ISSUE
Wide central defenders are currently too narrow in the buildout phase, especially through the midfield transition. When attacks pivot to one side one WCB sometimes goes to support and when that happens the other WCB stays back and positions like a central defender. This can create overlapping zonal responsibilities leading sometimes to the wrong player going for a header or a challenge. There may not have been any fixes to the WCB per se but I feel that whatever match engine changes were made have had a knock on effect on this role. I have attached a pkm listing out periods where this happens. It happens a lot throughout the game, I only listed out the first 10 minutes.
From kick off the positioning of the WCB looks like they are playing as 3 CDs
00:07 Hamilton should be at least 5 yards to the right, Evans should be further to the left and that should encourage Tansley to the left too. At the moment they are too central
00:12 As the attack shifts to the right flank, you can see how this affects the WCB on the right as he now tucks inside, ignoring the potential 2v1 on his side of the pitch
00:16 The positioning from 00:07 causes the defensive lapse that allows the right flank to get overloaded.
When playing with WCB either side of a BPD, the expectation I have is that the WCB are also primarily responsible for the half-space and the flanks. The half-space zonal defending is being ignored on the far side all the time
05:23 buildout to the final third - notice how central the 3 central defenders are. The two wcbs should be wider. When the ball is with the opp keeper the left sided WCB performs like a central defenders
In fact that is the theme for all buildouts. Whenever we attack down one flank, the WCB shifts to the centre to become a second central defender. That is not the expectation we have with positional play.
The wide central defender should stay wider not tuck inside and become another central defender
05:35 this positioning frequently leads to zonal overlaps when defending as both the WCB and the BPD end up going for the same ball even when the BPD is on cover and the WCB is on support duty.
05:39 During buildout the WCB should be pushing wider at this point instead of being central
05:46 When Woodman has the ball the WCB on the left should be making the move to go wider not stand still. This happens with any club side I am using including good ones.
07:46 Defending a throw in. note where the BPD is covering he should be 5 yards behind. The trio of defenders is too narrow
08:01 During build out the WCB on the right should be wider t to support the attack, instead he is still too narrow. Meanwhile the WCB on the left who is on support is playing central alongside the BPD
as a two man central defence. This is not what I expected the WCB to be doing.
09:34 Because the 3 man defence is so narrow there is always going to be zonal overlaps, here the WCB on the left will react to the ball over the top going for it when it would not have happened if he was wider.
This positioning issue happens for the majority of the match even when I changed attacking widths. If you need more examples from this pkm please let me know, because it repeats itself throughout the match.
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