krispos

I have a somewhat experienced but slow central backs and they are often caught out of position as they are unable to cut off the through ball to fast opposition striker or a cross coming from the side. I tried to deploy a defensive counter-attacking 4-3-3 with 2 dmcs (somewhat vulnerable on wings) but Im still struggling.

1. Has anyone tried setting DCs on zonal marking (or one zonal one manmarking)?

2. How to set up my DMC if I want him to do more interceptions-based then tackling-pressing machine?

ntfc

If your defenders are slow, it is not the end of the world. However, if they possess poor anticipation and decisions it is. Ever noticed how Maldini is such a good defender but lacks pace?

Interception DMC are pretty straightforward, the best one i can think of is Makalele(sp?)

Mentality would be around 8-9, you want him operating just ahead of the center backs and just below his original position. Closing down, very low. If he has good decisions he will know when to close and win the ball, this will also increase the chance that he can intercept balls, because he will not be out of position. Tackling easy, you want him to be 100% sure he can win the ball. No forward runs etc, they are irrelevant to what you want him to do. Short passing so he can lay the ball off then get back in to position. Maybe a free role, but this kind of contradicts the closing down, but i have seen it work in previous versions.

timpino

1) I use my centre backs on zonal, I did use man-marking before, but when the opposition is good it fails, especially when your players are slow. I tend to go with the low closing down non tight zonal aproach when using slow defenders against fast strikers, basicly my idea is to put them between the goal and the striker. I also go with light tackling sometimes to limit them rushing the oponent. Going one zonal and one manmark would seem suicide in my book since both players would be able to end up on the same guy leaving a huge gap in your defence.

Do your DC's have good positioning and anticipation? a fast defender might be able to cope without it, but a slow one will be as bad as Thuram is right now

2) In my book, to get interceptions you have to press, otherwise the poor passes that lead to interceptions will drop. So you'll need the players infront of him to press and him being a bit stand off. Try keeping his pressing slightly below average and having the players infront to have higher pressing, If you're using 2 dm's I would chose the one with higher anticipation and positioning to do the interceptions and use the other to press, using both your dm's in a stand off approach might give the opposition too much time on the ball as you only have one mc/amc to press with in the centre of the pitch.

krispos

My DCs are Sol Campbell and Linvoy Primus - not fast but great in every other aspect of the defending.

I will try the DMC settings, I just misunderstood the CD setting here I guess.... I think the key attributes would be jumping, positioning, anticiation, decisions and teamwork (this one for covering the defensive holes)

krispos

I took up a lower league team in Germany (tipped for promotion though), chose a standart 4-4-2 diamond formation, set my defenders on zonal marking and deployed an interceptions-based DMC and it seems to work well for me. I will try to tweak the closing down according to the excellent rashidi1's post for dummies and bring some pacey players into my squad. However the next season after promotion will be the crucial one...