Can't hold on to a lead.need help!!!!!

im managing Droylsden in the BLP, won the BSN two years ago and just survived on the second last match day last year.but my team big problem is that any time i go ahead in the match not matter how late in the game, the other team just always score!!!!!.

i could go 1-0 up in the 84th min and put a another defender on and play with a DM just to shut up shop but they always manage to break me down and score.my last match i was 4-2 up in the 90min and they score twice to get a draw!!!!!!! now i can understand my players ain't the best but they are of the same quality of the best team in the league so why are even the crapper teams scoring on me (don't get me wrong i know any team can score against u on a good day but not every game surely), plus my two DC are one of the best in the league and of league 1 standard.i have tried a few tactic's from this forum but its still the same.The last time i won by two goals was over a year ago!

can any one help me???

total joke, happens too often. are you suprised though?

no im not suprised i could accept it if it happened every now and again but not every game

hi mate, does the other team always go 4-2-4? also what are the condition of your players at the end of the game?

the way ive dealt with it is to stop all forward runs of my players, have the back 4 on no forward runs, my two centre mids on no forward runs and I decrease the mentality of all my players by 3/4 notches. this seems to work for me. get your defenders on long ball for passing settings aswell.

hope that helps any

HI Forzautd, em no not every team goes 4-2-4, most of them stay with the same formation from the start, there condition at the end does be at around 65-75% but i always take off the players who are worst during the game.in my next game i will try what u said above, but at what time in the match should i do that? because if i go 1-0 early i will try to go for the second. thanks for your help m8

ye i always go for the second. make the change when you see fit. dont do it too soon or you'll be inviting too much pressure on your back 4. when you notice the oppo attacking in numbers then make the change. Ive never managed at a league as low as the one you're in so id be interested to know how you get on with what I do with my QPR team.

when you make your subs, do you take off the knackered players regardless of how they are performing? when ive taken off players who were perfoming well this has often had negative effects for my team.

I often used to have difficulty holding leads, but after I started doing this ive been ok. sometimes you have to accept it though eh.

let me know how you get on mate. good luck!

rite i have just played a match there and done what u said to hold on to the lead, and ur a genius m8 ha i scored an early goal in the 20th min and controlled the first half but in the second half they where all over me but my defence held on,around 78-80 min i decided to shut up shop like u said, they still had chance's but no clear cut chances,we even manage to counter attack them and score in the 90th min . won 2-0 first clean sheet in ages

thanks for u help m8

ha. im glad that i could help mate. i just did the opposite to arsenal/ they were winning 2-0 and i knicked 2 back on 89th and 94th min!

let me know if it works consistently for you.

and some people say tactics arent important eh!

ha wat come's around goes around ha ha yeah i will let u know how i get on m8

graham i have a very simple bit of advice for you mate that works pretty much most of the time for me if leading 1-0 with about 15/10 minutes left i pull the defensive line to the deepest possible change the passing style to the most direct and most importantly change your time wasting tactics to the highest they will go because as old Brian clough used to say if you've got the ball the other team cant score. so keep hold of the ball but if you get challenged get rid of the ball as far away as possible.

graham i have a very simple bit of advice for you mate that works pretty much most of the time for me if leading 1-0 with about 15/10 minutes left i pull the defensive line to the deepest possible change the passing style to the most direct and most importantly change your time wasting tactics to the highest they will go because as old Brian clough used to say if you've got the ball the other team cant score. so keep hold of the ball but if you get challenged get rid of the ball as far away as possible.

wont dropping the defensive line with 15 min to go be too much pressure? plus putting the time wasting up that early can come back to bite you ive found.

thanks man i will give that ago too.

just played forest green went 1-0 up then 1-1 then 2-1 up then yes 2-2. there was still loads of time left so i didn't go defence to protect the 2-1 lead

how much time was left graham because sometimes i even do all that if i have about 20-25 mins left

hey cockyhammer, do you really get positive results regularly going so defensive with 25min to go. i just cant see how that could work. especially as graham is in a very low league. i doubt his defenders could cope with that sort of sustained pressure. do you drop your d-line to the lowest scale?

Keep an eye on their subs too. If they make a sub, pause the game, go straight to your tactics screen, and look at opposition instructions to see if you need to do anything. I usually close down CMs and turn them onto their weaker foot, but if one of them gets subbed, the game forgets the instruction and the new player usually scores against me. Unless I notice them of course.

I find the default 4-5-1 with a couple of minor tweaks works fine for defending in the last ten minutes. I'm playing at a higher level, though so it may be different.

Hammer there was 23 mins left which i seemed too much time to sit back and defend concidering i scored 2 already and could nick a 3rd goal then sit back with about 10mins left

just finished a match there and i done what hammer said just to see if it worked or not. 72 mins in i was 2-1 up and i done what you said. 8 mins later they scored after a heavy spell of pressure.i was playing fleetwood who are 21st in the league :|

just finished a match there and i done what hammer said just to see if it worked or not. 72 mins in i was 2-1 up and i done what you said. 8 mins later they scored after a heavy spell of pressure.i was playing fleetwood who are 21st in the league :|

i did try and tell you mate lol.

i know m8 ha it was worth a try,i have learnt my lesson now lol

i know m8 ha it was worth a try,i have learnt my lesson now lol

the best thing you can do is adapt a defensive tactic with your players in mind. if you adapt the advice i gave you to the ability of your players you should see results. I never change my d-line except if the oppo has got a couple of strikers who are lightning quick. then ill knock it back a notch or two. what i would never do is put all the sliders to the extreme! recipe for disaster IMO.

