lostchild

Finished 17th in my first game of FM08 and found that this version is quite hard. I've read the book and FM08 tip sticky and i'm still not 100% certain of the D-line but also how closing down works. I believe that the match engine still has issues but i want to check my views of the above first. This could be why my players are still not closing down correctly and thier condition drops rapidly.

I'm playing 4-4-2 with the following individual mentality settings. The team settings are as follows

Team

Mentality: 10 (Middle of the slider)
Creative Freedom: 4 (Low)
Passing: 11 (Last notch of Mixed)
Tempo: 11 (Matches passing - Normal)
Width: 10 (Middle of the slider)
Defensive Line: 7 (First notch of Normal)
Closing Down: 10 (Middle of slider) - This is also dropped if the D-line slider is dropped so would be D-Line = 6 Closing Down = 9

Individual settings for mentality (M) & Closing Down (C)

M C

GK:4 5

DL:6 6
DC:5 5
DC:5 5
DR:6 6

Rest of positions rely on team instructions (see above)

ML:9
MC:7
MC:7
MR:9

FC:9
FC:11

My question is as follows along with how i think it works. I may be wrong here

1, D-Line - Is this the line the team plays from. The slider is 1-20, so 1 is the edge of the 18 yard box and 20 is the half way line? According to the tips sticky each line (DEF/MID/ATT) has its own line but i dont see how. I thought it might be the line where the team plays from so it should always be below the closing down setting

1, Closing Down - Where the team starts closing down. The slider is 1-20, so 1 is the edge of the 6 yard box and 20 is the edge of the opponents 6 yard box way? So my thinking is if im defending deep then i really only want to close down when the opponents cross the half way line. The players attributes define the intensity but not when they should.

Am i on the right track so do i have my settings wrong? Any help would be much appreciated

retired_happydawg

Siddo, I am not a so called "authority" on he games tactics, etc. The best way I can try to assist you, is to refer you to page 28 of the manual.

In the "Defensive Line" paragraph, part of it reads thus. 'The slider is set from "Deep" to "Push Up".The further right the bar is set, the closer to the halfway line the defensive unit will advance when in possession'.

So, from this, I would assume that 20 on the slider, in this case is the halfway line. You now know as much as myself. I hope this will assist you.

retired_happydawg

Sorry Siddo, I forgot about the closing down. As I understand it, team mentality, defensive line and closing down are linked. That is to say that they all should be within the same areas. eg. If you are playing an attacking tactic then team mentality etc should all fall within the 14-17 clicks from the left. The oppositte is true when using a defensive counter attacking tactic.

If I am wrong, perhaps someone could enlighten us both.

lostchild

Cheers for your responses.

I've looked at the manual and my implementation of it seems right. But i still find the players are not closing down correctly. I know it was originally a bug but it was suppose to have been fixed. So i assume its in my settings somewhere but i cannot pin anything down at the moment.