Well organized defence - when will we see it in game?

Loads of clear-cut chances, good goalkeeping, nice dribbles, beautiful long shots. Sounds familiar doesn't it? Happens in FM all the time. Just watched a real football game between my favorite Chelsea and Fulham. Chelsea won 2-1, could happen in FM too but what would never happen in FM is... The way Fulham closed down Chelsea's chances to score. There were hardly any real chances untill Drogba scored from an error and then came the second error. But untill that Fulham was just BRILLIANT!

Look at Fulham, Birmingham and other smaller clubs that defend really well and concede less than 1 goal per game for whole season. Their style of play is defensive and IRL that can be succesful. In FM these teams concede maybe 60 goals per season...

Question is; when will we see good defending in FM once again? Defending was good in FM 07 and at some points in 09 too...

Based to the stats a centre back may make over hundred mistakes on the pitch in one season! IRL even Bramble cannot make that many mistakes. IN FM 07 my best defender in Wolves, Ronald Zubar, played whole season with aVr of 7,72, scored three goals and made only 9 mistakes in 37 Premiership games! Three years later and defenders make at least ten times more mistakes in one season. WTF?!?

My opinion is that it´s quite possible to create a solid defence. At least in 10.1 I was able to create solid defence, not watertight, but solid. It just needs a lot, and I mean lot of tweaking and using of OI (but don´t mess up with them, they can be also countrproductive) and of course you need to watch many matches in full mode because every opponent is different. I know it´s nothing for casual gamers, but in this aspect the game is very rewarding if you spent hours of tweaking your tactics. I don´t know about 10.2 because there are some unstopable through balls through the central defence (I considet this as a bug).

Wasn't talking about my team. Played with Everton for 5 seasons and never conceded over 30 goals in a season. But that's not because my defence was solid. It was because I dominated every single game and opposition just didn't get the ball enough to get dangerous attacks.

It's just easy to dominate because defensive players can't give any pressure to attacking based midfielders who can just pass the ball around and wait untill the poor striker finds the gap in opposition's defence and goes through...

Look at the stats. I've never seen a solid defender or defensive midfielder in this game but I've seen wonderful strikers, wingers, attacking midfielders. Never seen a CB with avr of 7,7 in whole season but seen strikers with 8,0 avr...

This game just doesn't know the term solid defending. Or has anyone seen smaller sides conceding under 38 goals in one season without scoring over 60 goals...

In the last game I have played my team (Kansas City) conceded 26 goals in 30 games and Bobby Boswell (central defender) was my player of the season. If you look at real stats from MLS 2009 season, there was´t a team which conceded less than 29 goals. And my team didn´t dominate the league. Finished third in my group (after some horrible start, first six matches without a win) and got to the play offs where my team was immediately eliminated.

You shouldn't bee looking just what the table says. Look at what happens in the pitch. Look how many golas are scored. Look how many clear-cut chances there are. Look how many goal scoring chances there are. It doesn't look a bit like real football does.

You should also notice the facts that players don't finish nearly as well as they do IRL. And goalkeepers are generally much better making saves than they're IRL. Still generally there are more goals scored and conceded than IRL. This leads to one conclusion; defending is much worse than IRL.

Crossing - too accurate compared to real life

Passing - too accurate and too much space for passing

Pressing - defending players don't follow the players they should mark, so the pressure comes too late and this allows space all the time

Marking - sloppy

Mistakes - defending players, too many. Attacking players, too little. When do you see striker in scoring chance and when he tries to shoot and can't even hit the ball? -never When do you see defender misjudging flight of the ball or missing easy interception? -often When do you see attacking player passing ball too heavily or just behind the targeted player? -almost never When do you see attacking player making a run into wrong direction and the player who inteds to pass the ball to the player just passes it to opposite direction? -never

Maybe in next game? SI?

FM 2010 is too broken to be fixed in just one patch. Maybe you'll make a new match engine next year...

Anyone seen good defending in a single match? Feel free to send .pkm files... This is the biggest problem in ME and should be fixed as quickly as possible.

I'm seeing a well organised defence in my games.

Average loss of 11-20 goals per season over 36-40 games in the league.

I'd add that the increase in conceded goals is seen in lower leagues, my Liverpool side are close to getting through a season on single figures.

FWIW the game is not broken, stop being hysterical.

In 10.2 after quite a bit of tweaking i've finally managed to get some decent defending, and it's not because I am consistently keeping pressure in the oppositions half. Ok I may be using Juventus, and the partnership of Chielini and Hangelande is quite strong but they are stopping most things that come at them. Hangelande as a stopper coming forward to win balls in the air, Chielini as cover who just mops up anything that does come through. It is probably weakest at my fullbacks, but that is because I use two very attacking ones. I am sure if I went for a more conservative fullback I could make them just as solid.

