Sorting Out Those Killer Long Balls Over The Top

If Football Manager fora and Twitter are a reliable gauge to the mood of the gaming audience, one of the main gripes of gamers everywhere seems to be deadly accurate long balls played over the top, only for a striker to escape and end up in a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper.

Granted, before one-on-ones were fixed it was less of an issue since over half of these goalscoring opportunities were wasted but with strikers having found their shooting boots, it’s becoming an issue. Just in case it doesn’t ring a bell, look at these clips.

Surely this rings a bell somewhere? The culprit to such goals was easily found. Many managers emulate each other’s style and one style that has been working rather well for the past few iterations of the game has been a counter-pressing approach, which means a high defensive line and aggressive pressing.

In this version of the Match Engine, it also means deadly accurate balls over your defensive lines and essentially playing a game of Russian roulette with the AI manager.

***A large majority of the FM players out there right now, as they start their game with a high defensive line and counter-pressing engaged.***

People have tried to remedy the issue at hand; setting your defenders to Cover instead of Defend / Stopper in an effort to have them drop back just a tad more, just in time to intercept those dastardly laser-guided long-range passes. I have tried that recipe as well and while it showed an improvement, it was not a sure-fire fix.

At times, the defenders still missed their interceptions because they stepped forward in an effort to pressure the opposing defence. So while it did work at times, it was also prone to monumental cock-ups.

***Carrying on as you have done before is really not addressing the issue at hand but repeating the same process over and over while hoping for a different outcome.***

In a way, the AI behaviour makes sense as the obvious response to the counter-press is to go over it instead of through it. The defenders’ behaviour makes sense as well. Counter-pressing is a team effort and not having the defenders step forward will create gaps between the lines, thus making counter-pressing less effective.

Fixing the issue was easier than I thought. I wish this moment of enlightenment came from some profound moment of inspiration. Sadly, it was just trial and error and retrospectively reasoning why that could work. Anyway, instead of Counter-Pressing, I had to instruct my team to Regroup. It really was a simple as that.

You can still maintain some sort of counter-pressing style. With a high Line of Engagement and Defensive Line, you can still pressure the opposition, just less aggressive than you are used to. It will balance out your defence though.

I have highlighted a typical match from the moment I applied this “fix” of sorts. I have highlighted both of my defenders and I have shown their interceptions and more importantly, their missed interceptions. They have intercepted the ball a number of times in situations that would usually result in a long ball over the top, as well as not missing any interception moments.

***The defenders are highlighted in red. No missed interceptions and a fair few interceptions high up the pitch.***

While it may not be perfect or pretty, it is a workable solution to the situation at hand. Happy hunting.

Table of Contents

Guido

Guido is the founding father of Strikerless and main nutjob running the show.

Strikerless

TLDR; Download-links

I have debated whether or not to post this article. Should I offer a downloadable version of my tactics, just for people to generally ignore why they work in a specific way and complain to yours truly about their perceived lack of progress or success? Ultimately, there is no right or wrong way to approach things with FM. If you're getting more success from downloadable tactics and that feels fulfilling enough, then crack on. This article contains links to the latest formation of my "Riders (on the storm)" series of tactics, using both a deep and middle block in defence.

Strikerless

A Tactical Roadmap To Evolution

As my tactics setup evolved and developed, I noticed my build-up from the back was far too easily disrupted by high-intensity pressing sides. They targeted my deep-lying playmaker and, at times, my ball-playing defender. Players Read more…

Set Pieces

My Throw-In Setups For FM23

Set pieces in football, and thus in Football Manager, have received much attention and study. But what about the innocuous throw-in? Apart from when a team develops a long throw-in programme (see Delap, Rory, or last year’s trebuchet-styled throw-ins), it is largely ignored. This doesn’t do the humble throw-in justice, as they are essential to your Football Manager game. Just throwing the ball somewhere willy-nilly not only robs you of a potential goalscoring opportunity (depending on your location, of course), but it also increases your risk of losing the ball and ending up on the wrong side of a devastating counter-attack. So again, throw-ins are far more important than you might think.

2 Comments

Duke · January 3, 2020 at 4:48 pm

Is this a bug? Or do you just need to be as good as Liverpool to use counter-press.

I’d like to see a strikerless way to exploit this against opposition who use counter-press.

Guido · January 5, 2020 at 10:19 am

I don’t think it’s a bug, it may just be intentional. The accuracy of some of these long-range passes is a bit unnerving, I agree.