Defensive Instructions

[inobob]

Hello, as someone who is new to the FM23 team instructions (I played older FMs so I have a basic grasp), how do I interpret the instructions like stepping up or dropping off, funnelling it inside or outside, or invite or deny crosses. Also, how do you know when you should trigger presses more often?

[CARRERA]

5 hours ago, inobob said:

stepping up or dropping off

Stepping Up or Dropping down is about how your defensive line behaves in critical situation where a potential opportunity comes up to play a ball behind your line. They either step up to further compress the space and support the pressing of your midfield, or they drop-off to protect the space behind them at the cost of loosing link to your midfield and allowing space in front of them.

5 hours ago, inobob said:

funnelling it inside or outside

As you may have noticed, the old defensive width slider has been removed in FM23. They've basically split up the instruction to allow you to differentiate between the middle/attacking third and the defensive third. Pressing Traps do determin how your players behave in the middle & attacking third. You can either ask them to funnel play through the middle which has a lower chance to actually win back the ball but allows for better break / attacking opportunities, or you can ask them to use the wider areas to win back the ball more reliable at the cost of transition opportunites. You should defenitly take your teams strenght and the oppositions weakness into account when making a decision.

5 hours ago, inobob said:

invite or deny crosses

As already mentioned, this is the other split of the old defensive width slider. invite or deny crosses only applys in the defensive third and instructs your players to either shut down the central area of the pitch at the risk of inviteing crosses or to defend wider and deny crosses from overlapping fullbacks or wingers at the risk of leaving space an more central areas.

5 hours ago, inobob said:

when you should trigger presses more often

That depends on your personal preference and your teams capabilities. Trigger the press more often will allow your players to take all kind of opportunites to win back the ball, which sounds great in the first place does also come at the cost of players fitness and a disrupted shaped as players do also take low percentage opportunites, Lower pressing triggers will focus on only applying pressure when there is a high chance of winning back the ball. This can be beneficial if you want your team to stay in shape and restrict space. However, it comes at the cost of allowing the opposition more time on the ball.

There was also a great article with insight into these Topics at the release of FM23. 
https://www.footballmanager.com/features/match-ai-and-animation

I hope that could clear up a few things for you.

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by CARRERA

[bababooey]

Hello.  There are some good tidbits of information here:

 

[frank_olaf]

I have a question regarding funnelling inside or outside. I set up a tactic which has three at the back and two wing-backs on attack and two DMs. Because I'm exposed in the D-R and D-L position and have a lot of players more centrally (2 DMs and 3 CBs) I set the funnel inside instruction to make sure the opposition doesn't exploit my exposed areas (D-R and D-L). Does that make sense or, because funnelling inside or outside only affects behaviour in the attack and mid thirds, does it make more sense to use stop crosses?

The reason I didn't use stop crosses was because I am confident in my CBs dealing with crosses, I just didn't want the opposition exploiting the empty D-R and D-L positions and having the freedom to create chances from those areas.

Thanks.