How to keep my Fullbacks in their zone?

[lyw_85]

Hoping isuckatfm can take a look at this, since he helped me loads with the FWR thread.

Ok, basically when the opponent attack on the left, I find my right fullback coming into the penalty box, leaving the opponent's left winger and left fullback totally unmarked and in lots of space.

The opponents just need a side thru ball and I'm gone.

Sometimes both fullbacks just compact themselves and go in the penalty box leaving the wings opened.

I have already tried zonal marking, man-marking, zonal marking with tight marking, man-marking with tight marking but to no avail.

I also tried closing down rarely and closing down Whole pitch. I saw a slight difference in closing down whole pitch as they will quickly run to the wingers to close them down, but its still some way off from what I want to achieve.

So any ideas to keep the fullbacks marking their zones instead of coming into the penalty box?

With my 2 DC and 2 MC there are a total of 6 players in the penalty box!

[RobinGoodey]

Have you tried increasing your width (which will keep the FB's wider)?

Alternatively - have you set OI's for the opposition wingers of closing down - always, or tight mark - always?

Final suggestion - have you man marked the wingers specifically in your FB's personal instructions? Either tight or loose.

This last one is most likely in my experience to work - I play as West Ham, and have double teamed Ronaldo with both my DL (specific loose marking on Ronaldo) and ML (specific tight marking on Ronaldo) in my two games against Man Utd this year, and he has had precisely one touch of the ball in extended highlights in 2 games - and been subbed for being rubbish both times (I got a 1-0 win and a 1-1 draw btw)

[lyw_85]

Yeah my width is currently 14 which is quite high.

I haven't use the OI on the wingers nor did I manually set them to man mark the wingers.

If I had to do this, it would be crazy!

I was thinking could it be my DCs? I have them set to man mark. So the fullbacks might come in to mark the attacking MCs..

Haven't test it out yet..

[isuckatfm]

It's coded behaviour and the only absolute way around it is specific man marking.

2 Principles in real life:-

1. Defending shape narrower to facilitate supporting team mates in case they get beaten by their man

2. Funnel towards the goal as the opposition get closer to the goal

Tight Man Marking might make them more likely to look for the winger, and go to him when in the box as opposed to Zonal where they are more likely to drift relative to the ball, stick to width setting and lose men in behind at the back post. It will also make him more likely to spread out towards the winger but this has the side effect of making him more likely to stick to and track a drifting striker so pulling him inside further up the pitch. The context will impact on which of these things happens and is out of your control in the sense that it depends on how the opposition is set up.

If you're getting hit with quick balls in behind the full backs look at the point this is happening. Width, mentality, defensive line, marking all affect where your FB might be when the opposition has possession. Having said that if the opposition wingers are set up to push your line (so they look like a 424 when in possession) it is out of your control as this means no matter how deep you play or other tweaks you make the opposition winger will be on your line. So if your FB is much slower you are in trouble if the opposition starts focusing passing down the flanks, playing more direct through balls in behind.

Haven't tested out how to get the back 4 in a line but I'm guessing it has to do with mentality as on 08. Pushed on wingers, playing down the flanks against a staggered back line will do some damage as players don't seem to be coded with the ability to turn their heads (maybe positioning attribute has an effect?). So you'll see a pushed on winger aligned with his strikers and played onside by your CBs standing a few yards behind a full back who only reacts to this fact after a pass is made.

Specific man marking will again help with this but it does make you vulnerable to through balls from deep (opens up the passing lane through the channel) and isolation of the CBs as the FB won't be able to get back to help. So relative abilities will have an impact on whether or not you will get away with it.