Defensive Lines- A Guide

[SCIAG]

This is a fairly short guide to the effect of different defensive line options on your tactics as a whole. It will cover the strengths and weaknesses of the options, in what match situations you'd use each option, and which shouts work well with each option. The contents of this guide is a mixture of stuff I've picked up in real life (which should work in FM, but may not), from playing the game, and from discussing the ME with people on here, notably wwfan.

I apologise if the beginning of this guide is a little patronising, but I want to make it accessible for all rather than just those who already understand the basics. Feel free to skip the opening sections if you know the basics and just want to apply them to a match.

I should also say that this guide deals exclusively with flat back lines, particularly the flat back four, as I am less familiar with sweeper systems.

A high defensive line

Advantages

• Restrict your opponent's space
  
• Win the ball back high up the pitch
  
• Use the offside trap
  

Disadvantages

• Space behind your defence can be exploited by fast attackers
  

The main advantage of a high line is that it restricts the space available to your opponents. If they have less room to play in, they will be more likely to give the ball away. Additionally, you'll be higher up the pitch when you win the ball back, so you won't have so much work to do to get the ball in a dangerous area. This is particularly obvious when one of your centre backs wins a header- if he wins it on the edge of his area, the attack will just be starting, but on the half way line you should already be in a fairly dangerous position.

The other main advantage is the ability to use the offside trap. If you play high up the pitch, pacy forwards in particular are more inclined to try and exploit the space in behind your defence. With the offside trap, you'll catch many of these strikers offside, halting attacks with minimal effort.

As with every option, there are risks to playing with a high defensive line. You're susceptible to players exploiting the space in behind your defence. Sometimes one of your defenders will switch off and play an attacker onside, sometimes the forward will run from his own half or time his run perfectly, and sometimes a tricky player will dribble through your defensive line. Once a player is in behind your defence, there's little you can do about it, especially if he's faster than your defenders. Because of this, I strongly recommend using fast defenders if you are going to play a high defensive line.

A deep defensive line

Advantages

• Little space behind your defensive line
  
• Less susceptible to pace
  
• Men behind the ball- freeze them out
  
• Restrict your opponents to speculative long shots
  
• Your players have more space to play in if you are using a short passing game
  

Disadvantages

• Allows the opposition more time on the ball
  
• When you win the ball back, your strikers could be isolated
  
• You can't use the offside trap as easily.
  

A deep line is probably the safer option. There's much less space in behind your defensive line, which will only be exploited by a very good striker partnered with a very good passer. It won't matter so much if your defenders are not quick. You can get more men behind the ball, which will make it hard for your opponents to penetrate your defensive line. If it works well, they'll be restricted to pot shots and set pieces at best. It will probably be easier. Lastly, if you are playing a short passing game, you generally want the pitch to be as "big" as possible. Dropping deep will give your players more space to escape their opponents and do their magic.

For disadvantages, see the advantages of a high line, and reverse them. The opposition will generally have more time on the ball, as your players (especially defenders) usually initially prioritise dropping back to pressuring the ball. When you do win the ball back, you'll probably be deep in your own half, with your strikers isolated. Attacks will probably need to be built up from scratch. Finally, you won't really be able to use the offside trap, so you won't catch as many players offside.

A "normal" defensive line

There is a third option, of course, which is playing with a line somewhere between deep and high. This option means you won't get the advantages or disadvantages of either of the above systems. I recommend avoiding it, simply because it has no particular advantages.

Match situations

This is fairly common sense, following on from the advantages and disadvantages section.

A "high" defensive line is ideal when you are in need of a goal, especially against weaker sides. Your defence will be close to your attack, which will be closer to the goal. The opposition will have less space to operate in, so will probably make more mistakes as they will also have less time to think. When you win the ball back, you'll be ideally placed to launch an attack.

I would also recommend using a high defensive line if you have much faster defenders than the opposing attackers, because it won't matter that there is space in behind you to exploit.

Use a high defensive line when:

• You need a goal
  
• You are comfortably the stronger side, both in terms of ability and how the match is panning out
  
• You want to limit the amount of time the opposition have on the ball
  
• Your defenders are significantly faster than their attackers
  

A "deep" defensive line works well when you need to shut out a side. Maybe you're struggling to hang onto a lead, maybe you want to get away with a point, maybe it's damage limitation, or maybe you want to keep it tight until you attack later. Regardless of what it is, a deep defensive line really helps with clinging onto leads.

Use a deep defensive line when:

• You are under a great deal of pressure
  
• You are a much weaker side on ability
  
• You want to play a short passing game*
  
• You have slow defenders (especially central defenders), or significantly slower defenders than your opponent.
  

