MLO Advice please

[Sminky]

Alright guys need some advice, I've got a couple of formations I'm happy with but I'm having real issues getting the right balance with the sliders.

e.g: 4-4-2 Diamond, have all the sliders under 10. Problem is my midfield doesn't have an outlet against a team with a high defensive line. I'm using quick counter and offensive play but I don't think I'm getting the best out of the sliders to compliment these strategies.

This may well be a duplicate thread in terms of content but just treat it as a thread entirely dedicated to educating a old man! (i.e me!)

 

[st. louis]

After screwing around for about 50 games with the sliders, I eventually decided to copy down a computer teams numbers in edit mode. I chose a 4-5-1 similar to the German national team and copied down the sliders from the team and adjusted to my liking from there.

A diamond 4-4-2 will probably have problems against the bullshit high defensive line (and I'm guessing, narrow defensive shape) because you will be playing right into their hands by not having any width yourself, creating an impenetrable mess in midfield. You'll probably need to go with a winged 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 with wide SMF. 4-3-3 actually works well against the high line because it tends to isolate the side backs.

I have definitely noticed that you will probably not be able to choose just one formation if you want to do well unless you have much better players than the opponent. When playing as a 4-5-1, I will set my manual strategies to have both a defensive formation(4-4-1-1) and an attacking formation(4-3-3 or 4-2-4) that I can change on the fly which also helps to fuck up the opponents marking if they are doing it.

I'm trying to rein in my anger about how in Konami's attempt to not allow fast players to dominate, they have created a problem that is just as broken that allows for ridiculous high defensive lines with no downside. Real soccer formations have strengths and weaknesses which allow you to play conservatively or aggressively. Konami has made no weakness to the high defensive line.

 

[u1tradt]

Try raising Attk/Def levels during the game. Usually works for me when I need my team to push up in a pinch but leaves you quite vulnerable on the counter attack. However with a 4-4-2 diamond formation you're going to struggle against a high defence line because the best way to beat a high defensive line is to incorporate some width into your system, and let's face it the diamond formation is mostly through the middle going forward. You need wide men who will run down the flanks and/or provide defence-splitting passes to your strikers.

 

[Sminky]

I had to change formation, diamond just wasn't working with average players like Erbes and Fetfatzidis. I went to exhibition mode outside of ML and saved the River Plate formation - annoying you can't just copy it like you used to be able to on edit mode! - I'm using that now, I won the first game I used it 2-0, well the player quit out at 2-0, sore loser.

I've noticed using all sliders between 6-8 is a waste of time for the way that I play and that seeing as everyone parks their defence on the half way line I may as well pack my midfield and sit them on my opponents back four. It worked quite well first game against someone playing 4-3-3 but he wasn't all that good so I need to play someone a bit better to gauge how successful the 4-5-1 will be against more proficient players.

 

[st. louis]

It's pretty funny if you have two teams that play a 20 defensive line. The whole game gets squished into about 10-15 yards of the halfway line. No space to do anything. What a broken mess.

 

[Avelives]

I noticed you mention that you use counter attacking, if you check out how it works its actually quite misleading, it actually just kind of functions the same as raising player support by flooding forward, from my experience, long ball is far better, it tightens your back line but keeps your forwards pushed right up.

@St.louis totally agree with your last point, virtually all the teams you play use realyl high lines, there really isnt a response other than if you cant beat them join them. The sad thing is cause of how Konami have buggered up speed its actually far better to play a high line and let someone through on the halfway line cause you will easily catch them up, where as play deep and one through ball is fatal which completely counter intuitive and crappy, but thats how it is sadly.

 

[st. louis]

Yeah, if they allowed the fast players to not be caught by slower defenders then teams would be forced to play a much more realistic deeper defensive line which would open the game up a lot.

I could see playing a high defensive line if you had a superb midfield capable of maintaining tons of possession along with fast CBs but it is frankly laughable that shit like that works with the crappy stock defenders. It would also give people a reason to quickly upgrade their defenders rather than buying Messi and having a bad defense.

 

[Sminky]

I've resorted to using a highline and playing 3-6-1, It goes almost against all my footballing pathos but I don't seem to have much choice. What is it with people only playing bloody 4-3-3 and with such high defensive lines? Its so boring playing someone who just wants to run down the wing. Half the time I pack the middle of the park but having rubbish defenders isn't helping me.

I'm also ditching Quick counter for Long Ball. Whats a good secondary tactic? Offensive possession?

 

[Avelives]

I've resorted to using a highline and playing 3-6-1, It goes almost against all my footballing pathos but I don't seem to have much choice. What is it with people only playing bloody 4-3-3 and with such high defensive lines? Its so boring playing someone who just wants to run down the wing. Half the time I pack the middle of the park but having rubbish defenders isn't helping me.

I'm also ditching Quick counter for Long Ball. Whats a good secondary tactic? Offensive possession?

Personally I dont use a second tactic, I find in this years version the less tactics the more predictably my team will behave (less vacating positions and odd runs off the ball)

But if I were to use one, swap wings is pretty good, from what I can gather its basically the same as the old 'opposite wing attack' command from previous version, it basically pushes the player on the other side forward.

As a note of interest if you want some cheap defenders who are better than defaults, Sivok, Nuchstein and Thorcewell are all good for their respective prices (less than £1mill)