MarkTownsend
Registered User
One thing that everyone makes a big fuss about in football is the strategy, and that is exactly why I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread where people can not only talk about their strategies with regards to their formation, but they can talk about their playing style, their choice of defensive partnership and vicious attacking force.
So here goes..
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Attacking
I am playing with Tottenham at the moment while I am waiting for someone to help me build the Oxford United team. It is difficult for me because I normally play through balls and need the fast players to run onto them, but I have managed to alter my playing style, and I must say that it has helped me immensely.
Since changing to a playing style whereby the player looks for another to pass to instead of just running for the goal himself it has made my player ratings much higher and has also made it possible to get players on the assist list, which wasn't happening an awful lot before.
I have decided to play only two upfront, but when the number of opposition defenders is quite high, like 5 defenders, I change the attacking number to 3 to give myself more options to pass the ball around to.
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Midfield
Midfield isn't one of the areas that I normally worry about because the ball spends most of the time in the opposition's area, but I have found it is very useful to have a good attacking Midfielder. I favour the offensive midfielders such as Ljungberg and Reyes instead of Zidane, because although their technique is not as good, I find that it is important to be able to outrun people sometimes in order to get a clean and precise ball to the attackers. I think that it is also important to make sure that the offensive midfielders have decent shot accuracy, and with 18 goals between them, Ljunberg and Reyes are just that.
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Defense
In defense is where I have excelled, with every single one of my defenders entering the Top Rated players list in the Masters League mode. I have favoured the taller defenders in this case such as Anthony Garder, who also has a good left footed shot on him for when corners are taken, and Walter Samuel who has good enough technique to take the ball down and pass it forward to the midfielders when required.
The only problem that I have had with defenders so far is that the particular squad I have does not have very many good defenders to fall back on. I have found however that Rodriguo Defendi from the Tottenham team matures nicely, and is almost certainly one to look out for even if you are using a different team.
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Formations
I normally choose the 4-4-2 formation because it keeps a sufficient number of defenders back to quash most attacks and also allows for an offensive midfielder. I think that it is important to have an offensive midfielder because it means that they can push forward to become an attacker when the ball is firmly in the opposition's half, yet when the opposition has the ball they can track back and defend as if they were midfielders (which they are (DOH!))
When necessary however i choose the 4-3-3 formation because it means that I can overrun the defenses where they have a large number of defenders. My cousin for example uses 6 defenders, and it makes it very difficult to launch a successful attack on his goal.
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Youth Players
When training a youth player it is very important to make sure that you can play them in their natural position as much as possible. What I did was to use the preseason matches to train up my players and then when I had some matches left over at the end of the season after winning the trophy I brought them on again to improve. By the end of the third season of doing this I had managed to secure most of the trophies and had also built a respectable youth contingent to make sure that I had planned for the future. Keep a look out for Dexter Blackstock (Southampton) and Freddy Adu, as well as Zola who becomes a youth player again by the second season (I think. It may very well be the third)
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Style of Play
The style of play that I have chosen to adopt is to run onto through balls, although I have had to modify this slightly with my Spurs team. When I was using the Real Madrid team however and had Owen and Ronaldo upfront, I could run onto the through balls and charge straight towards the goal. When I got close to the goal there were two main options that I had to use to get the goal.
1. Lob it over the keeper by holding the L1 button and then tapping the shoot button to lift it over the oncoming keeper. This only works if the keeper charges at you.
2. Run towards the keeper and then release the sprint button to enable a quick change of direction. Change the direction to run diagonally past the goalkeeper and then slot the ball home when the keeper struggles to keep up. This method is even more reliable than the lob method because the player's skills don't affect it too much. Slower players can also do this but not as reliably as faster players. Ronaldo is an example of a player who can pull this off whether he runs to the left or the right of the keeper.
____________________________________________________________
Well I suppose everyone is getting very bored of this right now, but I would love to hear from anyone else who has advice under the previous headings.
So here goes..
_________________________________________________________
Attacking
I am playing with Tottenham at the moment while I am waiting for someone to help me build the Oxford United team. It is difficult for me because I normally play through balls and need the fast players to run onto them, but I have managed to alter my playing style, and I must say that it has helped me immensely.
Since changing to a playing style whereby the player looks for another to pass to instead of just running for the goal himself it has made my player ratings much higher and has also made it possible to get players on the assist list, which wasn't happening an awful lot before.
I have decided to play only two upfront, but when the number of opposition defenders is quite high, like 5 defenders, I change the attacking number to 3 to give myself more options to pass the ball around to.
___________________________________________________________
Midfield
Midfield isn't one of the areas that I normally worry about because the ball spends most of the time in the opposition's area, but I have found it is very useful to have a good attacking Midfielder. I favour the offensive midfielders such as Ljungberg and Reyes instead of Zidane, because although their technique is not as good, I find that it is important to be able to outrun people sometimes in order to get a clean and precise ball to the attackers. I think that it is also important to make sure that the offensive midfielders have decent shot accuracy, and with 18 goals between them, Ljunberg and Reyes are just that.
___________________________________________________________
Defense
In defense is where I have excelled, with every single one of my defenders entering the Top Rated players list in the Masters League mode. I have favoured the taller defenders in this case such as Anthony Garder, who also has a good left footed shot on him for when corners are taken, and Walter Samuel who has good enough technique to take the ball down and pass it forward to the midfielders when required.
The only problem that I have had with defenders so far is that the particular squad I have does not have very many good defenders to fall back on. I have found however that Rodriguo Defendi from the Tottenham team matures nicely, and is almost certainly one to look out for even if you are using a different team.
___________________________________________________________
Formations
I normally choose the 4-4-2 formation because it keeps a sufficient number of defenders back to quash most attacks and also allows for an offensive midfielder. I think that it is important to have an offensive midfielder because it means that they can push forward to become an attacker when the ball is firmly in the opposition's half, yet when the opposition has the ball they can track back and defend as if they were midfielders (which they are (DOH!))
When necessary however i choose the 4-3-3 formation because it means that I can overrun the defenses where they have a large number of defenders. My cousin for example uses 6 defenders, and it makes it very difficult to launch a successful attack on his goal.
___________________________________________________________
Youth Players
When training a youth player it is very important to make sure that you can play them in their natural position as much as possible. What I did was to use the preseason matches to train up my players and then when I had some matches left over at the end of the season after winning the trophy I brought them on again to improve. By the end of the third season of doing this I had managed to secure most of the trophies and had also built a respectable youth contingent to make sure that I had planned for the future. Keep a look out for Dexter Blackstock (Southampton) and Freddy Adu, as well as Zola who becomes a youth player again by the second season (I think. It may very well be the third)
___________________________________________________________
Style of Play
The style of play that I have chosen to adopt is to run onto through balls, although I have had to modify this slightly with my Spurs team. When I was using the Real Madrid team however and had Owen and Ronaldo upfront, I could run onto the through balls and charge straight towards the goal. When I got close to the goal there were two main options that I had to use to get the goal.
1. Lob it over the keeper by holding the L1 button and then tapping the shoot button to lift it over the oncoming keeper. This only works if the keeper charges at you.
2. Run towards the keeper and then release the sprint button to enable a quick change of direction. Change the direction to run diagonally past the goalkeeper and then slot the ball home when the keeper struggles to keep up. This method is even more reliable than the lob method because the player's skills don't affect it too much. Slower players can also do this but not as reliably as faster players. Ronaldo is an example of a player who can pull this off whether he runs to the left or the right of the keeper.
____________________________________________________________
Well I suppose everyone is getting very bored of this right now, but I would love to hear from anyone else who has advice under the previous headings.
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