JohnSWA

If you want to defend and try to win the ball back when the opposition enters your own half, you should set the DL to 14.

If you want to start to defend higher up the pitch set it higher. If you want to defend deeper down your own half set it deeper.

retired_TUMMY TUCK

i don't really understand this theory to be honest

Paulo1975

faeron i think you are on to something here. I've only just started to play 08 and at first i played with split mentalities but that left gaps all over the place. Now i play with a global mentality and it really makes things compact. I just adjust dline and mentality depending on who i'm playing. And i've turned my team around. I think split mentalities doesn't work with this patch. We will have to see how things are when the proper patch comes out. It is a fact that if you play a deep line you will have to soak up pressure, if you play a high dline then you will be trying to press the play and put pressure on the opposition.

I think for a lower league/championship side, the dline should be two clicks back from normal. If your a premiership good side it should be left on normal and if you're a big premiership side you can afford to play a highish line because of the players at your disposal. Does anyone agree with me?

retired_kellyk

I've seen people set up split mentalities...and more often than not, they set it up wrongly and then ask why they are defending properly. Simply put you cannot operate a split mentality system if the gap between the attacking set of players and the defending set have no anchors.

Anchors can either be one player or a group that are on normal mentalities, these players are the ones who defend/attack and bring cohesion to the whole team.

Personally I think each individual team has some optimum level of performance. Conservatively speaking the best setting for a team could be the first notch of attacking with a dline of 12, which should be less than the mentality.

Having set that you then need to look at closing down, when a team has set its defensive line in its own half as is the case with 12...then it follows that players should close down in their own half to keep the formation cohesive. Players can close down whole pitch but preferably those who are not in positions where they cause the team to lose its cohesion.

There should be generally 3 ways to play then..defensive/counterattacking..where you would have a deep/normal dline with a deep/normal mentality. Then you would have closing down again within their own area, but not so much that they lose their cohesion.

Possession based tactics and attacking tactics would naturally then have different mentalities and closing down set ups....So I wouldn't agreee that as a general rule..premiership clubs can play a higher dline. Such a dline increases the risk factor for games. I would generally recommend that dlines ALWAYS stay within the normal scale on the slider.

Paulo1975

rashidi1 you're better at tactical design than me i was just trying to get involved and put what i've found out, across to the forum. What you've said does make sense. What you're saying is this: In any formation you need defensive players, attacking players and players that do both. Am i right? If that is what you're saying, what would be the setup in a normal 4-4-2 formation. e.g back four - defensive, amc and forwards - attacking and dmc and winger do both?
have i got the right idea rashidi1?

retired_kellyk

Lets keep the discussion here to the inter-relationship between defensivelines and closing down which I find particularly interesting. You can take those questions up in the making tactics thread I set up where i've already covered that. cheers

retired_vsoukup

i set my highest attacking player i.e striker at mentality of 12 and put the rest of the team in decending order. i then put my DL at 14 or 15 and closing down starts at 14 or 15 for my striker depending on what the DL is set to and again descending for the rest of the team in increments of one. i set my two DC back 3 or 4 CD from the FB's as i noticed that if they are too similar the ball gets passed thru them too easily.

obviously i am set up with short passing, slow tempo to dominate being this high up the pitch.

my thinking is that you should have mentality set a little lower than the DL so that players will be in position to start closing down. im not sure if this is the case however would like to hear some views on that idea, however i am certainly more compact and concede alot less, now to get me scoring goals.....lol

JohnSWA

rashidi1: You are spot on.

afeckingname: Sounds good what you are doing. I haven`t tried exactly what you described. But by the theory I use, this would be a good solution.

daleuk7: We will make you understand this. Just give me some time. My mail didn`t accept the mail with the link from imageshack. As soon as it is sorted I will put up pitcures, it is easier to explain then.

To all who are reading this thread. This is ment to be used as a guideline, not a thumb of rule. Make your own adjustments, to suit your style of play and players. The way DL, Closing down and mentality works, is for all tactics. Get theses items sorted out and you are on your way of having a decent tactic.

JohnSWA

This is just a test so that I can learn how to put up images.

JohnSWA

Sorry for mulitple posting. Be patient with me and maybe finally this will be correct.
Try again
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