Subject: U21 National Team

its funny because i looked at 15 minutes of our league game (me and welchy's) last week.
he asked me about the NT lineup, and my comment was that for throwins in league he was targetable :P
andorra are a similar team to us though in terms of strenght.. so a draw is a reasonable result, although it could easily have been a win.
what do you do to counter a high line like that? lots of pace upfront? and good mids?

Strikers with defending placed in the gaps, deep wingers and a defence that doesnt go forwards unless it can pass.

i guess... :)
still ur limiting ur attacking options as a result i would think

Well thats what the Andorra formation is designed to do. If you try and push up it'll never work so it's more effective to work from deep and try and outpace their defence with throughballs.

2-2 against Canada. 2-1 up for about 60 minutes :( Felt we definately deserved the win though. Beirne and Cully had about 3 one-on-ones each that they wasted. Really not sure about that 'defenders on the back line' positioning for corners, it effects the open play too much since they drop way too deep when the opponents get near the box.

You are right, attackers was not a chance one-on-one. But, too (our) goalkeeper well received.

I'll have a look shortly but not bringing them that far back leads to the goal you conceded last week. It works for me

I've only watched the first 30 minutes because i've got tomorrows game to sort out. The defence still retreats back further than it needs to. Example? 5th minute Canada get a throwin in the bottom left, your defence is on the back line. There's no need for them to be there as you're only giving Canada space to play in. They shouldnt be any further back than the edge of the penalty area.
With the corner they scored from, you dont need 3 defenders stood in a line back there. 1 of them could have stepped forward and then Canada probably dont score.

In the tactics, the defendersd are set to be on the edge of the penalty area when the ball is in the second row of boxes :/ They always seem to fall back much deeper and i don't know why.

Are they on the edge across the entire back line 5? If not it's possible they might move back knowing the throwin is coming.

I've got no sodding tactical spaces left and none i want to delete! :(
(edited)

This is how it should be across that row of boxes but in the match they drop back into the box.



If you need a space for a tactic, just take a video of one of the existing ones. You can use it then when you neeed it of I can put it into an U21 slot

If that's the line they hold along the pitch it's a bit strange they fall back that far. Those defensive positions are never that exact and defenders will move forward or back within a fixed point, depending on who has the ball but not that far. I'm assuming they're not further back for the next ball position forward.

I recorded a formation into video. I need to organise my formations, it's gotten ridiculous recently because i'm using different ideas for each game and not deleting them because of the return games.
(edited)

No, they move up another half square :/ Just have to adjust for it tn the next match I guess.

interesting you position them that far up.. usually i play them deeper

There used to be a club in Ireland who did that. I loved playing them because you could just leave your strikers on the edge of penalty area and they'd have a field day with the space.

Here's a possible reason. As you drag the ball in that square backwards towards the corner do your players retreat back into the penalty box?

One of the things I've noticed is they tend to drop back relative to not only the square they're in but also where the ball's likely to go, so they'll be creeping back towards the goal box when the throw is taken to be ready for the next square down.