Closing down? Tight Marking?

I traditionally manage low division teams but seem to have not much success. I just want to see what you guys do about the following:

Closing down - I usually tell my players to close down everywhere, but we still leak a lot of goals. Does closing down everywhere bring players out of position too much? What do you do with closing down?

Tight marking - I usually tell them to mark tightly - It seems a good idea. On the other hand, though, if my players are constantly watching the opposition, maybe that means that we tend to sit back and therefore create less chances ourselves? Ideas?

Man marking vs Zonal marking? I use man marking, but does anyone use zonal marking?

any ideas would be appreciated. Last season I survived the drop from League 2 by the skin of my teeth, and the way this campaign has started, this season could be a long one.

I won't use tight mark if there's a considerable difference of pace between their striker and my center back, using closing down on all players can cause your team to lose shape and the opposition to exploit gaps on your defence.

Against a regular 442 i will normally tight mark one of their MC's (the more defensive one) and close down the other, i will generally due the same with AMC's(on closing down) and with DMC's i will usually tight mark them as well.

it all depends on your other settings. If you play a deep line you'd be stupid to play a high pressing game for obvious reasons where as playing a high line would suit the tactics better. you've not really given much other details about players, tactics, etc so i'll leave it there. But seriously, it isn't hard to create a decent workable tactic. If you know how the game works in real life you should be able to replicate it into the game.

an example of what i mean. Short passing = narrow width - why? players need to be close together to receive short passes

now use this logic for the rest of your team settings and it should be easy as 123

Really depends what sort of formation you use and what you come up against.

To give you an idea what I do I'll use an example of two teams using a basic 442.

I use the tactics creator and don't give any other individual orders except role & position for the most part. I then use the opposition instructions for closing down/tight marking.

Closing down: MCs for definite especially the creative ones, these are the playmakers, the ones making the passes so I want to put them under pressure so they have to react quicker than they want to. I've also started experimenting with showing wingers inside and closing them down but this is more for the hard working wide midfielder with a weak inside foot. You don't want to be doing this for quick wingers (eg Lennon) as they'll just dance past your fullback. Up front I'll look to close down slow strikers or those lacking vision/anticipation but not the quicker, sharper ones.

Tight Markings: The only area I use this is for opposition strikers and again its the slower players or those sort of target men that play with their back to goal. I don't use it against quicker, sharper forwards or for the creative type that drop off the front looking for one-twos.

In terms of other formations facing a lone striker I'll use both tight marking & closing down as I have a spare DC to provide cover. While facing an AMC is a problem for a 442 formation, especially if they also have 2*STs in which case I tend to tight mark the AMC with my holding midfielder.

Thanks for the replies.

Cougar 2010, why don't you close down / tightly mark the quicker, more creative strikers? They seem to be more likely to cause trouble, no?

Yeah, I am starting to pay more attention to the centre now, closing down their central midfielders.

so, what do you do about wingers and left / right midfielders? Leave them loose?

Thanks for the replies.

Cougar 2010, why don't you close down / tightly mark the quicker, more creative strikers? They seem to be more likely to cause trouble, no?

Yeah, I am starting to pay more attention to the centre now, closing down their central midfielders.

so, what do you do about wingers and left / right midfielders? Leave them loose?

Well if you are going man for man at the back (2*DCs vs 2*STs) if you tight mark a quick striker your DC is always chasing him and likely can't catch him meaning he gets shots off before the DC can block them. Same for closing down if the first reaction of your DC is to step towards a quick striker he has no chance of turning and catching him. If he standing goalside and his initial reaction is to wait to see what the ST does he stands a better chance of making a tackle/block as he is still between the ball & the goal.

As for wingers I look at things like pace, crossing ability, weak foot and try to identify if they are a Lennon type of winger or a Beckham type of winger. Also consider if the STs offer an aerial threat. If its a Lennon type of player with a weak inside foot I want to show him inside but if he is two footed I'll take my chances with the cross. You don't want to be using tight marking or closing down against a Lennon type for the same reasons as above but for a Beckham type I look to show him onto his weaker foot and close him down as he is more of a creative passer.

Very nice, Cougar. I'll try that with the strikers. I have always marked them tightly, and closed down a lot as well. Thinking back, maybe that is why my defenders seem to react slowly.

I'll take that advice, play a deep defensive line, close down the central midfield. The jury is still out on the wingers, though. I'll see what happens there.

Thanks again

What do you do with player like Luca Modric who has strong left foot, very strong right foot, 13 for pace and acceleration, 16 for flair, 17 for creativity and 16 for dribbling.

My assistant recommends that I show him onto weaker foot. - however it is still strong and not weak on his foot, I normally put players who are weak, reasonable on the weaker foot.

He also recommends that I close him down and tight mark, even though my defenders are faster than him he has a high creativitiy, dribbling and flair so he could still get by my defenders as they would be to tight to him.

He also recommends that I go in strong he has 12 for aggression and 14 bravery. I normally only go in strong on 10 bravery players.

Would you follow the assistants advice for him or not. I have generally uses the assistants advice all the time but am now trying to experiment following other FMer's advices as well as my own judgement

I don't use opposition instructions at all.

High closing down is better than low closing down in most of the cases, especially if you don't have a deep defensive line. Along with less defending mentality, high closing down settings allow your players to chase the man with the ball and they will try to take the ball from them. They will run out of position to do so. The problem is that when they do so, they may be caught off position leaving space behind them, and they may also fail to catch the ball from the opponent and thus having played themselves out. High closing down = risky behaviour, but a risk that often pays off.

