Disciplined Possession – “The Testudo” – TEST THIS

Disciplined Possession – “The Testudo” – TEST THIS

What I Had
• Limited Money
• A lack of width offensively.
• Few Strikers. The one’s I had lacked Acceleration and Pace and had low Finishing attributes, BUT they did have decent technical skills (dribbling, passing and first touch) and decent scores for team work.
• An abundance of Central Midfielders (DMC-MC-AMC)
• I had one comparatively outstanding AMC with very good finishing and physical skills as well as decent work rate.
• I had other another AMC whose physical skills were very dulled by age, but his creativity and vision was very good.
• I had a number of other CM’s and DMC who had the physical skills (stamina and strength) and basic defensive skills (marking and tackling) but beyond an ability to work hard and undertake teamwork, lacked the creative skills.
• A disproportionate number of athletic wing backs who had decent long throw stats.
• Decent pace, height and strength at CB but limited passing or technical skills.

What I Wanted/Tried to Make
• To play a style where the domination of possession was key even though I lacked the overall technical superiority required in teams to usually play this way.
• A gameplan largely focussed on discipline as opposed to fluidity because, as a team, creativity was not exceptional (even though a few players had a lot).
• In the past, I tried to play a fluid possession tactic but this resulted in no real domination of possession because I lacked the creativity in the squad to pull it off.
• However, in this squad, playing direct was also not an option – no pace and a lack of physical skill in attacking areas.
• Despite it being considered contradictory to a short passing game, I wanted to make the most of set pieces, in particular long throws given the attributes and height I had.

The Tactic Mixture
• Same Unusual Formation and Player Roles
• But two tactics – one Testudo Control and one Testudo Attack
• I use the latter if I am in need of a goal.



Advised
• Train players for short passing, one-two’s and come deep to get ball.
• Focus on teamwork in training.
• See what I started with above.

My Results so far
• minimum 62% possession in game
• 82% pass completion from average of 620 passes attempted per game.
• P: 11 W: 9 D: 2 L: 0
• GS: 21 GA: 5

I'll give it a go, but i don't think you can judge a tactic after only 22 games, and 21 goals in those 22 games is an average of a goal a game, so your either good at closing games out without conceding, or the stats don't add up.

I agree thats why I asked for testers.

I got some good results with this in the small amount of games played so far.

I accept that this is not high scoring (never more than a 2-0 win and draws are all non scoring). So yes this may be negative perhaps because its disciplined.

But the possession stats are basis of my defence which hardly ever concedes.

Would appreciate feedback as to how the tactic behaves where the squad make-up is different to that I had as above.