LoOnEY

Imagine the following closing down setting:

FB - 10
Winger - 5

What might happen: Winger did not close down opposition wingers/attacking FB.
FB attempt to close down opposition winger/FB. Leave one hole at the back. Opposition run into hole, and exploit.

FB - 5
Winger 10

What might happen: Winger go all out to close down opposition. FB stand and look. Opposition play one-two to go past winger and go 2 on 1 on FB.

The above settings allow the opposition to exploit the hole in your formation.

What can be done:

Defend from the front and almost similar closing down figure. For example, if your winger has a closing down of 10, then your FB can have a closing down of between 8-9. In case the winger is beaten, the FB is there to apply the necessary tackle/pressure.

The same can be said of other areas as well. no point asking your Strikers to close down all over the place when your midfield is on standoff. Imagine yrself as a defender playing soccer. Your opponent come and close u down, but your midfielder is free. You can pass the ball to him, and the opponent make a wasted run. On the other hand, if your opponent also close down hard on your midfield, then you have to pump the ball upfield. How well u can pump the ball depends on the time you have to make the decision, and of coz, your passing ability. But for sure, it will not be very accurate, as you have lesser time to cimmit the decision.

The general rule is something like this:

1. Defend from the front.
2. The closing down of the entire team should be pretty similar(i.e if your strikers are on 15, the midfield shld be on 13-14 and the defence on 12-13)

But then again, if your team has low workrate in general, then you should decrease the closing down figure across the board.
I tried the above formula against man utd and barcelona (while using liverpool), and I won 3-0, and 5-1 at home respectively. Of coz, i don't win all the time. I lost to barca at nou camp by 1 goal...but then again..that's the only chance they have

chriseldiablo

I think that closing down from behing, in conjunction with light tackling, can be useful.

The enemy is stressed from behind, and your defender is waiting for the right time to tackle.

But I use closing down OFTEN (15) on all but my DC 's & GK. Working perfectly.

Closing down 1 on GK & DC. I dont want em dragged out of position.


If you have too high closing down vs a good enemy, you will be running after the ball too much, being ripped apart. I want my men down in position, then close down.

DirtyACE

The way I usually do it is I set closing down to high if I'm playing an inferior oppponent. If the opposition is equal to to me or better then I don't close down as much. Usually the big teams have players that are good with the ball and if you close down too often on them then you will leave too many gaps for the opponents to pass into. Also there are exceptions. Like if the scout report tells you that the opposition have players in midfield that are good on the ball, then you should not close down as much.

ddcat

ok. Why does it work well combining high closing down and light tackling?

I set hard tackling only for my midfield players. DC on mix tackling.