Help with poor defending

[cpsof95]

I'm playing 2nd season with Hayes & Yeading in VNS (FM16). After the first season I've lost my 4 best defenders, so I knew this season was going to be a struggle with defense, but didn't think it would be this bad. In 22 matches my team has scored 1 clean sheet. On average I have conceded 1.6 goals per match, which is a bit too much if I want to avoid relegation. I've signed two new defenders, but they haven't really helped much.

I just had a home match against another relegation candidate with this tactic:

My regular left midfielder (solid all-around player) is injured for quite some time and I don't have any decent player to replace him (and can't find any), so I'm trying to attack from the flanks and protect the middle. The opponent was playing 4-1-2-2-1 (midfield triangle and AM's on the flanks). I removed Retain Possession at half-time, since we couldn't create any chances with it. Take A Breather is used because the next match is in 2 days.

Anyway, the problem is the defense. There are several serious problems I don't know how to fix.

 

1) Set Pieces: My players are leaving several opposing players free and also aren't doing any zonal defense either. They're just standing there.

Example: https://streamable.com/69fw6

In this case, I would like my defense to drop deeper. Or if they keep the line high, at least they should drop down the clear the cross, instead of just standing there.

 

2) Protecting the middle from penetrating passes: My players are unable to defend against forward runs either by marking the runner and preventing the pass.

Example: https://streamable.com/jxd3v

At the other end of the field, my forwards aren't great at pace or aerial strength, but they have good attributes in Passing, Anticipation, Off The Ball, Flair etc., so I'd like them to do similar attacks, but it's once in a blue moon when that happens. So why is it so easy for my opponent, but next to impossible for my team?

 

3) Defending against wide play: My players do pretty well 1v1 at flanks if you compare how my wingers do at the other end. But for some reason they often overdefend 2v1 leaving huge gaps elsewhere. (They also seem to foul more likely in 2v1 situations than in 1v1 situations, which is bizarre too.)

Example: https://streamable.com/7opj2

Why is my CM-support just ignoring the guy running to the box, when there's no defender to cover that area?

 

4) Bad luck and team morale: Although my defense has not been good at any stage of the season, we did pretty well in offense and managed to get some 2-1 wins. We got a bit lucky there and unlucky there. After some unlucky losses my team morale had dropped, but I finally managed to find two new defenders to help me out. But instead of seeing what they can offer, the players started criticising me and started demanding tactical changes. At this point, my indispensable left midfielder also got injured for 3 months. Now my team is struggling with morale and they pretty much mentally collapse every time they concede a goal. In this critical match the score was 1-1 at final minutes, and instead of being motivated, everyone was more or less nervous.

So this happens: https://streamable.com/jab0b

All my three defenders are just backing away from goal instead of collecting any potential rebounds.

 

P.S. The critical attributes for my defenders (you can see Pace and Jumping Reach from the tactics screenshot):
Left FB: Marking 11, Tackling 11, Positioning 8
Left CD: Marking 8, Tackling 13, Positioning 11
Right CD: Marking 9, Tackling 10, Positioning 11
Right FB: Marking 8, Tackling 10, Positioning 8

[MBarbaric]

37 minuti fa, cpsof95 ha scritto:

2) Protecting the middle from penetrating passes: My players are unable to defend against forward runs either by marking the runner and preventing the pass.

try to involve the strikers in defense so they can protect two central midfielders preventing them being overloaded

 

38 minuti fa, cpsof95 ha scritto:

3) Defending against wide play: My players do pretty well 1v1 at flanks if you compare how my wingers do at the other end. But for some reason they often overdefend 2v1 leaving huge gaps elsewhere. (They also seem to foul more likely in 2v1 situations than in 1v1 situations, which is bizarre too.)

if you find that you have numerical advantage on the flanks, why not making them more aggressive in order to win the ball back since they are in advantage? 

[HansJoachimM]

I would do the following:

• Play a defensive midfielder instead of the right winger.  Have your defensive forward man mark the opponents left back or left winger.
• Defensive corners: Set your three best jumpers to 'mark tall player'
• Set team instruction to 'close down more'

[cpsof95]

Yes, I'd like at least one of my strikers to press opposing midfielders. But how do I do that? Defensive Forward role helps a little, but not much. Do I have to tell them to mark someone?

The problem with numerical advantage is that my defenders don't take advantage of that. Very often they foul and give free kick or just let the opposing player pass the ball to the gap they just created by doubling the opponent.

HansJoachimM: Yes, I would probably add more players to midfield if I had more such players. In defensive set pieces I'm afraid to tell too many men to mark someone because that seems to leave huge gaps in defense, so any opponent can just freely head the ball in. Also I'm not sure about using the Close Down More instruction. I'm already having trouble with my players running around the field doing nothing and leaving my defense full of gaps.

[sporadicsmiles]

You sue take a breather for the entire match? I would assume this makes your players not put in full effort, and really is not a good idea. I mean, this is something I would use if a game was going to extra time and I wanted to conserve a little of my team's stamina for 5 minutes. Not for 90. 

For the chances you show. The first set piece there is actually some excellent off the ball movement by the guy who scores. He loses his marker very well. The defensive line will hold initially to try to catch offside. I am not sure there is anything else you can really do there, it was just good play.

Same goes for the second goal. That was really nicely worked bit of play. Your defender made a mistake by rushing out to chase down player who was already covered by a midfielder, which made the chance. That could just be bad decision making by him. 

The third clip is caused by your left winger not tracking back with his man. There is an overlap, and one of the centre backs has to come out to deal with it. Your shape has been disrupted and it means you do not defend well as a unit. Probably here, you can solve it with instructions for the winger to follow the full back as he attacks. I regularly try to create such situations where a CB is forced to deal with my winger/full back out side, as it creates space inside. 

Your default tactic here is leaving 3 people up the pitch in most situations, and so is quite aggressive in that respect. You could probably look to get the ball forward and counter, especially if you are the weaker side and if you have any fast attacker. If you want more defensive solidity, you may need to change how you play. Shifting to something like a 4141 could help, as you get extra solidity from the DMC. You can be aggressive with the duties to still carry an attacking threat; 2 attack duties in midfield and one or two in defence (depending on how brave you want to be), for instance. 

[cpsof95]

Thanks sporadicsmiles! I think I have conceded several goals from freekicks just like in the example, but haven't scored any. My freekicks usually hit the first defender, get collected by the keeper or sail well over all the players. Yet the AI freekicks are a lot more dangerous. Here are my routines for defending and attacking freekicks. My team is lacking some aerial power, but that's not really the issue as the goals are just like the one in the example, my defenders are just slacking off when the cross comes in. Is there something wrong with the routines?

To defend flanks, I've tried giving my full-backs and wingers instructions to mark opposing winger or full-back. I think it has helped a bit against overlaps and has made it a bit more clear who's defending who. Not sure what to do with middle then. I'm afraid that marking instructions or closing down more might mess up the shape of my defense and leave gaps to play through passes into.

Yes, I would probably switch to 4-1-4-1 or something like that, but I have quite of few strikers, but not too many midfielders. I would like one of my two strikers to help defending against opponent midfielders. Now they're just standing out there with their defenders. I've tried using Defensive Forward, but he's still lazy to help defending. Maybe marking instruction would work, gotta try that, I guess.