* A note on short passing- short passing at a slow tempo helps you conserve energy, which means you have more energy to use on pressing. Barcelona use the energy they don't use when they attack on pressing high up the pitch. Pressing/closing down and defensive line are fairly closely linked. So whilst dropping deep will help your short passing game when you attack, playing high may be better when you are defending.

Use with other shouts

A high defensive line (shout: push higher up) works well with:

• Hassle opponents- pushing high up the pitch and closing down high up the pitch are naturally linked. When you want to do one, it is usually best to do the other
  
• Get ball forward, pump ball into box/clear ball to flanks, pass to space- "get ball forward" and one of "pump ball into box" and "clear ball to flanks" will lengthen your passing. As you may be using a high line to force a goal, making longer passes could help. Similarly, "pass to space" will increase through balls, helping you counter attack quickly after winning the ball back high up the pitch. However...
  
• Retain possession- this will shorten your passing. Yes, this contradicts the previous statement, but if you wish to retain possession so you can press when you lose the ball, this is a good shout to use, and when combined with "hassle opponents" and "push higher up", you will be playing in a similar style to Barcelona.
  

A deep defensive line (shout: drop deeper) works well with:

• Stand off opponents- I once saw wwfan write that "you shouldn't tell your players to drop deep, and then come charging out and hack down their opponents", or similar. This is good advice. If you are going to drop deep, tell your players not to close down too much. This will stop you contradicting yourself, and will help you get men behind the ball to defend your goal and frustrate your opponents.
  
• Stay on feet- if you are dropping deep, you can't afford to give away fouls, because these will either be penalties or free kicks in dangerous positions. Hard tackling will increase the risk of fouls, so use "stay on feet" to set your players to "easy" tackling.
  
• Retain possession and take a breather- when you're clinging onto a lead, the last thing you want to do is give the ball away. These two shouts will reduce the tempo, with "retain possession" also shortening your passing and "take a breather" also reducing forward runs, which will increase passing options in the first two thirds.
  
• Conversely, get ball forward- as long as you have the strikers for it. Your strikers are likely to be isolated when you play with a deep defensive line. Playing longer passes might reduce that, if you have a fast striker who can run onto long balls behind the defence, or a strong striker who can hold the ball up and wait for support.
  
• Play narrower- this will also help you get men behind the ball when you need to keep the ball out of the goal. There will be less space in the centre of the pitch in front of the goal.
  

That's it for now. I hope you have found what you were looking for when you clicked on this thread. If not, feel free to PM me or post a reply.

[higgins]

Good post Sciag, more or less I agree with your thoughts, just one thing, sometimes when facing a weaker and entrenched side playing with ten men behind the ball, using a high d-line and reducing space could be a bad idea.

Reducing space for your opponent will have a side effect, you'll need to pass the ball in some really congested zones of the pitch and apart if you're a top team with great skills on the ball, you'll face some issues to break your opponent tight defensive system.

So it could be useful to adopt a deeper d-line and starting to exploit the flanks trying to stretch your opponent obliging them to play (and to defend) on a wider area, to have better passing angles etc...

[Marsupian]

Great great guide! really good job on explaining one of the more underused tools when creating tactics and adapting them on the fly.

I also agree with higgins. When your opponent really parks the buss it can be good to drop deeper and force them into closing down players outside the final third to open up space for your attacking players. If you are already dominating there is no reason to restrict their space even more especially if your also restricting your own space and making it easier for your opponent to close you down and give them more room behind you for a counter attack. You already mention the space argument in your deep d-line section and when your opponent is trying to kill the game space can be your last saving grace. I don't say you should switch to a deep d-line tho because then you risk giving away the initiative and invite pressure on you but here a standard D-line might be the best option. You could also keep playing a high d-line and hope you break them down or score from a cross, set piece or a fluke goal but if you want to trust on your open play and be safer against counter attacks I feel a normal D-line would be better.

Also you might want to add the get stuck in shout to the high D-line section. When your pushing up and closing down the opponent a lot the opponent can get under a lot of pressure and when you add the hard tackling you can really break their game down. It's usually how I start games at home against bigger sides. I start with an attacking strategy for the first 10-20 minutes to try and catch the opponent off guard on my own pitch and then I switch to a control strategy and try to frustrate the opponent with high closing down and hard tackling. This is how I brought Stuttgart to it's feet with my FC Utrecht side. It ended in a 5-1 with their morale plummeting throughout the match as they struggled to keep possession and to stay on their feet.

[Tidd19]

A well thought out and more importantly well-needed thread, I like your suggestions for the different shouts that work well with different back-lines, I think i may pinch a few of them!

