Reducing crosses being blocked

[talino7]

I'm finding that  when my WB are attempting crosses they run to the goal line then have their crosses blocked the majority of the time for a corner kick. Any tactical/individual tweaks you can suggest? My WBs crossing attributes are not bad 12-14. Playing in Serie A

[CARRERA]

Very hard to say without seeing your formation and tactical instructions, but i assume it has something to do with lack of options.  

[De Nile]

Cross from deep for personal instruction or hit early crosses for team instruction helps also asking your wingback to take more risks and/or more direct passing increases the rate at which they do it

Depending on your setup if successful crosses are important then its best to create space either by: 

• making a late/overlapping run from the flanks 
• use a winger to drag the opposition fullback inside 
• using overloads 

Edited July 20, 2022 by De Nile

[talino7]

This is the tactic that I'm using:

 

[glengarry224]

Hard to decipher with so many team instructions but:

• these instructions all slow down how quickly the wingbacks will cross:  'work ball into box', 'run at defense', 'lower tempo';
• you have 'play for set pieces', which tells them to do exactly what you are complaining about;
• WB(a) pretty much instructs a player to dribble the ball to the byline then cross (or make a cutback pass or attack) vs. WB(s) more often crosses earlier;
• 'crossing' attribute is more about a player's crossing ability vs. 'decisions', 'vision' and 'anticipation' have more effect on whether he'll cross at the best time.

[De Nile]

2 hours ago, talino7 said:

This is the tactic that I'm using:

 

Use a FB on attack 

[04texag]

High acceleration attribute can help players get separation from defenders before playing a pass, cross or shot. I've never tested this per se but passes the common sense test. 

[Guest]

When people struggle with crosses being banged off of defenders legs the culprit almost always is the tactical set-up and the fact that the player out wide is having to wait for more options or he's basically not got anyone around him to play off of.

Take a long hard look at why this is happening, whose in the box when he's at the optimal time to cross, whose around him when he stops and holds the ball up. Don't focus on the person crossing, focus on what everyone else is doing and adjust tactics to suit.

[talino7]

2 hours ago, Crazy_Ivan said:

When people struggle with crosses being banged off of defenders legs the culprit almost always is the tactical set-up and the fact that the player out wide is having to wait for more options or he's basically not got anyone around him to play off of.

Take a long hard look at why this is happening, whose in the box when he's at the optimal time to cross, whose around him when he stops and holds the ball up. Don't focus on the person crossing, focus on what everyone else is doing and adjust tactics to suit.

That makes sense! What  changes to the instructions could I make for players to get into the the box quicker and/or support him. Is that a function of positional roles?  

[CARRERA]

23 hours ago, talino7 said:

This is the tactic that I'm using:

Thats a lot of instructions, lets talk about how your matches usually play out, so we can remove unnessecary ones.

• Overlap left and right can be removed straight away, as both WB(a)'s will overlap naturally
• Pass into Space. It can work with shorter passes, but its not particular effective, especially if the other team doesnt leave any space behind their defensive line. 
• Play out of defence is particular effective, if you want to slow down your build up play against a deep sitting team. As you already use shorter passes and a lower tempo, your build up is quite slow anyway.
• Low Crosses. Do your strikers and attacking midfielders have bad jumping reach and heading?
• Run at Defence can help if you struggle to break through the defensive line. Especially against passive defenders, who stay on their feet and dont look for a challange. Against aggressive defenders you risk loosing possession. Make sure you have good dribbling attributes.
• Play for Set Pieces basicly tells your players to shoot the opposition to get a promising thorw in or a corner kick. Or get fouled for a free kick. Properbly remove it, if you look for less corners.
• Work Ball Into Box is particular usefull if your Build up is slow and the other team actually allows your team space inside the box. If they dont press and just camp their box, remove it. there is no space.
• Counter asks your players to transition more quickly by immediately moving forward. Shorter Passing, Slower Tempo, Play out of Defence, Work Ball Into Box all favor a slower build up. You have to make a decision here. Transition quickly or build up slow.
• Attacking Width. With an Attacking Mentality, your Width is quite wide by default. As you rather look for short passes, this might limit your players passing options. So properbly narrow down your attacking width. Width will be created by your WB's anyway.
• Attacking Mentality one aspect of a high mentality is, that many players (at least all attack and support duty) will move forward urgently. Getting back to your idead of how your team should build up their attack (rather slow), this mentality might not be the most suitable. Maybe step down to Positive or Balanced.

Thats all for now. If you sort some things up, we can move on.

 

 

[talino7]

11 minutes ago, CARRERA said:

Thats a lot of instructions, lets talk about how your matches usually play out, so we can remove unnessecary ones.

