Stone Wall

Although offence is the best defence. Avoiding fast counter attack, and build strongly defended penalty box will also take important role to decide the final result of a match. Many of you spend a lot of money to buy fancy defender such as Nesta, Roberto Carlos, Sol Campell etc. But have you realize that sepnding large ammount of your cash balance will affect your financial condition in long run. The most important thing is, how to maximize you defensive capability?

Will you belive me when i told you that i win World Cup with Bosnia-Herzegovina? Italy, Brazil and Argentina cannot score any single goal againts my defender? If you wonder to know how i do that, then you should read my tips below. Below several consideration will be explained, which defender you should choose, where they should be positioned, and how should you set their playing style and determinations. So lets move on to the first secton of our discussion.

Know your enemies and yourself well

The author of ancient chinese “Art of War” Sun Tzu said that when you dont know your enemies and yourself you have 0 % chance to win. When you know your strenght but you dont know your enemies your chance is 50-50. But when you know both yourself and your enemies you will absolutely win (100%). There will be severalar questions that should be answered before matchday.

• How many attacker your opponent have(ST,RW,LW,CF)? 1,2,3,more.

<li<How many second line they have (total of AM,RM,LM,CM)? 3,4,more

• What kind of attacker they have? Target man, sprinter, distance shooter.
• How many defender you have (SW,CD,RB,LB)? 1,2,3,more.
• How many second line defender you have (total of DM,ANC,LWB,RWB)? 3,4,more.

Do Simple Math

Divide the field into three areas:

Red area: From your goal post until half of your field behind the centre line.

Yellow area:Half of your field behind centre line until half of enenmy field after centre line.

Green area:the rest of enemy field.(this area will be neglected in this article, because you are very safe in this area except your enemy can make goal from 100m distance)

Calculate the total enemy players when they posses the ball in yellow and red area. Example 1: Enemy formation is 4-4-2. when they posses the ball in yellow area there will be 2 CM, 1RM and 1LM. Both of their ST will be wait in your red area. The total of your players in yellow and red area must be equal or more than their players. So in this case you need at least 4 men in yellow area and 2 men in red area.

Example 2: When they posses the ball in your red area there will be 4 men near your penalty box, 2 ST, RM and LM. Both of their CM will wait for rebound in yellow area. So you need at least 4 men in your red area and 2 men in your yellow area.

The question is, what formation should be used? I prefer 3-5-2 with (2 AM and 1 DM). In example1 i will have 5 men in my yellow area and 3 men in my red area. In example 2 i have 5 men in my red area and 3 men in my yellow area. So I alway have more players than my opponent in every area.

Contain Vs Pressing

When you choose contain defensive style your player will be group in your yellow and red area, they will reinfore each area. But sometimes your attacker will also help to defend, and make you harder to launch counter attack. Running without the ball will also take a lot of your players fitness. Choose this style if you cannot fulfil above calculation. Or if you know that the enemy has a distance shooter. Dont choose this style if your enemy has a target man, your player will give enough time for an assist.

In pressing defensive style your player will chase the opponent, usualy more than one player will be chasing one enemy. Use this if you can fulfil above calculation because you can neutralize their attack without pull your attacker back, and you can launch counter attack quickly. Be aware of a distance shooter, they will shoot even before they reach your penalty box. This style also good to neutralize a target man, why should we afraid of them when we can intercept all assist.

Man Marking

Sometime we think that man marking always work in neutralizing enemy palyers every condition. But there is several requirement that should be considered in order to keep its effectiveness.

• The marker should have high anticipation.
• Marker should have higher fitness level than his target.
• Marker shuld faster and have high acceleration than his target.

If you dont consider these condition marking a man is useless. Do the math well and choose zonal marking instead.

Offside trap

This strategy will work well only if you have 5 off side trap level. And take to your account that off side trap is useless if your opponet has a sprinter. He become an attacker because he is fast not because he has good positioning. Use off side trap if your opponet has a target man.

That are my tips to build an invicible defenses in Total Club Manager 2005. Remember that although you have many good players, without good strategy they are nonsense. I hope this article will help you to become a good and successful manager in Total Club Manager 2005.