Defending problem

Sometimes players can't defending. For example:

Look at no. 6 (Jagielka). I saw that many times.

Happens a lot in real life too, especially when a team is man-marking. One of the CBs usually steps out in these situations, and it's usually the faster one. It's not the best defending I've ever seen, but it's far from the worst too. Who is the Everton no.15?

Happens a lot in real life too, especially when a team is man-marking. One of the CBs usually steps out in these situations, and it's usually the faster one. It's not the best defending I've ever seen, but it's far from the worst too. Who is the Everton no.15?

Sylvain Distin.

Sylvain Distin.

I'm not 100% certain but I think Jagielka is faster than Distin by a nice bit. He's probably the CB with the duties to go and attack the out of position striker with the ball in positions like this, with Distin covering the ball over the top.

My team is Man Utd. Many teams are doing this against my team. It's annoying.

No6 is playing against Rooney, No15 is playing against Berbatov. Berba is going to right. But Jagielka is coming to close him. Is Jagielka's closing down full, Distin's closing down very low? Why?

Sorry, my English is poor. My sentences are very simple, as you see.

Just chucking my opinion in

#1 the starting positions. The CBs should be holding a line and I agree with csrda with respect to how centre halfs defend against a 442 and coordinate/communicate based on where their nominal direct opponent is. The positioning and closing down decisions is one reason you should always ignore that stopper/cover theory which in my opinion doesn’t exist in real life football where a fundamental zonal back 4 shifts and operates in a mirrored way across a rough line down the centre of the pitch. It definitely doesn’t work in the match engine in an intelligent manner and will only do so consistently if you match your stopper up with whichever striker regularly drops off

#2 the right back is obviously set up to stay back so why is he

(a) standing 5 yards off the back line completely oblivious to #10 in behind

and

(b) locking on to the Man Utd winger #13 who is running from deep in the transition from screenshot 1 to screenshot 2

#3 how the left back moves makes no sense to me either. Probably similar to the RB in that he is moving towards the winger who is out of the second screenshot

#4 AI controlled teams using the wizard settings with MCs set to man mark, sometimes tight. The above screenshot is a perfect example of why it needs changing whereby the holding midfielder has been sucked out to tight mark his opposite number way too high up the pitch (conjecture with respect to the screenshot but would be interested to know the context e.g. are Everton chasing it in a 424?). If he is going to do that as part of a marking setting then the back 4 set to stay back with the same marking setting as the MC against a front two (or even a back 3 when one of the FBs pushes on) needs to react accordingly and have the nearest defender come off the line tight earlier while the remaining defenders shift around with the spare man

The whole behaviour of the back line in reaction to an attacker receiving in space between them and the midfield and dribbling towards goal (not directly in this case) is very far from some basic principles of defending especially given how far from goal it is happening.

The behaviour of the full backs is definitely an issue (unless of course it is considered an acceptable way of modelling a mistake?). Here’s another example. Again the full back ignores the wide striker and locks on to the winger coming forward from deep instead of staying narrow with the striker. From a game perspective it might well be down to marking (use of tight?) but ultimately I think the whole thing needs a rewrite as this type of defensive decision making has been going on for a few versions. It’s like marking is based on mirrored formations and direct opponents which when the circumstances emerge leads to the players behaving as if they have no awareness whatsoever (no field of vision, no ability to look over their shoulder, they just get told Player A lock to Player B).

Even with man marking that should not happen on the opposite side of the pitch to the point of attack. Using a man marking system should not eliminate the concept of covering and shifting relative to the ball. Man marking like this is primitive and should only be activated when specific is used with the intention of having an individual stick on an opposition player like glue and ignore (for the most part) covering responsibilities.

isuckatfm,

Excellent post, defending in the game needs a major overhaul.

This is a huge flaw in the match engine. I think those who have tested this game should consider their positions - it is almost as if they leave the beta testing up to us, the consumers. Imagine if we could enjoy a game from day one for once!

never really noticed a problem with this before in other games but i fully agree with isuckatfm's post, doesnt matter what tactics are used from either my own team or even the AI it happens far too often