• Overlap left and right can be removed straight away, as both WB(a)'s will overlap naturally
• Pass into Space. It can work with shorter passes, but its not particular effective, especially if the other team doesnt leave any space behind their defensive line. 
• Play out of defence is particular effective, if you want to slow down your build up play against a deep sitting team. As you already use shorter passes and a lower tempo, your build up is quite slow anyway.
• Low Crosses. Do your strikers and attacking midfielders have bad jumping reach and heading?
• Run at Defence can help if you struggle to break through the defensive line. Especially against passive defenders, who stay on their feet and dont look for a challange. Against aggressive defenders you risk loosing possession. Make sure you have good dribbling attributes.
• Play for Set Pieces basicly tells your players to shoot the opposition to get a promising thorw in or a corner kick. Or get fouled for a free kick. Properbly remove it, if you look for less corners.
• Work Ball Into Box is particular usefull if your Build up is slow and the other team actually allows your team space inside the box. If they dont press and just camp their box, remove it. there is no space.
• Counter asks your players to transition more quickly by immediately moving forward. Shorter Passing, Slower Tempo, Play out of Defence, Work Ball Into Box all favor a slower build up. You have to make a decision here. Transition quickly or build up slow.
• Attacking Width. With an Attacking Mentality, your Width is quite wide by default. As you rather look for short passes, this might limit your players passing options. So properbly narrow down your attacking width. Width will be created by your WB's anyway.
• Attacking Mentality one aspect of a high mentality is, that many players (at least all attack and support duty) will move forward urgently. Getting back to your idead of how your team should build up their attack (rather slow), this mentality might not be the most suitable. Maybe step down to Positive or Balanced.

Thats all for now. If you sort some things up, we can move on.

 

 

Thank you! I will try  I haven't lost many games with the current tactic/instruction but its still early in the season.

[Lumbertubs]

9 hours ago, CARRERA said:

Counter asks your players to transition more quickly by immediately moving forward. Shorter Passing, Slower Tempo, Play out of Defence, Work Ball Into Box all favor a slower build up. You have to make a decision here. Transition quickly or build up slow.

Off topic (sorry OP) but I was under the impression that the counter instruction temporarily overrides the usual in possession instructions.

Back to the subject, I basically gave up on FM21 for the very reason that OP talks about. It seemed like no amount of tactical tweaking could overcome what appeared to be a ME issue whereby players would do precisely what OP has described. It's definitely not the case in 22 thankfully. You may want to try telling your full backs to dribble less as well as this should result in more passing/crossing although that would go counter to the WB role which (I think) has dribble more hardcoded in. You may want to consider going with FB(s) with the "get further forward" instruction on or FB(a). 

[CARRERA]

3 hours ago, Lumbertubs said:

Off topic (sorry OP) but I was under the impression that the counter instruction temporarily overrides the usual in possession instructions.

That happens if the Counter attack actually occurs. So due to faster attacking transitions, there will more counter attacks triggered, but by no means every attack is an counter attack and you are just left with fast transitioning players who miss out on a patient build up. 

[mikelfc8]

14 hours ago, CARRERA said:

 

• Counter asks your players to transition more quickly by immediately moving forward. Shorter Passing, Slower Tempo, Play out of Defence, Work Ball Into Box all favor a slower build up. You have to make a decision here. Transition quickly or build up slow.

 

4 hours ago, Lumbertubs said:

Off topic (sorry OP) but I was under the impression that the counter instruction temporarily overrides the usual in possession instructions.

...

Echo the apology.

I'm really interested in this too.

Sometimes we want to buld up slowly, move the opposition about, draw them out, and then hit them like lightening when they are caught venturing forward.

 

On topic - one thing to consider is that if you have been successful, teams will now be sitting deeper. There will be less space for your wingbacks to get in behind the defence. Opposition full backs will be set more defensively. They will be more focused on stopping those crosses.

In such circumstances I try to be less gung ho and more variable in my attack. Give the opposition all kinds of problems.

• drop the mentality and tempo a notch or two
• press a bit less to draw them out - let their non-creative players have the ball a bit to see what trouble they get into with it - set pressing traps
• more vertical movement between the lines - forwards dropping/late runs from midfield or an inverted wingback - traits like gets in opposition area/arrives late in opposition area
• roles that roam
• more movement horizontally - into channels - run wide with ball - roles that move wide (mezzala/carrilero) can be great for creating overloads to give their fullbacks a headache and give your wingbacks a passing option when the cross is just not on
• more creative freedom - let the flair breathe
• try a quick shift to a role that does the opposite thing - WB to IWB - IW to W - or just swap round the mentalities on the flanks/through the centre

In short. Make their heads spin.

 

Edited July 22, 2022 by mikelfc8