I'd like to add that using a high line against a lone targetman would be a wise move. Not just because the targetman CAN'T catch-out your high backline with his pace (I'm assuming he's not Didier Drogba who has pace), but because a targetman thrives on being as close to the goal as possible. Thats the range where his main attribute, his heading can be used to score goals. The further up the pitch you push the targetman, the more he has to do to get the ball in the back of the net and therefore the more opportunites your defenders have to make an interception or tackle. See AC Milans backline when playing against Peter Crouch in the champions league this season. Yes i realise he scored the only goal but that was because Lennon did all the work using his pace to carry the ball towards the Milan backline. I'm afraid I can't find any videos of Milan's backline dealing with Crouch high up the pitch as it worked so well that no highlights came of the moves (highlights are all that i can find). You can however, see the danger that Crouch posed when in the Penalty area, especially at the back post here http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/tottenham-milan-8717788/ and here http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/milan-tottenham-champions-league-february-2011-8508171/

Also I think I read somewhere that the Defensive Line slider in FM is only activated when your out of possession? When in possession it's mentality that defines where the defenders position themselves (relative to the rest of the team, you couldn't set one CB on the goal line and one CB on the halfway line). As soon as possession is lost then the team begins to take note of the defensive line setting. I'd thought I'd heard wwfan mentioning this but I'm doubting myself as you've mentioned that you've talked this over with him before posting. Anyway my main point would be that if this is correct then you wouldn't have to contradict yourself with a high D-line to win back possession and a lower D-line to maintain possession. You could just set the D-line high to win back possession and set mentality low to open up space and maintain possession.

[SCIAG]

I agree with pretty much everything mentioned here.

higgins, Marsupian- you definitely have a point, playing with a deeper defensive line could draw the opposing defence out and create gaps, as well as giving your side more space.

Tidd- I haven't directly asked wwfan or PaulC or anyone to check the guide for accuracy, so I don't know whether all the principles in it apply perfectly. That part is largely observation. I credited wwfan early on because I've picked up much of what I've written from him (especially with regards to the shouts), but I knocked this up quickly last night on my own. You also make a good point about lone target men- I think I covered that with "your defenders are significantly faster than their forwards". I know Milan's defenders aren't the quickest, but I think that attacker generally have the edge when they are of a similar speed to the defenders in this version of the ME, so I erred on the side of caution.

[Tidd19]

Fair enough, I can understand why you'd prefer to err on the side of caution. If I come across the comment regarding D-line that i *think* I saw then I'll be sure to post it in here.

[NakS]

Good thread.

I would like to bring a point to discuss, especially regarding opposition formation.

If the opponent is playing a narrow formation 4312, 442 diamond, 4222, etc... there is naturally little space to work in and rely on fullback to provide width. Usually, these narrow formation have an AMC but no Wingers, it could be a good move to restrict even more their space thought the middle by playing a higher D-Line and individually man-marking their fullbacks, so CMs-DM and AMC don't have any wide easy outlets and the AMC has almost no room to work into with the higher D-line and is likely to struggle, and as a results the opponent will have a hard time to retain possession. Moreover, as they are only attacking through the middle, they are not likely to stretch the defense and play lethal through balls.

D-line is a nice tool against narrow formation.

As a side note, this approach work quite well with a wide pitch with the following shouts combination "play narrower" (ie protect the centre of the pitch where they are attacking) and "exploit the flanks" (ie attack their weakness along the flanks and bring them out of position), be careful though HUB is now "on" on your CMs in a crowded midifield...could be tricky.

[SCIAG]

That's an interesting point, Nak. I might try that next time I play a narrow side.

[heathxxx]

*Holds up hand*

Yup... I'm the loony that when I play my Granada side against the likes of Real Madrid, drops deep but also has "Get stuck in" shout, with a lot of OI's focused on closing down and hard tackling their many creative players.

Risk vs. reward really. I'm well aware of the risks of the higher closing down and heavier tackling, but I do grimace at the thought of using a shout like "Stand off" or issuing easier tackling instructions at the same time. Always feels like an invitation for opponents to camp in my half even more. (I have this recurring memory of being at Old Trafford once, watching Paulo Wanchope for Derby, running at Man Utd's defence, whilst they backed off and didn't challenge. The rest, is history...)

Against a side like Real Madrid though, I tend to deploy two ball winning midfielders on "defend" duty. They tend to keep the shackles on the highly creative central midfielders and central attacking midfielder. Stopper/Cover central defenders seems to cope well too. The main weakness tends to be from wide areas, though I try to compensate by having my full-backs on "defend" duty.

Although this isn't perhaps something I'd do against many teams particularly, it tends to work very well in shutting out Real Madrid. Haven't conceded in my last three encounters against them.

I am wary of which way to go when I face Barcelona though.