Formations after UPDATE

[pcmacdaniel]

I gotta agree with you.
I have been testing it since 2nd half of last season. I was really sure that high pressure works better against short passes and worse against long passes. I left my team playing high pressure for all those matches and my "easier wins" were against opponents who plays long/mixed passes (where their passes rate were below 85%). Against short, I had problems.

Ofcourse, Top11 developers may have based the game maths in some real football theories. So this "high-pressure" we have here could be something related to what they call "Gegenpressure". Tactical Theory: Counter- or Gegenpressing | Spielverlagerung.com
This theory is about your whole team pressing the opponent once possession is lost (for some defined 5-10 secs) so you don't give to the opponent time to aim (and think) for a counterattack, so, on paper, it would work fine against opponents playing counterattacks and long passes.

Changing subject (but not changing it at all), did you watch yesterday's match between Gremio(BR) and Lanus(ARG) for Copa Libertadores de América final?
It was something like Gremio on 4-2-3-1, very offensive and tons of pressure, and Lanús really patient on 4-5-1V with short passes (a lot of balls gone back to the goalkeeper and he never tried a long pass). Seemed Lanús short passes worked really fine against the pressure (but Gremio won the match at the end).

Just seeing this, sorry.

The Gen-Gen press can be effective in this game. I learned it from an association teammate earlier this year, and it's been great at times. I changed to it last season in my CL final when trailing 1-3. Substitution to change the system was made at the 51st minute. 20 minutes later, I had a 6-3 lead. When it works, it's absolutely amazing. It's risky though.

Some things that are important w/ the gen-gen press in this game.

1. You need the players to run it properly. Speed and Fitness seem most important. For defenders to track back and midfielders to close down passing lanes I would think.

2. It seems more vulnerable to long passes than mixed or short passes. Probably because something like a 3-1-2-3-1 gen-gen press has so many bodies in the middle that passing short is a challenge. Not entire sure though, but it seems to be eating up short passing games when I use it. By same tokens, not many bodies at the back to defend against the long passes.

It is a great system to know though since when the opponent is vulnerable to it, it can be utterly dominating.