Tackling
This affects how early your players attempt to tackle the opposition player when they are with him and he is on the ball.
- Related instructions: Get Stuck In and Stay On Feet (team), Tackle Harder and Ease Off Tackles (player). Mentality also affects tackling.
Hard
Can be useful:
- Against a player with poor endeavour (Aggression, Bravery, Determination and Work Rate) and physical presence (Balance and Strength), or a player with poor morale – To make him less effective when on the ball by discouraging him from advancing with the ball and dribbling at your players.
- Against a player with good creativity (Anticipation, Decisions, Flair, Teamwork and Vision), and passing ability (Passing and Technique) or crossing ability (Crossing and Technique), but poorer mobility (Acceleration, Agility and Pace) and dribbling ability (Dribbling, Technique and Flair) – To make him less effective when on the ball by making it harder for him to create chances.
- Against a player who is tired, has already picked up a knock or who you know to be injury prone – To increase the likelihood of him picking up an injury.
Those players in the same area of the pitch as the opposition player should ideally have good physical presence (Balance and Strength) and tackling ability (Tackling, Anticipation and Decisions), as otherwise hard tackling the opponent may be ineffective.
You should not use this instruction against too many players as it can lead to poor discipline and opposition players dribbling past your players into space.
You may want to increase the number of opposition players that you target with this instruction slightly when the match referee is lenient or when you desperately need a goal and so need to win possession back quickly, and reduce it slightly when the referee is strict or you need to hold on to a result. Alternatively, you may prefer to use the related team and player instructions in such situations.
You can assess the strictness of the referee by checking how many yellow and red cards he has shown per match on the Match Preview screen before confirming your team selection.
Easy
Can be useful:
- Against a player with good mobility (Acceleration, Agility and Pace) or dribbling ability (Dribbling, Technique and Flair) – To hold up his progress when he is on the ball and make it more difficult for him to take the ball past your players into space or draw a foul.
Normal
Can be useful:
- If you want to alter tackling instructions on a player by a smaller amount – For example, you may be using the Get Stuck In specific team instruction but want tackling to be slightly easier on a particular opposition player.
Show Onto Foot
This tells your players which side to attempt to show the opposition player onto when they are close to him and between him and your goal.
Left Foot/Right Foot
These can be used to show the opposition’s wide players, in particular its wide attackers or lone wide players, either outside (down the flank) or inside (towards the goal). For a left-sided player, selecting left foot will show him outside and selecting right foot will show him inside, with the opposite being the case for a right-sided player.
Can be useful:
- As a position opposition instruction to show wide players outside – A wide player is likely to be less of a threat if he is kept on the flank as he will be restricted to attempting crosses or making simple passes to supporting teammates. However, your defence will still need to be capable of dealing with the threat posed by the opposition’s other attackers from crosses. In particular, crosses from wide can be difficult to defend against if the wide player is playing on the side of his strongest foot and the opposition’s attackers have better aerial presence (Jumping Reach) and physical presence (Balance and Strength) than your defenders.
Weaker Foot
Can be useful:
- As a position opposition instruction against central midfielders and strikers – To reduce the effectiveness of their passes and shots. You may want to use a player opposition instruction to override this for players who are fairly strong on their weakest foot.
- Against a wide player who is playing on the side on his strongest foot if the opposition’s strikers have better aerial and physical presence than your central defenders – So that he will be less likely to attempt dangerous crosses from wide with his stronger foot. However, since this would show the wide player inside it is still quite risky, and not advisable if the attacking ability of the wide player makes him particularly dangerous or if the opposition’s central attackers have good mobility (Acceleration, Agility and Pace) or attacking movement (Anticipation and Off The Ball).