How do you win a game ?

[Syed Waheed Zafar]

Hey guys so I just got out of cup by an abandoned 82% team he had no 6 stars players all of his players were five star players means he hasn't been online this season he played both legs with 4 Ds 1 dm 2 really deep mr/ml no mc and 1 am and 2 STs.
My team is 104% and my ST is 121 percent.
I played with 4 2 3 1 on both legs I drew 1-1 &2-2
With me starting with normal tactics and going to hard attacking as I was behind all the time. I also had maximum condition morale bonuses and support in both games. What did I do wrong ?
As I've learned from my experience if you play with defensive formations with counter attacks you can't lose. I feel like all the time and efforts we online managers put into this game we should win easy games.

[Toxcatl]

Wide diamond (4-1-2w-1-2) is a counter-formation for 4-2-3w-1. Try to use 4 defenders and ML-MR , e.g. 4-1-4-1 or 4-1-3w-2, or whatever you can, you got the idea.
Don't expect good results if you always play with the same formation and orders.
During the game monitor the statistics. Every ~20-25 in-game minutes go to the Home screen and immediately back to refresh the statistics (it freezes often). If you see your opponent has more shots and, especially, SoT than you, it is your defeat coming =] Change your playstyle, both formation and orders. Read orders tooltips carefully to understand better what they do. After changes be calm, wait and watch for 10-20 in-game minutes, all changes require some time to start working.

[Syed Waheed Zafar]

One mistake I did was I didn't had DMC against his Amc BUT I think with overall superiority I should've won.
I'm level 11 manager and I tweak my formation and tactics against different opponents all the time.
How do you win against extremely defensive teams ?

[Toxcatl]

How do you win against extremely defensive teams ?

Possession: normal mentality, short passes, no counter-attacks. Man-to-man, if the match is hard. High pressing if it's very hard.

[Cedric]

I am playing all season 1 st time, Mentality: Normal, Attack: Mixed, Passes: Short, Cons: NO!

In the 2nd half: if I already have it dominated, at most I change to long passes to look for more goals and if the match is closed.

Mentality: Offensive, Attack: (Depends on opposing formation: Mixed or Both Bands), Passes: Long, Cons YES!

So far, so good. And my various formations between.

4-2-2-1-1 (4-2-2W-2) or variant 3-1-2-2-1, 3-1-2-3-1

If you do not have DMC, I'll set you an AMC and if the opposite attacks with 2 ST I only put 1 DC and one DMC.

If you put 2 ST and 1 AMC, I have to defend with DR-DC-DC-DL + DMC.

That's how it works for me since last season.

[VladimirPutin007]

Upgrade 3 kind of your players which is AMR AML & GK into 8-9* players... u are guaranteed to win every matches with inferior teams... and sometime can upset superior teams as well...

Dont get too much fanatic buying expensive players with sa or trained them to get sa coz it just waste if resources... just use it to upgrade your players as many as u can into 9* legendary and u are assured to win every matches with the right combo of players and tactical acument...

[Syed Waheed Zafar]

I've switched to defensive and counter attacks and I'm getting great results. I keep 4 Ds 1 dmc and 2 MCs. I keep changing 3 forwards according to opponent.

[Syed Waheed Zafar]

Upgrade 3 kind of your players which is AMR AML & GK into 8-9* players... u are guaranteed to win every matches with inferior teams... and sometime can upset superior teams as well...

Dont get too much fanatic buying expensive players with sa or trained them to get sa coz it just waste if resources... just use it to upgrade your players as many as u can into 9* legendary and u are assured to win every matches with the right combo of players and tactical acument...

Yeah all that is great but I don't have so many green packs. I'm keeping my one striker at 7 stars always.

[nikolgiorgos]

You don't need 8*-9* players.
Two 7* AML - AMR are ok.

As I've learned from my experience if you play with defensive formations with counter attacks you can't lose.

no, wrong. Not always.
Both teams create very few chances and shots on target so the winner may comes by luck.
If it doesn't work, then switch to attack - no counters, high pres, mtm, maybe hard tackling, maybe off-side.

[Syed Waheed Zafar]

Since my St has 250% passing shooting and speed counter attacks are working very well