Scenario: what would you do? .....

[barcelonic]

You're the stronger team, you're playing at home in the 70th minute and you are 2-1 up. However, both teams are attacking hard and you feel the lead may be slipping away from you. You're philosophy is set to Control and has been all game.

Then, you have a player sent off. Forget the position of this player it's not important, but in this moment do you change your philosophy, or still, your formation?

You have no subtitutes left so were you to change your formation at this point to a less tried-and-tested one, you'd need to rely on the versatility of your squad to cover roles and hope it's doable.

Do you continue to attack in the belief that is the best form of defence and thus sealing the win?

Would you simply drop from Control to Standard (because personally I've found this a mistake when trying to hold a lead with an attacking style)?

What would you do?

 

[Mitre Delta 1000]

If I'm the stronger team with the lead, down to ten men, with twenty minutes to go and with their team attacking hard, with our team no longer able to match them due to having one man less....I defend.
Well actually I counter attack, I sit deep and narrow and make us hard to pass through, I man mark, play long and direct.

Fortunately for me this is a tried and tested tactic, and every player I have purchased has been with the mind of "what if I need to switch strategy/philosophy"

 

[brooksey84]

Switch tactic and drop either an AMC or striker depending on formation into either DMC/ MC with either anchorman or BWM defend settings. Change it to counter attack to still carry some attacking threat.

 

[barcelonic]

the weird thing is that for me whenever im about to lose a lead at the end of the game, every time i make changes they seem to score and i dont have enough time to change it back and try clinch a winner. but if i just keep on the pressure (often even with ten men) i tend to have better luck.

in my last 7 matches i've lost a lead right at the end twice (once i had ten men, the other i had 11) and suffered two unneccessary draws.

perhaps i should try and address why these games are that close though. it's usually when playing on a long wide pitch because my tactic suits short and narrow better and i have no wingers. I fear that if i make it wider for these games it'd be too easy for my offside trap to be broken, but at the same time i want to because going forward more width would make it easier for us to score.

 

[Spleen]

Go to Defensive. I've been surprised by the fact that I seem to do better using Defensive tactics in situations like these than Counter - I even seem to score more goals when the team is Defensive.

My theory is that if you use Counter tactics, whenever your team get the ball they will look to immediately launch an attack, which usually results in giving the ball away. Whereas with Defensive tactics, players will look to provide passing options and keep hold of the ball instead of charging upfield. And your chances of scoring may actually increase if your team is technically superior, because if players are holding onto the ball, more viable attacking options may develop than if you're whacking it straight upfield.

 

[barcelonic]

thanks Spleen that there's some good advice - come to think of it i've had more joy with defensive than counter too and i do keep the ball well and score too like you said. I have a killer anchor man too so this would possibly work