Want to get an Extremely Solid Defense?

I've tried it out and it does work for me:)! thanks alot. Now I will try this with a little change in a 3 man defense and see how it works.
 
so what's the verdict on this: works, may work, only works because of the talent level of your CBs?
 
Ok, ill give this a go, currently Burnley in 4th season. Had a leaky defence so far. Im trying this with Jagielka and Steven Taylor at the back with rotation with an upcoming Regen. So far one match played. Beat stoke 3-1 at home. They scored with their first shot but after that we seemed pretty steady at the back..
 
i'm happy to try this using Steven Taylor and Fabio Coliccini.

In first season on 10.3.0 patch. 5 games played and won, conceding 2 so far.

Ill try this tactic from game 6 - 16 as a trial.

Not sure how much of a difference it will work at this level with a team like Newcastle but we'll see.

Cheers for the advice and i hope it works :)
 
eh?

really quite confused about this, my sheffield united team have won the champions league, the premiership and the fa cup last season, decided to give this a pop as i occasionally leak goals, just lost 3-0 to stoke and 3-1 to everton, with an excellent defense stat-wise
 
really quite confused about this, my sheffield united team have won the champions league, the premiership and the fa cup last season, decided to give this a pop as i occasionally leak goals, just lost 3-0 to stoke and 3-1 to everton, with an excellent defense stat-wise

if its not broke, dont fix it.

This is mainly just a theory i made waaaaaaay back, its meant to be a guide, i didnt guarantee 0 goals conceeded. Maybe if you gave me more details i can help you out, a good defense usually doesnt leak goals no matter the tactic.
 
Alright mate, this thread is great as I'm usually a complete sceptic of the whole zonal marking thing - mostly because I've never been able to get it to work for me - so cheers for posting it. I normally stick to two tall and strong centre backs man marking but in my latest save I've been ******* away goals in high scoring games resulting in draws. ie. 4-4 against Rangers. I'm going to give this a wee try tonight but I normally go for two wing backs (unless up against a much stronger team or a team who are able to exploit this) so I was wondering if this tactic works best with two full backs or two wing backs?
 
so I was wondering if this tactic works best with two full backs or two wing backs?

Fullbacks, they have less attacking duties and they stay in line with your central defenders. Wingbacks are harder to manage since they have to be either world class players or just players with very high stamina. You can try using this tactic with wingbacks but i cant guarantee you they will be as proficient in attack as you want them to be.
 
if its not broke, dont fix it.

This is mainly just a theory i made waaaaaaay back, its meant to be a guide, i didnt guarantee 0 goals conceeded. Maybe if you gave me more details i can help you out, a good defense usually doesnt leak goals no matter the tactic.

Yeah it's a problem i've been having for a while, thought this would help but hasn't made much difference really! my defence is: Diego Renan, Cristian Zapata, Nemanja Vidic and Vedran Corluka. i would have though this would be a solid defence, especially with this idea, but something just doesn't work, my attack rake in 3 or 4 or a game so i'm relying on them at the moment
 
sound good will give it a try :)
 
Alright mate, this thread is great as I'm usually a complete sceptic of the whole zonal marking thing - mostly because I've never been able to get it to work for me - so cheers for posting it. I normally stick to two tall and strong centre backs man marking but in my latest save I've been ******* away goals in high scoring games resulting in draws. ie. 4-4 against Rangers. I'm going to give this a wee try tonight but I normally go for two wing backs (unless up against a much stronger team or a team who are able to exploit this) so I was wondering if this tactic works best with two full backs or two wing backs?

Thanks for the advice. I actually went for using the full backs anyway. It was a bit shakey at the start but since then I've had some great defensive results. 0-0 against Rangers, 2-1 against Sevilla and 2-0 over Olympiakos. I think you might just be responsible for me winning the league this season. I was painfully close last season so I reckon this might just clinch it for me. Btw, Leon Barnett and Darnel Situ are a great pairing for this tactic in my game incase anyone is looking for defenders to try. 8-|
 
Yeah it's a problem i've been having for a while, thought this would help but hasn't made much difference really! my defence is: Diego Renan, Cristian Zapata, Nemanja Vidic and Vedran Corluka. i would have though this would be a solid defence, especially with this idea, but something just doesn't work, my attack rake in 3 or 4 or a game so i'm relying on them at the moment

You can rotate corluka, he isnt the best of the bunch. Vidic should be man marking all day long, Zapata is younger hence he can zonal mark, however i think you should have a younger centerback who is capable of doing more running because Zapata is also a brilliant man marker. I personally have not used Renan, he is more well known for attacking purposes. I suggest you get a left back as well, maybe someone along the lines of criscito.

Do you have enough posession? if you score more goals whilst conceding more, it means either side is imbalanced, try putting a player who is on support/attacking duty to help out your backline. i always have a defensive mid/box to box midfielder to help out my centerbacks.
 
Well i tried it helps my overall def, i still concede a lot because my Fullbacks suck, but i mostly outscore anybody so its ok. Im playing prestona and i got otamendi to play the marking man role. it worked great against birminham in a cup game. I set your tactic along offside trap and set Otamendi to tighmark benitez. Result Benitez rate was 3.5 and otamendi´s more than 8! Then i tried again (specific marking on the creative fc) but it hasnt worked so well, i think the problem is that if opposition adjust and swaps strikers then you have too much space.
 
it has picked up alot since i first posted, i began playing rafinha over corluka, i think i put it down to unrest in the team, i recently changed my captain due to daniele de rossi getting a red card every other apperance he made, and he was a big defensive influence, so with my new layout, playing with alonso as a deep lying playmaker i've only conceded once in the last 4 games :) i will look into Criscito, but diego renan performs fairly well for me
 
Ok, so i have been tweaking around FM10 and i realised that my theory works even on fm 10, i had played fm08 and fm09 using this defensive theory and conceeded less than 15 goals a season.

Basically my 2 centrebacks have this strange combination that works perfectly. But the centrebacks have to have good attributes of heading, first touch, aggression, tackling and etc. They only need to have the key attributes, Pace, acceleration, passing and etc. are not important.

So the formula is one defender man marks, while the other marks zonal. Both must have tight marking on. How it works? Defender A sticks onto forwards whilst Defender B marks players who come into that area of the field. And during this marking, through balls are snuffed out by the zonal marker, and oncoming player runs are stopped and intercepted by the Man marker.

Simple yet effective. Both defenders are normal centreback with defend duty, not ball playing,sweeper or etc.

Try it and please let me know if it doesnt work, i want to perfect my centreback pairing.

Closing down,mentality and creative freedom are the same levels, which is 4 or 5.
What do you mean by the bit in bold?

You said they are key but they aren't important? EDIT: Or are you saying the attributes before that are the key important attributes?

Thanks ;)
 
I'm guessing he means they only need the key attributes like tackling, marking etc. and the other ones mentioned like pace aren't important.
 
Defenders dont really need pace, unless you're up against players who literally do nothing but try to run past you. *cough*walcott*cough*

Thus, pace would be excellent, but you're pushing too hard to find a strong and tall centerback, with great marking/positioning AND pace.

If the marking is good enough, pace is obsolete(of course it depends on the league your playing in.for example: a defender with anything below 10 pace in EPL will be raped, several times, by almost every player)
 
Top