Spel gidsen & Digitale inkt

Review (EN): Chrisrafman Overrun

11-08 13:10, door Guido

The team

I’ve chosen to manage Vicenza in this test. I’m intending to do more of these reviews, all of those with Vicenza, so tactics can be compared with each other. Vicenza are a mid-table side, predicted to end 12th in the Italian Serie B. There were no specific instruction to bear in mind.

This is the team I will be using for the opening fixture.

The results

Vicenza 3 – 1 AlbinoLeffe
Modena 4 – 4 Vicenza
Vicenza 3 – 1 Rimini
Vicenza 0 – 0 Grosseto
Treviso 0 – 5 Vicenza

Benefits

+ The results.

Taking into account I had four injured first-team players after the first two matches, and six players injured after the first three games, things did look pretty good. We were unlucky in the matches we drew, as we generally deserved to win, but our poor excuse of a defence was just not up to the task. Still, three wins and two draws is decent and especially the 5-0 trouncing of Treviso impressed me. In this series, Treviso has proven to be the toughest opponent. Well, Modena and Treviso. Still, 3,0 goals scored on average. On the other hand, we did concede 1,2 goals and we conceded a staggering four goals in a single match against Modena.

+ A very generic formation.

Truth be told, I have to resort to using catchphrases designed by someone else to describe this tactic. I think Philips said it before, “sense and simplicity” or, as SI’s Marc Vaughan would put it in regards to making tactics, “keep it simple, stupid.” This idea states that design simplicity should be a key goal and unnecessary complexity avoided. Complexity should be avoided—simplicity is a goal in itself. Extra features are not needed; an approach that seems “too easy to be true” is in fact the best way. A very straightforward approach may seem less glamorous and less dramatic, but the trivial approach should indeed be taken. Surprisingly, the very obvious approach is often the best.

What we have here is a straight-forward 4-4-2 formation, that has been tweaked for team instructions and individual instructions, so as to suit the strengths and weaknesses of the players. Still, it’s a fairly easy tactic to analyse, the wingers cross it in for the strikers to either progress into the box or play neat little one-two’s. Not that hard at all.

+ Nice one-two’s.

I’m basically a sucker for pretty one-two’s and this tactic delivers them. A lot. At least several times during a match, I can just watch in awe as Zampagna and Matteini set up another one-two to cut through the heart of an opposing defence. The build-up is always pretty much the same. Pass towards Zampagna, who holds up the ball. He then passes it out left to Matteini and makes a run forward. Matteini receives the ball and passes it into space for Zampagna. Lovely.

I’m loving these free-flowing attacks, short passing, one touch football et all. Continental style as opposed to hoofing the ball forward and hoping one of my gargantuan strikers will deflect it into the goal. Seeing as most teams outside “The Isles” don’t have any gargantuan strikers, this will probably work better, as well as being more aesthetic.

+ Excellent offensive positioning.

I like the offensive setup of this tactic, seeing as it relies on excellent positioning and well-timed runs into space. I already mentioned this in the one-two section of the review, but I’ll elaborate here. A 4-4-2 formation is basically ideal for offensive positioning, there’s plenty of players on midfield and in the attack, there’s enough space between the lines to prevent over-crowding, yet not so much space that you’re vulnerable to an immediate counter-attack. This means your players can always pass the ball to various other players. Allow me to illustrate my point, you can clearly see six different passing options for the player on the ball in the picture below.

What I also liked is that players making attacking runs lure defenders and midfielders with them, thus creating space for other players to exploit. On several occasions, I saw my wingers moving into the box to receive a cross. They lured their markers with them, thus creating space for my two central midfielders to move in and receive the ball when cleared by defence. On several occasions, I even saw my midfielders score because they received a poorly cleared ball just outside the box. Good long shot stats are a must in these instances however. Still, Morosini bagged three goals in five games this way.

Last but not least, the crosses themselves. If you swing in enough crosses, one of them is bound to land on a strikers head or into his path for him to slot it pass the goalie. Again, defenders are at times dazed by the presence of the wingers. Sometimes, they’re too slow closing down a winger, because they’re not aware of what the strikers and the other winger are doing in the middle. Again, pretty effective.

+ Exciting matches.

You can hardly call any of the matches I played dull. Even a 0-0 score-line has plenty of chances, for both sides, to score a goal and features high-paced football. So yeah, just for the aesthetic side of it all, it’s fun to watch.

Downsides

- Too many goals conceded.

Sorry to say this Chris, but the defence really really really needs sorting out. In an effort to help you, I’ve actually gone pretty deep into this part of my review. With some visual aids and some text, I can hopefully help you on your way. I’ve even thrown in my own ideas on the subject. No idea if they’re actually useful or not, but there’s no harm in trying to help I suppose.

