What is Your Lockdown Defense Tactic?

[Slamminabw]

When searching for FM2020 tactics what is revealed is a lot of gengenpress, tiki-taka, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, and some variation of the 5-3-2 WB. Entertaining and high scoring football obviously has its appeal, but what do you use when you're looking to hold onto that clean sheet with ten minutes to go? What philosophy, formations, and roles do you use to go hours and hours without conceding a chance?

[kevaggel]

The first thing i do is to change the "tactical style", i have a couple of them saved in order to avoid too many "clicks". Here is one example:

The main concept is to keep the ball as long as it is possible while the players are holding their positions. I like to have 3 DCs but when it is not possible i select some 442 or 451 without using strikers.

[thehig2]

It depends on your team, im currently managing HIFK in Finland and using what @kevaggel does would end in one of my players making a mistake.

If your team have low ability, or even decent ability but lower ability than the opposition Id suggest dropping defense line deeper and engagement deeper and going long.

With time wasting at max, be more disciplined and play for set peices on.

If you have any flair players in the midfield take them off if you can and replacement with harder working more defensive minded players.

I normally leave counter when ball is won on so the opposistion still has the occasional threat to deal with, quite often ill score again while playing like this.

[Johnny Ace]

I don't have one, historically I've found I get battered when going too defensive so I do things like time waste, ask the keeper to slow pace down, play for set-pieces, lower tempo, attack narrower, just negative stuff to see out the game 

Edited December 11, 2019 by Johnny Ace

[Tetsuro P12]

Don't defend, or you will be assailed. Just renounce to one of your attackers (preferably renounce to a center attacker) to put one more midfielder that will act like a filter. Not necessarily a DM. A BBM or a CM will do, they defend higher but are able to come back and stay in place (less pressing); still they can make you push forward and control the field. You want to dominate the midfield, not shut in in your own field.

Edited December 11, 2019 by Tetsuro P12

[rockpie]

18 minutes ago, Tetsuro P12 said:

Don't defend, or you will be assailed. Just renounce to one of your attackers (preferably renounce to a center attacker) to put one more midfielder that will act like a filter. Not necessarily a DM. A BBM or a CM will do, they defend higher but are able to come back and stay in place (less pressing); still they can make you push forward and control the field. You want to dominate the midfield, not shut in in your own field.

Without details of which Mentality, Team Instructions, Player Roles and Player Instructions you are using to achieve a specific outcome, you cannot simply say adding an extra midfielder will be successful.

What if the OP is playing with an Attacking Mentality combined with TIs like Counter Press, More Urgent Pressing, a Higher Defensive Line and a Higher Line of Engagement?

Simply adding a B2B midfielder will not help him, since it will still be easy for the AI to bypass his midfield entirely with direct counter attacks.

It's only helpful to you because it works within the rest of your setup, which you are not sharing.

You did the same yesterday by telling someone that their CDs were a problem because they were using a Stopper / Cover combination, while keeping them in line was working for you.

This doesn't help them unless you explain why it's bad for their system and why your solution works in your system.

Edited December 11, 2019 by rockpie

[Tetsuro P12]

1 hour ago, rockpie said:

Without details of which Mentality, Team Instructions, Player Roles and Player Instructions you are using to achieve a specific outcome, you cannot simply say adding an extra midfielder will be successful.

What if the OP is playing with an Attacking Mentality combined with TIs like Counter Press, More Urgent Pressing, a Higher Defensive Line and a Higher Line of Engagement?

Simply adding a B2B midfielder will not help him, since it will still be easy for the AI to bypass his midfield entirely with direct counter attacks.

It's only helpful to you because it works within the rest of your setup, which you are not sharing.

You did the same yesterday by telling someone that their CDs were a problem because they were using a Stopper / Cover combination, while keeping them in line was working for you.

This doesn't help them unless you explain why it's bad for their system and why your solution works in your system.

I said to him 'don't defend', thought positive or attacking mentality was implicit. I also said 'less pressing'. I can't do his work by specify every option, otherwise where it will be the fun for him?

And I'm not gonna sharing , but can tell here and there how to approach to things without imposing my tactics. It's not that difficult to set up own tactics with the right advices.

