Team Tactics and Systems
This domain tests whether you can organize a team tactically and adapt during competition. Items typically give an opponent's behavior and ask for a principled response, not a formation name.
Principles before systems
A game model states how you attack (penetration, support, mobility, width), defend (pressure, cover, compactness, delay), and transition both ways. Formations are starting shapes; systems are the relationships and rules inside them, such as zonal marking with a pressing trigger. Players need role clarity: who presses, who covers, who provides the outlet.
Attacking and defending
Overloads - numerical, positional, qualitative - create advantage; create them where you want to play. Defensively, decide whether to press high or drop into a mid-block, and identify triggers: a bad touch, a backward pass, a receiver facing their own goal. Compactness reduces space between lines; the aim is to make the opponent play where you are strong.
Transitions and set pieces
Most goals follow turnovers. Rehearse counter-press (immediate reaction after loss) and rest-defense (positions taken before you attack). Set pieces deserve scheduled practice, not ad hoc repetition.
Worked example
An opponent builds with a back three and a deep midfielder against your two forwards. Reasoning: they have a +1 in build-up, so a straight 2v3 press will be bypassed. Options: press with a third player from midfield, or allow the ball to one side and trap, using the touchline as an extra defender. Choose based on your players' fitness and discipline, then rehearse the trigger.
Traps
Copying a system without the players to run it; confusing formation with tactics; coaching every pass from the bench; neglecting transition moments.