Conte

I'm playing as AFC Telford in the Conference North. Managed to nab a gem or two in pre-season (namely Nathan Jarman) but our first two results haven't been great.

v Tamworth (H) - slight favourites - drew 4-4
v Stalybridge (A) - heavy favourites - lost 1-3

Any hints on how to set up an effective defence in the lower leagues? I currently have everyone on mixed closing down, for the first game I had full backs - mixed and centre backs - rarely and I just felt we weren't putting our foot in enough, so that's my reasoning there. Plus with crap keepers long shots were a problem.

All of the defenders have long passing. You wouldn't think so though, so many of the goals conceded stem from our inability to clear the ball.

Mentality is global, and I change it as you'd expect during the match. What I found weird was that we were 3-1 up against Tamworth, so I actually had their mentalities on normal/defensive when the goals started flowing (they went 3-4 up).

Fwd runs, RWB etc are all on rarely except through balls, which is mixed. Full backs have mixed fwd runs at home, rarely away, and they are adjusted in game relating to the scenario. CBs and FBs had creative freedom of around 5 for the first game, I put it to 1 for the second game.

Anything I'm obviously doing wrong? Or any tips on how to setup an effective LL defence?

Cleon

This might help you, as it applies to defending in general and not just a particular league.

Link

Conte

Thanks Cleon.

I'm scrapping global mentality, at least for the defenders. Couple of things that that thread has pointed out which need altering as well.

I'll see how we do next game...