Tracking back?

[nicholls]

How do you get your advance wingers or AMC players to track back?

When I'm playing 4-2-3-1 and the opposition has the ball my wingers and AMC just sit there and watch the defence struggle.

I'm sure in older versions of the game you could tell a player where to go when not in possesion of the ball.

I've tried ticking the tight marking, no joy, increasing pressing to max, and nothing.

Want my wingers to track back like Kuyt and Reira do in real life for Liverpool but can't figure out how to do this in the game for the life of me.

All defenders and DM on 8 and MC and all attackers on 12.

The most annoying thing is the amount of space this gives the opposition. They just sit in the gap between the full backs and my wingers and laugh! Thing is when I try to exploit this space when the AI is using a 4-2-3-1, or 4-1-2-2-1 there is no space at all as the AI's wingers seem to track back!

Really annoying me!

 

[Zebedee]

Tracking back seems to depend a great deal on work rate and other 'team' related attributes. Benitez specifically recruits a certain type of player which I guess can be summed up by the 'work rate' attribute. If that truly is low for the level you are playing at, then you will have the gaps. The other thing to check, of course, is whether your fullbacks are playing slightly too deep - if they aren't pushing forward sufficiently, then there's no way that you can expect the winger to get back in time, just be careful not to push up too much - I tend to give my FBs more of a wingback role in 'standard' formations to cover this.

You using a 'Benitez' type mentality system? Try setting forward runs to mixed, removing any free roles on the wing for players with low work rates for more 'defensive' variants of your tactic and maybe even consider dropping the wingers back to a more 'standard' wide position (so 4-2-2-1-1 would be the formation) for defensive forms of your tactic.

If you check out the Benitez tactics set I've posted (it's 4-4-2 but the player instructions should be fairly similar, it's just the positioning which is changing) and grab the winger and FB instructions from there, you'll see how I've got them set up and I've not yet really had issues with the wingers not tracking back even with free roles.

In older versions of the game you could tell the player where to go when your team had possession and where to go when it didn't via arrows. However, the downside was that it didn't matter what was happening on the pitch - your player would run mindlessly to that preset position... Players ingame are more reactive to what's actually going on.

 

[Gatid]

when i play a opponent with quality wingers that could rip my wing backs to bits i tend to give my fullbacks and wingers a disciplined role just like what SAF does irl with park getting him to track back at all time giving his fullback a much needed support.

to do that just go on your fullbacks and wingers player instructions and tick 'Marking' and 'Tight Marking' to get your players to mark their opponents up close when the opponents players come into your specific players area giving them space to put crosses in and etc..

making a 2 v 2 duel in both flanks your full-backs/wingers vs theirs for example on my arsenal game - clichy/sagna marks ronaldo/park and guardado/walcott marks neville(whoever their right back is)/evra

 

[Zebedee]

when i play a opponent with quality wingers that could rip my wing backs to bits i tend to give my fullbacks and wingers a disciplined role just like what SAF does irl with park getting him to track back at all time giving his fullback a much needed support.

to do that just go on your fullbacks and wingers player instructions and tick 'Marking' and 'Tight Marking' to get your players to mark their opponents up close when the opponents players come into your specific players area giving them space to put crosses in and etc..

making a 2 v 2 duel in both flanks your full-backs/wingers vs theirs for example on my arsenal game - clichy/sagna marks ronaldo/park and guardado/walcott marks neville(whoever their right back is)/evra

You'll notice many managers will play a flamboyant winger and a grafter on the other side to balance him out. There's a good thread on the SI forums (tactics section) on formations where a few of us discuss the nature of 'asymetrical' formations (eg few teams truly play with a 'flat' back four or a 'flat' midfield or even a 'flat' forward pairing in a 4-4-2).

I've been fiddling about with this a bit, and for very defensive tactics, keeping the lines of 4 works well with a 4-4-2, but to get that extra width in other 'variants' of a tactic, it's worth giving one of your wingers a bit extra attacking mentality and doing the same for the fullback behind him (which essentially pushes them up the pitch a bit more - beware of doing it too much though as otherwise you'll find the winger consistently getting caught offside against high defensive lines). Should you get hit on the break then you'll see one of your central pair going wide to cut off the opposition winger and the MCd dropping deep to fill in so you've still got a back 4. Having a centreback who can use his left foot on the left hand side of the pairing is kind of important if you do this though - without a left foot you may be in trouble if the winger goes wide of the centreback for balls targeted to that side of the pitch.

Agree with you totally about changing marking instructions to nullify wingers - the downside is it will also kill your attacking threat down the wings. If you've got a decent forward who can hold the ball up and pacy wingers or central midfielders who can surge past him then you can play classic counter-attacking football but if not, you may find that you're just hoofing the ball forward and seeing it come straight back. It depends a lot too on the type of winger you're facing - a very skillful one, I'd consider tight marking but generally it's sufficient to close down and put him on his weaker foot unless he's Messi or Ronaldo. If he's that good, then you'd probably be best man-marking him with tight instructions anyways and then having to figure out whether you need to also man-mark him with your winger as well as your fullback...

 

[nicholls]

You'll notice many managers will play a flamboyant winger and a grafter on the other side to balance him out. There's a good thread on the SI forums (tactics section) on formations where a few of us discuss the nature of 'asymetrical' formations (eg few teams truly play with a 'flat' back four or a 'flat' midfield or even a 'flat' forward pairing in a 4-4-2).

I've been fiddling about with this a bit, and for very defensive tactics, keeping the lines of 4 works well with a 4-4-2, but to get that extra width in other 'variants' of a tactic, it's worth giving one of your wingers a bit extra attacking mentality and doing the same for the fullback behind him (which essentially pushes them up the pitch a bit more - beware of doing it too much though as otherwise you'll find the winger consistently getting caught offside against high defensive lines). Should you get hit on the break then you'll see one of your central pair going wide to cut off the opposition winger and the MCd dropping deep to fill in so you've still got a back 4. Having a centreback who can use his left foot on the left hand side of the pairing is kind of important if you do this though - without a left foot you may be in trouble if the winger goes wide of the centreback for balls targeted to that side of the pitch.

Agree with you totally about changing marking instructions to nullify wingers - the downside is it will also kill your attacking threat down the wings. If you've got a decent forward who can hold the ball up and pacy wingers or central midfielders who can surge past him then you can play classic counter-attacking football but if not, you may find that you're just hoofing the ball forward and seeing it come straight back. It depends a lot too on the type of winger you're facing - a very skillful one, I'd consider tight marking but generally it's sufficient to close down and put him on his weaker foot unless he's Messi or Ronaldo. If he's that good, then you'd probably be best man-marking him with tight instructions anyways and then having to figure out whether you need to also man-mark him with your winger as well as your fullback...

I went back to the TT&F last night and rebuilt my 4-2-3-1 tactics. Changed the closing down instructions of each player again and gave both full backs and wingers tight and man mark instructions.

Think I need to let the tactis settle in again so not going to rush to judge. Do think I need to find a balance between wingers tight man marking and being free when we have the ball.

I have Hulk and Torres, though Torres is injured. Only play one striker in formation and have him set as target man with hold up ball instructions. Other player with hold up ball is Alonso or Veloso depending on which one is playing in the deep lying playmaker role.