Mr Etheirdge !

Well hello people,

Long time no speak. Been reading alot about FM over the past couple of weeks on this forum and there is some superb discussions to help people having problems with actually creating tactics that work with:-

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>creating tactics
<LI>closing players down
<LI>midfielders tackling
</UL>

Now am going to thank a few people for helping me in understanding FM08 alot better and am going to link people to them discussions.

Firstly thanks to faeron (discussion = Defensive Line and Closing Down Linked !

I can't thank this man enough he has helped me understand that you only set this differently to certain players to help with closing down and you should therefore set your players to play as a team (which helps with closing down). For example :-

Each slider bar on the teams settings go to 20 clicks (1 being from the far left and 20 being the highest).

Now ive gathered from reading this discussion and others that the following ARE linked and have to be used together to create a team which actually listens to their manager and not get confused (IE Let players run the length of the pitch and score).

The following that are linked are:-

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>Team Mentatity (TM)
<LI>Closing Down (CD)
<LI>Defensive Line (DL)
</UL>

Now it is very important that each slider is close to each other IE:-

For attacking football :-

TM - 15 or 16
CD - 14/15/16
DL - 14/15/16

Now me personally I would play (depending on players) direct passing and a quick tempo.

Now yourself have to decide on what you would on this because these two are linked so I would keep these close together as well. IE

Passing - 14 (first one after mixed to direct)
Tempo - 16

For each player you wish to be the "beast of your team (usually the DMC)", from what I have read you would set him up different and give him indivual closing down (personally, ive found that give him a couple notiches higher then the overall teams closing down usually produces him in getting himself about and tackling players.

Now if you decided you where going to play on the defensive and hit people on the break then again you would lower your DL, CD and TM. Which inturn would make your players drop off and IE jocky (Ive found this dangerous myself as players like C.Ronaldo just destroy you).

The actual formations I have changed to use this theory and it has worked for me for the time being has been.

Fiora2

I believe it has been created by ChrisWright1 so all thanks goto him. Ive adapted it though to work Home and Away with a few tweaks here and there (IE moving the two midfields so one is AMC and one is DMC away).

I hope this helps some people and I look forward to any feedback. I am not taking any credit of any of the discussions I have URL too. Am just saying they have a been a fantasic help and I believe the way i have explained it seems to be simpier.

prchovanec

I've found that if I've set mentality to attacking and brought my defensive line up (as suggested) it is extremely difficult for me to maintain any kind of defense, since there is inevitably a counter-attack (on purpose or just by the ball getting accidentally kicked) that gets into my backfield before my defenders can get back there.

teejay73

I agree mr etheirdge, faeron`s thread on closing down is great and works for me and is a must read for anyone struggling with the basics of their tactics.

How do you set up your closing down? do you assign it to individual instructions or team?

I only ask cause i note that you set the CD to team instructions and only individual for the DM aka the beast?

I thought faeron based his theory on individual instructions for CD?