Square

It's doing my head in, I'm starting to think its a bug. For some reason my strikers, all of whom are top quality can't hit a barn door even with it being wide open. When we finally do score, we ALWAYS concede in like the last five minutes, even if I go 5-4-1 and ultra defensive.

PLEASE HELP!

thezogsageordie

i dont mean to brag but i use two tactics, one defensive and one attacking and it seems to be sound as i don't concede late goals, i normally score because they over commit

GiG3L

Try to change the team mentality to defensive and put the time wasting to high. And for the strikers, try to improve their training for shooting and put it on high.

harbeckp

I rarely change my tactics mid game to defensive. I don't believe in it.

I start off with a 4-4-2 formation, see how the first 10 mins pans out, if my side is getting a lot of possession, I slow down the tempo, short-er passing, and more width, and just pile on the pressure. I never let teams try and do that to me by going defensive.

dane0

I wrote this really long thing in the GQ forum where this thread was also posted, so I might post this here as well, as people here seem to be a bit more appreciative of "theory" stuff here:



I always play a 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1, so I'm going to assume you play a similar tactic in the following:

The problem in their late goals usually is that your opponent goes to a 4-2-4, which basically means that your defenders will all be tied up with a direct opponent. This means that there's no place for mistakes, as every defender who backs up one of his colleagues will leave an attacker wide open in front of goal. If their pressure works (and it won't always, if you can retain possession of the ball) there's really only one cure: Defence.

Now, I don't mean just mindless defence and then kicking the ball away you have to be smart about this.
Defensive instructions first:
First of course set time wasting highly. Not all the way up, but a long way up. Make sure none of your defenders have forward runs and set their mentalities to defensive (mostly for your full backs, your central defenders should already be rather defensive). Make your defensive line very deep, so that the opponent can't play long through balls behind your defense. Finally put your width to a more narrow setting.
Now when somebody goes all out attack there isn't a lot to do about it, if they have players of a sufficient quality and get possession you're gonna get under pressure, and what the above instructions does is overcrowding the same area that they are trying to overcrowd with attacking players. What you're doing is simply minimizing the amount of space their attackers have to operate in. Coupled with high closing down settings (and decent tackling stats on behalf of your defenders) this should render their attacks impotent.

Now with that solved, some other problems appear, of course the first problem is you haven't got numerical superiority in defence, I usually solve this by putting my defensive midfielder downfield as an anchorman with defensive mentality. Here he will be able to pick up on those loose balls that might otherwise make it to a centrally placed midfielder with a good long shot. Alternatively he might move backwards and act as a 3rd central defender if your central defenders are becoming outnumbered. I usually put him on a man marking instruction, seems to work allright for me. If you have other midfielders who have useful defensive stats you can set them to close down your opponent's two midfielders, this will exhaust their playing options and stress their play, leading to many ball losses for your opponents.

Now if you're succesful with these instructions another problem awaits, how to do you pass the time with all these players committed to defence? Well, while their 4-2-4 formation gives them great advantage in offense it is equally vulnerable in defense. They have no wingers and this means there's lots of space on the wings if you play the ball quickly into the open space out there.
Go to a direct style of play for your wingers, and use whatever fits the other players best (short or direct passing, depending on their stats). Put your wingers to a somewhat defensive mentality, so that there isn't too long a way to pass the ball onto them (this will also make them help out defensively, and also makes them guard against their full backs coming forward to overcrowd your defensive area even more). Set your passing focus to down both flanks. Set your wingers with forward arrows (usually I place them on the "midfield" line, and with arrows to the "attacking midfield" line. A somewhat high tempo will help here.
Now when your wingers come forward with the ball they will have direct opponents in the full backs of your opposition. To create a numerical superiority on their flanks set your two strikers with arrows out wide. This means that their full backs not only have to worry about your winger, but also about the attacker running into room behind him. The possibilities for your opposition is now:
A) To leave your strikers to themselves, which will most often lead to your winger playing the ball into space (set them to "try through balls").
B) To make the central defenders go wide and leave a gap in their central defence.

With both of these options the striker and winger from the other side of the pitch will arrive into the goal field creating dangerous chances.
Now if they choose A you will have lots of opportunities for your strikers, and more importantly, you're bound to get lots of shots on goal, deflections etc. leading to lots of corners, throw-ins which waste time. At best, you'll get that goal to seal it due to the space and the confusion caused by your movements, at worst you'll loose the ball near their by-line and they'll have to build up an attack from their own base line. Often though, it'll end up with a corner, throw in or goal kick, all of which consume time. If they choose B, the winger and striker arriving into the box from the other side of the pitch will be a massive threat, prompting their central midfielders to go backwards, increasing the length the ball has to go to reach their offensive players.

Basically what your tactics will do is use only 4 players from your team offensively, however those 4 players will have lots of room and will at best tie up 6 opposition players, while still being a threat. It's usually a mistake to pull out your strikers too early, because that will lead your opponent to bringing forward their full backs. If their full backs are adept at attacking and your wingers are poor at defense the effect is often devastating. Simply having 2 good strikers up front and your wingers running at the defence continously will often be enough to make your opponent keep all their 4 defenders back on their own pitch.

Other miscellaneous tips for tying up the matches are mostly concerned with the set pieces:
Make sure that your central defenders do not go forward for offensive set pieces late in the game, especially if they're the slow type. Those long runs up the opposite box will also tire your defenders out so that they can't defend as effectively.
If you have 2 strikers on the pitch and they're of the typical tall striker/fast striker calibration, make the tall striker go backwards on defensive set pieces to add extra air power in your own box.
ALWAYS leave at least one player forward on defensive set pieces so that your opposition can't throw all players forwards with impunity. The AI will usually leave two players backwards to mark your one player that's gone forwards, so it's a fair trade.
Finally if you have one player that is especially good at crossing the ball, but not particularly good in the air it might be a good idea to have him close down on defensive corners. The ball will often find its way to him and he will be able to make a good cross forwards to punt the ball out of the danger area, while he will also guard against dangerous "short" corners (they're bloody dangerous if they have a lot of players in the box, like they often to at the end of games).

Hope it's not too long and incomprehensible.