Cross Goal Repeat

[DeepLyingForward]

Hi guys,

Long time reader, first time poster. Apologies for bringing up a topic that has possibly been done to death but after a quick search in the forum I wasn't able to find an answer to the issues i'm currently having with FM16.

I'll cut to the chase. How do you stop/prevent/negate crosses from destroying your sides chances of winning games? As they say, a picture paints a thousand words, so instead of me waffling on about my problems please see the images below that detail my frustration.

From the above it's easy to see that only five of the goals I've conceded have assist locations of the middle of the pitch, the damage is done from the wings. It won't be a surprise to see that the right side of my formation has an attacking right full back and I'm pointing the blame at the moment to this attacking fullback. I am slightly against making him support however as he provides a decent outlet for our team and you can see that the chap who plays on the right side FB has the best avg rating of the team.

I have a play narrower instruction on too, could this be the problem? I'm unsure.

Player instructions wise. I have both my fullbacks set to pass shorter. No instructions for them to sit wider etc. My CB's aren't the best but they should be good enough to stop 26 goals from the wings! I'm not sure if my defensive line is the problem?

Any help, advice, comments would be greatly appreciated. This isn't the first time I have been stung by crosses in FM16, each save I have played I have witnessed the cross, goal, repeat from the AI destroy any chance of success.

[macca7292]

I'm no expert by any stretch but this is what I think.

One thing that jumps out is you're on attacking. This will leave a lot of space behind when you attack so it could be the problem.

I'd watch back the goals you've conceded - is it because you've been caught on the break or is it something else?

I'd also be inclined to remove the play narrower shout.

I play with a narrow 442 diamond so I'm especially vulnerable down the flanks.

To combat it I play wider and close down / tight mark the opposition wide players although you have to be careful if they play a role like inside forward where they cut in - I don't want the full back being dragged inside.

I'm on counter as well so the players aren't quite so gung ho in their outlook, although both full backs are set as wing back attack.

[DeepLyingForward]

I'm no expert by any stretch but this is what I think.

One thing that jumps out is you're on attacking. This will leave a lot of space behind when you attack so it could be the problem.

I'd watch back the goals you've conceded - is it because you've been caught on the break or is it something else?

I'd also be inclined to remove the play narrower shout.

I play with a narrow 442 diamond so I'm especially vulnerable down the flanks.

To combat it I play wider and close down / tight mark the opposition wide players although you have to be careful if they play a role like inside forward where they cut in - I don't want the full back being dragged inside.

I'm on counter as well so the players aren't quite so gung ho in their outlook, although both full backs are set as wing back attack.

Hi macca, thanks for the reply.

Yes I do play an attacking mentality for one of my formations, the other formations have a more standard\counter approach to the game.

I'll have a look back at the goals, from what I can remember I do believe there have been a lot of deep crosses and crosses go across my goal for their striker to have a tap in. I'll review my opp instructions too as I have only just gone about setting these, I previously ignored setting any...perhaps a fundamental flaw of my game setup?

[macca7292]

I wouldn't say fundamental flaw! If the crosses are coming from deep is it the full backs playing them in?

If it is your wide midfielders should be closing them down. I'd be looking at why they're not doing it - are they too narrow? Have they followed an opposition player into the centre?

I've just noticed one of your central mids is on an attack duty - I think this may also be a problem.

Chances are he's too high up when you lose the ball leaving you short in the middle, which in turn may make your wide players come inside to help , thus leaving too much space for the opposition full backs.

I'd change him to a box to box midfielder or a centre mid on support.

You could also set your wide mids to close down more or specifically mark the opposition full backs.

[moolochicken]

From answers that I have seen somewhere else and my own experience, its about how your FB/WB deal with the crosser.

Sometimes its tighter marking+ease off tackles to block crosses, and sometimes it is hard tackling. I cant tell which one is better, but I use tight marking + ease off tackles.

In opposition instruction crosser should be shown on weaker foot with tight marking; which when you face a highly paced crosser, you know you are not going to be able to stop him (and it is rare in the game for acc+pace & crossing both being higher than 16).

*btw, Width TI only affect attacking movement and has nothing to do with defending, said to be true by others in the forum

[macca7292]

*btw, Width TI only affect attacking movement and has nothing to do with defending, said to be true by others in the forum

True but it helps with the transition from attack to defence. If you're already wider, your wide players are that bit nearer the opposition wide players.

I'm sure rashidi mentions it in the bust the net thread (and Guido recommends it on his strikerless site).

[PigeonStrangler]

You can have the worst player in the world as a full-back and he will literally bend it like Beckham.

[HUNT3R]

You have two attacking fullbacks and an Attacking Mentality. The left flank (their right) has absolutely no cover at all when you lose the ball. The right flank looks "okay" but you're leaving the DLP to do a lot of work as he's the only one staying back.

