect to test this system.
To further compliment my system I signed Andrea Poli and Cristopher Drazan to bolster an already strong midfield, Poli to act as one of my passing trio and Drazan to threaten with his general athletic ability.
I decided that using my Fullbacks to support the midfield was a good idea as it gave more outlets for passing, this worked tremendously throughout Pre-season, as both Fullbacks (Dossena and Maggio) were achieving 50+ passes a game, they also gave the narrow diamond good width and provided an auxillary attacking threat, especially Dossena, who's crossing has helped my forwards start banging them in.
I felt that as Poli was my best passer on paper he should be made my playmaker in his DM role, again, this worked nicely as Poli controls the whole game and can devastate the opposition with nasty, angled passes to my forwards. No question, he really shows his quality here.
After a couple of games I realised that my whole team played better with Manuele Blasi playing as a CM with the adaptive automatic duty. Blasi added a strong, 'hard man' presence in my midfield and made me incredibly hard to break down. He plays an interesting game, both winning the ball and playing arguably the most important passes during the game. He keeps it simple with short, highly succesful passing and; being on the Auto duty changes his game as I feel nescessary.
The other member of my passing trio is Hamsik. A beast of a player as you all probably know. Does everything well, and fits into my system well. He plays a similar role to Frank Lampard at Chelsea, playing a deep, supporting passing game and making driving runs from deep to get amongst the goals.
The 4th man in my midfield is very attack minded. I use either Drazan or Sosa here. There role is to speed up the slow game played behind them with darting runs and aggressive passing to the forwards. As such there passing is not as successful as the other midfielders. But they more than make up for this with shots, assists and chance creation.
After a few friendlies I realised through balls cut me up far to well, therefore I chose to implement the Cover/Stopper defensive partnership that has been succesful for so many teams. It worked and now my team is MUCH harder to score against and break down. Combine this with my prefered Zonal Marking system and the opposition have little space to move once they get into my half.
The strikers are fairly simple, I chose to use a double poacher system as I felt Lavezzi and Cavani suited these roles better with neither being strong enough for a target man and my system not needing a supporting striker due to the AMC. I let them roam as it creates space, and tends to put them in the right place at the right time to pick up on that killer pass.
When it came to the team settings it seemed obvious, VERY Rigid and Control. This was not the case however, as with all the separate instructions Standard actually controlled the game better through pure balance. With my Flexible midfielder (Blasi) on automatic, I can freely switch through the Strategies to fit the current situation. The rigid philosophy generally helps to control the game over fluid, passing systems. The level of tactical discipline is definately nescessary.
P.S, The playmaker setting is actually for the DM role, Blasi is only selected above as Poli was injured and I had to play Gargano. Play the target man as your prefered/best striker to feet. ^^)
Much Thanks,
Comment and Test away.
Laffles.
The New Update has been released.
Fixed-
-Defensive system.
-Less error prone keeper
-Bit more magic in the team
UPDATE
VERSION 4-
Finally Here.
Features of V4-
Better Defensive system, Improved the use of Possession, Less Fullback unsteady-ness.
Version 4 is quite different as it isnt as geared toward possession as V3. Though it is still perfectly capable of having 70%+ possession during a game and does this often, I wanted to see my team use the extraordinary dominance they were having and turning this into goals.
I feel that I have done this, The AM is now a much more prominant role, essentially playing like a false nine to draw the CB's out of position and creating space. Like a well known Argentine does for Barca. V4 has more of a cutting edge. I suggest using V4 in Combination with V3. V4 for Home games and Away against the larger teams, V3 for the smaller ones.
Match Prep, OI and Pitch size all remain the same.
Version 5
This is the FINAL Version. To be used in partnership with V4 and V3
Completes the trio off nicely.
V3-Controls the game best, more passing, more possession
V4- The Attacking Tactic, Better infront of goal, makes good use of possession.
V5- The Solid tactic, Balances both of the above, with good success
V5 is HERE
Much thanks,
Laffles.
HERES V4.
THREAD CLOSED. If you want me PM me.
I'll help with anything.
Tactics, Players, Match plans.
Heres an Example of the kind of passing Ive been achieving: This was from my 4-0 away win over Lecce.
Going on the Crowd the Middle, Pass Short, Play Slow philosophy, I set up a 4-1-2-1-2 and played a narrow game, focussing passing through the middle. This gave good results with pass attempted and pass completion being within around the reasonable 30 pass mark.
