BeN82

After years playing FM and with time on the demo to experiment, i finally tried to find out what each of the corner instructions mean.

I noticed in the demo (which I assume the new match engine will be based on) that attack near post, attack far post and attack from deep, these players tend to go for the second ball rather than the corner kick being driven towards them. As such, it seems that it might be worth putting less players hanging back for attacking corners if these instructions are used especially if you have a man outside the box. I think that a player like Michael Owen will be most useful for such an instructions since he's unlikely to win a header during a corner kick and might as well be there to snap up second balls that might be rebounded to him. As such players tend to stand near the edge of the area before the corner kick is taken, it might mean less space for a player lurking outside the box to take a long shot since the opposition player marking these players will be close to the long range shooter to close him down.

I find the corners will be driven towards players with instructions challenge keeper, near post flick on, stand on far post and forward (which would be in front of the goal but a lot more forward than those attacking near and far post). I feel if you have a player that is capable of scoring from range and you put him outside area for corners, you should just put players on those four instructions to give this player space whether the ball is cleared to him or the corner is driven to him since he will have space.

Therefore, i think corner instructions should be set up to the kind of players you have in your team to achieve its best effect. eg. No point putting many players on forward if they can't win headers. Might as well let you best headers on near post flick, challenge keeper and forward and let the rest play the second ball, especially if they have decent anticipation.

Another point i noted was free kicks in wide positions, players will just line up like their corner instructions waiting for the ball to get driven in.

As for free kick instructions, can anyone tell if disrupting wall (how many are needed for best effect) and marking keeper work?

So what do you guys think? Are my observations spot on or I'm missing something

Dayle Wood

I can't seem to score from corners at the moment because the players keep committing fouls in the area. I suspect this is something SI are looking at as it has been reported by someone in the bugs forum.

Until the patch comes out I am probably just going to leave set pieces alone.