Help with poor defending....

[Broyston]

I was wondering if someone could me some advice on setting my defenders up. I am playing with a flat back four, with fullbacks set to Defend away and Support at home, and 2 CB's always on Defend. I have the setting so that tackling is hard and marking is man. At home my defensive midfielder often plays in a flat 4, but away drops into the anchor position, a ball winning midfielder on Defend. On oppostion instructions the key danger men are usually hevily marked, closed down always and hard tackling.

But I concede goals like a sieve. My fullbacks in particular never put their foot in, the winger gets the ball, the FB backs away, the winger, progress, the FB backs away etc until the winger is on the byline and gets a cross in because the FB is still stood 10 feet away from him. Then the forward who is supposed to be marked closely by my CB is free in the box for a tap in. I am Liverpool and the players are the likes of Carragher, Agger, Aurelio etc who have good tackling, marking, anticpation, positioning etc. I haven't kept a clean sheet in 8 games, and conceded a goal from a corner in nearly every game. Luckily I am scoring at the other end but its like watching Newcastle under Keegan. Am I missing something obvious?

 

[omfgbbqpls]

Check your player instructions and see if they press on their opponents. Also make sure your defenders are man marking.

 

[Broyston]

I have the defenders set to close down in their own half up to the point on the slider just before it changes to close down whole pitch. Would choosing press more on the team settings be any different, just worried about the defenders being pulled out of position.....

 

[Yawnzxc]

Usually how would you concede a goal? Did you get hit on a counter, set piece, etc. And also, what's your team philosophy?

 

[Broyston]

My philosophy is usually attacking at home, and control away. The goals are conceded usually as described above, from wide with the wingers advancing and the full backs keep backing away allowing the wingers to cross or pass into the box. The other common one is a long ball forward and the striker getting behind my defenders who are all stood far away from him despite being told to closely mark.

 

[jingo800]

I have found that marking Zonal/Tight can work wonders, but as long as you match it up with higher pressing and not too aggressive tackling

 

[TheEquinox]

Try to set your CBs to defensive, zero creative freedom and no roaming from position at all, that worked for me. If you have the WBs to defend duty, set them that way too.

 

[Broyston]

I've tried setting the team generally to low roaming, but it hasn't made much difference. The defenders all have low creative freedom already. I downloaded some of the more popular tactics here, saved my game and played a few games to see if there was any difference, and with some of the tactics my defenders seem to be behaving themselves. Just need to look at the sliders and settings and see if I can figure something out. Some of the tactics seem to work best on control or standard philosophy and still score goals, so maybe I was just too attcking previously.

 

[haap]

Increase their closing down slider, get some DM to support them.