The Art of Defending

[David Beckham_7]

None of my midfielders are set to attack, including my AML/R. I set my DM to loose marking so that he can cover spaces horizontally exposed by my full backs going forward, if i ever get caught out of possession.

[jimbobBRFC]

None of my midfielders are set to attack, including my AML/R. I set my DM to loose marking so that he can cover spaces horizontally exposed by my full backs going forward, if i ever get caught out of possession.

I see what you mean with the DM that makes sense.

Do you not find your striker ends up sort of detached from the rest of the team, that is presuming you use a striker with an attack duty. What role/duty do you use for him then? DLF would make the most sense I think

[David Beckham_7]

I have 2 AdvPlaymakers-support playing on AML/R. Their duty is to support my poacher with thru balls, and with mixed forward runs, they will join in the attack when necessary, and they do cuts inside. Because i only have 2 very pacy, good dribbling forwards whom can finish, and are not intelligent enough to drop deep looking for spaces or create for his teammates, so my poacher will run all day, latching onto thru passes.

[jimbobBRFC]

I have 2 AdvPlaymakers-support playing on AML/R. Their duty is to support my poacher with thru balls, and with mixed forward runs, they will join in the attack when necessary, and they do cuts inside. Because i only have 2 very pacy, good dribbling forwards whom can finish, and are not intelligent enough to drop deep looking for spaces or create for his teammates, so my poacher will run all day, latching onto thru passes.

Ahhhh right, See my striker is very good technically as well as being able to finish. So I would probably go DLF. Two AP on each wing is very interesting though,

[bullybeef]

Fascinating stuff, ZdlR, and very well explained.

For some reason, I seem to have come to understand more about defending than scoring. In the simplest terms, I find positioning is the key, and making sure your defenders hold their line. It is also a question of adjusting the distance between the GK and your CBs when you're under pressure. I find I have to be sure the room for a through ball is minimal, and beyond the 18 yard line is a no go area. I have found the notches have to be spot on, one click either way, and I concede.

But obviously playing teams like Man Utd is difficult and sometimes there's no guarantees, so you have to consistently keep an eye on what they are doing, and adjusting accordingly. But if it works, you can visually see teams are running out of ideas, and feel pretty relaxed.

For some perverse reason, I can enjoy watching a 1-0 win in full match showing solid, composed defending. I get as much joy out of clean sheets as I do scoring sometimes.

Yet I rarely play a rigid system, because I want to break quickly and with fluidity to give my opponents something to think about. For me, it is all about defensive line vs. CBs closing down settings. And I am never afraid to allow my defenders to soak up pressure. I think of it has the more pressure on my defence, the more solid they become.

My first season in the EPL, and I've conceded 6 goals in 29 games. Although Man City have only conceded 5!

[Jungztar]

I like the idea with the DM and reducing the closing-down... I will be trying that tonight Have you tweaked the individual settings on the Adv PM wingers? I have used the same approach in a 4231 in FM11 where the 3 AMs played as Adv PM behind a poacher.... That also worked well.

[David Beckham_7]

Tweaks to my adv Pm wingers, no roaming, increase passing by a notch (by default it is at the middle), no longshots. Now let's stick to the topic.

[ZdlR]

Ok, going to write some more theory now, because I can do that over my lunch break and it's not as labour-intensive as writing about a match.

What I want to elaborate on is the defensive component of the team. Ignore completely the attacking side of your team for a minute and consider - when facing a specific attacking set up - how you can counteract the effectiveness of your opponent.

First thing you need to do, is identify the kinds of threats you are up against. They fall broadly into a number of categories, sometimes overlapping into more than one:

-A quick player

-A tricky player

-A strong player

-A creative player

-An elusive player

Assume for a moment, that each of the threats fit primarily into one of these five categories. A quick player is going to look to exploit the space behind your back line. A tricky player is going to receive the ball at their feet and take your defenders on. A strong player is going to try to muscle his way past your defence. A creative player is going to supply the other attackers. An elusive player is going to find space in between the lateral and longitudinal lines.

The following are examples of each player type. I've tried to pick players who don't really fit into any other category, but there's always going to be overlap and I'm thinking on my feet, so better examples will be available, for sure.

An archetypal quick player is Theo Walcott.

An archetypal tricky player is Luis Nani.

An archetypal strong player is Grant Holt.

An archetypal creative player is Paul Scholes.

An archetypal elusive player is Luis Suarez.

For each of these players, there is a way to set up the player up against them. The first thing you need to do, is ensure that there is a player up against them. Left unattended, each of these players can wreak havoc.

Theo Walcott, being primarily fast, is going to use that pace to get in behind your defensive line. You have three options to combat this: limit the space that he can find behind your defensive line, contain him in front of your defensive line, or ensure that he does not legally receive the ball in behind. The first option means you are lowering your entire d-line to deal with this one threat. This is why pace is so important across the front line. Without it, the opposition can just push up and not worry about conceding this space. Next, you instruct his marker to never mark him tightly. By going loose, you are standing off him a few yards at all times. This means that he will have space in which to operate if he receives the ball, but that space is in front of your defence, not behind it. The final option is to play the offside trap so that, when he does receive the ball in behind, he is flagged for offside. Clearly, this is the most risky of the options (well, I think it is).

Luis Nani is an archetypal tricky winger. While he certainly possesses pace, his threat is in receiving the ball to feet and taking on his marker with dribbling skill. Your options here are twofold: prevent him receiving the ball to feet or prevent him from wanting to take on his man. The former means that you are going to mark him tightly at all times. Ideally, your player will spot the pass coming to him and intercept it before Nani reaches it, or force a poor first touch and poke the ball away. By tackling him hard, you can break his desire to take on his man, especially if he lacks bravery and composure. What you likely don't want him to do, is be closed down by anyone. It is likely that his dribbling skill is going to allow him to easily get past an onrushing defender, especially if the attacker has good anticipation and can see the tackle coming.

