Does Beeing defensive work?

Unless you are newly promoted and have poor quality players for your league, Does beeing defensive work?

Iv got a pritty good tactic which is half a season old and going well at the moment, but what i have noticed is, When i have need to be defensive basicly it doesnt work, it's like sticking a huge target in the goal and saying hit me if you can..

This jst invites preasure, shots at goal, strikers getting behind your defence when your deep and using defensive mentality.

Even if your odds on to lose and playing away, iv found playing a some what attacking yet possesion based football seems to work. it's dead hard to score at times but the opponents instead of attacking your goal, they end up defending more..

I know they say the best form of defence is attack but surly a defensive formation should do the same job? which is to stop them scoring?

I play cautious , or defensive possession football. While in 9.1 that was not to doable(you had to play attacking to keep result), in 9.2 i have no problems keeping my result safe.

So with right setup, you can be defensive , no problem.Just make sure that you practice tactics in friendlies and have players that can defend.

on 08 i got promoted with scunthorpe to the premier league in season one by playing defensive, on 09 i have found that if you can keep possession and break when they make a mistake or a gap apprears to be the way to go.

I manage to get between 55 and 70 % possession for both home and away games. and had the best defending and scoring record in my first blyth season.

In my experience going defensive just seems to ask for trouble!

My team seem to take going defensive as a call to hump the ball straight back to the opposition and get out of position so that they can waltz through the middle and score. I find sticking to a semi-attacking or standard formation works much better. I actually put them under pressure rather than the other way around.

Sometimes. I will get results with a defensive setup for a while, but will have to change to a neutral or attacking one after a bit. The AI adjusts to me, it seems, and I have to stay one step ahead of my opponents.

I also seem to do better defensively if I have directness and speed notched up to the neutral range, at times. Most of my defensive tactics have a "direct" variation, as do my neutral tactics (i.e. 4-4-2 Dia D and 4-2-2 D Direct, 4-3-3 N and 4-3-3 N Direct). Also, like FM08, playing on a wet pitch slows the ball, and a slightly more direct approach means your through balls will actually go through better.