As has been said before you've got to watch the games, key highlights will never give you an indication of when the opposition is making dramatic changes till it is too late. Using extended is taking me a lot longer to do a season but I am having much more consistent success. It has taken me half a season of minor tweaks to get it to work. Just give it some time and perserverance and you will get some solid defending!

Defending in the game is not broken?? While i am not saying that someone cannot build a good defense (elaborate in the next para) there are a number of very small flaws (using it for not having any better word) in the game.

As i had said in my other post regarding the same subject: I am saying this from my experience but i find my players, no matter who they are or what their settings are, fail to close down loose balls....i find my players, no matter who they are or what their settings are, run away from passes...i find that my player who is nearest to the ball, no matter who he is or what his settings are, move away from half clearances and allow my defenders to run forward from inside my own half to deal with such balls... i find my players, no matter who they are or what their settings are, fail to close down a player who is receiving a pass but wait until he takes control of the ball and then rush forward, thereby pulling themselves out of position and allowing the player to make a simple pass to another player who is free....i find my players, no matter who they are or what their settings are, amble towards a loose ball and allow a quicker opposition player to either rush him into a clearance or nick the ball which more often than not leads to a chance... This is the situation not just with my players...but with the opposition too and my team has taken advantage of such situations to score a number of goals.

After much frustration i decided to ditch the "Tactics Creator" and instead built a similar tactic but using the traditional way. While the attack very much plays in the same way...i am now finding that my defense plays slightly well. Though the mistakes still occur in the game, now i find players trying to cover each other. Also the number of mistakes have came down from an average of 3 per game to an avg of around 1 per game in the 8 games that i used the traditional method of creating a tactic.

Interesting that no one came in that thread trying to say that the game is alright...there are no real life stats here and we can easily catch a screenie about these mistakes...

I hate to be that guy, but I'm not getting any of this. My defense does pretty well I would say, and I only have 1 quality CB in Sakho. I win/lose most matches along the lines of 1-0 or 2-1. It would only be 2-0 or 3-0 if the AI, or my team, makes a big mistake, which is perfectly justified. And a lot of the AI's matches end the same way.

I hate to be that guy, but I'm not getting any of this. My defense does pretty well I would say, and I only have 1 quality CB in Sakho. I win/lose most matches along the lines of 1-0 or 2-1. It would only be 2-0 or 3-0 if the AI, or my team, makes a big mistake, which is perfectly justified. And a lot of the AI's matches end the same way.

This is my experience as well. I've been in the lower leagues of England for a few years and I have a consistently excellent defensive record. I have more problems with scoring regularly than conceding.

Did i say i am leaking goals?? All i am saying is that there are a highly unrealistic defensive mistakes in the game (i am not just speaking about the number of mistakes in the stats screen). Even i have managed to keep an extended run of clean sheets (highest was 8 i think)

Did i say i am leaking goals?? All i am saying is that there are a highly unrealistic defensive mistakes in the game (i am not just speaking about the number of mistakes in the stats screen). Even i have managed to keep an extended run of clean sheets (highest was 8 i think)

* finishing can be really bad

* goalkeeping can be really good

But if these things happen in that game, it leads to one conclusion; defending sucks because they let attacking players have too many opportunities to score.

I hate the fact that even Chelsea and Man United can't defend against my decent midfielders and strikers even though they have great defence and defensive midfielders.

And to number of mistakes in stats: IRL would Sir Alex or anyone buy a defenders who makes over 100 mistakes in one season? -Never!

In FM 07 best defenders made under 10 mistakes per season and now they make ten times more, why?

IRL I play as a full back and it's an insult to say that I make 5-10 mistakes in a game. Sometimes one mistake is enough for coach to drop a player out of the squad. If these FM defenders would play IRL non of them would ever get a contract anywhere.

And:

I hope that non of you will now come and tell how they've conceded 20 goals in one season... This thread isn't about it.

I don't know what you guys are on, but I'm having no defence problems and never had them, edit your formations a bit.

I don't know what you guys are on, but I'm having no defence problems and never had them, edit your formations a bit.

I hate the fact that even Chelsea and Man United can't defend against my decent midfielders and strikers even though they have great defence and defensive midfielders.

I've never conceded over 30 goals in Premierleague but keep getting chances with only decent players like Arteta, Wilshere on the midfield and Milevski as a striker. Would never happened if defenders really could do their job.

I don't know what you guys are on, but I'm having no defence problems and never had them, edit your formations a bit.

Strictly (and statistically) speaking even i am not having any defensive problems:thup:

Strictly (and statistically) speaking even i am not having any defensive problems:thup:

It's just pity to see a great game ruined by such unrealistic match engine. It really is a game killer. Even though I've played over 5 seasons in England, I've never enjoyed this game as I used to do with older games.

Please SI bring back the football match engine.