Playing through my '10'

[martianmanager]

I'm running a 4-2-3-1 (Attacking/Flexible):

-------------AF--------------
--IF(a)-----AP(a)--------W(a)
-----CM(s)-----(BWM(d)----
------------------------------
--FB(au)-CD(d)--CD(d)--FB(s)


Tactic-wise there's not much I can complain about.


What I am having a problem with is wanting my '10' to be the main outlet, and basically have my team play through him. I have Retain Possession, Much Lower Tempo, Exploit the middle, and Mixed passing as team instructions.


Basically, my team still gets too many assists from my Wingers and Fullbacks (despite having fullbacks set to 'hold position'); and looking through my match stats at the end of the game, my 10 (AP) isn't the one that makes/receives the most passes (which is essentially what I want).


How can I fix this?


I'll try to upload my tactic for you guys to see.


Cheers

 

[WJ]

Best would be to have a look at situations where the back 6 has the ball and should pass to him (or you expect him to be in a position to pass to), but rather pass it to someone else. That's where you can start analysing what's wrong.

 

[Konsta_87]

There are ways to get your 10 more involved, but I'd say it's extremely difficult to have him pass/touch the ball the most. The only way I could imagine that happening is having your team bypass the back six pretty much altogether, but I get the feeling that it's not how you wish your team to play. If you want your midfielder(s) dominate the game, as in having him the 2nd or 3rd most on the ball, then you'd have to flip your midfield into a 1-2 format or a flat three if you wish.

But if having a 10 is important to you and you wish to stick with your vision then there are few things you could try to get him more involved:

1) Create more space for him.
- Fairly straight forward, have your CM's stay back, wingers wide and your forward stretching the opposing defense. Your team's overall width setting also has a big influence on this- for most space use the widest option.
- Obviously this sacrifices some connections and compactness which may well result in less possession + make you more vulnerable to counters.

2) Increasing the tempo
- Your players will take more risks in getting the ball forward thus increasing the likelyhood of your 10 getting the ball quicker. This is basically what Enrique's Barcelona do but with the significant difference that they play/build up down the flanks where there's way more space.
- Obviously playing through the middle with high tempo / short passing is very risky.

3) Switch to AP(s)
- He'll be getting way more involved in the build-up during the 1st and 2nd thirds, thus seeing more of the ball.
- The downside of this is that he'll be vacating the valuable 10 space frequently


Then there's the ''move to channels'' and ''roam from position'' options, but I've had very limited success with those- seems pretty random to me. Good luck!

 

[martianmanager]

Hey thanks for the input guys!


I'll be taking onboard what you've said - analysing the stats/replays a bit more and maybe watching a couple of preseason games in full (yikes never done that before)!

 

[speakerchucker]

I wish to know this too, i get great results but i do want to create that Ozil type of player and the main creator

 

[martianmanager]

I've since changed my AP, IF, and W to a support duty. changed both wingers to have shorter passing and fewer risky passes. Seems to have the 10 more involved.

I've played around changing the 10 to have 'More Direct Passes' on and off, varying degrees of success. Obviously though having it on means lower passing percentage for the 10.

Will post more as I go.