How to improve the defense?

Currently I am playing as follows:

Balanced, direct, comitted, pressing

----------GK---------

WB--CD--LD--WB

--------BWM--------

-----BBM--BBM----

---------APM--------

-------TM--AF------

Tactic is working quite well, first in the lowest in English league with Wrexham. I have quite strong (3-4 stars) Attackers, AM, MC. My DMC is also playing a 7 or 8 usually. Defense also gets 7s and sometimes 8 only Left back is a bit weak -> 1 star and sometime playing 6. Tackling is quite high in most matches. I have 2 keepers 2 abi, 3 pot who is quite reliable and a 2 abi/4 pot who feels unreliable.

My problem is that I often have this type of game:

1-0 for me, then 1-1, 1-2 against. And I have to go all out attacking to recover and win 3-2.

Some solutions I can think of?

1. Full backs in stead of wing backs?

2. Not play direct passing, but short even at lower leagues?

3. Not Box-to-Box but central Mids, DLM or even BWM?

4. Not pressing or men behind ball?

5. Stronger DMC (current one 1 abi/3 pot) and Left back. Need to wait 1 month before January....

Who can give me some advice on how to build a proper defense?

That's really similar to one of my variations of the 4-1-2-2-1.

Make both of your cb limited defenders. Then make sure they have +15 in heading, strength and tackling.

Oh, and make it attacking, short, comitted, pressing instead. See how that works. You can experiment with the offside trap too.

Ur box 2 box guys will be your outlet passes from the defenders since they should always be sitting around the top of the penalty box.

Make sure your DM has +15 in tackling and aggression.

Make sure your B2B has +15 in stamina & +10 in just about everything else.

With this tactic I won the lowest English league last night with Wrexham.

My Attack was on fire, where both my central midfielders score 10 and 15, AMC scored 15, poacher scored 30 and target man scored 20. Unfotunately defense was a disaster. I conceded 55 goals :-(.

I did changed CDs to Limited defenders which helped a bit. But still I would start balanced, score 1, concede 2 and then go on to win 3-2 or 4-3. Crazy. But winning the league I am not complaining. I also changed one of my BBM to CM

I need to try the DLM and see if it helps. and maybe tune down the Midfield even further. On top I plan to buy a kick ass DMC with my new budget of 75K in the new league.

With this tactic I won the lowest English league last night with Wrexham.

My Attack was on fire, where both my central midfielders score 10 and 15, AMC scored 15, poacher scored 30 and target man scored 20. Unfotunately defense was a disaster. I conceded 55 goals :-(.

I did changed CDs to Limited defenders which helped a bit. But still I would start balanced, score 1, concede 2 and then go on to win 3-2 or 4-3. Crazy. But winning the league I am not complaining. I also changed one of my BBM to CM

I need to try the DLM and see if it helps. and maybe tune down the Midfield even further. On top I plan to buy a kick ass DMC with my new budget of 75K in the new league.

I just started a game with Wrexham last night. I'm only in October but my record is 10-6-0 with 34 goals for and only 2 against. I'm pretty much owning every team. I'm using tactic #2 on this list.

Oh great. Here is how I won it:

Mayebi in goal (sometimes maxwell but seemeed unreliable being young)

RB Ogenbo talent, but needs to improve

LB Percival or ashton, both pretty poor

CD Black.... and creighton. Both pretty strong duo.

DMC byles or ojebo, both talented, but not super.

CM - Richie Baker (scored 15) and BBM Keates scored 10 and gave 15 assists

AMC Dobie (unfortunately he retired in the new season)

Strikers: Poacher Younghusband scored 30 and james Walker as TM scored 20.

Subs. I had an MC named Harris which was good and strikers williams (young) and Nicky Forster who also scored alot.

I didnt play wingers as there were none and didnt play much of the old guys (taylor, sinclair, etc)

So for season 2 I need to find me a new AMC and strong DMC. Preferable a good LB and maybe a strong DC to improve defense overall.

I bought baker, walker, younghusband and Dobie IIRC who all did very well. Next season I will focus on defensive improvements.

What is your strategy?

Just had another Idea, maybe I should change to 4-4-2 diamond which is almost the same, but should keep pitch wider and less room to advance on the wings. What would the best role be for outer midfielders?

----------GK---------

WB--LD--LD--WB

--------DLM--------

-RM-------------LM-

---------APM--------

-------TM--AF------

I never had good luck with wide midfielders in this game. If I were you, I would keep the narrow formation. But if you insist, You should try defensive wingers to contain the opposition.

Using tactic #2 from here: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/264358-3-Tactics-that-will-PWN-the-Champions-League.

GK - Maxwell

LB - Knight-Percival

RB - Obeng (faaast)

CB - Creighton (strong yay!)

