Too many own goals and bad defending???

I played as Watford for my first play with FM9 and was struggling with my defence in general. Sometimes they just wouldn't tackle the forwards or wingers and I'd concede from goal mouth scrambles where I found myself shouting out loud " kick it anywhere!!!"

I splashed out on two good defenders to try and improve things and in the next game one was stretchered off and the other scored a stupid own goal. The next game I won but the one after that the same defender scored another stupid own goal where it was easier to kick it away.

I've now started a career game and have taken over a Hungarian team. In my first game we scored an own goal and a few games later another one.

Is this a coincidence or is anybody else seeing the same?

in my game with middlesbrough i have exactly the same problem with own goals. in the first season my keeper, logan bailly scored 3 own goals and the rest of my defence scored a total of 6. it is a nightmare.

i scored 3 o.gs in a match which i lost 3-1! but apart from that its been fine i think

*fanboy attitude* its your tactics.

Its happening to me aswell, although to be fair the AI's defenders are just as bad. My centrebacks do a great job of impersonating Titus Bramble. Almost every goal conceded against me is due to a mistake from my centrebacks. And no matter how any mistakes they make they still end up with a decent rating. All I ask is they stand in the general vicinity of the man they're marking. Nope - too hard.

My fullbacks annoyed me so much I just got rid of them. They wont tackle the winger before he crosses or get close enough to block the cross. If I increase closing down they get skinned by wingers with a dribbling rating of less than half my fullbacks tackling rating. Go figure.

I've had three own goals in a game too ( a 4-4 draw at Old Trafford ) a couple were a bit pinball-y. Some of it can be put down to AI issues I'd say.

I too have found myself telling my defenders just to clear the freaking ball - anywhere except in the box. Then they don't. They we concede. That's a bit annoying as any defender in real life puts his foot through the ball nine times out of ten when faced with that danger.

I haven't played long enough to determine yet, but i did have one game where i scored a particularly dodgy own goal followed up by a gk howler. On the own goal, the two dc's and one fb all ran to the same spot but none of them played the ball. Then along comes Robinho who was some way behind, and casually lays the ball past Almunia. The ball hits the post and bounces out just in front of th goal line. Then along comes Clichy who runs full paced (with no opposition player within sight) straight at the ball and 'runs' it into the net. Great. But to make matters worse, soon after Almunia charges out to intercept a very innocent looking ball under no pressure, proceeds to turn around just as he reaches it so that it hits him in the back of the head, and then miraculously lands right at the feet of Robinho from 20ft out who proceeds to tuck it away. It's only a game, It's only a game..............Grrrrrr!

People score own goals in real life too - quite a lot of them some weeks. A few annecdotes hardly constitutes evidence of there being too many of them in the game! You could equally selectively point to all the games in which you didn't concede an own goal and claim there are too few of them...

Although it is hard to tell from the original post whether you are saying you think there are too many in general in the game (i.e. a bug) or whether you just have a team that concedes too many because of the way they play.