Clean sheets and how to keep them.

Something I have noticed over the past year of playing FM 08.

The latest result from yesterdays games. Liverpool 3 - West Brom 0

I am the Liverpool manager on my latest save and have noticed just how difficult it is to keep clean sheets.

My last 5 results;

Liverpool 2 - Sunderland 1

A good result no doubt but the way I conceded Sunderlands goal in the eighty ninth minute was comical.

Liverpool 1 - Man Utd 1

Fernando Torres put Liverpool ahead in the thirteenth minute but that was cancelled by Cristiano Ronaldos ninety-second header. Comical defending from Skrtel and Agger...

Newcastle 1 - Liverpool 2

Again Fernando Torres puts Liverpool two - nil up before half time. Absolutely awful defending in the later stages (Eighty minutes plus) Newcastle nearly equalised.

Liverpool 4 - Stoke 2.

Liverpool hammer Stoke with a brace from both Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard on either side of half time. Again, the latter stages of my game, my defenders turn into headless chickens.

Everton 1 - Liverpool 2.

Liverpool ease past their rivals, dominating the game from start to finish. AGAIN, my players fall asleep in the last minutes.

I am fully aware it may coincidental but is there any advice from anyone?

I would like to tell my players to keep fully focused in the last minutes but obviously that's too specific lol.

Why am I conceding so many goals in the late stages?

What is your policy on "time wasting" in the tactics section?

It could be a number of reasons. Your players are tired, you're not shutting the game down, the other team has made changes to become more attacking and you've either not responded or made the wrong changes. You'll be able to get better help (definitely better than I can give) over in the Tactics Forum.

Are you taking the appropriate measures to counter the 4-2-4?

TBF Clean sheets are quite rare these days , look at West ham IRL no clean sheet in 20+ games.

i know that feeling! ive lost count of the number of times i have conceded in the last 10 minutes. i have lost a fair few games like this too.

I've kept 20 clean sheets in 30 games with Villa. I'm using a very high defensive line of 19 (20 being max) with counter attacking and offside trap ticked. It seems crazy playing like that high, but put simply it's working for me cos the opposition can't seem to create chances. Mentalities starting at 3 below center and going up to 3 notches above center (with one exception - one fullback is set to 20). Closing down set a little higher than mentality(2-6 nothes depending on role). CBs are set to man mark and mark tight.

I make sure that my CBs match the strikers they're up against in terms of pace, strength and jumping. Opposition instructions seems to work well, so be sure to show onto weaker foot, tackle any player that lacks bravery hard, tight mark if they're slow and/or lack off the ball skills and close down if they're slow and/or lack composure.

I do have a shut-up-shop tactic, but I'm only using that against 4-2-4.

You need to react better to teams going all gung-ho in you in the last 15 or so minutes.

Keep players back (e.g. don't send your full backs forward any more if you do normally, consider dropping central midfielders to a DM role. or at least drop their mentality), contemplate a more direct approach, enable the counter attacking option.

In the past, because the AI sends its full backs forward willy nilly when chasing a game, you could cream the AI by putting two good players in the FL and FR positions + a decent striker, and playing direct (and very quick) down the flanks. Leaves you with 8 men (including GK) to park the team bus while the other 3 try to take advantage of the 3 vs 2 situations on the counter. Dunno if this works in the new version, as it unfortunately is quite crash-happy on my machine.

Also try using the time wasting slider and bringing on subs one by one as the clock ticks down.

If you aren't changing your tactics to counter the AI, that's why you keep conceding late goals. Once you've got the hang of it, you'll find it's actually much easier to score than to concede when the AI goes all kamikaze. Just look where the space is when going forward and where you need more men in defence and play accordingly. You might want to switch to "full match" highlights until you get the hang of what works and what doesn't. Dealing with a problem BEFORE it costs you a goal is much better than only finding out you have a problem when the first "key highlight" after the AI reacts ends up with a goal.