One of the first weak points I noticed has to do with the deployment of your wingbacks. They’re set on Forward Runs Often and Run With Ball Mixed. I don’t mind them running with the ball, as it helps the offensive side of the tactic, but I’m not a big fan of the Forward Runs idea. I’ll show you why.

Look at the space these wingbacks are leaving behind them when they’re moving forward. The centre-backs cannot provide cover, because they have to mind the strikers. If a pass is intercepted, your wingbacks will be caught out of position and you’ll be vulnerable to a counter-attack. I would suggest reducing Forward Runs to either Mixed or Rarely. You should experiment with this to see what suits the defence best, without hindering the offensive side too much.

Next up, I’ve conceded quite a few goals because the defenders were out of position when a cross came in. This actually had two main causes. The first one being that the wingbacks didn’t close down as much or as aggressively as needed. This pretty much meant that a winger could cross in without too much hassle, as long as he crossed in from deep. A few taps with the slider bar on the Closing Down instruction, just for your two wing-backs, might solve this. Another option is to let them man-mark the opposing sides wingers, but this would mean you’d have to manually set this marking every match.

My second point has to do with the two centre-backs. You’ve set them to Man-marking. Fine, that’s your choice. I’m not a big fan of it, but it can work, but you need to tweak their settings. You see, if your backs are leaving your side vulnerable to crosses, which is what happens a lot, your centre-backs should be marking their strikers more tightly, so they’re on top of them. Tight marking won’t work if the ball is being passed into their feet, but in matches where you’re playing tall gargantuan strikers, like in my 4-4 with Modena, where I conceded three header goals…, tight marking would work better. Again, to illustrate my point, some visual aid.

The Modena winger is not hindered at all by wingback #4, who is hesitant to step in. The Modena winger crosses from deep and at the back, #2 and #13 are caught by surprise by a run by striker #89, who ends up at the receiving end of the cross to score another Modena goal.

Which brings me to my last point. For some reason, the wingbacks tend to move into the centre of defence to aid the centre-backs, leaving your teams flank terribly exposed. The wingbacks move into the heart of defence, which is intentionally good, because they want to help out. They shouldn’t do this however, because generally the centre-backs will stand their ground and the wing-backs are leaving your side exposed. Let’s have a look.

#14 and #13 are much too close together. #13 is Marco Andreolli. He’s the centre-back, so he’s pretty much playing in position. #14 is Daniele Martinelli, used as a sub for the regular wing-back in this match. He’s playing out of position there. He should be closer towards the side-line, to safe-guard your team from a potentially penetrating run by the opposing #23.

In this situation, we see that #4 hesitates to close down, as mentioned earlier. This means that the winger is allowed to cross the ball in. The two centre-backs both mark their man excellently, so there’s no danger there. There would’ve been no danger what-so-ever if #14 had stuck to his wing. Instead, #23 has made a run forward and heads home the cross.

How can you fix this? Should #23 have been picked up by a midfielder? Perhaps. I think it’s easier to employ man-marking for the wing-backs. Don’t set it to automatic man-marking but manually set them to man-mark the opposing sides wingers every match. Not only will this keep them in position more, it will also prevent penetrating runs like the one above.

- Which version to chose?

Basically, Chris uploaded three versions, without really telling us which version would suit which type of team best. I was kind of in the dark and decided to opt for version three, the latest of the batch. In his own words, “I feel its better than anything ive ever created tactic wise.” After such a glowing reference, how could I not pick this version? I was tempted to pick v2.3, seeing as Derby’s qualities are pretty much on par with those of Vicenza, but I opted for the newer v3 instead. Good choice, bad choice, who knows? A little tip Chris, add some more detailed information on the type of team that is best suited for this style of play, mate.

- No goals from Set Pieces.

No offence, but… Five matches played and not a single goal scored from an in-direct free-kick or a corner? That’s basically pretty shitty… Even if you’re not exploiting the corner bug, you should be able to score at least once every three to four games from a corner or IFK. You need to tweak the settings a bit here, since every other test team I’ve used has scored at least once from Set Pieces. Andreolli and Zampagna were lethal in heading them home for everyone else, yet they seemed to be out of position every time in this tactic. You can easily improve upon this, so I suggest you have a look at this.

Conclusion

More proof that decent tactics don’t have to be complicated at all. A generic 4-4-2 with logical team and individual settings, which performs quite nicely. Offensively, it’s a solid and reliable tactic, but it’s a bit weak at the back. A few minor tweaks could be made to solve this. Same goes for the Set Pieces. All in all, it’s a reliable tactic that does what it promises. It scores you goals and you perform pretty consistent.

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