This was good but I knew I could do better, I started a game with Napoli (who are a joy to manage) as I felt that there balance of Technique, Passing and Aggression was perfect to test this system.
To further compliment my system I signed Andrea Poli and Cristopher Drazan to bolster an already strong midfield, Poli to act as one of my passing trio and Drazan to threaten with his general athletic ability.
I decided that using my Fullbacks to support the midfield was a good idea as it gave more outlets for passing, this worked tremendously throughout Pre-season, as both Fullbacks (Dossena and Maggio) were achieving 50+ passes a game, they also gave the narrow diamond good width and provided an auxillary attacking threat, especially Dossena, who's crossing has helped my forwards start banging them in.
I felt that as Poli was my best passer on paper he should be made my playmaker in his DM role, again, this worked nicely as Poli controls the whole game and can devastate the opposition with nasty, angled passes to my forwards. No question, he really shows his quality here.
After a couple of games I realised that my whole team played better with Manuele Blasi playing as a CM with the adaptive automatic duty. Blasi added a strong, 'hard man' presence in my midfield and made me incredibly hard to break down. He plays an interesting game, both winning the ball and playing arguably the most important passes during the game. He keeps it simple with short, highly succesful passing and; being on the Auto duty changes his game as I feel nescessary.
The other member of my passing trio is Hamsik. A beast of a player as you all probably know. Does everything well, and fits into my system well. He plays a similar role to Frank Lampard at Chelsea, playing a deep, supporting passing game and making driving runs from deep to get amongst the goals.
The 4th man in my midfield is very attack minded. I use either Drazan or Sosa here. There role is to speed up the slow game played behind them with darting runs and aggressive passing to the forwards. As such there passing is not as successful as the other midfielders. But they more than make up for this with shots, assists and chance creation.
After a few friendlies I realised through balls cut me up far to well, therefore I chose to implement the Cover/Stopper defensive partnership that has been succesful for so many teams. It worked and now my team is MUCH harder to score against and break down. Combine this with my prefered Zonal Marking system and the opposition have little space to move once they get into my half.
The strikers are fairly simple, I chose to use a double poacher system as I felt Lavezzi and Cavani suited these roles better with neither being strong enough for a target man and my system not needing a supporting striker due to the AMC. I let them roam as it creates space, and tends to put them in the right place at the right time to pick up on that killer pass.
When it came to the team settings it seemed obvious, VERY Rigid and Control. This was not the case however, as with all the separate instructions Standard actually controlled the game better through pure balance. With my Flexible midfielder (Blasi) on automatic, I can freely switch through the Strategies to fit the current situation. The rigid philosophy generally helps to control the game over fluid, passing systems. The level of tactical discipline is definately nescessary.
P.S, The playmaker setting is actually for the DM role, Blasi is only selected above as Poli was injured and I had to play Gargano. Play the target man as your prefered/best striker to feet. ^^)
Much Thanks,
Comment and Test away.
Laffles.
The New Update has been released.
Fixed-
-Defensive system.
-Less error prone keeper
-Bit more magic in the team
UPDATE
VERSION 4-
Finally Here.
Features of V4-
Better Defensive system, Improved the use of Possession, Less Fullback unsteady-ness.
Version 4 is quite different as it isnt as geared toward possession as V3. Though it is still perfectly capable of having 70%+ possession during a game and does this often, I wanted to see my team use the extraordinary dominance they were having and turning this into goals.
I feel that I have done this, The AM is now a much more prominant role, essentially playing like a false nine to draw the CB's out of position and creating space. Like a well known Argentine does for Barca. V4 has more of a cutting edge. I suggest using V4 in Combination with V3. V4 for Home games and Away against the larger teams, V3 for the smaller ones.
Match Prep, OI and Pitch size all remain the same.
Version 5
This is the FINAL Version. To be used in partnership with V4 and V3
Completes the trio off nicely.
V3-Controls the game best, more passing, more possession
V4- The Attacking Tactic, Better infront of goal, makes good use of possession.
V5- The Solid tactic, Balances both of the above, with good success
V5 is HERE
Much thanks,
Laffles.
HERES V4.
THREAD CLOSED. If you want me PM me.
I'll help with anything.
Tactics, Players, Match plans.
Last edited: