Disclaimer:
This isn't a definitive guide, as my tactic isn't yet complete. Consider this a baseline for your own efforts
A big help in all of this was guidetofootballmanager.com Sites like mypassion4fm and people throwing suggestions only put me off the right track.
The first thing I failed on thanks to bad info, was tempo. Most people think counter attacking is about high tempo. It's not. High tempo means more risk, and is suitable to attack strategy, not counter. The general rule of thumb is as you go more agressive, up the tempo and vice versa. For counter tactic, a low tempo is preferable. This is because basically, you are playing it safe and looking to attack on the brake, not attacking head on and all the time. I'm not saying you wont have good results using it, I'm saying that it really isn't what countering is about. When counter attack is "triggered", the ME will automatically increase the tempo. In my testing, it didn't even need to. Most people mix counter attacking with attacking, because they both try to score goals quickly, in a blitzkrieg sort of way. The difference is in defence. With attacking fast, you push up and hassle, when counter attacking, you defend deep and stand off to draw opposition onto you to create space behind them.
The second thing was width. During my research I read some old Raikan007 posts from the pasts, He claimed that in counter tactic you needed to play deep and wide, to have the maximum benefit of drawing the opposition onto you. He was only partially correct. Drop deep yes, play wider no. The reason is simple. If you want to trigger killer balls to your forward, you need to play direct. That means stretching the pitch from below up, so that you have space for those direct passes. That is played by using a forward that pushes high up, and by using a deep defensive line. You don't want side passes, you want the players to pass the ball to player in front of them, and the general rule of width is that you collapse it the deeper you defend.
So I turned on direct passing, pass into space, and set my striker to advanced forward and my wingers on attack. Also, I turned on exploit the flanks as I read that counter attacks are less likely to be caught by offside on the flanks. While that may be true, what happened was my dlp was still sending killer balls to the forward, and he was being tackled and marked out of the game. So I tried using a treq instead, so that he avoids getting marked by his roaming. What happened was he dropped deep and looked to employ one of my wingers. So I changed one of them to inside forward attack to serve as number nine. That worked, but poorly. I realised I was wasting precious time by doing all of that, and was giviing opposition time to reorganise and in the process I was shrinking my formation, instead of stretching it. I also had an effort with two wingers and a target man, but target man kept sending the ball back to dlp's, so I gave that up.
So my final solution was using two wingers, a poacher and three dlp, the third one in DM and on defend duty. I also changed my exploit the flanks to exploit the middle. Now I was basically relying on the speed of my poacher to brake the offside trap, and his agility to avoid getting marked. When I finally purchased a proper player, my team was playing decent counter attacking football. The two dlps were sending killer balls to my poacher, and he scored plenty.
Regarding my defense, the best thing to do was stand off as we were defending very deep. I won the ball by intercepting their moves, not by hassling them. It is my opinion hassling would be devastating for my players in terms of fitness on a pitch so stretched. My third dlp, one with defend duty in dm position, was dropping deep to get the ball, so he was mostly acting like a creative half back, while the two stoppers around him were the agressors. The sidebacks were fullbacks on support duty, to effectively combine with two attacking wingers that gave the necessary width in attack. I even tried playing with two inside forwards with attack duty, but three number nines in a setup is not what you call balanced tactic.
So basically, this is what I got so far. The tactic isn't finished yet, so I wont be publishing it, but I hope this helps you in creating your own tactic. If counter attacking is what you are into.
Update:
Regarding philosophy, by using a more fluid philosophy, your wingers will track back and releive some of the pressure on your fullbacks, but that will also shrink your formation which is not what you want, and it will also make your players more likely to move out of position. Since shape is extra important when defending deep and denying your opponent, I suggest using rigid or very rigid philosophy, and give your defense more defensive roles and duties. I think even 4 duties on defend might work.
Update:
I worked for two days fiddling with team settings, and testing for three friendly matches, until I finally got a nice string of results. I am not saying this is definitive, and that this is how things should be played, this is just what works for me at the moment. I opted for very high tempo, as I noticed my players kept getting balls stolen from them with very low tempo, and I also chose very rigid philosophy, to keep an accurate mentality for all players. I also chose all roles that do not hold up the ball, to keep my attacks as fast as possible, and with as few backpasses as possible. My assistant kept screaming to retain possession for some reason, like going the possession route is the only way in football. They really need to fix that and make assistants smarter.
Anyway, here are the screenies from those three matches:
View attachment 350435View attachment 350434View attachment 350433
Also, I found out, that when defending deep, you really shouldn't be using aggressive roles, as they make costly fouls very close to goal, which usually end up behind the gk, because of proximity to goal. So I gave up bwm's and stoppers. Basically I removed all roles that used aggression. I had to carefully pick team options, as some of those send the sidebacks wide, so stoppers are necessary to close down empty space (like pump ball into box). The clear to flanks option I chose in the end was making my wide midfielders stay wide, and combined with narrow width, they had plenty of space. With exploit the flanks shout, they were my main outlet, and also usually not in in offside.
