Keep Conceding

[Dickybran]

I'm having problems with conceding too many goals. I usually score first, sometimes I've been 2 or 3 nil up, only to end up conceding late on and drawing, or even losing in the last minute. Any hints?

 

[sunderland2]

i have exactly the same problem, im terrible at fm but love it

 

[torresdabest]

If you keep conceding in the last few minutes you could try bringing on a fresh defender with about 20mins to go to replace a tired defender who is more likely to make mistakes.

Also you could try going more defensive with your mentality or take off a striker and bring on a defensive midfielder or something like that.

 

[Brummy123]

If you keep conceding in the last few minutes you could try bringing on a fresh defender with about 20mins to go to replace a tired defender who is more likely to make mistakes.

Also you could try going more defensive with your mentality or take off a striker and bring on a defensive midfielder or something like that.

what he said

 

[ribeiro]

This could happen if your team has low determination and concentration.

 

[Raikan007]

what are your defenders stats in concentration and composure? if these are low, they are most likely to make stupid mistakes and lose the ball when under pressure at the back as well...

as mentioned above, bring on fresh legs, bring on an Anchor man to sit in front of them or replace tired Cb's.

who are your defenders and what roles have you given them?

 

[rephlex]

Search for 'Defending a lead', a few threads on that. I tend to have a ready-made tactic to switch to if I know it's going to be a close thing, drop you advanced players back, replace your tricky wingers. Reduce forward runs so your full backs don't run out of position and drop a deep defensive line. Also, try to stuff defence/midfield with tall players, I tend to sub off my short wingbacks for a more beefy centre back who can play on the wings as it saves you a lot of balls over the top if they can head them straight out.

Beyond that, get a squad with good concentration, stamina and natural fitness; and don't overdo the closing down settings for midfield or use 'hassle opponents' all match, it's a sure way to get yourself battered at the end.

Lastly, don't feel ashamed at using defensive tactics, I like to play as Barca and I found it a little odd I couldn't just boss the entire game in the opponent's half, but ultimately Barca have some poor strength players who can get kicked about a bit if you arn't careful. Mix up strength with trickery, don't overdo the flair players who are great at home against **** opposition but no good against the top sides when they don't have the ball at their feet. Those guys are the first who get to sit on the bench when I sub on a DM or two, especially in cup games.

Playing with the tempo and timewasting helps, just don't force a tired team to play a high tempo game, let them knock it around and let the opponents do the chasing, tire themselves out, then hit them late instead of them doing it to you

 

[alicwkd]

I'm having problems with conceding too many goals. I usually score first, sometimes I've been 2 or 3 nil up, only to end up conceding late on and drawing, or even losing in the last minute. Any hints?

-switch strategy to counter of defensive
-employ time wasting
-substitute tired players
-deploy a DM to sit in front of the defence
-if you have a fast striker, you could employ him as a target man set to run onto ball

all of this in last 10 mins btw

 

[Dickybran]

I've pretty much tried those options. I'm always a bit worried about changing my CB's so late in the game, as I don't think it's a good idea throwing them straight into the deep end at such a crucial part of the game. Maybe I should bring them on a bit earlier to let them get use to the pace.

Also, is it best to play narrow and have my players close them down in these situations? I'm always worried with players closing down they will leave players unmarked behind them in space.

 

[loveangel]

In terms of your tactic/roles, try using one of your centre defenders with a cover duty and the other with a stopper duty, which I find pretty effective. As somebody mentioned already, a defensive midfielder is also good at reducing chances if you don't have one already.

Try this thread for a quick guide on touchline shouts. Check out the big green quote box of suggested shouts closer to the bottom of the page, some of them should suit you if need to make adjustments late in the game. Bear in mind that they have no effect if you have manually set a lot of the advanced sliders in your tactic
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/f72/touchline-instructions-when-and-why-t30687.html

Reflex makes a very good point about tiring your team out. If your team has low stamina and gets too tired it might be necessary to reduce your tempo. It's hard sometimes to keep your whole team above 80% condition but if some of them are going close to 60% and you already used your subs, you'll want to make some changes for sure. If a guy has less than 60% in my opinion he's not much more useful than if he got sent off

Btw people are suggesting subbing your centrebacks, but how tired are they really getting? They honestly should not be getting tired before your midfielders, in fact I rarely if ever sub centrebacks. It's possible however that your midfielders are the ones getting tired and not being very useful, putting too much pressure on your defensive line. Fullbacks can also tire faster than CB

ahh sorry forgot to reply to your question about closing down. Yes, you are right, it would be better to stand off more if you are under heavy pressure and conceding goals. Same with play narrower. there is more on this stuff in the thread I linked

 

[Dickybran]

Yeah that's what I was saying about my CBs. They have good concentration etc. and never get below 80% so I never feel I need to sub them. I always try to change my FBs, and swap a AM for a DM but this doesn't work enough, it's getting too annoyingly often now!

So if I reduce the closing down setting should I have them tight-marking instead?

I'll check out the other thread now, thanks!

 

[Dickybran]

I'm still conceding. I'm 4th in PL so not doing too bad, but that's due to having a good forward line. I have been labelled as being a "score 1 more than you" manager. In 13 games I have scored 27 and conceded 23. I just lost 5-2 away to Everton who were 19th. It's getting really frustrating now. I've followed all your advice, most of which I knew already, but have been making sure I'm replacing them when they are tired. All my defenders have decent concentration/composure/anticipation levels (13-14), or maybe that's not good enough, maybe I need to blow my budget on even better defenders. Any ideas?

 

[ChippyLowe]

I have the exact same thing, I always concede at least 2, even against lower league opposition, i'm Aston Villa and i've still got pretty much an original defensive line up
RB - Luke Young
CB - James Collins
CB - Richard Dunne
LB - Stephen Warnock

It's so frustrating, whenever I look they never seem too tired either

 

[bricktamland1]

What I find really helps it the following : (I do this at the 75min mark if I have the lead)

Leave mentality alone
Set width to 3
Set defensive line to 3
Set time wasting to the highest level

I think in 11 matches in this season I have conceded once late with these settings.

 

[mrjack41]

My starting mentality is attacking, if i go 2 goals up i switch to control, what this basically does is attempts to control the play but not over commit which leads to counter attacks if you do this it will stop you losing 2 and 3 goal leads

 

[Dickybran]

I've just restarted a game because things weren't going well and so far my defence is looking pretty good (only conceded 1 in 4). I've tried having one CB cover and mark tight, while the other is a stopper who closes down. I have my Fullbacks set to mark tight and close down. The other thing I use to do was to adjust all the closing down opposition settings for almost every player, I now only adjust hard tackling (on midfielders), if I notice a certain player is running things I might change the opposition settings to deal with him a bit better. Like I say, this seems to be working so far, but I'm sure it won't last. Maybe someone can tell me if I'm doing the right thing.

 

[hisnameisbear]

I'm playing as Zaragoza, end of second season and having trouble with conceding tons of goals. I'm also scoring more than anyone (even Real Madrid) but conceding minimum one goal per game, more like two or three. I'm playing 4-2-4 with Lung jr in goal who is pretty good (Though still young ha) though my centre backs aren't top notch (Toprak & Hubschman or Contini).
Can anyone give me a definite list of things to look out for? I've searched for threads on defence but couldn't get much out of them.

PS Should I use nike defence (even though keeper is poor at rushing out/sweeping up)?