CB - McMillan (weak but works well with Creighton)

DM - Christian Smith (strong, aggressive, decent tackler = perfect at this level of competition)

CM - Jay Harris (needs to improve stamina)

CM - Dean Keates (will be replaced after this season)

LAM - Thorgan Hazard (bought from RC Lens for 500k)

RAM - James Dayton (bought from Kilmarnock for 625k)

ST - Marc Williams (works well as a DLF since he's naturally a target man and hes relatively creative)

I was pretty stoked to land Thorgan Hazard. He's going to be on the team till I reach top level, and maybe he will be good enough to stick around by then.

I didnt like christian smith very much, but I guess he did ok in a few games.

Keates for me had 3 start by the end of the season and like I said 15 assisits and dozen goals.

I sent mcmillan back, because I dont like loan players. It's like investing time in a guy that will bring nothing for the longer term.

I actually also started without black.... (forget exactly) in CD but he complained so I tried him. He grew to be very reliable 2-3 stars always scoring 7 or 8.

How did you spend 500K and 625K? I had 9K as budget....

oh, i have sugar daddy. I've already taken a team to the top level with out it, so this time I'm being lazy. It definitely takes a while to find a good player that will actually come play for you still.

As far as loan players, I'm right there with you. This time though, I figured I'd have one less player to buy and the players you can buy at this level usually aren't good enough to be around in a couple of seasons.

How did you get sugar daddy with Wrexham from the start? I though you need to win several prizes before he comes along?

Is it a cheat?

Btw in Season 2 I bought some free players, DMC navarro instead of smith and MC THompson to replace Keates. both 5 stars and doing great.

I am playing a 1 star high pot. in defense and 16 year old youngers in AMC bale, made for the role. Then I have another youngster Austin who is a natural target man. Strong good heading. great stuff.

Leading the table but after 15 games suddenly I have drop in form, losing games and conceding lots of goals without any particular reason. Maxwell who was unpassable in the early season is unreliable again.

Here is a good guide for PSP but can be transferrable - http://fmhvibe.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/3217-how-to-defend/.

If you've got kids playing then its far more likely will find things more 'fickle' (depending on their mental make up) ... this is simply because some players, notably the young ones are more affected by morale and the momentum of a team, that is if the team is doing well then they'll play to the best of their ability however if they start to doubt themselves OR get cocky because you're on a winning streak then you might find their performances less consistent.

You can mitigate against this somewhat by including some older heads in your side and sporadically rotating out young players if you're on a winning run to warn them that they aren't guarenteed a spot in the side.

I never considered this before. In my game as Sunderland, I was given a 51 million transfer budget to retain a respectable position (Christmas came early for me!). I went out on bought a lot of young talent with fantastic stats. I bought several defenders, midfielders and attackers and due to their young age and fanstastic stats, it's unlikely I will need to spend more money on new players for quite some time. However, I've not been getting the results I was expecting. In fact, my team was performing so much better in my previous season when I took over in January and led them away from relegation to a midtable finish and the FA Cup. I wonder whether this is down to me demoting some of my older, more experienced players. I still play some of the more established players but I guess the mentality of some of the youngsters who make up half the side may be affected by things such as morale and momentum.

How did you get sugar daddy with Wrexham from the start? I though you need to win several prizes before he comes along?

Is it a cheat?

I unlocked it when I took Mansfield to premier league a while back.

If you've got kids playing then its far more likely will find things more 'fickle' (depending on their mental make up) ... this is simply because some players, notably the young ones are more affected by morale and the momentum of a team, that is if the team is doing well then they'll play to the best of their ability however if they start to doubt themselves OR get cocky because you're on a winning streak then you might find their performances less consistent.

You can mitigate against this somewhat by including some older heads in your side and sporadically rotating out young players if you're on a winning run to warn them that they aren't guarenteed a spot in the side.

I usually rotate young players with younger players

Keeps everyone happy and fresh.

Thanks for the tips.

After a while I rotate back in my experienced stand-ins who are also eager to perform well. One guy had been benched for 2 months and scored a 10 on his reentry and 2 goals....

That would be great!

If he could comment on youngster getting out of form, suggesting them to take some rest.

Other players to get complacant feeling no competition for their team position, etc.

Morale is one factor, but insights on other nuances would be great.

Also what I really struggle to figure out is who is causing a goal. Sometimes the text mentions GK is not looking great, usually he then als get a low rating. I can look at the tackle % and header % to get a feel. But I have conceded 2-3 goals in match with the whole defense playing rating 7. Maybe the rating should be weighed more heavily on key tackles/headers lost. Like if a player wins 25 out of 28 headers, but those 3 he misses cause goals, maybe rating could be lower to indicate he is the problem.