Nevertheless, better start now than never!

First thing all new manager should know when it comes to match tactics, is to understand that each match in game relies on 3 key areas of statistic – MIDFIELD, ATTACK and DEFENCE.

Midfield

MIDFIELD is the MOST IMPORTANT area to focus on. Higher possession means you’re team has more chances to shoot at the goal. So a 50 / 50 possession would mean equal sharing of chances (reported or not) while holding 60% – 70% of the midfield is pretty much victory assuring, assuming attack and defence ratings are similar.

Attack

What good is midfield rating without the attack rating? Assuming you’re up against a team with Weak (Low) defences, having Wretched (High) attack isn’t going to do you much good but having Passable (low) attack pretty much says you’re almost always score when given a chance. Yes, that’s how it works.

Defence

I think there’s not much to explain here now. Obviously, the higher the defence rating, the less likely the chance on goal will succeed.

The Concept

Read up the game manual, and understand how the placement of players and their individual orders affect the match.

After that, set your team to take advantage of your opponents’ weak points whenever possible.

I’ll write more about the various game tactics available some other time.

But I digress. PJB is a monster defensive trainer with ratings that reach world class. Having played the game since 2004, PJB easily clinched his series title last season. The chink in PJB’s armor is a weak offence and a moderate midfield. I need to make possession count.

A check on the weather shows it is overcast. Good for my powerful players. My concern is speedy Konstantin Arps if it rains. I have chosen my best SP defenders for this game, which really isn’t much. Better to beware of the indirect free kick lest I get kicked in the teeth.

Omigosh! I forgot to set my penalty takers. A quick check shows that I have an hour to go. Best not to take chances from this stage on – that’s if I get beyond round 3. Losing would take away a lot of joy in the game and everyone wants to do as well as Accidental Mel last season. Better yet, if we can match the exploits of Jeffrey Piranha and climax with Piala in hand! What a guy – bet he knows this Pengkalan Jumping Beans… all these Ipoh folks… sigh…

Anyway it’s not going to be a simple as that.

When Should I Go Defensive?

Going defensive direction is best when it comes to games that you know for sure you’re going to lose. There’s no reason to go defensive when you have some chance of winning, or clearly winning.

The sign of a game you’re sure to lose is when you know you’re going to lose when it comes to possession and you don’t have enough defense rating against opponent attack ratings.

Why Go Defensive?

Damage Control! When you’re losing, your job is to ensure that you lose with as little margin as possible. Losing 0-1 is better than losing 0-5, the crowd hates opponent goals.

Yes, thank them for having such loyalty.

How Should I Go Defensive

Use PRESSING tactic? Yes, it’s a good option but it’s not going to help when the team is really confirmed winning.

So what can you do?

2 things – BOOST your midfield as best as you can, and boost your defense rating.

You can do so by having

• Wingers set to towards middle, boosting midfield as long as they have playmaking skills.
• Forwards set to defensive, boosting midfield even with their usually negligible playmaking skills.
• Inner-midfields set to defensive, contributing to defense rating with their defending skills.
• All defenders on defensive, as usual. If the opponent has strong central attack and weak wing attacks, then you MAY consider wingbacks towards middle.

Want a defensive formation? There’s always 4-4-2. Just play it with 3 inner midfielders, 1 winger towards middle. Forwards being defensive and that’s it. If you feel lucky, you could also play Counter-Attack but that would reduce your midfield (eg, give opponent more chance) in hopes of getting yourself some free chances.

Now You Know

So now you know about being defensive, so put it to practice and you’ll see it actually being helpful to your league ranking.

Let us know what are your experience, do share. Me? I played defensive often, I’m sure many local HTers remember the 4-4-2 Counter-Attack team.

Back to the topic, I’d like to share about my experience playing attack on wings or AOW (which sounds too much like my groan of pain after being upset by cipan a few weeks ago!). For a wing trainer, it is a matter of when rather than if our wing attacks exceed our central offensive ratings. AOW gives us the option of increasing our attack composition along the flanks. Now while I usually prefer to sacrifice one wing and play one of my strikers normal, AOW is actually an interesting strategy to employ, especially when up against a team with weaker wingbacks. My reason for sacrificing one wing has to do with unpredictably rather than focusing on a particular chink in the opposition’s armour. Still, I have employed a full fledge AOW to good effect before.

Note than AOW does not increase your overall chances nor does it strengthen the wing attacks; it merely attempts to distribute the attacking instances with a higher weightage for the wings. The downside however is the reduction in central defence ratings and not, contrary to popular beliefs, adversely affecting midfield possession.

In closure, let me just highlight the mighty exploits of Accidental Mel. Having started the game a little later than me, he has exceeded all expectations by reaching the Piala semis. I have a feeling he may go all the way and that would be a great feat for a fellow winger trainer. For all survivors in the last 4, I take my hats off to you and may the force be with you!