Buxton

Works for me. Well Mentality for Fullbacks and CD for Centrebacks anwyay. </BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmm so if I were to read into this:
Mentality of fullbacks = the whole team but is the whole team = to the Central defender as well....cos what i'm saying is that the whole team can be on one mentality but...the DCs have to be apart from the whole team.

I can see where your closing down would be the same for CDs but does the whole team play on low closing down too? Or does the whole team in your set-up play on one CD?

I think it is possible for a whole team to play on high closing except for the DMC and DCs...it does work. </BLOCKQUOTE>

No the whole team Ment is not set to the DC's, DC's are on individual Ment of about 7 or 8 and team to 11.

DC's close down to team, fullbacks about 13. Team CD varies from about 8/9 away to 14/16 at home.

rashidi1

Ah makes sense Bux

Ocke

Like anything else with this game, it´s science. Tried all of the settings on this forum during the last 3 seasons. My conclusion is that it doesnt make any difference if you use Barcelona or Exeter (the 2 I have played with). It´s not about the players you have, it´s about finding the correct defencive play for that special team. Maybe a patch will fix this, but I´m sure the rediculous amount of concedings will continue until then. I have made it work somewhat good thanks to all the tips in here, but it after the patch I´m sure it will be easier for all.

Siddo

Some very good ideas and suggestions there. I've seemed to have come to similar conclusions in both my games (Newcastle & Bournemouth) and i seemed to have applied similar settings/thoughts. I'm not doing badly in my games so far so i call that success. I've gone 4-4-2 with MCD/MCA combination. I have a home and away version and the settings i've used are:

Mentality: 16 at home 10 away
Width: 16 at home 8 away
Creative Freedom: 5 home and away
Defensive Line: 10 at home 12 away
Time Wasting: 5 home and away - Goes upto 15 around 88-90th minute if i'm not chasing the game
Tackling: Normal
Focus Passing: Mixed at home and Down Flanks away
Passing: 15/16 (Direct) :cool:
Closing Down: 14 at home 5 away
Counter attacking ticked away from home

GK

Ment :4
CD:4

DC's

Ment :6
CD:6

DR/L

Ment :8
CD:8

MCD/A

Ment :8
CD:Team

MR/L - Forward arrows to AM postion at home.

Ment :10
CD:Team

FC

Ment :12
CD:Team

ST

Ment :14
CD:Team

I've socred about 45 gls in all competitions so far and only conceded 12. Very unlucky with injuries so the figures could have been better or worse. But the team is standard Newcastle squad with no additions and pretty much the asst manager's recommended line up. If you want any more information i will e-mail screenshots, matches and the tactics if like just tell what address.

nic9394

jus wanted to add. since the patch a higher closing down across the back 4 have been far more effective for me defensively. then use individual intructions to pick the pacey strikers to never close down.

EmFries

Hey all, very good stuff, a very good read. I just wanted to comment quickly on the previous post by nic. Ive been struggling with my squad conceding, so i decided i would try and learn a few tricks and tips from the best out their, AI managers i mean, so i watched two of Man U 's matches in their entirety (on fast of course).

I really concentrated on picking up hints on how they play their back 4 and it was interesting on what it seemed to me the way they played. The first oppenent they played was PSV in the champs league, and the second was chelsea in a premiership fixture. And in both games it seemed to me that their back 4 played quite opposite to what everyone has been suggesting in this thread. They never seemed to tight mark, rather wait till a ball was played forward and then closed down immediately and more often then not won the ball over. Leading me to believe that zonal marking/no tight marking/closing down often. It also seemed that they played very narrow, but once they gained possesion the width was incredibly wide, which leads me to the question, can the AI have separate width settings for when they are in poss and not? They also played higher up the pitch.

So what nic said, it seems as tho a higher closing down tactic does work when used with a quality side, especially for the ai.

Now, Im not the most genius tactiction and i might be seeing one thing thinking it means one thing, but it actually means another. But i did notice that the way they played was very different from my own low closing down, tight marking tactics. The games were also home games which could skew judgement. And i believe the quality of players really allows this to be capable where if one defender misses a tackle, another should be there to close quickly, and they obviously have the pace to retreat back to the box.

But just somethin i noticed.

socks

check this one i out i made, tight defense

16000 downloads to date!

http://www.fmunderground.net/fmu/index.php?fmu=6_3_277&...835d7f777d98fd037203

Cleon

I still think this can be useful

Joedi

That comment made me laugh for some reason.

One of my major problems when it comes to tactics (one of many I may add) is in fact defending.

When I start a new game, I always look at sorting out the defence for the formation. So if its a 4-4-2 formation, I will concentrate on getting them 4 players sorted out first. So will try and perfect the players that play there and then player instructions which go with it. So for me this guide was effective in clearing up little bits of information, that are benefactors in creating a solid tactic set and stabilising a team.

From the above, a good idea could be to make a few more of these for FM08. What I mean by this is clearing up touches of information, that you may have even though of as 'too obvious to make a difference' or whatever.

mitjabarbic

CLEON,
i play with a sweeper keeper with mentality 20, often forward runs and 15 creative freedom. i am using this for 5 seasons now and every season i conceded less then 25 goals(best in the league)... so i think if keeper is that good u can set mentality even higher then 15