This isn't a definitive guide, as my tactic isn't yet complete. Consider this a baseline for your own efforts
A big help in all of this was guidetofootballmanager.com Sites like mypassion4fm and people throwing suggestions only put me off the right track.
The first thing I failed on thanks to bad info, was tempo. Most people think counter attacking is about high tempo. It's not. High tempo means more risk, and is suitable to attack strategy, not counter. The general rule of thumb is as you go more agressive, up the tempo and vice versa. For counter tactic, a low tempo is preferable. This is because basically, you are playing it safe and looking to attack on the brake, not attacking head on and all the time. I'm not saying you wont have good results using it, I'm saying that it really isn't what countering is about. When counter attack is "triggered", the ME will automatically increase the tempo. In my testing, it didn't even need to. Most people mix counter attacking with attacking, because they both try to score goals quickly, in a blitzkrieg sort of way. The difference is in defence. With attacking fast, you push up and hassle, when counter attacking, you defend deep and stand off to draw opposition onto you to create space behind them.
The second thing was width. During my research I read some old Raikan007 posts from the pasts, He claimed that in counter tactic you needed to play deep and wide, to have the maximum benefit of drawing the opposition onto you. He was only partially correct. Drop deep yes, play wider no. The reason is simple. If you want to trigger killer balls to your forward, you need to play direct. That means stretching the pitch from below up, so that you have space for those direct passes. That is played by using a forward that pushes high up, and by using a deep defensive line. You don't want side passes, you want the players to pass the ball to player in front of them, and the general rule of width is that you collapse it the deeper you defend.
So I turned on direct passing, pass into space, and set my striker to advanced forward and my wingers on attack. Also, I turned on exploit the flanks as I read that counter attacks are less likely to be caught by offside on the flanks. While that may be true, what happened was my dlp was still sending killer balls to the forward, and he was being tackled and marked out of the game. So I tried using a treq instead, so that he avoids getting marked by his roaming. What happened was he dropped deep and looked to employ one of my wingers. So I changed one of them to inside forward attack to serve as number nine. That worked, but poorly. I realised I was wasting precious time by doing all of that, and was giviing opposition time to reorganise and in the process I was shrinking my formation, instead of stretching it. I also had an effort with two wingers and a target man, but target man kept sending the ball back to dlp's, so I gave that up.
So my final solution was using two wingers, a poacher and three dlp, the third one in DM and on defend duty. I also changed my exploit the flanks to exploit the middle. Now I was basically relying on the speed of my poacher to brake the offside trap, and his agility to avoid getting marked. When I finally purchased a proper player, my team was playing decent counter attacking football. The two dlps were sending killer balls to my poacher, and he scored plenty.
Regarding my defense, the best thing to do was stand off as we were defending very deep. I won the ball by intercepting their moves, not by hassling them. It is my opinion hassling would be devastating for my players in terms of fitness on a pitch so stretched. My third dlp, one with defend duty in dm position, was dropping deep to get the ball, so he was mostly acting like a creative half back, while the two stoppers around him were the agressors. The sidebacks were fullbacks on support duty, to effectively combine with two attacking wingers that gave the necessary width in attack. I even tried playing with two inside forwards with attack duty, but three number nines in a setup is not what you call balanced tactic.
So basically, this is what I got so far. The tactic isn't finished yet, so I wont be publishing it, but I hope this helps you in creating your own tactic. If counter attacking is what you are into.
Update:
Regarding philosophy, by using a more fluid philosophy, your wingers will track back and releive some of the pressure on your fullbacks, but that will also shrink your formation which is not what you want, and it will also make your players more likely to move out of position. Since shape is extra important when defending deep and denying your opponent, I suggest using rigid or very rigid philosophy, and give your defense more defensive roles and duties. I think even 4 duties on defend might work.
Update:
I worked for two days fiddling with team settings, and testing for three friendly matches, until I finally got a nice string of results. I am not saying this is definitive, and that this is how things should be played, this is just what works for me at the moment. I opted for very high tempo, as I noticed my players kept getting balls stolen from them with very low tempo, and I also chose very rigid philosophy, to keep an accurate mentality for all players. I also chose all roles that do not hold up the ball, to keep my attacks as fast as possible, and with as few backpasses as possible. My assistant kept screaming to retain possession for some reason, like going the possession route is the only way in football. They really need to fix that and make assistants smarter.
Anyway, here are the screenies from those three matches:
View attachment 350435View attachment 350434View attachment 350433
Also, I found out, that when defending deep, you really shouldn't be using aggressive roles, as they make costly fouls very close to goal, which usually end up behind the gk, because of proximity to goal. So I gave up bwm's and stoppers. Basically I removed all roles that used aggression. I had to carefully pick team options, as some of those send the sidebacks wide, so stoppers are necessary to close down empty space (like pump ball into box). The clear to flanks option I chose in the end was making my wide midfielders stay wide, and combined with narrow width, they had plenty of space. With exploit the flanks shout, they were my main outlet, and also usually not in in offside.
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