Thoughts on CA and general stuff in the big picture

[Desnudo]

All right, a half-bottle of wine has made me philosophical. I see a lot of complaints, not just here, but on the HT boards about how CA is useless and doesn't do what it was intended to do. It seems to be based on the presumption that an imbalanced team should be winning games day-in and day-out because of dominance in one area (defense) as long as you have backs with some passing ability.

Now, let me finish before you start getting heated up about how midfield dominance is the same thing moved forward a position. Firstly, HT guys have stated clearly that they are gradually reducing impact of PM skill on the game, so you have to have patience. Secondly, just because one position is unbalanced relative to the rest, although much less so than it was when I started, does not mean that you should go making other positions unbalanced. Lastly, unless you only play HT and missed the entire last season of soccer, midfield is the most important part of the field!

I know it may seem shocking, but there are no world class teams playing today without world class midfielders. There are plenty without world class defenders (hello Real Madrid), but without world class midfielders you are toast. That is not to say that defense doesn't matter, hello Real Madrid again, but the emphasis is, and always will be, on controlling the tempo, which is done through owning the midfield. I'll summarize this all in a fine point for anyone who's read this far.

What it means in HT is that the real problem is not with balances, although I would like to see the 4-4-2 somehow become the primary formation, just like in real life. The problem is in compensating for different types of training. The inherent problem with saying that you must select one type of training to focus on is what really is screwing everthing up. It means that you must play certain formations, even if they are, as they should be, weaker than others. The solution lies in making changes to how players get trained in HT, not in what areas of the field have prominence. I have no concrete idea how to do that, but I believe that is truly the core problem that prevents people training defense, and to some extent, offense, from being happy. That's my take on it. If you read this far congratulations.

[Alf]

Yeah, I'd love to be able to play 4-4-2 on a regular basis without it screwing my training.

[TonyR]

Yeah, I'd love to be able to play 4-4-2 on a regular basis without it screwing my training.

You could always train keepers.

[Alf]

or wingers

[YoSoySean]

I see a lot of complaints, not just here, but on the HT boards about how CA is useless and doesn't do what it was intended to do. It seems to be based on the presumption that an imbalanced team should be winning games day-in and day-out because of dominance in one area (defense) as long as you have backs with some passing ability.

I CAed first game of the season with a better defense than their offense and a better offense then their defense and I lost 4-0.That should be a situation where the team actually STOPS 1 or 2 shots and gets an oppourtunity out of it.

[Desnudo]

I CAed first game of the season with a better defense than their offense and a better offense then their defense and I lost 4-0.That should be a situation where the team actually STOPS 1 or 2 shots and gets an oppourtunity out of it.

I was talking more in a strategic sense than tactical with this post. Looking forward, not at how things are right now. As for how things are today, I'd need to see a pool of games numbering into the tens of thousands and categorized before I'd be willing to draw any concrete conclusions about the effectiveness of any tactic.

[saintjo]

I wonder how many people using CA actually have teams suited for it as well. Teams must have dominate defense and attack, as well as very high passing for their defenders
Dont get me wrong, I complain about CA too :) but I have maybe 1 or 2 defenders with passing over passable. There are probably very few defenders with passing over excellent. I would like to see a team with 4 defenders with excellent or higher passing use CA and look at their game results. I would hope the results would be much different.

[saintjo]

dola

i would like to see them change training passing to be the same rate, but all players that played that week. right now there is no way to effectively train defenders in passing short of playing them in the midfield or forward position during friendlies.
if there was a way to train passing for defenders while they play a defense position, i personally would probably train passing during my cup matches and defending once i hit friendlies.
once you have an effective way to train passing for defenders, you will probably see a lot more defenders with excellent+ passing and a lot more CA success.