FIFA 12

[Summers]

Oops. Meant *thats a hard part.

And no, I think you're a good threat attacking the ball in the opponent's penalty box.

[Monkey D. Lars]

Damn you really hit the nail Summ, I do have an urge to pass a man.

I prefer the passing around-finding a hole style of football too. I usually do that when I play online by myself. And that might be it with the crosses I hold my analog stick too hard when I chip in.

[Gazz]

I still think wing play is useless on Fifa because of how random crossing is.

What about a 4-1-2-1-2?

GK Summ

DF Myke

DMC Me

MR Lars

ML Hughes

AMC Daws

ST Dan

ST Split

[Summers]

I'll be on after Valencia finish getting smashed by Athletico.

[MDK]

Your 3 FAVOURITE positions to play:

Central Mid

Left Wing

Striker/GK

Your 3 BEST positions to play.

Left Wing

Central Mid

GK

3 things that you consider yourself good at

Passing - from the simple stuff, to through balls and crossing. I definitely think it's a good part of my game.

Reading the game/vision - I see things happening, space opening up, runs being made.

Dribbling - I can slide through defences quite often, which is useful.

3 things you think you need to work on

Shooting - used to be great from outside the box, I've lost that recently and I know I need to work on it.

Heading - definitely need to have better accuracy from headers.

Tracking back - I definitely need to drop deeper sometimes.

Summers Tactical Time

With this formation I'd have Dan as our central striker. Always. I'd play left wing. I think I can be of more use out wide. I can find space, deliver good crosses. Split would be my choice of right wing. With Hughes as winger back-up if one of us isn't on. Lars being the fourth wing choice. Central midfield three should, if on, always include Dawson. The other two slots would be for Gazz/Hughes/Lars depending on whose on, of course. Myke would be centre back unless there was a midfield slot open. The central midfielder HAS to be the defensively minded one. Though it'll be a flat three, the player needs to know their role is defensive mid. I'd want that to be Dawson. Or if Myke is in midfield, Myke. Gazz would be my third choice for that role. Of course if the DM goes forward another midfielder has to be prepared to cover so we don't get hit on the break. I don't want to limit the CM to staying back. Dawson can score goals, so to tell him to stay back all the time isn't great. That's why the midfield need to work together and cover each other.

If, of course we had everyone on I have no problem being the person to shift. I can either be the goalkeeper, or drop back and help shore up the defence. I'm happy to be the one who gets shifted around when we have everyone around.

The importance of this formation is obviously wide play. We need to exploit the wings when we can. That means getting people in the box for crosses. Dan will obviously be there. But when one winger is ready to cross, the opposite winger should be at the back post. The two more advanced midfielders should be up there too. Either in the box/supporting the crosser/edge of the box. Obviously not everytime, but generally that should be how we attack from the wings.

That doesn't mean we ALWAYS go through the wings. Pass-and-move football from all of us will help us advance through the middle of the field. Something we don't do enough is play possession football. We kick and rush for goal. I'd rather we play it around with some intricate passing, create some space and get off a good chance at goal than lose the ball with a long punt up to Dan.

Summers Player Analysis

I've already stated where I'd play people, so I'm gonna get critical.

Dawson - Dawson is easily one of our best players. He's call him our Scotty Parker for a reason. He owns that midfield. He can pass, tackle, track and shoot. Dawson used to rival me for scoring great goals from outside the box, but it happens more rarely. If when he does come forward he can find the space for a shot, he should take it. He has the ability to get goals or force saves. Unless Myke is in midfield, Dawson would be our defensive minded midfielder, but we still need to let him get forward, have a couple of shots and get involved. We can't ask him to do it all himself in the midfield.

Dan - Easily our best striker. By a mile. Needs to stay tall-ish, definitely better when he's a big man. If we make chances for him, he'll put them away. Sure he's missed a few sitters, but his strike rate is fantastic. Can score headers, or create space himself and get a goal. When Dan plays well we score, and we win. We need to support him for that, and by that I mean not only with passes but also when he has the ball - be available for him. Sometimes Dan can over-do it with the skill, that would be my only criticism, but when he does it well he leaves defenders chasing shadows.

Myke - Defensive rock. When he was at the back we were much, much more solid. Only criticism of him defensively is that he sometimes wonders a bit too much. When we had a 5 at the back that was okay, with the four we'd have it's definitely dangerous. When he's in midfield, he has to play the CM role (our defensive role). It suits his play well and it anchors the midfield perfectly for us. I know he likes playing further forward, but he's too good at the defensive side of the game. He reads the game well and knows how to tackle.

Gazz - A little rusty on his comeback, but when he's back on form Gazz is a good box-to-box midfield who can move the ball around and makes himself available for a pass. He's scored some fantastic goals from the edge of the box and he's often available for a cut back if a cross doesn't look on. Gazz is, like me, a big fan of short pass-and-move football. He wont give you the ball and then leave you for dead. He'll move and be ready for a pass back, which is a huge bonus. Criticism? His hamstring is rarely not pulled. Aside from that, he's been rusty upon his Scholes-like comeback, but it wont last long.

