Please Help Me With My Defence Set Up

[gunnerjames]

I really need some help with my defence at the moment. Whenever I play away from home or against good teams with decent wingers and forwards(nani, bale, lennon and ronaldo) my full backs get smoked and my centre backs just seem to give up on defending.

This mostly happens away from home against Man Utd, Tottenham, Chelsea and any top English or European Team. I am playing as Arsenal who are top team so I do not know what I am doing wrong

I normally play a 451/433 formation with an Anchor Man - Defend who just sits in front of the back four and protects but even the Anchor Man seems not interested when it comes to defending.

I also play with Inside Forwards - Attack and I have set their marking to man so that they track the full backs down the wings but again they seem not interested in defending.

The Inside Forwards have their mentality set to attack, run from deep often and run with ball often with cut inside as their wide play. I set the closing down to whole pitch and zonal marking.

My central midfielders are set to Deep Lying Playmaker - Support and Advance Playmaker - Support. I have them set to close down whole pitch, zonal marking and tight marking. DLP has run from deep rarely and the APS has run from deep sometimes (I am not sure if my midfield set up away from home contributes to my downfall)

My team instructions are as follows - I play a normal defensive line, quick tempo and wide play is set to normal

Fluid/Control
Passing - Shorter
Creative Freedom - More disciplined
Closing Down - Default
Marking - Zonal
Tackling - Default
Crossing - Drill
More Roaming
The set up for my back four is as follows

Full Backs - Support
Mentality Normal
Creative Freedom - Little
Passing Short
RWB - Sometimes
Run from Deep - Sometimes
Long Shots - Rarely
Through Ball - Sometimes
Cross Ball Sometimes
Closing Down - Own Half
Marking - Zonal
Tight Marking - No

Centre Backs
Mentality - Defensive
Creative Freedom - Little
Passing - Short
RFD - Rarely
RWB - Rarely
Long Shots - Rarely
Through Balls - Rarely
Cross Ball Rarely
Closing Down - Own Area
Marking - Zonal
Tight Marking - No

I would like some help on what to do away from home to make my defence more solid. At home or against weaker teams away from home I can set the Full Backs to attack and they dominate the wings and cause all kinds of problems for the other team but away from home I get completely outplayed. If anyone has a succesful defence set up they have used for their back four then please let me know.

 

[toronto till i die]

for starters if you are having trouble on defense you can always change you're match preparation too defensive positioning( although its debatable how much this actually works) also setting all you're defenders to zonal tight marking helps a lot.

 

[TheBetterHalf]

My best advice would be for you to try using the actualll roles set by the TC. As it is now, you are not playing fluid but instead rigid and when you are trying to hassle the opponent, you are doing so without the settings that the game suggests ( which i tight MAN marking) . Why not try the roles without tweaking the mentality+closing down +marking or runs from deep and instead use some shouts if really wanting to hassle them or just push up, exploit flanks.

I am using My 4231 for asrenal and have no such problems, using these default atC settings along with shouts, i.e the same way as the AI is playing

 

[gunnerjames]

My best advice would be for you to try using the actualll roles set by the TC. As it is now, you are not playing fluid but instead rigid and when you are trying to hassle the opponent, you are doing so without the settings that the game suggests ( which i tight MAN marking) . Why not try the roles without tweaking the mentality+closing down +marking or runs from deep and instead use some shouts if really wanting to hassle them or just push up, exploit flanks.

I am using My 4231 for asrenal and have no such problems, using these default atC settings along with shouts, i.e the same way as the AI is playing

Thanks mate what do you think about my team settings should I change anything. Also i found your tactics pack on the Sports Interactive Forums and you have a set up for Arsenal team should I try and use those settings also for Arsenal

 

[gunnerjames]

My best advice would be for you to try using the actualll roles set by the TC. As it is now, you are not playing fluid but instead rigid and when you are trying to hassle the opponent, you are doing so without the settings that the game suggests ( which i tight MAN marking) . Why not try the roles without tweaking the mentality+closing down +marking or runs from deep and instead use some shouts if really wanting to hassle them or just push up, exploit flanks.

I am using My 4231 for asrenal and have no such problems, using these default atC settings along with shouts, i.e the same way as the AI is playing

Betterhalf still getting killed by Man Utd and other top teams away from home. I have not touched the roles in the tactic at all and I am using the shouts you suggested in your tactical set. Should I change me match preparation to defence positioning because at the moment it is on teamwork high.