oh, another bit of advice when your in the last 10 min and defending a narrow lead, increase the closing down of your more attacking players and put them on hard tackling. this will disrupt an attack before it begins hopefully (thats my theory anyway )

the best thing you can do is adapt a defensive tactic with your players in mind. if you adapt the advice i gave you to the ability of your players you should see results. I never change my d-line except if the oppo has got a couple of strikers who are lightning quick. then ill knock it back a notch or two. what i would never do is put all the sliders to the extreme! recipe for disaster IMO.

oh, another bit of advice when your in the last 10 min and defending a narrow lead, increase the closing down of your more attacking players and put them on hard tackling. this will disrupt an attack before it begins hopefully (thats my theory anyway )

alright m8 i think this is the best way for my team to defend a lead anyway thanks for the advice m8

just played in the cup there, i was 2-0 up and for the last 5-10 mins i change my mentailty down a bit to defensive and closing down slider up a bit and long ball just to keep a clean sheet and it work grand

im managing Droylsden in the BLP, won the BSN two years ago and just survived on the second last match day last year.but my team big problem is that any time i go ahead in the match not matter how late in the game, the other team just always score!!!!!.

i could go 1-0 up in the 84th min and put a another defender on and play with a DM just to shut up shop but they always manage to break me down and score.my last match i was 4-2 up in the 90min and they score twice to get a draw!!!!!!! now i can understand my players ain't the best but they are of the same quality of the best team in the league so why are even the crapper teams scoring on me (don't get me wrong i know any team can score against u on a good day but not every game surely), plus my two DC are one of the best in the league and of league 1 standard.i have tried a few tactic's from this forum but its still the same.The last time i won by two goals was over a year ago!

can any one help me???

wahey! Droylsden! are you from around there? I used to live there.

Anyway, onto the topic.

My usual method for this would be to fill time wasting and to continue your DM method.

Depending on the team, going narrow sometimes helps me to reduce gaps between my two defenders, but I reckon some users will strongly disagree with that

fantastic mate! promotion this season then?

If you will listen to me then i shall tell you what i do. I play 4-5-1 or even 4-6-0 when holding onto a lead, fullbacks no runs forward, all defenders ultra defensive, 2 wingers all out attack and 2 central defensive midfielders, any striker put onto hold onto pull and defensive. Works great believe me.

If you will listen to me then i shall tell you what i do. I play 4-5-1 or even 4-6-0 when holding onto a lead, fullbacks no runs forward, all defenders ultra defensive, 2 wingers all out attack and 2 central defensive midfielders, any striker put onto hold onto pull and defensive. Works great believe me.

that works too, but sometimes I find that punting the ball leaves no players to get onto it and run it to the flag

fantastic mate! promotion this season then?

if i could keep this kind of form going anything is possible im only 6 pionts of top but its still early days

ALEX- no m8 im not from droylsden i live in ireland but droylsden are one of my fav lower league teams now ha

ah right, was that just a random choice then for managing?

I miss that stadium, was half decent for a BSN side.

yeah it was random but in one of the newspapers over here its shows a bit about the blue square and i saw they were mid table in real life so i just pick them to see could i do better lol

hey cockyhammer, do you really get positive results regularly going so defensive with 25min to go. i just cant see how that could work. especially as graham is in a very low league. i doubt his defenders could cope with that sort of sustained pressure. do you drop your d-line to the lowest scale?

yer i do mate i do quite well with kings lynn who are in bsn were curently 5th in December of first season in bsn so id call that success thanks.

beacuse what normally happens is that the oppoenents will attack but the ball will get to my defence who then hoof it away so the other team needs to start another attack so eight times outta ten i do well with this tactic.

An inspired choice, but you replaced the legend that is Dave Pace!

Pity that an FM alumni can't be manager and chairman too, he is awesome

What I tend to do if i'm leading going into the 2nd half level the mentality till 60mins then every 5 mins drop my players mentality 2/3 notches then on 80mins set my defenders to defensive with no forward runs, my CM's one notch higher with one of them no forward runs and the other mixed, RM and LM 1 notch higher than CM's with forward runs mixed, and Strikers 1 notch better than that. I drop my defensive line 2 lower than normal, width 1 below normal, time wasting often and long balls.

Although it doesn't always work out my keeper has kept 19 clean sheets in 29 games this season.

What I tend to do if i'm leading going into the 2nd half level the mentality till 60mins then every 5 mins drop my players mentality 2/3 notches then on 80mins set my defenders to defensive with no forward runs, my CM's one notch higher with one of them no forward runs and the other mixed, RM and LM 1 notch higher than CM's with forward runs mixed, and Strikers 1 notch better than that. I drop my defensive line 2 lower than normal, width 1 below normal, time wasting often and long balls.

Although it doesn't always work out my keeper has kept 19 clean sheets in 29 games this season.

i just done something similiar what you said above m8, i was playing barnet who are 2nd an on great form at the moment,first half they where all over us so i drop my mentaily slider down tro defensive just to keep them out. then after 78 mins off pressure we counter attack and scored as soon as that went in i drop more defensive waste time slider down to normal and no forward runs for my wingers and my two cm's who can play DM i drop them deeper.this worked great with barnet not getting a snif ha