Closing Down

can somebody please explain to me, how to actually make players close down the opposition. despite selecting closing down on their main threats including the midfield my players just stand off them? tight marking also, i told my team to tight mark robinho yet they stand off him? can somebody please help? my team constantly get outplayed by awful teams, i am everton and i lost 1-0 to west brom. can somebody please help? already asked in the t&tf but nobody helped.

Thanks

well it's simple, closing down doesn't work properly, i'm quite sure about it. i heard that closing down is linked to mentality now after 930, so you're not able to press your opponents if you're not on high mentality. yeah i know..?? can't help you with tight marking, probably it's the same thing.

this is what wwfan said in another thread:

Closing down and hard tackling are aggressive defensive moves and thus work better with an aggressive mentality. As they are aggressive and will likely generate a high free kick count against you, it is best to only do such things when you are high up the pitch. Having a high d-line, aggressive mentality defenders with higher CD and tackling settings ensures the defenders are on the same wavelength as the attackers and regularly backing up attacking play with a high pressure defensive strategy. If you give them a low mentality and a deep defensive line, they will immediately drop back when you lose the ball, opening up acres of space between the risk happy forwards and the risk averse defence which a counter attacking opposition will pour into.

I'm extremely surprised that you were unable to obtain help from T&T forum - all the tactical gurus live in there, but Mitja's answers are well worth taking on board. A few users have stated that they don't think that closing down is as effective as it could be.

so one possibility could be pushing my defensive line higher? the only thing is i think closing down can also be useful n defensive tactics, for example if you want to close down the oppo, frustrate them so they cant play the way they want to. i have read the tactical frameworks thing and made various tactics following exactly what it says but nothing works that well. fair enough i am everton and 7th isnt bad, but i would like to push higher with 7th been the minimum i want to finish.

A few users have stated that they don't think that closing down is as effective as it could be.

you don't have to be guru to notice that. CD has always had problem where players would wait until ball gets to their opponent and only then they would start pressing, instead anticipating in advance. but ok it's not easy to make AI anticipate

in 930 it's even worse, it feels like 8.0.0. the most obvious example; pre 930 if you wanted to close down opposition keeper via OI they would press him almost always, now they don't..

maybe it's linked to mentality and players' attributes even more than before?

the only thing is i think closing down can also be useful n defensive tactics, for example if you want to close down the oppo, frustrate them so they cant play the way they want to.

that's what it is supposed to be like and that's what teams constantly do IRL but i guess that's not the case in FM.