Suicidal Defending

I've struggled to get into FM this year and now having done so, getting towards the end of the first season with Villa, I can't help but notice that all 4 of my defenders (all very good quality) continually make suicidal errors of judgement when marking, going for a header etc. I've just seen Curtis Davies leave his man (Owen) to charge down Geremi in the middle of the park, leaving Owen free to net once put through.

Its just one example of how I've seen defenders try to throw away my Champions League challenge. Is anybody else noticing this awful defending?

Previously I do face this as I set my DC instruction to closing down own half of whole pitch (don't quite remember). Therefore two of them keep closing the players who hold the ball instead of the players who the two DC should mark.

Did you set Dc's closing down like above?

Yeh, I have been trying split mentalities, freedom and closing down for a couple of games now. Conceded one, so better

From my experience if you set opposition instruction to close down Geremi "Always", it will cause everyone to close him down at every opportunity, including the DCs despite their individual instructions to close down own half. Did you in fact set such opposition instruction?

For DC, you should set closing down as own area or 1st notch of own half, marking is man, tight marking is yes and creative freedom should be 5 to 8 notches.

Just try it out.

There will always be some suicidal defending regardless of how you set them up. It's a 'feature' of the game and well documented elsewhere but I agree that closing down leads to a whole world of trouble and should be done with caution.

Closing down MC is pretty much asking for trouble, since it usually ends up with free striker.Tight marking and/or hard tackling are more efficient.

Wingers are different story though, you can close them down as long you prevent them from cutting inside.