[holytoledo]

Originally Posted by dimz

Ahhhh Ben Watson surfaces again! I used to use him alot during my days of using Palace. Ok first off i'd say stop playing direct balls. Chances are your players aren't skilled enough to be pinging balls from box to box which is what direct balls usually entail if your defending a corner say. That way you lose posssession easily.

Switch to playing short passes, and have Ben Watson (or any other person who has passing above say 12 or so) play direct balls. I find that keeping the ball is the most important thing at that level, since you need to create more chances cuz your strikers are next to shit. Then get the ball out wide, so have your wingers stay out there and instruct team to play wide.

Have the good tackling midfielders closing down the opposing players that have low concentration, composure and dribbling levels. Do this ESPECIALLY to the two central defenders, as you'll find they are forced to give the ball away when you've closed them down quickly. It helps to have strikers in the mould of Alan Smith (no u won't get him if u try, lol) that can be constantly hounding the defence. You'll get alot of giveaways like that.

In the pre-match setup, check the stats and preferences of opposing players and force them to their weaker feet. eg. choose 'force on left foot' for players that like to use their right. Also put, 'always closing down' on players that have low concentration and low dribblign levels. Hard tackling on the players with strength lower than 14. All these things help when your team doens't have much skill.

Be warned, if you chose closing down all the time against a team with skilled players, you'll get the run around. They'll be much better at pinging the ball around and you'll look like a headless chicken.

Excellent, thanks. I'll give it a go (hopefully tonight, we'll see) and get back to you.