Lower League Defending

[A_Sober_Paddy]

Hey all,

Just wondering how do you defend in lower league in FM13...

In FM12 I had it down fairly well, but in this years game, its actually impossible to defend, unless you shut up shop but that just leads to a lot of 0-0...

Also can someone explain to me how diagonal balls cut my defense in two but none of mine do that????

This years edition, is actually so annoying, it may lead to me going back to last years one or just giving up the game altogether

[wwfan]

We can't help without a breakdown of your tactic I'm afraid. There's no basic answer to 'how to defend'? It will depend on your formation and your players.

[A_Sober_Paddy]

4-4-2

GK(D)

FB(S) CD(D) LD(D) FB(S)

WM(S) BWM(D) AP(S) WM(A)

DLF(S) P(A)

Play control or standard

Play direct passing(as shorting passing was a disaster)

Have closing down left at default, have tweaked my CB's to have them closing in own area(just seeing if that works)

Two thing's I find i'm struggling with is either one of my centre halfs runs out of position to close a play down and then there is a massive gap in the defensive line or else a ball is played diagonal ball between the centre halfs both do nothing and they score most of the time

[jdrawmer]

I've had a constant problem with playing 4-4-2 in this game and trying to make it solid defensively. If anybody ever plays an AMC or packs the midfield it just fails horrifically for me. Maybe i'm just better suited to 4-5-1, which works for me great

[Veggeh]

From what I can tell, your central midfield pairing is going to be playing naturally quite high up the pitch. The ball-winner's job is to win the ball back quite high up the pitch, even on defend duty, and lay it off to your playmaker, who is also playing in more advanced positions. This leaves the 4-4-2, already quite weak in the middle, very exposed if the players make the wrong choices, or perform poorly, both of which are quite likely in lower-league play.

During my own testing, I found that if I was playing Standard, keeping that middle pairing further back by playing a DLP-S/CM-D combo worked nicely. The defensive CM wasn't too overly specialised and sits in a reasonably deep position, but not overly limiting him to one style of play so he can make contribution elsewhere if it's required, and the playmaker spreads the ball forward, either to the wide players (Wingers, one attack, one support), or one of the front pairing (an AF-A/DLF-S combo) while staying deep enough to provide the man-buffer when necessary.

Whatever way you play though, you'll always be weak against sides that have a 3-man central midfield with a 4-4-2. All you can really do in those cases is try to limit the use of their midfield playmaker-esque player(s), or use a different formation.

A quick side-note before I go though. Try Mixed passing. Sometimes I feel that if I shoe-horn my players into one style that I'm limiting their options too much. Lower League players might not be the most intelligently gifted, but they can usually think well enough to make decent passing choices most of the time if given the freedom to do so. Just a thought.

[A_Sober_Paddy]

Cheers for the reply, taken in all you said, still having alot of trouble with defenders just standing as a ball is played behind him and striker runs in for a one on one...The defender just stands there, and will only move once the the striker is well past them...

I fell that this ME is the worst in a long time, when your managing at Lower League