Stuck on a few problems in my 4-3-3.

[Lohaller]

So i am playing in portugal and doing rather well with a minor team that starts out in the 2:e division.

I guess i always hade these problems but they are not to obvious in the league since i win most of the games that are not agains porto or benfica.

Its when i play teams that are slightly better or at the same level in the europa league, my defence just crumbles. I have identified the weak points but i cant seem to fix them, so i could really use some help.

First of its the crosses,against team that plays with classic wingers i just cant deal with the crosses, even if my fullbacks are playing well there will always be a few crosses the goes into the area. Is there any way to fix the problem in the box or do i have to focus on never letting any crosses get into the area ? , i would like to get my wingers to track back when they play AML/AMR but i cant get it to work, when i play then as ML/MR i do fix most of the problems but then i lose my offensive capabilities, i know there will always be alot of space behind the wingers but conceding 3-4 goals against team the plays with wingers seems like to much.

The second problem i have is defensive corners, how do i get rid of all the goals coming from the near post ?,right now i have 4 players man marking, 1 on near post, 1 on mark six yard box, 1 on edge of area and the rest on go back except the striker. It just baffles me how he is totally unmarked every time on that near post.

Some general information about the tactic, its a counter attacking tactic that exploits the flanks but plays a narrow form and look to pass the ball into space.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[jens_dewit]

You should post your formation, roles and duties if you want decent help.

Going from what you said, you might try using more conservative backs? If you are using wing backs, use full back, is you are using full backs, try limited full backs or more conservative duties. Are you using a DM? This might help you as well.

Provide some more detail and I'm sure people will be able to help you out.

[deserter]

Maybe your players are a little nervous in the big matches. It may not be a tactical issue as much as personnel or man management issue.

I have a midfielder that is pretty good, but he always chokes in the important games. So he's the first choice most of the time, but when it's a big match, I'll leave him out!

For my defensive corners, I like to leave all the players that aren't very good at these situations out of the box. If you have too many of those, then you're out of luck. But to me it's better to have fewer players in the box. They will all be able to defend the cross, and it's clearer who should deal with it. Your opponent will leave more players behind if you leave more players forward, so it's not like there will be free players in the box, and your average quality in the box will be higher, right?

[okd]

The AMR/L, especially in this formation, are basically forwards.Forwards can only do one thing defensively,that's pressing.Considering this,you could do this:

1.play an aggressive tactic that wins the ball high up the pitch

2.play more cautiously but drop them to ML/R

3.have both 1&2 prepared and use them wisely

[jpcote09]

As said before, most players will perform differently in big important matches. That being said, stronger teams will also generally play differently against you, and they should also be better in terms of quality, so no surprise then that your weak points are more exposed against them.

Let's be realistic, in any soccer game there should be at least a couple of completed crosses for both teams unless something exceptional happens. I guess you are feeling that there are too many against you, but this could be due to a number of factors. For example, it could be that the opposition wingers are given too much time and/or space on the flanks. It could also be that your defenders are not able to deal with crosses in the box, or that the opposition attackers have too much aerial or off the ball ability. Yet again it could sometimes be that your goalkeeper communicates poorly with his defenders and/or makes mistakes in attempting to go for the cross (or not).

If you could post up your tactic that could help, but for now I would suggest that you try to either a) cut the supply to the wingers by showing central midfielders and defenders on their inside foot (plus maybe close them down more, etc.); or b) at least try to give those wingers less space by experimenting with d-line positioning changes (most probably higher), width changes (I've seen them make a difference), or else maybe tight marking or closing down more on them.

I'm assuming that your formation is a 4-1-2-2-1, and if that is the case you could also experiment with a 4-3-2-1 instead (put your midfield trio in a straight line). This would make your wider CM's naturally play in wider positions thus possibly giving more support to your fullbacks.

As for defending corners, it is indeed quite frustrating to watch near post attackers getting so free. But (as for everything depicted by the match view) you have to go deeper than that and understand why they are unmarked, or at least what you can do to limit this. It might be that you don't have enough players to man mark all opponents who attack the box. It might be that they don't have good enough marking ability. It might be they do not communicate well enough. Generally, I've had success with having a player close down the corner. This usually reduces accuracy from the corner taker IME, especially when he serves at the near post. You could also try to have more man marking, or more players outside of the box (as said before). This seems counterintuitive, but usually helps your players communicate better and limits those second chances. I would suggest trying different things out and see what that results in.

[Lohaller]

Wow thanks for all very helpful replies , so i have tried and succeed with closing down the opponents wingers effectively using ML/MR (still conceding on the few crosses that do slip by), the problem is that my striker is more of a poacher so i lose all my offensive capabilities. I have tried to play a straight 3 man midfield and it is effective against 4-4-2 formations, unfortunately most teams in protugal play with an AMC witch i feel gets to much space. Now i know that better teams will expose my weaknesses no matter how i play, the problem i am having that frustrates me is that every single cross is a goal scoring opportunity, even if i watch comprehensive highlights it seems my central defenders just cant deal with crosses, even against low qualitie strikers, so yes limiting the crosses is nice but as said before, in 90 min of football a few crosser are likely to go through and its really hard to keep playing when 9 out of 10 crosses end up in the net.

So even when i have 2 players closing down a winger its always the fear of him getting a decent cross.

Going to each defender stats wise is just sad, every year i boost the back 4 and 1 of my CB got 2:e place in defender of the year last season. now the only teams that got better defenders are Porto and Benfica, and the players scoring against me is every striker type, so its not really the arial abilitie as they never really gets a challenge in the box when they score.

Experimenting with the d-line works when playing with ML/MR but not so much otherwise, because its not just Crosses from the byline that's threatening, every cross in the box is a goal scoring chance , seems like pushing higher up works against lesser teams but is lethal against teams with good wingers,i have not notice anything different by changing the width, if the opponent team wants to expose the flanks they will eventually get 1 or 2 crosses in.

tactic:

https://imageshack.com/i/pdF1pdEcp (i admit that i am pretty bad with this img things, hope it works)

About the players chocking in important matches, while i appreciate the opinions i dont see this as a problem, mostly because it happens in all games against team with classic wingers. The most recent example being Braga away, sure its not an easy game but i would not say its a big game considering i have finished above them 3 seasons in a row, it finished 3-3 , all there goals came from crosses, 1 deep and 2 from the byline, at 2 of those goals i played 4-1-4-1 with 2 players always closing down the wingers of Braga, still 2 Crosses slipped by, 2 goals as a result.

The more aggressive and offensive i play against lesser teams really sems to help thou, i dont really score more goals but i push them back deep enough that there only forward players are the strikers. However against similar teams or better teams with wingers i am still out of luck, note that against better teams that focuses on the central part of the pitch i rock so it makes sense, i just dont know how to deal with this problem.

I will try showing the midfielder ad defender on there inside foot, otherwise i think i have tried it all.

Thanks thou for all the help, i will keep trying but right now it just feels to me that the match engine is broken or severely unbalanced :/