Big teams playing to tie

What do you think of when a big team plays to tie? As a fan, do you feel betrayed by this tactic?

Also, no mentioning of Barca or Madrid in the past 5 years allowed. Let's not go there.

When do big teams play for a tie?

Only time I can think of is in CL ties and for me that's perfectly fine as long as the team goes through.

To hell with it, anyone turns this into Barca-Madrid I am deleting posts and warning levels are coming down straight away.

Getting this out the way early.

Best example was Liverpool vs Juve in 2005 in Turin that we had to protect a 2-1 lead.


Defensive masterclass by Rafa....what a great game it was

OT, I wonder how City fans felt last season with Mancini playing for draws even at home (or so it looked like it to me) vs some strong teams.

i wish we played for a draw against palermo

An interesting comment on the subject was made by Marcelo Bielsa, cited from memory: "I never understood the managers that would set up a game just to tie the game, I have always found it much more difficult to tie a game than to win it." Clearly some managers will disagree with this approach, but I can see his point. If you set up the game to 'tie' it, and then it goes astray, chances are you won't be able to recover very well. It might be safer to just play to win.

Chelsea Vs Valencia 2008

Gah, if only Morientes would have scored.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:An interesting comment on the subject was made by Marcelo Bielsa, cited from memory: "I never understood the managers that would set up a game just to tie the game, I have always found it much more difficult to tie a game than to win it." Clearly some managers will disagree with this approach, but I can see his point. If you set up the game to 'tie' it, and then it goes astray, chances are you won't be able to recover very well. It might be safer to just play to win.

Yeah, I understand him perfectly. Makes sense.

How exactly do you go about drawing a game in the first place.

When you got the ball, what do you do? How aggressive are you when attacking, how many men get sent forward and how often? Do the fullbacks go up?

Its impossible.

I can understand if the game is tied and there is 20 minutes or something to go, all you have to do is defend and hold out.

But how can you start a game like that? What do the team do? Just defend the entier game from minute 1? What if they score, how do you change it as a player? The players on the pitch would probably be the more hard working while the flair players are more likely to be sitting on the bench watching.

I understand where he is coming from.

It depends on the kind of team you have, first of all.

If you have a team built to withstand any opposition you can be able to pull it off better than others.

The Franchise wrote:OT, I wonder how City fans felt last season with Mancini playing for draws even at home (or so it looked like it to me) vs some strong teams.

City did alot I think, their 4231 became more 6121. It's very frustrating to play against(i.e Tevez winner against us 1-0) but I also get nervous when we do it, simply because it just takes one mistake and you can lose the game and it's much harder to get back into imo. They look like a totally different team now though, with Nasri/Silva/Augero it's not surprising I guess

Like at Barca CL we managed to come out unscathed but then at our home we managed to get 1-0 up and Iniesta produces a wonderstrike in extra time It's very risky business.

Argentina vs Uruguay Copa America 2011.

Lionel Messi wrote:Argentina vs Uruguay Copa America 2011.

Only because of the early red card, same with the Inter Busquets face-clutch incident. Those are the only 2 prominent games recently with a top team obviously going for the draw, and they're both due to red cards.

I think a team that tries to mix concrete to keep a draw might find themselves easily losing due to one successful counter. I know that, it happened a lot to my club -_-'

Well we have played for a draw plenty of times under benitez and i have never felt betrayed.

If u need to play defensively for the benifit of the team i see no reason why not to do that.I would rather Liverpool play defensive and win rather than play attacking football and lose.

I think most teams have do that depending on the situation and i havent exactly seen their fans complaining either as long as they win.

I think it's very very fine to start with a defensive line-up.

Football is a game of few goals (most of the time) and a strategy of defending bears no shame in my eyes.

Chelsea vs Barca away..Now who can forget the second leg

Away legs I can understand this. Now defending at home it does not. Unless you mean sitting deep and hitting hard in counters, which also makes sence. This is tournament football I'm talking about. In the league you should be going for a win in every single game unless under extreme circumstances.

barcelona vs inter milan is the best example i can think of because inter had a two goal lead and barca were very strong at the camp nou so from the start inter were playing for a 0-0 draw i think since their offensive tactics were non existent.. plus motta was sent off early, so they had to just play for 0-0.. it may have worked out on aggregate but even then they still lost '1-0'.. so playing to tie a game is a bit difficult..

putting all contreversies aside, in the chelsea vs barca CL semi final chelsea parked the bus like a boss
persoanlly big clubs should only be parkign the bus in CL games when they have to, like chelsea v barca but besides that they should generally always go for the jugular

When you have gone 40+ years without a CL, I assure you, there is no hesitation to play defensively when you need to

Valencia under Cuper used to play for the draw away from home quite often. It used to work nicely for them so I see no problem with a top side playing for a draw.

I like to think of it as trying not to make any mistakes, and not taking many risks that will leave you exposed at the same time.

Gianni Brera used to say the perfect game would finish 0-0 because there would be no mistakes.

In league play, you don't go for a tie regardless.
Even Mancini did not go for a tie, although he showed a weird wrapped way of doing so.

In tournament play, teams generally try not to lose. Which seems like playing for a tie but is not. They absorb pressure and hit on the break. Although, the most successful teams are always teams that play with the ball, rather than without it. Inter 2010 only exclusively defended when they had to against Barca. Van Gal likes to complain about the final, but fails to comment on the fact that despite their possession, Inter still managed to shoot more on target, and that Bayren made more physical fouls.

Let's be honest, however efficient the tactic was, Milan's game today was not one the team with the most amount of titles international titles in history and one with a long-standing tradition as one of Serie A's most appealing sides should be proud of.