Wingers can't make a cross to the box

[FMWolf]

My winger (normally i use 1 in my formations) can't make single cross that goes to the box. I just don't know what to do. He just runs with the ball (i'm okay with that) but then he either crosses agains the fullback (most of the time, i have like 15 or more corners a game) or he just passes the ball behind. I just don't know what to do. And when I see much worse wingers, on the teams playing against me, make milimetrical crosses I almost rage quit xD I don't know if these has anything to do with the tactics or no, but some help would appreciated

[GazzP]

I had the same problem with Newcastle. HBA, Debuchy and Santon attempting 30+ crosses a game and completing 1 or 2.

The two solutions I found were to use the 'exploit the middle' shout so cut down on crossing or play with two strikers as Cisse up front on his own wasn't working.

[jamez_b]

I have the same problem with my Hoffenheim team, I switch between playing deep and on the counter and high up on overload. I watched a few matches in full to establish what could be causing it and i'm still at a loss as to how to fix it. Sometimes they do what i want but having only really played inferior opposition so far i'm concerned that it is going to cause me issues when i come up against Bundesliga sides where i can't be affording to not take chances to create chances. (if you know what i mean).

My inside forwards attack/support and complete wing backs/wing back support seem to get into the position and rather than make the cross to the several unmarked players arriving in the box, they either stop, think about what they are going to do for a couple of minutes, get tackled and lose the ball or they just keep dribbling with seemingly no plan and then boot the ball out for a goal kick as they try to win a corner...

Really what i want to happen is the inside forwards to carry the ball forward, the wingbacks overlap and then either the inside forwards give the ball to the on rushing wingback for them to deliver a ball into the box for the Complete forward, other inside forward and attacking midfielder to attack or for the inside forward to cut inside his man, get into the penalty box and take a shot.

I've tried having "Cross Ball Early" selected but seems to make no difference but a mate of mine also said that he had the same problem and took off "Work Ball into the Box" and that seemed to help. I'll be trying that later to see if it makes a difference.

[FMWolf]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who is having trouble with this. But i still can't find the solution

I've tried to take away the "work ball into the box", but that didn't help that much. It just seems like some kind of bug, I don´t know, but it's really annoying when you see your full back make and excelent run down the wing and then just stoping. It's like he freezes for a bit and when he "wakes up" again, he has the opposition fullback right on him and he either loses the ball or wins a corner (and this goes on for the entire game, with the wingbacks/fullbacks or wingers)

Another thing that bothers me is the fact that the opposition wingers/wingbacks seem to have far better results from there crosses. It just make it seems like a player with good overall crossing attributes is worse than a player who has really bad attributes

[Tyren27]

I struggled with this for a season or so when I used inside forwards on one or both of the attacking winger positions + wingbacks with attacking duty. Either the inside forwards got stopped because they where wrong-footed, or the wingbacks advanced up the field and got in position, but used too much time on the ball and the cross was blocked to corner most of the time. I have changed my tactics now and use real wingers with good pace, crossing skill, technique and first touch, and complete wingbacks with attacking duty behind them. My wingers deliver several crosses each game, while my wingbacks have fewer crosses because they don't overlap as much as with the inside forwards.

In addition to this I would think the tactics for where you focus your play and how you attack (run against defenders etc) could be important, try to change one of these settings for each time you try the tactic and watch the entire game to see how it changes your play.

[jamez_b]

The thing is i want my wingbacks doing the majority of the crossing as i want my inside forwards forming a front three. The movement of the team is giving them the space out wide but they are no taking advantage of it because of the slow decision making. I've tried varying tempos to see if that affects this but for the most part i just can't get them to be incisive in space.

When watching the match you almost see their facial expression after they've beaten the full back, see the space in front of them and then think "**** that was easier than i expected, what do I do now?" rather than "If I beat this full back I'm going to fire the ball into the 6 yard box as there should be a few of my teammates attacking the goal or could take a deflection and go in." Now could this be linked to decisions? composure? anticipation? determination? or something to do with team instructions?

I had a game against a Serie D side who made no attempt to play for 90 minutes so had 10 men huddled in the box the whole time so very difficult to break down. However a few more incisive crosses would have created more clear cut chances rather than waiting too long to make a decision and allowing the opposition to get in position. As it was i only won 2-0 both of which were scored from corners and the majority of my goals have come from my Complete forward's good link up play with the inside forwards.

More analysis and testing is needed I feel to come up with a solution. Will let you know how i get on.

[davidmn27]

I experience similar problems with my wide players and I'vde been told by people on these forums thats its to do with lack of movement/targets in the box. Sometimes however u just want them to whip in a hopeful dangerous ball, but they dont, they do exactly how you've described above - wait an age and then play for a corner off the defender!!

[Auqakuh]

It is literally a lack of options in the box*, coupled with, I think, an issue relating to passing style. On shorter passing I see fewer crosses because there is always a short passing option nearby - so the player naturally decides that's what the system calls for and passes to him. Even that diagonal back to a DM/CM is a better "short passing" option because ball retention is more likely, and that's what "short passing" actually calls for: keeping the ball. The cross is much more likely to concede possession and so is only attempted if it's actually viable.

This is sort of the opposite way around to FM13, where I couldn't stop players crossing into the box, so hopefully the devs can find a nice compromise in a future patch.

