November 18, 2006 in Tips, Tactics
One very popular alternative to fight against hattrick teams with high level midfields is using the counter-attacking (CA) tactic. However, as with other aspects of hattrick using this tactic at best seems far from simple and require an optimization of your team.
The following is based on experience collected from various sources, in particular the excellent and exhaustive research article on CA which is a basis for this post. Unfortunately i know only the original italian version and the french version. If anyone knows or can do the english translation, please let me know.
The CA recipe:
1) ensure you have good levels of defense to reduce efficiency of attacks, CA will not bring you a lot of goals, therefore if your opponent is able to score many goals you cant expect to much
2) make sure you have a very good CA level, playing CA with defenders with weak passing might not even bring you 1 CA goal. The above mentioned study states the the number of CA occasions can be calculated from the ratio of PARAGONANDO = [CA level / (CA level + (average opponent def level)/2) ]. If this ratio is at 50% you get 1CA, at 66% you get 2CA, at 83% you get 3CA and at most you get 4CAs.
example: CA level = 10 (outstanding), average opponent defense level = 8 (excellent) => ratio = 10/(10+8/2)= 71.4% => around 2 CAs
3) try to keep possession as high as you can: 45% possession is an optimum as it will give you normal scoring chances in addition to CA chances. 35-40% are the miminum you should try to reach.
4) keep your attack line high so that it can score its chances, therefore you need to keep some fronts of your attack high enough, remembering the repartition of attacking chances (without AIM or AOW orders): 25% on each side, 40% in the middle and 10% for set pieces
5) make sure your team is optmized for Special Events, as they could bring you the additional goal you might need
Last week we have seen formatdepoche (Lux. D1, CA team) successful against Spora (Lux D1 mythos, Midfield & all out team), using the CA tactic. Formatdepoche he had for himself a very good CA rating (although he scored only one chance), a good central attack compared to Spora’s defense, and he kept the possession level of Spora to 66% which allowed him 2 standard chances. As you can see formatdepoche adhered to the above receipe with maximized the opportunity for him to make a result against Spora’s feared team which he did!
Note that I know, those articles include some abbreviations or terms that you might not know the translation of, if thats the case, most of the terms can be looked up in Hattrick’s wiki. Do not hesitate to contribute to the wiki as well !
Intersting & informative article. For more tactical tips see the Hattrick Tactics & Strategy Study Guide as collected here ..
http://www.backflip.com/members/escafeld/14061338/
Comment by Wincobank Ironopolis — January 22, 2007 @ 8:11 pm
Could You explaine the usage of the PARAGONANDO formula on come match example? For me it doesn’t work, maybe i’m using it wrong.
Comment by Oleh — April 29, 2007 @ 5:03 pm
The Paragonando formula was developped before the change of rating in hattrick when all team ratings were reduced.
Therefore the ratio of PARAGONANDO = [CA level / (CA level + (average opponent def level)/2 ) ] with the current rating system.
Comment by bobymoore — April 30, 2007 @ 5:48 am
Thank You. That helps. I was adviced to use new version of that study at www.homerjay.altervista.org/studio_ca/
There is a CA-calculator on that page also.
I’m not good in Italian but it seems to me that their formula uses not only opponent defence ratings. Looks like there is also a formula for realization of CA. Need to be examined.
Comment by Oleh — May 1, 2007 @ 9:19 am
There are plenty of teams that instead choose to totally disregard midfield and are quite successful.
Likewise, in my experience the passing skill of defenders of weak is high enough to get a decent CA rating.
Comment by Sparts — May 16, 2007 @ 9:35 am
To Sparts:
Completely ignoring the midfield is possible but will not make it easier for most teams.
Regarding the level of passing, it all depends on the number of players in defense, with 5 defenders i will not argue, now there are cases where playing a 352 CA is useful which in that case means you better have decent (solid+) passing on them
Comment by bobymoore — May 19, 2007 @ 7:29 am
The Paragonando formula makes absolutely no sense as you put it here. The number of CA opportunities that a team has is driven by:
a)The number of goal opportunities of your opponent (i.e. His ball possession Vs yours)
b)His ability in scoring each of his goal opportunities (i.e. his attack ratings Vs your defense ratings).
c)Your ability in transforming your opponent’s missed chances in counterattacks; and
d) Your ability to score goals in each CA opportunity (Your attack ratings Vs His defense ratings).
Thus, the ideal opponent for a CA focused team has a strong midfield and very weak defense and offensive sides. He will produce many goal opportunities, he will miss most or all of them, you will turn part of these missed chances in scoring opportunities for your team, and you score some or all of these chances. This is obviously an example, and it hardly meets reality, though it might be very good for a conceptual exercise.
CA is nor a winning strategy per se for a simple fact: It might pay off once here and there when you face SOME particular teams, however, there will always be someone in your league whose midfield and offensive power are more than enough to turn you in the underdogg for every match between you. If some team is able to produce at least 6 scoring opportunities against you, and be fairly able to turn 2 or 3 of those chances in goals, you’re probably in trouble. Even if you have monster CA abilities (say you turn 3 or 4 oponent’s missed chances in CA opportunities), you will barely score more than 2 goals.
I find a lot of usefulness in CA as a tactic device, instead of a long term strategy per se. It’s very good to count with CA abilities in 3 situations:
a) You’re facing a weak team (generaly in a cup) whose only threat lies in his midfield power. You not only are able to beat him easily(as his attack places no danger to your highly stronger defense), as you probably gain a PIC opportunity.
b) Your opponent’s midfield is slightly better than yours (ball possession will favour him in 56 or 58% TOPS), your defense is clearly better than his attack (at least 33% better), and your attack is even with his defense. In this case, if you have good CA abilities your winning chances are nearly the same or better as his. If you’re not playn’ CA, he’s got the best odds.
c) Your teams look just the same. Midfields are quite comparable, his attack evens your defense and vice versa. No CA, you’re rolling the dices, basicaly. If on the other hand you have strong CA ratings, you are the one with higher winning chances, because it’s very likely that you will have more scoring chances than he, since you can add to your normal scoring probabilities one or more scoring chances driven by CA’s.
Comment by Pedro Coutinho — June 12, 2007 @ 10:51 pm
Great post! thank you so much for sharing it!
Comment by Affiliate Promotion — March 26, 2009 @ 7:31 pm