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Miguel Alves
I'm posting some ideas looking for some brainstorming in order to get solutions about the issues in the title. Not that I have problems with having possession, it's a kind of easy even in this FM. Talking about possession, obvious that I'm a fan of possession football and of Pep's Barcelona and I know there's a lot of issues regarding the replicating this style in FM. There are also a lot of tactics proclaiming to be tiki-taka tactics but proclaiming and being one there's a lot of difference.
So, moving on...
As for possession, FM presents us a problem: in football any team would drop their defence lines when facing Barcelona; in FM this just doesn't happen, so that question must be: when managing a strong team, how to keep possession against another strong team ??? The opponent will not drop their defence line and playing our team with a higher defence line its a risky option because we would probably face balls in the back of our defenders; on the other hand, if we set our defence line to be more deep the opponent will have more space to move around the ball resulting in loss of possession. Where is the ideal or the best option ???
Another problem is related to increase or slow tempo: a slower tempo means that our players will hold more the ball increasing the risk of being tackled or alowing the opponent to close down our players; but a higher tempo will also mean much hurry in passing resulting in wrong passes. Once again, what would be the best option ???
Then there's the problem of closing down: more could mean our players being dragged from their positions resulting in more space to be explored; less... well, its obvious.
Finally, when FM was released everybody was happy to see that there was a new role to fit in Messi, the False 9. It seems that the F9 is not a good solution to play alone in the attack and the best option is to team up in another forward. So, there is still a question about the best role to set to this player. Right now, I'm going along with a Target Man / Support with ppm to drop deeper.
I'm finishing by saying that in my point of view and looking for FM, if I want a Pep's Barcelona style the strategy must be Control and a very fluid philosophy. Patience in passing the ball with a low risk and I want my players to attack when in possession and all of them to defend when not having the ball. When thinking about a possession style the general trend is to talk about ccc's, attacking and so on, but I think it's not. If you want possession you've got think to recover the ball fast and keep it and this has to do with defending because the main idea must be recover the ball the fastest way possible. Unfortunately there isn't still an option in FM to press the ball - not man marking, not zonal marking, but always to press the ball wherever it is. Another issue is that it seems Control Strategy is very disappointing, I guess it's easier to set an Attack Strategy and set instructions to have more possession than to set a Control Strategy and set instructions to have more goals.
Anyone have been noticing that players shoot as soon they are just outside the penalty box, even when there is a passing option or there is space to run with the ball and shoot closer ? Is it bad decision, tactical instruction or bug ???
Any ideas are very welcome :-)