4231-deep defensively a disaster?

[el_magico89]

hi.

just wondered, if anyone of you have ever managed to get a solid defence with a deep 4231 formation.

no matter, how I set my wingers mentality and closing down settings, it seems like theyre badly tracking back and supporting the full backs.

my team is alyways splitted into two parts when it comes to defending.

I can really see, how the front 4 is just waiting in the middle of the pitch and how the other six players try to deal with the opposition, who can often outplay me because of the fact, that they have much more players in attack, than me in defence.

do you guys also have such a problem with your 4231 formation? do you think changing the formation to a 4411 would help, since the wingers are not set that high on the pitch?

[mattbuck]

Before i set to work on my 4-4-2 formation i had similar issues with 4-2-3-1. (not the deep version)

In the end i gave up, but now ive almost finished perfecting 4-4-2 i may go back to it as its a good challenge using the classic tactic slider method.

If you added tight marking to your wingers, then they would always track the cpu full backs, other than that all you can do is lower their mentality so they drop deeper, but that would obviously spoil counter attacks.

[ProZone]

I managed to set-up a solid Deep 4-2-3-1 on the FM11 demo.

The back 6 were set up as follows:

Philosophy - Rigid

GK - Goalkeeper

DR - Full Back (Automatic)

DL - Wing Back (Automatic)

DCr - Central Defender (Defend) or (Cover)

DCl - Central Defender (Defend) or (Stopper)

DMCr - Defensive Midfielder (Defend)

DMCl - Deep Lying Playmaker (Support)

I was making a lot of use of the "Push Higher Up" Touchline Shout if I saw that my two deep midfielders were not engaging the opposition central midfielders and giving them too much time on the ball. Also used "Play Wider" a fair bit too if chances were being conceeded from the flanks.

[E.Gray]

I had it working quite well before 11.3, won Serie A and Italian Cup with Inter Milan in the first season, also won the Europa Cup with Nottingham Forest who finished mid-table the season before.

Sadly with 11.3 the tactic has never quite worked like it used to.

[crouchaldinho]

I managed to set-up a solid Deep 4-2-3-1 on the FM11 demo.

The back 6 were set up as follows:

Philosophy - Rigid

GK - Goalkeeper

DR - Full Back (Automatic)

DL - Wing Back (Automatic)

DCr - Central Defender (Defend) or (Cover)

DCl - Central Defender (Defend) or (Stopper)

DMCr - Defensive Midfielder (Defend)

DMCl - Deep Lying Playmaker (Support)

I was making a lot of use of the "Push Higher Up" Touchline Shout if I saw that my two deep midfielders were not engaging the opposition central midfielders and giving them too much time on the ball. Also used "Play Wider" a fair bit too if chances were being conceeded from the flanks.

Solid advice and pretty much what I did with my excellent 4-2-3-1 deep on FM10.

[Fhex]

Im having the exact same problem.

Playing with the roles set up as detailed above and can score at will but just cant keep a clean sheet. End up just having to outscore my opponents in every match.

Think there's a couple of fundamental things that i need to crack:

* Should i play my DMs with zonal or man marking?

* Should i play deep and let me DMs act as a buffer or player higher and trying to encourage my DMs to snuff out attacks before they happen?

* How do i set up my wide players so they least attempt to help out in defence?

Any other advice people have playing with deep 4-2-3-1 formations would be greatly appreciated.