Shouting Strategies: Defensive

Given the number of thread complaining about defence, here are a variety of possible strategies you might find useful. Hopefully, the lads at FM-Britain will produce a far more definitive version of shout strategies in the near future, but until then, here's a few ideas you might like to try out.

1: Deep Defence

Stand Off, Drop Deep, Easy Tackling (gets men behind the ball and holds position rather than tryin to win the ball)

2: Pressing Defence

Reduce Space (Narrower, Higher), Get Ball Forward, Hassle Opposition (reduces space in all parts of the pitch)

3: Aggressive Defence

As 2, but include Get Stuck In (adds some bite to the above, which can be useful to bully less physically strong teams out of their stride)

4: Channel the Opposition (useful against narrow formations if you are wide)

Play Narrower, Drop Deeper, Hassle Opposition, Exploit the Flanks (reduces possibility of outballs and the breaking the offside line and attacks space on the counter)

5: Defend the Flanks (useful against wide formations if you are narrow)

Play Wider, Push Up, Target Wingers and FBs in OI instructions, Exploit the Middle (holds a higher, wider line in the final third to make getting round the back more difficult and attacks down the middle on the counter)

6: Play Keep Ball

Retain Possession, Pass to Feet, Stand Off, Work Ball into Box, Take a Breather (aims to keep possession above all else. Very useful for sides with a technical advantage)

7: Clear the Lines

Counter, Get Ball Forward, Clear Ball to Flanks, Pass into Space, Shoot on Sight (aims to quickly get the ball down the pitch and away from the danger area)

8: Wet Weather

Get Stuck In, Clear Ball to Flanks, Get Ball Forward, Play Wider (turns the middle of the pitch into an attritional mudbath and quickly gets down the flanks on the counter)

9: Timewaste (for technically poor sides)

Contain, Play Even Safer, Pass to Feet, Clear Ball to Flanks, Shoot on Sight (gets ball out of play and wastes time in retrieving it)

Thanks for the tips wwfan. I’ll be keen to give these a go.

Couple of questions.

Firstly, how do such defensive instructions combine with other instructions? For example, playing as Arsenal in a 451 I have been finding the shouts ‘play wider’ and ‘exploit the middle’ to be very useful in pulling the opposition out of shape and opening space up in the middle for my players to exploit. If I employed the ‘pressing defence’ strategy alongside this, would you see this as playing complimentary attacking and defensive styles? I guess what I am essentially asking is it is possible/appropriate to issue both defensive AND attacking shouts at the same time as a ‘standard’ sort of approach?

Secondly, with the ‘keep ball’ strategy; would you see this is an effective strategy to employ at say the start of the 2nd half when leading fairly comfortably (ie 2 or 3 up) against a team who are potentially good enough to come out and have a crack at you (eg Arsenal VS Aston Villa away)? Would this then be a good way to try to counter the ‘2nd half comeback’ phenomena that many seem to be experiencing?

Getting the attacking and defensive balance right is key to all games. I wouldn't like to suggest there was one catch all solution. You need to watch the game and decide whether opening up is a risk worth taking.

Keep ball is an excellent strategy to kill off a game in which you have a lead as long as your players haven't become complacent. If they have, you'll see stupid, lazy passes that lose possession in dangerous areas. If that happens, it's best to try a 'get rid of the ball' approach.

Brilliant

Only one I would pick at is "Stand Off" for "Play Keep Ball". I'd rather couple the ball-retention shouts with pressing or aggressive defence so that, should I lose the ball, the opposition are forced into mistakes.

Getting the attacking and defensive balance right is key to all games. I wouldn't like to suggest there was one catch all solution. You need to watch the game and decide whether opening up is a risk worth taking.

