EA SPORTS FIFA 15 Tips: Playing Against Ten Men

FIFA fan Darren Cross is back with three tactics to help you use that extra player to your advantage when facing ten men…

Hopefully you caught last week’s Backpage when we covered three effective tactics to help you stay in the game after you’ve had a player sent off in FIFA 15. If not you can find it here: http://www.ea.com/uk/news/fifa-15-tips-playing-with-ten-men

This time I’d like to look at it from the other point of view and share a few things that often work well for me when I’m the one with the extra player.

1 Spot The Space
The first thing I do following a red card for my opponent is wait to see how they react. If they pause the game immediately then they’re almost certainly making changes to minimise the impact on their team, which most players will do, so I look out for a substitution or change of formation when the game restarts.

If a new player comes on then I make sure I catch who it is and who they’re replacing, as it’s usually possible from that to quickly figure out where the space in my opponent’s team is going to be. For example, if a central midfielder gets a red card and they bring on a player who I know is a CM in place of their LM, I can be fairly confident that the gap in their team is going to be on their left side because they should have moved the central midfielder into the CM position. To be completely sure of this I always check the radar too.

If a new player comes on then I make sure I catch who it is and who they’re replacing, as it’s usually possible from that to quickly figure out where the space in my opponent’s team is going to be. For example, if a central midfielder gets a red card and they bring on a player who I know is a CM in place of their LM, I can be fairly confident that the gap in their team is going to be on their left side because they should have moved the central midfielder into the CM position. To be completely sure of this I always check the radar too.

Some FIFA 15 players I know either don’t use the radar often or play with it turned off completely, but I find it really useful in both attack and defence. Looking at the radar will also tell me if my opponent has changed their formation, which again helps me to see where the gap in their team is.

Once I’ve figured that out, that’s where I focus most of my attacks for the rest of the game.

2 Attack The Space
It sounds very obvious but it’s not instinctive to keep attacking the same part of the pitch, at least not for me as I like to vary my attacks, so I constantly have to remind myself to aim for the space as often as possible.

How effective that tactic is will depend on where the space is. If my opponent has lost a striker then I’m not going to have much of an advantage in attack as the extra space will be in my own half – though I will find it easier to regain possession – but if the space is anywhere else then I should be able to use that when going forward.

I try to do this by getting the ball into the space as quickly and as often as possible. My thinking is that, even if my opponent has switched to a more defensive strategy to make up for having one player less, it’s hard to resist bringing someone towards the ball when the other team have it in loads of space. It’s a natural thing to do, but the advantage for me as the attacking player is that, by inviting a defender towards the ball, I know that a new space should be opening up elsewhere on the pitch. Now I focus my attack there by moving the ball quickly and accurately, and I keep doing that until I get the opportunity to play a key pass or go for goal with the player in possession.

It’s a simple tactic but one that often works well for me, and it’s all because I’m using the new space. Had I not reminded myself to do that I might have tried to attack in a different area of the pitch where I wouldn’t have any more space than usual, so there would be no direct advantage for having an extra player.

I also change my attacking mentality using the d-pad.

I usually play with my mentality set to attacking. It’s a little more risky than the balanced or defensive settings, but it’s a style of play I enjoy and one that I’m used to. Against ten men though I’ll switch this up a notch to ultra attacking, especially if the opponent has had a striker sent off. With one less player to worry about defensively I’m less likely to be hit by effective counter attacks, so I can afford to be a bit more adventurous with my mentality. The ultra attacking setting commits more of my players into advanced positions, which helps to keep the pressure on the other team for longer, and it’s tough for even the best FIFA 15 players to defend constantly without conceding a chance or two.

3 Counter Clever
When we looked at tips for playing with ten men last time, one of the tactics I mentioned was avoiding the area of the pitch where the space in my team is when I have the ball – so not dribbling forward with my left-back if I have had a left winger sent off, because if I were to be tackled in an advanced position then the whole of my left side would be open to counter.

When the tables are turned and I’m playing against ten men, I want my opponent to bring the ball into a wide area of the pitch where they have less support so I try to encourage that by blocking the other routes as best as I can when I’m defending. To use the example above again, if my opponent had the ball with their left-back and their left winger had been sent off, I would try to cut off the passing channels infield to encourage the LB to bring the ball forward down the left side. Not too far, I don’t want them to get into a good crossing position, but far enough away from their goal to leave a gap behind. Once they entered my half of the pitch I’d apply pressure with my closest player and if I won the ball back then I’d play into the space quickly.

It’s riskier if the space is in the middle of the pitch because I don’t really want my opponent charging forward through the centre, so when that’s the case I put pressure on the ball a little earlier.

It’s not something I remember to do every single time, because there is always that natural temptation that I mentioned earlier to get a defensive player towards the ball as quickly as possible, but when I concentrate enough to make it work it does help me create space in good positions and improve my chances of scoring.

So that’s what I try to do when I’m facing a team that have had a player sent off. If you’ve got any extra tips that have worked well for you then please share them with other FIFA 15 players by leaving a comment below.

Thanks for reading,
Darren
@darren_cross