Playing defensive teams...

Hello everyone again! I have a question.
Today I saw the teams I will play in the league, and for the third consecutive season I will clash with my friend for the league title. Our "rivalry" is weird. Out of 4 previous matches, I won 3 and we drew 1. He always had a slightly better quality than me, but after a 1-1 draw, I destroyed him 6-0 and 4-0 at my home. In our 2nd away match where I was absent and he had +15% ball possession, I defeated him 2-4. If I remember well, he played with 3 central defenders and maybe that is the reason I caused him a lot of damage. But now he switched into a formation with 5 defenders, two MCs, an AMC and two STs. The problem is I had problems with defensively minded teams on a few ocassions. I lost once to a team with a similar formation with 5 defenders 5-1, despite having a lot lot stronger team.
My questions is how should I approach against these teams?

well against his formation you should attack the flanks, probably with 4-2-2-2 hex. What I would suggest is use force counter attacks, which invites his players to come up the field, and then get the ball and attack the open areas. So against a defensive formation it might work.

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Originally Posted by RJSlow

well against his formation you should attack the flanks, probably with 4-2-2-2 hex. What I would suggest is use force counter attacks, which invites his players to come up the field, and then get the ball and attack the open areas. So against a defensive formation it might work.

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What a coincidence. My mostly used formation is the 4-2-2-2 hexagon. Despite not having a bigger challenge so far, a goal difference of +11 (11:0) seems solid.
What about my marking, tackling and other styles?
Thanks for the tips...

Depending on quality of your team, from experience 4-2-2-2 has higher chances of failure. I've seen 4-1-4-1,4-4-2 (defensive) and 3-5-2V (normal) give 5 defenders some nightmares.

Allways attack when playing defencive fornations, 4-4-3, 4-4-2, 3-1-4-2, 4-1-3-2, you need to use the flanks.