Keep ball is an excellent strategy to kill off a game in which you have a lead as long as your players haven't become complacent. If they have, you'll see stupid, lazy passes that lose possession in dangerous areas. If that happens, it's best to try a 'get rid of the ball' approach.

i get what you mean but i wasn't asking whether this was the only, or as you put it 'catch all' solution. I understand this game enough now to know that there isn't any approach that works in 100% of situations 100% of the time (just like IRL). What i did want to know though was whether, in your opinion and in direct reference to your OP, the 'pressing' defensive option could be compatable to the attacking approach i mentioned. I'm only looking for a 'yes it should be reasonably complimentary' (and i wouldn't be interpreting this as "this would work all the time, i personally guarantee it") or 'no those instructions might clash'. Hopefully now i've clarified my expectations you might be able to give a less ambiguous answer

Excellent tips. Thank you wwfan.

more of this kind of thing is needed. practical advice is far more useful than abstract theories to the average gamer

Thanks!

Finally some straight-to-the-poing tips.

However, I do have a couple of question (which are probably stupid and have been asked 1000 times before)

1) I often am the all-around better side, and I hold a comfortable lead (2 goals or more). How do I "run out the clock"? I don't mean timewasting, I mean keeping possession in the opposition half, or in midfield without risking getting countered. Some sort of "pig in the middle"

Just look at how Barcelona killed the game against Inter Milan last week.

2) Do we have to live with defensively inept FBs and with defensive line always getting caught off guard, no matter how deep and defensive we play? Closing down & co. just doesn't seem to fully solve the issue. Shall we wait for the 10.2 patch?

1: The Play Keep Ball strategy might help. You could experiment with the aggression levels (i.e. Contain -> Overload) until you find the version that sees you keeping the ball in the right areas.

2: The d-line tends to get caught out if you are pressing too much but don't really have the players/fitness levels to do it. What happens is the players high on the field fail to put ball carriers in deep positions under any pressure, which allows them to play uncontested pinpoint passes to a breaking FC. This is not helped by a slight issue with defenders failing to turn in time, but the main problem is undoubtedly when you are pressing when you should be sitting back.

Excellent advice WWFan.

I have to say that this tactics creator and touchline shouts has me totally addicted to FM10 at the moment. So much more variation is available at the click of a few buttons. Once you know what the various shouts mean, you can easily get what you want from them.

I would have needed about 50 different tactics sets to get all of the stuff out of previous FMs that I am getting out of this one.

It's made the game really fun for me. Setting up and changing tactics is effortless and now the real effort is in outwitting your opposition manager and getting the best out of your team, which is how it always should have been.

C.

Yes, changing stuffs on the fly are really a god send in this year's fm. Outwit, outplay and outlast the AI with your tactical shouts, knowing when to bomb forward correctly and defending well(what this thread is all about), is the key to success. But then again, the general consensus of this tactical forum, from what i see is, most players just want to have an all conquering tactic and simply just sim the match away without doing anything. Where's the fun?

This has been very useful and informative, thanks wwfan.

Quality post, Richie Rich.

Yes, changing stuffs on the fly are really a god send in this year's fm. Outwit, outplay and outlast the AI with your tactical shouts, knowing when to bomb forward correctly and defending well(what this thread is all about), is the key to success. But then again, the general consensus of this tactical forum, from what i see is, most players just want to have an all conquering tactic and simply just sim the match away without doing anything. Where's the fun?

Or perhaps have something in between, so that you don't need to change your entire tactical set-up and approach to the game every 10 seconds because the AI manager keeps pulling off some godlike masterstroke such as making a like-for-like substitution at centre-back.

Good post

I've been wondering for a while what "Take a Breather" actually meant, I presumed it involved lowering the tempo so I had been using it in conjunction with those shouts.

For wet weather, is it worth adding "pump ball into box"? Possibly the same for "time waste"? This should make your passing longer, stop the ball getting bogged down, and like shoot on sight will get the ball out of play if passes are overhit. The flip side is that you may give away possession more on "time waste". You could add "more direct" too.

Great post wwfan but i have a small request .. i wonder if you can provide us with some attacking shouting strategies if you may .. thanks in advance

The shouts are something I'm really enjoying experimenting with at the moment.

