Death from 1000 crosses

[Wilkesy93]

Hi,

 

I'm managing Berwick in the Scottish League 2. I'm trying to play with a defensive 4-4-2 diamond which hits teams on the counter, but I'm conceding a huge number of goals, a lot coming from crosses. I know the 4-4-2 diamond is weak on the wings but I'm dealing with 30+ crosses a game and eventually one of them finds an attacker and they score. Any advice? I've put the tactic and some screenshots from the match analysis below 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[crusadertsar]

I'm currently running a tactical experiment where I try different formations to find one that's most conductive to Defence-First Football. Not "defensive" football per say but football that prioritizes defensive side of things and not just running full agro attack mentality, geggenpress meta to overwhelm AI and exploit the match engine. After a few attempts I finally settled on assymetric Narrow Diamond 4-3-1-2 which I find to be very solid. We barely concede goals. Mostly clean sheets and occasional 1-2 goals against tougher opposition. And my goalkeeper recently won World Keeper of the Year award, beating both ter Stegen and Ederson in clean sheets and fewest goals conceeded stats. 

You can read more about my tactic in link below (it starts on page 2 but I also go into "Defensive" DNA, which you might find helpful, in my 1st post). Hopefully you will find some things that could help in there. Although, mind you, I am playing with a higher quality team in an elite league.

My roles and duties are actually very similar to yours but as you will see, everything else, especially team instructions, are very different. You actually don't need to play on Defensive mentality and with lowest line of defence to defend well. If anything it will make you too passive and will allow AI to set up a veritable "killing zone" in front of your goal so then they DO beat you through 1000 crosses and shots. Also, you are giving away the ball to opposition too easily by having both "counter" and "pass into space" selected. What you want to do is use trap instructions smartly, take advantage of your midfield superiority and set up a very tough, compact defence in your own half. Mid-block on steroids if you will. 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by crusadertsar

[Maddux]

What can and often will help a lot is giving your players individual marking instructions.

It looks like your fullbacks are always playing 1v2 and of course it's very hard for them to stop crosses then. What you should try is to instruct your fullbacks to mark your opponents wingers and tell your 2 central midfielders to mark your opponents fullbacks. This will stretch your midfield in defense but you can fix that by placing your DM one position further forward between your 2 CM with a defensive role like CM-De or DLP-De for example.

Another reason for the 30 crosses per game are your team instructions. With these TIs every single one of your matches looks like the Champions League finals between Chelsea and Bayern Munich. And no, you're not playing like Bayern. You're Chelsea, parking the bus in the 6-yard-box and wonder why the unmarked and undefended attackers can have 40 shots per 90 minutes.

[Exi]

Like Maddux said above. You are using almost every fall back / dig in TI possible. Low block and drop off will just allow the opponent to do whatever they want on your half and your players are just watching and being fancy obstacles and you are inviting your opponent to attack you and take shots, crosses, whatever. This play style does not really work in FM (and irl).

You need to apply at least some pressure to your opponent and change your TIs to be a little more aggressive.

[Wilkesy93]

Thanks all, will give some of these ideas a go and report back!

[CJ_Randell]

You're not using the 'stop crosses' instruction. 

Maybe start with this and see if there's any difference.