My players tend to follow the ball too much

[Romano338]

Hi

I face an issue since my very first FM18 game. My players tend to follow the ball too much, especially on placed offensive from the opponent. Like, a player will get closer to the opponent facing him, the opponent gives the ball, and my player just follows the ball, even though there is a teamate already on the receiver. So you have 2vs1 on one side, 0vs1 on the other. I don't need to tell you who wins.
An other precise situation wher eit happens: 2 CBs vs 2 strikers. A striker has the ball, the CB on his side gets closer. The striker gives the ball to the other striker. The other CB gets closer. But the first CB follows the ball. 2v1, 0v1, ends up in a quick 1-2 and a goal.

The only situation where they don't really care about the ball is over-the-top through balls. I conceed most of my goals on that. I don't even play high or anything. But AI loves so much to launch 60m balls over the top, and defenders constantly leave the striker(s) alone. And even worse: when they are more or less at the same level than the striker, they stop running, and start again once the striker is 5-6m ahead. Got it 2 or 3 times in my last game, and a lot of times before.

These are the 2 things that make me conceed so many goals. And I can't find how to fix it.

Do you struggle with that?! How do you set up your central defense? Does AI use alot of over-the-top through balls too?

[big daddy]

That sounds to me like closing down issues , do you have close down more as team instruction?

I have mine on specific player instructions only that keeps my defensive organisation in place and the attacking players doing the hunting.

I had the same issue when I used the team instruction close down more.

balls over the top I am not sure of , whould need to see the replay, especially if you are not using higer d-line.

are your central defenders on mark tighter?  that would make them vulnerable if the forward is quick and has good attributes for that play.

[Romano338]

No close down more. I play the "Sometimes" level of pressure.

I use the normal defensive line, a bit lower sometimes. My CBs weren't on mark tighter, but I put them on, hoping they would actually stick with the striker. My CBs have around 11/12 acceleration, and I got that issue with striker barely faster (12/13). It's more a problem of intelligence, of stopping instead of running, of leaving the striker alone, rather than a problem of pure speed.

[Artin]

28 minutes ago, Romano338 said:

No close down more. I play the "Sometimes" level of pressure.

That "Sometimes" level of pressure can be deceiving. Look at the bar graph. For example, if you switch the mentality to Attacking, the closing down level will say "Sometimes" but the bar is like 75% to the right (which is right around the "Close Down More" area)!

[Romano338]

I'm on "control" so the bar is like 55% maybe? A bit after midway

[looping]

19 minutes ago, Artin said:

That "Sometimes" level of pressure can be deceiving. Look at the bar graph. For example, if you switch the mentality to Attacking, the closing down level will say "Sometimes" but the bar is like 75% to the right (which is right around the "Close Down More" area)!

@Romano338 This is an excellent observation, IMO. Every mentality has its default settings so your closing down and defensive line in attacking mentality will be much higher than in counter, for instance. Don't forget there must be a correlation among defensive line and closing down. Closing down is the range each player will cover following opponents, while defensive line is the point where your players will start closing down.

I'd would be great if you posted your entire tactical setup, particularly mentality.

You just posted your mentality and you say is control. Your defensive line is quite high and so is your closing down. Take a look also at your players aggression attribute.

I honestly wouldn't change the closing down setting, there is no need to do so. You can change defensive line or use PI for certain individuals. Even mentality can help, despite you must be aware changing mentality means changing almost everything.

I may add, perhaps it's only me but most of the defensive problems can be fixed moving the defensive line, if your role/duty allocation is balanced.

[Romano338]

I'll try lowering my defensive line, even though I quite often play with a lower line already.

As a football fan, I can understand how players closing down a lot could create a lack of balance, but not how a player closing down decided to follow the ball for 30 seconds even though the teammates are already doing it.

[looping]

40 minutes ago, Romano338 said:

I'll try lowering my defensive line, even though I quite often play with a lower line already.

As a football fan, I can understand how players closing down a lot could create a lack of balance, but not how a player closing down decided to follow the ball for 30 seconds even though the teammates are already doing it.

Don't forget your roles/duties too. Not only your cb but particularly who is in front/besides of them. 

 

 

[ajsr1982]

Here's my take.

This is what the match engine needs to do to create space, and by extension goal-scoring opportunities. If players behaved exactly how you wanted them to, you'd never concede.

Ultimately, it's an approximation to real life or a model, and it's not perfect (and never will be). This feels like the general simulation of sub-optimal player behaviour. I've noticed it too, but there are things you can control and things you can't. Probably a minor detail you have to live with.

[BMNJohn]

3 hours ago, ajsr1982 said:

Here's my take.

This is what the match engine needs to do to create space, and by extension goal-scoring opportunities. If players behaved exactly how you wanted them to, you'd never concede.

Ultimately, it's an approximation to real life or a model, and it's not perfect (and never will be). This feels like the general simulation of sub-optimal player behaviour. I've noticed it too, but there are things you can control and things you can't. Probably a minor detail you have to live with.

I agree. FM has been struggling with that for a while. It's especially prevalent on far post crosses, where you should have enough players to cover the opportunities but still concede because your defenders completely forget about the opposition's player at the far post. Or when two defenders close down on a winger near the byline, opening opportunities to pass the ball around or towards the box. Aside from getting better defenders, there's not much to do. Obviously this is considering that you have a sensible tactical setup, of course.

[Romano338]

I've been playing lower, and used more opponent's instructions and it's been better. You still have some weird things sometimes but less (until you have that wimp of Luis Gustavo, not the Marseille one, with 8 in courage who runs away from any duel... great CB I got on loan!).

Closing down is still quite weird though. Some tweaks made it slightly better too I think.