Cover CB not closing down lone striker

Just got done playing a game in 3rd Division Germany, and I played a 4-4-2 against a 4-5-1 (2 wingers, 1 dm). I set the opposing striker to always close down, always tightly mark, and I have a cover-stopper system with my CBs. I was down 1-nil in the 2nd half, playing fine, I hit the woodwork 6 times some how but couldn't score. Anyway, their striker gets the ball about 30 yards out, and starts running at goal. My right side CB is the covering one, and even though I have it set to always close down that player, he didn't run towards the ST at all. He stood absolutely still and turned and watched the ST score. I don't think this is a bug, but I was wondering if anyone else had this problem.

Does your cover CB not close down even in obvious closing down situations?

Yes, it happens sometimes, when an opposite player runs down the right side past my DCR and my DCL refuses to close him down because he's outside of the DCL's positional zone.

Its very frustrating. I feel your pain. It happens so much to me.

maybe you should adjust ''closing down'' closer to own half rather than the own area.

I don't know if this helps but a COVER cb must be set to NEVER close down and have a defensive mentality. It is the STOPPER that's supposed to be aggressive and go for the guy having the ball.

Covering is generally poor in the game. Often, you can see that one CB charges the opponent, gets skinned or out-played, and then the other CB just runs back in a straight line instead of trying to intercept.

Unless you have a defender that's too small to win aerial challenges, but otherwise's a good CB (high anticipation, marking, tackling, pace etc), setting up a Cover/Stopper relationship is unnecessary in my opinion.

The problem was that the striker was on the right side of the defense when he ran towards goal. I was running directly between the Cover CB and the RB. The CB just refused to move towards the striker until the striker was past him. This makes me think that it's possible a bug because even if his duty is set to Cover, he's still the only defender in position to make a play on the striker. He totally stood still though.

I haven't tinkered with his specific instructions past giving him a Cover duty.

The whole point of a covering defender is to provide back-up so the other defender can be more aggressive with his positioning and challenges. I tend to think the first reply is correct here, in that players don't seem to move out of their allocated 'zone'. So you get those instances when the computer breaks and a defender just sort of runs back towards goal in a straight line without ever actually moving across towards the attacker.