Unable to keep a clean sheet.

I'm currently playing as Ajax, I'm dominating teams yet seem to be conceding every game.

The season so far:

Here is my tactic:

So I seem to be very good offensively, yet seem to be leaking goals. I got destroyed by PSV and Chelsea, although both of those games were fairly even statistically.

My defence getting split open, individual errors. A few long balls over my defence, and drilled crosses. With the Chelsea game I was done by Ramieres arriving late in the box twice.

perhaps try to play offside - i dont do this personally, as everyone is offside enough already

tried very fluid, i use that with my attacking 4-2-2-2 and keep clean sheets

very fluid, attacking players help defend might help you more. also gives defenders more attacking freedom

that and standing off and cautious tackling can't help. many a time my defender makes a yellow card foul to stop attacks.

i havn't touched any of those settings and left them at default

sry mate, still no suprise, that you concede so much...

playing a 4231 with 2 CMs instead of DMCs leaves sooooo much gap between your midfield and d-line, that every professional team will cause you a lot of problems.

add to that, not only the fact, your playing a very attacking system, but youre also playing with two CMs, who dont really have their strenghts in the defensive phase of the game, much more are attacking central midfielders. it would be like manutd england playing with gerrard and frank lampard as holding midfielders in a 2 man midfield xD

so if you want to stay with this formation, try to sign midfielders with good positioning, work rate, marking, tackling and so on... also anita isnt really the best left back in defensive terms.

so, I would say too attacking formation+too attacking minded players+not even one defensive minded midfielder+defensively weak left back leads you to results like this 4-0 at home against chelsea!

sry mate, still no suprise, that you concede so much...

playing a 4231 with 2 CMs instead of DMCs leaves sooooo much gap between your midfield and d-line, that every professional team will cause you a lot of problems.

add to that, not only the fact, your playing a very attacking system, but youre also playing with two CMs, who dont really have their strenghts in the defensive phase of the game, much more are attacking central midfielders. it would be like england playing with gerrard and frank lampard as holding midfielders in a 2 man midfield xD

so if you want to stay with this formation, try to sign midfielders with good positioning, work rate, marking, tackling and so on... also anita isnt really the best left back in defensive terms.

so, I would say too attacking formation+too attacking minded players+not even one defensive minded midfielder+defensively weak left back leads you to results like this 4-0 at home against chelsea!

I generally play Van Den Borre against the tougher teams. I have created a tactic with 2 DM's instead of CM's.

I know what your saying about Anita, but I couldn't find anyone better than him to replace him, as I had to make a few big signings in the summer and left back was my 4th priority. I am looking for a decent DM or LB to bring in in Jan. I was hoping Wigan would have gone down so I could have picked Diame up cheap.

If you want a tighter defense then a more defensive tactic or players is probably required. As el magico suggested dropping the cm's into a dm position will help out defensively. If you are going to stick with this formation then the key is pushing the back four higher up and therefore closing the gap between mid and def IMO. You have thought about this some as both cm's have defensive duties but they will often still leave a big gap that an AMC or deep lying forward can exploit. Also it can be extremely tough getting enough defensive workrate out of your wingers leaving your full backs exposed against opposition wingers.

I'm not sure if standing off is the right way to go and I always like a stopper at CB with no DM in the side as he will often step forward into that gap allowing the CM's a bit of time to get back. I don't really know your players that well but I'd certainly consider changing to DM's or dropping the wingers into wide midfield roles creating a

4-4-1-1.

As others have said, you're playing 4-0-6. Basically, it's working, you're scoring more goals than your opponents but you'll never keep clean sheets.

My new system has an anchor man DMC and two covering DCs and ANOTHER defensive MC and it's been very mean with the goals so far.

It seems to me that some of your tactics contradict eachother. For example, you're telling your players to 'stand off more' yet you're allowing them more freedom to roam. I tend to find that 'stand off more' is used best for a defensive tactic along with 'stick to position' as the emphasis is to make your side difficult to break down. With your options, your players wont be making as much effort to press the opposition yet they'll be roaming from their positions more, leaving a lot of gaps for your opponents to exploit.

I don't fully understand the closing down, I downloaded a few tactics that all had stand off for attacking formations, so I thought maybe it was something in the ME that made that work. I have individual closing down set, I have the 2 centre mids closing down, and Van Der Weil a little bit more than half as he has good stamina. Anita is about half way.

I play 4-2-3-1 and agree with the person who mentioned centre mid. It is not wrong to play with 2 central midfielders but they need to be more defensive minded. I look for players to put there who are good at the defensive side of the game as well as have high attributes in team work, work rate, determination and decisions. That way I know I'm going to get a good shift and they will win a lot of balls.

Don't forget this formation works with your central midfield being the link between your defence and attack and is essentially a 4-2-4.

Yeah basically you have very little set up in the way of defense. Both your centre backs are set up to play on the ball which in its self is ok, but you have no one to protect them, or fill the gaps when they decide to move forward with the ball, also i would be very wary of two ball playing centre halves, Barca do it, but i cant think of many teams playing that kinda style, unless you have two very very good centre halves your asking for trouble. You have a forward line of 5 really with a deep lying playmaker, but he wont offer the defense enough cover, or win enough balls in the midfield. So what you end up with is a huge gap between your back line and midfield, plenty space to be exploited constantly.

You also have some strange instructions set up, having your team stand off, zonal mark and hold back when tackling is again going to leave you open, your team will not close down quickly, especially your front 5/6, if they dont win the ball back quickly your back 4 are very exposed. With caustious tackling you team will not attemp many sliding tackles and will only try and win the ball when they think they can, again its going to leave you too open especially on a counter attack.

Im also wary of stating with the control strategy except on certain occasions, i personally think it should be used against weaker teams only, not for every game.

Ok, bit of an update. Brought in Cheick M'Bengue for left back. The two ball playing defenders are Vertongen and Alderwiereld, two of the best defenders around. I have them set basically as normal defenders, but with sometimes trying through balls. I have both my centre mids set to sitting back so they never get forward.

I play an attacking 4-4-2 as I find if you drop deeper to defend you basically just invite pressure and I find that a DM in this incarnation can be pretty poor cover wise. I therefore dropped a striker to make 3 centre backs so effectively 5 at the back with full backs and wingers pushing on and this seems to help as you don't get the classic striker just running between two centre backs. Just beat top of table Spurs 3-1 away. Obviously it helps if you have a pretty good forward.

Its no suprise at all that you're conceding. You are playing a high line, standing off opponents and also not getting stuck into tackles to win the ball back. Also, drop a CM back to DM.

Changed my tactics a bit and won 4 games in a row 5-0. See how this does in the CL next year.