sicox86 said:

Not just you...

sicox86 said:

I think it's the Catch-22 of focusing so much on stopping others from scoring

I'd class you, Mayor, as a bus-parker. Nothing wrong with it, it's effective, and we all do it to some extent. I also do it as part of my advanced tactics in certain situations. Some play a high offside line, some manage both, some achieve neither.

Take a look at this I screencapped for you (and everyone else) earlier. It's from ROCKPOOL's game against LiverKop yesterday. ROCKPOOL (in the maroon and mint halves) is attacking and LiverKop (black and blue stripes) is defending. I hope Olaniran and Av1nash don't mind me using this as an example, and I'll remove it if I get a complaint from either.



ROCKPOOL has the ball just outside of the box, and I've highlighted the ball so it's a little more clear.

Now here's the positioning of LiverKop's players, highlighted for clarity:



Nicely organized in defense, a tough wall to crack, in principal. Note the position of his strikers. The two on the outside are running further wide and the CF is hugging the line to avoid being offside. All very nice.

Now let's look at the postioning of ROCKPOOL, highlighted again for clarity:



Sticking to a rigid formation also, but this time he is absolutely dominating the midfield. Just look at how much space ROCKPOOL is owning in the middle.

I'd say this is the major downside of parking the bus. While your little defenders are frustrating the attackers by mobbing them and blocking their shots, they're also inviting wave after wave of attacks through their inability to get the ball away in the middle. Defenders are terrible at passing and in this case the only ones they can pass to is themselves most of the time. We've all had it happen when our CDF smashes the ball forwards, only for it to hit the RDF's back (ouch) and bounce around, get picked up by the opposition CF, and then lose a goal. Parking the bus is encouraging this kind of play.

I'm not saying I'm right, nor that it's wrong to park the bus (like I said, it can be effective) but one should also deploy it with caution, in the knowledge that there are downsides to this just the same as ROCKPOOL, by playing so far up, put themselves at risk from quick counters, especially from those wide positions.

So, if I was LiverKop, in this situation I'd be looking to counter attack and playing longer passes, with zonal outlook. Makes sense, right? I'd also set my advanced tactics to ease up on the effort 10-20% when 1 goal ahead, and raise it up to almost full when level or behind. You want to make those counters fast and painful.

If I was ROCKPOOL, I'd move my attackers up, and put the mids just beind them. I'd play an OM, as they are good at finding the right man when attacking, and I'd bunch up my attackers a little more so they attack in waves and pick up the loose balls. I'd play a more "flat" effort strategy, with short passes and man-to-man defending (if those attackers are being hugged by your defense they'll less likely be passed to).

Better yet, create a couple of formations and make it so you can switch tactics depending on the game situation. That's how I'd view parking the bus - as a tactic rather than a long term strategy.

Incidentally, ROCKPOOL actually scored this very move.

Just my thoughts.