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I'm currently half way through my first season on FM08 playing as Gateshead in the Blue Square North and I have to say that we're not doing too badly. We are second in the league (just) and have two free-scoring strikers up front with both netting more than 20 goals already this season, however.....
My defence is completely useless - in nearly every game I play I have to fight my way back from a goal down, or nervously hold on for the last 20 minutes after letting a three goal lead at half time slip to 3-2 (this has happened at least 7 times this season). They just can't seem to keep any team at bay for 90 minutes, which shows in that we've only kept 2 clean sheets so far this season.
I've tried various tweaks (higher/lower d-line, lower/higher closing down, less/more attacking mentatilty, added a DMC in front of centrebacks) but still they are still completley useless (or more likely...i'm completely useless)
Okay they aren't the best defenders in the world, but having looked at other defences in the league with a considerably better defensive record than ourselves, most contain defenders who are the same or slightly worse (in terms of attributes) than my current defence. Below is a complete set of screenshots for the tactic i have used for the first half of the season. Any help from any defensive experts or any possible improvements to my tactic would be greatly appreciated, as i fear that if we do somehow manage to get promoted we'll get murdered...
Read the forums - Defendng currently dosnt work very well as their is a major bug with closing down......thus you cannot defend particually well (or at leats hwo you normally would) until the patch is out.
I thought closing down was fixed in the beta patch? I'm tearing my hair out with this version already, making teams defend to any sort of reasonable level just seems to be impossible. The kind of goals I'm losing are just ridiculous and believe you me, I've tried as many combinations of instructions and positions as I can. I really didn't think much of 07 in comparison to previous versions, but 08 seems to have gone backwards even further.
i have the beta patch, the only way i can get my goal conceded average down too about 1.2 per game is by playing flat back 4, with RB/LB not going forward, and playing two ultra defensive DM's, as you can imagine, this tactic lacks a little upfront lol
Woodsy - the potential problem I can see is possibly in the closing down from your keeper and central defenders. I don't know how it looks in the match engine but the keeper on mixed c.d. may mean he is pushing too far up the pitch and being caught out away from his goal - it may be better to set it to own area.
The central defenders are right for tight marking but possibly close down too near their own area which can lead to long shots going in - possibly move their closing down to around 14 on the scale. When you look at the opposition strikers and there is one who is an obvious slow target man then possibly close him down and show to wrong foot. When facing pacy strikers hold back and don't dive in as they will thrash you for pace. If facing a solo striker close down and wrong foot. Look for long shot specialists in the opposition and close down to wrong foot to stifle their chances.
Thanks for the help you guys, i managed to achieve promotion via the playoffs thanks mainly to your advice...my defence is now looking like it actually might hold up in the Blue Square Prem!
After watching my next match in extended highlights i soon realised that my defence were playing far too deep and inviting too much pressure onto themselves - to counter this i moved the defence line further up the pitch and turned off tight marking which seemed to work a treat. Coupling this with more informed use of opposition instructions pre-match made my defence almost impregnable.
I also (after reading some of rashidi's posts) decided to change my playing mentality and changed from a quick direct style to a slow, patient build up style which helped my overall play no end - in the last 12 games of the season i conceded only 5 goals, won 9, drew 3 and scored an average of 2.5 goals per game during that period! Blue Square Prem here i come
How do you set up a solid defence? 
Linear Mode