[Svenc]

Pretty much what Hunter said. Marked is the DLP/d. The only time an AI every has this aggressive a set-up visibly is when it goes overload, desperate to score i.e. a late equalizer (by contrast, at its least risky it has defend duty/hold position players all over the shop). The more central forwards (up to three) an AI fields, the more are immediately ready outlets for the counter (here it's two), plus AMR/AML type also can sit into all of that space. There is a bit of a difference between a Wb/s and attack still, but even on support he is encouraged to "get further forward" just as on attack, contrary to a fb/s, say. It is of vital importance that players have moves in their profile influencing forward movement further, overriding instructions inherent to a role/duty to a degree, such as "gets forward at every opportunity". Not seldom the reason I reckon why some download tactics do the "trick" for the one guy, and less so for the other. There's barely a thing that influences stuff as much as positioning, naturally. There is ME inherent stuff that makes it tough to defend wide currently, but the left flank is all open all match (provided this isn't ever slightly adjusted during matches).

Main reason I'm posting though, is there still a bug in here or am I just confused? Mind, this could be coincidence, but logically, you'd expect to see the majority of goals conceded (in the long run) down the left flank where the cm/a immediately pushes up, here it shows the right. I had noticed rather late that in FM 2015 this seemed to be a bug in the analysis. I.e. I had conceded most goals down the left, but they were shown on the right. As for the own assists, this was spot on though. Wondering. Anyone? :confused:

[DeepLyingForward]

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies, some great advice that i'll be looking to implement this morning. I am looking to change the CM-A to a BBM or a CM-S and will be reviewing my team instructions with considerations towards the width of the tactic. I'll also have a look at opp instructions to see if that can help prevent the crosses coming in.

[Kuchiki]

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies, some great advice that i'll be looking to implement this morning. I am looking to change the CM-A to a BBM or a CM-S and will be reviewing my team instructions with considerations towards the width of the tactic. I'll also have a look at opp instructions to see if that can help prevent the crosses coming in.

A possible solution might be to switch your fb right to support after you take an early lead that way you can limit assists from that area. It's also more than likely to be of importance to look at how attacking the oppositions left side is, if they have just one wide man then by all means keep the full back on attack duty but if they are overloading you with 2 attacking wide men then you should realize that's going to be a weak link in your side.

[Contexx]

I've had / am still sort of having a similar issue in my West Ham save, and mostly from my left side. My fullback (Cresswell) is fairly good defensively, and he's on FB (S) role with Payet ahead of him as either a IF(S) or WM(A), depending on my shape. Either way, Payet being Payet, and in those roles, naturally runs with the ball often and cuts inside. He's is also not very good defensively, and nor should he be, which leaves Cresswell and company with a lot to do any time Dimitry loses the ball. Playing pretty wide as a team, it leaves me quite open to the counterattack, and so a lot of the goals I concede tend to be from direct passes to pacy wingers or overloading blitzes down the flanks where a fullback finds himself wide open with all the time in the world.

It generally leaves me with two options. Either rein in the attacking tendencies of possibly my best player, or take the risk and sling it out with the opposition. For example, playing against Man United, managed by Mourinho, I was getting battered down the flanks. Watching the extended highlights was terrifying as long balls would be hit to onrushing wingers and fullbacks and it all seemed to happen at hyperspeed. At first it seemed like they were all out attacking us, until I watched in full highlights and noticed that they would sit back and then counter quickly down the flanks. Being Man United, the quality of their wingers was excellent, and it was just too much for my fullback to handle on his own. Even the DMC, or CM's would have a hard time coping because my formation is wide, and the crosses would be either early or as a result of quick overlaps.

In order to counter this, I actually switched to more narrow width. I know it may sound counterintuitive, and it certainly limited space for Payet to cut inside, but it ensured help was more nearby from my central players when he would lose the ball and there were less gaps to exploit. Changing passing to shorter also helped this, as we could keep the ball a bit better and not leave so many gaps. Now this in turn led to the opposition exploiting the flanks more, although that wasn't such a bad thing as suddenly there was space that opened up, particularly for us to counterattck. Even though I was playing with Control strategy, it ended up leading to some very effective counterattacks. I could be wrong, but counterattacks tend to trigger a more direct style with overloading vulnerable areas of the pitch. We ended up scoring two quick goals through direct passes along the wings, in spite of playing unusually narrow.

I hope that makes some sense, at least when dealing with crosses coming from counterattacks against dangerous opponents.

When wide players cut inside, it can be a very effective way to attack, although when they lose possession, it's very dangerous because you're usually left vulnerable down the flanks and crosses to onrushing, quick forwards require very high levels of anticipation and accelleration for defenders to cope with and very awkward decisions for the Fullback to make.

I hope I'm not way off. It's worked for me a few times when dealing with quick counterattacking teams.

[Ghents]

I play with two attacking wide players in the midfield and two FB-A and crosses are what I concede the most, but it's not absolutely killing me. Set piece defending more than anything is.

Both of mine have stay wider, ease off tackles and I make sure I show wide players to their unnatural crossing foot. I can't remember if I have close down more or not, I'd have to look when I get home.

[heddy]

You can have the worst player in the world as a full-back and he will literally bend it like Beckham.

True. I got one, he has 5 assists in 11 games. I actually miss the reply " Because the match engine works like that"

when a reporter asks why my goals comes from crosses.