* On rereading this isn't really clear enough in what I mean. What I mean is not that there are too few players in the penalty area to aim at, but there are too many opposing markers for the attackers to contend with. If you play one up top, you'll get far less crosses than if you have two up top, or than if you have a very attacking AM who gets into the box for crosses, simply because both centrebacks can mark the dangerman to death. The only way for the forward to find space is to run from deeper areas, but the ME does not seem to enable players to do this if they're playing in the striker position. As a consequence, your wide player doesn't see any real viable options, and, with shorter passing set as noted above, a cross is counter to the instructions of the system, so they don't do it.

[DuncanJM]

It bugs me no end to see my wingers beat the fullbacks, and then with all the space in the world, just stop, wait for the fullback to get back into position and then cross against the fullback. Its annoying because my winger is set on support, and the description of the duty is something like "quickly beats his man and gets a cross in". That's all I want him to do!

[jamez_b]

The problem comes when the opposition refuses to have any less than 11 players in the box at all times it doesn't matter how many strikers you have up front.

Even so to counter that the two CMs (BWD - Defend and Regista - Support) dropped a little deeper to outside the box to give the Inside Forward or Wingback the option to pull the ball back if faced with no clear options in the 6 yard box or a wall of defenders. The whole thing about space is it gives the player more time to make a better decision. Trouble was that even on High and much higher tempo more often than not they'd just take an age to make that decision and get tackled.

I guess it is at what point tactical instructions get put aside and player intuition should take over? If left with no options how do i tell that player that if he finds himself in that sort of situation he should go for hit and hope and fire the ball in the direction of the 6 yard box rather than do nothing? Also would the player not learn from the first time he did it and next time know that if he doesn't make his mind up quickly he's going to get tackled rather than make the same mistake over and over again.

Would maybe switching the wingbacks player instructions to more direct passing help? Or is that option greyed out? (I'm at work so can't check.)

[FMWolf]

I really can't understand it. I get it that shorter passing maybe have something to do with it, but it shouldn't be like:"i've beat the fullback, i'm alone on the wing, i have players moving to the box but wait, the coach said to pass it shorter so i'll just wait here". I mean, this is absurd. And I've tried several things to make it work: different formations, different shouts, different teams/players and it seems that i just get the same result

One thing i've not tried tho, is setting the wingbacks/wingers to a more direct passing (and i don't know if you can, can't play the game right now). I just don't want them to play longballs forward and that's a bit of my understanding of what "more direct passing" means (don't know if it is correct)

As for the opositon having a bunch of players on the box, and like jamez_b said, wouldn't a cross after the winger dribled trought the fullback be helpful? Or is it more helpful to just stand still?

[jamez_b]

I think to be honest it is just one of those things that you just have to live with for the time being. I've tried selecting Direct passing, more risky passes, aim for the centre, far post etc. but for the most part the result is the same. The fix of players constantly trying to win a corner of the legs off the defender might improve things but who knows.

Interestingly when i looked through the analysis for the games i'd played is that it is a much bigger problem on the right hand side than on the left. Now bear in mind that my left back Braafheid has 10 for decision and Beck my right back has 14 for decisions so you'd expect Beck to more decisive. Are you seeing the issue on both sides or just the one side?

I think i'll be scratching my head a little more over this though trying not to get too upset over it as the poor sofa has already taken enough of a beating since the 1st November.

What i keep telling myself is that if the way you play is, defensively solid, creating good movement and plenty of space then i'm finally doing something right. Hopefully I can continue to build on that and finally get to grips with tactics in Fm 2014 and enjoy it as much as I have everyone for the last 20 years.

On a side note watching the game in full highlights has definitely helped me highlight some of the flaws in my tactics, including the decision making on the wings discussed here. Well worth it for at least the first couple of games of the season.

[FMWolf]

At the moment I've salvio (right) and gaitan (left) (i only play one of them as a winger tho). Both have good stats, but none of them seems tu fulfil the job. Same with my attacking winback, Siqueira. He has the attributes, but he can't make a good cross either. On the other hand, they've scored a rather good amount of goals between themselves.

But the problem remains. I've tried make the winger play in the ML/MR position so that he would start to play deeper and have more time to decide, but I didn't see much of an improvement. I've messed around with the team instructions also, but again failed to achieve a major improvement.

So I guess I'll just have to live with it. I think my tactic is fairly good, with good movement (crucial in this version) and good plays down the middle. I will also keep trying to achieve the click that will trigger my winger to become, well, a winger xD

[jamez_b]

Yeah weirdly Andreas Beck scored a cracker last night where completely out of the blue he cut inside and Kevin Volland went outside. Completely baffled the defenders and he rifled a shot into the top left hand corner. Volland and Beck seem to work really well together and are constantly interchanging passes and position to give each other space.

In the same match however Volland set him clear down the right and had at least 5 yards or so on the nearest defender with loads of space to run into. Schipplock was unmarked in the middle having lost his man, Beck with no one around him, slowed down....looked up and spotted him....had a little day dream....looked back at the ball...noticed his shoe laces were untied...bent down and did them up....got back up to cross the ball to Schippers and to his surprise two defenders were there to block his cross. (I'll post the screenshot when i get the chance.)

Rough with the smooth i guess, you just need to see the funny side from time to time. Sofa lasts longer that way

[agentvinz]

I have the similar problems too and with many people complaining about it, I'm sure it's the problem with the ME, not tactic. As long as SI don't solve that, the problem will still persists