Split - Normally a striker, would be out-wide if we choose 433. I think that'll benefit him. Often makes good runs, and (as long as he doesn't have too much time to think) can put chances away. Used to be offside, all the time, but has gotten a lot better. My big criticism of Split is he takes too much time on the ball. Before crossing/shooting he takes too many touches and gets closed down and loses possession. He needs to react quicker. Get them crosses in, shoot earlier and have the confidence to do it before a defender stops the progress. If Split does that, he'll be a massively improved asset.

Lars - Lars has impressed me a lot. He's gotten a lot better. Lars knows how to score goals and he's a good passer of the ball. I'd say similar to Split, he can somtimes take too long to do something. However it's usually the urge for Lars to try and take a man on or do some skill that gets him into trouble. As stated, he'd mainly be a CM, sometimes a winger. I think Lars will be good through the middle, utilising the quick pass-and-move football with the other midfielders. His crossing needs a lot of work, I'd say. I think it's as simple as leans too hard on the analogue stick when he whips it in, but that'll get better as he tries. Lars is dynamic and I think from midfield we'll see him darting through and scoring goals. Tracks back well too.

Hughes - Again a big improver. Hughes first started to impress with some headed goals, and then showed some class with some long range goals. Criticism time, there's two. The first one is Hughes tends to wonder from his position, when he's in a midfield two that's disastrous. He'd perhaps get away with it a bit more in the midfield three, but he definitely needs the discipline to remember his role and not go too far forward. The other is a new one, Hughes has now tried to Dalian Atkinson it (he did it before and better than Ben Arfa) from deep a few times in recent games instead of simply passing the ball and advancing the play. The goal he posted was a great example of how taking players CAN work but not all the time. There's a time and a place. Hughes, despite saying he needs to work on his heading - is still a threat in the air. He gets up well and he wins the header. Accuracy needs work, but he's a hard part of the game. He's definitely someone to find from crosses/corners.

[Summers]

:@

[Gazz]

Myke

tl;dr

You're centre back, tackle stuff.

[MDK]

[Monkey D. Lars]

Good evening fellow Dragons,

I think I have an idea how we can win games again!

The last match we played our defense was already a lot better but that shouldn't be a problem if we gave each other back cover and stick to our positions.

But somehow we can't seem to score goals anymore, almost not even have real played out chances.

I tried to pay attention to our attacking game the last two games and well we dont have any position play when we go forward. Just like it's said before its al forward forward forward with no brake on it and no looking back to take it easy and a little slower and we almost never, never open the game up to the other side.

If we have the ball on the right side on the field and the left midfielder/winger is wide open we should move our game over to that side. Wether it is with short passes or one cross. Normally it should give us some space up front to get to the goal. We also never have any triangles on the field. Almost never do 1-2's and if we see a little room we give the through ball.

So with this off my chest (I played very badly tonight)I think we need to:

Offense

- Position game

- shorter passes and quicker

- always pass to the free man and if we move (not sprint) we should always have one man free

- 1-2's

- Triangles

- Sometimes hold back with the attack and play it back to create some space

- move the game up from 1 side to an other side if there is much more space over there (barcalona does thist a lot too)

- communicate more about the game (my biggest flaw)

Defense

- Position play

- give each other cover

- take over position if one player is out of it

- make foul if neccesary

The formation I would like to try this with is the Christmas Tree one:

Then I thought (depends on who's online)

Striker: Dan

CAMS: Summers Lars/Split

LCM: Gazz

DCM: Dawson

RCM: Hughes

CB: Myke

The idea with this formation would be that we have the winger positions empty so on the left side Summers or Gazz can go there to open up the defense. Right side the same with the dudes who play over there.

I hope this makes any senses, have a good night.

(ps. dont post that gif please! )

[alldaws1]

Oh my, this has become Lance Storm serious.

Edited April 20, 2012 by Super Daws

[9 to 5]

With my club, we just pile on if we are sober enough to pick up a pad. >_>

[King Ellis]

WTF is all this shit?! Tactics? Analysis? Did you guys lose a game heavily or something?

[OctoberRaven]

So I tried online in FUT, and got thrashed 2-8

The guy had all gold and my GK is 64 overall, so I was totally outmatched. The score might have been a bit more even had our teams been more even... and if the referee carded him every time he slid into me from behind, which he tried to do every time I had the ball on his half of the pitch.

Amazed that I didn't get to take a penalty, but I still have problems taking penalties so oh well.

I decided to stick to single player, making a secondary "Youth Squad" of bronze players to play in the Bronze Regionals tournament (though I'm going semi-pro in it because amateur is far too easy for me now) when my silvers need contract extension.

Also been playing the Barclays as Norwich City on the side. 15 games in and currently 4th place. Very nearly beat Man City 2-3 but they equalized right at the end.

Grant Holt is top scorer though

[OctoberRaven]

Fucking EA servers. Twice now they've crapped out on me, this time during an Ultimate Team game.

I hope they don't count that as a match my boys played, because I'm going to have to buy at least one bronze pack to fill my Youth Club's starters if it is

[Monkey D. Lars]

lol, don't take it that seriously

I just want our 300th win

[Summers]

if I was being serious I'd have supplied a dossier. >_>

[MDK]

I think I should play as 'any' if its just me at the back.

[Monkey D. Lars]

I think I should play as 'any' if its just me at the back.

agree

[Baddar]

For whoever asked about a PS3 team, I am willing to give it a go, despite not playing the game in months. I'd have one, maybe two other players too.

Who's in?

[Monkey D. Lars]

Are we playing tonight?