Much of it seems to be common sense so far, but it's important to read the game. All part of your decision making when all's said and done.

Interesting guide though wwfan, because like always, my defensive strategies are always in need of work

...maybe I should have changed my forum name to "Gung-Ho!"

Hello

a few questions:

1 I suppose these shouts only work with the more defensive strategies: contain - defend - counter - maybe standard (?), not the attacking ones?

2 could you post a link to the discussion about the shouts on FM Britain?

3 is there a counterpart for attacking strategies (combination of shouts for a certain way of attacking play)?

Will give this a try

Take a breather isn't compatible with "Hassle opponents".

Why?

Take a breather isn't compatible with "Hassle opponents".

Why?

Hassle Opponents

Effect: Instructs the team to close down the opposition and reduce the space available.

Action: Vastly increases closing down settings, changes marking to tight-man, increases tempo.

Useful: When needing to regain possession quickly; when playing against a slow, technically inferior team; when needing to reduce space for the opposition.

Take A Breather

Effect: Allows the team to slow the pace of the game down to conserve energy.

Action: Decrease forward runs, decrease tempo.

Useful: To try and slow the pace of the game when playing in very hot conditions; to keep players fit when well in the lead; to calm the game down before radically increasing the tempo and catching the opposition cold.

One thing I will admit to is being very poor at reading the match engine. Any tips as to know when to change things around?

One thing I will admit to is being very poor at reading the match engine. Any tips as to know when to change things around?

It's very important to see what the FBs are doing. If they are coming up quickly then they are in attack mode. Then you have to see if the wingers are staying outside with the FBs or if they are cutting in.

Those are usually the first things I look for because they tell you a lot about how the opposition is playing.

One thing I will admit to is being very poor at reading the match engine. Any tips as to know when to change things around?

An easy way of reading the match engine is to have the match stats in the bottom of your screen to judge how much possesion you have had, how well the other team are passing, how well your dealing with crosses coming in and how many long shots your reducing them to having.

wwfan I still use those shouts but I have a question though do you have attacking shouts sets like those that are mentioned above ?

awesome thread, nice work wwfan

Wow, this was from 2009. Makes me think I should search the forum a little harder for more gems like this.

Wow, this was from 2009. Makes me think I should search the forum a little harder for more gems like this.

There are plenty about. Anything written about philosophy (or the reasons for decisions) will be absolutely bang up to date too, even if the implementation isn't.

There's a links thread stickied at the top too, plus there's always the SFraser link thread.

ah,the late, great sfraser

Anyone know a good counter attacking group of Shouts?

Thank you very much wwfan.. I still use them and they work perfectly in FM14

I'm looking to employ a mixed system where my players push high up and press aggressively trying to win the ball back high up the pitch, but should the opposition manage to maintain position then fall back and defend in a deep bank of 4-1-4-1.

Is this possible to setup at all with the current system?

Anyone know a good counter attacking group of Shouts?

Pass Into Space, Run At Defence, Hit Early Crosses.

Hi, im trying to play with a very defending style, withe a deep line and almost all players behind the ball to shrink the area to the goal, and then quickly switch to attacking. But i dont get it to work, any tips for me?

I'm playing with a 4-2-3-1 With 2 CM and 1 AM and 2 W.

Are these still apparent in FM 14?

Or perhaps have something in between, so that you don't need to change your entire tactical set-up and approach to the game every 10 seconds because the AI manager keeps pulling off some godlike masterstroke such as making a like-for-like substitution at centre-back.

Or they don't have the time to watch and adjust and want to play through the game. >_>

And no FMC isn't their "tonic". Hehe, I mean I play FM and watch and adjust and so on but sometimes, I get tired, I don't want to stop playing, the highlights go on full speed and I swing through.

Still useful for FM15

Still useful for FM15

Good to know. I hope that my advice from previous FMd stays relevant as there's not been any change in the logic of the ME that should undermine it.

Can this be stickied please? This is very good information.