Goals conceded from Set-Peices

So, I have just lost 3-0, 1 headed goal from a corner and 2 headed goals from Indirect Free kicks. I concede the majority of goals from Set-Pieces. On the other, I score very little from them. How do improve this? Match Prep? OK, I know your answers already, Match Prep, defenders height/heading/jumping stats. I feel these are irrelevant. In my most recent save, which is a career save where I started unemployed, I am with FC United in the South African 2nd division, my defenders aren't great and neither is my Defensive midfielder. Looking at the stats of the players scoring the headers and putting in the world class crosses with a 9 attribute rating it's very unlikely this should be happening so often. I do concede a lot from crosses in general. It seems every team has world class crossing and heading ability, yet, when I check their stats this doesn't concur. This isn't just from this save, I notice it a lot.

A lot of goals come from mistakes too. How many teams makes such errors every game? It's a joke. I know you hardcore FM lovers will give your 'it's football' responses, but, I find the goals from set-pieces and from stupid errors to be too high.

OK, I know your answers already, Match Prep, defenders height/heading/jumping stats. I feel these are irrelevant.

That is your problem then, these are anything but irrelevant.

There is also a lot more to consider, what are their mental's like? How good are they at staying in position, keeping concentration, anticipating situations? If they are lower than the opp attacking the ball there is every chance they will miss out. Have you adjusted your marking based on the strengths and weaknesses of your players or have you just left it as a standard set up?

Don't patronize me Milner. I understand all of those, this is what I hate about this forum sometimes, because it's something I've notice in EVERY save, even with good teams I must not realise all the contributing factors. My defenders are standard for the league that they are in, so yes, I would expect to concede goals from Set Pieces. They are not that poor in comparison to the Strikers they are up against that they just can't jump or head the ball! I can't even be bothered to run through the stats but the strikers I'm up against are very poor, my defenders are 5 stars for this league and have decent heading, anticipation, jumping and strength stats, it's not just in this save either.

I've had saves with all types of teams and noticed it on those too. What I will ask is not to patronize, I understand the game and ALL the contributing factors, this is still something of notice to me.

It wasnt ment as a patronising manor at all, your saying two of the most important things in that situation are irrelevant, if you want actual help perhaps word things better, if this is just a rant then ill leave you too it. You notice it in every save, i dont ever struggle with that problem. To me that says its something your not doing that i am, but i wouldnt want to patronise you by trying to help.

Ok, not a rant, just can't understand it. I understand all the contributing factors and the match prep, all of which do seem irrelevant seeing as I have tall defenders with the correct attributes and have left my match prep on defending set-pieces yet it doesn't tone down the amount of goals I concede from set pieces. I can not for the life of me understand why a winger with crossing, composure and passing ratings all under ten are swinging in perfect crosses for players with poor heading, jumping stats etc to score goals regularly. I understand it more when I'm managing a better team against better players, but, this is just silly.

Am I the only person who experiences this problem? I don't know. Might just be me. I find the whole defending on the game utter rubbish anyway to be honest.

Without me being patronising, a player with crossing, composure, passing and every single attribute at 1 can still float in a perfect cross for a player with all 1's to win and score from the cross, the low attributes do not stop a player from doing these things. Just like your player with 1 for long shots is capable of scoring a 30 yard hit.

Have you paid close attention to who is doing what when marking set pieces? What is your keeper like? How do you set up your team for defending set pieces?

my 2 cbs mark tall player

dm man mark

2 fbs man mark

1 cm man mark

1 cm mark far post

1 winger mark near post

1 winger edge of area

striker stay forward

free kicks

all man mark apart from 3 forward players in the wall for direct freekicks.

I totally understand what you're saying about the ratings etc., so why would your focus be on my defenders attributes for the goals? I'll try to make sense of what I'm saying - If a player with poor attributes are scoring in the manner that they are, why do my defenders attributes have anything to do with your primary concern, I mean, a player with 1 heading and strength and jumping can still jump and head a ball away before an attacker gets there. My point is, if my opposition attacking players do this, why not my defending players?

I find there are too many goals conceded from set pieces as well. In my last game I lost 2-1. The first goal conceded was from a direct corner kick which went untouched into my goal (3rd time this season this has happened which IMO is way more than IRL) and the second goal was from a direct long throw that also went untouched into my goal. My keeper who is rated as the best in my league didn't even move an inch towards the ball...he just sat there with that stupid crab walk position and watched it roll past him.

Is it usually their centre back that scores headers from set plays or is it a mix of opp players?

I personally wouldnt have every player on man mark duty in my box, you have the right ideas tho. Personally i set up to mark the two centre halves and if they have a tall striker he will get man marked, i dont set anyone else as i like the spaces being covered as much as the players. Cutting out the cross rather than defending the header can be more effective especially if you are struggling.

What i would be looking at more than anything is the anticipation of your centre backs, and their concentrating levels, if they are low its likely they are getting caught out more often than not by the movement of the opp striker. How good is your keeper at setting up your defence?

What you really need to look at is who is scoring against you, and work out why, if its usually centre backs then have a look and see what they do better than your centre backs and take it from there, it might be you have a weak link in your back line you havent really though about before.

