Trouble maintaining leads

[amil21]

There seems to be a common theme in my games where we start well and usually take the lead. However, early in the second half the opposing team will begin to throw more numbers into the attack until we eventually concede and the match remains a stalemate from that point forward. I have tried everything I can think of from dropping down the mentality down to standard or attempting to retain possession, but nothing seems to work and an equalizer always seems inevitable. Does anyone have an idea how to solve this problem?  

[Rashidi]

have you tried wresting control of the pitch where the AI is dominating?

[Torskus77]

Looking at the date, looks like FM15 ?  Loved that game, I could win at that one lol

 

Seriously though, bwm on support in that formation is suicide , Imagine the gap that is going to be open there when he presses and your W (A) is stranded up the top too.  That's just one thing I can spot, I would watch some of Rashidi's videos on you tube though, they have helped me a lot, slowly but surely starting to get to grips with FM17 now.   4-2-3-1 isn't one of the formations you can throw a few roles together and hope it works,  you need to work on that shield for your back 4 firstly I would say, Rashidi has some great videos for how to press from the front with that formation which will definitely help you. 

[amil21]

10 hours ago, Rashidi said:

have you tried wresting control of the pitch where the AI is dominating?

The goals always come from the wings, whether it’s a deep cross that the forward latches onto or from the wingers themselves getting in behind me fullbacks. I can’t figure out how to defend the weak area on the flank between my wingers and fullbacks without changing my formation all together.

[AFCBeer]

11 hours ago, amil21 said:

The goals always come from the wings, whether it’s a deep cross that the forward latches onto or from the wingers themselves getting in behind me fullbacks. I can’t figure out how to defend the weak area on the flank between my wingers and fullbacks without changing my formation all together.

 

You might just have answered your own question. Certainly in FM17 it's a game of momentum. Once you spot the AI is attacking you aggressively you need to adjust. Seems you have already identified the defensive weakness in your formation, so why not just drop your AML and AMR to ML and MR?

In addition to the obvious more defensive compactness, you mentioned the Retain Possession shout. Well if your players are closer together, as they would be in a 4-4-1-1 compared to 4-2-3-1, you might find retaining the ball much more effective too. 

[Dr. Hook]

1 hour ago, AFCBeer said:

You might just have answered your own question. Certainly in FM17 it's a game of momentum. Once you spot the AI is attacking you aggressively you need to adjust. Seems you have already identified the defensive weakness in your formation, so why not just drop your AML and AMR to ML and MR?

In addition to the obvious more defensive compactness, you mentioned the Retain Possession shout. Well if your players are closer together, as they would be in a 4-4-1-1 compared to 4-2-3-1, you might find retaining the ball much more effective too. 

Good advice here. I'll just add too that you can see from the formation widget (or go to the lineups view) when the AI goes attacking, most often it will put a fullback or wingback on attack down one side. You spot this with the player moved forward in position on the formation screen. This will be where you will get nailed with that formation of yours. Since you have no DM to screen the central defenders, in addition to dropping your wingers to the midfield, putting that fullback onto a lower duty (or moving the WB to FB) and make sure your BWM is on that side so he can move out quickly to intercept the overlapping back.

[ajsr1982]

I'll echo some of what has been said above, but it's also worth pointing something else out...

When the opposition does this, it's a great opportunity to kill the game off. If the attacking tactic was that good, they would have started the game with it. It presents lots of areas you can exploit if you play smart.

For example, I'm playing 4-1-4-1 at the moment, which means I'm more or less set up by default to cope with any change from the opposition. So, this means I effectively do nothing. I might look to exploit their flanks on the break, depending on exactly what they're up to.

Key thing for me is to retain an attacking threat when you adjust. A low block formation with a couple of attack duties should do it. I also remain on Standard mentality to ensure I can get the ball forward quickly (ish) and it doesn't become a one-way game of attack versus defence.

There are other ways to do it. Spain's recent great team used to defend by passing the ball around between defence and midfield in an attempt to draw out the opposition. You need the players to do this however!