I have max closing down on all players except the four defenders, which are at max Own Half. Mentality is max Normal for defenders/def.midfielders and minimum Attacking on the two strikers. Three clicks from Max attacking on the wingers.

Tight Marking on defenders always, I never change this (but then again I have fast defenders all over). If they are caught out of position too often and the opposition takes advantage of this tactic, I change to a more defensive tactic with much less closing down and a deeper line.

I feel opposition instructions interfer with the tactic, so I never use them unless there is a player who completely rules supreme out there. Then I set everything to always and tackle him hard. Even that doesn't always help.

I normally follow the assistant's advice on team talks, but it all comes down to who I play out there - the assistants normally have no clue about the pressure/complacency thing and don't follow their own advice in the feedback folder.

If you find yourself having to use OI every match to make things work, your tactic is suboptimal. Of course, that is how I play - if you play like wwfan and milnerpoint et.al does (default TC using shouts and role adjustment), the whole point of that way of playing is to make your tactic optimal during the match!

What do you do with player like Luca Modric who has strong left foot, very strong right foot, 13 for pace and acceleration, 16 for flair, 17 for creativity and 16 for dribbling.

My assistant recommends that I show him onto weaker foot. - however it is still strong and not weak on his foot, I normally put players who are weak, reasonable on the weaker foot.

He also recommends that I close him down and tight mark, even though my defenders are faster than him he has a high creativitiy, dribbling and flair so he could still get by my defenders as they would be to tight to him.

He also recommends that I go in strong he has 12 for aggression and 14 bravery. I normally only go in strong on 10 bravery players.

Would you follow the assistants advice for him or not. I have generally uses the assistants advice all the time but am now trying to experiment following other FMer's advices as well as my own judgement

Depends what position he is playing, for my team:

Wide/wing - Show him outside with no other orders.

Don't want him coming inside where he can shoot or play a through ball. I don't use tight marking on wide players as it drags my fullbacks out of position and I wouldn't use closing down initially as I don't want him going past my fullback. If he was standing off playing passes more during a match I might add closing down at some point.

AMC - Tight mark with my holding midfielder/DMC, maybe hard tackling.

AMC is a difficult position to mark if you don't use a DMC in your formation. I tend to tight mark with my holding midfielder so at least I have another player trying to get behind the ball. I don't want to close down as he can then dance past my DC or it opens space for a pass to the ST.

MC - Close down always, maybe hard tackling.

A better position this one, close him down with my midfielders to limit his time/space on the ball and if he gets past them I know he is still a fair distance from goal.

I feel opposition instructions interfer with the tactic, so I never use them unless there is a player who completely rules supreme out there.

This is important, the tight marking & closing down do interfere with your overall tactic so you need to make sure they work together rather than against each other.

If you find yourself having to use OI every match to make things work, your tactic is suboptimal. Of course, that is how I play - if you play like wwfan and milnerpoint et.al does (default TC using shouts and role adjustment), the whole point of that way of playing is to make your tactic optimal during the match!

Rubbish, OI is a part of your overall tactic, if you aren't using them your tactic is suboptimal!

Rubbish, OI is a part of your overall tactic, if you aren't using them your tactic is suboptimal!

Exactly, your first set up is your basis, you then tweak depending on who you are playing and use OI s to counter the threat.

This is important, the tight marking & closing down do interfere with your overall tactic so you need to make sure they work together rather than against each other.

Rubbish, OI is a part of your overall tactic, if you aren't using them your tactic is suboptimal!

Rubbish, OI is completely unncessary if your tactic is correctly set up according to your players' abilities. It is just another input that adds to the complexity of the outcome, and unless you watch Full Match every game just interfers with everything else. If you have set your full back to close down exactly in the middle of Own Half, and he faces a player he struggles to control, neither setting him to NEVER close down or ALWAYS close down are optimal adjustments. Go into his settings and set him to close down a little bit more or a little bit less to see if that helps.

If there ever was a crude tool in FM, it must be Opposition Instructions.

Rubbish, OI is completely unncessary if your tactic is correctly set up according to your players' abilities. It is just another input that adds to the complexity of the outcome, and unless you watch Full Match every game just interfers with everything else. If you have set your full back to close down exactly in the middle of Own Half, and he faces a player he struggles to control, neither setting him to NEVER close down or ALWAYS close down are optimal adjustments. Go into his settings and set him to close down a little bit more or a little bit less to see if that helps.

If there ever was a crude tool in FM, it must be Opposition Instructions.

Completely disagree. In the real world of football a manager will set up how he wants his team to play generally. He will then review each indviduals instructions (OI) to suit the oppostiion. For example the central midfielder may be playing against a lot weaker player one weak and another he could be playing against the worlds best player like Messi. The OI will help the team counter the affect of the player. This is important part of the tactical set up as no game is ever the same.

The same is replicated in FM with the OI function. One week your Premiership team could be playing against a conference team in which there is probably no real threat in the middle. The next week they could be up against Barcelona in the Champs League final and you would want to limit Barcas threat by counter acting there best players. Your would use your gerneral tactical set up for both games but then counter act the oppositon using OI's.

However I suppose it goes in how you believe football should be played and if you believe in using the let them worry about us mentality, which you seem to do

Just because you dont use OIs it doesnt mean it shouldnt be incorporated or a 'crude tool' as everyoe manages differently