Anybody else experiencing hopelessly overpowered crosses?

I'm 2½ seasons into my Liverpool save, and I guess I can't complain. Won the CL second season and currently top of the league at January.

Still one thing is bugging me big time. 80% of the goals scored against me comes from corners and crosses.

When conceding from crosses it usually goes like this:

Winger gets the ball, and is pressured by my fullback. Winger is allowed to turn on the ball and start his run to the byline. At no point he actually goes past my FB - they just kind of walk there together. By the time he gets there he has usually drawn out a CB as well. Now under pressure from two very good defenders he is allowed to float in a cross. Right footed only player swinging it in with his useless left foot? No problem.

Now there is two options:

1. The cross arrives in the six yard box where my other CB, who has had all the time in world to possition himself, is outjumped by any striker with 11+ for jumping. Furthermore my keeper with great stats for arial ability and command of area is rooted on the line even though he has time and room to get to the ball.

2. It is floated to the far post where my other fullback is standing at a nice distance from the winger allowing him the world easiest tap in.

Luckily the corner thing applies to both ends, so my two 17+ jumping centrebacks get 7+ goals each a season - even with attacking corner instructions still left on default.

Paticularly the rooted keeper thing annoys me to no known end. It's just stupid. If I was coaching childrens football and a keeper did anything remotely as stupid as the things I have seen Pepe Reina do, I would sub him and shame him on the spot.

So... Anybody else experiencing this? Is it a ME thing or something with my tactics? I bought my first CM (now FM) in 1992, so I consider myself pretty adjusted to the workings of the game.

Apart from the occational tight marking og closing down I don't play with OI's. Again - if a 10 year old allowed a winger on to his strong foot on the outside because he wasn't told not to, I would make him cry.

I play with a DL of 14 as i have quick defenders, no offside trap. Fullbacks on normal ment., closing down 14 and tight zonal marking. CBs on normal ment., closing down 10 and tight zonal.

Any thoughts?

Yes people have this. I only had this last patch, I think there are some threads telling how to counter it.

Part of it is indeed because of the ME.

Still one thing is bugging me big time. 80% of the goals scored against me comes from corners and crosses.

When conceding from crosses it usually goes like this:

Winger gets the ball, and is pressured by my fullback. Winger is allowed to turn on the ball and start his run to the byline. At no point he actually goes past my FB - they just kind of walk there together. By the time he gets there he has usually drawn out a CB as well. Now under pressure from two very good defenders he is allowed to float in a cross. Right footed only player swinging it in with his useless left foot? No problem.

I thought it was only me. Same here. Also the crosses are headed to 6yard box and the GK does nothing. For me it is 90% of the goals from crosses. I know playing with AML/AMR leaves the DL/DR exposed but still the way we concede the goals are exactly the same as you state. I thought it was soome sort of a bug or a ME thing. Dunno yet.

Just out of curiosity. Did you have this save already before the 24th when the new patch came out?

I had this exact same problem before the patch, dont have it anymore at all. Never manmark wingers or wingbacks anymore.

i to have had this problem, had the game now since mid december and still cant get into a proper game.

Set ur OI properly, and it will reduce these chances drastically.

Especially on positions like DL,DR,ML,MR,AML and AMR.

I usually set:

1) closing down ALWAYS

2) show weaker foot

3) hard tackling (if bravery is low)

And against the BIG 4 (epl) or strong teams/ teams with good wingers/crossers, i always set my FB on DEF mode, to negate their crosses.

For corners, at training choose defensive set pieces.

U wanna dominate in FM, you HAVE to master OI's.

I've tried pretty much everything now and you can't stop it. The worst one for me is the deep, ridiculously looped cross from wide free kicks. Your defenders stand like statues whilst one opposition player ambles forward and scores from a header from about 2 yards with the keeper remaining on his line and collapsing in a heap. So, so annoying.

Set ur OI properly, and it will reduce these chances drastically.

Especially on positions like DL,DR,ML,MR,AML and AMR.

I usually set:

1) closing down ALWAYS

2) show weaker foot

3) hard tackling (if bravery is low)

And against the BIG 4 (epl) or strong teams/ teams with good wingers/crossers, i always set my FB on DEF mode, to negate their crosses.

For corners, at training choose defensive set pieces.

U wanna dominate in FM, you HAVE to master OI's.

This in no way is mastering OI's, if the opposing winger has greater anticipation and acceleration be prepared to see your fullback ripped apart. Also If they are playing inside forwards who cut inside you are playing into their hands.

Try this:

OPPOSITION INSTRUCTIONS:

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- For their fullbacks/wingbacks (DL+DR/WBL+WBR) and wingers (ML+MR/AML+AMR), apply them all: Tight marking, Hard tackling, Show on weaker foot, Closing down often.

Remember to apply these on those POSITIONS - not on exact players, incase their player gets subbed or moved to another position. Also remember to check them if they change their formation during the match, you might have to re-apply some of them.

PLAYER INSTRUCTIONS:

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- Tell your fullbacks/wingbacks to man mark their winger (Marking: Specific: <player>). So your DL marks their MR/AMR etc.

- Tell your wingers to man mark their fullbacks/wingbacks.

Those I feel are a must, but best results at shutting down their wide players are achieved by DOUBLE marking them. However this brings the problem of having 4 of your players man marking someone specific, which draws them out of their position. For example I sometimes tell my center backs to help the fullback at man marking their winger... but there's obviously a risk that their strikers get left alone at the center then. Same problem if I use my central mids to double mark their winger - the opponents will have a lot of space at central midfield then. So with the double marking I'm undecided so far, especially about which position I should use as the second man to mark their winger (and fullbacks) - if someone has suggestions about this I'd appreciate them.

TEAM INSTRUCTIONS:

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I'm not sure about these yet, but someone else suggested these in the match engine thread:

- Defensive Line: Push Up (all the way to the right)

- Width: Narrow (all the way to the left)

- Tempo: Slow (all the way to the left)

As I said I can't say anything about these for certain, as I haven't tried them much yet, but so far it seems promising. Obviously with that insanely high def line you might want to have fast-ish defenders. I also like to make my GK to act as a Sweeper Keeper in case they throw long balls behind my lines.

These have helped me somewhat with this problems (which is a big one, in my opinion the biggest flaw in the current match engine), but they don't neutralize it completely. Only another patch will do that I'm afraid. Until then I'm using these, although it feels awfully lot like "playing vs the match engine" instead of trying to play "realistically".