retired_vikiane

[/QUOTE]
For defending against free kicks I find it effective putting a player on the near post. This gives your keeper less space to worry about for the incoming kick as the player (usually my DMC) can deflect any shots that head towards the near post which is usually quite a few... I hardly EVER concede goals from free kicks - in fact I can't even remember one of the top of my head... so try that mate.[/QUOTE]

I would suggest caution with this, especially in lower leagues. Playing in league 1 i had my strongest jumper and header playing on the post, and it seemed more often than not, when the opposition aimed for that corner my defender missed the header and they score and i have a nice little heading sayin "xxplayerxx missed header led to that goal" or somethin along those lines. i found it to be ineffective imho, but it could be effective for another squad.

retired_slayerbing

For defending against free kicks I find it effective putting a player on the near post. This gives your keeper less space to worry about for the incoming kick as the player (usually my DMC) can deflect any shots that head towards the near post which is usually quite a few... I hardly EVER concede goals from free kicks - in fact I can't even remember one of the top of my head... so try that mate.[/QUOTE]

I would suggest caution with this, especially in lower leagues. Playing in league 1 i had my strongest jumper and header playing on the post, and it seemed more often than not, when the opposition aimed for that corner my defender missed the header and they score and i have a nice little heading sayin "xxplayerxx missed header led to that goal" or somethin along those lines. i found it to be ineffective imho, but it could be effective for another squad.[/QUOTE]Hi mate - you could well be right about it in the lower leagues.... I should have qualified my opinion by saying that I play at a higher level... It may well not work at lower levels where the players are not as good... however I am having success with it higher up.

So sorry if this is more effective at better levels.

zyx345

Justified: Don't you find that the player at the near post comes to meet the ball most, if not every, time so that when he heads towards goal, the angle is too tight and it goes wide. I got this idea from the thread on this routine a while ago but I don't find it effective. This is what I do for attacking corners:

GK - Default
DR - Stay Back
DC - Forward
DC - Forward
DL - Stay Back
MR - Short Option
MC - Far Post
MC - Outside Area
ML - Short Option
FC - Challenge GK
FC - Near Post

I have two 'Short Options' because I'll always have a winger taking the corners. The FC who 'Challenges GK' is my target man, so will always be strong to try to hold him off. The DCs will be great in the air (usually Heinze and Vidic in my Man Utd team) and they often meet the ball as I don't specify where the corner should be crossed to. With them two challenging for a header, they'll win it a lot so I have a decent chance of scoring from these.

As for defending corners, I used to do the same as you currently (except have one of the FCs man marking as well), but now I've founf this more effective:

GK - Default
DR - Back
DC - Back
DC - Mark Tall Player
DL - Mark Tall Player
MR - Near Post
MC - Back
MC - Close Down
ML - Far Post
FC - Back
FC - Stay Forward

I conceded recently from a corner where they took it short, so I put someone closing it down and because most players aren't man marking, another of my players won't be dragged out as well if the opposition try to go short.

retired_slayerbing

Hi mate... I use my target man (luca Toni at Man U) at the near post and while there are times he does in fact score I have to admit that your post struck a chord with me and more often than not he does head it into the side netting...

I had left it though because of the few times he was scoring from it but I feel with your settings that it might be better than this half-solution.

So I'll give yours ago - thanks in advance if it actually works!

zyx345

I use Toni as my TM as well. Maybe it works better with someone taking the corner who outswings it, then the ball may not be at such a tight angle as in some cases.

As for my defensive instructions, I've only conceded from this when the keeper (Kuszczak in this case) came for the ball in the 6 yard box but got beaten to it

retired_LittleB

I would have thought that its best not to use your target man for the near post flick as he will normally be with the best DC. The reason using your DC works is that generally there is only going to be a forward or short defender guarding the near post flick.

I probably score 10 goals a season from my CB's on near post flick. Given that none of them are outstanding at the level I play at and given that my corner takers have never been above 14 I think that's a pretty good amount.

I have also started putting men on posts at freekicks and seen the goals against reduce quite a lot.

zyx345

Hmm, I started using players on the posts when defending free kicks near the end of the FM06 era, but when applying this to FM07 I found it was a nightmare as a forwards would stand too near the goal and not be offside to be able to score from 3 yards.

retired_pacman/allan

Thank you for this. My Saints team in this savegame have had a lot of problems at corners, which was starting to frustrate me. The thing is that in previous FM games I have used the FBs to cover the posts and the wingers to man mark. This worked really well, but not on FM07. So I reading your setup I decided to switch those players around, and voila! I rarely let in goals from corners again.

My Set-up now look like this:

GK - Default
DR - Back
DC - Back
DC - Mark Tall Player
DL - Mark Tall Player
MR - Near Post
DMC- Man Mark
MC - Man Mark
ML - Far Post
FC - Man Mark
FC - Stay Forward

The only change I had to do was switching the wingers and FBs positions on corners. I really wonder why I didnt think about it myself, because its quite logical, since the FBs usually are better on man-marking than the wingers

Thanks again

retired_mrs_herman07

This is awesome.
I was jsut about to post a thread saying about it lol as my chelsea team were brilliant from corners.
Michael Ballack on the front post was brilliant. Scored 51 goals 34 were headers from the near post. He also had 6 hatricks includin one where all were from this routine.

zyx345

That's the reason I have the wingers on the posts. Having said that, they hardly ever clear anything off the line, but that's maybe because one of my players will head the ball away most of the time though.