philfm86

Hi, has anyone else been struggling with trying to make your defenders do their job properly?

I have been playing as Tottenham, yeah i know their defence is pony in real life which is why i splashed the cash i was given on bringing in some new defenders.

I have never really had a problem with defending before but if someone can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated!

I tend to play a defensive line in my own half with my centrebacks rarely closing down i.e zero and my full backs with a bit above zero and DMC with plenty of closing down and tackling hard.

I play like this as i assumed it would keep my defenders in position without rushing up and trying to nail people, which i left and hoped my dmc would do, Roy Keane style.

This on the other hand does not happen and once i lose the ball my players tend to watch and kind of shepard the players around allowing them to play through balls and shoot from distance. my dmc whether it be huddlestone or kaboul have hardly any bookings and results in me just screaming at the screen as an oppo player piddles up the pitch about to unleash a goal of the season contender.

i have no problem attacking as i have roughly the same amount of goals scored as conceded.

any helo would be much appreciated

Daniel Foster

Do you have the patch?

Sounds like the closing down bug

philfm86

i think so!!

i downloaded it and i installed it i think!!! will let you know when i get home

Simme

use man marking, not zonal marking

Saintmat

don't have your closing down on zero, let them go forward if it is really needed

White Raven

Man marking was a major problem on FM07 and anyone with any sense did not employ it. Has it been fixed for 08?

Personally, I have tried employed man marking for full backs only, but they do exactly the same as the centre-backs, just stand there and watch.

philfm86

hello again, yes the patch is installed. i think my tactics are just rubbish! anyone have any ideas where i can find a kind of walkthrough to illustrate where i might be going wrong!!

thanks

sorry about punctuation

Alurny

Try the stickies in the Tactics forum (I hear they are a good resource in there )

philfm86

i will cheers

mimland

Hope there is a good solution on tactic forums since my defenders do the same thing after beta2. Example: Their winger is running withe the ball and my full back runs along him trying to block out the lay in. All of a sudden my full back seems to see somethign very interesting somewhere else because he turns away and runs completly out of position. My central defenders seem to stray totally out of position very often leaving the center of the penalty box and just outside the penalty box empty from defenders. As far as I know I haven't changed the orders my defenders have.

There also seems to be very much holding up the ball among my defensive players, both my DMC and my defenders seem to just go into a dead stop when they get the ball. Usually two of the opposition goes for them and they lose the ball instead of playing it. I'm using direct passing as I want to get the ball forward as fast as possible.
I don't expect to win many points this season as I just got promoted with a rubbish team but that irrational behaviour just seem wrong at a championship club.