Introduction

In this team, my goal is to assemble players meeting specific criteria only: having the skills Interception and Track Back. I want to get an hyper aggressive defense and to unleash the Hard Rock's Gegenpressing of Klopp. But first, let's have a look at those two skills and why I picked them. 

What is Interception ?

The official definition is: Enables better interception skills. It doesn’t help us very much, as it doesn’t precise if it’s all the time, only when the player is AI controlled, or only when it’s player controlled. It does not state if it’s a “passive” trait, or only activated when using the “Match Up” defense.

My opinion, which is nothing more than a vague guess, is that it influences the positioning of the player and place him more effectively on the pass lines. I do not know how much the confirmation bias affects me, but I find players with this skill way more effectives in those situations.

What is Track back ?

The official definition is: The player aggressively pressures the opposition player who is on the ball all the way from the frontlines. It’s again not really helpful. But I think I have a better understanding of this skill. I think it allows offensive players to immediately switch to “defense” mode when they lose the ball. Concretely, it triggers this kind of animation:

I am more confident in that interpretation of the skill, as this animation is easy to spot.

Formation

During testing, I quickly found out I want more players in the midfield line rather than in the attacking line, defensively speaking. Let’s have first a quick recap of how the defensive shape works in eFootball:

Depending on their positions, players will join one of the three defensive lines:  

• 1^st Line (Defenders): LWF/RWF, SS and CF
• 2^nd Line (Midfielders): LMF/RMF, DMF, CMF and AMF
• 3^rd Line (Attackers): LB/RB and CB  

There could be some nuances:

• With the Defensive Instructions Counter Target or Deep Line.
• DMF tend to join the 1^st Line depending on the situations.
• Box-to-Box tend to go lower on the team to help in defense if needed.

Generally, once a line is passed by the opponent, your players will rarely join the lower line to help the team. That leads to urgent situations where you need more players to defend right now, but your midfielder is like: “Not my problem anymore, it’s not my line”.  And it’s for that reason that I wanted more players in the midfield line than in the attacking line. It’s way easier to press the opponent with a CMF or LMF than manually selecting one of your attackers to come back and press.

Also, players having both skills being generally Box-to-Box suits this choice. I went then with a 4-5-1. I naturally use the Quick Counter playstyle, as it’s defined as the most pressing one.

Goalkeeper:

Having a high line of defense, I wanted my GK to be as high as possible. In the game, we have basically three choices: Defensive Goalkeeper, Offensive Goalkeeper, and Manuel Neuer. Before this tactic, I was not really inclined to believe in Player ID, which is a theory stating some players behave in a unique way based on IRL football. If I obviously noticed M. Neuer behaves differently, I believed it was because he was the only GK with a high Defensive Engagement. So I ran some tests, with a different GK in which I spent most of the points raising that attribute, to see if he behave as the German keeper. The result is that only Neuer behaves as Neuer.

You will find below some screenshots of its unique positioning during different phase of the game:

I still think many players don’t have a Player ID, despite the numerous claims. The fact that Neuer is the captain of Bayern Munich, an ambassador club of Konami helps with that.

The Team

Except my GK, CB and DMF, all players have the skill Track Back. The CMF, LMF and RMF are Box-to-Box meaning they will both runs forward and come back defensively. The result is a very fluid team and goals are scored by many players.

A. Griezmann is the only players without those two skills naturally, so I used skill trainers.

In term of shapes, it's quite difficult to define it as it relies heavily on the AI of the players. Box-to-Box and Offensive Fullback will individually judge if they need to push forward or not, depending on the situation. Nevertheless, let's try pull out some numbers (in the Aggressive set-up, as always):  

Build-Up: The two CBs and the Anchor Man form a 2+1. The Offensive Fullbacks could count in that, but because they tend to run as soon as the ball is on their side, they can disappear while you were moving the ball in their directions for an easy pass. However they are easily available when the opposite CB has the ball. From the GK, let's say it's a 3+1.

Offensive Shapes: Again, depending on how each players judge useful to go forward, you can have up to 6 players in the attacking third (CF, all 4 Box-to-Box and 1 Fullback). It then really depends on how quickly (or not) you build your attacks. You can also be in the situation where 1 Fullback and 1 Box-to-Box stay behind, giving a classic 3-2-5. 

Defensive shape: 4-5-1

Conclusion

It’s a surprisingly very effective team. I've been competitive with it and not hold back by the two skills criteria. I’m solid in defense and have a lot of options in attack. The high pressing makes it very fun, and the Track Back skill create opportunities when the opposition’s defense is all out of place.