Edited December 11, 2019 by Tetsuro P12

[FMunderachiever]

17 hours ago, Slamminabw said:

When searching for FM2020 tactics what is revealed is a lot of gengenpress, tiki-taka, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, and some variation of the 5-3-2 WB. Entertaining and high scoring football obviously has its appeal, but what do you use when you're looking to hold onto that clean sheet with ten minutes to go? What philosophy, formations, and roles do you use to go hours and hours without conceding a chance?

I think its worth noting, that to hang onto a lead and "lock down" I might actually be MORE aggressive with my defending, as in, defend higher up, press harder, use an offside trap.

The implication of "locking down" is dropping deeper, compact, being more "solid" in a traditional sense, but not always the case

[rockpie]

50 minutes ago, Tetsuro P12 said:

I said to him 'don't defend', thought positive or attacking mentality was implicit. I also said 'less pressing'. I can't do his work by specify every option, otherwise where it will be the fun for him?

And I'm not gonna sharing , but can tell here and there how to approach to things without imposing my tactics. It's not that difficult to set up own tactics with the right advices.

Every tactic defends, it just depends how you are defending. Telling him "don't defend" is worthless.

Positive or attacking mentality might be implicit, but does it matter which one he uses?

How should he achieve less pressing? A team instruction? A player instruction? It's part of a specific player role?

Will your advice work for both big teams and underdogs, no matter who the opponent is? 

How do you know any of this will help him unless you tell him more information on the system where it works?

You don't have to give your whole tactic, but in the defensive phase - where player roles, level of pressing, defensive line and line of engagement all work together to create something successful or something that fails, you need to explain how your advice works.

Not just "add a midfielder, oh and less pressing" -- this can be a disaster if it doesn't make sense in the rest of the tactic.

Edited December 11, 2019 by rockpie

[XuluBak]

I don't have a "lockdown defensive tactic" because as others have said, you're just inviting trouble taking that approach. I'm constantly adjusting my tactics throughout a match and this is just another situation that is very dependent on specifics. If I'm completely controlling a match, I don't adjust much, maybe just knock my "mentality" down a notch and waste a little time. If the lead is more tenuous, then "regroup," lower my lines, and increase the time wasting (if I'm not doing these things already). I might pull AML/AMR back to create a more defensive formation (usually 4141 or 541). It's all very situational. That said, I generally adopt the philosophy that the best way to defend a one-goal lead is to make it a two-goal lead, so I almost always look to counter. I also don't want to completely abandon what my team knows and got us in that advantageous position in the first place, so tend to avoid drastic changes. 

[Tetsuro P12]

3 hours ago, rockpie said:

Every tactic defends, it just depends how you are defending. Telling him "don't defend" is worthless.

Positive or attacking mentality might be implicit, but does it matter which one he uses?

How should he achieve less pressing? A team instruction? A player instruction? It's part of a specific player role?

Will your advice work for both big teams and underdogs, no matter who the opponent is? 

How do you know any of this will help him unless you tell him more information on the system where it works?

You don't have to give your whole tactic, but in the defensive phase - where player roles, level of pressing, defensive line and line of engagement all work together to create something successful or something that fails, you need to explain how your advice works.

Not just "add a midfielder, oh and less pressing" -- this can be a disaster if it doesn't make sense in the rest of the tactic.

To me it matters. A defending mentality will slow down transition, it will end with him losing ball possession more often than not.

I suppose he knows some basics, otherwise he would need a paper to understand what every option does. I'm not here for that, don't know about you. There are ways very obvious to achieve less pressing, switches are all there and named clearly. If he didn't touched them they are set to standard, and it's already ok, if he touched them then he knows where to put his hands, set less pressing and done. You can achieve both with player or team instruction but it's him that should decide what to touch, otherwise tactics would be just copycat.

Yes, no matter which opponents.

It's not that if your line of pressing is a bit higher you will mess everything... He must decide that on his own by watching the game and seeing how player react, and his team disposition (that he can adjust as he likes). I said general rules: less pressing and one more midfielder covering space (specified even which roles would be appropriate for the task). I'm not talking to a musician: 'to this and do that'. I'm talking to a composer that should compose his own music. I'm sorry that you don't find my advices useful, eventually he does.

I don't see that disaster coming, maybe it's just me.