Cereal_Dave

right, basically i want to know how i should go about playing against dominating target men or the oppositions deadly fast strikers.

theres one target man especially i always come up against, and he wins absolutly everythin in the air. so how should i play against him?
if i have tight marking on him, surely he could flick the ball over me easy. so wouldnt it be best to have tight marking as never?
or should i look to close down their wingers to stop the supply to him? but what if the whole team is playing long ball to him?

same goes for fast strikers. if i tight mark i could restrict their play, but they could also run off my player easily with their great pace. so should i just close him down often to restrict his space, or just play dirty and go in hard in the tackle!

would just like to discuss the options and your experiences with this. obviously i dont do it with every striker i play against, but sometimes you come up against that one person who you just cant control. so how do you do it?

TomoCv

Put a defensive line high for target man, always play dirty except if he has really high strength attribute (18+). Tight marking is good if you have stronger defender as he will push attacker from a good position.
For a fast strikers defend deep and use hard tackling. Fast strikers aren't strong so they can get injured easily.
If this doesn't help use aggressive defensive midfielder for a specific tight marking role along with hard tackling. This is useful if you're playing against player who has low bravery attribute.

vasilli07

I will play offside on a normal d-line. For eg, a striker like T.Henry, I will never tight-mark him and easy tackling on him.

Why never to tight-mark T.Henry?
Because he is a fast player and with his agility, he can shakes off his marker quite easily. Unless you have a defender with agility as high as him.

Why easy tackling?
Because a player like Henry have great technique and dribbling. If you go on hard(50-50 challenges) and you miss, he could just be off to a 1 on 1 with your gk.

vasilli07

Couldn't edit...arghhh...

Just to add on easy-tackling, i put easy tackling as i want my defenders to be 99% sure that they can win that ball from henry before they lunge in.

Cereal_Dave

but if the opposition play the typical 'big man, little man' combo, you cant change your d-line accordingly. which is why im basically asking about individual instructions and which ones are best to use

against the pacy striker, it does work better having easy tackling. but should tight marking be used or not? it would restrict his play as he could be tackled immediatly. but he could also just run off the defender and off he goes to score!

im still struggling playing against a good target man tho. it seems the only way to beat him is to have a defender whos stronger and better in the air than him and just man mark him. it seems the only instruction you could give is 'tight marking never' as he's gunna win the ball anyway, might as well have the defender in a better postion to intercept

vasilli07

Yup, i agreed playing a stronger defender with better jumping and heading attributes to stop a big opposition player.

TM are just too effective in the game.

Cereal_Dave

in my current game im playing in italy, so i keep coming up against the likes of Lucarelli, Iaquinta, Bogdani etc etc and these guys just win everything. i basically give up on them now

i think the best bet is to close down the wingers instead so it cuts off their delivery. i did this in one game against juventus and they only had one shot at goal, so i guess this works best

varun↕§☺☻♫

This is how i play it:
Big man, little man combo - usually the big man is the slower one, but better at heading and long-shooting. On him i would use the tallest defender you have or one who can jump high and is good at heading. Use normal marking on him but easy tackling. On the little man try putting your fastest defender whose tackling is 17+ (would recommend Coloccini from deportivo). also put tight-marking and hard tackling. make sure your d-line is set to deep.
Target-man - This is a tricky one. If the man is tall with good heading/jumping stats be sure that he is going to head the ball over your defense for the other striker to run onto. If he has good long passing/short passing attributes along with high creativity, he's going to do a lot of through balls. Have one of your midfielders man-mark him. Also put tight marking on him if he is slow or normal if he is fast. Tackling would depend on your marking. tight marking=strong/normal tackling and vice-versa. It would help if this midfielder was a defensive midfielder who doesn't hold-up ball or is a playmaker.
One good solution against these kind of players is that make sure your goalkeeper has a good command of his area and his tendency to rush out is high.
Hope this helps. :thup:

BuluDomba

How deep do you play against quick strikers? I mean, how many notches?

And with the deep D-Line, do you set the individual mentality (ultra defensive) on the defenders or just leave it as it is?