Grant Holt is a strong centreforward. Strong players in the front line are primarily strikers who intended to bully their way past defenders, typically on the route to heading in a cross. The two options here are to mark the player tightly at all times and/or push your defensive line up (providing they are not also quick). As you can see, a strong and quick forward - Didier Drogba in his pomp - is a terrifying prospect: do you drop back/push up, tightly mark him or contain him?

Creative players don't necessarily operate so far forward and are usually the attackers in the MC slot, although of course not exclusively. Paul Scholes - as we see even this season, at his age - is a huge threat that can dictate how attacks are constructed. It is clear that he is a huge threat when receiving the ball and given time to pick out a pass. Tight marking a player like this will help to limit the number of times he receives the ball to feet, while closing them down aggressively will limit the amount of time that they have one the ball should they successfully receive it.

An elusive player can find space in the smallest pockets and will work to exploit this to his team's advantage. Luis Suarez is a great example of how dangerous this sort of player can be. While Hernandez is also this kind of player, I feel his also has a lot of pace to his game that makes him less of a pure 'elusive' player. Ruud van Nistelrooy springs to mind as a great elusive player that found space even in the 6-yard box and paired it with absolutely lethal close quarters finishing. If you tight mark this sort of player, he will still find space. If the elusive player sits in the hole, you can have a DMC on specific marking against the player so that he is always marshaled, even if not 100% effectively. The best you can do against an elusive player is find a weakness in another aspect of their game and exploit it. If they lack composure then your specific marker can loosely mark him and then snap quickly into a tackle.

So, you can see that each attacker has a set of strengths and, providing the manager has them play to those strengths, you have options for dealing with the threat that they pose. If the whole of the opposition's front line is composed of quick players, you might be best off just dropping your defensive line and constructing your attacks from deep. Imagine, however, that the opposition has a quick winger and a tricky winger coupled with a strong, quick and elusive forward. It is the combination of these threats that make defending such a difficult job.

As an addendum, a complete forward offers some kind of threat in each category. Wayne Rooney is - to some degree - a threat by being creative, pacey, strong, elusive and tricky. This is what makes him so attractive as a player and why Alex Ferguson was willing to offer him so much more money to get him to stay- he is a very rare breed. Depending on the situation in a specific game, he can be asked to roam around looking for pockets of space to link midfield to attack, exploit a high defensive line by getting in behind, receive the ball to feet and take on his marker, barrel into the box to get on the end of crosses and play incisive passes for his attacking brethren. Some of these he performs better than others, but he still poses an overall threat from each.

[Norte del Valle Cartel]

What would you suggest would be the best setup for defending with let's say a league 1 side? Whereby players have lower decision, positioning and concentration stats?

[ZdlR]

What would you suggest would be the best setup for defending with let's say a league 1 side? Whereby players have lower decision, positioning and concentration stats?

That's an excellent question. I don't play much in the lower leagues, but I would guess that the principles stay the same, with the relative strengths and weaknesses being at a lower level on an absolute scale, but with more pronounced relative differences. So, while in the Premiership, a stat of 15 might be considered the lowest score required for any key skill (finishing for strikers / tackling for defenders, etc.), I would say perhaps it scales down by 1 per league: 13=Championship/12=League One/11=League Two. However, you will get the odd League Two player with an attribute up at the 16/17 level, which sets them apart from their colleagues.

I wouldn't really change much as I go down the leagues, just try to interpret the numbers in a slightly different fashion.

[Visca el Barça]

Here's my defence line:

Alaba - Hummels - Boateng - Lahm.

Since both of the backs have great attacking skills, i use them as Wingback - Attacking. Boateng is a Ball playing defender - Cover, and Hummels are central defender - Stopper. I use Lars Bender as a lone defensive midfielder, with the role as a anchorman. Schweini's MC, with the supporting Deep Lying Playmaker role.

Here's the team instructions:

Closing Down - Press More

Tackling - More Aggressive

Marking - Zonal Marking

The defensive line is high, the width is wide and the strategy is attacking.

I concied a lot of goals, but i don't know why. What do I do wrong? Please help me.

And sorry for my bad grammar.

[jimbobBRFC]

Here's my defence line:

Alaba - Hummels - Boateng - Lahm.

Since both of the backs have great attacking skills, i use them as Wingback - Attacking. Boateng is a Ball playing defender - Cover, and Hummels are central defender - Stopper. I use Lars Bender as a lone defensive midfielder, with the role as a anchorman. Schweini's MC, with the supporting Deep Lying Playmaker role.

Here's the team instructions:

Closing Down - Press More

Tackling - More Aggressive

Marking - Zonal Marking

The defensive line is high, the width is wide and the strategy is attacking.

I concied a lot of goals, but i don't know why. What do I do wrong? Please help me.

And sorry for my bad grammar.

Both of your WB's on attack so they get forward a lot. You have a high press and agreesive tackling. So lets just say both your WB's are up the pitch, your team loses possesion and the ball is played forward. Against a 4-4-2 that will be your 2 defenders against your two strikers. Your stopper defender may come out to try and make a tackle due to his agressive tackling and closing down. If he misses the challenge it is 2-1 in favour of the attack. Personally I would make one of your FB's more defensive. Probably Alaba so that he is a little bit more conservative going forward.

Hope that makes sense