Tactics to Create More Opportunities

written by Markov

Question: How does a team create Opportunities?

Have as much PA (Passing) as possible in the midfield. Playing with 5 midfielders will obviously give your team a bonus. If you have one or two flank backs/wingbacks with higher PA than any of your midfielders, you can set your team tactic to Flexible and get a bonus from those players at the back instead of your midfielders.

If one or more of your midfielders have higher BC than PA, you can set your team tactic to Creative. This way, BC is used instead of PA for calculating the number of opportunities (only if BC is higher than PA, that is). Furthermore, wingbacks (important: I am talking about RWB LWB, not to be confused with flankbacks LB RB) may create their "own" opportunities if they have high enough (decent/40 and higher) CO. Their opportunity will be breaking free with a dribble or receiving a pass in midfield. They will not start an opportunity by passing. For this reason, some managers prefer high BC at the expense of low PA on their flankbacks/wingbacks.

Forwards/strikers very low PA, often will lose the ball if they receive it in midfield. If your attackers are very bad at receiving the ball in midfield and your opponent's midfielders have very nice defensive skills, consider setting your team tactic to Long Ball. The forwards/strikers will not drop back to midfield, instead they will stay up and wait to receive the ball in the penalty box. You may not get as many attacks, but at least two of them won't be totally lost by having a forward not knowing what he is doing with the ball in midfield.

catacombrocks talking

If you have enough defensive skills on your midfielders and wingbacks, another trick is to set your team tactic to Opportunistic (counter-attacks) efficiently. If Flexible and Creative won't give you extra attacks, and Long Ball doesn't seem useful, and you think you can stop opponent in midfield, playing with 2 wingers and Opportunistic will dramatically increase your counter-attack chances. As you may expect, some of your opponents failed attacks become your opportunities. Also, a keeper with high Control, or defenders with some passing will help increase counter-attacks if your opponent passes your midfield, and if you win a clear defensive margin.

Midfield domination

The PA skill of the 4 highest PA midfielders from every team is compared. The team with the highest average PA for his midfielders will achieve Midfield Domination. By getting the Midfield Domination, that team will get up to 4 extra opportunities.

Notes:

- Only midfielders will get the ball in midfield from these extra opportunities.

- Every 5 points more in average will give a team one extra opportunity. Fractions of this will mean chances to get the opportunities.

- The midfield domination is calculated every minute, being based on the real PA skill of the midfielders, and is affected by stamina loss.

- If one team uses only 3 midfielders, then the midfielder with the lowest amount of PA will get his PA multiplied by 2 for calculating the midfield domination.

- When using the Flexible tactic, and with a 4-4-2 formation, you can sneak in a LB/RB/LWB/RWB who has extremely high passing but is more of a defensive midfielder. You can field your four midfielders with sup, sup, sup, good passing and then put on a sup passing flankback and have the good passing midfielder contribute with some other very high skill such as exc offensive positioning, exc ball control or tackling.