Attack wins matches,defense wins championships!

[Tactician]

So a simple conclusion that defense must be capable of snatching ball if opponent come to your half or it will be futile to use counter attacks.

If you want to use force counter-attacks, you must make sure that you will have enough cover (number, quality, or both) at the back after you allowed the opposing players to come into your half freely. Forcing counter-attacks, especially when 4-5-1(V) is used, generally works as very few managers know how to deal with this. But, if I put you in a league of good, experienced tactical managers, you might end up at the bottom of the table despite using the so called great 4-5-1(V) as your main formation.

[Supastar]

What is slackbot?

[Tactician]

It's my 3rd year lol.3rd month in forum
I am learning many things as manager ,but after all I am player

I shared this very important information mainly because you deserved it for sharing that formation of yours for beating 4-5-1(V). Now, I have another formation to beat 4-5-1(V) in my list in cases the others don't work in a particular situation. It is something that I preferred not to share because it might be too easy for some players to beat 4-5-1(V) after having known this. I request you not to put what I have shared with you here in another thread because many users here use 4-5-1(V) and they might become victims.

My approach in beating 4-5-1(V) was to make it's strengths become it's weaknesses. Your formation provided an alternative formation to what I already have in my self made list of formations and tactics.

By the way, for your age, I think you are doing very good as a tactical manager.

[Abhinavsharma]

What is slackbot?

Slackbot ;


More info here>http://forum.topeleven.com/team-show...ch-24-7-a.html

[Tactician]

Abhinavsharma, when you 'lure and wait', sometimes the 'fish' is too big or too strong, and sometimes a bigger fish come and eat the smaller fish that got hooked; it might break the line, or even pull you into the water. So, if you decide to lure, you must make sure that you have a strong enough line and also you are strong enough to pull it out. If not, it is better not to 'lure'. If you lure the smaller fish, a bigger fish can come from what is behind. You get the idea now?

[Arion]

So the rule of thumb is—
-If you're the favorite: attack and grab a lot of goals. Low press and zonal marking to save energy. Use offside trap and 3 defence and maybe a DMC too if required. Two strikers are also ideal
-If against evenly matched opponent: play your natural game.
-If they're the favorite: Park the Bus, but keep the ball. Defensive, mixed and short passing, no CA force, low press, man-to-man marking (it's extremely helpful to defend, tho zonal can be used to save energy). And of course a suitable formation, like 4-5-1V, 5-2-2-1 or 5 defence/4 defender+1 DMC (5-6 players in own half)

[Tactician]

So the rule of thumb is—
-If you're the favorite: attack and grab a lot of goals. Low press and zonal marking to save energy. Use offside trap and 3 defence and maybe a DMC too if required. Two strikers are also ideal
-If against evenly matched opponent: play your natural game.
-If they're the favorite: Park the Bus, but keep the ball. Defensive, mixed and short passing, no CA force, low press, man-to-man marking (it's extremely helpful to defend, tho zonal can be used to save energy). And of course a suitable formation, like 4-5-1V, 5-2-2-1 or 5 defence/4 defender+1 DMC (5-6 players in own half)

Yes, those are good guidelines.

Consider the situation where you are the stronger team. Take into consideration that you can attack in many ways (different strategies from the combination of attacking and other orders to the combination of normal or defensive and force-counter attacks. You have to choose what is more appropriate and also an appropriate formation.

If you are evenly matched or close to in terms of quality, tactics, form and other effects including the so called hidden ones will play a significant role too. You can use whatever mentality you want as long as it is suitable, but may be the extreme ones (hard attacking and hard defending) should be avoided for the duration of most of the match.

If the opponent is stronger, a defensive approach is more suitable but that does mean you must use 4-5-1(V), 5-2-2-1 and so on. You can still force counter-attacks if your defence will be enough to deal with the attacks. The catching point in there though is what if the opponent pushes most of his defenders forward? This could turn out to be the 'big fish'. If your players that will be in your own half can still deal with it, that is ok, if not then you will definitely have a lot of trouble and will concede goals. This is why Abhinavsharma has said that to use 4-5-1(V), you need players of quality as he probably noticed that it is not working as expected; I will add to that: you definitely need players of good quality at the back if you intend to force counter-attacks, and the overall average quality the players that will be waiting in your half must be better than those that you allowed to come and attack deliberately; this can be done by either having significantly more players in your own half than those that will come and attack you despite being of lesser quality or you can have the same number but then will definitely need better quality defenders. Else, in other words, forcing counter-attacks is an invitation for 'suicide' or 'auto-kill'.

[Arion]

That's why keeping the ball becomes more important when parking the bus. If the opponent doesn't have the ball, they can do nothing to attack. In this way a 90% can play out a 0-0 against a 125%, but even a 1-0 loss means they'd put up a good show. So activate the possession bonus in game. It's also helpful to build up attacks.

[Tactician]

By the way, 4-5-1(V) if far from being the best defensive formations. It is one of the best counter-attacking formations though.

The best defensive formations are those that provide two lines of defence and 10 men behind the ball. This is up to you to find out what they are and how to use them. You might beat a much stronger team by minimal scores as low as 1-0 or 1-0 aggregate with some of those formations, but it can be said that they are effective as the most important thing is to beat that team or knock it out of the competition, isn't it?

[Tactician]

That's why keeping the ball becomes more important when parking the bus. If the opponent doesn't have the ball, they can do nothing to attack. In this way a 90% can play out a 0-0 against a 125%, but even a 1-0 loss means they'd put up a good show. So activate the possession bonus in game. It's also helpful to build up attacks.

Yes, but you can see it now yourself that you can't maximize possession if you force counter-attacks.