In regards to your mistakes thing earlier, you really should come watch Aberdeen, we have a defender Andrew Considine, he is the most unlucky player in the world, almost every single mistake he makes leads to a goal for the opp.

Personally with corners/wide freekicks I've always taken the view that a small attacker is a liability so I push them forward. I regularly have three players forward leaving the taller players to defend the cross with the smaller defenders on the posts.

Haha, I'm a Wolves season ticket holder, I have the unfortunate grace of watching Christophe Berra and Richard Stearman who are horrific at defending, and they don't make mistakes, they're just plain ****!

Lets not get started on Berra, how he ended up in the EPL i will never know! Between him and Caldwell.......

Seriously, baffled isn't the word. Him and Stearman are so bad it's untrue. I question the state of English football outside the top 7/8 every time I watch Wolves. Shocking stuff.

I'm giving up the majority of goals from set pieces aswell. I have said this before and I'm gonna say it again, the way we set up our players seems too rigid. In real life the team adapts to the other teams setup, in the game you can all of a sudden find yourself with an totally unmarked opponent or two and you can't do anything because you can't give the orders quickly enough and your own players just stands where you have told them and don't cover the players that break the pattern. This makes man marking seem the only good options as that would supposedly take away those situation, but that isn't really a working strategy either. Players should adapt more to the situation at hand without having to be told to do so since we can't issue any instructions that will have time to take effect.

Agreed mimland, I think work needs to be done on Set-Pieces! Scouts should identify dangerous players, for example, Tim Cahill if playing against Everton. They should also be less Rigid and more in depth. At the moment I'm simply relying on attributes, which don't help seeing as Strikers with poor attributes still seem to be ok. IRL a team like Hereford could keep a clean sheet against Man Utd by winning the Set-Piece battle. That wouldn't be on attributes alone, but on how they are set up and know what to expect.

Hello everyone,

i wanted to give some input on this subject as im facing the same problem, especially from corners.

let's say 2 goals / 4 are from corners which is frustrating me .

and 90% of them are from first post , the striker shoots directly and scores even with a defender standing by him .

of course you will tell me to check attibutes and defense positioning ........ i think i've done my best as it's rare that i get a goal from a header , it's always corner --> near post --> striker shoots into goal

so my defense is set as following :

CB --> tall man

2 FB --> near and far posts

CMs --> man mark or small mark

wings --> edge of the box

forward --> always forward

it's really driving me nuts as i sometimes loose the game in late minutes .

Any Help is welcome

PS: i hope it's not a bug

Hello everyone,

i wanted to give some input on this subject as im facing the same problem, especially from corners.

let's say 2 goals / 4 are from corners which is frustrating me .

and 90% of them are from first post , the striker shoots directly and scores even with a defender standing by him .

of course you will tell me to check attibutes and defense positioning ........ i think i've done my best as it's rare that i get a goal from a header , it's always corner --> near post --> striker shoots into goal

so my defense is set as following :

CB --> tall man

2 FB --> near and far posts

CMs --> man mark or small mark

wings --> edge of the box

forward --> always forward

it's really driving me nuts as i sometimes loose the game in late minutes .

Any Help is welcome

PS: i hope it's not a bug

2-3 men highest in jumping, heading and marking - mark tall

1 quickest man - stay forward

1 man on edge

The rest zonally mark 6 yard box

Can't say I've seen any issue with this, either for myself or the AI teams. I'm 23 games into the current season, and here's the table of conceded goals from corners...

As you can see, my team has only conceded three goals from a corner in 23 matches. If anything, that's a bit low. The team with the most has only lost seven in this way. (from 44 total goals conceded).

my 2 cbs mark tall player

dm man mark

2 fbs man mark

1 cm man mark

1 cm mark far post

1 winger mark near post

1 winger edge of area

striker stay forward

free kicks

all man mark apart from 3 forward players in the wall for direct freekicks.

I totally understand what you're saying about the ratings etc., so why would your focus be on my defenders attributes for the goals? I'll try to make sense of what I'm saying - If a player with poor attributes are scoring in the manner that they are, why do my defenders attributes have anything to do with your primary concern, I mean, a player with 1 heading and strength and jumping can still jump and head a ball away before an attacker gets there. My point is, if my opposition attacking players do this, why not my defending players?

You will find a lot of forum members mentioning this problem, but you can help by not man marking so much.

Here are my instructions and I personally no longer suffer so much from conceding corners or slightly off topic from crosses to near post.

As I have 10 players to assign I do things in pairs.

I have my full backs marking as "small"

I have my CB marking as "tall"

I have my 2 CM marking "6 yard box"

I have my two wide players as "back"

I have my 2 furthers fwd players marking the post. Big striker near.

Obviously depends on your formation but utilise the 10 players.

I used to leave 1 or 2 players FWD and 1 on the edge of the area. I assumed this would allow me to counter but conceded too many goals so started getting everyone back.

Hope this helps but give it time.

I noticed within a few games that things tightened up considerably.

I changed my tactics to zonal and I hardly concede.

I changed my tactics to zonal and I hardly concede.

Are all players on zonal mark 6 yard box? What about CBs or players on posts or players staying forward? It'd be helpful if you posted your exact setup if you've had a lot of success defending