Dynamo_ZahnZee
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THE BACK LINE
A guide to Defending
A guide to Defending
Hello Fm-Base. I hope you're all keeping well. With the release of FM16 BETA, I thought I'd do a guide
outlining and detailing one of the most difficult and most heavily criticized areas of football: Defending.
What qualified me to lecture you on defense?
In real life, I was a goalkeeper. I sat behind my back 4 and marshaled the line. I considered myself a part of
the defensive unit but in a unique position of not being in the defensive phase of play. By the time the ball got
to me, the defensive phase was either over, or being lost. When a goalkeeper catches the ball, play resets. It's
like tapping the clock in chess: your turn is over.
When I gave up playing, I went into coaching. I specialized as a goalkeeping coach. Stick to what you know.
I Worked with Limerick F.C. under 13's for about a year and had another recent stint with them recently. I told
the young kinds exactly what my coaches told me: "You're more likely to concede by your own teams
defensive mistakes, than their teams attacking moves."
Learning how to effectively coach defensively and training a squad to employ a defensive system is the best
gift any manager can do for their goalkeeper. This is why I made a point of studying defensive systems
while I was getting my first few Badges.
The Flat Back 4
View attachment 218876
This is the simplest Defensive system in football... but don't be fooled into thinking it's simple.
The basics of everything about defending is hinged on understanding how this system works.
It's based around group defending which is achieved
through the following: Pressure, Cover, Balance
[*=left]The Defender nearest the ball is called the pressure.
[*=left]The Defenders nearest the pressure are called the cover.
[*=left]The Defenders nearest the cover are the balance.
Pressure:
The job of the pressure is to engage the attacker and not allow them clean use of possession.
They need to be able to get close to the ball, hassle the player and not allow them to get a shot away.
Cover:
The job of the cover is to act as a fall back to the pressure. They are ready to move into a pressure
role if the attacker moves towards them; and they are ready to move into a balance role if the
ball moves away form them.
Balance:
Everyone in a defensive position (not directly engaging or supporting the pressure) are called the balance.
Their job is keeping your team's shape while the Pressure and the Cover deal with the ball. This is why a
back 4 lives and dies on how willing their wingers are to track back since they are needed to offer
balance to their flank.
Okay, now let's look at this in practice.
View attachment 218875
If player 'A' has the ball, Defender '2' is the pressure. Players '3' and '1' are the cover
and player '4' is the balence. '2's' responsibility is to engage the attacker while '3' & '1'
are ready to engage player 'A' if they try to move in either direction. player '4' is the
balance and will tuck in ready to take on a cover role if '3' becomes the pressure.
View attachment 218874As the pressure engages the player, '2' & '3' should tighten up ready to provide cover.
They are looking to cut out the opportunists to 'A' and force an engagement should they
take on the pressure role.
NB. Note how once '4' takes on a cover role, your right wing is exposed. Unless you have
a wide player willing to track back into this channel,or instructed to man mark an over lapping
player, you're inviting players to attack you wide.
Let's introduce another Attacker taking a wide attacking line to show how this.
View attachment 218873As 'A' dribbles toward his supporting player, '2' is caught out of position and '1' moves to engage.
'1' is now the pressure but since '2' is not in a position to offer protection, '3' moves across the
line and remains a cover.There is no cover to the right of the pressure meaning a pass into the
path of 'B' leaves him free to move the ball without any pressure.
Now let's I'll show you two ways to use this system for defending a wide attack.
1
View attachment 218872Player '5' is a winger instructed to man-mark player 'B'. Now as '1' moves into a pressure
role to engage Player 'A', '5' is involved in the defensive phase and takes on the roll of cover.
This simple small change denies Player 'B' the chance at an unchallenged attack since once the
ball is passed to him, '1' or '5' can take on the pressure role while the other take a cover role.
Since The player is being pressured, player '1' has more time to get back into position to take
on a cover role (for player 'A') and players '3' & '4' returns to being a balance. The introduction
of one extra defender has bought your CB time to retunr to the defensive line and allowed
player '4' to still cover his wide channel rather than being forced into moving into a CB
role to cover for '3'.
2
View attachment 218871This system introduces a DCM. Adding another central defensive player allows for more security.
As 'Player A' recieves the ball, player '5' takes on the pressure role and engages 'player A',
this allows player '2' to assume a cover role while '1', '3' and '4' take on balance roles.
When Player 'A' passes the ball to player 'B', Player '1' or '2' take on the pressure role
allowing '5' & '2' to take on cover roles. Once again, Player 'B' dose not have a clean
unchallenged run with the ball so Player '5' get the chance to get into a defensive position
and your back line is not out of shape since you've two balance players in '3' & '5' guarding
the central channel and the wide channel respectively.
As you can see, the goal in both methods is to allow your defenders to engage the players while
still maintaining a defensive line and being prepared for additional attacks or a switch of direction.
The more creative the opposition, the more likely they are the try different avenues of attack and
if your players are not in position to deal with the change of attack, you'll be caught without a
cover or balance in the subsequent attacks.
There are some basic limitations to the Flat back 4 that are simply unavoidable. At any one time,
you can only have 1 player with a balance role so one side of your defense is constantly
exposed without the introduction of a winger tracking back or a CDM sitting in form of the line.
This means you either have to take a man out of attack or midfield for a CDM or need a wide
man with good stamina and positional awareness to know when to track back.
When Caught on the break, your wide man is almost always going to be caught out of position
so a flat back four is very weak when played against a counter attacking team.
The transition phase is when your attack is at it's most vulnerable since that is when your defenders must
decide which roles they have during the defensive phase. If you don't have enough defenders in enough
defensive position, they will be able to employ the basics of defending: Pressure, Cover and Balance.
Like I said, this is the simplest defensive system in football... but don't think it's simple.
Football is a ****** complicated game and there are no masters. All the greatest managers
to ever grace the game all have defeats under their belt so don't think you're doing too much
wrong if you can't get a solid defense. It's the one area of football that is almost impossible to
perfect.
I've introduced you to the basics, these are the foundation of every single defensive structure known
to man so once you identify how your system used the Pressure, Cover, Balance system, you can look
closer and see where you're leaving space and who're nearby who can be drafted in to add more balance
to your defensive system.
Good luck guys
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