I came up with a thought (some say it's a rare occurence). Supposing a team is built around the Early Cross tactic with strong WGs, but instead of having good FWs as well the manager chooses to play with strong MFs.

4(DFs)-2(strong MFs)-2(WGs)-2(mediocre FWs)
as opposed to the orthodox approach of
4(DFs)-2(mediocre MFs)-2(WGs)-2(strong FWs)

One of the main disadvantages of playing L or E is the weakening defense rates. Caused mostly by the lack in midfield and the toal loss of the OTF attributes. It could be argued that the purpose of L\E tactics is to outscore the opponents (scoring 3 or 4 while conceeding a mere 2 goals per match).

The MFs will increase the DEF ratings sustentially and might get more shots than usual due to the impotence of the FWs.

Any thoughts on that?

What about 3 strong MFs and 1 mediocre FW in the alternate lineup?

GMcD.

I'm taking this all in, as it sounds right and makes good sense, to play stronger in midfield if your forwards are not that good, but it presents a small problem for a manager with a squad like mine...........

the lack of wingers!!!!!!!

I could sell you some for a Fee

I suspect several managers are starting to shape their squad up for possible Early Cross play this season.

Alot of teams have one high SL WG,
with more than a handful with two SL20+ WG's, including ABE, BER, DFA, FAL, MON and RAN.

never been a fan of wingers, hence im stuck in division 2 and going nowhere....


my problem with WG's is that to have them in your squad means an extra position to maintain, i.e. it gives you more options but to maintain a squad with WGs (decent WGs) in it you would have to have more players in general and thus more expensive to maintain - that doesnt seem to make much sense but i know what i mean!

But supposing you do sign 2 or 3 WGs on the roster. Will you not simply retire or sell the same amount of MFs\FWs?

So... who is interested in my WG? 3/26 and 3/24 WG available for trade...


Mike'05

Yoav makes some good points on this topic.

I am toying with the idea of going down the Early Cross route with a nice pair of 1/17 WG's ready and waiting for 10 TP each to be loaded.

As someone who does not use Long/Early , > no decent Wg's or Fw's

It would seem that Yoav could have a good idea .

I thought (correct me if I am wrong) that Wg's had less chance of scoring than Fw's. By playing Early are WG's crossing the ball in to the Fw's?

Looking at the 3 teams using Early most this season :

FAL 50% 2 wg's 25,23, no goals.
BUC 65.9% 2 wg's 32,29 2 goals
ALO 62.5% 2 wg's 24,24, no goals.

Still it is early days , long way to go in the season.

Agree with Robin. By playing EarlyCross the WG's are crossing the ball in to the FW's?

Some managers just don't rate Wingers, but for me at QP I am going to experiment with EarlyCross team tactic this season.

Early Cross helped me beat MON 3-0 away from home today!

With 2 wingers in my roster
its high time I tried Early Cross tactic.

thanxs for advice noted above.

WW LL WW LL

With this recent erratic form, I suspect PT are still experimenting with team tactics then!

You cheeky blighter, Commish!

I like Early Cross, and other teams in Div 2 also particpating in this team tactic
(BUC 50%, BER 15%, STI 8%)

While in the "Long Ball Division" A.K.A. D1, I note FAL use E 37% of the time.

D3 have ALO as the main Early Cross players, using it 49% of the time.