Getting CBs and CMs/CDMs to stop double-teaming

[MrMVP91]

Almost every time the opposition's winger has the ball, my CB that's closest to that side of the field will try and double-team that winger to help my FB out, leaving the space he was supposed to cover in/around the box completely unoccupied.

This also happens with CMs/CDMs trying to help my FBs too much, leaving the middle of the field at a disadvantage.

How do I stop them from doing this? I've already tried both Zonal and Man marking, I've tried asking them to close down only their own areas, and I've tried both tight marking (in the hope that they'd stick to their own man rather than chase around) and looser marking.

Nothing seems to work, double-teaming keeps occurring way too often, and my team keeps opening up unnecessary holes.

Basically, what I'm trying to accomplish is for my players to stay in their assigned positions when defending. I want my CBs on the edge of the box (or higher, depending on how high of a line I'm playing) and my CMs/CDMs in the middle of the park and dropping back just in-front of the CBs when needed. I don't want any of them drifting out to the flanks to help out my full-backs.

 

[Scotty98TR]

Decrease their Creative Freedom, and setting your team philsophy to rigid will help.

 

[MrMVP91]

I thought 'creative freedom' only impacted their on-the-ball behavior?

Also, I found that the only way to get my wingers to track back and help my FBs is by playing 'very fluid' so going to 'rigid' is not an option.

Is that really the only way to stop this?

 

[inspLL]

I've the same problem, reducing closing down to own area helped a little, but it's still far from perfect. Because of that, I started playing with 3 man defence (3-4-1-2 with dm) versus teams playing heavily down the flanks, so when one CB goes out wide, I've still two CBs left and for the guy that came wide cover my DM. That's not perfect solution but, given that I've plenty of good centre backs it kind of suits me.

 

[Scotty98TR]

I thought 'creative freedom' only impacted their on-the-ball behavior?

Also, I found that the only way to get my wingers to track back and help my FBs is by playing 'very fluid' so going to 'rigid' is not an option.

Is that really the only way to stop this?

Creative Freedom is how much they ignore there instructions, so if you set how much you want him to close down, then give him plenty of creative freedom he will just ignore what you said.

Also decrease your wingers mentality to normal, that's what I did with my underdog tactic and I regularly had 9/10 men behind the ball!