mccollio09

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Just concerning tactics I had been working on for a while with Stoke. A few seasons in now but basically like in real life, still relying largely on my best players who are on the wings. Just finished sixth so not exactly struggling but to be honest by the time I'm in a third season, I am used to doing much better.

So it got me really thinking about how I can improve my home tactics. I originally thought that having the widest pitch size possible would help my wingers to have more space to run into but to be quite honest, the goals from crosses ratio ain't great.

I'm considering changing my formation to have the narrowest pitch size possible, thinking that a smaller pitch would mean less distance to cross the ball and therefore, hopefully better and more accurate crossing. I also figured that if there is no space in the middle of the park, the ball would naturally be pushed out to the wings.

The main thing that changed my way of thinking was watching the Stoke vs Spurs game - it was totally evident that they had spray painted their pitch to a much smaller size very recently and despite the dodgey reffing, one player that definitely benefitted was Etherington.

So what is the right theory then on this? Was my original way of thinking of having a large pitch correct, or is in fact a compact pitch much better for wingers?
 
Having a smaller team, you should go for the smallest pitch possible.
 
Use inside forwards instead. Their goals and assists ratio is much better than winger's
 
It all depends on ur wingers quality. If both of them are world class, it is better to have widest pitch to let them run freely and cross. If not, try medium wide. Try set wingers with short passing, often run with ball and crossing from byline. I too play with wingers, but have better result when i set often through ball and sometimes cross.
 
If you're playing like stoke do IRL then surely the smallest pitch possible is the way forward. Long throws and packing the midfield restricting space is how they're so effective.
 
If you're playing like stoke do IRL then surely the smallest pitch possible is the way forward. Long throws and packing the midfield restricting space is how they're so effective.

Thanks man, mostly leaning towards your way of thinking for now. Left the save alone for this week as results were starting to get frustrating, not results wise but the tactic just not working out how i want it to despite getting better players.
 
Thanks man, mostly leaning towards your way of thinking for now. Left the save alone for this week as results were starting to get frustrating, not results wise but the tactic just not working out how i want it to despite getting better players.

No worries, good luck with your save :)
 
Left Winger (support - left footed - high rate for crossings), Right Winger (support - right footed - high rate for crossings). Use a Proacher and a Attacking Midfielder.
 
In relation your question about the Stoke City set up and there pitch size, they use a narrower size pitch spec. because of the syle they are playing now in addition to the long throw dept. of Delap and Shotton. The reason the pitch markings were spray painted out was because of Stokes involvement in the Europa League whereby their minimum pitch specs are larger than the minimum pitch specs for the Premiership
 
if you keep the big pitch you should try and force your wingers to keep their crosses low(most inteligent in the game do this naturaly btw) setting your striker as a TM, no matter what role he is actually having and his supply to "to feet" will certainly help.also look from where they are crossing work with d-line and through balls untill you see them get in the right position to provide the striker with a low cross.also during the game you can change the direction of their crosses.if you have team setting floa crosses they will by default cross to the centre, change it manualy to "to far post", this if you have good in the air wide players .this is particularly effective against weaker oposition with deffense with poorer anticipation.although i do not recomend using this as default as i tried it both ways and noticed the AI learns to deal with this very quick.
 
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